In early January, Republicans in the House <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-republicans-to-start-committee-on-weaponization-of-the-federal-government-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced the formation</a> of a new committee to investigate the weaponization of government agencies, like <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the FBI</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the CIA</a>, for potential abuses of power against American citizens.
Dubbed the “Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government,” the new committee will aim to get to the bottom of things like the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/durham-loses-but-lays-bare-fbi-corruption-in-russia-collusion-trials" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FBI’s connection</a> to the Russia collusion hoax, what it knows about the January 6 Capitol breach, its <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/more-pro-life-activists-targeted-by-fbi-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">apparent targeting</a> of pro-life activists, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-twitter-files-show-fbi-paid-twitter-millions-influenced-execs-to-censor-hunter-biden-laptop-story" target="_blank" rel="noopener">its handling</a> of the Hunter Biden laptop, and its relationship to tech companies like Twitter among other concerns.
Advocates of the commission have likened the newly formed body to <a href="https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/investigations/church-committee.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Church Committee</a> of the 1970s which uncovered a myriad of serious abuses of power by the CIA, the FBI, and the NSA. The Church Committee was <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/looking-back-at-the-church-committee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">headed</a> up by Senator Frank Church (D-ID) and began in January 1975.
The committee combed through hundreds of <a href="https://www.levin-center.org/frank-church-and-the-church-committee/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">thousands of pages</a> of documents, many of which were made available to the public or later declassified. 
The commission discovered shocking details about the operations and proposals of the intelligence community and led to the passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a fixed term limit for the FBI director, the banning of political assassinations, and permanent congressional intelligence committees.
Though much of what the senators <a href="https://aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/ir/html/ChurchIR_0010b.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">uncovered was alarming</a>, several programs drew particular attention. 
Here are the five most shocking charges against the intelligence community. 
<h2>MK-ULTRA</h2>
Probably the most infamous of the intelligence operations uncovered during the Church Committee was the MK-ULTRA program, which involved the CIA attempting to learn mind control techniques and experimenting with LSD on unwitting participants. 
The evidence was apparently so damning that outgoing CIA Director Richard Helms worked with CIA chemist Sydney Gottlieb, who headed the program, to destroy evidence of the project&#8217;s work in the early 1970s before the program was reportedly shuttered.
&#8220;Gottlieb wanted to create a way to seize control of people&#8217;s minds, and he realized it was a two-part process,&#8221; journalist Stephen Kinzer, author of “Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control,” <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/09/09/758989641/the-cias-secret-quest-for-mind-control-torture-lsd-and-a-poisoner-in-chief" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told NPR</a> in a 2017 interview. &#8220;First, you had to blast away the existing mind. Second, you had to find a way to insert a new mind into that resulting void. We didn&#8217;t get too far on number two, but he did a lot of work on number one.&#8221;
According to Kinzer, Gottlieb arranged for the CIA to buy out the world supply of LSD in the 1950s which he then distributed to hospitals, prisons, and other research institutions to research how LSD impacted humans. 
“The CIA actually hired the vivisectionists and the torturers who had worked in Japan and in Nazi concentration camps to come and explain what they had found out so that we could build on their research,” Kinzer explains. 
<h2>U.S. Involvement In Foreign Assassinations</h2>
One of the areas investigated by the Senate was whether the U.S. had or at least attempted to assassinate the leaders of countries the U.S. was not at war with. According to one <a href="https://aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/ir/html/ChurchIR_0008a.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the committee, the “evidence establishes that the United States was implicated in several assassination plots.”
For example, the senators said they had “strong evidence” that the U.S. was involved in a plot to kill Patrice Lumumba, the prime minister of the Congo who was assassinated in 1961. Testimony from one official indicated that President Dwight Eisenhower had authorized an assassination of the leader.
Another favorite target of the CIA was Cuban communist dictator Fidel Castro, with one proposal appearing to involve poisoning a box of Castro’s favorite cigars. The investigators found other plots and assassination proposals, which they detailed in a roughly 300-page report. 
In their conclusion, the senators <a href="https://aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/ir/pdf/ChurchIR_5_Recommend.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a> that at the time there was no U.S. official policy against assassinations, and recommended that assassination should not be “an instrument of American policy.”
Interestingly, a source from inside the intelligence committee <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6317311778112" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has claimed</a> that the agency was “involved” in the killing of President John F. Kennedy, according to Fox News host Tucker Carlson. 
<h2>COINTELPRO</h2>
COINTELPRO was an FBI <a href="https://vault.fbi.gov/cointel-pro" target="_blank" rel="noopener">operation</a> that involved the infiltration of extremist groups by informants and FBI agents. Aspects of the operations were widely condemned as violations of the First Amendment with the Church Committee <a href="https://archive.org/details/ChurchCommittee/Church%20Committee%20Book%20III%20-%20Supplementary%20Detailed%20Staff%20Reports%20on%20Intelligence%20Activities%20and%20the%20Rights%20of%20Americans/page/n8/mode/1up?view=theater" target="_blank" rel="noopener">describing</a> the program as “covert action” against American citizens equivalent to operations a country would take during war.
“In these programs, the Bureau went beyond the collection of intelligence to secret action designed to ‘disrupt’ and ‘neutralize’ target groups and individuals. The techniques were adopted wholesale from wartime counter intelligence, and ranged from trivial (mailing reprints of ‘Reader’s Digest’ articles to college administrators) to the degrading (sending anonymous poison-pen letters intended to break up marriages) and the dangerous (encouraging gang warfare and falsely labeling members of a violent group as police informers),” the Church Committee found. 
According to the report, there were more than 2,000 COINTELPRO operations approved during the program’s existence. The senators said that the operation’s law enforcement had essentially accepted the premise that they could do whatever they wanted in order to protect the “existing social and political order.”
At one point, former FBI Deputy Associate Director James Adams <a href="https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2017/dec/08/fbi-kkk/">told</a> investigators that the FBI had roughly 2,000 informants out of 10,000 members of the KKK, meaning individuals linked to the FBI made up one-fifth of the organization&#8217;s membership.
While Bureau officials told senators that COINTELPRO had been discontinued, the lawmakers seemed skeptical that the program had actually been ended. 
Recently, the large number of FBI <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jessicagarrison/fbi-informants-in-michigan-kidnap-plot" target="_blank" rel="noopener">informants involved</a> in the plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) and the confirmed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/25/us/politics/capitol-riot-fbi-informant.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">presence of informants</a> among January 6 rioters have raised questions about whether the bureau has resumed similar activities.
<h2>Operation Mockingbird</h2>
Operation Mockingbird was a CIA program aimed at gaining access to the media through a network of journalists, both at home and abroad. According to the committee, the CIA had <a href="https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP87B00858R000200310020-8.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“covert relationships</a>” with 50 American journalists until 1976 when the agency introduced a new policy barring it from paid relationships with American reporters. 
These individuals, alongside hundreds of foreign journalists, provided the CIA with intelligence and “at times attempt[ed] to influence foreign opinion through the use of covert propaganda.”
While the CIA maintained the impact of this operation was wholly felt by foreign nations, reporter Carl Bernstein <a href="https://www.carlbernstein.com/the-cia-and-the-media-rolling-stone-10-20-1977" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> that the agency’s relationship to the American press was closer than detailed by the committee. 
According to Bernstein, top executives were working with the CIA, including William Paley (CBS), Henry Luce (Time), and Arthur Sulzberger (The New York Times). Other organizations that also worked with the agency included ABC, NBC, the Associated Press, and Reuters, Bernstein said. 
While the operation gained a lot of attention at the time, it is unclear if the legacy press learned any lessons about becoming pawns of the intelligence community. In recent years, the press eagerly ran with the assurances of former intelligence officers who falsely suggested that the Hunter Biden laptop was not legitimate, but rather Russian propaganda.
<h2>MK-NAOMI</h2>
Project MK-Naomi was a CIA operation <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1975/09/17/archives/colby-describes-cia-poison-work-he-tells-senate-panel-of-secret.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tasked</a> with creating poisons and biochemical weapons, including dart gun technology. One dart gun that they created could shoot a dart about 100 meters, according to former CIA Director William Colby.
The program also developed poisons, some to kill crops and others people, and kept stores of shellfish and cobra derived poisons despite then-President Richard Nixon’s express orders for government bodies to destroy all poisons.
According to sources who spoke with The New York Times in the 1970s, the CIA ran a trial of a potential biological weapons attack on New York City by flooding the city’s subway system with a “harmless stimulant.”
Church said that “hundreds of thousands” could die if the shellfish toxin was used in a certain way.
<h2>Bonus: Operation Northwoods</h2>
Though not uncovered by the Church Committee, Operation Northwoods merits mention because of the scope of the proposed operation. 
In essence, Northwoods was a proposal of several false flag incidents to be orchestrated by top U.S. officials with the goal of justifying a war or other aggressive action against Cuba. In <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/news/20010430/doc1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">documents</a> from the proposed operation, U.S. officials proposed arranging a “Remember the Maine” style incident (the explosion of the USS Maine provoked the Cuban-American War in 1898). 
Possible incidents might include the blowing up of a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and the developing of a “Communist Cuba terror campaign” in Miami and other U.S. cities. This campaign could be directed at “Cuban refugees seeking haven in the United States,” according to U.S. officials.
This terrorism campaign could involve exploding bombs in U.S. cities and hijacking planes, events which could be pinned on Cuba.
The officials proposed sinking “a boatload of Cubans enroute to Florida (real or simulated)” and fostering “attempts on lives of Cuban refugees” in the U.S. up to the point of “wounding” them.
Operation Northwoods was eventually rejected by then-President Kennedy.
<h2>Church’s Appeal: Don’t Let Tyranny Come To America</h2>
Church, who was <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/09/25/secret-cold-war-documents-reveal-nsa-spied-on-senators/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spied on</a> by the NSA during his time in office, declared in remarks on his committee’s work that the intelligence community had the tools and resources to have a tyrannical control over America, which is why they needed oversight.
“Now, why is this investigation important? I’ll tell you why: because I don’t want to see this country ever go across the bridge. I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision so that we never cross over that abyss,” he <a href="https://www.levin-center.org/frank-church-and-the-church-committee/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a 1975 interview. “That is the abyss from which there is no return.”
The original Church Committee uncovered the rampant abuse of power that can come when a select few have a massive amount of power with limited accountability.
Hopefully the new House committee will be able to claw back some of the excesses of today’s deep state, or at least hold their feet to the fire for some much-needed oversight.

