03/28/17

Russia is a Threat, China Aggression is Under-Reported

President Jimmy Carter gave away the Panama Canal which was officially transferred in 2000. Few know about the other canal project in Nicaragua, which is designed to be bigger and better. It was launched by a Chinese billionaire however, it appears the Chinese government is actually behind it.

Image result for china nicaragua canal

The whole matter is shrouded in secrecy while the Panama Canal is going through a huge expansion.

Image result for china militarize islands PBS

China has been creating islands in the South China Sea while other islands are a source of major dispute. China has been seen as militarizing the manufactured islands giving rise to concerns of major cargo and global shipping lanes. Could China be making a worldwide play to control commerce and sea transportation?

Chinese state firms have expressed an interest to develop land around the Panama Canal, the chief executive of the vital trade thoroughfare said, underlining China’s outward push into infrastructure via railways and ports around the world. China’s state firms have in recent years already chalked up investments in key logistics nodes, including Piraeus in Greece and Bandar Malaysia, a major development project that is set to be the terminal for a proposed high-speed rail link between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. More here from Reuters.

So is there more to this under reported threat by China? Yes. For instance:

HONG KONG — When the United States Air Force wanted help making military robots more perceptive, it turned to a Boston-based artificial intelligence start-up called Neurala. But when Neurala needed money, it got little response from the American military.

So Neurala turned to China, landing an undisclosed sum from an investment firm backed by a state-run Chinese company.

Chinese firms have become significant investors in American start-ups working on cutting-edge technologies with potential military applications. The start-ups include companies that make rocket engines for spacecraft, sensors for autonomous navy ships, and printers that make flexible screens that could be used in fighter-plane cockpits. Many of the Chinese firms are owned by state-owned companies or have connections to Chinese leaders.

The deals are ringing alarm bells in Washington. According to a new white paper commissioned by the Department of Defense, Beijing is encouraging Chinese companies with close government ties to invest in American start-ups specializing in critical technologies like artificial intelligence and robots to advance China’s military capacity as well as its economy. More here from the New York Times.

Humm, need more? Both China and North Korea are known for hacking. China may have some obscure agreement with North Korea to hack selected global sites. As we know, North Korea is a threat as they are continuing to advance their missile program and super thrust rocket engines which are tied to their nuclear weapons program. China provides that communications, telecom and internet platform and servers for North Korea.

Image result for china hacking BBC

North Korea relies on China for Internet connectivity, partially due to longstanding ties between the two nations and partly because it has few options. North Korea borders just three countries: South Korea, with which it is still technically at war, Russia and China. The Chinese Internet is well developed and the Russian border is far from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, making China a good choice. Going back to 2014, the U.S. State Department was well aware of all these conditions between China and North Korea, still no solution by the Obama administration.

***

Hackers associated with the Chinese government have repeatedly infiltrated the computer systems of U.S. airlines, technology companies and other contractors involved in the movement of U.S. troops and military equipment, a U.S. Senate panel has found.

Cybersecurity expert Dmitri Alperovitch, chief technology officer with the security firm Crowdstrike, said China had for years shown a keen interest in th the logistical patterns of the U.S. military.

The investigation focused on the U.S. military’s ability to seamlessly tap civilian air, shipping and other transportation assets for tasks including troop deployments and the timely arrival of supplies from food to ammunition to fuel. U.S. authorities charged five Chinese military officers, accusing them of hacking into American nuclear, metal and solar companies to steal trade secrets.

Last month, Community Health Systems (CYH.N), one of the largest U.S. hospital groups, said Chinese hackers had stolen Social Security numbers and other personal data from some 4.5 million patients.

*** North Korea has an elite and secret hacking unit as well known as Bureau 121. The Department of Defense submitted a report to Congress on Bureau 121 using asymmetric warfare. North Korea also has an additional cyber unit known as Office 91.

Office 91 is thought to be the headquarters of North Korea’s hacking operation although the bulk of the hackers and hacking and infiltration into networks is done from Unit 121, which operates out of North Korea and has satellite offices overseas, particularly in Chinese cities that are near the North Korean border. One such outpost is reportedly the Chilbosan Hotel in Shenyang, a major city about 150 miles from the border. A third operation, called Lab 110, participates in much the same work.

There are also several cyberunits under North Korea’s other arm of government, the Workers’ Party of Korea.

Unit 35 is responsible for training cyberagents and is understood to handle domestic cyberinvestigations and operations. Unit 204 takes part in online espionage and psychological warfare and Office 225 trains agents for missions in South Korea that can sometimes have a cyber component. More here from PCWorld.

*** China is well aware of North Korea activities, while China has and is becoming more aggressive globally. There is clearly collusion, yet what is the West and in particular the United States prepared to do in response remains unclear. However, China did approve 38 Trump trademarks. President Trump meets with Xi Jinping, maybe we will know more in April.

03/3/17

The Secret Wealth Of The World’s Richest Oil Billionaires

A policy of nationalizing chunks of an economy inevitably creates oligarchs who skim profits off the country’s natural resources.

As such, you won’t be surprised to learn that the largest energy companies in the world are owned and operated by governments, and they include: Saudi Aramco, Russian Gazprom, China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), National Iranian Oil Co., Petroleos de Venezuela, Brazil’s Petrobras and Malaysia’s Petronas. How they’re run varies wildly—as does where their wealth goes.

While we’ve all been inundated with the massive amount of press on the scandals engulfing Brazil’s Petrobras, there are a few that stand out for creating and maintaining some of the world’s most interesting and colorful political leaders, who have grown their wealth through holdings in state-run oil and gas in some cases, and through more direct means in other cases.

Four state-run oil wealth stories stand out in today’s world: Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Angola and Brunei.

Vladimir Putin, Russia

Estimates of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s wealth only comes in ranges because most of his wealth is hidden through offshore companies or under clandestine financial devices.

The lower end of the range sits at US$40 billion – a 2007 figure based on research by mid-level Kremlin advisor Stanislav Belkovsky, which he later said had grown to US$70 billion. At this level, Putin already stands among Forbes’ Top 10 rankings of the world’s richest billionaires, though the magazine commented in 2015 that it could not verify enough of his assets to put him on the list.

Earlier this week, the International Business Times said Putin’s fortune could be as much as $200 billion.

The majority of Putin’s wealth comes from his stakes in the oil sector. He is said to own 37 percent of Surgutneftegaz, 4.5 percent of Gazprom.

“At least $40 billion,” Belkovsy told the Guardian in 2007. “Maximum we cannot know. I suspect there are some businesses I know nothing about.”

Putin’s trophies of wealth are far from subtle. His $1 billion palace on the Black Sea features “a magnificent columned façade reminiscent of the country palaces Russian tsars built in the 18th century,” according to the BBC, which also procured evidence that a secret slush fund had been created by a group of oligarchs to build the estate for Putin, personally.

It’s definitely not a lifestyle one can afford on a declared annual salary of around US$140,000.

In a 2012 dossier, Former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov (later murdered) claimed that the Russian president owns a total of 20 palaces, four yachts and 58 aircraft.

