Posts

South Korea Fires Warning Shots as Russian, Chinese Military Planes Enter Airspace

South Korea has reportedly fired warning shots after Russian military planes violated the nation’s airspace on Tuesday, according to South Korea’s Defense Ministry.

The Associated Press reported that, according to South Korea’s Defense Ministry, “multiple Russian military planes violated the South Korean airspace off its east coast” and “Chinese military planes also intruded into South Korea’s aerial identification zone.” . . .

The provocation comes after “two Russian military aircraft violated South Korea’s air defense identification zone [last Thursday], prompting the Air Force to scramble fighter jets in response,” the Korea Herald reported.

The incident comes as North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un “inspected a large newly built submarine, state news agency KCNA reported on Tuesday, potentially signalling continued development of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) program,” Reuters reported. . .

“We can clearly see that it is a massive submarine — much larger than the existing one that’s been well known since 2014,” said Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Federation of American Scientists. “What I find significant about the political messaging here is that this is the first time since a February 2018 military parade that he has inspected a military system clearly designed to carry and deliver nuclear weapons. I take that as an ominous signal that we should be taking Kim Jong Un’s end-of-year deadline for the implementation of a change in U.S. policy with the utmost seriousness.” (Read more from “South Korea Fires Warning Shots as Russian, Chinese Military Planes Enter Airspace” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Russian Intelligence Agency Suffers ‘Largest Data Breach in Its History’

. . .According to BBC Russia, the Russian intelligence agency’s computer systems have been penetrated by an outfit calling itself “0v1ru$” and 7.5 terabytes of data has been stolen. 0v1ru$ then passed the data along to the larger, well known group Digital Revolution who then disseminated the information to various media outlets. . .

Forbes:

BBC Russia broke the news that 0v1ru$ had breached SyTech’s servers and shared details of contentious cyber projects, projects that included social media scraping (including Facebook and LinkedIn), targeted collection and the “de-anonymization of users of the Tor browser.” The BBC described the breach as possibly “the largest data leak in the history of Russian intelligence services.”

As well as defacing SyTech’s homepage with the Yoba Face, 0v1ru$ also detailed the project names exposed: “Arion”, “Relation”, “Hryvnia,” alongside the names of the SyTech project managers. The BBC report claims that no actual state secrets were exposed.

The projects themselves appear to be a mix of social media scraping (Nautilus), targeted collection against internet users seeking to anonymize their activities (Nautilus-S), data collection targeting Russian enterprises (Mentor), and projects that seem to relate to Russia’s ongoing initiative to build an option to separate the internal internet from the world wide web (Hope and Tax-3).

(Read more from “Russian Intelligence Agency Suffers ‘Largest Data Breach in Its History'” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

The OTHER Malaysian Airlines Flight: Three Russians and Ukranian Charged with Shooting down MH17

By Townhall. Just days after The Atlantic published their comprehensive investigation on the whereabouts of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared into thin air in March 2014, a European joint task force revealed it has leveled charges against four men — one Ukranian and three Russians — for a second Malaysian airlines tragedy: the July 2014 explosion of MH17.

The BBC reports that the four men, who investigators believe were in direct contact with Russian officials, are accused of transporting missiles into an area of Ukraine for the purpose of shooting down a passenger jet. The four “did not push the button themselves,” investigators say, but provided the local milita with the means used to down the Malaysian airlines flight.

The joint investigative team is Dutch and plans to prosecute the four men — Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov from Russia, and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenkoin — in the Netherlands under Dutch law. The trial won’t begin until 2020, however, since Dutch authorities say they still have at least eight more persons of interest to investigate in relation to the case.

Investigators believe that Girkin, a former Russian intelligence official, was in “direct contact with the Russian Federation” and that he and his team were well aware of what they were arming local militias to do, and that they’d reported their progress to Russian officials. . .

Unsurprisingly, Russia has refused to cooperate with the investigation and disputes the Dutch investigators’ findings. Russian officials say they do not believe any of their anti-aircraft missiles ever crossed the Russian border into Ukraine, even though investigators believe that the missile that hit MH17 belonged to the “53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile brigade,” based in Kursk. (Read more from “The OTHER Malaysian Airlines Flight: Three Russians and Ukranian Charged with Shooting down MH17” HERE)

__________________________________________________

MH17: Four Charged with Shooting down Plane over Ukraine

By BBC News. For the first time since Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down in July 2014, prosecutors have announced charges against suspects in the case. . .

The passenger jet left Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport at 10:15 GMT on 17 July 2014 and was due to arrive at Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia the following day.

