Inspector General Investigating Decision to Relocate FBI Headquarters to Maryland

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Inspector General Investigating Decision to Relocate FBI Headquarters to Maryland

(Headline USA) A federal watchdog is investigating how the Biden administration chose a site for a new FBI headquarters following a contentious competition marked by allegations of conflict of interest from the bureau’s director.

The inspector general for the General Services Administration is probing the decision to replace the FBI’s crumbling headquarters in Washington, D.C., with a facility in Greenbelt, Maryland, rather than a site in Virginia, according to a letter released Thursday by Virginia lawmakers.

The GSA, for its part, said it chose the site due to lower costs and easy access to transit. It stands behind the process.

Consideration for a new headquarters has been discussed for more than a decade, and the nearby states of Virginia and Maryland competed fiercely for the project.

The announcement earlier this month choosing Maryland brought sharp criticism from Virginia. The state’s senators and representatives said in a joint statement Thursday there was “overwhelming evidence” suggesting the process was influenced by politics. They called on the GSA to pause anything related to the relocation until the review is complete.

“We applaud the inspector general for moving quickly and encourage him to move forward to complete a careful and thorough review,” Virginia’s delegation said in a joint statement.

Maryland lawmakers, on the other hand, said their state was chosen simply because it has the best site and the project would be moving forward.

“Any objective evaluation will find that the GSA arrived at this decision after a thorough and transparent process,” its leaders said in their own joint statement.

The evaluation of the agency’s process and procedures for selecting the site will begin immediately, the acting inspector general said in his letter to Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia.

The GSA, which manages the government’s real estate portfolio, said it welcomes the review and pointed out that it had already released decision-making materials and a legal review of concerns raised by FBI Director Christopher Wray.

“We carefully followed the requirements and process and stand behind GSA’s final site selection decision,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement.

The review comes after Wray told staff in an internal message earlier this month that he was concerned about a “potential conflict of interest” in a GSA executive choosing a site owned by a previous employer, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

Wray said his objections were about the process rather than the site itself.

GSA denied any conflict, saying the site about 13 miles northeast of Washington was less expensive, had better access to transit and could be completed quickly.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Dem Donors Pour Money into Haley’s Campaign in Bid to Stop Trump

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Dem Donors Pour Money into Haley’s Campaign in Bid to Stop Trump

(Headline USA) Democratic donors are reportedly pouring money into GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s campaign in an effort to stop former President Donald Trump from winning the Republican Party’s nomination in 2024.

Insiders familiar with the strategy told the New York Post that some Democrats believe Haley would be better in the White House than Trump, since both candidates poll well against President Joe Biden in key swing states. Funding Haley, then, is part of an “opposition effort” against another Trump presidency, they said.

“If we’re going to lose, let’s lose to her, not Trump,” one source said of Democratic donors’ thinking.

However, the donors are trying to keep their contributions quiet, with one source saying, “They don’t want the Biden–Harris team to catch wind of it.”

This isn’t the first time Democrats have financially meddled with Republican campaigns. During the 2022 midterms, Democratic political action committees publicly donated to Republican candidates they considered to be “far-right” with the hope that those candidates would be easier for the Democratic candidate to beat in a general election.

“As with everything around Trump, we’re in new territory, including political fundraising,” a source explained.

Haley has earned the endorsements of several establishment groups recently, including the Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity Action.

The group said Haley “has what it takes to lead a policy agenda to take on our nation’s biggest challenges and help ensure our country’s best days are ahead.

With the grassroots and data capability we bring to bear in this race, no other organization is better equipped to help her do it.”

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon also endorsed Haley this week, urging business leaders to “help” her campaign.

“Even if you’re a very liberal Democrat, I urge you, help Nikki Haley, too. Get a choice on the Republican side that might be better than [Donald] Trump,” Dimon said Wednesday.

Senate Dems Say They Won’t Consider Border-Security Proposal Unless Amnesty Included

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Senate Dems Say They Won’t Consider Border-Security Proposal Unless Amnesty Included

(Headline USA) A group of Senate Democrats announced this week that they will not support any legislative changes to the immigration system unless Congress votes to provide amnesty for all “long-standing” illegal immigrants.

Lawmakers are debating over potential changes to the asylum system as part of a supplemental aid package for Ukraine and Israel. Republicans, specifically, have called for placing limits on the use of asylum, including tightening the standard of credible fear used by many immigrants to remain in the country, in order to address the ongoing border crisis.