“In a country where 20 million people can barely make ends meet, the luxurious life of the president is a brazen and cynical challenge to society from a high-handed potentate,” he said, according to the Telegraph.

But according to Putin himself, his wealth is not measured in money. In Steven Lee Myers’ book The New Tsar, Putin is quoted as saying: “I am the wealthiest man not just in Europe but in the whole world: I collect emotions.”

“I am wealthy in that the people of Russia have twice entrusted me with the leadership of a great nation such as Russia. I believe that is my greatest wealth.”

Azerbaijan

In 2003, Ilham Aliyev became the newly elected president of Azerbaijan. Thirteen years later, his name appeared in the Panama Papers – a massive leak of financial documents from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, which revealed the shady financial dealings of some of the world’s most powerful political figures.

Months before the October 2003 presidential elections in Azerbaijan, Fazil Mammadov, Azerbaijan’s tax minister, began paperwork to form AtaHolding – a company that has become one of the nation’s largest conglomerates. It holds interests in telecommunications, construction, mining, and oil and gas for a total value of $490 million, according to the last filings in 2014.

A second entity – this time a foundation – called UF Universe holds more assets, but Panamanian laws regarding the confidentiality of foundations are strict, which makes uncovering dollar amounts difficult.

Aliyev’s two daughters and wife also have links to offshore companies managed by Mossack Fonsenca. Incidentally, Aliyev just named his wife Vice-President of Azerbaijan.

How much is the First Oil Family worth these days? No one really knows, but enough to make it onto this list.

Kazakhstan

Kazakh President-for-life Nursultan Nazarbayev was also named in the Panama Papers as a tax haven owner. He had two companies registered in the British Virgin Islands, which he used to operate a bank account with an unknown amount of funds, and a luxury yacht.

The revelations were particularly loaded with hypocrisy because of Nazarbayev’s push to encourage his country’s wealthy to repatriate funds from abroad in order to make them taxable.

“We’ve raised many rich people: billionaires, millionaires,” he said, when oil prices tanked in 2014 and the government began using sovereign wealth funds to fund operations. “They are showing off; (their) pictures in Forbes… They look good, with makeup, well-groomed, well-dressed. But it is Kazakhstan that enabled you to earn all this money… Bring the money here. We’ll forgive you.”

Angola

Things here may be about to change, because President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has said he plans to step down after decades in power, and won’t be running in August’s presidential elections, but still plans to control the ruling party. Here, wealth is all about Sonangol, which has been marred in controversy since the president last year named his daughter as the head of the state-run oil company.

Angola has massive oil wealth, yet the bulk of the country’s 22 million people live in poverty, and critics say he’s mismanaged the country’s oil wealth and created an elite that largely consists of his massively rich family. But this scheme is being hit hard by the fall in oil prices that began in mid-2014, and the people are no longer complacent in their poverty.

The president’s daughter, worth an estimated US$3.4 billion before she took over the state-run oil company, has been described by Forbes as Africa’s richest woman.

Brunei

And here’s one that’s probably not even on your radar, but it will be—sooner rather than later.

Vast reserves of oil and natural gas have made Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei one of the richest leaders in the world. The Sultan is believed to be worth US$40 billion at the low end, and while ‘his’ holdings officially belong to Brunei, in reality they belong to the royal family.

Brunei is the third-largest oil producer in Southeast Asia, and pumps out, on average, 180,000 barrels per day. The royal family has controlled everything to do with oil and gas since the 1970s, and the line here between royal family assets and national assets is exceedingly blurry.

Vulnerable or Not?

The thing about these political oil leaders is that they’re not really vulnerable—yet. It would take an event such as that which brought down Gaddafi (said to secretly be worth US$200 billion) in Libya to change this.

In Brunei, things may be about to change, and the Sultan may find his wealth considerably downsized. Oil production is down 40 percent since 2006, and what’s left has lost a great deal of value due to low oil prices. Nearly 96 percent of Brunei’s exports are oil, gas and related products—that tops even Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE. Brunei could run out of oil in just over 20 years, but then again, the Sultan is said to have massive real estate holdings to tide him over.

Angola’s president is stepping down and the oil price crisis has hit him hard, but he’ll still control the ruling party and a new president will defer to him (and his daughter).

In Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev is president for life. In Azerbaijan, the family elite is as strong as ever and will continue to be so through any means necessary. In Russia, sanctions simply haven’t worked because they are designed to target those around Putin, and Putin appears to have designed it so they are always vulnerable to him first and foremost.

As Russian businessman and former Putin friend Sergei Pugachev notes to the Guardian, and as reported by U.S. News and World Report: “Everything that belongs to the territory of the Russian Federation Putin considers to be his. Everything – Gazprom, Rosneft, private companies. Any attempt to calculate it won’t succeed. … He’s the richest person in the world until he leaves power.”

Link to original article: http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-Secret-Wealth-Of-The-Worlds-Richest-Oil-Billionaires.html

By Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com

01/24/17

For Those Scoffing at Russian Penetration into American Democracy

By: Denise Simon | FoundersCode.com

This site has posted often on General Gerasimov and his doctrine. The games and propaganda that the Kremlin applies is still not taken seriously by the American people as they continue to scoff at Russian intrusions into our culture.

Russia is playing a double game and it is time to set aside manufactured notions and seek the expertise of countless Russian scholars as well as what the Pentagon and intelligence communities are publishing.

Using the sources that Russian officials use themselves is a valuable tool as noted here:

“Military-industrial courier”

International Maritime Defence Show

«Military-industrial courier» is a weekly illustrated All-Russian newspaper. The main topics of the newspaper are politics and economics, role of legislative and executive power in the process of military reform providing. «Military-industrial courier» is position on the newspaper market as a respectable edition which highlights defence industries and institutions, adds to military products promotion to the domestic and foreign markets.The newspaper boasts of domestic military chiefs and defence leaders interviews in which most important issues of that sector of the economy are raised.

For a short period of time «Military- industrial courier» has achieved recognition with the Russian high-ranking military officials.

The newspaper is distributed on a subscription and by retail within the Russian Federation and abroad. The circulation is more than 50000 copies.

Here goes yet another attempt.

****

Narrative, Cyberspace and the 21st Century Art of War

In February 2013, an article insipidly entitled “The Value of Science in Prediction” appeared in the Russian publication Military-Industrial Courier. The article was penned by Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff of the Russian Federation. Few in the West recognized the article at all, much less its significance, at the time of its publication.

In the article, Gerasimov analyzed “new-type conflicts.” These conflicts entail an array of strategies and tactics employed in the gray zone to achieve national interests, even military, without a declaration of war and without crossing the threshold that would provoke a kinetic response.

“The very ‘rules of war’ have changed,” Gerasimov wrote.

Dr. Mark Galeotti, an expert on Russian history and security issues who annotated an English translation of Gerasimov’s article, identified the most important line as, “The role of nonmilitary means of achieving political and strategic goals has grown and, in many cases, they have exceeded the power of force of weapons in their effectiveness.”

Gerasimov’s “nonmilitary means” included “broad use of political, economic, informational, humanitarian and other nonmilitary measures – applied with the protest potential of the population.”

