Category Archives: Failed foreign policy

Exactly Why Was That Mar A Lago Search Warrant so Broad?

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Consider the following….here is where critical thinking is important and there are some assumptions below which could turn out to be factual….could….

President Trump did have some legally and politically savvy people working for him within his administration and outside of government. It is true he also had some real duds….and post his presidency, he has had a lot of visitors come with ideas, objectives and action plans….

With all that in mind….it cannot be overlooked that the Biden administration employs hundreds of left-over Obama officials and clearly they are helping to drive so much of is damaging the country today.

The full text of the search warrant is found here.

Of note is this section: e, or transmission of national defense information or classified material; c. Any government and/or Presidential Records created between January 20.2017, and January 20, 2021; 

***

Something real fascinating is this short Reuters report –> (note the date)

Trump says he has declassified documents related to Russia, Clinton email probes

By Reuters Staff

Hummm, right?

During the Trump administration and certainly after his presidency, we heard the term DEEP STATE…so did any of those ‘savvy legal and political  hounds tell President Trump to declassify more than just what is noted above?

Consider the fear that the Biden White House, political operatives and the Department of Justice may be harboring with all that President Trump DID declassify….or at least should have that would become as they say ‘nuclear’ if the timing is right leading into the midterms and for sure going into 2024.

So…let’s look back a little shall we? It is important as people have short memories especially dealing with crime across the country and inflation so maybe take notes here.

These are not in any particular order:

  1. All things Benghazi
  2. IRS Targeting
  3. The side deals of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (Iran nuclear deal)
  4. ATF gunwalking scandal and Eric Holder among others
  5. The unlawful assassination of the U.S. citizen by drone Abdulrahman al Awlaki in Yemen
  6. Boundless Informant (the whole NSA metadata/Booz Allen Hamilton scandal
  7. The Clinton Foundation
  8. Deepwater Horizon oil spill
  9. The 2013 crisis of the Department of Justice spying on investigative reporters least of which was Associated Press, James Rosen of Fox News and Sharyl Attkisson
  10. Dropmire
  11. Fairview
  12. The Hemisphere Project
  13. Hillary Clinton email server and alias email names and addresses including those inside the Obama White House
  14. The New Black Panthers Party voter intimidation case
  15. Operation Choke Point
  16. PRISM
  17. Project Cassandra
  18. The real John Brennan Senate spying scandal including the matter of CIA black sites
  19. Solyndra
  20. Giving Russia the Iranian nuclear fuel
  21. Giving Russia the Syrian chemical weapons
  22. The Taliban 5 and Bowe Bergdahl
  23. Uranium One
  24. The war on coal
  25. XKeyscore
  26. The re-opening of the embassy and the new relations with Cuba
  27. Operation Fast and Furious
  28. The Veterans Affair deaths
  29. The major attack on General Michael Flynn and the DoJ lawyers
  30. Islamic State and the JV Team

You get the point and for sure there are others you can list. Make a few check marks on those items that are still affecting policy today and why.

What is the National Archives keeping from public access and why is this library so concerned just now about documents? It is likely just a front operation for the real mission….yes?

***

Sometimes we are forced to read ‘stuff’ from websites that are clearly bent towards the Left and such is the case with ‘JustSecurity’. What is notable on this particular site is Avril Haines was or is on the advisory board. Who is she? Ah…she is the Director of National Intelligence for the Biden administration and yes a lawyer too. Who else among those advisors was or is at ‘JustSecurity’ you ask? How about Jake Sullivan? Yes…that Jake Sullivan that was deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and is now part of the National Security team for the Biden administration. His wife Maggie is a lawyer too and guess what….she is legal counsel to Attorney General Merrick Garland…..yeesh…right? Many of these people are targets of the John Durham probe…

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F02%2F21%2FGettyImages-1183766895-1-e1613945881969-1200x722.jpg&f=1&nofb=1 source/EpochTimes/AlexWong/Getty Image (for news and or commentary only, not commercial use)

But back to this particular item at ‘JustSecurity’ as they are in a panic about Kash Patel.