Another proposal would require the Department of Homeland Security to keep families in custody while they wait for their asylum claims to be heard by an immigration court—a move intended to prevent cartels and smugglers from using children to secure a quicker release.

The coalition of 11 Democratic senators blasted the proposal as “harmful” and said they would not consider supporting it unless it was coupled with a pathway to citizenship for the millions of illegal immigrants already in the U.S.

“As negotiations surrounding the supplemental aid package progress, we are concerned about reports of harmful changes to our asylum system that will potentially deny lifesaving humanitarian protection for vulnerable people, including children, and fail to deliver any meaningful improvement to the situation at the border,” they said in a statement, according to Fox News.

“Any proposal considering permanent changes to our asylum and immigration system needs to include a clear path to legalization for long-standing undocumented immigrants,” they added.

The Democrats went on to claim that a secure border is not possible “without increasing lawful pathways for migration and legalizing long-time undocumented immigrants who put food on our tables, care for our elderly, and form the fabric of our communities.”

The senators who signed the statement include Sens. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, Alex Padilla of California, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, Edward Markey of Massachusetts, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Ron Wyden of Oregon.

Some Democrat-run cities and states have recently begun to complain about the border crisis and point fingers at the Biden administration for its open-border policies—including states like Illinois, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

Some on the left have deflected responsibility, insisting that it is up to Congress to act. However, the refusal of the senators to act without an amnesty deal is likely to confirm the suspicious of many that leftists have deliberately engineered the border chaos for their own political benefit as they cynically seek to import new Democratic voters in pursuit of permanent majorities.

Trump Considers Ben Carson as VP

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
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Trump Considers Ben Carson as VP

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) It was recently revealed that former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Benjamin Carson is “the leading frontrunner” to become Donald Trump’s vice president.

Trump’s choice of running mate carries much more significance than normal due to his limit to just one more four-year term, Michael Schwarz of the Western Journal wrote.

“Urgency surrounds his campaign. He would need someone to help him win. Then, he would have much to do and a short time in which to do it,” he wrote.

Most of the conservatives who heard about the news responded positively to the report.

“Wow. Would not have guessed that. I don’t know how formidable Ben Carson would be in 2028. He’s very soft-spoken. His policy positions are rock solid though. It would be hilarious to watch leftists squirm calling Trump a ‘white supremacist’ with a black VP but that’s not really a good reason to support it, is it? L.O.L,” one person on Twitter wrote.

Former Georgia State Representative and U.S. Senate candidate Vernon Jones also praised Carson, adding that he would be a “great choice.”

“This would be a great choice. Dr. Ben Carson is a God-fearing patriot! #MAGA,” he wrote.

Trump’s choice is not surprising since Carson has always been a Trump supporter. On Nov. 1, 2023, he posted a picture of himself with Trump along with the caption, “It’s not just America that needs President Donald Trump back, the world does.”

Before that, on Oct. 29, 2023, he also offered Trump a formal endorsement.

“Our nation is in desperate need of strong leadership. A President who fights for the American people, our freedoms, our safety and our future. Donald J. Trump is that leader and I am proud to give him my full endorsement for President of the United States today. Join me in this fight to Make America Great Again!” he wrote.

Meta Struggles to Keep Pedophiles Off Facebook, Instagram

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
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Meta Struggles to Keep Pedophiles Off Facebook, Instagram

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Even though Meta claims to have tried to get rid of pedophiles from its platforms, it was discovered that both Facebook and Instagram still struggle to prevent their systems from enabling or even outright promoting a vast network of pedophile accounts.

After the Wall Street Journal and researchers at Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst revealed in June of this year that Instagram’s algorithms connected a web of accounts devoted to the creation, purchasing and trading of underage sex content, Meta finally set up a child safety task force, the news source reported.

However, the Journal and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection conducted tests that revealed five months later that Meta’s recommendation systems still promote such content. Even though the company took down hashtags related to pedophilia, its systems sometimes still recommend new ones with minor variations.

The conducted tests also indicated that the problem extends beyond Instagram, with Facebook allowing large groups to explicitly be centered on the sexualization of children.

The Journal was informed by a Meta spokesman that the company was able to hide 190,000 groups in Facebook’s search results and disable tens of thousands of other accounts, adding, however, that the work hadn’t progressed as quickly as the company would’ve liked.