Experts see one hybrid tactic – narrative and cyber – playing an increasingly prominent role in current conflicts.

War Narratives

An old Wall Street adage goes, “You’d have to be a paranoid Russian poet to understand global finance.” Today, that maxim might be paraphrased for an equally unexpected insight: “It helps to be a literary critic in understanding contemporary warfare.”

In The Art of War, Sun Tzu described the “five constant factors” of conventional warfare, but none included narrative. Experts now point to the influential role of narrative in military, geopolitical and ideological “new-type conflicts.”

Nations like Russia and China, as well as terrorist organizations like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), are using narrative to motivate audiences, advance agendas and engage adversaries.

Scholars have long argued that literary techniques are not the special purview of novelists, poets and playwrights. From philosophers’ research on metaphor to cognitive scientists’ investigations into parable, literary devices reveal and appeal to basic human cognition. Perhaps that’s why narrative’s use by governments, institutions, businesses and ideologues is not new.

When employed in military or geopolitical conflicts, Brad Allenby and Joel Garreau, co-directors of The Weaponized Narrative Initiative of the Center on the Future of War, call it “weaponized narrative.” And they believe its recent effectiveness will encourage further use.

In an email interview, Allenby said, “Weaponized narrative is not a temporary or passing phenomenon. It is based on significant recent advances in science, technology and social use of technology.”

Combined with tactics afforded by cyberspace, narrative’s influence broadens. But Dr. Ajit Maan, affiliate scholar at the Center for Narrative and Conflict Resolution and CEO of Narrative Strategies, notes that narrative’s power precedes technology.

In an email interview with Fifth Domain, Maan said:

Advanced technologies work to disseminate messages farther and wider than they would be otherwise, but narratives are already there, on the ground, in people’s heads. The enemies of the U.S. and her allies understand this very well. Advanced technology is a tool. The center of gravity is the narrative.

The “Era of Cybered Conflict”

Current conflicts play out, at least partly, in cyberspace.

Dr. Chris C. Demchak, RDML Grace Murray Hopper professor of cybersecurity and director of the Center for Cyber Conflict Studies at the U.S. Naval War College, characterizes today’s environment as one of “cybered conflict.”

In an interview – in which she offered her views and not the views of the U.S. government, U.S. Navy or U.S. Naval War College – Demchak said:

Due to the massively insecure technology of the global cyberspace, we in the West have created a widely spread, poorly secured cyberspace “substrate” that allows attackers in any numbers, from anywhere, with any tools and for any reason to cheaply reach into our critical systems with minimal chances of being punished. The result is that the world has been thrust into an era of “cybered conflict.”

Like Gerasimov’s blurred line between war and peace, Demchak described cybered conflicts as “stretch[ing] from peace through traditional war.” Importantly, Demchak highlighted the strategic advantages of cybered conflict relative to conventional war:

Most cybered conflict – which can have existential consequences – does not involve killing anyone or destroying something explosively. Rather, it is marked by exceptional advantage to deception in what tools are used and opaqueness in who, in what numbers, are using them. Going to the end of the spectrum – to “cyberwar” – is relatively inefficient and opens oneself up to direct retaliation throughout one’s own societal systems. Instead, one can slowly demolish an opponent without ever killing someone or destroying something with a kinetic tool traceable back to oneself … [which] is much safer, reliable and easier to outsource.

Russia, China and ISIS are all leveraging the advantages afforded by cybered conflict to employ hybrid warfare tactics – from hacking to weaponized narrative.

Russia and the Grand Nationalist Narrative

Russia’s use of hybrid warfare long predates Gerasimov’s article. Noting the Soviet Union’s traditional outward posture since the Cold War’s advent, Demchak said, “Russia innovated the strategy of disinformation and personalized brutality to ‘eat a democracy from the inside out’ … producing the involuntary servitude of the former Warsaw Pact.”

Allenby noted favorable conditions for disinformation persist today: “The Russian system tends to reward the cynical, morally relativistic psychology that best aligns with developing and deploying weaponized narratives.”

As foreshadowed by Gerasimov, Russia has displayed its hybrid capabilities during the Ukraine conflict. Allenby points to Russia resurrecting the historical “Novorossiya” and adopting the newer “Russian Eurasian Empire” narratives.

Such narratives matter, Allenby explained, “Because suborning an adversary through weaponized narrative is far, far less costly than a conventional attack. Weaponized narrative offered an important way to achieve Russian ends while not justifying a conventional response under the UN charter.”

Allenby also noted the hybrid approach, which included narrative and “fomenting insurrection and insurgency, and judicious application of ‘little green men,’” or suspected Russian troops.

Allenby added, “Was the invasion [of Crimea] effective? Absolutely. Was it a strategic success? For that, we’ll have to wait and see.”

Asked about the similarities and differences between Russia’s tactics in Ukraine and the alleged activities carried out during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Allenby said:

The two are similar, in that causing a degree of confusion and social fragmentation in the target is a major strategic goal. The tools are different because the cultures are very different, and the follow through is different … Nonetheless, the underlying processes, operations and design of weaponized narrative campaigns must be similar because they are based on the same advanced science, new technologies and rapidly evolving understanding of human psychology.

China and the Sovereignty Narrative

China is also using narrative to further its geopolitical agenda. China’s interest in expanding territorial sovereignty in the South China Seas is well known. Less so is China’s “cyber sovereignty” narrative, which Demchak has examined.

At issue is, Demchak wrote, “China wants her borders in cyberspace and will take nothing less.” Whereas the West sees the internet as a tool for global democratization, “the Chinese narrative accentuates the instability and greater dissent that can accrue with a border-spanning open internet.”

China’s view implicitly acknowledges Gerasimov’s “protest potential of the population.”

To achieve cyber sovereignty, China has employed hybrid gray-zone tactics.

“China,” Demchak wrote, “is also hoping to hurry along the [U.S.’s] apparent decline with narratives, money and stealth and yet control the narrative of a no-threat peaceful rise well enough to stay short of physical conflict.”

China’s cyber sovereignty is part of a grander narrative. “China justifies its rise in the world – its ‘rightful place’ – on the basis of its population,” Demchak said. “China will not over time tolerate U.S. obstruction of its ‘rightful’ rise as the global hegemon.”

ISIS and the Narrative of the Islamic Caliphate

The rise of ISIS surprised many in the West. Narrative and cyberspace played a central role, experts say.

Counterterrorism scholars have studied the “messaging and counter-messaging” of ISIS. Maan thinks ISIS’s narratives are more “profound and pervasive” than simple messaging.

“It is through narrative that identity is constructed: Personal identity, communal/clan identity and national identity,” she said. “It is formative in the identity layers of all parties to communication long before any communication has taken place between them.”

In her writing, Maan has examined a common idea across ISIS’s communications: “Islam is under attack.” That is a title, not the narrative, she explained.

Despite the West’s claims otherwise, “Islam is under attack” resonates with ISIS followers in many forms. “Narrative provides and determines the meaning of events,” Maan said. “Events don’t speak for themselves. Narratives speak for events.”

Maan argues, rather than focusing on counter-narrative, which oftentimes “emboldens” the original, the West should develop its own. To succeed, Maan thinks the West’s narratives must be credible and based on the “production of common sense.”

