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German spies secretly helping Ukraine - media


RT
Wed, 28 Sep 2022 06:45 UTC
The headquarters of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst, BND) in Berlin, November 06, 2019.
© Sean Gallup/Getty Images
The headquarters of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst, BND) in Berlin, November 06, 2019.
The BND also reportedly backed the illegal 2003 US invasion of Iraq, despite Berlin's official line.

German foreign intelligence service BND has been forwarding satellite imagery, radio and phone intercept data to Kiev for months, helping the Ukrainian war effort while Berlin has officially maintained it wasn't party to the conflict, Zeit magazine revealed on Wednesday.

The information "can be incorporated into war planning and help the Ukrainian army to assess the combat effectiveness and morale of Russian units or to check their positions," Zeit wrote, describing it as the German contribution to the "turning point" on the battlefield.

Zeit also revealed that German spies fed the US some intelligence from Baghdad during the 2003 Iraq invasion. Berlin had officially declined to share information with Washington during the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, reportedly to BND's frustration. This time around, however, the spies unanimously decided that the "exceptional historical situation" warranted helping the Ukrainians.

Comment: See also:

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Snakes in Suits

The Justice Department Was Dangerous Before Trump. It's Out of Control Now

Matt Taibbi
TK News by Matt Taibbi
Sat, 17 Sep 2022 00:00 UTC
Justice Department Was Dangerous Before

Clockwise from top left: The “Blind Sheikh,” attorney Lynne Stewart, singing Attorney General John Ashcroft, Enron defendant Ken Lay
The current Trump investigation is just the latest chapter of a long-brewing civil liberties nightmare.

On Monday, August 8, Justice Department officials spent nine hours raiding the Mar-a-Lago home of Donald Trump, carrying out 12 boxes of material. When criticism ensued, FBI spokespeople in wounded tones insisted the press eschew the harsh term "raid," and use "execution of a search warrant" instead.

"Agents don't like the word 'raid,' they don't like it," complained former assistant FBI counterintelligence director turned MSNBC analyst Frank Figliuzzi. He added with unintentional irony: "It sounds like it's some sort of extrajudicial, non-legal thing."

But it was a raid, as the surprisingly enormous number of people who've been on the business end of such actions since 9/11 will report. The state more and more now avails itself of a procedural trick that would have horrified everyone from Jefferson to to Potter Stewart to Thurgood Marshall. Investigating, say, one lawyer, prosecutors raid a whole firm, taking everything — emails, client files, cell phones and personal computers — then have a supposedly separate group of lawyers, called a "taint" or "filter" team, examine it all. In this way they learn the private details of hundreds or even thousands of clients in a shot, all people unrelated to the supposed case at hand.
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Attention

Who profits from Pipeline Terror?

Pepe Escobar
The Cradle
Thu, 29 Sep 2022 22:58 UTC
Secret talks between Russia and Germany to resolve their Nord Stream 1 and 2 issues had to be averted at any cost.
Putin and Demented
The War of Economic Corridors has entered incandescent, uncharted territory: Pipeline Terror.

A sophisticated military operation - that required exhaustive planning, possibly involving several actors - blew up four separate sections of the Nord Stream (NS) and Nord Stream 2 (NS2) gas pipelines this week in the shallow waters of the Danish straits, in the Baltic Sea, near the island of Bornholm.

Swedish seismologists estimated that the power of the explosions may have reached the equivalent of up to 700 kg of TNT. Both NS and NS2, near the strong currents around Borholm, are placed at the bottom of the sea at a depth of 60 meters.
Gas Pipelines
© The Cradle
The pipes are built with steel reinforced concrete, able to withstand impact from aircraft carrier anchors, and are basically indestructible without serious explosive charges. The operation - causing two leaks near Sweden and two near Denmark - would have to be carried out by modified underwater drones.

Every crime implies motive. The Russian government wanted - at least up to the sabotage - to sell oil and natural gas to the EU. The notion that Russian intel would destroy Gazprom pipelines is beyond ludicrous. All they had to do was to turn off the valves. NS2 was not even operational, based on a political decision from Berlin. The gas flow in NS was hampered by western sanctions. Moreover, such an act would imply Moscow losing key strategic leverage over the EU.