“Child exploitation is a horrific crime and online predators are determined criminals. We are actively continuing to implement changes identified by the task force we set up earlier this year,” the spokesman said, adding that the company plans to collaborate with other platforms seeking to get rid of pedophiles.

In its September 2023 report, the Stanford Internet Observatory, which has been examining internet platforms’ handling of child-sex content, said that Meta had some progress when it comes to the elimination of pedophiles. The organization also said that “the overall ecosystem [of pedophiles on Instagram] remains active,” adding that there is still “significant room for improvement in content enforcement.”

The Canadian Centre for Child Protection, a nonprofit that builds automated screening tools that are meant to protect children, said that a network of Instagram accounts with as many as 10 million followers each continued to livestream videos of child sex abuse months after it was reported to the company.

The Journal tests also showed that Facebook’s algorithms have helped build large Facebook Groups that were devoted to trading child sexual abuse content.

Derek Chauvin’s Stabber Was an FBI Informant

Ken Silva
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Derek Chauvin’s Stabber Was an FBI Informant

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Justice Department announced Friday that it has charged the man who stabbed Derek Chauvin—the former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murder after George Floyd died of an overdose—22 times in prison with attempted murder.

It turns out, the man, 52-year-old former Mexican mafia member John Turscak, was an FBI informant.

According to a 2001 article from the Los Angeles Times, Tursack admitted to committing numerous crimes while working as an undercover FBI informant.

When Tursack was sentenced to 30-years imprisonment for racketeering and conspiring to kill a rival in the prison-based gang, he reportedly expressed bitter disappointment.

“I didn’t commit those crimes for kicks. I did them because I had to if I wanted to stay alive. I told that to the [FBI] agents and they just said, ‘Do what you have to do,’” he said at the time.

According to the LA Times, Turscak became an informant in an investigation that resulted in the indictment of more than 40 alleged Mexican Mafia members and associates.

“Midway through the probe, however, prosecutors dropped him as an informer after he admitted dealing drugs, extorting money and authorizing assaults while on the government payroll,” the LA Times reported in 2001.

Some 22 years later, Tursack allegedly stabbed Chauvin at the Federal Correctional Institution, Tucson, a medium-security prison that has been plagued by security lapses and staffing shortages.

The Bureau of Prisons confirmed that an incarcerated person was assaulted at FCI Tucson at around 12:30 p.m. local time last Friday. In a statement, the agency said responding employees contained the incident and performed “life-saving measures” before the inmate, who it did not name, was taken to a hospital for further treatment and evaluation.

No employees were injured and the FBI was notified, the Bureau of Prisons said.

Chauvin’s family has reportedly been kept in the dark by federal prison officials after he was stabbed in prison.

Last Saturday, Brian Evans, a spokesperson for the Minnesota attorney general’s office, did say: “We have heard that he is expected to survive.”

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

DHS Quietly Deleted Vid Urging Americans to Report Family Members for COVID Disinfo

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DHS Quietly Deleted Vid Urging Americans to Report Family Members for COVID Disinfo

(Headline USA) The Department of Homeland Security quietly deleted a video posted in 2021 that encouraged Americans to report their family members for spreading “COVID disinformation” online, according to the Daily Caller.

The video, titled “Countering Disinformation: Cybersecurity 101,” was posted by DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in June 2021.

“Since 2020, there has been a lot of false and inaccurate information about COVID-19,” the video stated.

It went on to depict a cartoon version of a social-media feed from the perspective of a made-up character named Susan.

“Consider this post from Susan’s feed: It’s from her Uncle Steve, who claims everybody knows COVID is no worse than the flu,” the video said.

In the fictional scenario, Susan’s uncle was accused of using a “fake news story” to back his claims about COVID. Susan then used the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, which the video described as a “trustworthy” and “fact-based” source “due to large government funding,” to fact-check her uncle’s claims.

The video concluded with Susan reporting her uncle’s statement on social media as disinformation.

“You can’t win every argument online, but you can protect yourself from disinformation. You can stop it from spreading, too,” the video stated.

The video was reportedly taken down between April 9 and May 9 of this year, right before a federal lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of censorship and free-speech violations went before a federal appeals court.

DHS’s efforts to erase its own censorship will only hurt its case as the lawsuit, Missouri v. Biden, makes its way before the Supreme Court next year, said Mike Benz, online executive director of the Foundation for Freedom.

“DHS now has no defense to a Supreme Court injunction prohibiting them from future domestic censorship activity,” he said. “If DHS is deleting evidence of its past behavior today, it should have no problem with a court order today barring such activity in the future.”

Much of the information promoted by the CDC as factual during the height of the pandemic has since been discredited, with the government itself acknowledging that it had made several missteps in pushing disinformation onto the public.

Globalist Henry Kissinger Admitted ‘Grave Mistake’ of Open Borders in Final Interview

Molly Bruns
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Globalist Henry Kissinger Admitted ‘Grave Mistake’ of Open Borders in Final Interview

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) In the midst of a recent Islamic cultural takeover in the Western world that has led to growing anti-Semitism, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger appeared to lament his longtime support of globalist ideals, particularly open borders.

Kissinger, who passed away at the age of 100 earlier this week, led the notorious Bilderberg Group and had ties to other globalist cabals like the Trilateral Commission. Both embrace free trade, often to the detriment of national sovereignty, preferring that important decisions be made by unelected and unaccountable wealthy elites.

In a recent interview, though Kissinger—who fled Nazi Germany as a young man—admitted that it had been a mistake to allow millions of migrants into Germany, according to ZeroHedge.

“It was a grave mistake to let in so many people of totally different culture and religion and concepts,” he explained in an interview with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner. “It creates a pressure group inside each country that does that.”

The comment was in reaction to footage of Arabs in Berlin celebrating the initial Oct. 7 assault on Israel, which drew comparisons to the rise of Nazism and questions as to whether another Holocaust could happen.

“I do not have a grievance against the German people,” Kissinger said, recounting his own personal experiences with anti-Semitism some 80 years ago. “I find celebrations about what happened—which technically was a sort of criminal act—as painful.”

Kissinger, who is credited with helping negotiate an end to the Yom Kippur War in 1973, insisted that Hamas pay some penalty for their “open act of aggression.” However, he cautioned against too much outside aggression to disturb the Middle East’s delicate peace.

“The Middle East conflict has the danger of escalating and bringing in other Arab countries under the pressure of their public opinion,” he explained.

In the same interview, Kissinger also said that both the conflict in the Middle East and the tussle between Russia and Ukraine represented a “fundamental attack on the international system.”

Kissinger was best known for his work in global politics, including normalizing American relations with China and his involvement in the Vietnam War.

Many Democrats considered Kissinger to be a “war criminal” due to his actions in the Vietnam during the war.

Some speculate that he also played a part in the inception of the CIA and engineered several covert operations in South America and Asia.

Jailed Teenager Denied Records about FBI Informants Who Targeted Him in Terrorism Sting

Ken Silva
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Jailed Teenager Denied Records about FBI Informants Who Targeted Him in Terrorism Sting

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) As per a judge’s order, a mentally ill teenager targeted in an FBI counterterrorism sting operation is restricted from accessing records about the undercover informants he chatted with online before his arrest.

The judge’s order was made on Oct. 5 in the case of Davin Meyer, who was arrested in July as he was about to board an international flight in Denver, allegedly to travel to the Middle East and fight for ISIS. Meyer was 18 years old at the time of his arrest, and had been communicating with FBI informants since he was still a juvenile.

Meyer’s mother, who originally approached law enforcement out of concern for her son, said that the FBI entrapped the boy.

Following his arrest, Justice Department prosecutors sought a protective order to keep records about the FBI informants secret.

Meyer’s attorney initially objected to the protective order, which allows Meyer’s attorney—but not Meyer himself, unless he’s with the lawyer—to review records about the FBI informants. The protective order also restricts Meyer from taking notes while reviewing evidence.

The attorney representing Meyer had dropped his objections to the protective order shortly before it was granted in October. However, he said last week that they agreed to the protective order to avoid delays in receiving discovery.

Meyer’s lawyer has also argued that his client already saw records about the FBI informants, and therefore the DOJ hasn’t explained how allowing him to review those records alone would jeopardize security.

“This is a case about communications between a teenager with well documented mental health issues and two undercover agents,” Meyer’s attorneys said. “Nothing yet has been disclosed that suggests additional undercover operations implicating national security were in effect.”

