Things to Keep an Eye On
The Heritage Foundation in the balance, Jeffrey Epstein and the Russian-Israeli relationship, Kat Abughazaleh charged, L3Harris executive pleads guilty
Kevin Roberts satisfies no one at all
The new head of the Heritage Foundation has his first and most significant test right now. I quit Project 2025 over Project Esther, which he allowed to go forward. It treats a majority of American college students as material supporters of terrorism, and as such is a grave threat to Americans’ constitutional rights. Despite his acquiescence to this Israeli attempt to harm Americans, it hasn’t bought him any goodwill with the dual loyalty lobby. Because he refused to cancel Tucker, he still has problems. Instead of standing up to them, he has demoted Ryan Neuhaus, which causes the Israelis to see blood in the water. Now conservative world is engaged in a witch hunt for the single honest man at Heritage—all others should be assumed so unpatriotic as to support the drone striking of America’s children without trial. If Heritage enforces Israeli litmus tests, it isn’t an American institution, it’s an Israeli institution. This is simple.
Jeffrey Epstein and the Russian-Israeli relationship
This story in DropSite is extremely important as to the foreign policy controversies of the second Obama term:
Jeffrey Epstein facilitated efforts to open a backchannel between Israel and the Kremlin during the Syrian civil war, according to leaked emails from former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
The trove of emails, exchanged at the height of the Syrian civil war between 2013 and 2016, reveal Epstein’s successful efforts to secure a private meeting between Barak and Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss a Russian-brokered end to the conflict, including winning Russian support for a negotiated removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Epstein was an invaluable resource for Israel’s former prime minister, who also served as head of intelligence and defense minister throughout his career, sharing whispers from within Russian elite circles and intel on Putin’s interlocutors in Europe and the U.S—and even advising him on how to engage with the Mossad. Barak, fresh out of his role as Israeli defense minister, built a deep portfolio of investments and business relationships around the world with Epstein’s help.
What it shows is Epstein was working on the Republican effort to scotch the Iran deal, and proposed a pro-Russian solution to getting rid of Assad in Syria. His main contact was Gawker investor Viktor Vekselberg, and Barak argued for the U.S. permitting Russia to keep their naval bases in exchange for their help removing him.
This is a fabulous example of the argument I’ve been making here, that Israel is a confounding factor in great power conflict. Syria was a threat to them, but the only thing that would have benefitted the U.S. as to removing Assad would have been to get rid of those bases. Israel has no navy to speak of, and they rely on the U.S. one. This, to me, pretty definitively calls into question the idea that Epstein was working for the U.S. But that wouldn’t have mattered to the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times, or various other places he was helping Barak pitch, because they don’t care whether someone’s pro-America, they care whether their contributors are pro-Israel.
Kat Abughazaleh charged for anti-ICE obstruction
I think mercy is called for here, she never really had a chance in life after starting out at Media Matters, David Brock’s repulsive sweatshop:
Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh is among a half dozen people the Justice Department has charged for allegedly impeding an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation, according to an indictment obtained by Axios.
L3Harris executive pleads guilty to selling zero-days to Russia
From Wired:
A FORMER EXECUTIVE at a company that sells zero-day vulnerabilities and exploits to the United States and its allies pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington, DC, on Wednesday to selling trade secrets worth at least $1.3 million to a buyer in Russia, according to US prosecutors.
Another 764 indictment
In California:
A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of California has returned a six-count indictment against Tony Christopher Long, also known as Inactive, Inactivee0, and inactivecvx, 19, of Porterville, California, charging him with animal crushing (two counts), sexual exploitation of a minor, possession of material involving the sexual exploitation of a minor, cyberstalking, and transmitting an interstate threat. Long is currently in state custody on related charges.
“This defendant allegedly engaged in acts of extreme cruelty by exploiting a child, abusing animals, and threatening violence — his conduct reflects the depravity of ‘764,’” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “These networks seek to terrorize and destabilize our communities by preying on the most vulnerable, and the Justice Department will stop at nothing to dismantle this network and bring offenders to justice.”
Google and AWS permitted Israel to flout the law
From the consortium that’s been doing a bunch of big stories lately:
But an investigation by +972 Magazine, Local Call, and The Guardian can now reveal that Google and Amazon submitted to highly unorthodox “controls” that Israel inserted into the deal, in anticipation of legal challenges over its use of the technology in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
Leaked Israeli Finance Ministry documents obtained by The Guardian — including a finalized version of the contract — and sources familiar with the negotiations reveal two stringent demands that Israel imposed on the tech giants as part of the deal. The first prohibits Google and Amazon from restricting how Israel uses their products, even if this use breaches their terms of service. The second obliges the companies to secretly notify Israel if a foreign court orders them to hand over the country’s data stored on their cloud platforms, effectively sidestepping their legal obligations.
Was FBI Halloween terror plot another hoax?
From Ken Silva:
A Michigan defense lawyer is disputing FBI allegations that his 20-year-old client and four other young suspects were planning to carry out a terror attack on Halloween weekend.
Authorities with the FBI and in Michigan have offered few details about the case, however as he announced the arrests on Friday, FBI Director Kash Patel said more information would be released. Spokespersons for the state and national FBI and the U.S. Attorney in Detroit did not immediately respond to messages Saturday.