FBI Allowed to Keep Israeli Spyware Documents Secret, Court Rules

Ken Silva
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FBI Allowed to Keep Israeli Spyware Documents Secret, Court Rules

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A federal judge has ruled that the FBI can keep secret most of its internal documents about the use of the controversial Israeli surveillance tool, Pegasus.

Developed by former members of the elite Israeli Unit 8200—comparable to the U.S. National Security Agency—Pegasus software allegedly infects iPhones and Androids, enabling operators to extract messages, photos and emails, record calls and activate microphones in secret.

Pegasus became an internationally known name about two years ago, when the Guardian and 16 other media outlets began publishing a series of stories about how foreign governments used the software to surveil at least 180 journalists and numerous other targets around the world.

Last year, the New York Times further reported that the FBI considered using Pegasus. FBI Director Chris Wray reportedly admitted that his bureau bought a license for Pegasus, but claims that it was only for research and development—“to be able to figure out how bad guys could use it, for example,” he said last year.

The New York Times apparently wanted to know more about how the FBI uses Pegasus. The newspaper sued the bureau in February 2022 for documents about its use of the software.

The Times argued that the FBI should produce records about Pegasus because it supposedly doesn’t use the software.

In a ruling filed Friday, District Judge Jed Rakoff called the Times’s argument “unpersuasive on its face, as well as highly speculative.” The judge did not elaborate further.

Rakoff only ordered the FBI to produce several, seemingly inconsequential, records about Pegasus. For example, he said a “cover email” from the FBI’s Office of Technology Division shouldn’t be exempt from disclosure.

But by and large, Rakoff said the documents should be kept secret in the interest of national security.

“The Government convincingly explains that disclosing discussions such as these about how to test and evaluate technologies for gaining access to encrypted information could reveal information about the FBI’s actual and expected capabilities, which could help ‘allow hostile actors to exploit potential weaknesses in the FBI’s ability to assess similar software,’” the judge said.

“The Court believes the Government has established that this kind of disclosure could be reasonably expected to increase the risk of circumvention of law enforcement.”

While the FBI gets to keep much of its Pegasus documents secret, the developers of the software continue to face numerous lawsuits around the world for failing to curtail the abuse of its product.

Last month, the widow of deceased Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi filed her own lawsuit over the matter, claiming that Pegasus’s developers allowed the Saudi Arabian government to use the software to target her husband.

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

REPORT: Bungling FBI–Meta Collusion Nearly Muzzled State Dept. over Ukraine ‘Disinfo’

Ken Silva
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REPORT: Bungling FBI–Meta Collusion Nearly Muzzled State Dept. over Ukraine ‘Disinfo’

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The FBI pushed Meta to take down an official U.S. State Department Instagram account, according to a new report from the House Weaponization Subcommittee.

The report revealed that the FBI was acting on behalf of the Security Service of Ukraine, the SBU—the country’s main intelligence agency. As Headline USA has previously reported, the FBI has been helping the SBU censor pro-Russia social-media accounts.

However, somehow an official U.S. State Department account was included on an SBU-created list relayed by the FBI to Meta.

On March 2, FBI Special Agent Aleksandr Kobzanets emailed to Meta with the subject line “additional accounts received from the SBU – believed to be involved in disinformation,” according to the House Weaponization report.

“In the attachment to that e-mail, the SBU accused the provided list of Instagram accounts of ‘distribut[ing] content that promotes war, inaccurately reflects events in Ukraine, justifies Russian war crimes in Ukraine in violation of international law,’ among other things,’” said the report.

“Incredibly, on this list was the account @usaporusski, which is the official, verified, Russian-language account of the U.S. State Department,” it continued. “Neither the FBI nor the SBU provides an explanation as to how the U.S. State Department account was ‘involved in disinformation.’”

The Weaponization Committee suggested that Russia may have infiltrated the SBU and tricked the FBI into trying to censor the State Department. Much of the committee’s report is devoted to tracking the history of Russia infiltrating the Ukrainian government.

Citing mainstream media reports, the Weaponization Committee said that much of the SBU–FBI censorship collaboration occurred before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy purged the government of hundreds of officials accused of treason.