A few hours after take-off, the plane lost contact with air traffic control about 50km (30 miles) from the Russia-Ukraine border.

At the time, an armed conflict was raging on the ground in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces, and several government military aircraft had been downed in the previous weeks, while government air strikes were being carried out on rebel-held areas.

The plane crashed in the Donetsk area, in territory controlled by separatists. Parts of the wreckage were found distributed over an area of about 50 sq km (19 square miles). (Read more from “MH17: Four Charged with Shooting down Plane over Ukraine” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Russia to Make Film Blaming U.S. And CIA for Nuclear Accident

By PJ Media. . .Recently, HBO broadcast the emotionally gripping account of what happened during the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The series Chernobyl, which ended a few days ago, depicted the stupidity, negligence, bureaucratic bungling, heroism, and the conspiracy of silence from the government that kept the true cost in lives and rubles of the disaster secret for decades. The series was a huge hit — even in Russia. . .

But the portrayal in the series of Soviet government culpability in keeping vital information from the operators at the power plant and the KGB efforts to hush the whole thing up apparently didn’t sit well with Putin’s regime. The Cultural Ministry is funding a film of the disaster that tells a much different story.

The premise is ludicrous because the seeds of the reactor’s destruction were sown before the plant was even built. There was a fatal flaw in the RBMK reactor design that led directly to the explosion of the reactor core. Inadequately trained plant personnel, who were conducting a safety test at the time of the explosion, were also a major contributing factor.

But in Putin’s Russia, up is down, black is white, and, when in doubt, always blame America and the CIA:

‘One theory holds that Americans had infiltrated the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and many historians do not deny that, on the day of the explosion, an agent of the enemy’s intelligence services was present at the station,’ Muradov explained to the Moscow Times.

(Read more from “Russia to Make Film Blaming U.S. And CIA for Nuclear Accident” HERE)

___________________________________________________

Russia Is Making Its Own ‘Correct’ Version of Chernobyl That Will Blame AMERICA and the CIA for the Nuclear Disaster Following the Unexpected Success of the New HBO Show

By Daily Mail. Furious at the breakout success of the HBO series Chernobyl, Russia is planning to make its own series portraying the nuclear disaster as the work of an American CIA operative.

Russian television broadcaster NTV announced that it had commissioned the series, and principal photography has already begun in Belarus under director Alexei Muradov.

In response to the HBO series’ depiction of Soviet bureaucrats bungling the response both during and after the 1986 nuclear accident in the Ukrainian SSR, the Russian version plans to tell the tale of a heroic KGB agent trying to thwart a supposed CIA sabotage plot. . .

The Chernobyl disaster occurred during a failed safety test of the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and there is no credible evidence to suggest that the accident was part of a CIA plot.

The HBO miniseries covering the disaster finished its five-episode run on June 3, and as of Thursday had the highest audience ranking on IMDb, with 9.6 out of 10 stars – beating even such mega-hit series as Breaking Bad and Game Of Thrones. (Read more from “Russia Is Making Its Own ‘Correct’ Version of Chernobyl That Will Blame AMERICA and the CIA for the Nuclear Disaster Following the Unexpected Success of the New HBO Show” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Russia Cuts Disturbing Homosexual Sex Scene from ‘Rocketman’

A Russian media company has reportedly cut all scenes featuring gay sex and men kissing from the Elton John biopic Rocketman because of laws banning “homosexual propaganda”.

An estimated five minutes of footage have been cut from the film in an attempt to play down the sexuality of one of the world’s most famous gay celebrities for a conservative Russian audience.

The cuts were first reported by Russian journalists after the film’s 30 May release in Moscow. Anton Dolin, a popular Russian film critic, wrote on Facebook that “all scenes with kissing, sex and oral sex between men have been cut out… The nastiest part is that the final caption has been removed from the finale.”

While the original caption said that John lives with his husband and that they are raising children together, the Russian version says instead that he established an Aids foundation and continues to work with his musical partner. . . .

On Friday, John and the film’s makers released a joint statement condemning the cuts: “We reject in the strongest possible terms the decision to pander to local laws and censor Rocketman for the Russian market, a move we were unaware of until today. (Read more from “Russia Cuts Disturbing Homosexual Sex Scene from ‘Rocketman'” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Influencing Elections? Ha — Russians Are Coming Right to Our Border

Our political system has been paralyzed over the past year with the incessant news cycle on Russian influence in our elections. Anything and everything related to Mueller’s Russia probe has forced our border crisis to take a back seat to the implied threat of “the Russians are coming.” Well, according to border experts who’ve spoken with CR, Russians are showing up on our southern border. Will the broader media and the politicians now take an interest in the border?