“That is how successful narratives appear. They don’t seem like a construction. They seem to reflect ‘just the way things are,’” she said.

12/1/16

China Connection: Mitch McConnell’s Wife, Elaine Chao, Tapped for Transportation Secretary

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

While Americans were torn over President-elect Trump’s push to either imprison or kick out of the country anyone who disrespects the American flag (a blatantly unconstitutional move), Trump went about tapping his Transportation Secretary, Elaine Chao. She is the wife of Senator Mitch McConnell from Kentucky. This is hardly what I would call draining the swamp. Instead, it smacks of a payback for loyalty during Trump’s election season. And it’s not just that… Chao is a security threat and should not be allowed in the President’s cabinet. She would never pass a real background check. Although, by and large, I like most of President Trump’s picks… he chose poorly on this one.

I'm speechless

http:// https://t.co/Rd6DGYjU8n

— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) November 29, 2016

Chao is a retread from the Bush administration – she was tapped as George W. Bush’s Labor Secretary. A move that should never have been allowed given Chao’s contacts in communist China. She is also connected to the Bloomberg Foundation which is very anti-coal. Ironic since she lives in Kentucky. McConnell has been a big supporter of the now-defunct Trans Pacific Partnership. I would remind everyone that Ted Cruz called McConnell a stone-cold liar for a reason:

Prompting Cruz’s outburst: McConnell’s move to set up amendment votes on a must-pass transportation bill. After senators voted to consider the bill, McConnell (R-Ky.) set up votes on two controversial measures — a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and a reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank of the United States — and did it in such a way that will make it difficult for other amendments to be considered.

That move incensed Cruz — who had announced his intention to offer other amendments, and who, like many conservatives, strongly opposes the bank’s reauthorization, though it enjoys support from a supermajority of his Senate colleagues. While McConnell has personally spoken against Ex-Im reauthorization, Democrats said in June he had agreed to schedule an Ex-Im vote in order to get highly divisive trade legislation passed.

But McConnell at the time denied that any deal had been struck, and Cruz said Friday the same assurance was given in a private Republican conference meeting:

We had a Senate Republican lunch where I stood up and I asked the majority leader very directly, what was the deal that was just cut on [trade legislation, and was there a deal for the Export-Import Bank? It was a direct question. I asked the majority leader in front of all the Republican senators. The majority leader was visibly angry with me that I would ask such a question, and the majority leader looked at me and said, “There is no deal, there is no deal, there is no deal.”

“Like Saint Peter, he repeated it three times,” Cruz added.

So, you see why I cringe when I see McConnell hanging with Trump wearing a Cheshire grin. As much as I detest him, his wife gives me even more pause. And I’m not the only one. When Bush nominated Chao for Labor Secretary, Chinese dissidents like Hongda “Harry” Wu were shocked.

“I worry about Elaine Chao’s business relationship with communist China,” he said in 2001. “This woman has a significant shipping business through her father.”

Add to this Trump’s proposed $1 trillion infrastructure spending proposal. Sen. McConnell has previously worked on behalf of President Obama to shove a $305 billion highway bill through Congress, in addition to multiple other spending monstrosities that we can ill afford. His wife will now have the ear of the most powerful man in America and will be advising him on infrastructure spending. McConnell’s penchant for pork barrel spending will also be a breeze for him with his wife in this position.

Chao’s father, James S.C. Chao, is the founder of Maritime Corp. They ship goods to China and they also buy ships from China State Shipbuilding Corporation. He has strong ties to former Chinese President Jiang Zemin. They went to school together at Jiao Tong University in Shanghai and have stayed in touch ever since. So much for making China answer on trade.

Elaine Chao has heavily lobbied for normalized trade with communist China. She has also severely downplayed concerns about China’s growing military threat, espionage campaigns in the US and human rights abuses. We are already in a cyber war with China and the military tensions are mounting by the day. Chao is an enemy from within without a doubt.

Both Chao and McConnell serve on the board of the China Foundation, a nonprofit charity devoted to helping develop rural parts of China. That should raise red flags all over the place (pun intended). McConnell has been China’s biggest supporter in the Senate. Chao sought out John Huang to help raise money for Republican senators in 1989 – beating Bill and Hillary Clinton to the punch in 1992. In 1993, Huang, then head of Lippo Bank, rounded up a coalition of Chinese banks and individuals to sponsor Chao’s visit to Los Angeles as the new head of United Way. Huang gave McConnell $2,000 in illegal donations as part of a foreign money-laundering scheme — one of only two contributions Huang made to Republicans. When Chinagate broke, Chao decried the prosecution of Huang and claimed… you guessed it… racism.

Richard Fisher Jr., a former Heritage analyst who is footnoted in the declassified version of the bipartisan Cox Report which documented Chinese espionage at US defense labs, has warned heavily of China’s goal of modernizing the People’s Liberation Army to project power past the mainland’s waters, targeting US allies like Taiwan and even the US. Fisher left Heritage and it is said that Chao was behind the departure because he raised national security concerns over China and her military.

Chao seems very chummy with the insurance giant AIG who has business in China. Money and trade are flowing through Chao and her contacts both here in the States and in China. She is on the board of directors of Bloomberg Philanthropies. She has also served on the board of Wells Fargo, who, like Bloomberg, has bankrolled anti-coal efforts. Chao, 63, is a Taiwanese immigrant and has also served as chairwoman of the Federal Maritime Commission. She became director of the Peace Corps in 1991 and led the United Way of America from 1992-1996.

US Senate documents made public in 2001, show Chao had been for the preceding four years a board member of the Birmingham, Alabama based Protective Life Corp., holding 7,000 shares. Protective Life is associated with Chinese insurance companies in Indonesia and China, including China Resources Holdings Co., an intelligence-gathering front for China’s Peoples Liberation Army.

Because she is Mitch McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao will face no opposition and will be confirmed as Transportation Secretary. Along with her confirmation, China will be brought directly into the White House.

10/4/16

On The Precipice Of World War III: Russia Prepares For War On Multiple Fronts

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Things are quickly spiraling out of control for the US. The Yuan has basically become the reserve currency now. Russia will now head the UN Security Council. And my favorite… Obama has handed the Internet to foreign entities comprised of our enemies… the Russians, Chinese and Iranians. Good times.

But the last couple of days have been REALLY interesting and not in a good way. It all revolves around Russia pretty much and their moves towards World War III. We have been in the beginning phases of the war for a number of years. The opening salvos have taken the form of intrusive cyber attacks. But a hot war is coming… I no longer have any doubt of that whatsoever.

Let’s start with Russia suspending diplomacy with the US over the conflict in Syria. Not good. The US has announced they are ending diplomatic engagement with Russia and are ‘reviewing’ our military options over the Aleppo boondoggle. We don’t seem to get it. Russia and Iran now own Syria. Whatever we do there now won’t be very effective. Russia has Tartus and now essentially the rest of Syria is being handed to Iran. Russia is prepping an offensive to gain ground in the Baltics and the Ukraine… and even further conquests are on the drawing board.

Earlier today the UN warned Russia on their bombing of Aleppo. That doesn’t matter at all to Russia… in fact, they are stepping up their bombing with bunker busters. They want to kill everyone and wipe them off the proverbial map. If we send troops into Syria, Putin is sure to do the same and it will be game on. We are now considering airstrikes on Syria as I write this. Top military leaders say this could very well lead to war with Russia… we are already there boys.

But wait… there’s more. Moscow announced yesterday that it was ending cooperation with the US on a 16 year-old program for the disposal of weapons-grade plutonium to curb the production of more nuclear bombs. Kerry’s ceasefire in Syria was a monstrous joke. In fact, he played right into Russia’s hands. What a tool. A 10 year-old would be better at military strategy than these fools.

Next, Russia has deployed an anti-missile system in Syria for the first time, potentially as a means for the Assad government to counter US and allied cruise missile attacks. That should end well. Yeah baby. Components of the SA-23 Gladiator anti-missile and anti-aircraft system, which has a range of roughly 150 miles, arrived over the weekend “on the docks” of a Russian naval base along Syria’s Mediterranean coastal city of Tartus.

I especially thought this quote from Fox News was appropriate:

While the purpose is not clear, one US official asked sarcastically, “Nusra doesn’t have an air force do they?” speaking about the Al Qaeda-linked group in Syria. The Islamic State also does not fly any manned aircraft or possess cruise missiles, in a sign that Russia is directing its actions to protect itself against any potential attack from the United States or its allies.

Today, the Russian embassy in Damascus was shelled from an alleged terrorist-controlled area of Syria. Guess who Russia is blaming? That’s right… the US. Tick freaking tock goes the war clock. Nobody was injured, but that just ticked the Russians off. Convenient.

The Russian embassy in Damascus came under fire on Tuesday from a neighborhood controlled by militant groups, including Al-Nusra Front, the Russian Foreign Ministry reports. Russia’s Foreign Ministry has declared that the shelling of the Russian Embassy in Damascus, Syria was the result of “those who, like the US and some of its allies, continue to provoke bloody conflict in Syria [and] flirt with militants and extremists of various types,” read a statement posted on the Foreign Ministry website on October 4th.

We already know that Russia and Iran – two arms of the New Axis of Evil are in Syria – well, here comes the third one… China. Beijing and Damascus have agreed that the Chinese military will have closer ties with Syria and provide humanitarian aid to the civil war torn nation, a high-ranking People’s Liberation Army officer said, adding that the training of Syrian personnel by Chinese instructors has also been discussed, according to Xinhua. This is a clear sign that Russia, China and Iran are aligning against the US. I hate to say I told you so, but I’ve been saying this was coming for years now. China has previously praised Russia’s involvement in Syria.

Last, but certainly not least… Russia is holding a massive evacuation drill for more than 40 million people to prepare for nuclear war. More than 200,000 emergency services personnel and soldiers will use 50,000 pieces of equipment during the massive civil defense exercise. Management bodies and forces of the Emergency Ministry’s territorial bodies have been put on simulated high alert. Representatives of federal executive authorities, heads of regions, local governments and organizations are taking part in the massive drill. Emergency Ministry’s forces and facilities are fully engaged, including rescue military divisions, rescue units, paramilitary mine rescue units and State Small Vessels Inspectorate, fire departments and aircraft. It has already been widely reported that Russia has been busy building nuclear bunkers all over Moscow. I assume in actuality, it has been all over Russia.

Russia’s western missile forces are testing their battle readiness by practicing fire and preemptive strikes on crucial enemy infrastructure, state news agency Itar-Tass reported. The missile brigade in Leningrad region, which surrounds St. Petersburg and borders Estonia, as well as Finland, is on high alert as a part of combat-readiness drills, testing the unit’s preparation. It is conducting fire against a “simulated enemy” from short range Iskander missiles systems. Some of the 500 troops drafted to the regional drill will also practice camouflage, biological and chemical defense of troops in the field and counter-reconnaissance.

As recently as last year, Russia conducted a simulated nuclear hit on an area the size of Sweden. I’m sure that was no accident.

This is a classic preamble to war. Russia is heightening fears of a nuclear confrontation. They have set the US up as the fall guy. Now they are making a very public display of prepping Russians for World War III. Don’t get me wrong… World War III has already started, I just don’t think nuclear bombs are on the table… yet anyway. The war is far more likely to be a massive debilitating cyber war to begin with, but there will be hot elements on the ground as well.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures at a conference of international news agencies and journalists in Moscow in September, discussing Iran’s need for nuclear weapons.

Today’s exercise is being run by EMERCOM, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry. It will go on for four days. Civil Defense Department Director Oleg Manuilov told Interfax: “Training will be held from October 4 to 7 and will be attended by more than 40 million people, more than 200 thousand professionals rescue units and 50 thousand pieces of equipment.”

Russia is spreading this fear mongering throughout their media outlets and official statements. One headline on the website Zvezda last week read “Schizophrenics from America are sharpening nuclear weapons for Moscow” – claiming the US wanted to punish Russia over challenges in the Middle East.

EMERCOM announced on Friday that underground shelters which could fit the entire population of Moscow – 12 million – if war broke out were ready and waiting.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) meets with U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China, September 5, 2016.

Russia currently has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons with 8,400 and a section of its nuclear doctrine which allows for use of the weapons if there is a vague suggestion of a threat. America has 7,500 warheads, considerably less and those are pretty much outdated. In the past, Dmitry Kiselyov, head of Russia’s main news agency, has said only Russia would be able to turn the US into “radioactive ash.” And you know who is egging all of this on? Alexander Dugin of course. This fits his apocalyptic view of warfare rather nicely.

Putin has invested heavily in decking out top secret facilities around Moscow in the event of war. He has even ordered the building of a 400-square mile facility in the remote wasteland of the Ural mountains from where any future conflict could be directed. Satellite images reveal the location of the huge center near Mount Yamantau.

Russia, China and Iran are actively preparing for war with the United States and soon. You have to wonder why they are prepping their people and we aren’t ours. Russia must be overjoyed at that. Time is running out to stop the Russians and they know it. I fear we have already fallen off the precipice of World War III.

09/6/16

Obama Celebrates Slave Labor Day in Red China

By: Cliff Kincaid | Accuracy in Media

The old joke, “He’ll do anything for the worker except become one,” may apply to the Democratic Party and its modern-day leaders. The days when Democrats represented the working man are gone. Today, Democrats are more likely to preserve fish than jobs.

A case in point is President Obama’s unilateral designation of 600,000 square miles of water around Hawaii as a national monument. The rationale for destroying jobs and devastating fishing communities is global warming.

“It’s a good time to be a fish” says the website of Global Citizen. Human beings aren’t faring so well.

It’s no secret that the Democratic Party’s hold on the white working class is weakening. It’s an open secret that Donald J. Trump has expanded on Ronald Reagan’s appeal to so-called Reagan Democrats. Whether he can appeal to blacks who overwhelmingly vote Democratic is another issue. Their habitual deference to the Democratic Party, when their communities have been devastated by liberal policies, is shocking to behold.

