Category Archives: #StopIran

Russia’s hypersonic Nuclear Explosions

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It appears there have been at least two explosions.

Several are dead, several are injured and total evacuations of nearby towns are underway due to extreme radiation levels being tested by bordering countries. Our own military and intelligence agencies are participating in countless meetings to review data, intelligence and evidence.

At issue is the work Russia is performing by placing a new nuclear reactor on hypersonic missiles and testing a jet propulsion system.

Remember, Vladimir Putin told the world about this several months ago.

The center of these operations is in Sarov, Russia, hosting a facility that somewhat emulates our own Los Alamos. This is not a new secret city as during the height of the Cold War, it was known to the United States as Arzamas-16. At this location, a nuclear powered cruise missile is being developed and tested called the Burevestnik. NATO refers to it as the SCC-X-Skyfall.

Authorities in northern Russia detected a brief rise in radiation levels following an explosion at a military training ground there, Russian state news agency TASS reported Thursday.
Severodvinsk has a naval base and shipyard and TASS, citing emergency services, initially said the incident began onboard a ship.
Image result for Severodvinsk

Russian authorities admitted that radiation levels in the city of Severodvinsk were up to 16x the normal rate after a nuclear reactor exploded last week. Five nuclear scientists died in the blast. Iodine was quickly distributed to panicked residents but supplies are now empty.

Russia has several nuclear cities (per NTI) so look for activity in other locations due to these explosions, at least our own intelligence agencies will be doing that.

Sarov (location of VNIIEF-Federal Nuclear Center and Avangard Electromechanical Plant). Formerly known as Arzamas-16.
Snezhinsk (location of VNIITF-Federal Nuclear Center). Formerly known as Chelyabinsk-70.
Zarechnyy (location of Start Production Association). Formerly known as Penza-19.
Novouralsk (location of Ural Electrochemical Combine). Formerly known as Sverdlovsk-44.
Lesnoy (location of Elektrokhimpribor Combine). Formerly know as Sverdlovsk-45.
Ozersk (location of Mayak Production Association). Formerly known as Chelyabinsk-65.
Trekhgornyy (location of Instrument Making Plant). Formerly know as Zlatoust-36.
Seversk (location of Siberian Chemical Combine). Formerly know as Tomsk-7.
Zheleznogorsk (location of Mining and Chemical Combine). Formerly known as Krasnoyarsk-26.
Zelenogorsk (location of Electrochemical Plant). Formerly known as Krasnoyarsk-45.

North Korea Stole $2 billion for its WMD programs

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Primer: North Korea has launched 4 rounds of missiles in less than 2 weeks. Talks between the United States and North Korea have stalled. The missiles tested during the recent launches are short range, however can reach South Korea and can travel as far as an estimated 400 miles. These test missiles allegedly are very advanced such they are being advertised as having the abilities to evade missile defense systems. Additionally, each launch took place from a different ground location.

Image result for kim jong un missile launches

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – North Korea has generated an estimated $2 billion for its weapons of mass destruction programs using “widespread and increasingly sophisticated” cyber attacks to steal from banks and cryptocurrency exchanges, according to a confidential U.N. report seen by Reuters on Monday.

Pyongyang also “continued to enhance its nuclear and missile programmes although it did not conduct a nuclear test or ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) launch,” said the report to the U.N. Security Council North Korea sanctions committee by independent experts monitoring compliance over six months.

The North Korean mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment on the report, which was submitted to the Security Council committee last week.

The experts said North Korea “used cyberspace to launch increasingly sophisticated attacks to steal funds from financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges to generate income.” They also used cyberspace to launder the stolen money, the report said.

“Democratic People’s Republic of Korea cyber actors, many operating under the direction of the Reconnaissance General Bureau, raise money for its WMD (weapons of mass destruction) programmes, with total proceeds to date estimated at up to two billion US dollars,” the report said.

North Korea is formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). The Reconnaissance General Bureau is a top North Korean military intelligence agency.

The U.N. experts said North Korea’s attacks against cryptocurrency exchanges allowed it “to generate income in ways that are harder to trace and subject to less government oversight and regulation than the traditional banking sector.”

