Israeli war chief offers ‘apology’ to Sde Teiman rapists, orders their reinstatement into army

The Cradle

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz recently met with the soldiers responsible for raping a Palestinian prisoner at the Sde Teiman torture facility, ordering their reinstatement to the army and apologizing to them for the “injustice” they faced. 

The meeting came days after the charges against them were officially dropped. 

According to Hebrew media reports, including Channel 14, the soldiers from Force 100 attended the meeting with Katz wearing masks, in order to conceal their identities.

During the meeting, Katz told the soldiers, “I apologize for the injustice the system has done to you,” referring to the investigations opened against them and the “psychological harm” he said was caused by the military legal process.

Military sources told the Jerusalem Post they were “surprised” by Katz’s order to reinstate the soldiers, as the war chief “has the power to approve or hold up certain senior appointments, but not the power to order the army to return soldiers to service who have been caught up in legal proceedings.”

The sources added that they were “skeptical that any reinstatement would actually occur.”

The meeting came after the Israeli army’s top lawyer ordered the cancellation of the indictment against the five soldiers. 

Among the reasons for the cancellation was “complexity regarding the existing evidence.”

It also cited the five soldiers’ claim of “abuse of process.” A video of the sexual assault had been leaked by Israel’s former military advocate general, resulting in two arrests and a major scandal late last year.

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Fifth 'male model' arrested over arson attacks against British PM's properties in north London

Comment: Starmer and his circle of sexual deviants have been careless it seems...D-Notice anyone? 

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Matt Strudwick | UK Daily Mail

A fourth man, 48, who was arrested at Stansted Airport in June last year on suspicion of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life has been released without charge.

Three men have already been charged in connection with the fires: Ukrainians Petro Pochynok, 35, and Roman Lavrynovych, 21, and 27-year-old Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc.

Pochynok has been charged with conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life, Lavrynovych with three counts of arson with intent to endanger life, while Carpiuc has been charged with conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life.

They all deny the charges and have been remanded in custody ahead of a trial at the Old Bailey on April 27.

The charges relate to three arson incidents: a vehicle fire in Kentish Town, a fire at the Prime Minister's private home in the same street, and another blaze at an address where he previously lived in the Islington area.

One of the fires took place in the early hours of May 12 at the property where Sir Keir lived before he became Prime Minister and moved into Downing Street.

A car was torched in the same street four days earlier on May 8.

The other fire took place on May 11 at the front door of a house converted into flats in Islington.

Sir Keir has let his £2million private home in the Kentish Town area of north London to his sister-in-law on a peppercorn rent since he moved into 10 Downing Street following his general election victory.

The property was set alight in the early hours of May 12, with the London Fire Brigade alerting police to reports of a fire there at 1.35am.

The blaze damaged the porch of the property but no one was hurt.

Firefighters were able to bring it under control within 20 minutes, stopping it from spreading further indoors.

It came just 24 hours after a flat the Prime Minister previously lived at, in the nearby Islington area, caught fire.

Firefighters attended the blaze, helping one person to safety, with the door of the property suffering fire damage.

On May 8, in the same street as Sir Keir's Kentish Town property, a car he sold to a neighbour last year also burst into flames.

The new owner of the Toyota Rav 4 is understood to have thought the fire started because of a faulty battery.

The hybrid car was completely destroyed in the blaze, which occurred on VE Day.

The Met's Counter Terrorism Command is leading the investigation as all three targets of the alleged arson attacks have 'previous connections with a high-profile public figure'.

Behind The DoJ's Politicized Indictment of Maduro: a CIA-created 'Network' And Coerced Star Witness

 Max Blumenthal | The Gray Zone

The US Department of Justice indictment of Venezuela’s kidnapped leader, Nicolas Maduro, is a political rant that relies heavily on coerced testimony from an unreliable witness. Despite DOJ edits, it could expose more Americans to the CIA’s own history of drug trafficking.

The January 3 US military raid on Venezuela to kidnap President Nicolas Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores was followed by the Department of Justice’s release of its superseding indictment of the two abductees as well as their son, Nicolasito Maduro, and two close political allies: former Minister of Justice Ramon Chacin and ex-Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace Diosdado Cabello. The DOJ has also thrown Tren De Aragua (TDA) cartel leader Hector “Niño” Guerrero into the mix of defendants, situating him at the heart of its narrative.

The indictment amounts to a 25 page rant accusing Maduro and Flores of a conspiracy to traffic “thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States,” relying heavily on testimony from coerced witnesses about alleged shipments that largely took place outside US jurisdiction. It accuses Maduro of “having partnered with narco-terrorists” like TDA, ignoring a recent US intelligence assessment that concluded he had no control over the Venezuelan gang. Finally, the prosecutors stacked the indictment by charging Maduro with “possession of machine guns,” a laughable offense which could easily be applied to hundreds of thousands of gun-loving Americans under an antiquated 1934 law.