The attack on workers shows no sign of weakening. Obama and the Democrats seem to be more interested in pandering to elites enthralled with the latest version of the global warming theory than to the workers in need of bread to feed their families.

The destruction of the coal industry, an openly announced objective of President Obama, is currently underway. “Since reaching a peak in September 2014, employment in mining has declined by 223,000, with losses concentrated in support activities for mining,” reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Now Obama has turned his sights on the fishing industry.

“Obama creates the largest protected place on the planet, in Hawaii,” proclaimed The Washington Post. Job losses were briefly mentioned in the body of the piece.

The Post quoted White House press secretary Josh Earnest as saying that Obama “would be happy to sign into law a piece of legislation that would have protected these waters, but we haven’t seen that kind of legislative activity in this Congress, and it means the president has had to make more effective use of his executive authority.”

The Post failed to explain where in the Constitution a president is given the right to make a law when Congress doesn’t do what the president demands.

One version of the global warming theory, which rationalizes these jobs losses, originated with marijuana advocate Carl Sagan, who was also an astronomer. Before he came to believe the Earth was inhabited by a spirit called Gaia, Sagan was writing about the virtues of dope and “the cannabis experience.” He explained, “I do not consider myself a religious person in the usual sense, but there is a religious aspect to some highs. The heightened sensitivity in all areas gives me a feeling of communion with my surroundings, both animate and inanimate.”

It may have been during a “high” that he felt at one with the earth spirit Gaia and came to believe, despite his scientific training, that climate changes of some kind or another were threatening the health of the planet.

Pot heads are susceptible to all kinds of wacky theories. So it is no surprise that before he popularized the global warming theory, now known as climate change, he was utilized by the Russians to spread the idea that a “nuclear winter” would devastate the planet. This idea was floated in order to argue against improvements in the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

All of these various theories are designed to convince the United States that global institutions and international agreements are the only way to save mankind from utter destruction.

Comrade J, a blockbuster book about Russian espionage written by former Washington Post reporter and author Pete Earley, explains how the Soviet KGB peddled charges that deployment of U.S. nuclear weapons to Europe in the 1980s might lead to their use and a “nuclear winter,” or climate crisis, for the world. The book says the story was cooked up by the KGB and fed to the Western world by anti-nuclear activists such as Carl Sagan, who penned an article on the topic for the Council on Foreign Relations journal Foreign Affairs. The book notes that Sagan later appeared on the ABC television network to talk about the subject.

Sergei Tretyakov, a former Russian spy who defected in New York in 2000 and who Earley wrote about in his book, said he discovered “dozens of case studies” of the KGB using “propaganda and disinformation to influence public opinion” in the West.

The prospect of a “global chilling” soon gave way to “global warming,” and now “climate change.” It’s the latest attempt to con people into believing that human activities on the earth could fundamentally alter the earth’s climate and doom humanity.

Obama, now in Communist China for the G-20 meeting, has accepted a new and improved version of communist disinformation. He wants the American people to believe that the rulers in Beijing are going to comply with a new climate change agreement to restrict their own industries, which drive their military buildup.

Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, says, “Now we find ourselves celebrating an agreement where the world’s largest carbon emitter, China, is permitted to increase their emissions until 2025 and to continue bringing a coal-fired power plant online every 10 days. We even turn a blind eye to the fact that China lied about its carbon emissions when it first came to the table with its pledge last year.”

Not only does Obama violate the Constitution and abuse his executive powers, he does so to serve the purposes of Communist China. It is another disgraceful part of the Obama legacy.

The fact that this happens on Labor Day in the U.S. only rubs salt in the wounds of American workers losing their jobs to Chinese slave labor.

Cliff Kincaid

Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism and can be contacted at [email protected].View the complete archives from Cliff Kincaid.

07/28/16

Bear Witness: Open Letter to Donald Trump on national security and Russian/Chinese threat

By: Trevor Loudon | New Zeal

My Trump friendly friends at Bear Witness Central have written to the candidate with some some concerns and suggestions re foreign policy and national security. Well worth a read.

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Dear Mr. Trump:

We are writing to you on behalf of the Florida-based conservative organization Bear Witness Central. We congratulate you on your primary victories and for your energizing many average Americans who would never normally consider voting for a Republican candidate. While Bear Witness Central cannot endorse candidates in any election, we admit that there are many areas of common agreement with your platform. Your positions on trade, immigration, the abuse of H-1B visas, and subversion through Islamic refugees are identical to that of Bear Witness Central. We believe that trade reform, a strong military, and responsibly tight border controls are conducive to achieving a sovereign America again.

Another area of concern for Bear Witness Central and many Americans are the twin threats of Russia and communist China. Both are on record as opposing American interests and seeking to eviscerate our power in the world.

Unfortunately, the Cold War never conclusively ended. Instead, the old Soviet Communists repositioned themselves and gained tremendous advantages in the areas of arms control, technology transfers, and trade concessions. While this assertion is not politically correct, it is grounded in solid factual information.

Russia continues to conduct military exercises and maneuvers against the US (sometimes in tandem with China); export weapons to rogue anti-American states; develop global alliance of communist and Islamic powers; commit espionage and subversion against American interests; and pay fealty to communism. Communist China continues to threaten the American mainland with annihilation; support global communist parties and even al-Qaeda/Taliban forces; destroy American manufacturing through predatory trade practices; proclaim their fealty for global Marxism-Leninism; and cooperate with anti-US regimes in Iran, Cuba, and other likeminded nations.

Let us proclaim with crystal clarity: the leadership and activist base of Bear Witness Central do not prescribe aggressive actions which would lead to a global war. We are seeking to avoid a Third World War by recommending the following measures:

Educating American citizens and political candidates of all parties on the nature of the global threats emanating from Islamo-totalitarianism, Russia, and China.
Requesting the political class to publicly identify that Russia, communist China, and Islamo-totalitarianism represent an existential threat to the survival of the United States.
Develop a national program of civil defense, comprehensive anti-missile (ABM) systems, and revitalization of our ground, naval, and air forces.
A progressive weaning away from any dependence on strategic materials and manufactured goods imported from Russia, China, and volatile regions in the Middle East.
Military intervention only when American interests are directly threatened.
An unequivocal admission that our industrial economic power is synonymous with the redevelopment of superior military superiority.

We argue that the proposed measures would strengthen our power at home without sacrificing the lives and limbs of American soldiers and officers. Restoring American power on the home front is critical in the effort to rebuild our Nation’s economic-military power.

Lastly, we kindly encourage you to review some of these quotes and reports mentioned below. They are attached in this letter in order to provide a factual basis for the concerns of the membership and leaders of Bear Witness Central and many other patriotic Americans.

“I want to warn Americans…You believe because the Soviet Union no longer exists, Russia now is your friend. It isn’t, and I can show you how the SVR (i.e., KGB) is trying to destroy the U.S. even today and even more than the KGB did during the Cold War.” Defecting KGB/SVR Col. Sergei Tretyakov quoted in Earley, Pete. Comrade J

“Russia continues to conduct aggressive offensive missile training in the Pacific against U.S. and Allied Forces. We should understand that they look at ‘reset’ differently than we do…They look at it as regaining their previous USSR position as a superpower.” Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney quoted in Russia Reform Monitor Number 1827 April 26, 2013

“Russian intelligence activity against this country (the United States) is much more active than it was in time of the former Soviet Union. And this activity just now is much more dangerous for this country than it was before.” Defecting GRU Colonel Stanislav Lunev quoted in Pry, Peter Vincent. War Scare: Russia and America on the Nuclear Brink

In 2001, Russian troops joined in a Chinese PLA nuclear attack exercise conducted against the United States for assistance rendered to Taiwan. The exercises involved strategic bombing runs conducted by Russian Air Force Tu-22 and Su-27 planes near Japan. The Tu-22s were equipped with nuclear cruise missiles. The details of this Sino-Russian exercise was contained in this report of the following sequence of events: “The Asia scenario began with a Chinese military attack on Taiwan that was followed by the use of U.S. ground troops on the island, said one official. Next, China escalated the conflict by firing tactical nuclear missiles on the U.S. troops in Taiwan, prompting U.S. nuclear strikes on Chinese forces. Russian nuclear forces then threatened to use nuclear missile strikes on U.S. forces in the region, including strikes on troops in South Korea and Japan.” Russia also fired ICBMs from land launchers and SLBMs from submarines in this exercise. Washington Times April 30, 2001

“The Myth that the Cold War has ended is the greatest delusion of the West. Let us ask a simple question: When did the Cold War finish–what date? When the armistice agreement was signed? And who admitted defeat?” he asked with a hint of sarcasm. Many believe that the Soviet Union was defeated. But maybe it has only gotten smaller. In fact, I do not see a large difference between the current Russia and the Soviet Union. Especially because some of its former republics – independent on paper – are still governed by the Kremlin; and if you try to approach any passerby on the Russian street and ask him if the Cold War is finished, he will tell you that it is not so, and that the U.S. is running the Cold War against Russia. He knows it from Russian state propaganda.” KGB/SVR defector Konstantin Preobrazhenskiy quoted in Worldnetdaily January 8, 2001

“Both Russia and China know America’s vulnerabilities, and they are exploiting them as much as they can.” KGB/SVR defector Konstantin Preobrazhenskiy quoted in Worldnetdaily January 8, 2001

“I liked Communist and socialist ideas very much and I like them still.” Vladimir Putin, 2016 quoted in Newsweek, January 25, 2016

“Russia has chosen to be an adversary and poses a long-term existential threat to the United States and to our European allies and partners…Russia is eager to exert unquestioned influence over its neighboring states in its buffer zone…so has used military force to violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, Georgia and others, like Moldova.” Supreme NATO commander Philip Breedlove, 2016

In conclusion, the leadership of Bear Witness Central would like to meet with you or your top representatives (e.g. Stephen Miller) to discuss these issues in greater detail. We are willing to meet with you anytime at any location within the State of Florida. Let us join together in our common goal to “Make America Great Again” through truthfulness, solid analysis, and patriotism.

Sincerely,

Bear Witness Central Directors

Bear Witness Central is a communication and action group composed of Americans who have experienced Socialism and/or Communism intervention during their lifetime joined by other concerned Americans. We are a non-partisan group and our main objective is to labor to safeguard our Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the American way of life. Bear Witness Central covers the U.S.A. and has members in the 50 states.

07/24/16

Rubio was Right, the Russian Memo, Just the Facts

By: Denise Simon | FoundersCode.com

In 2014, this site posted a summary of Russia’s push into Nicaragua and Cuba for covert operations. It is important to note that with continued deference by the Obama administration to Russia for all things terror, Russia officially received that ‘reset’ button as a green light and the Kremlin under Putin has been aggressive.

During one of the Republican debates, then candidate Marco Rubio and Donald Trump were in a one on one heated discussion over the Cuba policy. Rubio also mentioned during the debate the signals intelligence operation that Russia has in Cuba known as Lourdes.

Cuba has been a puppet and proxy for Russia going back to the Kennedy administration and since the relationship has continued.

Further, Guccifer 2.0 is noted to the hacker of the DNC email system and all cyber expert forensic analysis points back to Russia. An excellent summary is here from Motherboard.

Continue reading →

07/12/16

Trump: The Russian Connection

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

America has now boxed herself into a corner and doesn’t even realize it. If Hillary Clinton is elected, you will retain the Muslim Brotherhood in the White House. If Trump is elected, you will have the Russians and the Chinese in the White House. Trump’s advisers are very connected to Vladimir Putin and Russia. Trump himself has many ties as well and is friends with Putin. This is why Putin will try to sabotage Clinton with leaked emails etc. He’s got WikiLeaks and Assange doing his dirty work, with Edward Snowden as backup.

Trump has surrounded himself with people connected in one way or another to Russia and mobsters.

Carter Page

Donald Trump’s foreign policy adviser, Carter Page, has deep ties to Russia and the Kremlin’s Gazprom. Page is a globe-trotting investment banker who has built his creds on deals with Russia and its state-run gas company. It would do George Soros proud. Page’s business suffered a major hit when sanctions were imposed on Russia because of the Ukraine encroachment. When Trump selected him as a foreign policy adviser, he was inundated by his Russian contacts who were thrilled. That should be your first warning sign.

Trump has been putting forth the Russian idea to reduce NATO or do away with them altogether. He does not support the Ukraine either. He has called Putin a ‘strong leader’ and both have talk glowingly about each other. Flexible doesn’t quite cover it this time around. Page portrays US policymakers as stuck in an outdated Cold War mindset, which is really laughable as the Cold War never ended… it shifted.

Page is a self-serving business shark. He has no political experience, but he’s killer when it comes to negotiating a deal. Trump calls it “real world” experience. I call it corruption. Page has a lifelong fascination with Russia and Central Asia, and a determination to drum up business there even in the face of political headwinds. He has no loyalty to America or her constitution… his loyalty lies in business and profits. In that, Trump and Page share a common viewpoint. After all, even if it smacks of mob tactics, it’s just business.

Page traveled to Moscow last week and criticized the United States and other Western powers for their “hypocritical focus on ideas such as democratization, inequality, corruption and regime change” in other countries. He praised Russia and China for being ‘progressive’ and forward thinking, while nailing the US as interventionist and two-faced. Gee, he sounds more like Putin’s man than Trump’s. He praised Russia and China for embracing foreign policies built on “non-interference,” “tolerance” and “respect.” Where have I heard that before? Oh yeah! Barack Obama, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton.

From The Washington Free Beacon:

“The United States and other developed powers, including in the EU, have often criticized [China, Russia, and Central Asian nations] for continuing methods which were prevalent during the Cold War period,” Page said. “Yet ironically, Washington and other Western capitals have impeded potential progress through their often hypocritical focus on ideas such as democratization, inequality, corruption, and regime change.”

He also accused Western powers of approaching Russia and Central Asian nations with a “nearly universally critical tone” despite their “advancements.” This he said, may “understandably advance a certain level of insecurity.

