Perspectives; Thoughts; Comments; Opinions; Discussions

Posts tagged ‘Asia’

Human Rights Expert: China Is Practicing ‘Eugenics by Genocide’


Reported by THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D. | 

Read more at https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2020/11/19/human-rights-expert-china-is-practicing-eugenics-genocide/

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, leads other Chinese leaders attending the fifth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Beijing, China on Oct. … Wang Ye/Xinhua via AP

“The practice of eugenics has been part of the debate on population control since Margaret Sanger’s visit to China in 1922,” Reggie Littlejohn, a China expert and president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, told Breitbart News Thursday.

“The language of ‘improving the quality of the population’ is not new,” Ms. Littlejohn said in response to a Breitbart News story highlighting recent revelations that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is doubling down on its eugenic goal of breeding superior subjects.

The CCP has reportedly been carrying out a “systematic campaign” of forced abortions, sterilizations, and implantations of IUDs on Uyghurs and other minorities to lessen their numbers while simultaneously incentivizing procreation among the Han Chinese, the dominant ethnic group in China.

“I have long been concerned about the eugenic overtones of this language,” Littlejohn said, noting that the CCP has no scruples about dictating who is allowed to procreate and under what circumstances.

“The Chinese Communist Party puts couples through a premarital exam,” she added, “and some couples — whose children apparently were not deemed to ‘improve the quality of the population’ — have been required to agree to permanent contraception or sterilization in order to obtain a marriage license.”

Reports on forced abortions and the sterilization of Uyghur women on a massive scale are “deeply disturbing,” Littlejohn said, as are “reports that that the CCP is practicing infanticide on babies born without permission.”

“The CCP has placed an estimated one to three million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in internment/concentration camps, where there are reports of genetic testing,” she stated, “and a tribunal has found that Uyghurs are among those whose organs are being forcibly harvested for transplant.”

“Does the CCP see this as another way ‘to improve the quality of the population’?” she asked. “If so, in my opinion, this constitutes eugenics by genocide.”

“Governments should press for an independent investigation of these claims, by an international team given full access to the Uyghur internment camps,” she said.

News of the CCP’s unapologetic embrace of eugenics in its latest 5-year plan coincided with efforts by major abortion providers Planned Parenthood and Marie Stopes International to distance themselves from their eugenicist founders, who similarly sought to rid society of “inferior” ethnicities.

Advertisement

Code Name ‘Project Hanson’: Insider Documents Reveal How Hunter Biden Associates Helped Chinese Military Contractor Acquire Michigan Dual-Use Manufacturer


Reported by PETER SCHWEIZER and SEAMUS BRUNER | 

Read more at https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/10/23/code-name-project-hanson-insider-documents-reveal-how-hunter-biden-associates-helped-chinese-military-contractor-acquire-michigan-dual-use-manufacturer/

(INSET: Hunter Biden) Passersby look at a life size replica of the Chinese Army Z-10WZ attack helicopter displayed outside the office of China’s main state-owned aircraft maker AVIC (Aviation Industry Corporation), China’s leading aircraft manufacturer in Beijing, China Thursday, July 17, 2014. China’s military spending has increased substantially almost every … Andy Wong/AP, ABC News

AVIC entities have been sanctioned by the United States on five separate occasions since 1993 and the addition to the watch list–a major red flag—occurred less than a year-and-a-half before they co-purchased Henniges with the Biden-led Chinese joint venture known as Bohai Harvest RST (BHR). The fact that CFIUS approved the deal is alarming given that Henniges owns numerous facilities in the United States that are now controlled by a Chinese military front company.

Internal BHR documents show exactly how the Chinese military contractor was able to disguise its ownership via shell corporations and formed a joint-venture with the son of the vice president to facilitate the Chinese takeover of an American dual-use technology supplier. Additional documents suggest that Hunter Biden’s Chinese-backed venture funneled money to an entity controlled by Vanessa Kerry, the daughter of then-Secretary of State John Kerry, just one month before CFIUS approved the takeover. At the time, Secretary Kerry played a lead role on the Obama-Biden CFIUS committee.

When news of the AVIC takeover of Michigan-based manufacturer Henniges Automotive hit the wire, Biden’s associates celebrated, calling the transaction a “proof of concept” for future Chinese acquisitions. “Congratulations!!!! Proof of concept again,” read the subject line of Devon Archer’s email on September 15, 2015. “This is great. Let’s get a letter out to Ambassador Baucus ASAP Archie (an apparent Archer nickname),” Bevan Cooney replied. Cooney is a former Biden associate who is now incarcerated for a separate venture—the tribal bond scheme—involving Biden’s business partners. Cooney has provided investigative journalists Peter Schweizer and Matthew Tyrmand with access to his emails with written authorization.

Cooney’s emails (and their attachments) reveal how Hunter Biden’s BHR viewed the Henniges acquisition—which they code named “Project Hanson”—as a major coup and a model for future BHR “cross-border” investments.

Moments after the deal closed, Archer set to work drafting a letter to U.S. Ambassador to China Max Baucus (who happened to be a longtime friend of the Biden family). Archer’s letter was an invitation to Ambassador Baucus to attend a banquet celebration for the deal with esteemed guest including BHR’s communist state-owned “strategic partners” and investors:

I am writing to invite you to a cross-border banquet to celebrate our acquisition of Henniges Automotive. We consummated the transaction earlier this month, in conjunction with our strategic partner, AVIC, for $600 million. I have also attached a news article about the transaction.

This milestone marks our first U.S.-based acquisition. Our strategic partners, including AVIC and Sinopec, will be in attendance, as will our investors, including the Bank of China and China Development Bank. We hope to discuss the opportunities and challenges of cross-border investments for Chinese companies in today’s macro environment. A member of our team has also extended an invitation to your economics advisor – Jonathan Fritz – to speak at the seminar.

The strategic partners and investors that Archer listed—particularly Sinopec, the Bank of China, and the China Development Bank—are all State-owned entities and therefore arms of the Chinese Communist Party whose executives/officials, along with BHR, clearly wanted to celebrate the Henniges coup.

Indeed, Hunter Biden’s Chinese business partner were pleased. One internal BHR document states in both English and Mandarin Chinese: “We are incredibly proud of the perseverance, dedication and ingenuity of the Project Hanson team who collectively brought to life the first-born of BHR’s cross-border investment platform, the first of many to come.”

