Practical Eschatology: A Quick Run Around the Web (April 25, 2023)

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

A Quick Run Around the Web (April 25, 2023)

Just some articles that have been clogging my in-box that I found interesting:

"Yes, intelligence agencies work against their own governments" by David Strom, Hot Air. Strom begins:

   After the past several years it should come as no surprise that intelligence agencies are not mere servants to their government masters, but rather sophisticated and nefarious political players of both the domestic and international political game.

   The history of the FBI and CIA meddling in domestic politics is long and not especially heartwarming. Despite being lionized by the media, “Deep Throat” was nothing more than a disaffected FBI bureaucrat named Mark Felt who despised Nixon because he didn’t get the promotion to FBI director he wanted. He started leaking right after he was passed over for the directorship after J. Edgar Hoover died. Hoover himself was a vile political player, and his passing led to major reforms at the FBI.

   Most people don’t know this, but Felt himself was convicted of violating the civil rights of political opponents he suspected to be in the Weather Underground. He ordered agents to break into people’s houses looking for evidence of wrongdoing. He was pardoned for his crimes while appealing his case. He was a real Hoover acolyte.

   There are many other examples in the US, of course. The most recent was the campaign waged against Donald Trump both during the 2016 political campaign and the relentless and often illegal hounding of Trump and his associates. Lying to courts, illegal leaks, constant misinformation spreading. The works. And, of course, the FBI has helped cover up Hunter Biden’s crimes, as we all know through the Twitter files.

   Well, it’s not just in the United States that this happens. You can bet it happens everywhere. And through some very disturbing leaks of top secret information that was tossed out onto the Internet, we have learned about Mossad plotting to discredit the current Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu.

The intelligence agencies (and I include the large federal law enforcement agencies as well) often work against the interests of the country the supposedly serve and certainly against the interest of citizens:

"The Leak Was the Op - White House and Congress Demand New Powers, Think Restrict Act, in Aftermath of Classified Intel Leaks"--The Last Refuge.
"This Shadowy Group Ran The Government's Censorship Scheme"--The Federalist. An excerpt:

   The State Department’s Global Engagement Center used a cutout corporation headed by a former intelligence officer to fund and promote the blacklisting of conservative media outlets and other censorship endeavors, research by The Federalist reveals.

   When Elon Musk gave a group of independent journalists access to internal Twitter communications, the resulting “Twitter Files” quickly revealed the existence of a Censorship-Industrial Complex that included an array of federal agencies colluding with social media companies to censor disfavored speech. One of the many federal players was the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) — but GEC did much more than cajole tech giants to censor viewpoints the government didn’t like.

   As The Federalist previously reported, GEC funded the development of censorship tools and used “government employees to act as sales reps pitching the censorship products to Big Tech.” Further investigation into its operations now reveals the government’s GEC used one or more for-profit businesses to lead four separate censorship initiatives with contractors at times engaging in “inherently governmental functions.”

Another example of the government using private actors to do what the government cannot legally do. Read the whole thing.

Speaking of using private actors: "Ex-acting CIA director reveals he had 50 spies sign a letter saying Hunter Biden laptop scandal was Russian disinformation to HELP Joe 'win the presidential election'"--Daily Mail.

Mike Morell told the House Judiciary Committee that he was asked by Antony Blinken, the Secretary of State - who at the time was a senior member of the Biden campaign - to help discredit the laptop reporting.

Morell was a former acting CIA director, serving for two months in 2011 and four months from 2012 to 2013. He retired from the CIA in September 2013.

And another example, this time using a foreign lab to perform research that it was illegal for the NIH to do in the United States: "Judicial Watch Obtains Docs Showing U.S. Funded Wuhan Lab Research From 2013-2020"--PJ Media. Among other things, Fauci had given them money to research the risk of bat coronavirus emergence, and continued to provide funding even after the Covid-19 outbreak.
"Michael Shellenberger: The Deep State's Using Psychological Operations Used Abroad Against Americans." A recording of a Tucker Carlson interview of Shellenberger.
"Robert F Kennedy Jr on How JFK Stopped the Operation Northwoods False Flag Attack". Operation Northwoods, if you are unfamiliar with it, was going to consist of a series of false flag terrorist attacks that would be pinned on Cuba in order to justify an invasion of Cuba.
"9/11 Hijackers Given Bank Accounts, California Apartment at ‘Behest of the CIA’ – FBI Investigator"--Sputnik News. The filings give the impression that this was another example of a CIA operation that had so much blow-back that the CIA's involvement needed to be concealed. But given what the intelligence agencies were willing to do in Operation Northwood, had it been approved, who knows?

An extraordinary legal filing revealed two of the hijackers responsible for the September 11 terror attacks had a much more intimate relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency than previously known.

At least two of the 9/11 hijackers were being closely monitored by the CIA and may have even been recruited by the agency well before they helped fly a pair of Boeing 767s into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, newly-released documents reveal.

The jaw-dropping court filing contains extensive testimony by multiple FBI investigators who maintain that the CIA obstructed official investigations into the notorious terrorist attack in order to conceal its connections to al-Qaeda*.

Perhaps even more shockingly, one FBI agent explained that American bank accounts were opened for the two hijackers – and a San Diego based apartment rented for them – “at the behest of the CIA.”

Skeptics have long focused their attention on the extremely close relationship between 9/11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar and alleged Saudi intelligence agent Omar al-Bayoumi, who arranged a steady stipend as well as accommodations for the pair immediately after their arrival in the US. Al-Bayoumi has publicly maintained that his incredible generosity towards them was based on a mere ‘chance encounter’ at a restaurant after they landed in California.

   According to one agent, who’s code-named “CS-23” in the documents, the CIA has long been working to stonewall the FBI’s investigation into the 2001 terrorist attack, in part by refusing to divulge information regarding the agency’s relationship with al-Bayoumi.
   According to CS-23, when first asked, “CIA officials responded to the [FBI’S] San Diego field office and reported that the CIA held no files on al-Bayoumi,” a claim which the agent said was “a falsehood,” given “the CIA maintained ‘operational files’ on Omar al-Bayoumi” and that their relationship had left a noticeable “paper trail.”
   Indeed, “information concerning al-Bayoumi was never passed to the FBI,” the agent explained – likely because Omar al-Bayoumi was “an intelligence officer in [the] employ of the Saudi government,” who was “directed to attempt to recruit Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar as intelligence sources while they were in San Diego.”
   Even more horrifying is the fact that “the attempt to recruit al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar was an operation directed by the Central Intelligence Agency,” CS-23 maintains.
   According to that FBI agent, “the CIA used their liaison relationship with the Saudi intelligence services to conduct an operation on US soil,” the legal filing reveals.
   Such an arrangement would be necessary since “the CIA is forbidden by law to conduct intelligence operations within the US,” the agent explained, noting that “the CIA has used its relationship with allied intelligence services to conduct operations inside the United States in the past.”

Related to the story immediately above: "'Special' service: Declassified Guantanamo court filing suggests some 9/11 hijackers were CIA agents"--RT World News.
"FBI Was Behind Plot to Blow Up Governor Ralph Northam - Used Elderly Vietnam Veteran in Diabolical Plot to Bomb VA Gov" by Jim Hoft, The Gateway Pundit. As the author notes: "Back in the spring of 2020, the FBI was recruiting innocent Americans hoping to entrap them in their disgusting terrorist plots. This was part of their plan to paint conservatives as violent extremists. It has been in effect now for several years under Director Chris Wray."
"FBI Withholding Records of Retired Fed. Agent’s Communications w/ Buffalo Shooter"-- Headline USA. "Citing a potentially ongoing investigation, the FBI is refusing to disclose records about whether a retired federal agent had been communicating with mass shooter Payton Gendron shortly before he went on his killing spree in a Buffalo supermarket last May." Translation: we're not really investigating but this is really embarrassing to the Bureau so we are going to refuse to release it under the exception for on-going investigations.
"Brazilian Hackers Linked to Lula Arrested in Paraguay Election Rigging Scheme"--National File.

I recently had noted that the St. Louis shooter's manifesto included as one of his reasons that he wanted to show how easy it was to procure his weapons, presumably to help support anti-gun legislation. So, of course: "Family of Louisville Bank Shooter Calls for More Gun Control"--Breitbart.

   The family of the portfolio banker who opened fire on fellow employees, killing five in Louisville on April 10, 2023, has released a statement calling for passage of more gun control.

   The Daily Mail report the statement, wherein the Sturgeon family said, “This tragedy is yet another indication that meaningful, common sense gun safety measures must be enacted.”

   They specifically targeted a Kentucky law that requires guns used in crimes to be sold at auction, rather than the destroyed. The auction sales are used to raise funds for police. The Sturgeon family wants such auctions stopped.

   They said, “We respectfully urge the Kentucky state legislature to lead the way by changing Kentucky law to remove the gun auction provision.”

   CNN noted the portfolio banker who attacked fellow bank personnel left behind a manifesto explaining that one of his goals was to show how easy it is to buy a gun in Kentucky.

   CNN points out the attacker bought his gun legally, which means he completed an ATF form 4473 and underwent an FBI for the rifle purchase. These requirements are standard practice for a retail gun purchase, regardless of whether a gun is purchased in Kentucky, Indiana, Texas, or any of the other 47 states.

Speaking of connections between shootings and the battle against the Second Amendment, a reminder I came across recently: "Supreme Court rejects challenges to gun silencer laws days after Virginia Beach massacre"--Salon.com (2019). The Virginia Beach shooter killed 12 while conveniently using a "silencer" and "high-capacity" magazine. The case involved was Jeremy Kettler v. United States. Kettler had been convicted of illegal possession of a sound suppressor and had appealed his conviction to the 10th Circuit, where he lost, and filed a petition of certiorari to bring an appeal to the United States Supreme Court. His petition was denied, as the article notes, just days after the Virginia Beach shooting. Only four Justices are required to vote in favor of an order to grant certiorari so if one of the conservative justices was wavering, the incident might have been enough to block a review of the case by the Court.

Christian churches should take advantage of this to start broadcasting Christian messages and prayers: "Minneapolis becomes first major American city to allow broadcast of five Muslim calls to prayer per day year-round"--Daily Mail. "The Minneapolis City Council unanimously agreed Thursday to amend the city's noise ordinance, which had prevented dawn and late evening calls at certain times of the year due to noise restrictions, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported." The move is seen as a victory for the City's exploding population of East Africans. Of course, having make an exception for one religion, the City has now opened itself up to lawsuits for exceptions for other religious and non-religious groups. This could be fun.
Why are trannies so violent?

   Metro Nashville Councilmember Courtney Johnston said that, regardless of when, the manifesto will not be released in its entirety, noting what is expected to be a shocking read.

   'What I was told is, her manifesto was a blueprint on total destruction, and it was so, so detailed at the level of what she had planned,' Johnston said.

   'That document in the wrong person's hands would be astronomically dangerous,' she told the New York Post.

   Officers retrieved a 'manifesto', hand-drawn maps, a suicide note, 20 journals, laptops, phones and several writings, from Hale's home and the Honda Fit she left in the school parking lot.

I believe that the FBI is blocking the release because it would be so damaging to the Democrats and the narrative they have been carefully crafting.

Why do trannies hate foster children? "Christians Must Take Children to Transgender Procedures or They Can’t Adopt, Oregon State Law Says" – enVolve.
As you know, Florida had passed a law earlier this month that banned abortions after 6 weeks gestation. It has the left the anti-lifers with their panties in a knot: "The astonishing radicalism of Florida’s new ban on abortion"--Vox. The two main objections in the article are that: (1) "Many people do not even know they’re pregnant at six weeks" (probably because they apparently aren't sure if they are men or women) and (2) the ban "would also significantly curtail care for women across the South, who have been traveling to Florida from more restrictive states since Roe was overturned last summer." Since black women disproportionally have abortions in this country I have to ponder, as John Wilder would likely phrase it, "Why do leftists hate black babies?"