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Fri, 15 Oct 2021
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CIA creates new unit to focus on 'key rival' China, calling it the 'most important geopolitical threat we face'

china us flag
Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns announced the formation of the China Mission Center to counter Beijing, while warning the "increasingly adversarial" Chinese government poses "the most important geopolitical threat" to the United States in the 21st century.

Burns announced the agency's adjustments to its organization structure and approach to "best position it to address current and future national security challenges."

"CMC will further strengthen our collective work on the most important geopolitical threat we face in the 21st century, an increasingly adversarial Chinese government," Burns said.

Target

Austrian prosecutors target Kurz in bribery investigation

Kurz
© TFP
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has been placed under investigation on suspicion of bribery and breach of trust, anti-corruption prosecutors said on Wednesday after raids on the offices of Kurz's conservative party and several top aides.

The investigation, which prosecutors confirmed hours after raids on the Chancellery, Finance Ministry and the offices of Kurz's party, is a fresh political threat to Kurz, whom anti-corruption prosecutors placed under investigation separately in May on suspicion of perjury. Kurz and his People's Party (OVP) dismissed the investigation as politically motivated.

The suspicion in this investigation is that, starting in 2016 when Kurz was foreign minister and seeking to become party leader, and later as he became chancellor, the conservative-led Finance Ministry paid for advertisements in a newspaper in exchange for polling and coverage favourable to him. The Prosecutor's Office said in a statement:
"The Prosecutors' Office for Economic Affairs and Corruption has placed Sebastian Kurz and nine others as well as three organisations under investigation on suspicion of breach of trust ... corruption ... and bribery ..., partly with different levels of involvement."
The early morning raids took place at locations including the homes and Chancellery desks of three senior Kurz aides.

"I am convinced that these accusations, too, will prove to be false," Kurz said in a brief statement, adding that text-message exchanges had been taken out of context to "construct" a case against him.

Footprints

Taliban 'removing' Uyghur militants from Afghanistan's border with China

Taliban fighter
© Jorge Silva/Reuters
Taliban fighter
The Taliban has removed Uyghur militants from an area near Afghanistan's border with China, sources in the region told RFE/RL, in a move that analysts say signals growing coordination between Beijing and the Afghan militant group.

The Uyghur fighters that have been relocated inside Afghanistan are believed to be members of the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) -- an Uyghur extremist group that Beijing blames for unrest in its western province of Xinjiang and refers to by its former name, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).

The Taliban allowed Uyghur groups to operate in Afghanistan during its rule in the 1990s and is believed to still have links with them. China has demanded the Taliban cut any ties with the militants. Analysts say the Taliban's move marks a new step in its ties with Beijing, marking the first time the militants have taken action on the ground to assuage Chinese security fears since they seized power in Afghanistan in August.

Bradley Jardine, a fellow at the U.S.-based Wilson Center's Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, told RFE/RL:
"It's what China wants and what the Taliban needs to provide if it is to encourage deeper cooperation with Beijing. The real question is whether they can fully follow through."

Dollar

Facebook 'Whistleblower' donated 36 times to Democrats, including to anti-primary extremists and AOC

Francis Haugen
© EG24 News/Getty Images
Francis Haugen
Facebook "whistleblower" Frances Haugen is a longtime Democrat donor, supporting campaigns for far-left extremists such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She has also donated money to activist groups actively attempting to derail the U.S. primary process that allows ordinary members of the public to beat out establishment, career politicians, The National Pulse can reveal.

Blowing the Establishment.

Haugen's "whistleblowing" has been lauded by the corporate media: a sure sign that rather than being a sole actor attempting to call out corporate abuse, she is likely backed by some hefty interests. Haugen first anonymously leaked internal documents before revealing her identity and calling for mass censorship on the Facebook, but only of political ideas she opposes.

The National Pulse has thus far identified 36 donations from Haugen during her time as an employee of Facebook, Pinterest, and Gigster. All of the donations, which total nearly $2,000 since December 2016, have gone to Democrats including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Comment: Is she a 'useful' tool trotted out to disguise a power play? There is certainly enough probability and speculation to confirms this. The trick is to poke the problem in order to disguise a particular recourse that serves a particular faction.

See also:
Greenwald: Democrats and media do not want to weaken Facebook, just commandeer its power to censor


Cut

Arizona AG: Border agent purge at pro-immigration DHS

Brnovich
© AP
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich
The Department of Homeland Security appears to be "purging" leaders who speak the truth about the immigration crisis at the southern border, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday.

In the letter, first reported by The Washington Examiner's Paul Bedard, Brnovich pointed to the ouster of U.S. Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott and the reassignment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement deputy Enrique Lucero.
Scott had criticized President Joe Biden's border policies that he said have resulted in the recent record illegal border crossings.

Lucero had warned that the Biden policy of pausing deportations would cut Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests by half.
Brnovich said in the letter:
"At a time when we need them most, DHS seems to be purging qualified leaders who have attempted to uphold the rule of law. Those actions only lead to more chaos and further empower the cartels who now control both sides of the border."