As a primer and just published yesterday —>

As this article was going to press, ABC News published a report that weeks before the Mar-a-Lago search, former President Donald Trump’s associate Kash Patel “vowed to retrieve classified documents from the National Archives and publish them on his website.”

If that scheme involved Trump himself and the Mar-a-Lago documents, it could have significant legal implications for the Justice Department’s ongoing criminal investigation. Any plan to release the documents could potentially trigger specific elements of the Espionage Act and other criminal statutes designed with the core purpose of preventing unlawful dissemination of classified and other sensitive government documents. As I discuss below, credible evidence of such a plan also would likely factor into the Justice Department’s decision on whether to bring criminal charges. Read on here on the full summary.

Thoughts everyone?

 

The Fall of Afghanistan Report, One Year Later

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Axios is reporting in part:

The White House is planning to circulate a new memo on Capitol Hill defending President Biden’s decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and claiming the move strengthened national security by freeing up critical military and intelligence agents, according to a copy of the document obtained by Axios.

Why it matters: The memo comes as many across Washington are still seeking answers about the flawed evacuation. Republicans in particular are planning to use the one-year anniversary to reexamine the failures that led to the Afghan capital swiftly falling into the hands of the Taliban.

Driving the news: The memo was written by National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson in part as an attempt to preempt criticism from Republicans who are releasing an interim report on Sunday outlining what they see as the failures of the administration’s preparations for the evacuation.

  • The GOP report, led by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the likely chair of the panel if Republicans take back the majority next year, claims the Biden administration left key decisions on how to evacuate civilians from Kabul until the final hours before the city fell to the Taliban.
  • “There was a complete lack and a failure to plan. There was no plan and there was no plan executed,” McCaul said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday morning.

Details: The memo argues the GOP report is “riddled with false claims” and puts the onus on former President Trump for striking a 2020 deal with the Taliban — known as the “Doha agreement” — to evacuate the U.S. from the region by May 2021.

***

While some Afghanis fled to Iran were offered immunity to return, the report to soon be released is in stern opposition to the Biden White House positive spin. And while often inviting Biden administration officials to participate, especially the U.S. State Department, none did.

From the Military Times in part:

Thousands of Afghan security personnel, including special forces troops, likely fled to Iran with U.S. equipment and military knowledge as their country fell to Taliban insurgents last year, according to a new report released by House Republican leaders on Monday.

The 119-page document accuses President Joe Biden’s administration of failing to adequately prepare for the evacuation of Afghan allies in the months leading up to the full withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country in August 2021. This includes using just 36 consular officers to process more than 100,000 requests for evacuation.

The authors said their findings come from interviews with whistleblowers, previously unreleased State Department memos and interviews with individuals on the ground in Afghanistan in the days leading up to the withdrawal.

It does not include any direct testimony from senior administration officials, who have previously criticized Republicans’ work on the issue as politically motivated.

***

There is a somewhat accurate report published by GZERO…it reads as follows:

Contrary to the hopes of optimists, no “Taliban 2.0” has emerged. The regime hasn’t really reformed, and is as hardline as it was when it ruled the country from 1996 to 2001.

There is no constitution. Religious policing is back with a vengeance. The media is muzzled. And the recent US killing of al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a Kabul enclave that houses senior members of the Haqqani Network — whose boss is the current interior minister — has confirmed the skeptics who thought the Taliban could or would never disassociate from international terrorism.

Financially, things are as bad as they can get. The economy has essentially collapsed under the weight of international isolation, sanctions, and aid cuts. It was so hooked to the war that six months after the American withdrawal, GDP fell by a third. Now, Afghanistan is near universal poverty and starvation.

Women and girls have had it the worst. Millions of them have found themselves out of school, out of jobs, and out of public life altogether. The Taliban’s supreme leader vetoed a government edict to let them back to class in March, a political development that underscores serious schisms within the regime’s conservative and moderate — by Taliban standards — elements.

