Month: September 2023

My Opinion: FBI: Investigate the Menendez case from Counterintelligence perspectives: Cui bono? Who benefited from this scandal and Menendez resignation as the Senate Foreign Committee Chair? Answer: Israel, Turkey, Azerbaijan. 

1. Israel’s Netanyahu and his far-right ally Ben-Gvir: Menedez warned harshly against this alliance, and Netanyahu was “pissed off”, and Ben-Gvir was “deeply concerned”, whatever it means. Egypt was used as a cover, sustained a reputational damage, and stands to potentially lose the US military assistance, serving as the backdrop to the much touted “Saudi spring”. 

2. Turkey’s Erdogan, who said openly and directly that this event will help him to buy F-16-s ($20B deal). 

3. Azerbaijan got rid of its most vehement and persistent critic. 

Consider the anti-Armenian sentiment around Menendez’ new Armenian wife and other co-defendants. 

It is known that these three countries are in alliance directed against Iran. 

As Craig Unger said, why do I see all this, and the FBI does not? 

“In the course of writing two books on Donald Trump’s ties to Russia, the same question occurred to me again and again: How is it possible that I knew all sorts of stuff about Donald Trump, and the FBI didn’t seem to have a clue? Or if they did, why weren’t they doing anything with it?

…

One reason for that may have been that on far too many occasions, FBI men in sensitive positions ended up on the take from the very people they were supposed to be investigating.” 

I am not ready to agree with this explanation above, but the very fact that it was voiced by one of the best US journalists is very troubling. 

I wrote 2 books showing 1) how Trump laundered $$ for the Russian Mafia & 2)how he was cultivated by and became an asset for the KGB. Maybe this explains why I was able to find such incriminating material and the FBI didn’t. https://t.co/tmMIyZfvqX

— Craig Unger (@craigunger) January 24, 2023 

Methinks, humbly, from the non-professional perspectives, that in the Counterintelligence investigations the legal aspects (the urge to try and to convict) are the secondary considerations. 

The primary ones are TO UNDERSTAND WHAT REALLY HAPPENED or is happening, especially when the truth is buried under the mountains of the carefully constructed covers, lies, and disinformation. 

Michael Novakhov | 8:40 AM 9/29/2023

As Jimmy Carter, America’s longest-living president, turns 99 on Oct. 1, his grandson shares what he believes is the secret to his grandfather’s long life: exercise.

“If he got to a new city that he had never been to before, whether there was Secret Service or not, he would say, ‘Hey, is there a bike?’” Jason Carter, a lawyer and former Georgia state senator, told TIME in a video chat on Sept. 28. He says his grandfather would always make time to jog around places he visited, and when he couldn’t jog anymore as he got older, he switched to riding a bike. Jimmy Carter also used to play tennis every day. “Stay active,” Jason says.

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Jason jokes that the one sport that the 39th U.S. President and Nobel Peace Prize winner didn’t excel at was fishing, recalling a time when they were fishing for grouper and his grandfather couldn’t catch any fish. He made his grandson switch sides with him on the boat to see if that would change his luck.

But while Jason Carter attributes his grandfather’s longevity to an active lifestyle, he believes Jimmy Carter might have a different answer. Jason thinks that his grandfather would say that the secret to his long life is his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter. In 2015, the former President said, “The best thing I ever did was marry Rosalynn. That’s the pinnacle of my life.”

The two answers are perhaps related. Rosalynn was Jimmy’s main jogging partner. TIME described how the couple would make time to pound the pavement during his presidency in the April 23, 1979, issue of the magazine:

The presidential couple, in jogging attire, set out together on a course around the White House South Lawn (measured one memorable afternoon at a quarter-mile by panting correspondents who trailed Lyndon Johnson for 18 laps on an improbable mobile press conference). The Johnson quarter-mile is not the only Carter family run. They couple-jogged in Cairo and Jerusalem on recent visits abroad. Last week at Camp David, Rosalynn reached a running high. Trailed by two carloads of agents togged out in double-barreled shotguns, the First Lady panted a full 4 1/2 miles. “This is the farthest Rosalynn has ever gone,” announced her proud husband, adding, “On good days, I like to go ten.”

The former Commander in Chief is much more physically limited after a serious fall in 2019. He’s been in hospice care since February, but will take time to celebrate his birthday in a small family event at his home in Plains, Georgia, according to Jason. (The date of some birthday-related festivities at his library in Atlanta, Georgia, got moved up from Oct. 1 because of a looming government shutdown.)