DOJ prosecutors carefully avoid precise data on Venezuelan cocaine exports to the US. At one point, they describe “tons” of cocaine; at another, they refer to the shipment of “thousands of tons,” an astronomical figure that could hypothetically generate hundreds of billions in revenue. At no point did they mention fentanyl, the drug responsible for the overdose deaths of close to 50,000 Americans in 2024. In fact, the DEA National Drug Threat Assessment issued under Trump’s watch this year scarcely mentioned Venezuela.

By resorting to vague, deliberately expansive language larded with subjective terms like “corrupt” and “terrorism,” the DOJ has constructed a political narrative against Maduro in place of a concrete legal case. While repeatedly referring to Maduro as the “de facto… illegitimate ruler of the country,” the DOJ fails to demonstrate that he is de jure illegitimate under Venezuelan law, and will therefore be unable to bypass established international legal precedent granting immunity to heads of state.

Further, the indictment relies on transparently unreliable, coerced witnesses like Hugo “Pollo” Carvajal, a former Venezuelan general who has cut a secret plea deal to reduce his sentence for drug trafficking by supplying dirt on Maduro. Carvajal was said to be a key figure in the so-called “Cartel of the Suns” drug network which the DOJ claims was run by Maduro. If and when he appears to testify against the abducted Venezuelan leader, the American public could learn that the “cartel” was founded not by the deposed Venezuelan president or one of his allies, but by the CIA to traffic drugs into US cities.

As sloppy and politicized as the DOJ’s indictment might be, it has enabled Trump to frame his lawless “Monroe Doctrine” as an aggressive policy of legal enforcement, emboldening the US president to levy further threats to abduct or bump off heads of state who stand in the way of his resource rampage. This appears to be the real purpose of the imperial courtroom spectacle to come.

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New memos show how corruption probe into Clinton Foundation was killed: ‘We were told NO by FBI HQ’

Jerry Dunleavy and John Solomon | Just the News

Drip, drip, drip: A newly-declassified timeline exposes how the FBI's investigation of the Clinton Foundation was hamstrung by DOJ leaders while the inquiry into Trump-Russia collusion hoax marched forward. This isn't the first tranche of evidence pointing to political interference.

A top Republican senator has provided Just the News a timeline written by FBI investigators laying out the repeated political obstruction those agents faced from their own bosses and the Justice Department during the 2016 election and beyond as they probed whether Hillary Clinton engaged in a pay-to-play corruption scheme involving her family foundation.

“Field agents were frustrated. But HQ would not let it go forward,” the newly-released and lengthy investigative timeline reveals. “We were trying to explore the [Clinton] Foundation, and we were told ‘NO’ by FBI HQ.”

Not the first timeline showing interference

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley made the records produced to him by FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi available to Just the News this weekend. Grassley’s office said the senator’s request for these records was prompted by whistleblowers who first brought the issue to his attention.

This follows Patel unearthing a shorter timeline, written in 2017, which also chronicled the extensive stonewalling that bureau investigators in three cities faced from the Obama-era DOJ and FBI during the 2016 election.

FBI agents tried to get the help of federal prosecutors to determine whether or what crimes occurred while Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State, most notably, because at that time, her family foundation solicited hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign and U.S. interests with business before her department.

"Shut it down!" then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates is quoted as demanding in the shorter timeline of the politicized barriers that agents in New York City, Little Rock, Ark., and Washington D.C. reported. 

The shorter timeline — written by a DOJ lawyer assigned to the FBI under former bureau Director James Comey — was secured by top aides to Patel and was obtained by Just the News earlier this year. The newly-released and longer timeline was handed over to Grassley’s office by the FBI along with a host of corroborating internal emails and was recently provided to Just the News.

The final entry in the shorter timeline came in August 2017. The longer timeline continued to lay out the slow-walking and interference by the FBI up through early 2020.

You can read the new and lengthier timeline and newly-public internal records here:

Clinton Foundation - Investigative Timeline

Altogether, the evidence makes clear that the DOJ, former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, and other officials within the FBI placed hurdles in front of agents who believed they had evidence to justify a public integrity criminal case.

Grassley: DOJ can't pick "winners and losers"

“The mainstream media smeared any investigation into Hillary Clinton as unfounded nonsense, but in reality, line agents and federal prosecutors seeking to follow up on legitimate leads were sidelined by partisan leadership looking to save Clinton’s reputation. That’s a night-and-day departure from how the Biden Justice Department handled the Arctic Frost investigation against President Trump,” Grassley told Just the News. “For too long, our Justice Department has chosen winners and losers instead of enforcing the law without regard to power, party or privilege. That must never happen again. I thank Attorney General Bondi and Director Patel for turning over these records, so the American people finally know how their Justice Department failed in the Clinton investigations.”

The Clinton Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Agents struggled for years to investigate Clinton Foundation

The longer timeline indicated that questions about the Clinton Foundation’s potential criminality were raised as early as April 2010, when there was a “consensually-monitored call between [Redacted] Sant Singh Chatwal” during which there was a “description of conversations with foreign donors (Amar Singh, Lakshmi Mittal, Deepak Chopra, Praful Patel, Subhash Chandra) about giving to HRC.”