2015 – Bhr Newsletter 2015 Christmas Edition by Breitbart News on Scribd

Roger Robinson, a former senior director for international economic affairs on President Ronald Reagan’s National Security Council, claims that “the U.S. government has known for years that AVIC has been helping China’s military and aiding U.S. enemies and as such was sanctioned in the past.” AVIC’s well-known and long-established ties to the Chinese military-industrial complex makes the Obama-Biden administration’s approval “all the more curious.” “This is anything but a benign Chinese enterprise,” said Robinson.

But BHR and AVIC’s Project Hanson helped obfuscate and ameliorate the AVIC connections by creating a complex ownership structure. One internal BHR document reveals precisely how the Chinese military front company was able to disguise its true ownership in a byzantine off-shore structure, presumably obfuscating the fact that the Chinese military was taking over U.S. company whose technology is on the restricted Commerce Control List (“Target” refers to U.S. military supplier Henniges Automotive):

BHR Hunter Biden by Breitbart News on Scribd

Another internal BHR document contains a shocking revelation: Devon Archer facilitated Chinese “support” for an entity called Seed Global Health. Seed Global Health was co-founded and controlled by the daughter of Secretary John Kerry. According to BHR’s December 2015 internal document: “A special shout out to our director and shareholder, Devon Archer, for his involvement with the Seed Global Health non-profit foundation, which works to send medical staff and resources globally to countries in need. BHR will continue to support this and other worthy causes.”

It appears that BHR is referring to a fundraiser hosted by Devon Archer for Secretary Kerry’s daughter and her Seed Global Health organization that occurred on August 16, 2015—less than one month before Kerry’s State Department and the rest of the Obama-Biden CFIUS agencies approved Henniges takeover.  The politically connected Seed Global Health has previously come under fire for receiving more than $9 million in State Department funds without bids or competition and, in 2018, an executive at Seed Global Health was charged by federal prosecutors for violating federal conflict of interest laws and illegal lobbying.

This is a developing story.

Peter Schweizer is the author of Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America’s Progressive Elite. Seamus Bruner is the author of Fallout: Nuclear Bribes, Russian Spies, and the Washington Lies that Enriched the Clinton and Biden Dynasties.

Biden Whistleblower Emails: Chinese Energy Company Gave $5 Million Non-Secured, Forgivable Loan to Biden ‘Family’


Reported by MATTHEW BOYLE | Washington, DC

Read more at https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/10/22/biden-whistleblower-emails-chinese-energy-company-gave-5-million-non-secured-forgivable-loan-biden-family/

US Vice President Joe Biden (C) buys an ice-cream at a shop as he tours a Hutong alley with his granddaughter Finnegan Biden (R) and son Hunter Biden (L) in Beijing on December 5, 2013. Biden said on December 5 China’s air zone had caused “significant apprehension” and Beijing needed … ANDY WONG/AFP via Getty Images

The email, sent to SinoHawk Holdings CEO Tony Bobulinski, shows how a top official with CEFC Energy — a now bankrupt and defunct energy company based in China — offered to wire $10 million into an account to begin operations, $5 million worth of which would be a non-secured forgivable loan to the “BD Family,” which means the Biden family.

Breitbart News senior contributor Peter Schweizer spent four and a half hours with Bobulinski before he went public, and discussed these communications in particular regarding this loan during that meeting. According to Schweizer, the Chinese energy company officials were going to put $10 million into an account, $5 million of which was designated as a non-secured forgivable loan to the Biden family. Schweizer said this would constitute significant leverage the Chinese energy company officials would have over the Biden family.

“In a way, this would give CEFC greater leverage over the Biden family than simply giving them a gift or bribe because if they were dissatisfied with what the Bidens were doing they could ask for their money back,” Schweizer told Breitbart News when asked about the arrangement upon the public release of Bobulinski’s emails.

The email also says that $5 million loan is “interest free” and asks how that $5 million would be used, and if used up, whether CEFC should lend more money to the Biden family.

This email further fleshes out details surrounding the controversial arrangement first uncovered by U.S. Senate investigators in a recent Homeland Security Committee report, and later further uncovered by a bombshell New York Post story on emails retrieved from Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Bobulinski’s new emails add to the story by including terms of the financial arrangement behind the wire transfer that CEFC officials made into a firm aligned with the Bidens that then made significant payments to Hunter Biden’s own firm, a wire transfer and financial payments that were first exposed by Senate investigators. The New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop emails added more information to this questionable arrangement by revealing emails that showed how Biden associates intended to divvy up the cash from the Chinese investors.

These new emails from Bobulinski add more to the picture by showing that the agreement was that this payment would serve as a non-secured forgivable loan, and that the CEFC side of the arrangement understood that the then-forthcoming payment — which Senate investigators confirmed was made just two weeks after these discussions —would serve as a loan to the Biden “family,” not just to Hunter Biden.

 

This email is part of a broader trove of documents that Bobulinski provided to U.S. Senate investigators with the Homeland Security and Finance Committees, and also to media outlets including Breitbart News. Other media outlets are reporting on the emails as well.

According to the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s recent report, $5 million was wired directly into the account in question two weeks later — and then Hunter Biden’s firm spent the next year wiring $4.8 million from there into his own firm’s account:

 

CEFC was a controversial energy company, as Breitbart News has reported. “The owner of CEFC, Ye Jianming, was among the most ambitious of Chinese tycoons before his business empire collapsed and he vanished into the Communist nation’s shadowy prison system,” Breitbart News’ John Hayward wrote earlier this week. “Ye was once portrayed as one of China’s greatest rags-to-riches stories, a humble park ranger who began making successful oil investments in his twenties and became a billionaire before he hit 40. He was marketed as an affable businessman foreigners could feel safe making deals with, well-connected but not an obvious tool of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).”

CEFC is at the center of the burgeoning Biden scandal. When Bobulinski went public on Wednesday night, he was the first source on one of the emails that the New York Post published from Hunter Biden’s laptop retrieved from a computer repair store in Delaware. One such story that the Post published was about Hunter Biden and the Biden family seeking a deal with CEFC, and in those original emails James Gilliar of J2cR emails Bobulinski about “remunerations packages” related to the CEFC deal.

“I am the recipient of the email published seven days ago by the New York Post which showed a copy to Hunter Biden and Rob Walker. That email is genuine,” Bobulinski said in his statement issued publicly.

Bobulinski had been, sources familiar with the matter told Breitbart News, cooperating with the Wall Street Journal for an investigation it is working on. But since the Journal has not published its story several days later after its staff had indicated it would, Bobulinski decided to go public on his own on Wednesday night — and made clear he is cooperating with Senate investigators.

In the original email, published by the New York Post, from Hunter Biden’s laptop, Gilliar references a breakdown of how money acquired would be distributed throughout the firm of which Bobulinski was CEO. The email says at one point that “10 held by H for the big guy.”