The Security Council has unanimously imposed sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke off funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The Council has banned exports including coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, and capped imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products.

U.S. President Donald Trump has met with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un three times, most recently in June when he became the first sitting U.S. president to set foot in North Korea at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas.

They agreed to resume stalled talks aimed at getting Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons program. The talks have yet to resume and in July and early August, North Korea carried out three short-range missiles tests in eight days.

The U.N. report was completed before last week’s missile launches by North Korea, but noted that “missile launches in May and July enhanced its overall ballistic missile capabilities.”

The U.N. experts said that despite the diplomatic efforts, their “investigations show continued violations” of U.N. sanctions.

“For example, the DPRK continued to violate sanctions through ongoing illicit ship-to-ship transfers and procurement of WMD-related items and luxury goods,” the U.N. report said.

Venezuelan Shipwreck Defines Drug Route

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Written by
Venezuela Investigative Unit

The sinking of a small boat heading from Venezuela to Curaçao and the disappearance of all the migrants aboard suggest that drug trafficking groups are also controlling human smuggling routes in the region.

On June 7, the group of 32 migrants, along with three crew members, set sail from Punta de Aguide in Venezuela’s Falcón state, on the Caribbean coast. On June 11, the boat was was declared missing, and a month later, the whereabouts of it and its passengers remain unknown.

The disappearance was reported as a shipwreck, an increasingly common disaster in the Caribbean as Venezuelans resort to desperate measures to flee the country. So far this year, three shipwrecks involving over 80 migrants have been reported.

After the latest shipwreck, family members reported that all the migrants had been wearing life-jackets. Yet only one body has been recovered to date — that of Elio Ramones, identified in Curaçao on June 12. To the surprise of authorities, his corpse seemed fresh, suggesting that the man had died several days after the supposed shipwreck.

Oswaldo Rodríguez León, Falcon’s security secretary who is coordinating the search for the missing, said that “it is not possible for no trace to be found of the 32 people who disappeared in that shipwreck; the bodies should be floating if they were drowned. We must investigate [the fact] that pirates could have taken them.”

On July 11, two men were arrested for recruiting the migrants in their hometown of Vela de Coro, along Venezuela’s northern coast.

But the arrests have brought authorities no closer to finding the disappeared.
In June, survivors of a previous shipwreck exposed a human trafficking route used to transport vulnerable women and children from Venezuela to Trinidad and Tobago, where they were sold into the sex trade.

After the latest shipwreck, residents in Falcón told InSight Crime that human smuggling is used as a front for drug shipments to the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, which are between 15 to 50 miles off the coast of Venezuela.

According to local sources, both cocaine and marijuana arrive overland and are stored in huts along the beaches of Falcón. It is then loaded onto small boats by night and shipped to neighboring islands under the guise of migrant transports, in quantities of up to 8,000 kilograms per day.

Although not officially corroborated, the locals’ claims are supported by recent large drug seizures on the Lara-Falcón highway, headed for the Falcón coast.

Mapa mostrando as ilhas ABC - Aruba, Bonaire e Curaçao e ...

Migrants are lured into the scheme by the low rates charged. The 32 missing people had reportedly paid $400 for the journey, compared to the standard rate of between $650 and $700.
In Vela de Coro, InSight Crime spoke to three families whose loved ones were aboard the shipwrecked boat and who are now missing. They said that following the disappearance they have begun their own investigations, including making inquiries with relatives on Curaçao. They claim that the missing boat was carrying a drug shipment to Curaçao and that the shipment did arrive, but 500 kilograms lighter than expected, giving rise to their belief that the migrants were kidnapped because the captain did not deliver the full drug shipment.

Full circle - Drugs trafficking in the Caribbean

The families have also begun searching hills near Punta de Aguide, where they believe the migrants were held before boarding the boats. Helicopters, however, are needed to comb over the mountainous territory largely controlled by drug traffickers.

Relatives of the missing migrants point to the inadequate official response as evidence of criminal complicity. Although the authorities were notified within a day of the disappearance, a search was not initiated until June 11, four days later.

Furthermore, authorities are alleged to have known of the voyage before the boat set sail. The family members who spoke with InSight Crime said that the migrants had intended to depart on June 6, but were intercepted by officials from the country’s criminal investigation unit (Cuerpo de Investigaciones Científicas, Penales y Criminalísticas – CICPC) who stole some of their belongings, including mobile phones, and took $1,000 from the captain. The migrants spent the night hiding in the woods before setting sail the following evening.

CICPC officials have also allegedly been involved in previous cases of predation on migrants, including the sex trafficking route to Trinidad and Tobago exposed in June.

This is not the first boatload of Venezuelan migrants to disappear. A boat vanished on May 16 in route to Trinidad and Tobago, and no corpses, wreckage or surviving passengers have been found. Hat tip to InSight for continued stellar investigations/reporting.

Facebook Primed for Illicit Funds Use/Money Laundering

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America’s rivals are increasingly turning to bitcoin-style cryptocurrencies after their economies were brought to their knees thanks to crippling U.S. sanctions, experts have warned.

Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela are all investing in the technology in an attempt to counter American economic might – and an expert says these nations are forming alliances through the technology.

A form of digital money, cryptocurrency uses encryption to secure transactions and control the creation of new units. It uses cryptography, a form of secret coding originating from the Second World War, to process transactions securely. Its major appeal is it is untraceable.

U.S. sanctions work by placing bans on dealings and transactions with persons, nations and companies.

When ransomware is planted on state or local government systems and theft of data occurs, cities are forced to pay ransom to regain ownership and control.

Florida has paid more than $1.1 million in bitcoin to cybercriminals to recover encrypted files from two separate ransomware attacks—one against Riviera Beach and the other against Lake City.

Lake City, a city in northern Florida, agreed on Monday to pay hackers 42 Bitcoin (equivalent to $573,300 at the current value) to unlock phone and email systems following a ransomware attack that crippled its computer systems for two weeks.

For years, ransomware has been a particularly annoying cybersecurity threat. And despite reports that cybercriminals are shifting their efforts away from encrypting malware to cryptomining malware, ransomware infections continue at an alarming rate.

In one week in March 2018 alone, government-run targets in two of the biggest cities in America — Atlanta and Baltimore — were hit by ransomware. These attacks, which disrupted important city services, are far from isolated; similar ransomware attacks have targeted U.S. municipalities for years.

Stories about smaller cities falling victim to ransomware often go unreported by the national news … or anywhere at all. Nevertheless, municipalities and cities in all corners of the U.S. have seen ransomware infect their networks.

So, here comes the U.S. Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin with a major concern and warning for Facebook. What about this new Libra currency that has been launched?

(Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Monday that the Treasury department has serious concerns that Facebook Inc’s proposed LIBRA cryptocurrency could be misused for money laundering, adding to the growing regulatory skepticism of the company’s digital asset plans.

Secretary Mnuchin also said that the agency has warned Facebook that it must enact proper safeguards against illicit use such as money laundering.

“Treasury has been very clear to Facebook…and other providers of digital financial services that they must implement the same anti-money laundering safeguards in countering the financing of terrorism as traditional financial institutions,” Mnuchin said.

Project Libra: Facebook Launching One-World ‘GlobalCoin ...

Meanwhile:

Activists and Democratic lawmakers blasted the Federal Trade Commission’s $5 billion fine against Facebook as “chump change” and lambasted the agency’s settlement as toothless.

The settlement, which was reportedly voted along party lines, gaining support from the FTC’s three Republicans while being rejected by its two Democrats, is the beginning of the end for the agency’s probe of Facebook’s alleged mishandling of more than 87 million users’ private data during the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Although the fine sets a record in terms of the agency’s actions against Big Tech, a chorus of Democratic lawmakers, technologists and activists excoriated the FTC for not doing enough and not imposing a larger penalty.

“The sad reality is that this does not go nearly far enough. For a company that last year alone generated revenue nearly 11 times greater than the reported fine, the Federal Trade Commission should send a clear signal to Facebook and so many other tech companies that privacy is their ultimate responsibility,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., who is chairwoman of the consumer protection and commerce subcommittee in the House, said in a statement. “If these reports are true, then they failed.”

Will Facebook pay the fine using Libra? Well, when it comes to the Facebook blockchain debate, Facebook declares the Swiss government will regulate it all. Really? There is a Congressional hearing in the Senate by the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee where Libra is to be explained. Frankly, isn’t PayPal a form of cryptocurrency too? Anyway, this testimony found here is regarding Facebook’s Libra Project.

Read it here.

 

 

Obama’s Aunt Ordered Deported, Remember?

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Auntie Zeituni was ordered to leave the country in 2003, but she stayed. Later that year, she tried to stay again. But she lost the appeal, and an immigration judge ordered her deported in October 2004.

Instead, Onyango remained in Boston and lived in state and federal public housing. Critics have denounced her for defying deportation and for living in public housing while scores of families are on waiting lists.

Her lawyers successfully argued to reopen her case, and she was granted asylum in 2010.

Or how about in 2018 when ICE had the case of the Nazi labor camp guard?

Jakiw Palij, a former Nazi labor camp guard in German-occupied Poland and a postwar resident of Queens, New York, has been removed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to Germany. Former Nazi labor camp guard Jakiw Palij removed to Germany

So, to Juan Williams, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Congresswam Jayapal or Senator Hirono, when a judge orders any consequence or punishment such as deportation, is it okay to defy those decisions? A judge or jury decides the sentence is 35 years for armed robbery or el Chapo Guzman to life, but never mind, just kidding? C’mon really?

The operations by ICE to begin aggressive deportations are for only cases that are judge ordered and are listed as fugitives and a public safety threat. These cases include MS-13 members, armed robbers, rapists, terrorists, aggravated homicides and human traffickers to list a few. So Juan or Nancy, you okay with Jose Raul Iraheta from El Salvador staying in the United States for aggravated murder? Or Darrick Bell, otherwise known in the underworld as ‘Tone’ hanging around Detroit for his 9 count indictment of forced labor, money laundering, extortion and a massive human trafficking operation where there is even a reward offered for his capture?

Under this upcoming ICE deportation, arrests would not include those such as Auntie Zeituni, who is now deceased by the way, but rather those Jose Medina Orlando Gonzalez of El Salvador.

One has to ask Chuck, Hillary or Senator Hirono their thoughts of the victims of illegal criminals (read Angel families). Would these Democrats approval of Alan Jacob Mogollon-Anaya of staying in Kenner, Louisana, his last known location? He is wanted for DUI vehicular homicide. He was ordered removed in November of 2017 but fled from Tennessee to Louisiana.

What about those visa-overstays? Should all these people be allowed to remain in the United States when their respective visas become null and void for violating visa conditions? This population is a growing trend as published in a study performed by Center for Immigration Studies.

All these progressives have returned to a pre-911 attitude. There is a specific chapter in the 9/11 Commission Report dedicated to immigration. All the attackers entered the United States on temporary tourist visas. There were overstays and during that time, they were able to obtain a drivers license in Florida, Virginia, New Jersey and California. What would Juan Williams have to say about Hani Hasan Hanjour? Image result for hani hanjour

The Pentagon Plane (AA Flight 77, Dulles to Los Angeles)
Hani Hasan Hanjour (26) — Saudi Arabian — pilot

First came to U.S. in Oct. 1991 to study English in Tucson, Arizona.
Had been in U.S. in April 1996, when he lived in Oakland, Cal. where he studied English, and later received flight training in Scottsdale, Arizona. He left in Nov. 1996 and returned again in Nov. 1997 while he obtained a FAA commercial pilot certificate. He left again in April 1999.
Obtained student visa (F-1) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in Sept. 2000 after an initial refusal. According to the 2/04 Staff Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, Hanjour failed to reveal in his visa application that he had previously traveled to the United States.
Returned Dec. 2000 to study English at Holy Names College (Oakland CA) but never showed up at the school. In illegal status because he did not enroll, and his entry permit had expired at the time of the attack.
Lived in San Diego, Phoenix and Mesa, Ariz. (with Nawaf al-Hamzi), and later in Northern Virginia.
Had a Virginia driver’s license.

So, to the reader, you have some real facts now for a viable argument on public safety and national security threat deportations.