On Sunday, on the eve of the re-establishment of the “Islamic Emirate,” a few brave women marched in a rare protest in Kabul. They were beaten and scared off by automatic gunfire.

Afghan women wearing traditional burqas walk past a cemetery in Kabul (AFP via Getty Images) More details here

Afghan women wearing traditional burqas walk past a cemetery in Kabul (AFP via Getty Images)

But the United States is financially providing money support in Afghanistan….

Please note –>

SIGAR noted in its January 2022 report that,4

    • The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that donors contributed $1.67 billion for Afghanistan humanitarian assistance programs in 2021. The United States contributed the largest amount, over $425 million. These amounts far exceeded previous years’ humanitarian assistance.

 

    • …On December 22, the Treasury Department broadened the types of activities authorized under U.S. licenses, and the UN Security Council established a UN sanctions exemption to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian and other forms of aid to Afghanistan.

 

    • On January 11, 2022, the White House announced an additional $308 million in U.S. humanitarian aid for Afghanistan. On that same day, the UN launched a $5 billion funding appeal for its 2022 Afghanistan Humanitarian Response Plan, the largest single- country aid appeal in UN history.

 

  • On January 26, the UN announced an additional appeal for $3.6 billion as part of its Transitional Engagement Framework. In total, the framework calls for more than $8 billion in humanitarian and other aid for Afghanistan.

No one can really estimate what is really required at this point or what arrangements the U.S. and other outside powers can make to allocate such aid to the Taliban or any other successor government, but the current outlook of estimates – that are even as high as $8.6 billion – seem to ignore several critical aspects of the financing of the past Afghan central government and the impact of its spending on the Afghan people before it was defeated and collapsed.

    • Some 75% of all Afghan government spending came from aid. As SIGAR notes, “prior to the collapse of the Islamic Republic, international aid contributed to around 40% of Afghanistan’s GDP and 75% of public expenditures.5 Total government spending financed most of the modern sector of the Afghan economy except for hard currency earnings from the export of narcotics.

 

  • For political reasons, much of the economic data on Afghanistan did not include narcotics exports. However, UNDOC estimates that, “the gross output of the Afghan opiate economy was between $1.8 and $2.7 billion in 2021, comprising the equivalent of 9–14% of Afghanistan’s GDP and exceeding the value of all of Afghanistan’s officially recorded licit exports for 2020 (estimated at 9% of GDP).6

Hat tip to at Least One Whistleblower

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Primer:

According to Bloomberg News, the Biden administration is also reallocating $860 million in funding for COVID-19 relief to cover pandemic costs relating to illegal immigrant children.

In a letter reviewed by the news outlet, Health Secretary Xavier Becerra told members of Congress that his department would move funding to ensure illegal immigrant children’s safety, in addition to the staff taking care of them at shelters. Additionally, last year to General Accounting Office performed a comprehensive audit and the result(s) stinks when it comes to the Department of Defense.

source

In part:

The Department of Defense has provided U.S. Customs and Border Protection with personnel and other support for at least 2 decades. DOD evaluates requests for assistance against 6 criteria, including cost and how providing support would affect military readiness.

We looked at 4 such requests for assistance that DOD approved. We found that DOD used unreliable cost estimates and didn’t fully evaluate the effects of the requests on military readiness. Also, DOD didn’t track all costs or give Congress timely information on the full costs it incurred for homeland security support, as it was mandated to do. Our 7 recommendations address these issues. The full report is found here. 

***

As you read on….just wonder if any personnel in the National Guard sends a weekly or monthly report to the Pentagon….and…has anyone asked in there is an FBI task force at the border doing FBI stuff?

Hat tip to PM: In an exclusive sit-down interview, an active member of the National Guard has gone on record against Joe Biden sharing “America is probably the weakest it’s ever been.” From harrowing stories of finding mutilated bodies at the border, to the cartel shooting at our service members, the border has gotten so bad that this National Guardsman was willing to risk his career to speak out.


“We’re very vulnerable,” he said on condition of anonymity. “It’s only a matter of time before somebody actually gets shot, or something bad actually happens.”