The committee blasted the FBI for doing the bidding of an allegedly Russian-compromised intelligence agency.

“Put simply, the FBI worked with and on behalf of a foreign intelligence agency—widely known to be compromised by Moscow at the time—and directly abetted efforts to censor Americans engaging in protected speech,” the report states. “As a result, the FBI agents’ actions had the potential to render substantial aid to the Kremlin’s war effort.”

Meta apparently caught the FBI’s blunder and did not censor the State Department account, which was active as of the publication of this article.

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

Police ‘Defunder’ Mark Zuckerberg to Spend $14M on Private Security in 2023

Robert Jonathan
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Police ‘Defunder’ Mark Zuckerberg to Spend $14M on Private Security in 2023

(Robert Jonathan, Headline USA) Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly subsidized “defund the police” groups while the corporation that he runs spends millions on bodyguards and other protective measures for his own family’s security.

In the last three years, Meta—in which Zuckerberg is the controlling shareholder—has spent about $43 million on Zuckerberg’s private security for “additional personnel, equipment, services, residential improvement,” and other related needs, the New York Post reported.

For the year 2023, security spending is anticipated to reach $14 million.

During a roughly similar frame, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (Zuckerberg’s foundation co-founded with his wife, medical doctor Priscilla Chan) has donated millions to anti-police organizations.

This included $3 million donated to PolicyLink, the organization behind DefundPolice.org, according to investigative reporter Lee Fang, who first exposed the hypocrisy via his Substack blog.

“The Facebook founder takes his own security seriously while defunding public safety measures for ordinary Americans,” Fang wrote.

CZI also reportedly donated about $2.5 million to an anti-police group known as Solidare, which has claimed credit for police-defunding to the tune of $18 million in crime-infested Oakland, Calif.

Solidaire, in turn, reportedly funds a coalition under the Movement for Black Lives umbrella—the latter of which claimed, in part, that “Despite bloated police budgets across the country, crime continues to occur because the police do not keep us safe, and they do not prevent nor stop crime” in a statement from national field director Karissa Lewis.

DefundPolice.org describes itself as “A one-stop-shop for organizers and advocates looking for tools, resources, and trainings to divest from policing and build safer communities.”

Zuckerberg also was reported to have partially financed an activist group that launched protests over the death Jordan Neely in the May 1 incident that occurred in a New York City subway car.

Zuckerberg, 39, currently has an estimated net worth of about $104 billion.

Major Union Witholds Biden Support as Green Tax Credits Screw Workers Out of Wages

Molly Bruns
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Major Union Witholds Biden Support as Green Tax Credits Screw Workers Out of Wages

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) The United Auto Workers labor union called out the Biden administration’s green energy programs, which cut wages for thousands of automotive workers while handing out tax breaks to large manufacturers.

According to Breitbart, the so-called Inflation Reduction Act passed last year by Democrats provided massive tax credits for companies that increased their electric-vehicle programming in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Those companies, in turn, scaled back their traditional manufacturing operations with little regard for the overall impact on the workforce.

UAW President Shawn Fain and members of the union in Lordstown, Ohio, called out President Joe Biden for the extreme cuts into manufacturer’s wages as automotive companies made the move to EVs.

“There have been clear winners and losers, and the same people who’ve always won—the corporate elite and the billionaire class—seem to think they can keep calling the shots,” Fain said in a video.

“Ford, General Motors and Stellantis are taking billions of dollars in government subsidies to go electric,” he continued. “But those benefits aren’t trickling down to UAW members.”

Fain, along with several locals, told the story of the closure of the GM manufacturing plant in Lordstown, which resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs and extensive damage to the small rural community.

“I think it was like an economic crash almost. I mean, everybody here was GM,” said Dominic Giovannone of UAW Local 1112. “… [M]y kids went to Lordstown schools, so a lot of their friends moved away. It took a hometown community and separated it.”

GM opted to close down the existing Ohio plant in order to partner with LG to open an EV battery plant, which officials claimed would bring in higher-paying jobs in the green energy field.

Several members of the Lordstown community stated that the new plant had not followed through on those promises.

