FBI Official Behind Catholic Surveillance Lands Top Job in New Va. Dem Administration

Luis Cornelio
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FBI Official Behind Catholic Surveillance Lands Top Job in New Va. Dem Administration

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Virginia Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger has appointed the controversial former FBI official behind the Biden-era surveillance of Traditional Catholics as her top public safety chief. 

Spanberger named Stanley M. Meador as Virginia’s next secretary of public safety and homeland security, a cabinet-level post that oversees law enforcement and emergency agencies statewide. 

Meador was the special agent in charge of the Richmond Field Office from 2021 to 2025.  This is the same office that authored the infamous memo labeling traditional Catholics as potential domestic violent extremists. Meador was allegedly pushed out by FBI Director Kash Patel in June.

Despite this, Spanberger praised Meador’s tenure as an FBI official, claiming he brings the expertise necessary “to protect our citizens, support the brave men and women of law enforcement, and make sure Virginia is a place where every Virginian can safely thrive — no matter their zip code.” 

Spanberger’s elevation of Meador is unsurprising, given that the Biden administration and Democrats defended the memo as merely a warning about potential threats, even though newly declassified information showed the issue was far more widespread. 

The Senate Judiciary Committee, with help from the Trump-led FBI, confirmed the memo was distributed to more than 1,000 FBI employees nationwide before whistleblowers exposed it in 2023. 

The released documents also showed the FBI produced 13 additional documents and five attachments that used anti-Catholic terminology and leaned on dubious material from the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center. 

The Richmond office even generated a second memo recycling the same unsubstantiated claims about supposed links between traditional Catholicism and violent extremism. According to Sen. Chuck Grassley, that document was never released because of the political backlash. 

Separate records obtained by the House Judiciary Committee revealed the Richmond office also spied on a priest who declined to repeat confessional conversations with the parishioner converting to Catholicism. 

Committee findings showed FBI personnel investigated the priest’s background, monitored his planned travel and even searched for his credit card information. 

The FBI’s targeting of Catholics became one of the most damaging scandals of the Biden years and drove the sweeping overhaul launched by the Trump administration. 

Spanberger is expected to take office in January 2026 after winning the November 2025 election. 

Obama DEA Boss Tried to Launder Millions for Mexican Drug Cartel: Feds 

Luis Cornelio
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Obama DEA Boss Tried to Launder Millions for Mexican Drug Cartel: Feds 

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) One of the top officials in the Obama-era DEA was taken into federal custody on charges of agreeing to launder millions for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of the most violent drug cartels in Mexico. 

A federal grand jury on Friday indicted Paul Campo, the former chief financial officer at the DEA during the Obama administration, after he allegedly attempted to facilitate cartel-linked narcotics operations. 

The cartel, known by its Spanish initials CJNG, is viewed as the most powerful transnational criminal organization in Mexico. Trump even designated it as a foreign terrorist organization. 

The DOJ did not specify whether Campo ever met with a real cartel member. However, it noted that the former DEA official met with a confidential source posing as a CJNG operative while working for the federal government.

The investigation was triggered while the feds probed the cartel itself.

As alleged in the indictment, Campo used his federal expertise to conspire with the source to launder what Campo believed were $12 million in illicit funds and help move cocaine into New York City. 

He allegedly began meeting with co-defendant Robert Sensi in 2024 after Sensi spoke with the confidential source. 

After several meetings, Campo and Sensi started converting about $750,000 of what they believed was illicit funds into cryptocurrency and real estate, according to the DOJ. 

Campo also advised the source about fentanyl production and explored acquiring commercial drones and military-grade equipment for the operation, the indictment added. 

In return, Campo expected to receive a cut of roughly $5 million in drug revenue. 

Campo now faces one count of conspiring to commit narcoterrorism, one count of conspiring to distribute cocaine, one count of conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization and one count of conspiring to commit money laundering. 

If convicted, he faces up to 60 years in prison. Campo, who spent 25 years at the DEA, is 61 years old. 

Idaho Man Wins Month of Free Beer by Exposing GOP Lawmaker for Harboring Illegals

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Idaho Man Wins Month of Free Beer by Exposing GOP Lawmaker for Harboring Illegals

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) If recent political infighting has revealed anything, it’s that Republicans will betray their fellow party members at the drop of a hat.

But an Idaho bar took it one step further with a recent promotion offering free beer for a month.