The lengthier timeline noted that there was an investigation by the FBI’s New York Field Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York “regarding campaign finance violations” which “included use of CHS [confidential human sources], consensual recordings, and Title Ill intercepts.” The timeline’s notes pointed out that Chatwal was a “Democratic fundraiser. Long-time friend of the Clintons. [Clinton] Foundation donor and Board Member.”

Chatwal, an Indian-American businessman and wealthy hotelier, was a close Clinton ally. The Justice Department announced in April 2014 that Chatwal had “pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the Federal Election Campaign Act by making more than $180,000 in federal campaign donations to three candidates through straw donors who were reimbursed, and to witness tampering.” He received only probation.

Chatwal did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent through his hotel.

The longer timeline states that, according to Martin Coffey, the now-former assistant U.S. attorney for EDNY, “case agents sought to expand investigation to include CF [Clinton Foundation], but FBI-HQ would not allow.”

The longer timeline also stated that, in July 2015, a redacted person or entity “files Suspicious Activity Report regarding Clinton Foundation and related entities, specifically foreign transactions from 6/10/11 to 5/10/15” in response to “negative news reports."

The lengthier timeline also stated that, in July or August 2015, then-Washington Field Office special supervisory agent Timothy Thibault “has brief discussion with USAO-DC Criminal Chief John Malis regarding allegations raised in Clinton Cash” and that Thibault was allegedly “attempting to predicate an investigation based on the allegations.” The timeline said “Malis reportedly expressed interest in the matter and requested they meet to review supporting information sometime in the future” but “no meeting took place.”

It was later revealed that Thibault, whom Republicans argue showed extreme anti-Trump bias, demonstrated a willingness to target Trump early in his first term, attempted to slow walk or block the FBI’s investigation into Hunter Biden, and in April 2022 helped spark the investigation dubbed "Arctic Frost" — later carried on by special counsel Jack Smith — which led to criminal charges against Trump related to the Capitol riot.

McCabe stops the Clinton Foundation investigation from moving forward in 2016

The shorter timeline revealed that as early as February 2016, the Justice Department “indicated they would not be supportive of an FBI investigation.” The shorter timeline also shows that, in mid-February 2016, McCabe ordered that “no overt investigative steps” were allowed to be taken in the Clinton Foundation investigation “without his approval” — a command he allegedly repeated numerous times over the coming months.

The roadblocks just kept coming, both timelines show, to the great frustration of the agents and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Little Rock, which had gathered enough information to move on a fully predicated criminal investigation.

The shorter timeline detailed how Yates ordered one of the federal prosecutors to “shut it down” likely in the March 2016 timeframe. Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) and Eastern District of New York (EDNY) purportedly said in August 2016 that they “would not support the investigation” into the Clinton Foundation, according to the timeline, and that “no explanation was given.”

Yates did not immediately respond to a request sent to her via her law firm email, and McCabe did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent to him through George Mason University.

Once the investigation had essentially been delayed for a year and dragged past the November 2016 election, the shorter timeline shows that DOJ officials under Trump then began to raise their “concerns regarding the statute of limitations” around the investigation, with one still unnamed official saying that they “wanted to close this chapter and move forward.”

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The West discovers Zelensky is not really a good guy

Tarik Cyril Amar | RT

 

In a fleeting glimpse of lucidity, the mainstream media has noticed a tiny fraction of the corruption and authoritarianism in Kiev.

It's that time of the great proxy war crusade against Russia again. Someone in the mainstream West has woken up to, if not the facts about the politics of Ukraine, then at least a quantum of disquiet.

The last major wave of the likes of the Financial Times, The Economist, and The Spectator suddenly noticing - all at the same time, as if on cue - that Ukraine has an authoritarianism and corruption problem (and then some) took place less than half a year ago.

Now it's Politico - usually a steadfast party organ of Russophobia, Zionism-come-what-genocide-may, and servility to NATO - that feels vaguely troubled by the realities of the Kiev regime or, as the publication puts it, the "dark side" of Vladimir "I don't like elections" Zelensky's rule.

Not all of those realities, of course. That would be asking too much. Instead, Politico is homing in on one great scandal (out of countless ones) concerning one man and the anguish of a few "civil-society"-NGO types, both with good connections to the West. This time, the scandal concerns the obvious, shameless political prosecution of Vladimir Kudritsky, formerly a high-ranking and effective energy infrastructure executive and de facto civil servant.

Yet what about noticing the murder in Ukrainian detention of critical blogger - and US citizen - Gonzalo Lira? Or the vicious persecution of leftist war critic Bogdan Syrotiuk? Or the mean, indecent harassing of Christian clergy and believers for not saying their prayers in quite the right Ukrainian-nationalist-approved manner? Perish the thought!

In a similar spirit of extreme selectiveness, some Western outlets are now registering - a little and very slowly - the brutal realities of Ukrainian forced mobilization that feed the Western proxy war: Recently, a war - pardon, "defense" - editor of the ultra-gung-ho British tabloid The Sun has returned shell-shocked from NATO's de facto eastern front, not because of the bloody and wasteful fighting but because the uncouth Ukrainians press-ganged his fixer.

In a similarly traumatic experience, Hollywood's Angelina Jolie had her local driver snatched away at a Ukrainian military roadblock. Yet violent forced mobilization has been an everyday occurrence in Ukraine for years already. So much so that Ukrainians have chosen the term "busification" (from minibus, a popular vehicle for mobilization manhunts) as word of the year for 2025.

For quite a few of its victims, it ends up even worse than for those privileged enough to work for Western movie stars and British propagandists. Roman Sopin, for instance, who did not even resist, has just been beaten to death in a mobilization precinct in central Kiev, as an official medical assessment of his cause of death implies as clearly as anyone may dare under Zelensky's regime.

But let's get back to the few things Western media deign to notice occasionally: Already dismissed last year, Kudritsky is now facing the courts under transparently trumped-up charges. The reason is obvious to everyone. He has been too popular and far too vocal about corruption at the highest levels and the authoritarian power grabs of Zelensky's presidential office in particular.

Kudritsky's case - comparatively harmless, really - does raise many disturbing questions: why is it that the Zelensky regime has such a nasty record of abusing arbitrary financial sanctions and politically perverted legal processes, or lawfare? And haven't we been told that this regime under its "Churchillian" leader is fighting for Western values of democracy and legality?
 

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The Mthethwa Case: Unravelling a Diplomatic Tragedy's Darker Questions

Anda Mbikwana | The Star (South Africa)

The death of South African Ambassador Nathi Mthethwa in a Paris hotel has thrust uncomfortable questions into public discourse: questions not just about how a senior diplomat died, but about what his death might reveal regarding the state of governance, investigative integrity, and institutional safety in South Africa.

While French authorities conduct their investigation, South Africans are left grappling with a narrative that feels disturbingly familiar — another prominent figure connected to sensitive inquiries, another unexpected death, another round of speculation about whether the official story holds water.

What we know is limited but significant. Ambassador Mthethwa was found after falling from his hotel room. A window was forced open. He had allegedly sent a "disturbing message" beforehand. He was connected to investigations touching on corruption involving high-level figures.

What we do not know is everything that matters: the content of that message, who might have had access to his room, what security protocols were in place, and crucially, what specific evidence or testimony he might have possessed.

The forced window presents the most glaring anomaly. Modern hotels — particularly those hosting diplomatic personnel — typically have windows designed against accidental opening.

For such a window to be "forced open" suggests either determined intent from within or external interference. Neither scenario comfortably supports a straightforward suicide narrative.

South Africa has witnessed a troubling pattern over the past decade: individuals connected to corruption investigations, whistle-blowers, and those positioned to provide damaging testimony have died under circumstances ranging from suspicious to inexplicable. 

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INVESTIGATION: Major NATO Corruption Case Derailed by US Political Intervention

21st Century Wire

The procurement agency of NATO has been facing scrutiny regarding its arms and munitions deals. In May 2025, revelations regarding an ongoing corruption investigation involving current and former staff at the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) surfaced, with five detentions reported, including two in Belgium and three in the Netherlands. At the heart of the purported corruption lies a plan to award NATO contracts for military supplies and services in return for bribes. 

This NATO corruption scandal captured global attention when multiple suspects were apprehended throughout Europe in May, including a US national. Months later, the U.S. dismissed charges against four of these individuals – one of whom is a prominent Turkish defense tycoon close to Erdogan.

In  May 2025, the Belgian public prosecutor announced that multiple arrests had been conducted, indicating they were related to “possible irregularities” in contracts for purchasing ammunition and drones through NATO. Shortly after, Dutch authorities revealed they had made three arrests, including a 58-year-old former Defense Ministry official whose prior role involved international procurement contracts. In Luxembourg, the public prosecutor’s office confirmed that documents had been confiscated in the Grand Duchy and noted that the investigation had also extended to Italy, Spain, and the US, with coordination from the EU justice agency Eurojust. 

On the morning of May 13, Scott Willason, an American who had resigned from his position as the head of the Ammunition and Support Branch at the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) to pursue a career in the private sector, was taken into custody in Lugano, Switzerland. Willason found himself entangled in a broad police operation that extended across multiple European nations, aimed at five current and former NATO officials, who are now consultants, attempting to sway bids for Alliance arms contracts in return for substantial commissions. Willason’s apprehension came after a collaborative investigation conducted by the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) alongside the Pentagon’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service. In the United States, these two agencies uncovered several questionable transactions associated with a significant contract for supplying TNT to the US Army.

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Tradition against corruption: Why Putin’s message matters for the entire world

RT 

In his recent Valdai speech, President Vladimir Putin declared that the age of a single model for all has ended, and that nations now moor themselves in their own traditions, drawing strength from culture, faith, and history. Across the globe, ancestral values are reawakening as globalism and cultural imperialism are receding. The world is witnessing a rising concert of sovereign civilizations.

Putin spoke with clarity about the condition of the world. He stated that there is no shared agreement on how the international order should be structured. Mankind has begun a long era of searching. The path forward will be marked by trial and error, by turbulence and storms. No blueprint exists. No authority dictates the outcome. We live in open history, raw and uncertain.

Yet amidst this chaos, Putin said, nations must hold on to anchors. They cannot drift with the currents of instability. The true anchor lies in culture, in the ethical and religious values that have ripened through centuries, in geography, and in the space each civilization inhabits. These form the compass of identity. They provide the foundations on which nations can build a steady life, even as winds howl and waves rise.

Traditions are at the heart of this compass. Each nation possesses its own. Each tradition is unique, shaped by its land and history. Respect for these traditions, Putin said, is the first law of order among peoples. Attempts to force a single model upon the world have always failed. The Soviet Union tried to impose its system. The United States then took up the baton. Europe joined shortly after. Each failed. What is artificial cannot last. What grows from outside roots will wither. Only what is born from within endures. Those who honor their own heritage rarely trample upon the heritage of others.

Putin's message is multipolar. Each people must return to its foundations and draw strength from within. Each nation must define its own path, rooted in its own culture. This is the end of uniformity, the end of a single model for all. Across the world, we see it now. The Global South turns to its own heritage. Even in the West, patriotic fragments of society search for their forgotten roots. When nations focus on their own growth, they find it easier to deal with others as equals.

Putin gave a clear indication of renewal within Russia. He told of young women who now step into bars and clubs in sarafans and kokoshnik headdresses, the dress of their ancestors. This is no costume trick. It demonstrates that Western attempts to corrupt Russian society have failed. What was meant to weaken the spirit has instead roused it. The old costume now enters the modern street as a symbol of defiance and pride. Tradition, far from being buried, returns with greater strength, and the youth themselves carry it forward.

The same current flows across the globe. 

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Jeffrey Epstein: The genie behind the 2008 crash?

Steve Brown
The Duran

So far, Jeffrey Epstein's case has largely been limited to allegations of sex trafficking, but when we consider persons of great financial power and influence possibly linked to Epstein, the scope is broadened. But what if that scope can be broadened to further encompass corruption of the global financial system itself...? 

Now there are two patterns to emerge so far with regard to Epstein's philanthropic activities, one relating to philanthropic donations to Israeli causes, and the other regarding scientific experiments for genetic research. Even so, why would such philanthropy be the basis for Epstein's obsessive secrecy? There must be a third track.

Epstein was recently revealed to be the director of Leon Black's Family Foundation until 2007, a very significant date. Black is the multi-billionaire chairman of Apollo Global Management, a private equity leveraged buyout financial firm. Black writes: "On a few occasions I donated money to certain charitable organizations with which Mr. Epstein was affiliated, and he made contributions to certain charitable organizations that are meaningful to me." 

The foregoing glosses over the fact that as director, Jeffrey Epstein donated millions on behalf of Leon Black to Charles Bronfman's Taglit-Birthright Israel charity which promotes Zionism and opposes Palestinian rights. Then, subsequent to Epstein's conviction in 2008, Black donated $10M USD to Epstein's charity 'Gratitude America' in 2015, via BV70 LLC, which is controlled by Leon Black. So why would Black donate such an amount to a convicted felon and registered sex offender? 

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Arkancide? Murder of Arkansas Senator Linda Collins-Smith linked to Epstein pedophilia and sex trafficking scandal

Intellihub 

By NewsTarget 

 

New information is surfacing to suggest that the unsolved murder of Arkansas Senator Linda Collins-Smith may be connected to the public unveiling of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his child sex trafficking ring. 

 

While the details are still forthcoming, CD Media is reporting that a “confidential source that has been accurate consistently” recently came forward with proof tying Collins-Smith’s mysterious death to her involvement with blowing the lid off an alleged child sex trafficking ring in Arkansas. 

 

Collins-Smith, a Republican, had also been working to expose “massive corruption in the local and state government” in Arkansas, which suggests that she may have been “Arkancided” for getting a little bit too close to the truth. 

 

According to CD Media‘s “confidential source,” the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is currently investigating this alleged link, which potentially also implicates Bill and Hillary Clinton, after which the term “Arkancide” was first coined. 

 

Is it possible that Collins-Smith is simply the latest casualty of the “Clinton Body Count” phenomenon, in which individuals who are on the verge of blowing the lid on some Clinton crime suddenly end up “suicided?” It certainly is, and this would seem to be where the FBI probe could be headed. 

 

As it turns out, Collins-Smith had been in the process of investigating corruption within her state’s Department of Human Services, or Child Protective Services, just prior to her death, which only adds to its suspicious circumstances.

 

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‘Sad sight’, ‘disgrace’ to see French minister caught throwing lavish parties on taxpayer money

Comment: Hardly shocking. This happens across the length and breadth of the European Union elite. It's merely business as usual. No wonder Britain wants to separate. Lying about it is also par for the (main) course.

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RT

A senior official in France finds himself embroiled in controversy after claims he used public funds to throw lavish parties with vintage wine and exquisite meals. His attitude leaves a stain on French politics, analysts told RT. 

Ecology Minister Francois de Rugy often campaigns for government transparency and has criticized other politicians involved in financial scandals. He got a taste of his own medicine earlier this week when investigative website Mediapart alleged that he hosted more than 10 luxurious dinner parties in which the guests enjoyed lobster, as well as fine wine and champagne – all paid for with taxpayer money. This reportedly took place when de Rugy was the head of the lower house of the French parliament, the National Assembly.

The scandal prompted calls for de Rugy to resign, which he refused to do. He dismissed the story as a “grotesque” smear, claiming he does not eat lobster due to a “shellfish allergy” and avoids champagne because it gives him “a headache.”

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Flashback: Billionaire Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein Sent Bill Clinton $3.5 Million From Secret Swiss Bank Account

Radar Online Archive

 

Billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein sent $3.5 million to Bill and Hillary Clinton‘s foundation after an underage sex slave probe began, according to secret Swiss bank records leaked by a whistleblower.

As RadarOnline.com has previously reported, Hillary Clinton is reconsidering her 2016 presidential bid because of fears of the embarrassing revelations that could emerge in the coming months about Bill Clinton’s dealings with Epstein.

Sworn statements from Virginia Roberts — the woman who claims she was a teen sex slave forced to have sex with Prince Andrew — also includes the allegation that she saw the former president on Epstein’s “orgy island.”

“I remember asking Jeffrey, ‘What’s Bill Clinton doing here?’ kind-of-thing and he laughed it off and said, ‘Well, he owes me a favor’ … he never told me what favors they were,'” Roberts told lawyers.

The details of the shocking money transfer are contained in internal bank data that a computer expert took with him when he left HBSC bank in 2007 — and recently provided to several news agencies, including London’s Guardian newspaper. 

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See also: Epstein's frmr Wall Street mentor suspects billionaire's fortune amassed through fraud with 'tainted money' borrowed from Deutsche bank

Israel: Netanyahu’s wife convicted of fraud

Middle East Monitor 

 

An Israeli court on Sunday convicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, of fraudulently using public funds to pay for expensive restaurant meals, according to local media, Anadolu Agency reports.

 

Sarah Netanyahu was ordered to pay 55,000 shekels ($15,277), Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

The conviction came on the basis of a deal between the Israeli public prosecutor and Sara Netanyahu’s lawyer under which she pleaded guilty to the charges in return for payment of the amount mentioned.

On Sunday, Netanyahu arrived at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court and admitted to buying meals from luxury restaurants, despite the constant presence of a chef at the prime minister’s government residence.

Sara Netanyahu will pay a fine of 10,000 shekels (some $2,777), and reimbursement of 45,000 shekels (some $12,500) to the state coffers in exchange for a lesser charge of “deliberately exploiting the mistake of others"

Vatican Whistleblower Says ‘Gay Mafia’ Is Blocking Needed Reforms

Briebart News

The former Vatican ambassador to the United States told the Washington Post a gay mafia among Church leadership is blocking attempts to seriously address clerical sexual abuse.
In an extensive interview, snippets of which were published Monday, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò said that the sexual abuse crisis would be "far less severe" if the "problem of homosexuality in the priesthood were honestly acknowledged and properly addressed."

"Given the overwhelming evidence, it is mind-boggling that the word 'homosexuality' has not appeared once, in any of the recent official documents of the Holy See" dealing with clerical sexual abuse, Viganò told the Post.

Instead, a "gay mafia" among the bishops, seeking to protect themselves, was "sabotaging all efforts at reform," he said.

Late last August, Archbishop Viganò released a shocking 11-page report declaring that in 2013 he had personally informed Pope Francis of the serial homosexual abuse of then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, but that the pope had ignored the information, elevating McCarrick to a position of influence in the Vatican.

In that report, Viganò linked the clerical sex abuse crisis as well as coverups by bishops to an extensive "homosexual network" in the Church. 

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When the Journalists Ganged Up on Assange They Ganged Up on Themselves

Paul Craig Roberts

Journalists did not appreciate the implications for themselves of the contrived and false indictment of Julian Assange by a corrupt US government.  It was obvious to a few of us that the indictment by the US government, a government constrained by the First Amendment, of a foreign national for publishing leaked material, an action never before regarded as espionage or a crime, was the beginning of the end of any Western government ever again being held accountable by a free press.

Not that the Western World has a free press.  It has a collection of presstitutes that serve as a Ministry of Propaganda for the ruling oligarchies.

Still, in principle it was possible that governments could be held accountable.  But that possibility ended with Assange’s false indictment.

First of all, no honest government would have spent years trying to invent a way to indict a journalist for practicing journalism.

Second, no intelligent grand jurors with an ounce of integrity would have been putty in the hands of a corrupt US prosecutor and enable a prosecution that ensures the destruction of accountable government.

Third, it was obvious that once America led the way in shutting down the principle of a free press, governments of other “Western democracies” would follow as soon as they could.

And follow they did.  Assange’s indictment led to raids by the “Australian Gestapo” on the home of News Corp Australia journalist Annika Smethurst and on the headquarters of the Australian Broadcasting Corp. See this.

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Direct Democracy Is the Future of Human Governance – Part 1

Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. That is the point at which the negation of Catholicism and the negation of Liberalism meet and keep high festival, and the end learns to justify the means.

– Lord Acton

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.

– Buckminster Fuller

If you’ve read anything I’ve written over the past several years, you’ll be acutely aware of my belief that human civilization is currently in a major transition period between two great paradigms of world history. The old world we all grew up in no longer works for most people, yet is being relentlessly propped up by the powerful and their minions who benefit from its parasitic and destructive nature. Despite their best efforts, a system so poisonous, decrepit and corrupt cannot and will not last. At this stage, it’s little more than a Potemkin village fraud barely kept standing courtesy of increasingly intense deception, manipulation and the sheer will of those who profit handsomely from it.

By stating we’re in the transition period, I want to make it clear I believe things are very much already being disrupted and altered beneath the hood of a world which appears indistinguishable from what it was a decade ago on a superficial level. Specifically, I think there are two core aspects of human existence that will be completely transformed in the years to come. First, within the monetary and financial systems that define how commerce, savings and entrepreneurship function. The emergence and continued momentum of Bitcoin offers evidence that disruption in this realm is already very much underway, albeit still in its infancy. The second realm I expect will experience massive transformational change relates to forms of human governance. We’ve barely scratched the surface on this one, but nascent signs have started to appear, and I suspect a push towards political systems more defined by direct democracy will become increasingly common in the years ahead. I’ve spent many hours writing about the financial and monetary system, so today’s piece will focus on what appears to be coming with regard to human political evolution.

Direct democracy is something that’s been tried before, so there’s some history to it. Once you start exploring the concept you’ll be immediately confronted with a plethora of terms such as eDemocracy, liquid democracy, referendum, initiative, and recall to name just a few. The purpose of this post isn’t to dig into all of that, although it’s certainly a useful exercise and I’ll provide some helpful links at the end. The purpose of this post is to distinguish direct democracy from the most common form of democratic government functioning on earth today, representative democracy.

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Netanyahu corruption case files leaked

Middle Eastern Monitor

Evidence pertaining to one of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption cases has been leaked to the media, appearing to show his quid pro quo deal with a newspaper tycoon in return for favourable media coverage.

Published by Israel’s Channel 12 last night, the leak included a transcript of a conversation between Netanyahu and the publisher of popular Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, which lies at the centre of what has become known as Case 2000. In the case, Netanyahu allegedly offered to pass legislation that would impede the activities of Mozes’ rival newspaper, Israel Hayom, in return for more favourable media coverage of the prime minister and his policies.

Israel Police also suspect that, in return for curbing Israel Hayom, Mozes offered to hire journalists recommended by Netanyahu to undermine his rival politicians.

In the leaked conversation, “Mozes can reportedly be heard admitting [to] slanting coverage against Netanyahu’s election rivals and ‘hiding’ negative articles about the premier’s wife [Sara], while urging the prime minister to file a libel lawsuit and figuratively ‘kill’ a Yedioth writer who is a fierce Netanyahu critic,” the Times of Israel (ToI) reported, citing the Channel 12 broadcast.

The TV channel said that in a recording from December 2014 — ahead of Israel’s 2015 election — “Netanyahu can be heard complaining to Mozes that [election rivals Yair] Lapid and [Naftali] Bennett were being handled with kids’ gloves in Yedioth and [its associated online publication] Ynet”.

ToI adds that the pair “also discussed Netanyahu’s desire to ensure that Bennett win ‘under 15’ seats in the election,” adding that his Jewish Home party “eventually won eight [seats], but was projected at the time for as much as 17,” suggesting the policy was successful.

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Lawsuit by 44 States Accuses Pharma Giants of 'Multi-Year Conspiracy' to Hike Drug Prices by Over 1,000%

"Teva and its co-conspirators embarked on one of the most egregious and damaging price-fixing conspiracies in the history of the United States." —Lawsuit

Jake Johnson
Common Dreams

A far-reaching lawsuit filed Friday by the attorneys general of more than 40 states accused some of the nation's largest generic drug manufacturers of conspiring to inflate prices, in some cases by over 1,000 percent.

"We have hard evidence that shows the generic drug industry perpetrated a multi-billion dollar fraud on the American people," Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, whose state led the probe into the companies' practices, said in a statement.

"We have emails, text messages, telephone records, and former company insiders that we believe will prove a multi-year conspiracy to fix prices and divide market share for huge numbers of generic drugs," said Tong.