Diplomatic sources confirm that Berlin and Moscow were involved in a secret negotiation to solve both the NS and NS2 issues. So they had to be stopped - no holds barred. Geopolitically, the entity that had the motive to halt a deal holds anathema a possible alliance in the horizon between Germany, Russia, and China.
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Binoculars

Court orders production of Seth Rich laptop

Techno Fog
technofog.substack.com
Thu, 29 Sep 2022 21:17 UTC
seth rich
Today, a federal judge ordered the FBI to "produce the information it possesses related to Seth Rich's laptop."
seth rich
This case involves a multi-year fight by attorney Ty Clevenger to obtain records relating to the FBI/DOJ investigation of Seth Rich, particularly whether Rich was involved in the hack of the DNC or had communicated with Wikileaks.

This fight dates back to 2017 and includes two FOIA lawsuit. In the first lawsuit, the FBI produced no responsive documents. The parties knew the FBI had something, and so this sparked a second lawsuit - where the FBI somehow found 20,000 pages of potentially responsive documents. The court explains:
seth rich
Of those 20,000 pages, the government found 1,596 pages of responsive documents, of which the government withheld 1,469 pages under various FOIA exemptions (privacy, law enforcement exemption, etc.).

The FBI also withheld the contents of Seth Rich's personal laptop, which it possesses, in its entirety, alleging the privacy of Rich's family in "preventing the public release of this information" outweighs the public interest in disclosure.

The court rejected that argument, stating "the FBI has not satisfied its burden of showing more than a de minimis privacy interest that would justify withholding information from Seth Rich's laptop."
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Stock Down

UK pension funds bond crash prompts historic Bank of England emergency intervention

Elliot Smith
CNBC
Thu, 29 Sep 2022 05:27 UTC
Bank of England
© Bloomberg | Getty Images
The Bank of England on Wednesday launched a historic intervention in the U.K. bond market in order to shore up financial stability, with markets in disarray following the new government’s fiscal policy announcements.
The Bank of England launched a historic intervention to stabilize the U.K. economy, announcing a two-week purchase program for long-dated bonds and delaying its planned gilt sales until the end of October.

The move came after a massive sell-off in U.K. government bonds — known as "gilts" — following the new government's fiscal policy announcements Friday.


Comment: Lest we forget that there's much more happening to Western economies than just this announcement; including but not limited to: the proxy-war on Russia; 2 years of lockdowns; the energy crisis; as well as over a decade of worsening corruption and greed since the last crash.


The policies included large swathes of unfunded tax cuts that have drawn global criticism, and also saw the pound fall to an all-time low against the dollar on Monday.

Comment: It's notable that the US press, in this case CNBC, eagerly provide a detailed overview of the disastrous state of the UK's finances, meanwhile they're much more 'optimistic' when reporting on their own.

Some footage from UK TV during the initial announcements of events:


Other tweets that provide an overview of the current state of Western economies:




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Bad Guys

U.S. announces $1.1 billion in aid for building Ukraine's military


RFE/RL
Thu, 29 Sep 2022 17:51 UTC
HIMARS, High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System

The package includes funding for 18 units of the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System, known as HIMARS. (file photo)
The United States will provide an additional $1.1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, including funding for about 18 more advanced rocket systems and other weapons to counter drones, the White House announced on September 28.

The package is aimed at helping Ukraine secure its longer-term defense needs under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which funds the purchase of weapons and equipment. This means it could take a year or more for Ukraine to get the systems.

Most of the other military aid packages announced by the United States have thus far used Pentagon drawdown authority to provide weapons more immediately.
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Eye 2

New Zealand's PM calls internet freedom & free speech a 'weapon of war' in UN speech

Jim Hoft
The Gateway Pundit
Thu, 29 Sep 2022 08:30 UTC
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
New Zealand communist Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern labeled internet freedom a "weapon of war" in her most recent UN speech before the General Assembly this week.

Leftist Ardern, who ruled her country like a 20th Century despot during the COVID pandemic, called out for a new type of internet with "rules and transparency."