In his motion last week, the attorney asked the judge to modify the protective order to allow Meyer to review FBI informant records without the presence of a lawyer.

“Mr. Meyer requests that he be able to access the [confidential human source] material in a manner similar to how he views all other discovery materials—in a supervised room with a computer and thumb drive containing the discovery materials,” the lawyer said.

“Further complicating his review of discovery in the currently imposed protective order is that fact that Mr. Meyer is housed in a county jail over two hours away from counsel’s office. Counsel does not have the resources, funding, or time to drive four hours each time Mr. Meyer wants to review the CHS Materials,” he said.

“To deny this reasonable request impacts Mr. Meyer’s ability to aid in his defense.”

The judge ordered the DOJ to respond to Meyer’s motion by Dec. 18.

Meyer is one of at least four teenagers to be arrested this year after being targeted in FBI online sting operations.

Before Meyer was arrested in July, the FBI announced in June that it arrested 18-year-old Mateo Ventura for intending to support ISIS. However, Ventura’s father, has also accused the FBI of entrapping his son.

A protective order is also in place for Ventura.

That order appears more limited in scope, only prohibiting the public disclosure of evidence about undercover FBI operatives. However, the order in Ventura’s case indicates that he wasn’t just targeted by FBI informants, but also by undercover federal agents and employees.

“The defendant and all counsel (the ‘parties’) are hereby bound to … restrictions with regard to any actual or cover name, identifier, or online account name used by any FBI Confidential Human Source (‘CHS’), FBI Online Covert Employee (‘OCE’), or FBI Undercover Employee (‘UCE’) and sensitive discovery material provided in this case,” the order in Ventura’s case states.

Along with Meyer and Ventura, the FBI announced in August the arrest of a 17-year-old boy for supposedly plotting to carry out an ISIS-inspired terrorist attack on American soil.

Most recently, a Catholic family claimed their 15-year-old son was arrested after being targeted by FBI operatives online.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

Gold Just Below All-Time High of $2,075… Will It Break Out?

Mike Gleason
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Gold Just Below All-Time High of $2,075… Will It Break Out?

As trading for the final month of 2023 kicks off, the gold market is pushing toward a historic breakout.

The monetary metal rallied to $2,050 an ounce on Wednesday, marking its highest close of the year. It then gave back a few dollars on Thursday but advanced over $15 further on Friday.

And gold closed over $2,000 at the end of a month for the first time ever in November, and now set to record a new all-time high on a weekly closing basis as well. This the 4th time the yellow metal has reached current price levels since late 2020.

Barring a severe selloff in the days ahead, gold will finish 2023 with its highest ever annual close.  Pretty good considering the headwinds it has faced this year from rising interest rates and negative sentiment.

The mainstream financial media has virtually ignored gold. Investors, meanwhile, have by and large chosen to hide out in money market funds, Treasury bills, and other forms of cash that now actually yield something – at least in nominal terms. Investors have shown little interest in Wall Street-peddled precious metals instruments such as gold ETFs, which have seen net outflows this year.

The fact that gold still elicits yawns from the general public despite closing in on new highs is actually constructive for the bullish case. It means that a huge amount of skeptical money still sitting on the sidelines can come pouring into precious metals if sentiment shifts.

Of course, once gold breaks out decisively into uncharted territory above the $2,100 level, the financial media will no longer be able to ignore it. And investors who had previously dismissed gold as an asset that was going nowhere will no longer have that as an excuse for avoiding diversification into hard money.

Silver, too, is setting up for a breakout, bumping up against the key $26 level Although it’s a long way from being within striking distance of its all-time high, it is rapidly nearing a new high for the year. Silver today is still only half of its all-time high of $50, as its underperformance continues to disappoint precious metals bulls. That said, silver is thought to be the better value right now, along with platinum.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department reported on Thursday that the “core” Personal Consumption Expenditures price index is rising at an annual rate of 3.5%. That’s a drop from the previous month’s 3.7% reading in the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation indicator.

The PCE report was roughly in line with expectations and didn’t move markets much. But it does reinforce the perception that inflation is moving closer to the Fed’s 2% target.  That means central bankers will have no new reason to raise rates again.

And with interest rates no longer moving higher, either on the short end or the long end of the yield curve, the bullish case for the U.S. dollar may be effectively over.

Gold Just Below All-Time High of $2,075… Will It Break Out?

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