Jaeson Jones, a retired captain from the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division, warns that the cartels in charge of the plazas at the border are now helping to smuggle Russians into south Texas. “In the last few weeks in south Texas, Border Patrol agents have apprehended several Russians being smuggled between the ports of entry by the Gulf Cartel,” said Jones in an exclusive interview with CR.

Although Jones is retired from his counter-cartel work for Texas law enforcement, he is in regular contact with border officials and cartel informants and continues to train local, federal, and state law enforcement on the latest trends, tradecraft, and capabilities of the cartels. Jones is hearing that the smugglers are strategically using the masses of Central Americans showing up in the Rio Grande Valley, often up to 2,000 per day, to carefully bring over Russians in small, unassuming numbers.

“The Gulf Cartel is currently staging small groups of two and three Russians throughout the Reynosa plaza to be smuggled into the country illegally,” said Jones, who used to manage the daily operations of the Texas Rangers’ Border Security Operations Center (BSOC). “This type of smuggling activity is utilized to move what the cartel deems high-value people. We see this activity often when smuggling special interest aliens (SIAs). Those are people who come from a country with a terrorism nexus. This is due to their ability to pay more money to be crossed illegally.”

Current government officials working on border issues have confirmed a similar trend of aliens coming from countries of terrorism concern or threats of espionage. Last week, I interviewed Jack Staton, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations’ (HSI) El Paso division. He observed that there is nothing unique about Central Americans using the loopholes and lapse in coverage at the border. He noted that because we’re not able to detain these people, they’re incentivized to come from all over the world, including Russia.

“Along with the continued flow, you’re going to have every nationality do it. It’s not just going to be Central Americans. We’ve seen non-Central American family units also coming up. We’ve seen families from Turkey and from Brazil. In our area here, we’ve seen Turkish nationals coming in, we’ve seen individuals from Angola, the Congo, we’ve seen individuals from Russia. … We’ve seen a lot of Brazilians coming in; many of the Brazilians are coming in as families, as are Turkish families. We’ve also seen a major influx of Cubans coming into our area here.”

Russia has a robust presence in Latin America. Border agents are tied down at the border, and the secondary checkpoints in the El Paso sector, which includes all of New Mexico, are completely unmanned. This means that any suspicious immigration activity, such as people coming from non-traditional migrant countries up the main highways, will go unchecked.

Staton noted that the secondary checkpoints were actually set up more for immigration enforcement than for drugs. “They’re not narcotics checkpoints. That’s a secondary function of them, in the sense that people have to stop for an immigration inspection. And then, all of a sudden, agents might find narcotics.”

In a recent interview with Staton’s counterpart at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in El Paso, Kyle Williamson, he also expressed concern that countries of security concern are exploiting the vulnerabilities. When I asked Williamson whether he thinks there is a looming threat from terrorists coming into the country with the knowledge that our agents are tied down at the border and that the secondary checkpoints remain unmanned, he responded emphatically, “Yes, it’s definitely a threat.”

“Let’s just put it this way, the cartels are an international organization. It’s a real threat, it’s a prevalent threat, and they do have their associations with groups like Hezbollah, with Afghans, and with radical terrorist organizations,” warned Williamson, who also served in the DEA’s offices in the Middle East overseeing narco-terrorism enforcement. “What that does is effectively move those borders right up to the United States. Those cartels link the borders. Just like they use their resources, their technology, their criminal enterprise to conduct criminal activities, they can use those resources to assist terrorists as well.”

Williamson sees no reason why national security should be any less affected by open borders than vulnerability to drug trafficking. “When you look at a terrorist organization, obviously they capitalize on chaos. When your borders are in chaos, the same way the drug traffickers exploit that to move the drugs through while border agents are moved away from the field, the terrorists have the same knowledge how to exploit the situation.” So what are Russians being moved in for?

Sheriff David Black of Otero County, which has two checkpoints now unmanned thanks to the surge in migration, was concerned that the highways coming up from El Paso into his county may serve as a conduit for national security threats. “If someone wants to get in to do harm to this country, there is nothing stopping them whatsoever,” said the sheriff. “They don’t even have to risk the hardship of coming over the rugged Mesa area with a load and a gallon of water when they can come straight up our highway without anyone stopping them.”

It’s no wonder the Supreme Court has said, “The right to [exclude aliens] stems not alone from legislative power but is inherent in the executive power to control the foreign affairs of the nation (Knauff v. Shaughnessy, 1950). The vulnerability of a broken asylum system has a cascading effect on numerous diplomatic and security issues not just with Mexico but with many adversaries in the world. If the president’s power over immigration isn’t enough to justify shutting down asylum processing at the border, perhaps the ubiquitous fear of “Russian interference” will spawn the political actors to act. (For more from the author of “Influencing Elections? Ha — Russians Are Coming Right to Our Border” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Judge Rules D.C. Radio Station Must Register as a Foreign Agent

By The Hill. A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a radio station in Washington, D.C., must register as a Russian foreign agent.

U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenburg ruled in favor of the Justice Department in finding that RM Broadcasting, which airs Sputnik International 24/7 from Moscow, is a foreign principal, WTOP reported.

RM, a Florida-based company owned by an American named Arnold Ferolito, argued in a lawsuit that it was only buying and reselling airtime to Rossiya Segodnya, a Russian government-owned news agency.

RM in 2017 agreed to broadcast the agency’s communications continuously without edit until 2021, the AP reported. (Read more from “Judge Rules D.C. Radio Station Must Register as a Foreign Agent” HERE)

_______________________________________________

Judge Rules DC-Based Radio Station Register as Russian Agent

By WTOP. The station airs Sputnik International broadcast from Moscow.

The ruling enforces the Foreign Agents Registration Act, originally adopted by Congress in 1938 to combat Nazi propaganda.

In her opinion, Rosenburg writes that while RM’s owner, an American named Arnold Ferolito, contended the station simply buys and resells airtime to the creators of Sputnik International, it’s required to do much more, including its own programming.

Though Ferolito acknowledged selling airtime to Rossiya Segodnya, the Russian Federation government-owned news agency, and contends “this commercial transaction in no way created an agency relationship,” the judge sided with the Justice Department’s argument based on FARA.

“FARA is a disclosure statute that requires persons acting as agents of foreign principals in a political or quasi-political capacity to make periodic public disclosure of their relationship with the foreign principal, as well as activities, receipts and disbursements in support of those activities,” according to the definition on the DOJ’s website. (Read more from “Judge Rules DC-Based Radio Station Register as Russian Agent” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

From Russia With Love: Biden Pushed Hillary Clinton to Form Closer Ties With Russia

By Townhall. In the aftermath of the Mueller report and former Vice President Joe Biden’s announcement Thursday he intends to run for president in 2020, several news outlets began reporting on Biden’s desire during his tenure in the Obama administration to develop closer ties to Russia.

The Washington Free Beacon published a piece Thursday morning reminding readers of Biden’s defense of Russia following then-candidate Mitt Romney’s concern over Russia’s apparent moves toward geopolitical domination in 2012.

In 2012, when Romney expressed concern that President Barack Obama was caught on a hot-mic promising more “flexibility” regarding Russia, Biden took it as an opportunity to herald that administration’s “Russia reset” — an approach championed by Hillary Clinton — and marginalize Romney as a doddering conservative still approaching the U.S./Russia relationship from a Cold War perspective. . .

Biden then went on to insist Russia was working with the Obama administration in everything from Iran to Afghanistan, and insisted, a month later, that Russia was the reason for new relationships with nations such as China and Turkey. (Read more from “From Russia With Love: Biden Pushed Hillary Clinton to Form Closer Ties With Russia” HERE)

_________________________________________________________

Biden Wanted to Establish a ‘Biden-Putin Commission’ to Cozy up to the Kremlin

By Jordan Schachtel. Two separate emails, disclosed in late 2018 through a State Department Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, show that the Obama administration — and Joe Biden personally — was heavily invested in the idea of cozying up to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

Biden officially announced that he was running for president Thursday. During his speech, he articulated several false narratives to take shots at President Trump.

Now that the former Obama VP is in the race, perhaps he will answer questions concerning his past idea to establish a Biden-Putin commission to forge closer ties with the Kremlin.

In an undated email from Strobe Talbott, former deputy secretary of state under Bill Clinton, to Hillary Clinton, using the subject line “Russia,” the then-Brookings Institution president told Clinton that Biden floated the idea of the commission intended to bolster ties to Russia.

“The VP told me on the margins of the big ceremony at State that he was thinking seriously about a Biden-Putin Commission. I have a thought or two on that subject that I’d like to share with you whenever it’s appropriate.”

In another email, this time from the late Sandy Berger (who served as national security adviser to Bill Clinton), it appeared that Clinton was on board with the idea.

“I think your idea of establishing a Biden-Putin Commission — like Gore-Chemomydrin — to coordinate and drive the US-Russian relationship has a lot of merit,” Berger wrote in an email to Hillary Clinton.

“It elevates the relationship after eight years of neglect which has fueled nationalistic resentment in Moscow and provides a mechanism for achieving trade-offs that can produce a larger bargain,” Berger added.

Biden’s infatuation with Russia began during his time serving as a senator, when he made routine trips to the then-Soviet Union to meet with top USSR leaders.

As Trevor Loudon explains in The Epoch Times:

“Throughout the 1980s, Biden consistently opposed President Ronald Reagan’s tough line against the Soviet Union. Biden instead favored détente—which, had that policy remained in place, would have meant more subsidies and trade deals, keeping the Soviet Union alive much longer than necessary.”

“Biden also was a strong opponent of U.S. military opposition to Soviet expansionism,” Loudon adds.

Since the days of the early Soviet Union, the Democratic Party has remained consistently soft on Russia. Democrats’ rhetoric and policies on Moscow, however, suddenly changed when President Trump was implicated in the Russian collusion hoax, which was spawned by Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

And in their efforts to label the president as weak on Russia, much of the Left — and virtually every top official in the Obama administration — sought to erase the Obama administration’s incredible capitulation to Russia on almost every major geopolitical issue.

The Obama administration allowed unchecked election interference, promised “more flexibility” after the 2012 election, attempted an infamous botched “reset,” closed a controversial Uranium One deal, oversaw Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, and held Russia responsible for securing Syria’s chemical weapons, and that’s just a handful of the many botched foreign policy decisions vis-a-vis Russia made by the Obama White House.

Biden himself has been objectively dovish and complimentary of post-communist Russia, the Washington Free Beacon reminds us. The publication listed several comments from then-VP Biden making it clear that he saw Russia as a partner rather than an adversary.

“Governor Romney’s answer I thought was incredibly revealing. He acts like he thinks the Cold War is still on, Russia is still our major adversary. I don’t know where he has been,” Biden said in one such quote resurfaced by the Free Beacon, in which he was commenting on a debate between then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney and incumbent President Obama.

In other comments, Biden frequently positioned Russia as a partner against our common adversaries, when in fact, Russia was instead partnering with our adversaries. (For more from the author of “Biden Wanted to Establish a ‘Biden-Putin Commission’ to Cozy up to the Kremlin” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Russia Launches Huge ‘Doomsday’ Supersub After Threatening U.S.

Russia has launched its new Belgorod submarine, which is designed to carry devastating underwater nuclear drones.

Moscow’s development of nuclear-powered drones has been closely watched in recent years, amid concern that Russia could be adding a “doomsday” weapon capable of unleashing tidal waves to its arsenal.

During Tuesday’s visit to a military shipyard in St. Petersburg, President Vladimir Putin viewed the departure of the Belgorod sub at the Sevmash plant in Severodvinsk in northwestern Russia via a teleconference. . .

The Poseidon can target coastal areas with a heavy nuclear weapon, causing a devastating tsunami wave. Putin has said its tests have been successful.

He first mentioned the nuclear-powered drone among an array of other new weapons in a state-of-the-nation address last year, saying they would render U.S. missile defense systems useless.

(Read more from “Russia Launches Huge ‘Doomsday’ Supersub After Threatening U.S.” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Collusion? Russians Gave $35 Million to Company With John Podesta on Board

Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign manager, John Podesta, played a central role in another potential Russian collusion scandal that has not yet been investigated.

Podesta, the former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, served on the board of Joule Unlimited, a now defunct alternative energy company, from January 2011 to January 2014. He resigned from the company’s board to accept the powerful job of Counselor to President Barack Obama.

During Podesta’s tenure on the board of Joule Unlimited, a significant investment in the company by a firm owned by the Russian government escaped review and scrutiny by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

In September 2011, eight months after Podesta joined the board of Joule Unlimited, Rusnano, a venture capital fund wholly owned by the Russian government, announced it was investing one billion Russian rubles, $35 million, in the company, which accounted for 46 percent of the $75 million invested in it up to that time from its launch in 2007. Founders Afeyan Noubar and Dr. David Berry invested an estimated $10 million in the 2007 first round. The venture firm Noubar heads, Flagship Ventures – now known as Flagship Pioneering – led a second round investment of $30 million in 2010, as the Boston Globe reported.

Curiously, the CFIUS failed to initiate a review of the transaction despite statutory and administrative guidelines that any such transaction in which a foreign country or foreign company obtained more than a ten percent interest in an American company was reviewable. (Read more from “Collusion? Russians Gave $35 Million to Company With John Podesta on Board” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE