Category Archives: Whistleblower

Meet Kevin Thurm and Here Comes the Clinton Foundation, Again

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The last we heard from Hillary, she was whining that no one liked her. Before that, she was still finding excuses for her loss in the quest for the White House. All through that we continued to hear about corruption and fraud in all things Clinton including the foundation(s).

Sidebar: Read about the Foundation ah weirdness in Columbia.

The Clinton Foundation left a toxic legacy in Colombia ... photo

Well….she is back…and Kevin is leading the charge. But bring money for cocktails and photos.

So, who is Kevin?

Kevin Thurm, A83, A17P, is dedicated to finding solutions that last to transform lives and communities. As the CEO of the Clinton Foundation, he leads its efforts to build partnerships of great purpose between businesses, governments, NGOs, and individuals.

Prior to working at the Clinton Foundation, Thurm held various leadership positions in government and the corporate sector. As a senior counselor at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), he partnered with Secretary Sylvia Burwell and HHS senior leadership on cross-cutting strategic initiatives, including continuing implementation of the Affordable Care Act. At Citigroup, he held senior positions including chief compliance officer and deputy general counsel. Before joining Citigroup, Thurm served as the deputy secretary and chief of staff for the Department of Health and Human Services under Secretary Donna E. Shalala.

Thurm received a bachelor’s from Tufts University in 1983; a bachelor’s/master’s from Oxford University in 1986, where he was a Rhodes Scholar; and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1989.

***

The Clinton Foundation, after seeing a drop in donations amid increased scrutiny and “pay-to-play” allegations, is revving back up with a glitzy fundraising gala that coincides with a broader push by the Clinton machine to stay in the political spotlight.

Axios reported Monday that longtime Clinton supporters received an invitation offering access — a word that dogged Hillary Clinton throughout her failed 2016 presidential campaign — to the family at a May 24 benefit for the Clinton Foundation.

Hillary Announcement Is Great News for Trump and Republicans

The cheapest tickets for the event will be $2,500 for cocktails and dinner. Deep-pocketed donors can lay out $100,000 for a package including “leadership reception for two, a premium table of 10, program recognition as Gala Chair and invitations to the Clinton Foundation Annual Briefing.”

The invite features photos of Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, implying they’ll all be attending.

The foundation scaled back its activities in 2016, downsizing the Clinton Global Initiative and placing restrictions on fundraising amid claims of “pay-to-play” by donors seeking access when Clinton was secretary of state. The Clintons denied any such arrangements.

The biggest such controversy related to the sale of Uranium One — a Canadian-based energy firm and holder of 20 percent of U.S. uranium stocks — to Russian energy company Rosatom during Clinton’s time as secretary of state. The connections between the sale of Uranium One and donations to the foundation were first reported by author Peter Schweizer in his 2015 book “Clinton Cash.”

The New York Times reported that the Clinton Foundation received millions of dollars from donors connected to Uranium One as the deal was in the process of being approved by representatives of government agencies, including Clinton’s State Department.

Since the election, questions about that deal have not gone away. In October, The Hill reported that the FBI received an account that Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit the Clinton Foundation amid a broader pattern of bribery and kickbacks designed to extend Russia’s footprint to the U.S.

Amid the controversies in 2015 and 2016, the foundation saw a plunge in donations. While data from 2017 are not available, 2016 numbers showed that donations fell by 42 percent, from $108 million in 2015 to $63 million in 2016. Then-acting CEO Kevin Thurm told The New York Post, which first reported on the numbers, that that was due in part to restrictions on fundraising the foundation placed on itself as Clinton ran for president.

But while numbers for 2017 aren’t available, IB Times reported last year that a number of big companies have distanced themselves from the foundation and were choosing not to give. Companies that told the outlet in November they have not donated since the 2016 election included Boeing, Chevron, Dell, General Electric, and Lockheed Martin.

“Last year was a tough year,” Donna Shalala, then-president of the foundation, told The Times in 2017, “because people were beating on us with nonsense.”

Clinton Foundation dealings have continued to stay in the headlines. Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was fired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in March after an inspector general report said he leaked the existence of a probe into the foundation during the presidential campaign and later lied about it.