The remarks, delivered at an event hosted by the New Economic School, were hardly out of character for Page, who has a history of criticizing US foreign policy and portraying Russia in a favorable light. In online writings, Page has defended Moscow’s involvement in the takeover of government buildings in Ukraine by pro-Russian forces in 2014 as “minor,” attributed the crisis in Ukraine to US policy, and accused NATO of “meddling in the affairs of Eastern Europe.”

Page has criticized NATO as “obsolete” and disparaged them for what he terms “illegal torture techniques.” He has long criticized US foreign policy.

He spent three years living in Moscow in the early 2000s, where he worked as an investment banker for Merrill Lynch and as an adviser on transactions for Gazprom and RAO UES, a Russian electric power company.

On Friday, Page also delivered remarks at the graduation for the New Economic School, whose board of directors includes Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich and Economic Minister Alexei Ulyukayev. Page blamed the United States for “mistakes” that have damaged US-Russian relations during that speech.

Back in 2014, Page criticized Obama’s decision to deny a visa application to Hamid Aboutalebi, who is an Iranian diplomat and a UN ambassador. He was a translator for Iranian militants who seized the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979, where American hostages were held for over a year until Ronald Reagan came along. It was one of the few things that Obama has made the right call on. Ted Cruz even praised Obama over the move. Yet, Trump’s man was all for that visa. “Avoiding the punishment of a distinguished diplomat whose most heinous charge is previous service as a translator would be an excellent step toward not remaining trapped in the past,” Page wrote in a blog post.

Just one month after that, Carter Page vigorously defended Russia’s military encroachment in the Ukraine. He compared it to the United States’ support for the ouster of Ukraine’s Russian-backed President Viktor Yanukovych. “While US officials have protested the Russian government’s influence in current events, Moscow’s impact remains minor when compared to Washington’s fundamentally important encouragement at the national level which started the crisis in the first place,” Page asserted. He even went so far as accusing the US of instigating the crisis in the first place.

Why Does Obama Hate Britain?

By: Cliff Kincaid | Accuracy in Media

Coming to the end of the Obama administration, with the wreckage of its foreign policy all around us, the naïve conservatives running the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal are begging President Obama to offer “A New American Deal for Europe.”

“It’s time for the U.S. to get back in the game because America needs a confident, prosperous Europe as a partner to defend the West against the rise of authoritarian regimes and global disorder,” the editorial writers say. In the case of Obama, however, this is like waiting for the tooth fairy or the Easter bunny.

Europe is already dominated by the Germany of Angela Merkel, an agent, or at least a stooge, of Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Her welcome mat to Syrian refugees has been disastrous for her own country, an unsurprising development considering the fact that Air Force General Philip M. Breedlove had described the exodus of refugees from the Middle East as a form of “weaponization” used by Russia and its ally Syria to destabilize Europe. Breedlove served as the Commander of U.S. European Command.

But rather than confront Russia, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier hasaccused NATO of “warmongering” because the alliance is conducting military exercises in order to repel a full-blown Russian invasion of Europe. This is a sure sign of the German government’s desire to accommodate Russian interests in Europe.

Christopher Story, a former economic adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, had always warned of Russian-German collaboration in wanting to dominate Europe. His massive volume, The European Union Collective: Enemy of Its Member States, was published in 2002.

Incredibly, Bloomberg reports that Obama is now proposing to use the Brexit as an excuse to replace Britain with Germany as America’s key ally in Europe.

Britain’s decision to leave the EU was a patriotic but dangerous move, not only because Obama is the U.S. President and he opposed Brexit, but because of the global forces now arrayed against it. Billionaire hedge fund operator George Soros, who argued for Britain to “remain” in the EU, now warns, “…the UK itself may not survive. Scotland, which voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU, can be expected to make another attempt to gain its independence, and some officials in Northern Ireland, where voters also backed Remain, have already called for unification with the Republic of Ireland.”

A major Democratic moneybags who backs such figures as current Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Soros is capable of destabilizing entire countries. In 1992 he engaged in a complex financial transaction that resulted in the Bank of England losing billions of dollars defending the British pound sterling, before having to devalue it.

This time around, his spokesman denies that Soros speculated against the pound, but admits that “because of his generally bearish outlook on world markets, Mr. Soros did profit from other investments.”

Trying to get Merkel off the hook for what has happened to Germany, Soros wrote that while her decision in welcoming the refugees “was an inspiring gesture,” it was “not properly thought out” because the “sudden influx of asylum-seekers disrupted people in their everyday lives across the EU.”

It’s hard to believe this was “not properly thought out,” and that Merkel didn’t know what she was doing. In any case, Soros says “the disintegration of the EU” is now “practically irreversible.” He stands ready to pick up the pieces, making tons of money, and then funneling a major portion of it into liberal coffers. Over the last 32 years,according to their own estimate, the Soros-funded Open Society Foundations had expenditures of more than $13 billion.

From their perspective, the British people were desperate to save what’s left of their nation, whose capital, London, recently elected a Muslim Mayor, Sadiq Khan, who has connections to radical Islam.

For his part, Obama said openly that he wanted the British to stay in the EU. Otherwise, he said they would end up at the back of the line for trade deals.

Nigel Farage, leader of the U.K. Independence Party, quite rightly blasted Obama for those remarks. But he said at the same time that Putin had behaved in a more “statesmanlike” manner. Putin had just returned from a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and spoke of their growing strategic alliance against the West, consisting of expanding political, economic, and military operations.

Obama’s terrible treatment of an ally is not surprising. Obama views Britain as a white colonial power that oppressed his brothers and sisters of color, and Muslims around the world.

In 2012, it was reported that Obama had removed the bust of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who rallied the British people during WWII, from the Oval Office, and sent it back to the British Embassy. The White House scrambled to correct that, saying the bust had just been moved somewhere else in the White House complex.

Where does this hatred come from? All roads lead to Obama’s mentor, the Communist Frank Marshall Davis, the man the media haven’t wanted to talk about for seven years now.

Professor Paul Kengor, author of a book about Davis, notes that he “harbored a special hatred for Winston Churchill, who, like [Democratic President Harry S.] Truman, opposed Stalin’s Soviet Union—the country to which Davis dedicated his heart, his mind, his soul, and his pen.” Davis, a propagandist for the Communist Party in Hawaii, had written that “the only people Churchill gives a rap about are the white people of the British Empire,” and that Churchill wanted America to join him in bludgeoning “all other countries into submission.” He complained that Churchill favored a postwar U.S.-UK alliance that excluded the USSR.

Despite Obama’s anti-British mentality, the Journal’s recent editorial said, “An important first signal would be for the U.S. to invite the U.K. to begin bilateral free-trade talks that run alongside current talks with the EU.”

But the Journal editorial writers have to know that Obama has no intention of pursuing that idea. However, Art Harman, who was legislative director for former Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX), has proposed a bill to do just that. Harman tells AIM that “just introducing such a bill or resolution would send our great ally the message that they can vote according to their best interests without fear that the U.S. would cost them trade if they vote the ‘wrong’ way, and to reassure markets that Obama’s threat will not stand.”

Harman suggests that the bill should be called “The Winston Churchill Trade Continuation Act.”

Cliff Kincaid

Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism and can be contacted at [email protected].View the complete archives from Cliff Kincaid.