Quenelle - Golden

Polexit? Polish court rules EU push for LGBT laws & legal reform incompatible with its constitution

Morawiecki
© Radek Pietruszka/EPA
The Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki, arriving at an EU-western Balkans summit in Slovenia on Wednesday.
Poland's constitutional tribunal has ruled that some EU laws are in conflict with the country's constitution, taking a major step towards a "legal Polexit", in a decision that could have far-reaching consequences for Warsaw's EU funding and future relations with the bloc.

The tribunal, whose legitimacy is contested following multiple appointments of judges loyal to the ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, said on Thursday some provisions of EU treaties and EU court rulings clashed with Poland's highest law.

"This is a legal revolution," said René Repasi, professor of international and European law at Erasmus university in Rotterdam. "Admittedly it's a captured court, but this is furthest step towards a legal exit from the EU ever taken by a national court."

Comment: Poland's objections to EU supremacy reveal just how much power other member states gave away. And, if we look at 'developments' in those other countries, one can understand why Poland wants to stop their country going the same route:


Sheriff

Natural gas prices plunge as Putin says Russia will boost supplies to Europe

gas pipeline
© AP / Pavlo Palamarchuk
The price of gas futures in Europe has plunged nearly 22%, below $1,000 per 1,000 cubic meters, on news that Russia is willing to ramp up supplies to the continent. Gas prices nearly reached $2,000 a day earlier.

According to trading data from the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the price of November gas futures on the Dutch TTF index started trading at almost $1,260 per thousand cubic meters on Thursday, then briefly jumped to $1,370 at 6:13am GMT and later showed a steady decline. By 8am GMT, the price fell to $973 per thousand cubic meters, which is 22% lower than its closing price the day before. On Wednesday, the price of gas in Europe briefly reached a historic high of $1,937 per thousand cubic meters, nearly three times its cost in September.

Gas futures started their decline late Wednesday when Russian President Vladimir Putin said the country would boost supplies to Europe.

Comment: Leaders in the EU & Britain should be breathing a sigh of relief as Russia, yet again, comes to the rescue; and citizens should be pressing them to reconsider their relationship with the US because, at the last minute, it made another attempt to sabotage their access to an affordable and desperately needed source of gas by slapping sanctions on companies necessary for the pipelines completion: Also check out SOTT radio's:



Bullseye

Russia is fulfilling ALL its contractual obligations for gas orders & is NOT to blame for soaring prices - Merkel

Merkel
© AFP / HENDRIK SCHMIDT
(L) The double shut-off valves are installed between the pipe systems of the gas receiving station of the Nord Stream Baltic Sea pipeline. Getty Images / Jens Büttner; (R) German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has rejected suggestions that the increased price of gas is due to Russian policy, and is instead pointing the finger at European Union policy, asking whether the bloc could have acted differently.

Speaking on Wednesday, Merkel noted that Russia has never refused to deliver gas and has fulfilled its contractual obligations.

"That's why we should ask the question: was enough gas ordered, or is the high price at the moment maybe the reason for not ordering so much?" Merkel asked, according to London's Financial Times.

Comment: Britain and the EU have the gamut of excuses, including blaming Russia, and a lack of employees in numerous sectors, but citizens only have so much patience, and it's bound to wear rather thin when people are cold, and hungry:


Pirates

Dutch court dismisses call to scrap 'corona pass' mandate

Rutte
© REUTERS/ Matthias Rietschel
Netherlands' Prime Minister Mark Rutte speaks during the gala event after the opening ceremony of the exhibition "Johannes Vermeer. Vom Innehalten" in Dresden, Germany, September 9, 2021.
A Dutch court on Wednesday dismissed a call to scrap the 'corona pass' required to enter restaurants, bars, museums, theatres and other public places in the Netherlands.

The court in The Hague said the government had the right to demand proof of a COVID-19 vaccination or a recent negative coronavirus test to limit the spread of the coronavirus as most other social distancing measures were lifted last month.

Comment: Notably, the Dutch political situation this year has been marred by scandal: "Unprecedented injustice": Dutch government quits over tax subsidy scandal

See also:


Black Cat

'Whistleblower' Haugen was part of Facebook team that spiked Hunter Biden laptop story

Haugen
© Drew Angerer/AFP/Getty Images
Facebook 'whistleblower' Frances Haugen hearing
The civic integrity department in October 2020 had Frances Haugen — a left-leaning activist who declared her own war against "misinformation."

The Facebook civic integrity team that leftist activist whistleblower Frances Haugen was a member of, worked to counter misinformation about the 2020 election.

Which in October of last year meant making the decision to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story and the New York Post's reporting on it.

Project Veritas whistleblowers haven't gotten the same mainstream media attention and praise as Frances Haugen has, after coming out publicly to 60 Minutes earlier this week.

Comment: Conservative podcaster Dan Bongino makes an interesting observation on Haugen's testimony (includes ads):