The FBI continued abusing the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act program, including searching for information on people who had gone to the bureau to report they were victims of a crime, a newly declassified document shows. One FBI information specialist between April 11, 2019, and July 8, 2019, conducted approximately 124 queries of information obtained through secretive methods under the act, or FISA, which permits warrantless surveillance of foreigners outside of the United States. The surveillance can and has been used to ultimately obtain information on Americans. The searches included looking at information for people who had requested to participate in a bureau-run citizens academy, a program for local leaders designed to foster greater understanding of the role of law enforcement, and people who needed to enter the field office the FBI worker was based in to conduct work, such as a repair, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court reported in the … [Continue]

Human rights lawyer Chang Weiping was officially charged with “subversion of state power” on 16 April 2021, six months after police officers took him away for publicly detailing incidents of torture that he experienced during an earlier detention in January 2020. He is currently being held incommunicado at Feng County Detention Centre. Given his isolation and the reports of the torture Chang previously endured, there are grave concerns for his physical and mental wellbeing.

Israel condemns ‘preposterous’ report accusing it of ‘crimes against humanity’ and ‘apartheid’ towards Palestinians.

• Human Rights Watch released a new 213-page report on Tuesday accusing Israel of pursuing policies of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians and its own Arab minority
• Israel has rejected the report but it has been welcomed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
• The report comes  just weeks after the International Criminal Court announced it would investigate war crimes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip

Qin Shuren made no secret of his interest in underwater drones, according to his neighbors in the affluent Boston suburb of Wellesley.

The Chinese national once invited local kids to test a subaquatic robot in his backyard pool, they recalled, and another time demonstrated one at his children’s school.

Neighbors were stunned when police arrived at Mr. Qin’s colonial-style home in 2018 and placed him under arrest. On Wednesday, Mr. Qin is set to plead guilty in federal court to felony charges that he illegally procured more than $100,000 in U.S. marine technology for a Chinese military research institute.

Under a plea agreement Mr. Qin reached with the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston, he is expected to plead guilty to counts of conspiring to commit export violations, visa fraud, lying to government agents, money laundering and smuggling.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte on Monday each signed three bills to restrict abortion in their states.

Republican Gov. Stitt announced on Twitter the three bills set to be effective Nov. 1 in Oklahoma. “I’m keeping my promise to sign all pro-life legislation,” he said. “We now have three more laws protecting the lives of the unborn! HB 2441, HB 1904, and HB 1102.”

The state’s HB 2441 (pdf), set to be effective Nov. 1, stipulates that no person shall carry out an abortion without first checking whether the unborn child has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, typically at about six weeks of pregnancy, the abortion is prohibited. Anyone who violates the law “shall be guilty of homicide.”

The post GOP Governors Sign Bills Restricting Abortion in Oklahoma, Montana appeared first on NTD.

A lorry driver who purchased a stun gun and pepper spray for self-defence after being attacked by illegal migrants has been imprisoned.

The offending articles were found in the cab of 40-year-old Graeme McMurray, of Denny, during a spot check at a ferry terminal in Cairnryan, Scotland, as he was en route to Belfast.

McMurray had been attacked by illegal migrants in France in Boulogne, France, in 2018, leaving him with a broken arm, according to a court report. Such attacks on lorry drivers by migrants seeking to break into their vehicles and cross the British border are far from uncommon, but the judge was unsympathetic.

Responding to the news that Moscow police have detained several activists and journalists identified using facial recognition technology as attendees of the peaceful rally in support of Aleksei Navalny on 21 April, Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International’s Moscow Office Director, said:

“This is a new and extremely disturbing turn of events. Never before have the police been able to cast their net so widely to identify and target peaceful protesters using facial recognition technology. The police detained not only those who had joined the protests but also at least three journalists who were simply reporting on the rally.

“Previously the protesters’ main risk was being beaten and arbitrarily detained by police at a rally. As of now, avoiding this fate does not mean that you can feel safe – the repressive state knows who you are and can come for you at any point. The risk of attempting to exercise your right to freedom of peaceful assembly has never been so high in Russia.

“We reiterate our call to ban the development and use of facial recognition technologies for identification purposes. The authorities’ persecution of peaceful protest is now reaching a whole new level in Russia.

Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Republican foreign policy leaders in Congress are demanding a formal investigation into John Kerry following revelations he informed Iranian leaders about covert Israeli military operations.

A leaked audio recording of Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif, who worked closely with Kerry when the 2015 nuclear accord was negotiated, catches the Iranian official claiming the former Obama administration secretary of state informed him about at least 200 Israeli strikes on Iranian military positions in Syria. That Kerry shared these intimate details “to his astonishment,” according to the New York Times, suggests Kerry may have been disclosing classified information. It would also represent a stunning betrayal of America’s closest Middle East ally. Israel relies on the United States to protect shared intelligence from its top regional enemy.

The revelation is already generating calls for Kerry, the special presidential envoy for climate, to resign from the Biden administration and face a congressional investigation for possibly spilling highly classified secrets to one of America’s leading enemies.

Former Trump administration secretary of state Mike Pompeo said the audio tape proves “what I’ve said for years: That [Zarif] continued to engage with former secretary of state Kerry on policy matters after Kerry’s public service and, according to Zarif, Kerry informed the Iranians of Israeli operations.”

The rather curious defining feature of Democratic Party foreign policy, going back at least four decades, is that our friends must be bullied and our enemies must be appeased. The Democratic worldview holds that America is a source of geopolitical evil whose destructive influences must be tamed and reined in, and that America’s enemies must be emboldened in order to tilt the global playing field away from America’s noxious ambit.

Barack Obama’s administration encapsulated this toxic ideology through its single-minded pursuit of a nuclear accord with the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism during the president’s lame-duck second term. Many of the leading hucksters who comprised Team Obama’s “negotiators” with Tehran — Wendy Sherman, Robert Malley, and Colin Kahl among them — are now reprising their roles during Uncle Joe Biden’s third Obama term.

The White House refused to comment on a report exposing Climate Czar John Kerry leaking information about Israel military operations to Iran.

“We’re not going to comment on leaked tapes,” Psaki replied shortly, when asked about the report.

John Kerry denied he ever told Iran’s foreign minister about Israel’s covert operations in Syria.

In a recently leaked audio, Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said then-Secretary of State John Kerry informed him about Israel’s covert operations in Syria.

John Kerry served as Barack Obama’s Secretary of State from 2013 – 2017 and currently serves as Biden’s special climate envoy.

Zarif said he was shocked by John Kerry’s revelation that Israel had attacked Iranian targets in Syria over 200 times.

John Kerry is denying the allegations and calling Zarif, his “trusted friend” a liar.

“I can tell you that this story and these allegations are unequivocally false. This never happened – either when I was Secretary of State or since,” a clearly flustered John Kerry said in a tweet Monday evening.

I can tell you that this story and these allegations are unequivocally false. This never happened – either when I was Secretary of State or since. https://t.co/BTOdFE1khW

— John Kerry (@JohnKerry) April 26, 2021

The post “This Never Happened” – Flustered John Kerry Denies He Told Iran’s Foreign Minister About Israel’s Covert Operations in Syria appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

In a leaked recording of a phone conversation, Mohammad Javad Zarif said Mr. Kerry, a secretary of state under President Barack Obama, had informed him that Israel had attacked Iranian interests in Syria at least 200 times.

After almost 200 years, the Democrats were a political party with conventional political goals. That’s no longer true. The Democratic Party is now a religious cult, with all that implies. Dissent has been banned. Anyone who questions the party’s leftward fringe is denounced as a racist heretic.