Fain stated that Lordstown Assembly employees previously made $30 per hour or more. At the new battery plant, known as Ultium Cells, employees started work at $16.50 an hour, with earnings increasing to $20 per hour after seven years.

“Ultium [Cells] cut auto wages in half,” Fain said.

All of the big-three auto companies received billions in taxpayer funds in the form of EV tax credits with no requirement to increase the pay of their production workers.

The UAW withheld their endorsement from the president’s 2024 campaign as they waited for him to follow through on his commitment that auto workers would receive similar wages as the factory transitioned.

Illinois to Force Landlords to Rent to Illegal Immigrants

Molly Bruns
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Illinois to Force Landlords to Rent to Illegal Immigrants

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Illinois’s Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently signed a bill into law effectively making “immigration status” a protected class, requiring landlords to consider illegal immigrants as tenants.

According to the Post Millennial, SB 1817 amended the Illinois Human Rights Act to enable illegals to rent homes as real-estate prices continue to rise.

The new law mandates that landlords and people selling properties cannot refuse to rent or sell, refuse to transmit offers, or refuse to negotiate with someone based on their immigration status.

Moreover, third-party loan-modification service providers cannot refuse to engage in loan-modification services based on a person’s immigration status—a situation eerily reminiscent of the factors that contributed to the 2008 housing-market collapse driven by an excess in sub-prime lending.

However, woke lawmakers in the deep-blue state seemed determined to repeat the same mistakes for the sake of importing future Democrat voters.

Democrat state Sen. Ann Gillespie released a statement applauding the bill for promoting “fairness,” despite the fact that it encouraged illegal activity.

“This law sets clear boundaries, protecting the rights of immigrants and ensuring that financial institutions and service providers cannot engage in discriminatory practices,” Gillespie claimed. “Putting these protections in place will promote fairness to ensure people are not unjustly denied housing.”

Housing costs in the state of Illinois remain high, with median rent in Chicago sitting at $1,900 a month—up from $1,750 per month from last year, Breitbart reported.

Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, warned about the negative impacts of mass immigration on the real-estate market.

“Think about what this does for housing prices when you have to house 10 million people that shouldn’t be here, that drives up the costs of housing when interest rates are already through the roof,” Vance explained. “This is economic warfare and theft of the American dream from American citizens, that is the big problem here and that’s why we have to keep fighting it.”

The sanctuary city of Chicago received an influx of immigrants from Texas’s busing programs. Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot wrote a letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott begging him to end the program.

“We have shouldered the responsibility of caring for more than 8,000 men, women, and children with no resources of their own,” Lightfoot wrote. “We simply have no more shelters spaces, or resources to accommodate an increase of individuals at this level.”

Despite the apparent lack of resources to care for the immigrants, Chicago lawmakers have had no qualms about extending public resources such as education and  to their illegal residents.

Biden DOJ Indicts Biden Crime Family Whistleblower Who Fears for His Own Safety

Mark Pellin
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Biden DOJ Indicts Biden Crime Family Whistleblower Who Fears for His Own Safety

(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) Days after Dr. Gal Luft released a video from an undisclosed location, in fear for his safety, reiterating allegations of myriad criminal misdeeds by the Biden family, the Biden Justice Department on Monday announced a laundry list of charges against the whistleblower.

In a flurry of indictments, the “missing” Israeli professor who had claimed that the Biden family reaped millions of dollars from an illicit deal with CCP-linked energy company CEFC, and collaborated with a high-ranking FBI insider called “One Eye” to thwart probes into the deals, was charged with everything from failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and Iranian sanctions violations, to arms trafficking and making false statements to federal agents.

CEFC was a central actor in the now-infamous text message that Hunter Biden allegedly sent to a company executive demanding payments and invoking his father’s influence, threatening “I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled.”

In another text message to a CEFC executive, Hunter boasted that “The Biden’s are the best I know at doing exactly what the Chairman wants from this [partnership].”

The “Chairman” reportedly referred to Ye Jianming, “a Chinese billionaire tied to a CCP-intelligence gathering agency.” The day after Hunter Biden sent the message, “One of Hunter’s shell companies, OWASCO PC, received $100,000 from CEFC,” documents released by the House Oversight Committee showed.

In its barrage of indictments against Luft, the DOJ alleged the whistleblower “subverted foreign agent registration laws in the United States to seek to promote Chinese policies by acting through a former high-ranking U.S. Government official, acted as a broker in deals for dangerous weapons and Iranian oil, and he told multiple lies about his crimes to law enforcement.”

Luft went into hiding after being arrested on the charges in February while he was in Cyprus, avoiding extradition after being released on bail. He has since claimed he was forced into hiding after disclosing details about the Bidens’ criminal dealings.

While maintaining his innocence, Luft said his offers to meet with DOJ officials in 2019, during the run-up to the 2020 presidential tilt, to provide evidence and information implicating President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and other family members in a multi-million-dollar criminal scheme involving China officials and CEFC were rebuffed.

“Instead of showing appreciation for my whistleblowing, I became public enemy number one,” Luft said in a video obtained and released last week by the New York Post.

“I never traded a bullet in my entire life,” Luft said in a prescient declaration before the DOJ’s indictment Monday, and also claimed that his arrest in Cyprus was “to stop him from testifying to the House Oversight Committee that the Biden family received payments from individuals with alleged ties to Chinese military intelligence.”

In the video released from an undisclosed location, Luft said “I, who volunteered to inform the U.S. government about a potential security breach and about compromising information about a man vying to be the next president, am now being hunted by the very same people who I informed — and may have to live on the run for the rest of my life.”

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., expressed similar concern over the status of Luft and his ability to provide Congressional testimony.

“He’s got a wealth of information. But they never followed up on that meeting,” Johnson told Fox News, regarding Luft’s original approach to federal agents.

“Instead, they arrested him in Cyprus to silence him,” Johnson said. “He’s literally fleeing for his life right now. He’s on the run. He’s an important witness. He needs to be granted immunity to be able to testify and tell his story.”

New Climate Alarmist Report on U.S. Beaches Is Full of Crap

Mark Pellin
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New Climate Alarmist Report on U.S. Beaches Is Full of Crap

(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) A new report released by a climate activist group that other climate activists called “troubling” indicated that more than half of America’s beaches are literally awash in crap.

A report released by Boston-based Environment America as part of its annual “Safe for Swimming” initiative claimed that 55% of U.S. beaches contained potentially unsafe levels of fecal contamination in 2022.

While the reported numbers sounded alarming, and was enough for climate activists and leftist politicians to use as a call for additional funding, the numbers represented only a slight increase from the group’s 2020 study and a decrease from its 2019 numbers, when it found trace amounts of fecal matter, respectively, in 53% and 56% of  U.S. beaches.

This time around Environment America surveyed 3,192 beaches across the country’s coastlines with results showing that 55% had unsafe levels of sewage in their waters on at least one day last year.

That was good enough for EPA officials and environmental activists to use the study as a cudgel to beat the bushes for more funding and expanding government regulations.

“Fifty years ago, we came together as a nation and declared that all our waterways would be safe for swimming,” Environment America senior attorney John Rumpler said. “Most Americans still believe clean water is worth it and expect officials to take bold action to protect it.”

Using Environment America’s report, climate activist analysts  warned that about 1 in 30 people who swim in waters contaminated by sewage were at risk of becoming sick, either through swallowing water or through infection with bodily contact.

States along the Gulf Coast, including Florida, Texas and Louisiana, were the worst for fecal matter, with 84% of their beaches having at least one day in 2022 when the water was contaminated with feces, according to Environment America’s report.

The West Coast ranked in the second tier of worst fecal-infected, with California, Oregon and Washington averaging 70% of their beaches polluted at least once last year. Great Lake beaches in states like Wisconsin, Ohio and Illinois averaged 63% of beaches testing at least one day month for fecal matter at higher than average levels.

On the flip side of the scale, East Coast beaches recorded 48% while Hawaii and Alaska averaged 24%.

Court Rejects Satanic Temple’s Abortion Petition

Corine Gatti
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Court Rejects Satanic Temple’s Abortion Petition

(Corine Gatti, Headline USA) The Satanic Temple’s attempt to classify abortion as a religious ritual was rejected by a federal court last week despite their lawyers citing the Temple’s “tenets,” one of which proclaimed, “One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone,” a variation of the common, “My body, my choice” slogan used by pro-abortion activists.

The Satanic Temple argued that pro-life laws in Texas violated religious freedom. They claimed that abortions, particularly in the first trimester, were considered a religious ritual in their belief system under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a 1993 federal law that made it illegal for states to interfere in anyone’s religion without demonstrating a compelling interest. The court dismissed the complaint.

The Satanic Temple initially filed a complaint citing violation of freedom of speech and religion under the Texas heartbeat bill. They amended their complaint after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, stating that Texas laws prevented them from practicing abortion rituals.

“The Satanic Temple considers it a victory when they can undermine sincerely held religious beliefs by pretending their legal complaints based on ‘religious freedom’ are legitimate and deserve the same consideration given to religions like Christianity,” Arielle Del Turco, director at Family Research Council’s Center for Religious Liberty, told the Washington Stand.

The Satanic Temple does not believe in the concept of a soul. Therefore, the disposal of nonviable fetal tissue up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, as part of their ritual, did not involve the killing of a soul. They viewed it as a vital religious ceremony, and the new law in Texas infringed upon their right to religious freedom.

After Roe was overturned, the Temple announced it would open an abortion facility selling abortifacient drugs and named “Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic,” named after the Catholic Supreme Court Justice who wrote the opinion overturning Roe. People are asked if they would be “Interested in performing TST’s abortion ritual,” the website instructed. 

Elizabeth Graham, president of Texas Right to Life, expressed disgust at the idea of ongoing sacrifice of innocent blood.

“When you think of ugliness that makes your skin crawl, Satanic abortion rituals are almost unimaginable,” Graham told Life News. “Satan has always demanded the shedding of innocent blood. This child-sacrifice continues today despite laws that safeguard preborn children.”

Yellen Bows Submissively in Multiple Dangerous Ways to Chinese Leader

Luis Cornelio
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Yellen Bows Submissively in Multiple Dangerous Ways to Chinese Leader

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) In a display of protocol missteps and verbal gaffes, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sparked controversy after repeatedly and robotically bowing to her Chinese counterpart without receiving a reciprocal gesture.

Critics argued that this act of submission, alongside a list of other mishaps, portrayed Biden’s increasing weakness on the global stage.

During the initial meeting with the economic chief of China, Yellen also made an inadvertent blunder by mispronouncing his name. Referring to him as “Vice Premier Hu,” she mistakenly identified him as an individual holding a different position, as reported by the New York Post

The economic chief, a trusted associate of President Xi Jinping who assumed his role in March, appeared visibly taken aback by the error.

Responding to queries about the potential threat to the U.S. dollar’s dominance, Yellen insisted that no development, including the proposed BRICS currency, poses a risk. 

“I just want to reiterate what I’ve said in the past, which is I think the United States can rest assured that the dollar is going to play the dominant role in facilitating international transactions and serving as a reserve currency in the years ahead, she claimed, according to Bitcoin.com.

“All the data of which I’m aware shows that the dollar is overwhelmingly, close to 90%, used in international transactions, and I don’t think that there is an alternative that could possibly displace that for the foreseeable future,” Yellen added.

While Yellen was offering her best assurances, Russia confirmed it was moving forward with a new trading currency backed by gold, allied with Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, also known as BRICS nations.

Yellen’s submissive bows raised concerns among critics who believe that such actions project Biden’s weakness on the internal stage. The controversial bow down echoed those done by former President Barack Obama when he met Japanese Emperor Akihito in 2015, reported the American Wire News. 

Protocol experts argued that a reciprocal bow is an important aspect of diplomatic exchanges, symbolizing mutual respect between nations. By bowing repeatedly without receiving a similar gesture, Yellen inadvertently presented a picture of American vulnerability. 

“Never, ever, ever,” Bradley Blakeman, a senior staffer in the Bush administration, told the Post. “An American official does not bow. It looks like she’s been summoned to the principal’s office, and that’s exactly the optics the Chinese love.” 

Jerome A. Cohen, an emeritus professor at NYU and expert in Chinese law, echoed Blakeman’s remarks telling the Post, “Bowing is not part of the accepted protocol.” 

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