Meanwhile, conservative watchdog Judicial Watch has continued to publish emails sent by Clinton when she served as secretary of state — emails that touch on foundation activity.

The May fundraiser is the latest sign from the Clintons that they do not intend to retreat from the spotlight. After losing in 2016, Hillary Clinton has set up the political action organization Onward Together and released a lengthy campaign post-mortem titled, “What Happened.” She went on a speaking tour coinciding with the book’s release and has made numerous additional appearances discussing her 2016 loss.

Axios reported Monday that Hillary Clinton was to lead the first meeting of Onward Together on New York’s Upper East Side for a session on “harnessing the energy and activism post-election.” Bill, meanwhile, will publish his novel “The President is Missing,” co-authored with James Patterson on June 4.

An April Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that only 27 percent of those polled had a very or somewhat positive view of the former secretary of state. That makes her less popular than President Trump, whose popularity registered at 35 percent. It marked a new low for her in the poll, which clocked her popularity at 30 percent in August 2017.

 

Take Honduras as an Example

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The caravan, the caravan…

There is a crisis going on at the California border check point where an estimated 200 migrants are attempting to gain entry into the United States by using all tactics stressing our resources and laws.

Today: The Caravan at California’s Door photo

(Note the sign provided by ANSWER Coalition)

So, the big question is if these people are desperate to leave their home countries out of fear, crime and corruption, then why have they not visited our embassies in their home countries? They just fled. People fleeing to the United States must and do travel through Mexico. So, where is the humanitarian policy of Mexico to accept these desperate people?

A large number of people attempting to enter the United States come from a handful of countries in Central America such as Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. So, let us examine Honduras as an example. for a summary of the crime and threat assessment in Honduras, go here.

How Instability in Central America Affects US-Mexico ... photo

In 2009, Obama cut $200 million in non-humanitarian aid to Honduras. The United States must address stabilizing these countries, rather than allowing their failures and exporting the problem(s) to the United States.

But:

Honduras, one of Latin America’s poorest nations, strives to improve its economic and democratic development with U.S. assistance. The United States has historically been the largest bilateral donor to Honduras. U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) programs target a variety of sectors including education, health, economic policy, microenterprise, environmental conservation, food security, municipal development, and justice sector reform. USAID has provided more than $3 billion in economic and social development assistance to the Honduran people since it began working in the country in 1961. Currently, programs focus on addressing the main push factors of migration by improving citizen security, reducing extreme poverty, and improving public administration through transparency and accountability reforms. To achieve these objectives, USAID’s efforts address citizen security through community-based crime prevention activities, with a focus on the highest crime neighborhoods and those youth who are most at-risk. Additionally, USAID strengthens local and national governance, as well as civil society monitoring and watchdog organizations; helps the poorest sectors of society increase food security and incomes; supports the sustainable management of natural resources; expands quality basic education and workplace and life-skills training; and improves the quality and participation of local citizens and civil society in decentralized basic services.

In 2017, the U.S. Department of Commerce will be dedicating $1.5 million for a customs and border management program focused on improving trade into Honduras and others parts of Central America. The U.S. Department of Agriculture provided $47 million in 2015-2016 for its two programs that deliver school meals to 53,000 students and increase agricultural productivity and trade.

The United States Armed Forces maintain a small presence at a Honduran military base. U.S. forces conduct and provide logistical support for a variety of bilateral and multilateral exercises–medical, engineering, counternarcotics, and disaster relief–for the benefit of the Honduran people and their Central American neighbors. Through the Central America Regional Security Initiative, the United States supports the Government of Honduras by assisting law enforcement entities in disrupting criminal networks; building investigative, prosecutorial, and judicial capacity; and implementing violence prevention programs for vulnerable communities.

In June 2005, Honduras became the first country in the hemisphere to sign a Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact with the U.S. Government. Under the Compact, the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation invested $205 million over 5 years to help Honduras improve its road infrastructure, diversify its agriculture, and transport its products to market. In 2013, Honduras received a $15.6 million MCC Threshold Agreement to support Honduran efforts to improve public financial management and create more effective and transparent public-private partnerships.

The State Department website for the embassy in Honduras explains that in order to obtain a visa, the applicant must establish they meet all requirements to receive a visa. The website even includes a ‘visa wizard’ that aids in the application process to determine the specific visa that best fits the case.