The suit names 20 major drug manufacturers—including Pfizer, Teva, Novartis, and Mylan—as well as more than a dozen senior executives, who the complaint accuses of deleting evidence after the states began their investigation in 2014.

"The industrywide scheme affected the prices of more than 100 generic drugs," the New York Times reported Saturday, "including lamivudine-zidovudine, which treats H.I.V.; budesonide, an asthma medication; fenofibrate, which treats high cholesterol; amphetamine-dextroamphetamine for ADHD.; oral antibiotics; blood thinners; cancer drugs; contraceptives; and antidepressants."

Americans pay far more for prescription drugs than the people of any other industrialized nation. 

Alluding to this fact, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser—who joined the multi-state lawsuit—tweeted on Saturday: "If you are angry about rising drug prices, you should be. Particularly because a major cause of price increases is illegal collusion by generic drug companies."

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Money laundering - Why the UK does not prosecute it

"Despite the UK’s rhetoric about wanting a “world-leading reputation for integrity” as a financial centre, it has never prosecuted a single company or bank for money laundering."

True Publica

A study by the CCP Research Foundation – which analyses banks’ so-called ‘conduct costs’ – revealed that the biggest 20 banks worldwide, including the biggest four in Britain, had paid or set aside £264 billion for fines in the five years to 2017. Britain’s biggest banks have paid out £71 billion for misconduct in the decade since the financial crisis. Much of these fines have related to money laundering but they were not prosecuted in the UK.

Lloyds is the bank that has suffered the heaviest penalties with at least £23.4 billion in conduct-related costs and write-offs since 2008.  RBS is second on the list. Its conduct and litigation costs since 2008, including amounts it has earmarked but not yet used, add up to £20.6 billion. The bailed-out bank also agreed to pay £3.6 billion to settle an investigation by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) for misselling mortgage-backed securities – the bonds at the heart of the 2008 crisis in America.

RBS and Lloyds were bailed out when the financial crisis broke out to the tune of £45.5 billion and £20.3 billion respectively.

Barclays avoided a UK state bailout – but only by taking £12 billion what looks like illegal emergency funding from the state of Qatar. The Serious Fraud Office is involved.

HSBC has forked out nearly £10 billion in fines and other costs for its conduct since 2008.
In the last few weeks – Standard Chartered, the British bank has been ordered to pay $1.1bn (£842m) by US and UK authorities to settle allegations for breaching sanctions against countries including Iran.

But it doesn’t end there does it – it just keeps on going.

In 2019 alone, leaving aside Standard Chartered, the Financial Conduct Authority has dished out fines to the financial services sector at the rate of more than one a month. In total, to the 9th April, they have fined the industry or people in it collectively to the tune of £272,487,887.

What is interesting here is the missing link. British banks are world leaders in shovelling trillions into tax havens, most of it to evade taxation but a very good chunk of it is pure money laundering. 

Tyrants, despots, mass murderers, terrorists, traffickers – they are just as good a customer as any as far as the banks are concerned. Here, the British government and its toothless Financial Conduct Authority fail in every sense of the word. Money laundering through British tax haven islands and crown dependencies is something the state approves of – hence the lack of fines or punishment dished out for it.

Donald Toon, director at the National Crime Agency, admitted that money laundering in the UK was “a very big problem” and estimated that the amount of money laundered here each year has now risen to a staggering £150 billion. I would think that is on the light side.

Susan Hawley is Policy Director of Corruption Watch. She worked for six years at the Corner House on corruption issues, having previously worked in the policy team at Christian Aid on ethics and corruption issues. Here is her take, (originally published a year ago), on money laundering by British banks.

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New batch of Strzok-Page texts discussed recruiting White House sources to spy for FBI

Sara Carter
saraacarter.com

Senior Republican chairmen submitted a letter Thursday to Department of Justice Attorney General William Barr revealing new texts from former FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok to his paramour FBI Attorney Lisa Page showing the pair had discussed attempts to recruit sources within the White House to allegedly spy on the Trump administration.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Charles Grassley and Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson revealed the information in a three page letter. The texts had been obtained by SaraACarter.com Tuesday and information regarding the possible attempt to recruit White House sources had been divulged by several sources to this news site last week.

The texts and sources reveal that Strzok had one significant contact within the White House - Vice President Mike Pence's Chief of Staff Joshua Pitcock, whose wife was working as an analyst for Strzok on the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private server. A senior White House official told this news site that Pitcock's wife recused herself from the Clinton investigation as soon as Pence and Trump became the Republican nominees in July 2016. A senior law enforcement official also told SaraACarter.com that Pitcock's wife no longer worked under Strzok after she recused herself from the Clinton investigation. However, the text messages uncovered from November, 2016 and have left questions lingering about the relationship between Strzok, Pitcock and his wife among congressional investigators and lawmakers.

"The course of our oversight work we have reviewed certain text messages that may show potential attempts by the FBI to conduct surveillance of President-elect Trump's transition team," the letter states. 

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