When asked if he felt his life was being put at risk by the current administration’s policies at the border, he said “absolutely. You never know who is crossing. You never know who is going to cross. Under Trump, it seemed like it was a lot more controlled. The border flowed a lot easier. The numbers spoke for themselves, and now it’s kind of like, you know, everybody is allowed to come in.”

 


He explained how the cartels use extreme measures to “intimidate and scare” border agents.
“Here in the valley,” he said, “you’re going to see a lot of drug flow and a lot of violence from the cartel to try to cover that up. They push large groups of migrants across.”
“They shoot at us quite often,” he said of the cartels. He detailed how the cartels would leave bodies around “to show us like, ‘hey, this is what we’re doing.'”
In one instance, he said that National Guardsmen found the body of a man whose head had been dipped in acid by the cartel.


Of that instance, he said “Border Patrol let us know that there was a body somewhere in the area, and some of the guys went looking for it, and sure enough they ended up finding it on our side of the river, which tells us that the cartel crossed him over and left it there for us to find and went back.”
He said this was a “scare tactic” from the cartels, and that “morale wise… it puts everybody more on an edge.”
“The way I see it,” he continued, “America is probably at its weakest, as weak as it’s ever been in a long time right now. We’re very vulnerable, and I feel like it’s only a matter of time before somebody actually gets shot, or something bad actually happens. And for the administration to realize, ‘hey, maybe we do need to do something here,’ versus under Trump, he didn’t take those chances.”
Despite this, he said, it is the children abandoned at the border that haunt him.
“Probably for me being shot at, and the dead bodies, that doesn’t really hold much weight, but when I see the kids—I think that’s what has mentally been draining me.”
The Guardsman spoke about meeting an 11-year-old girl, whose mother sent her alone to America, equipping her with a box of condoms.
“When I found her, she had three condoms left in a box of like 15. Pretty much the coyotes did what they wanted with her and she was only 11,” the Guardsmen shared.
He now believes “it’s only a matter of time before a Guardsman loses his life to the cartel.”

Hillary Sold our Uranium, Is Biden Selling our Lithium?

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As a reminder about the U.S. uranium, click here to refresh your memory about Uranium One and Hillary Clinton. Disgustingly, it appears Hillary finessed this scandal too.

Now we have yet another very similar scandal and it involves the Biden administration and lithium which is used for batteries…for those electronic vehicles. Lithium is not only used for batteries but also for amour plating, special glasses, air conditioning and often in drugs for manic depression. Chile and Brazil are large producers of lithium, yet the United States does have deposits and is way behind China in ownership and uses.

That condition is getting worse it seems due to the constant deference of the Biden administration to China.

The BBC reported earlier this month that the FBI Director Christopher Wary met with the head of MI5 to mutually discuss the epic threats of China. Wray stated in part:

Wray warned the audience – which included chief executives of businesses and senior figures from universities – that the Chinese government was “set on stealing your technology” using a range of tools.

He said it posed “an even more serious threat to western businesses than even many sophisticated businesspeople realised”. He cited cases in which people linked to Chinese companies out in rural America had been digging up genetically modified seeds which would have cost them billions of dollars and nearly a decade to develop themselves.

He also said China deployed cyber espionage to “cheat and steal on a massive scale”, with a hacking programme larger than that of every other major country combined.

One has to wonder if Wray did this in public fashion because the Bureau’s cases and intelligence are being ignored in the Presidential Daily Briefings at the White House.

Anyway, back to the lithium.

Steve Miller authored a piece at Real Clear Investigation that reads in part:

A Chinese-dominated mining company has procured millions of dollars in American subsidies to extract lithium in the United States – but, given a dearth of U.S. processing capacity, the mineral is likely to be sent to China with no guarantee that the end product would return as batteries to power President Biden’s envisioned green economy.

Critics say the scenario would increase U.S. energy dependence on a hostile power – one accused of using forced labor in the manufacture of both lithium batteries and solar panels – and undercuts the Biden administration’s emphasis on domestic sourcing of green energy.

