Puppet Masters
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.
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.
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."
Facebook 'Whistleblower' donated 36 times to Democrats, including to anti-primary extremists and AOC
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.
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.Brnovich said in the letter:
Lucero had warned that the Biden policy of pausing deportations would cut Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests by half.
"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."

The Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki, arriving at an EU-western Balkans summit in Slovenia on Wednesday.
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:
- Court orders Poland, Latvia to provide aid to migrants on Belarus border
- Spain to allow 14 year olds to change 'gender self-identification after filling in a form'
- EU army gets to work in Africa and plans to surround oil routes in the Middle East
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:
- Lockdowns cause largest cargo delivery backlog EVER - inflation, unemployment and food shortages expected to worsen
- 'Precarious': Energy prices in Europe hit records as wind stops blowing amidst already soaring costs
- China suffering power shortages, limits factories working hours, situation expected to worsen entering winter
- NewsReal: Climate Disaster Plans and Vaccine War Games: Government to the Rescue!
- NewsReal: Is The Government Hyping Shortages? And is 'Vaccination Shedding' Really a Thing?

(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.
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:
- Lockdowns cause largest cargo delivery backlog EVER - inflation, unemployment and food shortages expected to worsen
- 'Precarious': Energy prices in Europe hit records as wind stops blowing amidst already soaring costs
- China suffering power shortages, limits factories working hours, situation expected to worsen entering winter

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.
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:
- Dutch protesters march through The Hague against 'corona pass', 40% of businesses say they will refuse to enforce it
- 'Extremism': Dutch banks banning accounts linked with lockdown protests & vaccine information
- Netherlands election result: Mark Rutte retains premiership as Dutch apparently vote overwhelmingly in favor of Covid-19 restriction measures
- Political Ponerology And The Rise Of Totalitarianism In The West
- "No proven effectiveness": Dutch government will NOT force public to wear masks - Minister for Medical care
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:
- Bringing Facebook to heel: A system-connected 'whistleblower' and a 'for the children' narrative mask a bid for political control
- Leaked Facebook document reveals policies on restricting New York Post's Biden story












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