Reflecting on his grandfather’s legacy, Jason calls it a “millennial presidency,” given all of the issues his grandfather tackled that are top of mind for the millennial generation. He says: “If we had listened to his presidency when they started talking about climate change, when they started talking about changing the way that we consume energy, solar and alternative sources—we would be far far ahead of where we are now. In those ways—on the environment, social justice, human rights—the presidency itself was way ahead of its time.”

The acting leader of Myanmar’s government-in-exile said resistance forces are in control of about 60% of the country’s territory and poised to threaten the ruling junta in key strongholds as fighting rages across the Southeast Asian nation.

Violence has intensified in Myanmar as the military led by Min Aung Hlaing, facing a crumbling economy and growing signs of dissent within his regime, struggles to keep up with a multi-front conflict from several armed ethnic groups. A shadow government allied with ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and formed after the 2021 coup, along with other armed ethnic groups, have been ramping up ground attacks with an eye on new military operations, including near the capital city of Naypyidaw.

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“It has been more than two years since we started the people’s defense war. Now, cooperation between PDFs and ethnic revolutionary forces are yielding good results,” Duwa Lashi La, the acting president of the exiled National Unity Government, said in an interview Thursday, referring to his armed wing. “We are now in a position to even threaten Naypyidaw.”

While the junta still oversees key cities, an assessment by a group of Myanmar experts last year said the military retained stable control of just 17% of the country’s total land area. Local media have reported recent attacks in the capital, including on a junta airbase this month. 

Major General Zaw Min Tun, lead spokesman for the ruling State Administration Council, didn’t answer calls seeking comment on the extent of the opposition’s control of the country. The regime views the NUG and its allies as terrorists. 

The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution in December demanding an end to violence in Myanmar as well as the release of political prisoners. While the resolution’s impact was limited after China, Russia and India abstained, the junta’s ability to generate revenue has still faced setbacks partly due to several rounds of economic sanctions by the US and its partners.

Air Strikes

The junta has nevertheless expanded assaults against its civilian population of 55 million, including nearly 700 air strikes between April 2022 and July of this year. That’s more than double carried out in the 14 months following the 2021 coup, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said this week. He said the military has also conducted mass killings and burned villages as it seeks to deter civilians from cooperating with its enemies.

NUG leader Duwa Lashi La, a Kachin politician and lawyer, said resistance fighters have seized more than 100 junta outposts throughout the country following thousands of clashes with government troops this year and last. It has also facilitated about 14,000 military defections, he added.

Morale in the junta has been called into question, while a corruption probe recently saw two lieutenant generals close to Min Aung Hlaing replaced. Widespread unrest recently prompted the regime to extend a state of emergency for another six months until Jan. 31, dashing hopes of a general election this year. 

“It is very encouraging to see that more military personnel are trying to reach out to us via our informers at different government offices,” Duwa Lashi La said. “There are negotiations in progress for some brigadier generals to defect but they haven’t joined yet.”

With the pro-democracy icon and the de facto leader of the ousted civilian government, Suu Kyi, facing life in prison, the acting president of the NUG said there was little transparency over the state of her health. Even if she were released, though, it might not change the course of the conflict.

“There may be something Daw Aung San Suu Kyi wants to be and we will have to take it into consideration,” he said. “But we will not change our direction for her voice only.”

In the early hours of September 24, a terrorist attack on Kosovo Police personnel shook the village of Banjske in the northern portion of the country, leaving one policeman dead and two others hurt. The assailants are members of a terrorist organization that was intended to have more than 30 members.

Well trained, equipped with the latest weapon technology and other armored military vehicles, immediately after the intervention of the specialized units of Kosovo Police, terrorists were stationed around and inside the Serbian Orthodox Church in the village of Banjske. After being attacked by heavily armed terrorists, Kosovo Police continued to respond in defense throughout Sunday, as a result of which four of the terrorists were killed and three others were arrested, the operation is still ongoing and the statistics may change. While some of the terrorists have crossed the border to the side of Serbia, leaving vehicles and military equipment in the Church, some of the escapers are also wounded and being treated in the hospital of Novi Pazar in Serbia.

Among the wounded is Milan Radojcic, who is being treated at the military hospital in Belgrade. Radojcic, vice leader of Lista Srpska and the main suspect for organizing the terrorist group that attacked the Kosovo Police, is also suspected of the murder of the Serbian politician in Kosovo, Oliver Ivanovic. He is also on the list of the people sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for corruption and international organized crime. Radojcic’s documents were found in a Mercedes G-Class camouflaged with KFOR markings, one of the 20 vehicles confiscated during the Kosovo Police operation. The documents include gun permits in Radojcic’s name, issued by the Belgrade authorities, etc. A sizable number of weapons, armored vehicles, and quadbikes made in Russia (usaully used by the Russian special operation forces from Senezh mil base), projectiles and rocket launchers, landmines, snipers, uniforms, and anti-aircraft weapons were seized during the Kosovo police’s operation against the terrorist group. A variety of additional weapons, including nitroglycerin-filled machine guns, this equipment is military-grade and imported directly from Serbian military supplies. 