There is a fraud unit at all embassies and if fraud is committed during in the visa process, benefits are lost, fines are applied and a jail sentence can be applied.

There is yet another requirement for travel and approval to enter the United States, vaccines.

They include: mumps, measles, rubella, polio, tetanus and diphtheria, pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae/type B, hepatitis A and B, rotavirus, meningococcal disease, varicella, pneumococcal disease, and seasonal influenza.

So, given just the vaccine requirements, detention in either Mexico or the United States for those attempting to enter the United States is warranted. The cost however of medical examinations and detention is significant and government agencies cannot estimate those costs to the taxpayer.

Now, here is something quite curious:

Who is a refugee?

According to the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention, a refugee is defined as someone who “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country…”

  • Asylum seekers have submitted a claim for refugee status and are waiting for this claim to be accepted or rejected.
  • Refugees and asylees comprise the majority of displaced persons resettled to the United States.

What are the top countries of origin and asylum*?

The top ten countries of refugee origin are Afghanistan, Iraq, Somali, DR Congo, Myanmar, Colombia, Sudan, Vietnam, Eritrea, and China.

The top ten countries of refugee asylum are Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Germany, Jordan, Kenya, Chad, China, United States, and United Kingdom.

* Countries are listed in order from greatest to least number of refugees as of Dec 2010.

Source: UNHCR Global Trends (2010)

Statistics on International Refugees and US Domestic Refugee Admissions:

Source: UNHCR, 2009 Global Trends: Refugee, Asylum-Seekers, Returnees, Internally Displaced and Stateless People

  • As of 2009, an estimated 15.2 million refugees were located around the world. Of these refugees, 251,500 were voluntarily repatriated to their home nations.
  • In 2011, the United States accepted 56,424 refugees for resettlement.

Source: U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), Worldwide Refugee Admissions Processing System (WRAPS)

The U.S. has projected a refugee resettlement ceiling of 76,000 individuals for FY 2012.
Source: Presidential Determination No. 2011-17: FY 2012 Refugee Admissions Numbers

Immigrant, Refugee and Migrant Health Branch (IRMH)

The goal of the IRMH Branch within the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine is to promote and improve the health of immigrants, refugees, and migrants and prevent the importation of infectious diseases and other conditions of public health significance into the U.S. by these groups. To accomplish this goal the IRMH branch plays a significant role in refugee health, both overseas and domestically.

Older female refugee

Overseas

  • IRMH develops and implements the Technical Instructions used by overseas panel physicians who are responsible for conducting the medical examinations for U.S.-bound refugees. The Technical Instructions consist of medical screening guidelines, which outline in detail the scope of the medical examination. The purpose of the medical examination is to identify, for the Department of State and the US Citizenship and Immigration service, applicants with medical conditions of public health concern.
  • IRMH also maintains an anonymous collection of surplus blood samples from overseas screenings called the Migrant Serum Bank (MSB). Scientists from around the world can request to use the samples for research projects.

Domestic

  • The Domestic Refugee Health Program facilitates collaboration with state and local health department partners to improve the health care and monitor medical conditions of refugees after their arrival into the United States.
  • IRMH also maintains the Electronic Disease Notification System (EDN), which notifies states and local health departments of the arrival of refugees to their jurisdictions. EDN provides states with overseas medical screening results and treatment follow-up information for each refugee.

IRMH Partners

To accomplish its goals in refugee health, IRMH works with many external partners:

 

Secret Missile Strike in Syria, Bibi’s Message to Iran?

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Now we understand the visits to the Trump White House from foreign leaders. The timing of the Netanyahu speech, hours after a suspected Israeli strike that likely used bunker-busters capable of hitting Iran’s nuclear facilities, after Secretary Mike Pompeo’s visit and days before Trump’s May deadline is certainly interesting.

When Secretary Mattis spoke to Congress last week regarding Iran, the wars drums are beating due to Iran, Hezbollah and Israel. Newly confirmed U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just left Israel and has departed Jordan, his last stop bound for home to his office to  which he has not yet visited since his confirmation as Secretary of State. The discussions were the presentation Prime Minister Netanyahu was about to deliver to the world about Iran and the nuclear program shrouded in lies.

Project Amad and 5 warheads, 10 kilotons…. all led by Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi.

In 2013, the man whom Western intelligence agencies say may very well be the head of Iran’s clandestine nuclear weapons program was present as an observer last week when North Korea carried out a critical nuclear test, The British Sunday Times reported.

According to the report Sunday, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi very rarely leaves Iranian soil due to fear that Israel’s Mossad will make an attempt on his life, following an alleged pattern of previous assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists.

***

The Obama administration negotiated the Iran nuclear deal in 2015 along with China, France, Germany, Russia and the U.K. The accord lifted a series of sanctions against Iran in exchange for Tehran accepting limits on its nuclear program and allowing international investigators access to its facilities.

The International Atomic Energy Agency and the signatories to the agreement have repeatedly confirmed that Iran is complying with the deal as it is written.

“We’ve known for years that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons program called Project Amad,” he continued. We can now prove that Project Amad was a comprehensive program to design, build, and test nuclear weapons. We can also prove that Iran is secretly storing Project Amad material to use at a time of its choice to develop nuclear weapons.”

Netanyahu revealed that the purpose of Project Amad was to design, produce, and test five nuclear warheads, each with an explosive yield of 10 kilotons of TNT, for integration with ballistic missiles. “That’s like 5 Hiroshima bombs to be put on ballistic missiles.”

He further revealed that Project Amad had all five elements of a nuclear weapons program, designing nuclear weapons, developing nuclear cores, building nuclear implosion systems, preparing nuclear tests, and integrating nuclear weapons with missiles.

According to Netanyahu, Iran shelved Project Amad under international pressure in 2003. “But it didn’t shelve its nuclear ambitions.”

“Iran devised a plan to do two things, first to preserve the nuclear know-how from Project Amad, and second, to further develop its nuclear weapons related capabilities.”

Many of the same personnel continued to work on Iran’s nuclear program even following the shelving of Project Amad.

Netanyahu accused Iran of continuing to lie to the International Atomic Energy Agency about its nuclear activities and their military applications.

“The Iran [nuclear] deal is based on lies. It is based on Iranian lies and Iranian deception,” he said.

Netanyahu stated that “the nuclear deal gives Iran a clear path to an atomic arsenal.”

He addressed US President Donald Trump’s upcoming decision on whether to remain in the Iran nuclear deal or not and said that he believed that Trump would withdraw from the deal.

“I am sure he will do the right thing, the right thing for the United States, the right thing for Israel, and the right thing for the peace of the world.” More here.

***  امپراطوری پنهان و فاسد فخریزاده(Mohsen Fakhrizadeh ... photo

Senior Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) scientist and former head of Iran’s Physics Research Center (PHRC); on July 8, 2008, added to the Specially Designated National (SDN) list maintained by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), freezing his assets under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibiting transactions with U.S. parties, pursuant to Executive Order 13382, which targets proliferators of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their delivery systems.

Listed in an annex to U.N. Security Council resolution 1747 of March 24, 2007, as a person involved in Iran’s nuclear or ballistic missile activities; with some exceptions, the designation requires states to freeze the financial assets on their territories which are owned or controlled by the entity, by its agents, or by entities it controls; the designation also requires states to ensure that funds, financial assets or economic resources are prevented from being made available by their nationals or by any persons or entities within their territories, to or for the benefit of the entity; the resolution calls on states to “exercise vigilance” in allowing the designated person to enter or to transit through their territories, and requires states to notify the Security Council if the person does so.

Listed by the European Union on April 21, 2007, pursuant to U.N. Security Council resolution 1747, as an entity whose funds and economic resources, and those it owns, holds or controls, must be frozen by E.U. member states, with some exceptions, and within their jurisdiction; E.U. member states must also ensure that funds or economic resources are not made available to or for the benefit of the listed entity; with some exceptions, European Union member states must prevent the person’s entry into or transit through their territories.

Works closely with Fereidoun Abbasi-Davani, who is also listed in an annex to U.N. Security Council resolution 1747; the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has sought access to Mr. Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi to interview him about the activities of the PHRC during his leadership, but Iran has refused; reportedly believed by U.S. intelligence to be the director of “Project 111,” a nuclear research effort that includes work on missile development; reportedly has been a member of the Scientific Board of the physics college at Imam Hossein University since 1991; reportedly directs the nuclear program at Iran’s Center for Readiness and New Defense Technology; passport numbers 0009228 and 4229533.

Trump Approves Release of 2nd Set of JFK Files, Still not All

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So, who was Valeriy Kostikov? It is said he was Lee Harvey Oswald’s KGB handler. The 'Kostin' letter

In part from McClatchy: In 1975, just three years after the nearly 50-year reign of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover came to an end, the bureau looked into rumors that Oswald had penned a threatening note to the FBI office in Dallas shortly before the assassination. No records were found, but Dallas agents said that Oswald had indeed left a threatening handwritten message.

Congressional investigators established that Hosty’s boss, Gordon Shanklin, demanded that he rip up the letter and flush it down the toilet — reportedly under orders from Hoover, who was incensed that the Dallas office had embarrassed the agency by not seeing Oswald as a threat. The former Marine had defected to the Soviet Union, but returned a few years later.

The report by Hosty to headquarters, with little held from public view on Thursday, makes clear that Hosty did tell FBI bosses that Oswald was violent and had been living and working as a maintenance man in New Orleans before moving to Dallas in the spring of 1963. And it confirms Oswald was under surveillance at the time of the assassination.

Another Hosty document, which also had been partially released earlier, has Hoover gushing praise for Hosty in 1971 for work he did as a field agent in Kansas City.

“Your performance relative to a matter of considerable importance to the Bureau in the security field is worthy of praise and warrants commendation,” Hoover wrote.

Thursday’s new documents offer nothing more on Earle Cabell, the mayor of Dallas at the time of assassination. A single document among the roughly 35,000 released last year showed that he’d been listed in CIA files as an asset, an explosive revelation. Cabell’s brother Charles had been a top CIA leader until a year before the killing.

The documents do, however, fill in some blanks about a Soviet Embassy official in Mexico City who met with Oswald weeks before the assassination. Over the decades Oswald’s meetings in Mexico City with the Cuban and Soviet embassies, purportedly to get a visa to Cuba in hopes of returning to the Soviet Union, have gradually been revealed.

One of the Soviets he had contact with was Valeriy Vladimirovich Kostikov. Little was known about his role, but the CIA confirmed to the original assassination investigators that Kostikov was likely part of the feared Department 13 assassination unit of the Soviet spy agency, the KGB.

It is now known that, at minimum, Oswald had phone conversations while in Mexico with Kostikov. Among the further-released documents Thursday were references to Kostikov being “Oswald’s KGB handler.”

That’s found in a May 1982 memo from what appears to be an unidentified foreign intelligence agency or U.S. asset in the Middle East asking longtime CIA Soviet Division leader David Blee about Kostikov. The questioner notes that the Soviets were behind increased harassment of foreign embassies in Beirut — less than a year before a truck bomb leveled the U.S. embassy there, killing 241 U.S. marines and military personnel.

“The reason for our interest in KOSTIKOV will be obvious,” writes the official to Blee. That document was one of more than 15,000 that Thursday were left with some form of partial redaction.

A number of documents relating to the Miami-based anti-Castro group Alpha 66 were included in Thursday’s release, as well. One curious one, dated February 1971, documents how the group outsmarted the FBI a year earlier. The FBI had raided its Miami offices and taken files.

“Apparently Alpha 66 had duplicates hidden because today duplicates of the files which the FBI removed are in their filing cabinets,” the memo from the CIA noted.

Alpha 66 had been headed by Antonio Veciana, who still resides in Miami and is elderly and in frail health. In an interview with McClatchy last year he reasserted that a top CIA Latin America official, David Atlee Phillips, had been working with Oswald to overthrow Cuban leader Fidel Castro. His implication was that Oswald was trained to take out Castro but turned on Kennedy.

Another Miami-related document quotes an American journalist who had been imprisoned in Cuba in 1963 as hearing from a fellow prisoner that Jack Ruby, who killed Oswald just days after the Kennedy assassination, had frequented Cuba and had mafia ties on the island.

*** As an aside, Jack Ruby was a close friend of Santo Trafficante, a mafia mob boss based in Tampa with substantial investments in Cuba. The mob was called upon by Joe Kennedy to help deliver votes for JFK and that request was granted and successful. When President Kennedy named his brother, Robert as the Attorney General, Bobby took up the mission to destroy the mob and this infuriated Trafficante and other mob bosses. Prior to this, the mafia was brought in by the CIA to plot the overthrow or assassination of Fidel Castro. West Tampa Center For The Arts Blog  photo

***

New Group of JFK Assassination Documents Available to the Public
Press Release · Thursday, April 26, 2018

WASHINGTON —

In accordance with President Trump’s direction on October 26, 2017, the National Archives today posted 19,045 documents subject to the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 (JFK Act).   Released documents are available for download.  The versions released today were processed by agencies in accordance with the President’s direction that agency heads be extremely circumspect in recommending any further postponement.

The John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection, established by the National Archives in November 1992, consists of approximately five million pages.  The vast majority of the collection has been publicly available without any restrictions since the late 1990s.  As permitted by the JFK Act, agencies appealed to the President to continue postponement of certain information beyond October 26, 2017.  The President provided agencies with a temporary certification until April 26, 2018 to allow for a re-review of all documents withheld in full or in part under section 5 of the JFK Act and directed agencies to “identify as much as possible that may be publicly disclosed” and to be “extremely circumspect in recommending any further postponement.”

Based on reviews conducted by agencies in accordance with the President’s direction, the National Archives released 3,539 documents on Dec. 15, 10,744 documents on Nov. 17, 13,213 documents on Nov. 9, and 676 documents on Nov. 3 of last year.  The 19,045 documents released today represent the final release of documents in accordance with the President’s direction on October 26, 2017.

All documents subject to section 5 of the JFK Act have been released in full or in part.  No documents subject to section 5 of the JFK Act remain withheld in full.  The President has determined that all information that remains withheld under section 5 must be reviewed again before October 26, 2021 to determine whether continued withholding from disclosure is necessary.

 

Online Resources:
The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection
Documenting the Death of a President
JFK Assassination Records Review Board
The work of the Kennedy Assassination Records Collection
JFK Assassination Records FAQs
Warren Commission Report

N Korea Shut Down Nuclear site Because it Collapsed

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And not because of some talks going on with South Korea. Much has been televised and written with regard to the talks going on with North Korea, the nuclear and missile program, normalizing relations with the South and introducing a peace agreement. Further, as we learned Mike Pompeo, the CIA Director met with the North Korean regime over Easter in an effort to determine some real truths and to gauge Kim Jung un with just how real all the reports are.

So, while we are told that missile tests and nuclear tests have been suspended, perhaps we know the reason why. Nuclear fallout.

About 200 people are feared dead in North Korea after underground tunnels at a nuclear test site that was feared to be unstable reportedly collapsed, crushing 100 people in the initial cave-in and 100 others when the tunnels again gave way on top of rescuers.

The collapse at the Punggye-ri test site on Oct. 10 occurred while people were doing construction on the underground tunnel, Japan’s Asahi TV reported, citing a source in North Korea. The television station also said North Korea’s sixth nuclear test on Sept. 3 most likely caused the tunnel to crumble and created serious damage in the region.

Mike Pompeo is a master with his poker face and his classified report on the meeting must be a doozy.

North Korea’s mountain nuclear test site has collapsed, putting China and other nearby nations at unprecedented risk of radioactive exposure, two separate groups of Chinese scientists studying the issue have confirmed.

The collapse after five nuclear blasts may be why North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared on Friday that he would freeze the hermit state’s nuclear and missile tests and shut down the site, one researcher said.

The last five of Pyongyang’s six nuclear tests have all been carried out under Mount Mantap at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in North Korea’s northwest.

Chinese scientists warn North Korea about disaster threat at nuclear test site

One group of researchers found that the most recent blast tore open a hole in the mountain, which then collapsed upon itself. A second group concluded that the breakdown created a “chimney” that could allow radioactive fallout from the blast zone below to rise into the air.