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Mind Control, LSD, KKK Informants: What The Church Committee Revealed About The Weaponization Of Federal Agencies

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Former Trump administration official <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mike-pompeo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mike Pompeo</a> accused Rep. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/adam-schiff" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Adam Schiff</a> (D-CA) of leaking classified information.
The fresh allegation was made after Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mccarthy-formally-kicks-schiff-and-swalwell-from-house-intel-integrity-matters-more" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blocked Schiff&#8217;s appointment</a> to remain on the House Intelligence Committee, where he served as chairman for the last four years.
&#8220;During my time as CIA director and secretary of state, I know that he leaked classified information that had been provided to him,&#8221; Pompeo said on Fox News on Wednesday.
Pompeo did not offer specifics, but he insisted the problem was bad enough to restrict what he shared with Congress.
Underscoring what a serious charge that is, &#8220;Outnumbered&#8221; co-host Emily Compagno pressed Pompeo on why there hasn&#8217;t been accountability if such leaks would be &#8220;a felony at minimum, up to treason.&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s a complicated process, right? It&#8217;s difficult to pin down precisely what happened,&#8221; Pompeo said. &#8220;But I could tell you that when we provided information to him and to his staff, it ended up in places it shouldn&#8217;t have been with alarming regularity. We could see it. In the end, I decided, I held back information from them as a result.&#8221;
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MIKE POMPEO: &quot;The fact that&#8230;Schiff was the Chairman of the&#8230;Intelligence Committee almost ruined that committee&#8230;Schiff should be nowhere near serving on the Intelligence Committee. I don&#39;t think he should be seeing classified information.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/3A0iwMc3Dq">pic.twitter.com/3A0iwMc3Dq</a>
&mdash; Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) <a href="https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/1618335125707829248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 25, 2023</a></blockquote>
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The Daily Wire reached out to Schiff&#8217;s office for comment on Pompeo&#8217;s claims. “This is another patently false and defamatory statement from Mike Pompeo. While we understand that Adam Schiff is a favorite target for the failed lackeys of the Trump administration running for president, reputable news outlets shouldn’t repeat these falsehoods,” Schiff spokesperson Lauren French <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/3830797-pompeo-accuses-schiff-of-leaking-classified-information/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told The Hill</a>.
Schiff has <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/adam-schiff-says-he-hasnt-leaked-classified-info-but-cant-speak-for-other-house-intel-democrats" target="_blank" rel="noopener">denied leaking classified information</a> in the past. &#8220;I haven&#8217;t. My staff hasn&#8217;t,” he told CNN in 2020 before offering the caveat: &#8220;I can&#8217;t speak for what all the members of the committee have done or not done, including a lot of the Republican members.&#8221;
Pompeo isn&#8217;t the first intelligence leader in the Trump administration to accuse Schiff of leaking classified information. In January 2021, former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell claimed Schiff and his team <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/grenell-schiff-classified-information" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;regularly&#8221; leaked</a> classified information.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) suggested to conservative commentator Lisa Boothe in April 2021 that Schiff <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/tom-cotton-adam-schiff-potential-source-russian-bounties" target="_blank" rel="noopener">could be a source for dubious reports</a> on Russia offering bounties to Afghan militants to kill U.S. troops. Schiff spokesman Patrick Boland shot back with a brief response to <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/tom-cotton-adam-schiff-potential-source-russian-bounties" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Washington Examiner</a> at the time, &#8220;Yet another false and baseless claim by Tom Cotton — you would think he would know better by now.&#8221;
McCarthy kicked Schiff, along with Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), from the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday. McCarthy had long accused Schiff of being a repeat liar, particularly with investigations related to former President Donald Trump. During his interview with Fox News, Pompeo also called Schiff a liar and praised McCarthy for removing him from the panel.
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) nominated Schiff to the committee over the weekend, calling him &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/democratic-leader-picks-schiff-and-swalwell-for-intel-panel-in-defiance-of-mccarthy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">eminently qualified</a>.&#8221; After he was blocked, Schiff responded by claiming McCarthy&#8217;s move was &#8220;petty, political payback for investigating Donald Trump.&#8221;
Also on Tuesday, Schiff talked about how he was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/schiff-claims-he-never-took-classified-docs-home" target="_blank" rel="noopener">too &#8220;paranoid&#8221;</a> to take any classified information to his house while serving on the House Intelligence Committee. &#8220;This is what’s so astounding, I think, for all of us on the Intelligence Committee. I never take classified documents to my house,&#8221; Schiff told MSNBC&#8217;s Andrea Mitchell, who asked if he had taken any records home. &#8220;I don’t know any reason why people would,&#8221; Schiff added.
The conversation happened as it was revealed about a dozen documents marked classified were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-classified-documents-found-at-former-vp-mike-pences-home-in-indiana" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found at former Vice President Mike Pence’s home</a> in Indiana and turned over to the FBI. The Justice Department already appointed two separate special counsels to investigate former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden for their handling of classified materials stored in their residences and offices.