Radojcic whithin dhe monastery properties.

Among other things, in the car that is believed to belong to Milan Radojcic, stickers with the logo of KFOR and several types of fake license plates were found, which are supposed to be used during the special operation by the terrorists. Otherwise, Radojcic, who is the proxy of Russia and right hand of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in north of Mitrovica, is also the prime suspect to be the leader of the terrorist group, which had a clear scenario to ignite the armed conflict in Kosovo. There are discussions that 200 people potentially recruited who would be part of this scenario. According to the findings on the field, the plan of the terrorists is assumed to be the same implementation in the north of Mitrovica as of Putin in Donbas in 2014, i.e. the declaration of autonomy in the northern part of Kosovo.

large caliber projectiles.

Drone-shot images shows terrorists had deposited weapons and armored vehicles in the Serbian Orthodox Church in the village of Banjské in Zvecan, for a long time and this special operation has been planned for months. The fact that the Serbs are using the Serbian Orthodox churches in Kosovo to hide terrorists and their weapons was emphasized by British MP Alicia Kearns, in July of this year. According to a report by Kearns in the British Parliament, Serbian criminals in the northern part of Kosovo are using auto-ambulances to smuggle guns inside Serbian Orthodox churches. When KFOR asks for permission to enter the churches, until the moment they have permission – unexpected – an ambulance has appeared in the church and has taken out all the weapons again, Kearns had stated.

Three months after Kearns warnings, we are talking about a direct Serbian operation in the north of Kosovo. According to the initial valuations of the security authorities in Kosovo, Serbia has made repeated attempts to plan such assaults using its methods, but the latter, according to the evidence on the field, were planned, funded, and supported in every manner by Serbia. It’s unusual that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has waited this long to comment on the current situation in North Kosovo. Unlike the other times, in which Vucic did not hesitate to declare in the first minutes that the operations were going according to his plan, this time he did not appear until eight in the evening, waiting for the outcome of the events. With a speech that will be analyzed in a future paper, Vucic was typical of his predecessor Milosevic. Among other things, he addressed to the Serbian people that he was not aware of the event and the organization of the terrorist attack in the north of Kosovo had nothing to do with Serbia, meanwhile he was providing precise counts of the people killed and involved in the terrorist attack against Kosovo Police. Additionally, he did not miss the chance to place the responsibility on Prime Minister of Kosovo for the terrorist attack by Serbs against the Kosovo Police, someone may find this so outlandish, but Vucic has clouded the situation this way hundreds times, in front of his own people and the international community. For as much as this time the evidence has clearly appeared that Serbia is involved in the action of the terrorist group against the Kosovo Police, as a sponsoring state of terrorism by providing shelter, training, military, logistical and financial equipment for the terrorist group, Vucic was closely involved and returned to his old ally Russia, the next day, he was reporting to the Russian ambassador in Belgrade. On the other hand, the USA and the EU urgently need to address the issue of terrorism sponsorship by Serbia and its aggression against the territory of Kosovo. Serbia must be treated as state which sponsored terrorism and must be penalized through sanctions and the suspension of donations. Regarding dialogue, the EU has been unable to act so far and has been playing bothsideism with neutral language, often harsher towards Kosovo, past practices have shown that bothsideism only serves to escalate tensions.

More on this story: Russia on a hunt to destabilize Kosovo through Serbia

More on this story: Vucic threatens to escalate what he already does in Northern Kosovo

NATO said in a statement on Friday that it had “authorized additional forces to address the current situation” in Kosovo.

NATO did not immediately specify how many additional forces or from which countries.

Azerbaijan intends to allow a group of experts from the United Nations to visit the Karabakh region “in a matter of days”, the office of a presidential adviser said on Friday.

Media will also have a chance to visit Karabakh, it said, as the number of ethnic Armenians fleeing the region following Azerbaijan’s lightning military offensive there reached nearly 90,000, out of an estimated population of 120,000.

The United States and others have called on Baku to allow international monitors into Karabakh, amid concerns about possible human rights abuses. Armenia has accused Azerbaijan of ethnic cleansing in Karabakh, something Baku strongly denies.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said the rights of Karabakh’s Armenians would be fully respected but that his “iron fist” had consigned the idea of an independent ethnic Armenian Karaabakh to history.

Aliyev told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a phone call on Tuesday that his forces had targeted only “military facilities… during the anti-terror measures, which lasted less than 24 hours, and civilians were not harmed”, according to a statement from the Azeri president’s office.