In the next breath, she says she "values free speech so highly." She is the typical leftist elitist leader in the world today. And she insists on giving Communist Justin Trudeau a run for his money.


Comment: She's allied with neither left nor right, she's merely a willing pawn using political parties to implement the establishment's nefarious agenda.


Comment: This is the same Ardern who, during the 'pandemic', actually said: "unless you hear it from us, it is not the truth"; that the vaccinated and unvaccinated were 'different classes'; that the vaccinated wouldn't 'die' of covid; who smiled whilst talking about the deaths of despair caused by the lockdowns; and this is the same New Zealand that enforced some of the harshest and longest lockdowns - then said that orgies were fine - and yet which, despite a shockingly compliant population, failed miserably to ever achieve its declared zero covid objective:







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Bad Guys

Moscow warns US against 'using Zelensky regime' as proxy


RT
Wed, 28 Sep 2022 05:35 UTC
Mariupol
© Sputnik
People wait at a bus stop, with a damaged residential building in the background, in the port city of Mariupol, Donetsk People's Republic, September 26, 2022.
Washington risks becoming a direct party to the war with continued arms shipments, Moscow's envoy warned.

Russia will act to defend all of its territory and people, as well as residents of regions in eastern Ukraine that voted to join the Russian Federation this week, Moscow's ambassador to the United States has said, accusing both Washington and NATO of stoking further violence with military aid to Kiev.

Asked about recent comments from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken - who said the White House has no problem with Kiev using Western arms to attack territories that voted to join Russia - Ambassador Anatoly Antonov warned that the weapons shipments only risk "further escalation of the conflict."


Comment: See: Ukraine can use Western weapons against 'territories seized by Russia' - US


Comment: See also:

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Stop

America Is Successfully Pursuing ESG = Extreme Shortages Guaranteed

Ronald Stein, P.E.
The Heartland Institute
Thu, 22 Sep 2022 00:00 UTC
Extreme Shortages Guaranteed
Everything that needs electricity is made with the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil. In an all-electric world, there will be nothing to power without oil.

Energy growth, electricity AND the products made from oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil and the fuels to power ships, planes, militaries, and space programs, are directly linked to prosperity and well-being across the globe.

Today, most of the energy the world consumes is from hydrocarbons, with crude oil being the dominant source of transportation fuels. Today, crude oil is the ONLY source for the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil that makes more than 6,000 products for society.

President Biden's U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projections are that world energy consumption of crude oil, coal, natural gas, electricity from renewables, and nuclear will grow by 56 percent between 2010 and 2040. Without any replacements or clones to what fossil fuels can provide the EIA forecasts that fossil fuels will continue to supply nearly 80 percent of world energy use through 2040

President Biden and Sacramento leaders, from Governor's Brown, Schwarzenegger, and now Newsom, have supported reductions of in-state oil production. And all remain supportive of Biden's pledge that "we are going to get rid of fossil fuels".

Comment: See also: 'Green' energy is a Scam. It isn't MEANT to work.

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Light Sabers

Scott Ritter interview: A New War

Deborah L. Armstrong
medium.com
Wed, 28 Sep 2022 00:00 UTC
Map ukraine
© Facebook
Four territories where referendums to join Russia were held.
How Donbass Joining Russia Just Turned the Tables on Ukraine

For eight years, Ukrainian nationalists have been brutally hammering home a clear message to the people of Donbass: "Go home to Russia! We don't want you here!" Every bomb dropped on Donetsk and Lugansk screamed, "Go to Russia or die!" The rape of every woman, the bones and flesh of every person blown apart in the markets of Donetsk, every splintered hospital, smashed church, every pile of rubble hollered, "Go back to Russia, filthy Moskal!"

Now, after eight long years of persecution by Ukrainian neo-Nazis, the people of Donbass have at last agreed to return to Russia. And they are taking their land with them.

After all, many of these families have lived in the Donbass region longer than Ukraine has been a country. For generations they have plowed the fields and mined coal, long before Ukraine became an independent nation in 1991, when the USSR breathed its last, gasping breaths.

After five days of voting, the final numbers are in for the referendums, which were held within four expansive territories in what was once Eastern Ukraine. The question posed to voters was simple.

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