Adam Schiff

Former CIA Director Accuses Schiff Of Leaking Classified Information

Mike Pompeo

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/house-republicans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">House Republicans</a> plan to launch a subcommittee to expose <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/social-media-censorship" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collusion</a> between federal agencies and private companies when they take power on Tuesday.
Currently named the “Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government,” GOP lawmakers will use their new House majority to examine how the intelligence community and federal law enforcement influenced corporate America to censor narratives and track citizens, according to a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/house-republicans-plan-a-committee-on-censors-and-snoops-gop-free-speech-fbi-requests-subcommittee-11672354486" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> in The Wall Street Journal.
Unlike a select committee, such as the one called by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to examine the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol, a subcommittee has the power to consider and introduce legislation, raising the possibility of reforming a bureaucratic structure which many Republicans believe poses a threat to the system of checks and balances once central to the operation of the federal government.
The planned creation of the committee reflects a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23400811-speaker-dear-colleague-final-12822" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demand</a> from House Republicans skeptical of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) serving as the next Speaker of the House. Seven lawmakers requested a body styled after the Church Committee to consider federal abuses with investigative powers such as issuing subpoenas.
The Church Committee, a select committee formed by the Senate in 1975, exposed several controversial CIA operations, including the infiltration of civil rights organizations and efforts to plant assets in foreign and domestic news outlets. Kimberly Strassel, the columnist at The Wall Street Journal who broke the news of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, argued that the Church Committee “did far more harm than good” by “allowing the left to attack and undermine” the intelligence community.
The seven lawmakers also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/seven-house-republicans-list-demands-for-next-speaker-as-mccarthy-battles-for-every-vote" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> on McCarthy, who is seeking the top office in the House of Representatives with a razor-thin majority, to only introduce single-issue bills and make serious efforts to limit federal spending.
The planned creation of the subcommittee occurs after Twitter CEO Elon Musk released a series of “Twitter Files” he said detailed coordinated efforts between federal agents and former executives of the social media company, which he acquired at the end of last year. There existed “an organized effort by representatives of the intelligence community” aimed at “senior executives at news and social media companies” to discredit “leaked information about Hunter Biden before and after it was published,” according to a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-twitter-files-show-fbi-paid-twitter-millions-influenced-execs-to-censor-hunter-biden-laptop-story" target="_blank" rel="noopener">release</a> from independent journalist Michael Shellenberger, arguably impacting the outcome of the 2020 election.
The FBI paid Twitter more than $3.4 million for its “legal process response,” apparently referencing the time executives spent coordinating with the agency on discussing stories that agents wanted them to suppress.
Another <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fbi-responds-to-latest-release-of-the-twitter-files" target="_blank" rel="noopener">release</a> from investigative journalist Matt Taibbi publicized numerous emails between federal law enforcement agencies and company officials in which officials repeatedly flagged election-related posts from small accounts for the company to censor. The FBI responded to the release by stating that the agency “regularly engages with private sector entities to provide information specific to identified foreign malign influence actors’ subversive, undeclared, covert, or criminal activities.” Days later, a second <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-fbi-blames-conspiracy-theorists-for-misinformation-by-publishing-the-fbis-own-emails" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> from the FBI claimed that “conspiracy theorists and others are feeding the American public misinformation with the sole purpose of attempting to discredit the agency.”

Kevin McCarthy

House Republicans To Start Committee On ‘Weaponization Of The Federal Government’: Report

House Republicans Will Investigate 'Weaponization Of The Federal Government' In New Congress: Report