A research team led by Wen Lianxing, a geologist with the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, concluded that the collapse occurred following the detonation last autumn of North Korea’s most powerful thermal nuclear warhead in a tunnel about 700 metres (2,296 feet) below the mountain’s peak.

The test turned the mountain into fragile fragments, the researchers found.

The mountain’s collapse, and the prospect of radioactive exposure in the aftermath, confirms a series of exclusive reports by the South China Morning Post on China’s fears that Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test had caused a fallout leak.

Radioactive dust could escape through holes or cracks in the damaged mountain, the scientists said.

“It is necessary to continue monitoring possible leaks of radioactive materials caused by the collapse incident,” Wen’s team said in the statement.

The findings will be published on the website of the peer-reviewed journal, Geophysical Research Letters, likely next month.

North Korea saw the mountain as an ideal location for underground nuclear experiments because of its elevation – it stood more than 2,100 metres (6,888 feet) above sea level – and its terrain of thick, gentle slopes that seemed capable of resisting structural damage.

North Korea suspends nuclear and missile tests

The mountain’s surface had shown no visible damage after four underground nuclear tests before 2017.

But the 100-kilotonne bomb that went off on September 3 vaporised surrounding rocks with unprecedented heat and opened a space that was up to 200 metres (656 feet) in diameter, according to a statement posted on the Wen team’s website on Monday.

As shock waves tore through and loosened more rocks, a large section of the mountain’s ridge, less than half a kilometre (0.3 mile) from the peak, slipped down into the empty pocket created by the blast, leaving a scar visible in satellite images.

Wen concluded that the mountain had collapsed after analysing data collected from nearly 2,000 seismic stations.

Three small earthquakes that hit nearby regions in the wake of the collapse added credence to his conclusion, suggesting the test site had lost its geological stability.

Another research team led by Liu Junqing at the Jilin Earthquake Agency with the China Earthquake Administration in Changchun reached similar conclusions to the Wen team.

The “rock collapse … was for the first time documented in North Korea’s test site,” Liu’s team wrote in a paper published last month in Geophysical Research Letters.

The breakdown not only took off part of the mountain’s summit but also created a “chimney” that could allow fallout to rise from the blast centre into the air, they said.

North Korea nuclear test site has signs of ‘Tired Mountain Syndrome’ after five blasts

Zhao Lianfeng, a researcher with the Institute of Earth Science at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, said the two studies supported a consensus among scientists that “the site was wrecked” beyond repair.

“Their findings are in agreement to our observations,” he said.

“Different teams using different data have come up with similar conclusions,” Zhao said. “The only difference was in some technical details. This is the best guess that can be made by the world outside.”

Speculation grew that North Korea’s site was in trouble when Lee Doh-sik, the top North Korean geologist, visited Zhao’s institute about two weeks after the test and met privately with senior Chinese government geologists.

US reveals how its forces would secure North Korea’s nuclear sites

Although the purpose of Lee’s visit was not disclosed, two days later Pyongyang announced it would no longer conduct land-based nuclear tests.

Hu Xingdou, a Beijing-based scholar who follows North Korea’s nuclear programme, said it was highly likely that Pyongyang had received a stark warning from Beijing.

Are North Korean quakes signs of instability at nuclear test site?

“The test was not only destabilising the site but increasing the risk of eruption of the Changbai Mountain,” a large, active volcano at China-Korean border, said Hu, who asked that his university affiliation not be disclosed for this article because of the topic’s sensitivity.

The mountain’s collapse has likely dealt a huge blow to North Korea’s nuclear programme, Hu said.

Hit by crippling international economic sanctions over its nuclear ambitions, the country might lack sufficient resources to soon resume testing at a new site, he said.

North Korea told its people Kim Jong-un visited China, but didn’t mention denuclearisation

“But there are other sites suitable for testing,” Hu said. “They must be closely monitored.”

Guo Qiuju, a Peking University professor who has belonged to a panel that has advised the Chinese government on emergency responses to radioactive hazards, said that if fallout escaped through cracks, it could be carried by wind over the Chinese border.

“So far we have not detected an abnormal increase of radioactivity levels,” Guo said. “But we will continue to monitor the surrounding region with a large [amount] of highly sensitive equipment and analyse the data in state-of-the-art laboratories.” More details here.