Lithium has taken the spotlight in Biden’s energy plan, since it is a key element needed to produce batteries for electric vehicles and solar panel storage. The administration acknowledges the lithium processing challenge – tacitly – in a June 2021 report produced by the U.S. Department of Energy. “The nation would benefit greatly from development and growth of cost-competitive domestic materials processing for lithium-battery materials,” the report reads.

The White House in March issued an order invoking the Defense Production Act, a 1950’s-era law meant to prioritize production of materials in the name of national security. The action allows the federal government to direct taxpayer funds to private companies to extract more lithium in the U.S. – including foreign-based interests.

Prominent in the initiative is Canadian-based Lithium Americas, a publicly traded group whose largest shareholder is Chinese-owned lithium mining giant Ganfeng Lithium, which is currently under investigation in China for alleged insider trading.

Lithium Americas is seeking to mine lithium from Thacker Pass, an 18,000-acre wilderness area on the Nevada-Oregon border. If the mining is approved, Thacker Pass would join a mine at Silver Peak outside of Tonopah, Nevada, as one of the only active lithium mines in the U.S. The company projects it will yield 80,000 tons of lithium a year, which would make it one of the largest lithium mines in the world, producing a quarter of the world’s demand.

Lithium Americas’ local company, Lithium Nevada, has been approved to receive Nevada tax abatements worth $8.5 million. And the parent company has applied for a loan through the Department of Energy. Read the full summary here.

photo from Nevada Division of Environmental Protection website

Seems the Federal government is approving all kinds of sell off deals for China including oil from our emergency reserves, much less real estate. Exactly who is ultimately approving all this as members of the Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States and why is the president not using his pen to veto/forbid the transactions? (rhetorical)

Exactly When Does Fentanyl get Included in Title 42?

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President Biden is completely absent and indifferent to this crisis and so is the Department of Justice. Just consider this from two days ago…

SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) — A Fullerton man is facing several felony charges for possessing enough fentanyl to kill 12 million people, nearly four times the population of Orange County, authorities announced Friday.

According to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, 60-year-old Alfonso Gomez-Santana was arrested Wednesday when California Highway Patrol Officers pulled him over near South Lemon Street and Orangethorpe Avenue in Fullerton. Officers found four kilos of fentanyl inside his vehicle and 20 more kilos in his home. They also found $250,000 worth of fentanyl pills and 122 grams of methamphetamine, according to authorities.

Fentanyl Bust photo 1 Fentanyl Bust photo 2Fentanyl Bust photo 3 source

The district attorney’s office said it takes about 2 milligrams of fentanyl to be considered a lethal dose.

“It is unconscionable that someone who has the ability to kill 12 million people is facing just a handful of years in jail,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer in a news release. “Fentanyl is a national epidemic that killed more than 100,000 Americans last year and it’s not going to stop unless we have the tools as prosecutors to hold these drug dealers and drug manufacturers accountable for peddling death. Every parent in America should be petrified that one day they are going to walk into their child’s bedroom and find them dead because their child thought they were experimenting with recreational drugs and instead drug dealers sold them a deadly dose of fentanyl. This is not fear-mongering; this is reality – and if we don’t start strengthening penalties for drug dealers it’s going to be the reality for you or someone you love.”

Gomez-Santana has been charged with one felony count of sale or transport of a controlled substance and two felony counts of possession of sale with intent to sell.He faces a maximum sentence of six years and eight months in jail if convicted on all counts.

In November, Orange County prosecutors issued a warning to drug dealers, manufacturers, and distributors, saying if their deals result in someone’s death, they could be charged with murder.

Now to the matter of Title 42….

There are many chapters inside Title 42….all under the code dealing with public health….it was originally launched in 1944 to prevent the spread of communicable diseases and is managed by the CDC. In short, it is to prevent entry into the United States anything that is a threat to U.S. health law. So how does fentanyl get into the United States? Mostly trafficking through the southern border and in other cases through the U.S. Postal system. We know precisely how the supply chain operates and who is responsible. Really you say?

Yes….learn about the King Pin Act –>

FACT SHEET
Overview of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act
Introduction
The Administration has released the names of three Mexican organizations against which the President has decided to impose sanctions pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (the “Kingpin Act”) (21 U.S.C. 1901-1908, 8 U.S.C. 1182).  Kingpin Act targets, on a worldwide basis, significant foreign narcotics traffickers, their organizations, and operatives.

Background
The Kingpin Act became law on December 3, 1999.  Its purpose is to deny significant foreign narcotics traffickers, their related businesses, and their operatives access to the U.S. financial system and to prohibit all trade and transactions between the traffickers and U.S. companies and individuals.  The Kingpin Act authorizes the President to take these actions when he determines that a foreign person plays a significant role in international narcotics trafficking.  Congress modeled the Kingpin Act on the effective sanctions program that the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) administers against the Colombian drug cartels pursuant to Executive Order 12978 issued in October 1995 (“Executive Order 12978”) under authority of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”).

Implementation
The Kingpin Act requires that the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency coordinate to identify drug kingpins and propose them to the President for sanctions.  The Department of Homeland Security and the Directorate of National Intelligence are also included in the process.  The Act calls for the President to report to specified congressional committees by June 1 of each year on those “foreign persons [he] determines are appropriate for sanctions” and stating his intent to impose sanctions upon those Significant Foreign Narcotics Traffickers pursuant to the Act.  While previous Presidential determinations have been tied to the statutory June 1 timetable, the President may also identify Significant Foreign Narcotics Traffickers at any other time pursuant to the Act.

Under the Kingpin Act, the President may identify foreign entities as well as foreign individuals as Significant Foreign Narcotics Traffickers, or “kingpins”: a foreign person is defined in the Act as “any citizen or national of a foreign state or any entity not organized under the laws of the United States, but does not include a foreign state.”  Likewise, the President is not required to designate Colombian persons exclusively under Executive Order 12978, and may impose sanctions on a Colombian individual or entity under the Kingpin Act, which is intended to be global in scope.

The long-term effectiveness of the Kingpin Act is enhanced by the Department of the Treasury’s authority (in consultation with appropriate government agencies and departments) under the Act to make derivative designations of foreign individuals and entities that provide specified types of support or assistance to designated traffickers, or that are owned or controlled by such traffickers, or that act on their behalf.  This authority broadens the scope of application of the economic sanctions against kingpins to include their businesses and operatives.  Including this year’s action, the President has named a total of 78 Significant Foreign Narcotics Traffickers since the first set of kingpins was announced on June 1, 2000.  The Department of the Treasury’s OFAC has issued a total of 496 derivative designations pursuant to its authorities under the Kingpin Act; these entities and individuals are subject to the same sanctions that apply to kingpins.

Individuals who violate the Kingpin Act are subject to criminal penalties of up to 10 years in prison and/or fines pursuant to Title 18 of the U.S. Code.  Entities that violate the Act face criminal penalties in the form of fines up to $10 million; officers, directors, or agents of an entity who knowingly participate in a violation of the Kingpin Act are subject to criminal penalties of up to 30 years in imprison and/or a $5 million fine.  The Kingpin Act also provides for civil penalties of up to $1.075 million against individuals or entities that violate its provisions.

So, most of us know about some king-pins….El Chapo was a king-pin…then there are the cartels that are making billions per month not only trafficking narcotics but people across our southern border.
It all begins in China and the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party. There are other countries for sure inside the supply chain map that include India, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand and more…the Chinese mafia is well connected to the Mexican mafia, hence the Mexican drug cartels.
The Sinaloa cartel has a sizeable network in China for narcotics including fentanyl but also for money laundering. Then in balance, China has a large network in Mexico. There are a couple of standout names of which you can research on your own but they include:
14K
Zheng Cartel
Broken Tooth
Tse Chi Lop’s Sam Gor Syndicate
Big Circle Boys
In closing but not the end of the story, the U.S. Treasury has a 33 page list of ‘sanctions pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics KingPin Designation Act. Sanctions dont work so well …..do they?