In his nearly 700-word statement, Bobulinski confirmed the authenticity of that email and further explained its meeting including that “the big guy” was a reference to former Vice President Joe Biden, the 2020 Democrat presidential nominee, himself.

“What I am outlining is fact. I know it is fact because I lived it. I am the CEO of Sinohawk Holdings which was a partnership between the Chinese operating through CEFC/Chairman Ye and the Biden family,” Bobulinski said. “I was brought into the company to be the CEO by James Gilliar and Hunter Biden. The reference to ‘the big guy’ in the much publicized May 13, 2017 email is in fact a reference to Joe Biden. The other ‘JB’ referenced in that email is Jim Biden, Joe’s brother. Hunter Biden called his dad ‘the Big Guy’ or ‘my Chairman,’ and frequently referenced asking him for his sign-off or advice on various potential deals that we were discussing. I’ve seen Vice President Biden saying he never talked to Hunter about his business. I’ve seen firsthand that that’s not true, because it wasn’t just Hunter’s business, they said they were putting the Biden family name and its legacy on the line.”

Exclusive — ‘This is China, Inc.’: Emails Reveal Hunter Biden’s Associates Helped Communist-Aligned Chinese Elites Secure White House Meetings


Reported by PETER SCHWEIZER and SEAMUS BRUNER | 

Read more at https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/10/16/exclusive-this-is-china-inc-emails-reveal-hunter-bidens-associates-helped-communist-aligned-chinese-elites-secure-white-house-meetings/

From right, Tom Daschle, Hunter Biden, Vice President Joe Biden, and daughters of George McGovern Ann McGovern and Susan Rowen, laugh as they listen to Matt McGovern, grand son of George McGovern, at a prayer service for the former Democratic U.S. senator and three-time presidential candidate George McGovern at the …AP Photo/Nati Harnik

In a 2011 email, Hunter Biden’s business associates also discussed developing relations with what one called “China Inc.” as part of a “new push on soft diplomacy for the Chinese.” These emails are completely unconnected to the Hunter Biden emails being released by the New York Post. These and more explosive never-before-revealed emails were provided to Schweizer by Bevan Cooney, a one-time Hunter Biden and Devon Archer business associate. Cooney is currently in prison serving a sentence for his involvement in a 2016 bond fraud investment scheme.

In 2019, Cooney reached out to Schweizer after becoming familiar with the revelations in his 2018 book Secret Empires. Cooney explained that he believes he was the “fall guy” for the fraud scheme and that Archer and Hunter Biden had avoided responsibility.

Archer, who was also convicted in the case, saw a federal judge vacate his conviction. But an appellate court overturned the lower court judge’s ruling, reinstating Archer’s conviction in the case. Archer, Hunter Biden’s longtime business partner, awaits sentencing.

Cooney, their associate who is currently serving a prison sentence on his conviction in the matter, later reestablished contact with Schweizer through investigative journalist Matthew Tyrmand. From prison, Cooney provided Schweizer with written authorization, his email account name, and password to his Gmail account to retrieve these emails. He authorized, in writing, the publication of these emails— notable because it is the first time a close associate has publicly confirmed Hunter’s trading on his father’s influence.

The emails offer a unique window into just how the Biden universe conducted business during the Obama-Biden Administration. These associates sought to trade on Hunter Biden’s relationship with, and access to, his father and the Obama-Biden White House in order to generate business.

For instance, on November 5, 2011, one of Archer’s business contacts forwarded him an email teasing an opportunity to gain “potentially outstanding new clients” by helping to arrange White House meetings for a group of Chinese executives and government officials. The group was the China Entrepreneur Club (CEC) and the delegation included Chinese billionaires, Chinese Communist Party loyalists, and at least one “respected diplomat” from Beijing. Despite its benign name, CEC has been called “a second foreign ministry” for the People’s Republic of China—a communist government that closely controls most businesses in its country. CEC was established in 2006 by a group of businessmen and Chinese government diplomats.

Re China Entrepreneurs Club… by Breitbart News

CEC’s leadership boasts numerous senior members of the Chinese Communist Party, including Wang Zhongyu (“vice chairman of the 10th CPPCC National Committee and deputy secretary of the Party group”), Ma Weihua (director of multiple Chinese Communist Party offices), and Jiang Xipei (member of the Chinese Communist Party and representative of the 16th National Congress), among others.

“I know it is political season and people are hesitant but a group like this does not come along every day,” an intermediary named Mohamed A. Khashoggi wrote on behalf of the CEC to an associate of Hunter Biden and Devon Archer. “A tour of the white house and a meeting with a member of the chief of staff’s office and John Kerry would be great,” Khashoggi said before including what should have been a major red flag: “Not sure if one has to be registered to do this.” Presumably, Khashoggi meant a registered lobbyist under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

Khashoggi believed the trip presented “a soft diplomacy play that could be very effective” and would give Hunter Biden’s business partners “good access to [the Chinese] for any deal in the future.”

Indeed, the email boasted of CEC’s wealthy membership:

CEC’s current membership includes 50 preeminent figures such as: Liu Chuanzhi, Chairman of the CEC, Legend Holdings and Lenovo Group; Wu Jinglian, Zhang Weiying, and Zhou Qiren, China’s esteemed economists; Wu Jianmin, respected diplomat; Long Yongtu, representative of China’s globalization; Wang Shi (Vanke); Ma Weihua (China Merchants Bank); Jack Ma (Alibaba Group); Guo Guangchang (Fosun Group); Wang Jianlin, (Wanda Group); Niu Gensheng (LAONIU Foundation); Li Shufu (Geely); Li Dongsheng (TCL Corporation); Feng Lun (Vantone) and etc.

The gross income of the CEC members’ companies allegedly “totaled more than RMB 1.5 trillion, together accounting for roughly 4% of China’s GDP.” The overture to Hunter Biden’s associates described the Chinese CEC members variously as “industrial elites,” “highly influential,” and among “the most important private sector individuals in China today.”

Before contacting Hunter Biden’s associates, the CEC had been trying to get meetings with top Obama-Biden administration officials to no avail. “From the DC side as you will see below they [CEC] have written letters to several members of the administration and others and have so far not had a strong reaction.”

“This is China Inc,” wrote Khashoggi in the email, referring to the delegation of Chinese billionaires.

“Biggest priority for the CEC group is to see the White House, and have a senior US politician, or senior member of Obama’s administration, give them a tour… If your friend in DC can help, we would be extremely grateful,” Khashoggi emphasized.

Hunter Biden and Devon Archer apparently delivered for the Chinese Communist Party-connected industrial elites within ten days.