The promotion at the Old State Saloon, in Eagle, Idaho, went viral, garnering nearly 8 million impressions on X, and was even reposted by the Department of Homeland Security.

The first winner, as it turns out, was a local Republican official, who turned in a state GOP lawmaker for hiring illegals as farmhands.

“Yes, I did! I had a free Moon Dog Amber Ale at the Old State Saloon…and a great chat with the owner, Mark Fitzpatrick, whom I also consider a friend,” winner Ryan Spoon told Newsweek, confirming his victory.

Spoon, who is the vice chair of the Ada County Republican Central Committee, reportedly turned in state Rep. Stephanie Mickelsen.

Mickelsen called the beer promotion “despicable,” saying agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement showed up at her farm, where she employes hundreds of workers, and engaged in racial profiling.

“If we start targeting people based upon the color of their skin then we really have a big problem here,” she said.

But as for Old State, which seemed to relish the publicity it was receiving, the bar seemed unlikely to pull the plug on the promotion, saying it may even “award multiple months” of free beer for raids involving more than one deportation.

Spoon first came public with the allegations against Mickelsen at the very start of the Trump administration.

“Could you please send some illegal immigration raids to the businesses owned by Idaho state Rep. Stephanie Mickelson?” he wrote in an X post while tagging Trump border czar Tom Homan. “She has been bragging about how many illegals her businesses employ.”

According to Newsweek, ICE first raided her farm on Jan. 27, seven days after Trump returned to office.

“They just showed up out of the blue Friday morning,” said Mickelsen, the former director of a pro-agriculture lobbying group called the Idaho Farm Bureau.

Politically, some have claimed Mickelsen is a centrist. She defended her values in an op-ed for the Idaho Statesman, saying that “Those who speak up with concerns that challenge certain views are quickly labeled as non-conservative and targeted for harassment.”

But the Old State Saloon slammed her in an X post for being “very liberal” while calling on concerned citizens to file an ethics complaint against her.

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

Newsom Gets Crossways w/ Iconic Hollywood Actress over Women’s Healthcare Funding

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Newsom Gets Crossways w/ Iconic Hollywood Actress over Women’s Healthcare Funding

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) As reports circulated that Hollywood bigwigs might be preparing to rally around California Gov. Gavin Newsom, one Oscar-winning Hollywood trailblazer made clear she was not on board.

Halle Berry, the first black woman to receive an Academy Award for best actress with 2001 win for the film Monster’s Ball, slammed the leading Democratic 2028 presidential candidate on Wednesday for his hatred of women.

Berry, who founded the company Respin to support menopausal women, criticized Newsom for vetoing a law that would “expand access to menopause care,” the New York Post reported.

“Back in my great state of California, my very own governor, Gavin Newsom, has vetoed our menopause bill, not one, but two years in a row,” Berry said at the symposium.

“But that’s OK, because he’s not going to be governor forever,” she added. “And the way he has overlooked women, half the population, by devaluing us, he probably should not be our next president either. Just saying.”

After the criticism, Newsom appeared to backpedal on his past opposition to aging women, saying Berry shouldn’t worry her pretty little head about it.

“Actually, I was just connected with her manager,” he told reporters Thursday at the Newark Airport.

“We have the ability to reconcile that, so we’re reconciling,” he added. “I’ve included it in next year’s budget. She didn’t know that.”

Newsom was also on the ticket at the DealBook Summit—along with several other top newsmakers, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who called out the “Grey Lady” for covering up major health concerns with former President Joe Biden.

Newsom also made headlines for his appearance — or, rather, garnered memes over his extreme leg-crossing.

However, his own press office leaned into the ridicule, posting a photo of him doing a yoga pose alongside a caption that said “Democracy requires flexibility.”

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

U.S. Supreme Court to Decide Birthright Citizenship Case

Headline USA Editor
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U.S. Supreme Court to Decide Birthright Citizenship Case

(Dan McCaleb, The Center Square) The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide a case challenging President Donald Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship.

On the first day of his second term, Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to refuse to recognize U.S. citizenship for children born in the U.S. to mothers who are in the country illegally or are here legally on visas if the father is not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. The order also called for denying U.S. citizenship to those children born in the U.S. if at least one parent isn’t an American citizen or green card holder.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling more than a century ago held that children born in the U.S. to foreign parents are U.S. citizens under the 14th Amendment. However, the Trump administration said the 14th Amendment has “never been interpreted” to give universal citizenship to everyone born in the country.

Section 1 of the 14th Amendment states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Several lower federal court judges blocked Trump’s attempts to end birthright citizenship in response to lawsuits filed by state attorneys general, mothers and others. 

The Supreme Court already has heard arguments related to nationwide injunctions issued as a result of the legal challenges. Now it will decide the merits of Trump’s executive order. 

A decision is expected in 2026.

 

CNN’s Jake Tapper Bizarrely Identifies Pipe-Bomb Suspect as White

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CNN’s Jake Tapper Bizarrely Identifies Pipe-Bomb Suspect as White

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) CNN anchor Jake Tapper was accused of racial profiling and mocked for his shoddy reporting after claiming Thursday that the accused Jan. 6 pipe-bomber was white.

Following the announcement by the FBI that Brian Cole Jr. had been arrested in connection with the nearly five-year-old investigation, Tapper identified the suspect as a “30-year-old white man from the D.C. suburbs.”

Evidence, however, clearly showed that Cole was black, leaving some to wonder what motivated Tapper to inject race into the report.

Journalist and social-media influencer Nick Sortor observed that “CNN can’t help themselves but push anti-white rhetoric.”

Several other influential accounts weighed in, including the account @AutismCapital, which said Tapper was “instinctually programmed to lie” and was “Literally an NPC.” An NPC, or non-player character, is a gaming term used in online multiplayer games to refer to a computer-controlled character that cannot deviate from its script.

Others mocked the ongoing incompetence of Tapper, who coyly rebuked himself and fellow media hacks in his recent book, Original Sin, for failing to report on the infirmities of former President Joe Biden.

“Jake is sharp as a tack,” said X user John Putney in response to a post from influencer Benny Johnson. “Nothing gets past him. Dude’s elite!”

Reports indicated that the bail-bond company run by Cole’s father had previously worked to release illegal immigrants and had actively clashed with the Department of Homeland Security.

Crump Sr. also was represented in a case by notorious social-justice attorney Benjamin Crump, who rose to fame for representing the family of George Floyd.

“Ben Crump Law represented Brian Cole Sr. in late 2021 in a racial discrimination matter involving his Tennessee-based company, Free At Last Bail Bonding,” Crump’s office told the New York Post. “The engagement lasted less than a month.”

Crump Sr. also donated $3,000 earlier this year to a far-left state legislator in Tennessee, Vincent Dixie, according to records from the Federal Election Commission.

Despite strong indications that his family was anything but “MAGA,” media outlets on Friday continued to push the narrative that Cole was a rabid Trump supporter pushed to the brink by the belief that the 2020 election was stolen.

“During interviews with the FBI, the suspect arrested in the pipe bomb probe told investigators that he believed the 2020 election was stolen, providing perhaps the first indication of a possible motive,” CNN claimed.

Leftist media has often been slammed over its double standard in refusing to report the race of criminal suspects when the crimes don’t fit a particular political narrative.

After Shane Tamura, a black mass shooter, killed four people, including an off-duty New York Police Department officer, in a Manhattan office building, conservative activist Charlie Kirk—less than two months before his own assassination—noted that some media reports claimed Tamura might have been white.

Blue cities also have been called out recently for doctoring police reports to claim black and Hispanic criminals were white.

In one timely example, a Somalia-born city official indicted for stealing guns was listed as “white” in court documents.

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

Report: Hegseth Ousted Head of US Southern Command Who Raised Concerns About Boat Strikes

Headline USA Editor
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Report: Hegseth Ousted Head of US Southern Command Who Raised Concerns About Boat Strikes

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) Adm. Alvin Holsey, the commander of US Southern Command who abruptly announced he was stepping down in October, was pushed out by US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The report said that Hegseth and Holsey were at odds during the first months of the Trump administration, and the tension intensified when Holsey expressed concerns about the “murky legal authority” for the bombing campaign against alleged drug boats in Latin America, which is clearly illegal under US and international law.

Holsey also objected that parts of the operation fell outside of his control since other military units under separate chains of command were also involved, including elite special operations units. Earlier in the year, Hegseth was unhappy with Holsey for not drawing up plans to “reclaim” the Panama Canal quickly enough and suspected that the four-star admiral may have been involved in leaks of potential US plans for the waterway.

Holsey hasn’t given a reason for his early retirement, which is highly unusual for a career military officer just one year into a three-year term as the head of a combatant command. When he first announced he was stepping down in October, The New York Times reported that he had raised concerns about the boat strikes.

At the time, Hegseth praised Holsey in a statement on his retirement, which officials told the Times “masked real policy tensions concerning Venezuela that the admiral and his civilian boss were seeking to paper over.”

The revelation from the Journal that Hegseth pushed out Holsey comes as the US war chief is under increasing scrutiny over the first bombing of an alleged drug boat on September 2, which involved more than one strike to kill survivors. Hegseth has shifted his story on the attack, now claiming he wasn’t in the room for the second strike and has placed responsibility for the order on Adm. Frank M. Bradley, the commander of US Special Operations Command.

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com. 

 

Israel Linked Firm Runs US Cyber Grid

Jose Nino
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Israel Linked Firm Runs US Cyber Grid

(José Niño, Headline USA) A company with long standing ties to Israeli intelligence now manages cyber security systems across more than seventy federal agencies in the United States, including the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security. 

This finding comes from a detailed report on Axonius, a firm created by former spies from Israel’s Unit 8200. 

According to a CyberScoop report, the company’s software collects and reviews the digital information of millions of federal employees and gives operators what it calls complete visibility and control over every device in a network.

Axonius states that its platform identifies and repairs digital vulnerabilities by bringing all security tools into one place. Yet its origin inside Israel’s intelligence world raises new concerns about the reach of its technology inside the United States government.

According to a report by Nate Bear, Axonius was founded by Israelis Dean Sysman, Ofri Shur, and Avidor Bartov, who served together in Unit 8200. 

Shur and Bartov served until 2017, a period that included Israel’s 2014 war in Gaza, while Sysman left earlier in 2014 to run a cyber hacking venture. Photos of Shur and Bartov remain publicly available.

The three founders rejoined in 2017 and created Axonius with striking speed. They immediately secured four million dollars in seed funding from Yoav Leitersdorf, a fellow Unit 8200 veteran and the managing partner of YL Ventures. Bear noted that same year, they received additional millions from Vertex Ventures, which is led by Israeli intelligence veterans such as Tami Bronner.

Investment from American venture firms with close ties to Israel soon followed. Accel Partners, which has financed more than 30 Israeli companies, including another Unit 8200 spin out, hired former IDF officer Nir Blumberger to open its Tel Aviv office. Bessemer Venture Partners, which employs former Israeli intelligence personnel in its Tel Aviv branch led by Adam Fisher, also joined as a major backer. 

Fisher recently gave a presentation on how Israel can shape online information during wartime, as reported by journalist Lee Fang. Another former intelligence officer, Amit Karp, sits on the Axonius board, per the company’s website.

Axonius now holds an extraordinary presence inside the federal government. The company says its platform is deployed in more than seventy organizations and is used by four of the five major service branches within the Department of Defense, according to its own statement. Federal records show contract awards for the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps.

In November 2024, the Department of Homeland Security selected Axonius to modernize its cyber operations, according to the company’s press release. One month later, the Department of Defense awarded Axonius a contract to expand its system of 24 hour digital surveillance across all military networks, as reported in another company release. In April, Axonius received authorization for any federal agency to adopt its cloud based surveillance platform, according to its FedRAMP notice.

Although Axonius presents itself as a United States company, its founders, key executives, and core engineering teams remain concentrated in Tel Aviv. A review of LinkedIn profiles confirms that most of its engineers previously served in Israeli intelligence units.

José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino 

Iranians Turning to Gold as Inflation Runs Rampant

Money Metals News Service
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Iranians Turning to Gold as Inflation Runs Rampant

(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) Iranians are turning to gold as sanctions and government policy destroy their currency.

The average inflation rate in Iran has climbed to over 40 percent (based on CPI) on an annual basis. According to an AP report, gold has become the most trusted hedge against this rapid devaluation of the rial.

The rapid increase in the local gold price reflects the inflationary environment. Last week, the price of a gold coin in Iran exceeded 1.2 billion rials for the first time in the country’s history.

Still, people are buying. A gold and jewelry merchant told the AP he has never seen such high demand for gold.

“In the past two weeks, I’ve sold 6 kilos (13.2 pounds) of gold to ordinary people — a new experience for me. People are rushing to buy because they fear their savings will lose value.”

Wage earners are quickly exchanging their rapidly devaluing fiat currency into real money. A grandfather told the AP that he sees gold as “the best way to preserve value.”

“Whenever I make money, I turn it into gold,” Behzad Rashvand said.

Audio equipment salesman Hamid Safari has adopted a similar strategy.

“Whenever I have enough money to save, I immediately convert it into gold. Throughout history, gold has not only held its value but also increased in worth. We should learn from history if we want to build a better life.”

Fatemeh Parsa invested her inheritance in real estate. Now she regrets that decision.

“With global gold prices rising, I sometimes wish I had bought gold instead — my assets would have grown much more than real estate. Now, it seems that investing in silver could be valuable, especially for my children’s future.”

Some Iranians turned to cryptocurrency to keep ahead of inflation, but that has proved problematic because the U.S. government has cracked down on Iranian crypto sellers. The U.S. slapped sanctions on two Iranian financiers, along with more than a dozen individuals and firms in Hong Kong and the UAE, for coordinating the purchase of $100 million in cryptocurrency that was used to facilitate oil sales by the Iranian government.

Iranians have not only turned to gold as an inflation hedge. They value its portability. Many Iranians fled Tehran to the countryside during the 12-day war with Israel. The influx of people overwhelmed rural infrastructure, and ATMs quickly ran out of cash or broke down.

Gold solves this problem because it is easy to transport. According to the AP, people have learned from history.

“Many who fled the cities during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war took whatever they could with them. And in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, those allied with the shah and his government fled Iran with whatever they could carry. Back then, the rial hit an all-time high of 120 to $1, which saw money-changing shops inundated and people buying gold, jewelry, rugs and other assets to spirit abroad.”

A 49-year-old fabric importer told the AP he is liquidating his assets and turning them into foreign currency and gold.

“In an emergency, I need to be able to carry my assets with me if I have to leave.”

Iranians are following a universal strategy. When government money fails and the financial system breaks down, they turn to gold. For instance, Indians used their vast gold savings to make ends meet during the COVID lockdowns, and Turkish citizens are currently gobbling up gold to shield themselves from their government’s relentless devaluation of their money.

Americans aren’t facing the kind of borderline hyperinflation currently gripping Iran and Turkey, but their government is also devaluing their currency by design. Keep in mind that inflation is the plan. The stated objective is to erode the purchasing power of the dollar by 2 percent every year. Currency depreciation is considered a feature of a fiat monetary system – not a bug.

Whether your government is stealing your money’s purchasing power slowly or all at once, the only way to protect your wealth over time is to exchange your fiat money for real money that can’t be printed – gold and silver.

Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for Money Metals with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.

Now That’s a Donation! Gold Coins Dropped in Chicago Area Salvation Army Kettle

Money Metals News Service
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Now That’s a Donation! Gold Coins Dropped in Chicago Area Salvation Army Kettle

(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) Talk about a generous Christmas giving spirit!

Somebody dropped nearly $11,000 into two Salvation Army kettles in the Chicago area.

And get this. They made the generous donation using just 8 coins.

As you might have guessed by now, we’re not talking about quarters. These coins were gold!

According to the Salvation Army, eight gold coins showed up in two separate donations at the Red Kettle campaign at Daley Plaza’s Christkindlmarket. The haul included a 1-ounce American Gold Eagle valued at over $4,000, along with seven other smaller coins (they appear to be quarter-ounce worth at around $1,000 each at the current spot price).

“These gold coins will help us fund the services that help people in Chicago all year long. We hope the generosity of these donors will be matched many times over this Christmas season,” Corp Officer Matthew Manley told the Chicago Sun-Times.

As a bonus, the Salvation Army can hold on to the gold for a while if it wants to, without worrying about the relentless devaluation of dollars courtesy of the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve.

Virtually every year, we hear stories about generous donors pitching gold into Salvation Army kettles. Gold donations have been reported in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan, California, and other states in recent years. Last year, a woman donated an estate gift including 17 gold coins valued at $40,000.

If they had kept the coins, they’d be worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $64,000 based on the 60 percent gain in the gold price this year!

These gold donations almost always make the news. That’s because everybody recognizes the value of gold. A quarter is a quarter (unless you have a pre-1965 quarter that is 90 percent silver), and a dollar is paper. But gold – now we’re talking about real money, i.e., sound money!

If you are still looking for a last-minute Christmas gift, perhaps you should consider the gift of gold or silver. We can guarantee your gift won’t end up in a garage sale next year. And it will likely be worth more than when they opened it.

Check out the Money Metals’ Holiday Gift Shop, and have a wonderful holiday season!

Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for Money Metals with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.
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