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Journalist Matt Taibbi released a new installment of &#8220;The Twitter Files&#8221; Saturday afternoon that showed that the FBI was not the only government agency that was in regular contact with Twitter about content on the platform.
Taibbi said that the State Department, Department of Defense, and Central Intelligence Agency were also involved in contacting the platform about potential foreign propaganda on the platform.
Internal company emails showed that FBI agent Elvis Chan asked Twitter executives if he could invite an &#8220;OGA&#8221; — Other Government Agency — to an upcoming conference.
The email referred to a Twitter employee, whose name was redacted, and said that people from the employee&#8217;s &#8220;former employer,&#8221; which a Twitter executive acknowledged meant the CIA, were specifically inquiring about the invitation.
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12.The first Twitter executive abandoned any pretense to stealth and emailed that the employee “used to work for the CIA, so that is Elvis’s question.” <a href="https://t.co/5kL8xNRZcO">pic.twitter.com/5kL8xNRZcO</a>
&mdash; Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) <a href="https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1606701420543381504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 24, 2022</a></blockquote>
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One of Twitter&#8217;s head lawyers said in internal company communications that the fact that employee used to work for the CIA was supposed to be a secret.
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13.Senior legal executive Stacia Cardille, whose alertness stood out among Twitter leaders, replied, “I know” and “I thought my silence was understood.” <a href="https://t.co/SkBObgCQZG">pic.twitter.com/SkBObgCQZG</a>
&mdash; Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) <a href="https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1606701423408091136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 24, 2022</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;The government was in constant contact not just with Twitter but with virtually every major tech firm,&#8221; Taibbi said. &#8220;These included Facebook, Microsoft, Verizon, Reddit, even Pinterest, and many others. Industry players also held regular meetings without government.&#8221;
The new Twitter Files release also showed that FBI officials helped put the company in contact with local law enforcement officials to deal with issues.
Taibbi said that the FBI was &#8220;clearly tailoring&#8221; its searches on the platform to look for potential content violations that Twitter could take action on.
Ex-FBI lawyer Jim Baker, who was involved in a lot of controversy surrounding his involvement in different investigations into former President Donald Trump, even thought that the FBI&#8217;s actions were strange.
&#8220;Odd that they are searching for violations of our policies,&#8221; Baker said in an email.
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29.The New York FBI office even sent requests for the “user IDs and handles” of a long list of accounts named in a Daily Beast article. Senior executives say they are “supportive” and “completely comfortable” doing so. <a href="https://t.co/MfSX7NcZJF">pic.twitter.com/MfSX7NcZJF</a>
&mdash; Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) <a href="https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1606701459068051456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 24, 2022</a></blockquote>
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The Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) flagged the &#8220;fringiest&#8221; conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election to the social media company.
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31. “Foreign meddling” had been the ostensible justification for expanded moderation since platforms like Twitter were dragged to the Hill by the Senate in 2017: <a href="https://t.co/b3wR2aUjcf">pic.twitter.com/b3wR2aUjcf</a>
&mdash; Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) <a href="https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1606701463971196930?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 24, 2022</a></blockquote>
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The Twitter Files showed that Twitter was at times under pressure from to take action on accounts that federal law enforcement claimed were tied to foreign governments, even though it didn&#8217;t have enough evidence to come to the same conclusion as those law enforcement agencies.
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35. “Extremely tenuous circumstantial chance of being related,” says another. <a href="https://t.co/nLnShIZTLc">pic.twitter.com/nLnShIZTLc</a>
&mdash; Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) <a href="https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1606701472246534147?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 24, 2022</a></blockquote>
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39. In a key email, news that the State Department was making a wobbly public assertion of Russian influence led an exec – the same one with the “OGA” past &#8211; to make a damning admission:
&mdash; Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) <a href="https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1606701480702259201?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 24, 2022</a></blockquote>
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The Twitter employee who allegedly worked at the CIA in the past said that one claim from the State Department about Russian influence operations was not supported by the company&#8217;s conclusions because the company had &#8220;a lack of technical evidence.&#8221;
He also said that government pressure was increasing because they wanted to give attribution to the countries responsible for the influence campaigns.
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41. Translation: “more aggressive” “government partners” had closed Twitter’s “window” of independence.
&mdash; Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) <a href="https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1606701485886410752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 24, 2022</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;&#8216;Other Government Agencies&#8217; ended up sharing intelligence through the FBI and FITF not just with Twitter, but with Yahoo!, Twitch, Clouldfare, LinkedIn, even Wikimedia,&#8221; Taibbi added. &#8220;Many people wonder if Internet platforms receive direction from intelligence agencies about moderation of foreign policy news stories. It appears Twitter did, in some cases by way of the FITF/FBI.&#8221;
Federal law enforcement also flagged for Twitter suspicious accounts that could have been tied to foreign operatives that were promoting narratives about Ukraine and coronavirus vaccines. The accounts were tweeting “Ukraine ‘neo-Nazi’ Propaganda’” and claiming that the administration was corrupt in determining which countries that it sent vaccines to.
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48. Another report asserts a list of accounts accusing the “Biden administration” of “corruption” in vaccine distribution are part of a Russian influence campaign: <a href="https://t.co/RPDDFNWaji">pic.twitter.com/RPDDFNWaji</a>
&mdash; Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) <a href="https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1606701501677961217?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 24, 2022</a></blockquote>
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51. Intel about the shady origin of these accounts might be true. But so might at least some of the information in them – about neo-Nazis, rights abuses in Donbas, even about our own government. Should we block such material?
&mdash; Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) <a href="https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1606701508862828545?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 24, 2022</a></blockquote>
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53. Often intel reports are just long lists of newspapers, tweets or YouTube videos guilty of “anti-Ukraine narratives”: <a href="https://t.co/6q7IX5S7WM">pic.twitter.com/6q7IX5S7WM</a>
&mdash; Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) <a href="https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1606701512050487297?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 24, 2022</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;This is a difficult speech dilemma. Should the government be allowed to try to prevent Americans (and others) from seeing pro-Maduro or anti-Ukrainian accounts?&#8221; Taibbi concluded. &#8220;The line between &#8216;misinformation&#8217; and &#8216;distorting propaganda&#8217; is thin. Are we comfortable with so many companies receiving so many reports from a “more aggressive” government?&#8221;

Key Speakers At Bitcoin 2021 Event

Twitter Was In Contact With Multiple Gov Agencies; Ex-FBI Lawyer Surprised By FBI’s Actions; Feds Sought Action On Foreign Narratives On Ukraine, COVID

Big Tech

COVID

Elon Musk

Twitter

Former CIA Director <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/john-brennan-rand-paul-is-beneath-contempt-paul-punches-back/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Brennan</a> kicked a virtual hornet&#8217;s nest when he attempted to defend Dr. Anthony Fauci after a late-night Twitter-swipe from the platform&#8217;s new owner <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-starts-and-apparently-finishes-blue-check-fee-negotiations-with-stephen-king/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon Musk</a>.
Following Musk&#8217;s <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-takes-aim-at-dr-fauci-in-cryptic-wee-hours-tweet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cryptic announcement</a> revealing that his pronouns are &#8220;Prosecute/Fauci,&#8221; Brennan jumped to the former (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious) NIAID Director&#8217;s defense, calling him &#8220;a national hero.&#8221;
”Dr. Fauci is a national hero who will be remembered for generations to come for his innate goodness &amp; many contributions to public health,” Brennan tweeted.
He then went on to take a swipe at Musk, adding, “Despite your business success, you will be remembered most for fueling hate &amp; public divisions. You may have money, but you have no class.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Dr. Fauci is a national hero who will be remembered for generations to come for his innate goodness &amp; many contributions to public health
Despite your business success, you will be remembered most for fueling public hate &amp; divisions. 
You may have money, but you have no class. <a href="https://t.co/0zabyXMERz">https://t.co/0zabyXMERz</a>
&mdash; John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnBrennan/status/1601949081189900288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Critics quickly came for Brennan, arguing both that he was wrong about Fauci and that his own lack of candor with the American people might disqualify his opinion.
“Dr. Fauci killed countless Americans, destroyed countless businesses, destroyed the education and daily lives of countless children, and lied repeatedly to accomplish all of that. No wonder an America-hating communist piece of garbage like @JohnBrennan thinks he’s a hero,” actor Nick Searcy tweeted.
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Dr. Fauci killed countless Americans, destroyed countless businesses, destroyed the education and daily lives of countless children, and lied repeatedly to accomplish all of that. No wonder an America-hating communist piece of garbage like <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnBrennan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JohnBrennan</a> thinks he’s a hero. <a href="https://t.co/pqkf4yxUf1">https://t.co/pqkf4yxUf1</a>
&mdash; Nick Searcy, INTERNATIONAL FILM &amp; TELEVISION STAR (@yesnicksearcy) <a href="https://twitter.com/yesnicksearcy/status/1602016079651692544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Steve Hilton, host of Fox News Channel’s “The Next Revolution,” weighed in as well, disputing Brennan&#8217;s claim that Fauci would be remembered for anything other than his connections to <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/sen-paul-demands-answers-from-fauci-on-gain-of-function-funding/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dubious research</a> and how that impacted the federal government&#8217;s response to the COVID pandemic.
&#8220;No, Fauci will be remembered for his demented obsession with Gain of Function research which drove him to evade Obama &amp; Trump administration rules to commission the reckless experiments in Wuhan that are the most likely origin of the pandemic that killed millions of people,&#8221; he said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
No, Fauci will be remembered for his demented obsession with Gain of Function research which drove him to evade Obama &amp; Trump administration rules to commission the reckless experiments in Wuhan that are the most likely origin of the pandemic that killed millions of people. <a href="https://t.co/htS5JblHpG">https://t.co/htS5JblHpG</a>
&mdash; steve hilton (@SteveHiltonx) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveHiltonx/status/1602016141924175873?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Brennan appeared to take issue with the complaints, doubling down on his initial comments several hours later.
“Good people in democracies need a more effective way to prevent attention-craving, emotionally immature, &amp; highly devious individuals, esp those of means, from being socially, culturally, &amp; politically destructive,” he said. “We certainly seem to have far too many of them lately.”
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Good people in democracies need a more effective way to prevent attention-craving, emotionally immature, &amp; highly devious individuals, esp those of means, from being socially, culturally, &amp; politically destructive. 
We certainly seem to have far too many of them lately. <a href="https://t.co/tEiDgcZjon">https://t.co/tEiDgcZjon</a>
&mdash; John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnBrennan/status/1602041419476176899?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., lashed out at Musk over the same tweet that had provoked Brennan, claiming, &#8220;Elon Musk wants to criminalize Anthony Fauci because he disagrees with him. Elon is no champion of free speech.&#8221;
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Elon Musk wants to criminalize Anthony Fauci because he disagrees with him. 
Elon is no champion of free speech. <a href="https://t.co/2UlWmvQR6n">pic.twitter.com/2UlWmvQR6n</a>
&mdash; Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) <a href="https://twitter.com/RitchieTorres/status/1601933557156438017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2022</a></blockquote>
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But when popular Canadian legal blogger Viva Frei (@thevivafrei) pushed back, saying, &#8220;Pretty sure @elonmusk wants to &#8216;criminalize&#8217; Fauci because Fauci lied under oath, engaged in gain of function research in a Chinese lab, jeopardized the entire planet, and arguably contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people,&#8221; Musk&#8217;s response was simple: &#8220;Correct.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Correct
&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1602024488664588288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Celebrity Sightings In Philadelphia – October 24, 2022

Ex-CIA Chief’s Attempt To Defend ‘National Hero’ Fauci Backfires In A Hurry

Ex-CIA Chief John Brennan's Attempt To Defend 'National Hero' Fauci Backfires In A Hurry

Anthony Fauci

John Brennan

Next week, thousands of documents revolving around the JFK assassination are expected to be released, documents that the CIA and FBI have fought to keep secret.
The National Archives and Records Administration has been arguing with the CIA and FBI for years, asserting that the agencies were ignoring the 1992 John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act that was designed to release all the documents.
According to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/11/15/jfk-assassination-files-conspiracy-fbi-00066780">POLITICO</a>, correspondence between the National Archives and Records Administration and other agencies revealed that the CIA and FBI wanted the documents secret because intelligence and law-enforcement informants from the era of the assassination who are still alive could be at risk by being publicly identified.
New York attorney Larry Schnapf filed a federal lawsuit in October against President Biden and the National Archives in which he demanded the release of the remaining assassination documents. He obtained the correspondence between the Archives and the other agencies with a Freedom of Information Act request.
One of Schnapf’s clients, Jefferson Morley, the Vice President of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11516167/Thousands-secret-JFK-files-set-released-week.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> he thought 44 of the unreleased documents mention a covert CIA program involving Cuba and Lee Harvey Oswald, who has historically been acknowledged as Kennedy’s assassin.
“What are they hiding? There’s 44 documents that we know exist, that are assassination-related but have not been released. And they relate to covert programs in which George Joannides was involved,” Morley said, referring to a man who guided an anti-Fidel Castro group and came into contact with Oswald when he was connected to a pro-Castro group. “There was authorized operational activity around Oswald before the assassination. And that’s what’s in these withheld documents.”
The 1992 John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act catalyzed the release of files that suggested the CIA’s Mexico City station had surveilled Oswald when he visited Mexico City several weeks before the assassination and boasted he would kill Kennedy.
POLITICO contended that documents point to the fact that the failure of the CIA station in Mexico to act with more speed when they surveilled Oswald in September and October 1963 prevented them from possibly stopping the assassination.
A recent <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe-biden/voters-poll-want-biden-release-jfk-assassination-records-rcna60193" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NBC News poll</a> found that over 70% of voters wanted President Biden to order the rest of the JFK assassination records released on December 15.
“There’s not a lot that unites a lot of American voters these days, but one of the few things that does is to see President Biden release the long-overdue JFK files as he promised a year ago,” Democratic pollster Fernand Amandi stated.

John and Jackie Kennedy with John Connally in Automobile

‘What Are They Hiding?’: Secret JFK Assassination Documents To Be Released Next Week

Secret JFK Assassination Documents To Be Released Next Week

assassination

John F. Kennedy (JFK)

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cia">CIA</a> documents indicate Lee Harvey Oswald was involved in a secret intelligence operation roughly three months before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, an investigator claimed this week.
Jefferson Morley, a journalist and author, made the assertion during a press conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, less than two weeks before President Joe Biden&#8217;s December 15 deadline to release still-classified records related to the assassination.
“What the CIA is hiding is what they’ve always hidden, which is their sources and methods as they relate to Lee Harvey Oswald,” Morley said at the National Press Club, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/jfk-assassination-lee-harvey-oswald-jefferson-morley-b2239997.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to the Independent</a>. “We’re talking about smoking-gun proof of a CIA operation involving Lee Harvey Oswald,&#8221; he added, asserting that it took place in the summer of 1963.
Kennedy was assassinated at the age of 46 on November 22, 1963, in Dallas. Soon after, Oswald, a former Marine and onetime defector to the Soviet Union, was arrested and charged with the killings of Kennedy and Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit.
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Although Oswald denied killing Kennedy and claimed he was a &#8220;patsy,&#8221; he was never tried — Oswald was shot dead at the age of 24 on national television at the Dallas Police headquarters by nightclub owner Jack Ruby.
The federal government has long claimed Oswald acted alone and was not tied to the CIA, but Morley says he and attorneys with the Mary Ferrell Foundation have received documents, via a lawsuit, that suggest the agency used Oswald for intelligence purposes in a secret operation approved by top CIA brass in the months leading up to the JFK assassination, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/new-documents-shed-light-cias-connection-lee-harvey-oswald-1765105" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Newsweek reported</a>.
&#8220;This is an extraordinarily serious claim, and it has profound implications for the official story,&#8221; Morley said. &#8220;The CIA knew far more about the lone gunman than then they are admitting even today. So this story deserves the closest possible scrutiny.&#8221;
When Oswald returned the to the United States after his defection to the Soviet Union, he reportedly advocated on behalf of Castro and his communist regime at a time when Kennedy sought to oust the dictator during the height of the Cold War. Still-secret documents in the file of now-dead CIA agent George Joannides, who is known to have infiltrated pro-Cuban groups, could provide proof of an operation designed to discredit U.S. supporters of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, Morley said, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/jfk-assassination-lee-harvey-oswald-jefferson-morley-b2239997.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">per the Independent</a>.
Morley is the vice president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, which in October sued Biden and the National Archives, <a href="https://www.maryferrell.org/pages/JFK_Records_Lawsuit.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accusing the government</a> of failing to implement the 1992 JFK Records Act, even though tens of thousands of documents <a href="https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/release2021" target="_blank" rel="noopener">have already been released</a>.
Last fall, Biden ordered a delay in the planned release of all remaining JFK files, but allowed for an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/12/15/biden-administration-releases-previously-classified-jfk-assassination-files/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interim release in December 2021</a>, and set a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/10/22/memorandum-for-the-heads-of-executive-departments-and-agencies-on-the-temporary-certification-regarding-disclosure-of-information-in-certain-records-related-to-the-assassination-of-president-john-f-k/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">December 15, 2022, deadline for full disclosure</a> following a redactions process.

Lee Harvey Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald Tied To CIA Before JFK Assassination, Investigator Claims

Conspiracy Theory

General

Three lines in the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/nord-stream-pipeline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nord Stream</a> natural <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/oil-and-gas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gas</a> pipeline system saw “unprecedented” damage on Monday weeks after the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Central Intelligence Agency</a> warned <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/germany" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Germany</a> of possible attacks.
<a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/russia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Russia</a> severed natural gas flow through Nord Stream 1 earlier this month, citing mechanical issues as energy prices soared as much as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/european-climate-bureaucrats-are-dooming-the-continent-to-a-very-dark-winter">twentyfold</a> in some European Union member states. The Swedish Maritime Authority reported two leaks in Nord Stream 1 on Monday shortly after a leak on the nearby Nord Stream 2 was found, according to a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/nord-stream-operator-says-three-offshore-gas-pipelines-damaged-one-day-2022-09-27/">report</a> from Reuters. Operators are unsure when the pipeline, which started carrying natural gas from Russia to Germany in 2011, will be repaired.
&#8220;The destruction that occurred on the same day simultaneously on three strings of the offshore gas pipelines of the Nord Stream system is unprecedented,” Nord Stream AG said in a statement. “It is not yet possible to estimate the timing of the restoration of the gas transport infrastructure.”
Denmark limited shipping within a radius of five nautical miles after the damage was discovered. Before Russia nixed the flow of natural gas one month ago, Nord Stream 1 had only been operating at 20% capacity, which Moscow pinned on faulty equipment.
As natural gas poured into the Baltic Sea and the possibility of an explosion mounted, according to a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/sep/27/nord-stream-1-2-pipelines-leak-baltic-sabotage-fears">report</a> from The Guardian, some European leaders began blaming Russia.
“Today we faced an act of sabotage,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said. “We don’t know all the details of what happened but we see clearly that it’s an act of sabotage, related to the next step of escalation of the situation in Ukraine.”
When asked about the possibility of sabotage, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters “no option can be ruled out” at the moment.
&#8220;This is a very concerning news. Indeed, we are talking about some damage of an unclear nature to the pipeline in Denmark&#8217;s economic zone,&#8221; Peskov said. &#8220;This is an issue related to the energy security of the entire continent.&#8221;
A <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/cia-warned-berlin-about-possible-attacks-gas-pipelines-summer-spiegel-2022-09-27/">report</a> from German news outlet Spiegel said that the CIA had cautioned Germany about possible attacks on Baltic Sea gas pipelines weeks ago. Berlin is presently assuming it was a targeted attack on the Nord Stream system, unnamed sources said.
President Joe Biden had initially <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-sanctions-russian-owned-company-behind-nord-stream-2-pipeline">waived</a> sanctions against the Russian-owned company behind Nord Stream 2, although he reimposed sanctions shortly before the Ukraine invasion began.
“These steps are another piece of our initial tranche of sanctions in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine,” the commander-in-chief remarked in a statement. “As I have made clear, we will not hesitate to take further steps if Russia continues to escalate.”
Germany, the continent’s largest economy, relied upon Russian natural gas for 55% of its imports before the beginning of the conflict. The producer price index for industrial products in Germany has risen 45.8% year-over-year as of August 2022, according to <a href="https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Economy/Prices/Producer-Price-Index-For-Industrial-Products/_node.html">data</a> from the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, which followed increases of 37.2% in July 2022 and 32.7% in June 2022.
Several manufacturers have therefore <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/european-companies-pause-production-as-energy-prices-soar">paused operations</a> in response to high energy prices and a likely drop in consumer demand. Industrial production in the eurozone has fallen 2.3%, according to <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/14698159/4-14092022-AP-EN.pdf/653e3e30-294b-4af7-4db4-8bab2cadc782?t=1663065884252">data</a> from the European Union.

renewable energy, tubes and pipes for oil and gas pipeline

Nord Stream Pipelines See ‘Unprecedented’ Damage After CIA Warned German Government Of Sabotage

Nord Stream Pipeline See Massive Damage

Energy

Germany

Nord Stream Pipeline

Oil and Gas

Russia

A new report indicates that foreign leaders are wary to trust the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/united-states" target="_blank" rel="noopener">United States</a>&#8216; security apparatus due to a pattern of faulty information subject to &#8220;political manipulation.&#8221; A recent tweet from a former top member of the intelligence community implying that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/republican-party">Republicans</a> are worse than Islamic extremists and other radicals gives fodder to such beliefs.
According to the Washington Post, our nation&#8217;s allies <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/interactive/2022/ukraine-road-to-war/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">doubted</a> U.S. intelligence that Russia would invade Ukraine due to several previous failings like &#8220;emphatic U.S. claims about intelligence on Iraq.&#8221; Others felt that President Joe Biden and the Pentagon &#8220;had vastly overestimated the resilience of Afghanistan’s government as the U.S. military was withdrawing&#8221; only to have the government collapse within days as the Taliban took over with ease.
“American intelligence is not considered to be a naturally reliable source,” François Heisbourg, a security expert and veteran advisor to French officials told The Post. “It was considered to be prone to political manipulation.”
Heisbourg&#8217;s concerns seemed to manifest themselves this week due to the former head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and National Security Administration (NSA), General Michael Hayden.
Hayden wants you to believe that the current Republican Party — which <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx">represents</a> roughly 28% of registered voters — is the most &#8220;nihilistic, dangerous &amp; contemptible&#8221; force that he has ever seen. He agreed with a journalist who said as much Wednesday evening.
Friday evening, Financial Times Associate Editor Edward Luce tweeted, &#8220;I’ve covered extremism and violent ideologies around the world over my career. Have never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous &amp; contemptible than today’s Republicans. Nothing close.&#8221;
&#8220;I agree,&#8221; Hayden <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-intelligence-director-bashes-republicans-agrees-they-are-the-most-dangerous-political-force-in-the-world" target="_blank" rel="noopener">responded</a>.
&#8220;And I was the CIA Director,&#8221; he added as if to show his bona fides for making such a claim.
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I agree. And I was the CIA Director <a href="https://t.co/LRAHDDyy4n">https://t.co/LRAHDDyy4n</a>
&mdash; Gen Michael Hayden (@GenMhayden) <a href="https://twitter.com/GenMhayden/status/1560027626626072577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 17, 2022</a></blockquote>
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In reaction to the general&#8217;s claim, Green Beret and Virginia state delegate Nick Freitas retorted, &#8220;Really General? Worse than the Taliban? Worse than Al Qaeda?&#8221;
&#8220;Please explain,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Specifically to those of us who were sent all over the world to fight these groups based on intelligence your agency provided. You owe us at least that much you arrogant ass.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Really General? Worse than the Taliban? Worse than Al Qaeda? Please explain. Specifically to those of us who were sent all over the world to fight these groups based on intelligence your agency provided. You owe us at least that much you arrogant ass. <a href="https://t.co/hGQ2rR5fHs">https://t.co/hGQ2rR5fHs</a>
&mdash; Nick Freitas (@NickForVA) <a href="https://twitter.com/NickForVA/status/1560284052372033536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 18, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Journalist Matt Taibbi had a similar response. &#8220;So &#8216;today’s Republicans&#8217; are more dangerous than ISIS, Al-Qaeda, etc?&#8221;
&#8220;Given that you used drones to assassinate members of the latter groups, do you think that’s indicated here?&#8221; he pondered.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
So “today’s Republicans” are more dangerous than ISIS, Al-Qaeda, etc? Given that you used drones to assassinate members of the latter groups, do you think that’s indicated here? <a href="https://t.co/3BTL1sDFJ0">https://t.co/3BTL1sDFJ0</a>
&mdash; Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) <a href="https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1560275738590191616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 18, 2022</a></blockquote>
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It is a good question, but so far Hayden has not answered.
He does not need to, because even if he does not support droning Americans we know that he supports using the intelligence community to interfere with American elections. He personally has used his résumé to help cast doubt on accurate news stories that harmed Democrats and Republican opponents.
Hayden was one of the 51 members of the vaunted intelligence community who <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/03/18/intelligence-experts-refuse-to-apologize-for-smearing-hunter-biden-story/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed</a> a letter saying that the New York Post&#8217;s 2020 story about Hunter Biden&#8217;s infamous laptop — which has since been verified — was Russian disinformation. Americans, as well as social media sites, trusted that folks like Hayden were making such claims out of interest in protecting democracy.
Now, it seems obvious that the folks who signed the letter were merely interested in protecting Democrats and thwarting President Donald Trump&#8217;s re-election. No apologies have been issued from the intelligence community for their bogus letter about the laptop.
It is stories like that — alongside the Russia hoax and more — which could explain why recent polling <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mid-term-exam-all-the-latest-on-the-2022-elections-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">indicates</a> that a majority of both Republicans and Independents &#8220;believe Trump’s political enemies are behind the FBI raid on President Trump’s private home.&#8221;
The FBI, a part of the same community as Hayden, also appears to be &#8220;prone to political manipulation&#8221; as the French security expert Heisbourg said of America&#8217;s foreign intelligence team.
Of course, America&#8217;s information was correct about Russia&#8217;s invasion (which begs the question as to why Biden didn&#8217;t prepare for the &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-was-warned-of-russias-war-in-october-yet-he-didnt-prepare-for-the-putin-price-hike">Putin Price Hike</a>&#8220;).
The lesson here is not to say that our security experts never get it right, but comments like Hayden&#8217;s certainly fail to help sow confidence domestically or abroad.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

General Michael Hayden

Really? Former CIA Director Agrees GOP Is Most ‘Dangerous’ Group Around — Which Explains A Lot

Really? Former CIA Director Says He Agrees GOP Is Most 'Dangerous' Group Around — Which Explains A Lot

Michael Hayden

Former <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cia">CIA</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/national-security-agency-nsa">NSA</a> director <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/michael-hayden">Michael Hayden</a> bashed Republicans on Wednesday, saying that he agreed with the claim that there was no more dangerous “political force” than Republicans. 
Hayden made the comments in response to a <a href="https://twitter.com/EdwardGLuce/status/1557984573354565633">tweet</a> from Financial Times editor and writer Edward Luce. Luce tweeted, “I’ve covered extremism and violent ideologies around the world over my career. Have never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous &amp; contemptible than today’s Republicans. Nothing close.”
The former intelligence director shared the statement, <a href="https://twitter.com/GenMhayden/status/1560027626626072577">saying</a>, “I agree. And I was the CIA director.”
Hayden, who was appointed to be CIA director by former President George W. Bush, led the agency from 2006 to 2009. Previously, he was first appointed by former President Bill Clinton to be director of the NSA, a role he held from 1999 to 2005.
The Air Force general began his career during the Cold War when the threat of nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the U.S. was a very real possibility and has witnessed the rise of an increasingly powerful China in the last several decades. 
During his tenure leading the two intelligence giants, he would have been heavily involved with the U.S. response to Islamic terrorism as he was heading up the NSA during the September 11, 2001 attacks. 
He endorsed Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential election. 
Last year, he even <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-cia-director-good-idea-to-send-maga-wearing-unvaxxed-americans-to-afghanistan">said</a> that it was a “good idea” to send &#8220;MAGA wearing unvaxxed&#8221; Americans to Afghanistan.
Hayden was widely criticized by conservatives for his statement seemingly indicating that he believes Republicans are more of a threat than ISIS or the Chinese Communist Party. 
“If you wondered whether there is a Deep State,” <a href="https://twitter.com/SebGorka/status/1560091295456133123">said</a> former Trump administration official Sebastian Gorka. “Here’s Obama’s DCI calling 74 million Americans worse tha[n] the [Taliban], ISIS, and Al Qaeda.”
Washington Free Beacon investigative reporter Chuck Ross <a href="https://twitter.com/ChuckRossDC/status/1560071556621111298">pointed</a> out that Hayden was heading up the CIA when the U.S. was attempting to hunt down 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. 
Hayden’s comments come as the Biden administration, through the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, have ramped up operations and investigations into “domestic terrorism.” However, some have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/whistleblowers-accuse-fbi-of-padding-domestic-terrorism-stats-to-play-up-threat-report">accused</a> the feds of inflating concerns about domestic extremism. In July, the DOJ was accused by whistleblowers of &#8220;padding&#8221; its domestic terrorism statistics to make the threat seem more widespread.

Nobel Week Dialogue on the Future of Truth

Former Intelligence Director Bashes Republicans, Agrees They Are The Most Dangerous Political Force In The World

Former Intelligence Agrees Republicans Are The Most Dangerous Political Force In The World

National Security Agency (NSA)

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and its former director <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/topic/mike-pompeo/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mike Pompeo</a> were slapped with a lawsuit Monday from a group of journalists and lawyers over allegations that the government agency spied on them and hundreds of others while meeting with Wikileaks founder <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/julian-assanges-wife-says-hell-kill-himself-after-brits-approve-extradition-to-america/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Julian Assange</a> at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.
The <a href="https://assangedefense.org/press-release/attorneys-and-journalists-illegally-searched-during-visits-with-julian-assange-sue-cia-and-michael-pompeo/">lawsuit</a> alleges that the CIA under Pompeo violated the Fourth Amendment rights of journalists Charles Glass and John Goetz and attorneys Margaret Kunstler and Deborah Hrbek, who have represented Assange.
&#8220;The United States Constitution shields American citizens from U.S. government overreach even when the activities take place in a foreign embassy in a foreign country,&#8221; Richard Roth, the leading lawyer representing the group, told Daily Wire in a statement.
The filings allege authorities made each visitor surrender any electronic device such as smartphones or laptops during their interactions with Assange, who is currently fighting extradition to the U.S., where he faces 175 years in prison for publishing classified information. The Wikileaks founder had lived in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London under political asylum since 2012 until authorities arrested him seven years later.
However, Roth said the journalists and lawyers who met with Assange had their conversations recorded and data from their electronic devices copied by Undercover Global SL, a private security contractor, and passed along to the CIA under the direction of Pompeo.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit have also filed the case again Undercover Global and its Chief Executive David Morales Guillen.
&#8220;It is somewhat startling that in light of the Fourth Amendment protection we have in the Constitution, the federal government would actually go ahead and take this confidential information,&#8221; Roth told reporters during a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrpR4h1Toa4">press conference</a>.
Monday&#8217;s lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and the plaintiff&#8217;s are only asking for 
injunctive relief and not money damages.
U.S. law prohibits the CIA from collecting intelligence on citizens. However, Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/cia-sued-over-alleged-spying-lawyers-journalists-who-met-assange-2022-08-15/">reports</a> that lawmakers have alleged that the alphabet agency keeps clandestine of Americans&#8217; communications data.
&#8220;Think of what we store in our phones and our computers — birthdays, bank information, dates of birth — all of this was recorded, and then given over to the Central Intelligence Agency,&#8221; Robert Boyle, a New York Civil Rights and constitutional law attorney, told reporters during the press conference. &#8220;So the violations of the privacy rights here were particularly egregious.&#8221;
Boyle argues that the alleged violations have also &#8220;tainted, if not destroyed,&#8221; a fair trial for Assange.
Margaret Kunstler, a criminal and civil rights attorney and a plaintiff in the case, called the act by the government agency &#8220;terrible,&#8221; adding she can&#8217;t think of anything worse than the opposition listening in on their plans and conversations.
&#8220;Gross misconduct is exactly what has happened here,&#8221; Kunstler said. &#8220;And I don&#8217;t understand how the CIA — I guess through the insanity of Pompeo — could think that they could do this is so outrageous that it&#8217;s beyond my comprehension.&#8221;
Kunstler visited Assange at the Embassy between January 2017 and March 2018.
Deborah Harbeck, an attorney who has visited Mr. Assange, echoed her fellow plaintiff, saying the violation of her constitutional rights is an outrage.
&#8220;I have the right to assume that the U.S. government is not listening to my private and privileged conversations with my clients,&#8221; Harbeck told reporters, adding that information about other clients in cases she may have on her phone or laptop is secure from illegal government intrusion.
Harbeck reportedly visited Assange during the relevant period.
John Goetz, the editor of investigations at German public broadcaster NDR, told reporters he worked with Assange between 2011 and 2017. He said he met with the political asylee for editorial discussion about stories at the Embassy.
&#8220;I find that quite disturbing that what was essentially a private editorial situation was conceivably or possibly are likely being listened to,&#8221; Goetz said. &#8220;I thought that we were protected, especially as American citizens, by the Fourth Amendment.&#8221;
Nathan Fuller, director of Assange&#8217;s defense committee, argued that the journalists tried to publish crucial content for the public interest and its right to know what lengths the government would reach to silence reporters who reveal information &#8220;embarrassing to the regime.&#8221;
&#8220;This should worry anybody who values investigative journalists and journalism and should be aware of the unprecedented threat that this prosecution poses to it,&#8221; Fuller told reporters.
According to Reuters, Pompeo and Undercover Global S.L. could not immediately be reached for comment.
The filings allege that Pompeo has said in the past he would target whistleblowers who exposed U.S. government secrets and argued that &#8220;the one thing [current] whistleblowers don&#8217;t need is a publisher&#8221; due to the availability of the Internet. The former CIA director allegedly called WikiLeaks &#8220;a non-state hostile intelligence service&#8221; while referring to Assange as a &#8220;narcissist,&#8221; &#8220;fraud,&#8221; and a &#8220;coward.&#8221;
Assange founded Wikileaks in 2006 and has since published over 10 million documents exposing war crimes, human rights violations, corruption, and other government misconduct worldwide. He faces 18 counts under the Espionage Act, including a spying charge related to WikiLeaks&#8217; release of confidential U.S. military records and diplomatic cables.

Pennsylvania Senate Candidate David McCormick Holds Campaign Event With Mike Pompeo

Journalists And Lawyers Who Met With Julian Assange Sue CIA, Mike Pompeo Over Alleged Spying

Julian Assange

WikiLeaks

A decomposing body was found in a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/new-york-city">Brooklyn</a> apartment surrounded by biohazard canisters and diagrams for creating weapons of mass destruction.
The man, identified only as a 75-year-old restaurant worker known as “Chef John,” was apparently dead for at least a week before he was found, the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/08/11/dead-body-found-in-brooklyn-with-possible-biohazard-material/">reported</a>. His body was found during a welfare check this week.
FBI agents and members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force entered the apartment on Thursday, collecting bags of hazardous material from inside the apartment. A biohazard test of the air inside the apartment came back negative, but the lethal toxin ricin was found in the apartment, police sources told the Post.
Police are still investigating suspicious materials found in the home, including the canisters with biohazard labels and what the Post described as “weapons of mass destruction diagrams.”
Several people who knew John told the Post that he openly discussed using poison to keep intruders away, and regularly claimed the CIA was out to get him.
Delia, who works at Lotto Luncheonette, told the outlet that John lived alone and “he did make poisons” for anyone who dared break into his home.
“It would perhaps stop them from going any further. I thought it was pretty silly,” Delia told the outlet, referring to the poisons.
“He said it was simple stuff, stuff you could find at gardening places,” Delia added. “He said he liked talking about it because it let everyone around him [know], who might be trying to follow him home because he’s old and he likes giving out money sometimes, so they would know, it would deter them from going to his house.”
A neighbor who identified himself as Dave told the Post that John was a Korean War veteran and that his son had been stabbed in a bar years earlier.
“He always thought the CIA was going to kill him. He says ‘they’re out to kill me,’” Dave told the outlet. “I always thought it was folklore. He was a little mysterious. He said he did covert stuff for the military – he didn’t get into details.”
“Once, he thought I was gonna kill him,” Dave said. “I walked up to him and he got very defensive. I said, ‘Listen, I know you since I’m a kid.’”
Another local, George Carpentier, told the Post that John said he had previously worked for the CIA. “It was so unlikely if you knew him,” Carpentier told the outlet. “I’m surprised to see this. I have no idea what he would be doing with chemicals, but that CIA thing comes to mind. He just said it and he walked away.”

Covid-19 Specimen Bag

Body Found In Brooklyn Surrounded By Biohazard Canisters, ‘Weapons Of Mass Destruction Diagrams’

Body Found In Brooklyn Surrounded By Biohazard Canisters, ‘Weapons Of Mass Destruction Diagrams'

Death

New York City

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