The original Oct. 19, 2011, email from Khashoggi was sent to Gary Fears — a controversial political fundraiser with a checkered history who was caught up in a riverboat casino scandal in the mid-1990s — who forwarded it on to Archer a couple weeks later on Nov. 5, 2011.

Time was short, as Khashoggi’s original email noted that the Chinese delegation would be in DC on Nov. 14, 2011. Fears told Archer to “reach out” to Khashoggi about the request regarding getting the Chinese businesspersons and officials into the Obama White House, adding it would be “perfect for” Archer to also “attend” with them and then “get guys for the potash deal.”

The same day Fears sent Khashoggi’s message to him, Archer took the email from Fears and sent to Khashoggi a business proposal for a potash mine deal he had lined up.

Six days after the initial overture, Archer received a followup email asking how a meeting with CEC’s representative went. The email closed with “Do me a favor and ask Hunter [Biden] to call me — I’ve tried reaching him a couple of times.” Archer responded, “Hunter is traveling in the UAE for the week with royalty so probably next week before he will be back in pocket…. The meeting with [CEC representative] was good. Seems like there is a lot to do together down the line. Probably not a fit for the current Potash private placement but he’s a good strategic relationship as the mine develops. Definitely have a drink with Mohammed and let him know how impressed I was with his whole deal.”

One minute later, Archer sent a follow-up email, “Couldn’t confirm this with Hunter on the line but we got him his meeting at the WH Monday for the Chinese folks.”

On the day of the meeting, November 14, 2011, Cooney emailed Fears to confirm that Archer “got the Chinese guys all taken care of in DC.”

The Obama-Biden Administration archives reveal that this Chinese delegation did indeed visit the White House on November 14, 2011, and enjoyed high-level access. The delegation included approximately thirty members, according to White House visitor logs. But those records also obscure perhaps the most important item for the Chinese delegation: a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden himself.

The visitor logs list Jeff Zients, the deputy director of Obama’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), as the host of the CEC delegation. Obama had tasked Zients with restructuring and ultimately consolidating the various export-import agencies under the Commerce Department—an effort in which the Chinese delegation would have a keen interest.

trip itinerary posted by the CEC also confirms the delegation met with Obama’s then-recently-confirmed Commerce Secretary John Bryson.

Curiously, the Obama-Biden visitor logs do not mention any meeting with Vice President Joe Biden. But the Vice President’s off-the-books meeting was revealed by one of the core founders of the CEC. In an obscure document listing the CEC members’ biographies, CEC Secretary General Maggie Cheng alleges that she facilitated the CEC delegation meetings in Washington in 2011 and boasts of the Washington establishment figures that CEC met with. The first name she dropped was that of Vice President Joe Biden.

The relationships established during that visit may have benefited Hunter Biden and Devon Archer down the road. Two years later, they famously helped to form the Chinese government funded Bohai Harvest RST (BHR) investment fund. One of BHR’s first major portfolio investments was a ride-sharing company like Uber called Didi Dache—now called Didi Chuxing Technology Co. That company is closely connected to Liu Chuanzhi, the chairman of the China Entrepreneur Club (CEC) and the founder of Legend Holdings—the parent company of Lenovo, one of the world’s largest computer companies. Liu is a former Chinese Communist Party delegate and was a leader of the 2011 CEC delegation to the White House. His daughter was the President of Didi.

Liu has long been involved in CCP politics, including serving as a representative to the 9th, 10th, and 11th sessions of the National People’s Congress of the PRC and as a representative to the 16th and 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Liu was the Vice Chairman of the 8th and 9th Executive Committee of All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC), an organization known to be affiliated with the Chinese United Front.

The Biden campaign has not responded to a request for comment on this story.

This is a developing story.

Peter Schweizer is the author of Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America’s Progressive Elite. Seamus Bruner is the author of Fallout: Nuclear Bribes, Russian Spies, and the Washington Lies that Enriched the Clinton and Biden Dynasties.

China Orders Christians to Take Down Images of Jesus from Their Homes


Reported by THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D. | 
URL of the originating web site: https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2020/07/20/china-orders-christians-to-take-down-images-of-jesus-from-homes/

Christian / AP Photo

Chinese communist authorities have ordered poor Christian villagers to remove Christian images from their homes and replace them with portraits of Chairman Mao and President Xi Jinping or risk losing their welfare benefits.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has continued its program of “Sinicization” of religion by channeling religious fervor in the country toward the Party rather than God, the Christian Post reported this weekend.

In May, an official in the eastern province of Shandong raided the home of a local Christian and hung pictures of Mao Zedong and Xi Jinping on the wall in place of Christian images.

“These are the greatest gods. If you want to worship somebody, they are the ones,” the official told them.

This year, China’s “social credit system” was scheduled to become fully functional, assigning points to each individual based on how much the Communist Party approves of them and using their rating to control their behavior and access to certain benefits..

“There are fears that China’s new ‘social credit system’ – designed to reward good citizenship and punish bad – will be used to discriminate against Christians,” wrote the Catholic charity organization Aid to the Church in Need in a 2019 report.

The fears are tied to “cash rewards for those who inform on underground churches and other ‘unofficial’ places of worship,” indicating that the government might also reward the persecution of Christians with high “social credit” scores.

According to the religious liberty magazine Bitter Winter, the CCP is now using state welfare benefits as leverage to coerce people into worshiping the Party rather than Jesus. In April, for instance, party officials visited the homes of Christians in Linfen, in the northern province of Shanxi, ordering those who receive welfare payments from the government to remove crosses, Christian symbols, and images in their homes and replace them with portraits of China’s communist leaders. The officials threatened the Christians that non-compliance with the order would result in suspension of their welfare subsidies.

“All impoverished households in the town were told to display Mao Zedong images,” a local house church preacher said. “The government is trying to eliminate our belief and wants to become God instead of Jesus.”

Officials have often made good on their threats, ruthlessly suspending benefits to Christians who fail to give up their devotions. Communist authorities cancelled the government subsidies of one elderly Christian woman from Shangqiu city in Henan after they found an image of a cross posted on the door of her home.

“They tore it down immediately,” she said. “Afterward, both my minimum living allowance and poverty alleviation subsidy were canceled. I am being driven to a dead end. I have diabetes and need injections regularly.”

Something similar occurred in in Xinyu city in the southeastern province of Jiangxi, when officials canceled the minimum living subsidy and a monthly disability allowance of 100 RMB (about $14) to a disabled Christian who disobeyed government orders and continued to attend worship services.

Another Christian living in Jiangxi’s Poyang county — a woman in her 80s — reportedly stopped receiving government aid after she said “Thank God” after receiving her monthly 200 RMB (about $28) subsidy in mid-January.

“They expected me to praise the kindness of the Communist Party instead,” she said.

In another case, local officials entered the home of a member of a state-sponsored Three-Self church and tore down all Christian images, including a calendar with an image of Jesus, and posted a portrait of Mao Zedong instead.

“Impoverished religious households can’t receive money from the state for nothing — they must obey the Communist Party for the money they receive,” the official declared.

Report: Third Russian Health Worker Falls from Window After Criticizing Coronavirus Response


Reported by BEN KEW | 

URL of the originating web site: https://www.breitbart.com/health/2020/05/04/report-third-russian-health-worker-falls-from-window-after-criticizing-coronavirus-response/

In this photo taken on Tuesday, April 21, 2020, a medical worker puts on protective gear in order to assist coronavirus patients at the intensive care unit of Vinogradov City Clinical Hospital in Moscow, Russia. Reports of Russian medical workers becoming infected with the coronavirus are emerging almost daily as … Pavel Golovkin/AP Photo

The Moscow Times reports that 37-year-old Alexander Shulepov fell from the second floor of a hospital in the rural Voronezh and suffered a skull fracture, which has left him in critical condition. Voronezh is located 500 kilometers south of Moscow; he was being treated for coronavirus symptoms. Police claim to be investigating his fall.

Last month, Shulepov and his colleague Alexander Kosyakin filmed a video complaining that authorities in the Novaya Usman village hospital were forcing him the work despite the fact he had tested positive for the virus. The complaint occurred after reports surfaced that the Kremlin recently forced third-year medical students to work during the pandemic or face academic and professional consequences.

Days later, he reportedly released another video walking back his comments, arguing that he was in an “emotional state.” The video also featured Igor Potanin, the head doctor of the Novousmanskaya hospital, who insisted his medical staff were being provided with sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE).

“I spoke about this to the department’s employees: I won’t let anyone go to outpatients or inpatients if we don’t have enough means of protection, I told them I’d go myself there, but I will not send anyone,” Potanin said in the video.

In a statement to CNN, Kosyakin confirmed details about his colleague’s condition.

“[Shulepov] is an intensive care unit, as far as I know in a serious condition, last time I spoke to him was on the 30th of April, we checked in with each other,” Kosyakin told CNN. “He felt fine, he was getting ready to get discharged from the hospital … and all of a sudden this happened, it’s not clear why and what for, so many questions that I don’t even have the answer to.”

Kosyakin reportedly faces criminal charges for violating Russia’s recently passed misinformation law, which carries prison sentences of up to five years for spreading “fake news” about the ongoing pandemic. Russian authorities have reported around 145,000 cases of the virus so far but just 1,356 deaths, an abnormally low number compared with other countries.

Shulepov is the third doctor to have reportedly plunged from a hospital building in the past two weeks, with the other two both dying of their injuries. The most recent of these victims was Elena Nepomnyashchaya, the acting head doctor of a hospital in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, who died days after an alleged fall from a window at the hospital she was in charge of. She had recently complained about her staff being forced to treat coronavirus patients without sufficient PPE.

Dr. Natalya Lebedeva — the head of the emergency medical service at Star City, where the majority of Russia’s cosmonauts are trained — allegedly committed suicide on April 24 by jumping from the building after failing to prevent an outbreak. The hospital called her death a “tragic accident.”

Falling or defenestration from buildings appear to have become a signature manner of death for numerous government dissenters in Russia over the past decade. Before the recent spate of falls, the latest case was that of the 32-year-old investigative journalist Maxim Borodin, thrown out of a fourth-floor window in April 2018 as he was investigating Russia’s military involvement in Syria.

Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.

Chinese Restaurant Hangs Banner ‘Celebrating the Epidemic in the U.S.’


URL of the original posting site: https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2020/03/26/chinese-restaurant-hangs-banner-celebrating-coronavirus-epidemic-u-s/

Chinese state media confirmed on Wednesday the legitimacy of an image circulating online of a Shenyang, China, restaurant banner celebrating Chinese coronavirus deaths in the United States. / Weibo

Chinese state media confirmed on Wednesday the legitimacy of an image circulating online of a Shenyang, China, restaurant banner celebrating Chinese coronavirus deaths in the United States.

The Global Times, a state-run publication that has run conspiracy theories accusing the U.S. Army of artificially engineering the Wuhan virus and unleashing it as an attack on the Chinese state, identified the offending restaurant as “Mother Yang’s Porridge Restaurant” and claimed that police arrested the manager responsible for putting up a banner apparently wishing for the pandemic China allowed to occur to do as much damage in the United States and Japan as possible.

“Celebrating the epidemic in the U.S. and wishing coronavirus a nice trip to Japan,” a large red banner over the restaurant read, according to the Global Times’ translation. Other translations note that the Chinese characters also insult Japan as “little” and hope the virus spread “forever after that [arrival into Japan]”:

Jennifer Zeng 曾錚@jenniferatntd

Banner at restaurant in ruled says: “Congratulations on the in the US! We wish the epidemic in dwarf Japan will last forever and ever!”
What do you think? I call it anti-humanity. Do these kinds of people have the right to protest again “racism”?

View image on Twitter
Twitter Ads info and privacy 5,221 people are talking about this

The newspaper identified the manager as a 30-something worker who had been there for some time and claimed that the banner was only up for about 90 minutes before police arrived at the scene. As China does not allow independent media outlets to operate within its borders, there are no independent reports confirming that this was the case. The news service UPI identified the manager as having the last name “Hui,” but not much more is known about the person or his or her fate after being detained by Chinese police.

The banner appeared to celebrate the growing numbers of deaths in both Japan and America. At press time, Japan has documented 1,307 cases of Chinese coronavirus nationwide and 45 deaths. In the United States, which has a much larger population than Japan, medical experts have logged more than 69,000 coronavirus cases and 1,046 deaths. Both nations are attempting to limit social contact to slow the spread of the highly contagious Chinese virus, though America has currently taken much more extreme measures in banning many American businesses from operating, triggering record numbers of jobless claims nationwide.

While the Global Times wrote of the celebration of American deaths on the part of Mother Yang’s, it has participated in the evidence-free accusations that Washington is responsible for the pandemic. An article in the state-run publication this month claimed that a U.S. Army facility in Fort Detrick, Maryland, was responsible for engineering a new form of coronavirus to be more contagious and difficult to treat. Chinese government officials also propagated the conspiracy theory. In the United States, Chinese Foreign Ministry official Zhao Lijian wrote on Twitter, “It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan.”

The Communist Party bans citizens who are not high-ranking Party members from using Twitter. Twitter has refused to hold Chinese officials to its terms of service about sharing dangerous disinformation.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has repeatedly condemned Beijing for baselessly accusing the United States of fabricating the disease.

“My concern is that this cover-up, this disinformation that the Chinese Communist Party is engaged in, is still denying the world the information it needs so that we can prevent further cases or something like this from recurring again,” Pompeo said this week. “The disinformation campaign from Russia and Iran as well as China continues. They’re talking about it coming from the U.S. Army, and they’re saying maybe it began in Italy, all things to deflect responsibility.”

The Chinese coronavirus originated in Wuhan, central China, in November. Chinese officials did nothing about the growing outbreak for months until privately alerting the World Health Organization (WHO) in January and shutting down a wild meat market that it believed was the origin location for the outbreak, as coronaviruses tend to infect humans after living in animals through consumption. Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, is home to 11 million people and to China’s Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, which is licensed to handle the world’s most dangerous pathogens. The Chinese government boasted that the facility identified the Wuhan virus as a new pathogen at a breakneck pace.

That month – after January 20, when China finally told the world it had identified a new virus – the WHO told the world that, according to Chinese scientists, the coronavirus was not contagious from human to human. Scientists now know that this was not true, and the Chinese coronavirus is highly contagious, thus allegedly necessitating the shutdown of nearly the entirety of the American economy.

A February study also found evidence that the virus did not originate at the shut-down meat market, also raising questions as to China’s initial response to what is now a pandemic.

A study by the University of Southhampton found this month that had the Communist Party not detained doctors warning in December and January about a contagious disease spreading in Wuhan and otherwise silenced evidence about the outbreak, about 95 percent of the world’s coronavirus cases could have been prevented.

Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.

PHOTOS: The Images That Defined the World in 2019


Written by Frances Martel | 

URL of the original posting site: https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2019/12/31/photos-the-images-that-defined-the-world-in-2019/

Venezuela’s National Assembly head Juan Guaido declares himself the country’s “acting president” during a mass opposition rally against leader Nicolas Maduro, on the anniversary of a 1958 uprising that overthrew military dictatorship in Caracas on January 23, 2019. – Moments earlier, the loyalist-dominated Supreme Court ordered a criminal investigation of … FEDERICO PARRA/AFP/Getty Images

The end of the decade brought with it a tumultuous 2019 — a year defined by global protests, shock election results, surprise heroes, unthinkable tragedies, and new rays of hope.

The world’s authoritarians used their wealth to display their typical egomania, popping up in celebrity weddings, on mountaintops, and in larger-than-life iconography (paid for by the people, of course). Oppressed people flooded their streets by the millions demanding a better future. Young new world leaders, often by surprise, assumed the direction of their scarred, turbulent countries.

Below, in no particular order, some of the most moving, iconic, baffling, newsworthy, and generally notable images from around the world in the past year.

AFP

Sitcom star Volodymyr Zelensky celebrates being elected to the presidency of Ukraine on April 21 after playing a schoolteacher who suddenly becomes president of Ukraine in the hit comedy Servant of the People. Zelensky was elected on the back of nationwide discontent with decades of corrupt establishment rule and insufficient resistance to the Russian invasion of Ukraine’s eastern territories. Zelensky has now become a key figure in the Democrats’ attempt to remove President Donald Trump from power without electing a Democrat. (Photo: AFP)

Kiyoshi Ota/Getty, West Point Grey Academy

Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, attends a working lunch on the first day of the G20 summit on June 28, 2019, in Osaka, Japan. Inset: a photo that surfaced in September of Trudeau in “brownface” at an “Arabian Nights” theme party in 2001. The photo surfaced shortly before Canada’s national election but failed to unseat Trudeau, despite the prime minister admitting he had worn blackface so many times he could not remember them all. (Kiyoshi Ota – Pool/Getty Images. Inset: unknown, released via Time)

The Associated Press

French President Emmanuel Macron shakes hands with American President Donald Trump at the G& Summit in August. Macron attempted to organize a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. (Photo via Associated Press)

A Lebanese protester offers sweets to people during ongoing demonstrations to demand better living conditions and the ouster of a cast of politicians who have monopolised power and influence for decades, on October 21, 2019 north of Beirut.(Joseph Eid/AFP via Getty Images)

AFP

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan serves as best man to soccer star Mesut Ozil at the latter’s wedding in Istanbul. (Photo via AFP)

Venezuela’s National Assembly head Juan Guaido takes the oath of office of the presidency, following the illegal “inauguration” of socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro, on January 23, 2019. (Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images)

TOPSHOT - Anti-government protesters start a large fire in a staircase at the main entrance that leads into the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in the Hung Hom district of Hong Kong on November 18, 2019. - Hong Kong police early November 18 warned for the first time that they may use "live rounds" after pro-democracy protesters fired arrows and threw petrol bombs at officers at a beseiged university campus, as the crisis engulfing the city veered deeper into danger. Protests have tremored through the global financial hub since June, with many in the city of 7.5 million people venting fury at eroding freedoms under Chinese rule. (Photo by Ye Aung Thu / AFP) (Photo by YE AUNG THU/AFP via Getty Images)

The aftermath of police raiding Hong Kong Polytechnic University on November 18, 2019. Hong Kong police early November 18 warned for the first time that they may use “live rounds” after pro-democracy protesters fired arrows and threw petrol bombs at officers at a besieged university campus, as the crisis engulfing the city veered deeper into danger. (Photo by YE AUNG THU/AFP via Getty Images)

Supporters of the Pakistani religious party Jamaat-i-Islami, chant slogans for ousted former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi in Hyderabad, Pakistan. Tuesday, June 18, 2019. Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president ousted by the military in 2013, collapsed during a trial session in Cairo on Monday and died. (AP Photo/Pervez Masih)

Supporters of the Pakistani religious party Jamaat-i-Islami, chant slogans for ousted former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi in Hyderabad, Pakistan. Tuesday, June 18, 2019. Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president ousted by the military in 2013, collapsed during a trial session in Cairo on Monday and died. (AP Photo/Pervez Masih)

NEGOMBO, SRI LANKA - APRIL 24: A little girl throws earth on a coffin during the funeral of a person killed in the Easter Sunday attack on St Sebastian's Church, on April 24, 2019 in Negombo, Sri Lanka. At least 321 people were killed and 500 people injured after coordinated attacks on churches and hotels on Easter Sunday in and around Colombo as well as at Batticaloa in Sri Lanka. According to reports, the Islamic State group have claimed responsibility on Tuesday for the attacks while investigations show the attacks were carried out in retaliation for the Christchurch mosque shootings last month. Police have detained 40 suspects so far in connection with the suicide bombs while the government blame the attacks on local Islamist group National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ). (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

A little girl throws earth on a coffin during the funeral of a person killed in the Easter Sunday attack on St Sebastian’s Church, on April 24, 2019, in Negombo, Sri Lanka. At least 321 people were killed and 500 people injured after coordinated attacks on churches and hotels on Easter Sunday in and around Colombo as well as at Batticaloa in Sri Lanka. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

Church members carry placards reading "self defence is now the answer" "the jihad will not work", as they take part in a protest against the killing of people by suspected herdsmen in Makurdi, north-central Nigeria, on April 29, 2018. - On April 24, 2018, at least 18 people, including two Catholic priests, were killed in an attack on a church near the state capital Makurdi that was blamed on herdsmen. Eleven ethnic Hausa traders were killed in Makurdi in retaliation. Thousands of people have been killed over decades in clashes between cattle herders and farmers over land and water, with the conflict polarised along religious and ethnic lines. (Photo by EMMY IBU / AFP) (Photo credit should read EMMY IBU/AFP/Getty Images)

Church members carry placards reading “self-defence is now the answer” “the jihad will not work,” as they take part in a protest against the killing of people by suspected herdsmen in Makurdi, north-central Nigeria, on April 29, 2018. On April 24, 2018, at least 18 people, including two Catholic priests, were killed in an attack on a church near the state capital Makurdi that was blamed on herdsmen. (Emmy Ibu/AFP/Getty Images)

Rodong Sinmun/North Korea

“Kim Jong Un, the great leader of our revolution who opens up the period of a great leap for the development of the revolution, personally left the sacred trace in the revolutionary battle sites in Mt Paektu area, the source of the lifeline of the revolution and inexhaustible patriotism, through knee-high virgin snow.” (Photo, caption via North Korean state newspaper Rodong Sinmun)

The Associated Press

An anti-government protester waves a national flag during a demonstration in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2019. Iraqi security forces fired live bullets into the air and used tear gas against a few hundred protesters in central Baghdad on Thursday, hours after a curfew was announced in the Iraqi capital on the heels of two days of deadly violence that gripped the country amid anti-government protests that killed several people in two days. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

People attend a candlelight vigil at Victoria Park in Hong Kong on June 4, 2019, to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown in Beijing. - The semi-autonomous financial hub has hosted an annual vigil every year since tanks and soldiers smashed into protesters near Beijing's Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989 -- an illustration of the city's unusual freedoms and vibrant political scene. (Photo by Philip FONG / AFP) (Photo credit should read )

People attend a candlelight vigil at Victoria Park in Hong Kong on June 4, 2019, to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown in Beijing, China. Protests against the Chinese regime would begin shortly after this display and have yet to cease. (Photo via Philip Fong/AFP)

The Associated Press

Police shelter behind a hospital sign, as they guard a hospital in Butembo, Congo, on Saturday, April 20, 2019, after militia members attacked an Ebola treatment center in the city’s Katwa district overnight. Violence has deeply complicated efforts to contain what has become the second-deadliest Ebola virus outbreak in history. (AP Photo/Al-Hadji Kudra Maliro)

Deputy Senate speaker Jeanine Anez, raises the four canonical gospels in the air at the Quemado Palace in La Paz after proclaiming herself the country's new interim president in a session of Congress that failed to reach a quorum, on November 12, 2019. - Bolivia's Evo Morales jetted off to exile in Mexico on Tuesday, leaving behind a country in turmoil after his abrupt resignation as president. The country has been hit by weeks of unrest amid violent protests following Morales' contested re-election. (Photo by Aizar RALDES / AFP) (Photo by AIZAR RALDES/AFP via Getty Images)

Bolivian President Jeanine Áñez raises the four canonical gospels in the air at the Quemado Palace in La Paz becoming interim president following socialist leader Evo Morales abandoning the presidency on November 10 and fleeing to Mexico. (Aizar Raldes/AFP via Getty Images)

US President Donald Trump (L), Vice President Mike Pence (2nd L) and First Lady Melania Trump (R) stand with Conan, the military dog that was involved with the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, at the White House in Washington, DC, on November 25, 2019. (Photo by JIM WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

US President Donald Trump (L), Vice President Mike Pence (2nd L) and First Lady Melania Trump (R) stand with Conan, the military dog that was involved with the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, at the White House in Washington, DC, on November 25, 2019. (Photo via Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

BEIJING, CHINA - OCTOBER 01: A giant portrait of Chinese President Xi Jinping is carried atop a float at a parade to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 , at Tiananmen Square on October 1, 2019 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

A giant portrait of Chinese dictator Xi Jinping is carried atop a float at a parade, in front of an electric screen showing another giant portrait of Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the violent communist takeover of China on October 1, 2019 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Pro-democracy protesters take part in a Thanksgiving Day rally at Edinburgh Place on November 28, 2019 in Hong Kong, China. Protesters gathered to say thank you to the United States after US President Donald Trump signed legislation supporting the Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters, with new legislation requiring annual reviews of Hong Kong's rights and freedoms. Demonstrations in Hong Kong have stretched into their sixth month as pro-democracy groups won the recent District Council elections, continuing demands for an independent inquiry into police brutality, the retraction of the word "riot" to describe the rallies, and genuine universal suffrage. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

Pro-democracy protesters take part in a Thanksgiving Day rally at Edinburgh Place on November 28, 2019, in Hong Kong. Protesters gathered to say thank you to the United States after US President Donald Trump signed legislation supporting the Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters, with new legislation requiring annual reviews of Hong Kong’s rights and freedoms. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.

9/11 Mastermind, 4 Co-Conspirators Still Awaiting Trial 18 Years Since Attacks


Reported by Edwin Mora | 

URL of the original posting site: https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2019/09/11/9-11-mastermind-4-co-conspirators-still-awaiting-trial-18-years-since-attacks/

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, 911 mastermind, was allowed to build a vacuum will in a secret CIA prison in Romania keep him from going nuts. / HO/AFP/Getty Images

The death penalty trial of the self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind and his four co-conspirators held at the U.S. military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is still pending nearly two decades after the jihadis executed the attack, the deadliest on American soil.

In an unprecedented move, however, the judge overseeing the military tribunal at Gitmo finally set a date at the end of last month for the start of the trial for the five defendants.

On August 30, U.S. Air Force Col. Shane Cohen, who took over as the judge overseeing the case in June, said the trial would begin January 11, 2021, as the nation approaches the 20th anniversary of the day that triggered the longest war in American history.

The United States invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 to remove the Taliban from power for harboring the late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the days leading to the attack and prevent the South Asian country from again becoming a haven for terrorists seeking to attack America.

Afghanistan is now home to the “highest regional concentration” of terrorist groups in the world, including the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), the Pentagon reported in July.

Pre-trial hearings for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) and the four other men alleged to have played vital roles in helping carry out the massacre on September 11, 2001, resumed Monday.

As the U.S. holds another memorial service Wednesday for the nearly 3,000 people killed by al-Qaeda 18 years ago, the five defendants will still be awaiting trial.

KSM and his co-conspirators — Walid Muhammad Bin Attash, Ramzi Bin Al Shibh, Ali Abdul-Aziz Ali, and Mustafa Ahmed Al Hawsawi — could face the death penalty.

The U.S. is still holding the five terrorists at the detention facility in Guantánamo, commonly known as Gitmo.

U.S. authorities did not arraign KSM and his four co-conspirators until May 2012, more than a decade after the attacks. American service-members captured KSM in 2003 and transferee him to Gitmo in 2006.

The military commission at Gitmo has repeatedly delayed the prospective trial of the 9/11 perpetrators in U.S. custody.

In setting the trial date, Judge Cohen acknowledged that the U.S. military base at Guantánamo “will face a host of administrative and logistics challenges,” the Military Times reported.

National Public Radio (NPR) added:

[A] number of other deadlines would need to be met for the long-delayed trial to begin.
That includes the U.S. government turning over all evidence it is required to give to defense attorneys. Lawyers for the five defendants say prosecutors have not been forthcoming.
Several defense attorneys told NPR they think the scheduled trial date is unrealistic, and they say Guantánamo isn’t physically ready for a trial of that magnitude. But prosecutors have been asking for a trial date for several years and say that finally having one will motivate all parties to meet the deadline.

The tribunal overseeing the case of the 9/11 attackers is a hybrid of the federal and military justice system.

This week, the German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) revealed:

Crucial pre-trial hearings for the accused mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks and four other men alleged to have played key roles in helping carry out the passenger plane hijackings will resume on Monday (September 9) in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
[KSM], who confessed to being involved in the capture and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, was subjected to extensive torture and was waterboarded 183 times.
The procedure simulates a drowning experience.
Lawyers for the defense are arguing that any confessions or other material should be invalidated because of the torture and are likely to file motions to have the entire trial set aside.

Gitmo is still housing 40 jihadis, the majority of whom are considered “forever prisoners,” or too dangerous to release.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has only transferred one detainee out of the facility. Former U.S. President Barack Obama had approved the prisoner for release.

The Trump administration is considering sending newly captured terrorists to the prison, particularly the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) jihadis.

Citing the slow-moving pace of the military commissions and the cost of operating Gitmo, critics continue to argue in favor of allowing civilian courts on U.S. soil to handle the remaining cases.

U.S. law approved under the Obama administration, however, makes it impossible to transfer any Guantánamo prisoner to the United States.

Gitmo’s military tribunals have only produced eight convictions, including four overturned completely and one partially.

KSM and the other four defendants are among the only seven prisoners still held at Gitmo who face charges before a “military commission.”

Of the four overturned convictions, the military commission will have to deal with three. The other prisoner has appealed his life sentence to the U.S. Supreme Court.

U.S. authorities only charged 16 detainees held at G with criminal offenses, Human Rights Watch reported.

Yemenis make up the single largest national group at the prison, followed by Saudis.

Peter Thiel: FBI, CIA Must Investigate ‘Treasonous’ Google


Written by Lucas Nolan | 

URL of the original posting site: https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/07/15/peter-thiel-fbi-cia-must-investigate-treasonous-google/

New Zealand's government has come under fire for granting citizenship to the co-founder of PayPal, Peter Thiel, despite him not meeting official criteria
ALEX WONG/Getty
 

Billionaire investor, Facebook board member, and Trump supporter Peter Thiel recently called on the FBI and CIA to investigate Google for the “seemingly treasonous” act of aiding the Chinese military.

Axios reports that Peter Thiel, the billionaire Silicon Valley investor, Facebook board member, and longtime supporter of President Donald Trump, called on the FBI and CIA to investigate Google for allegedly aiding the Chinese military during his speech at the recent National Conservatism Conference. During the speech, Thiel noted “three questions that should be asked” by the federal government of tech giant Google.

Number one, how many foreign intelligence agencies have infiltrated your Manhattan Project for AI?

Number two, does Google’s senior management consider itself to have been thoroughly infiltrated by Chinese intelligence?

Number three, is it because they consider themselves to be so thoroughly infiltrated that they have engaged in the seemingly treasonous decision to work with the Chinese military and not with the US military… because they are making the sort of bad, short-term rationalistic [decision] that if the technology doesn’t go out the front door, it gets stolen out the backdoor anyway?

Thiel added that these questions “need to be asked by the FBI, by the CIA, and I’m not sure quite how to put this, I would like them to be asked in a not excessively gentle manner.” Thiel has been a long time supporter of Artificial Intelligence, joining Elon Musk and Reid Hoffman in pledging to commit a total of $1 billion to the non-profit group OpenAI in 2015.

Google has come under fire previously for its relationship with China, particularly the development of a censored Chinese search engine codenamed Project Dragonfly. During a speech before the Hudson Institute in 2018, Vice President Mike Pence criticized what he believes is China’s theft of U.S. technology, urging Google to take action on the issue. Pence said during the speech that other business leaders are hesitant to enter the Chinese market “if it means turning over their intellectual property or abetting Beijing’s oppression.”

Pence called on Google to listen to these other leaders and that “more must follow suit.” He also called on Google to end the development of its censored Chinese search engine project known as Dragonfly: “For example, Google should immediately end development of the ‘Dragonfly’ app that will strengthen Communist Party censorship and compromise the privacy of Chinese customers,” said Pence.

In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Chinese policy expert Dr. Michael Pillsbury noted that eight years ago, Google co-founder Sergey Brin received praise for refusing to do business with the Chinese government, a decision which now appears to have been completely reversed. “Fast forward eight years and Google has reversed itself, but done so secretly.”

Recently, e-commerce giant Amazon faced pressure from employees to cut ties with Peter Thiel’s Palantir, a data mining firm that is employed by ICE in its efforts to carry out deportations. Amazon employees are now circulating a letter from June 2018 in which they called for executives to ban Palantir from Amazon Web Services; Palantir’s software utilizes Amazon’s cloud computing unit.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com

Tag Cloud

%d bloggers like this: