Covid-19 > FBI Inquiry into Wuhan Lab as Possible Source of Covid -19

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Some things are so blatantly obvious, but with American money involved,

it is much more likely that the truth will be covered up rather than revealed.

An aerial view shows the P4 laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in China's

central Hubei Province on April 17, 2020. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

FBI Launched Inquiry Into NIH Funding of Wuhan Lab, Emails Show

By Eva Fu July 15, 2022 Updated: July 16, 2022 

INSIDE CHINA

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) launched an inquiry into the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding of bat research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology, newly released emails show.

The interest from the top U.S. intelligence agency adds to the international scrutiny on the Wuhan facility, which houses one of China’s highest-level biosecurity labs that has been considered a possible source of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In preparation for our call on Tuesday, Erik [Stemmy] (cc’d) has provided responses to your initial questions below (also attached),” wrote Ashley Sanders, an investigation officer at the NIH’s division of program integriy, in an email (pdf) dated May 22, 2020 with the subject “Grant Questions – FBI Inquiry,” and directed to FBI agent David Miller.

The email was obtained by government transparency watchdog Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, which asked for records of communications, contracts, and agreements with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

The scope of the inquiry is unclear because the rest of the email correspondence, five pages in total, are entirely redacted. But the name of the email attachment “SF 424 AI110964-06 (received date 11/05/2018),” corresponds to the NIH grant “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.”

The project in question is headed by Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance, which then funnels money to the lab in Wuhan. From 2014 to 2019, the New York nonprofit received six yearly grants totaling $3,748,715 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases under the NIH to fund the project, which was expected to end in 2026.

The FBI inquiry had focused on at least two of the grants, in 2014 and 2019 respectively, the email subject line suggests.

The 2014 grant aimed to “understand what factors increase the risk of the next CoV emerging in people by studying CoV diversity in a critical zoonotic reservoir (bats), at sites of high risk for emergence (wildlife markets) in an emerging disease hotspot (China),” according to the project description. Specifically, the researchers would assess the coronavirus spillover potential, develop predictive models of bat coronavirus emergence risk, and use virus infection experiments as well as “reverse genetics” to test the virus’s transmission between species.

WHO team member Peter Daszak leaves his hotel after the World Health Organization (WHO) team wrapped up its investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province on February 10, 2021. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

In the project summary for the 2019 grant, EcoHealth stated that they had found that “bats in southern China harbor an extraordinary diversity of SARSr-CoVs,” and some of those viruses can “infect humanized mouse models causing SARS-like illness, and evade available therapies or vaccines.”

Recently disclosed documents show that, under one grant, the WIV had conducted an experiment that resulted in a more potent version of a bat coronavirus.

In the project that took place under the fifth grant, from June 2018 to May 2019, the researchers infected two groups of laboratory mice, one of which with a modified version of a bat coronavirus already existing in nature, and another with the original virus.

Those infected with the modified version became sicker, Lawrence Tabak, a principal deputy director at the NIH, wrote in a letter in response to a Congressional inquiry. (not sure if we need to specify who it’s from)

“As sometimes occurs in science, this was an unexpected result of the research, as opposed to something that the researchers set out to do,” wrote Tabak. He acknowledged that EcoHealth had violated the grant terms by failing to notify the NIH “right away” about the finding.

Security personnel keep watch outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology during the visit by the World Health Organization (WHO) team tasked with investigating the origins of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on Feb. 3, 2021. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

The experiment appears to fit the definition of gain-of-function research regardless of its intentions, according to some experts.

“The genetic manipulation of both MERS and the SARS conducted in Wuhan clearly constituted gain-of-function experiments,” Jonathan Latham, executive director of The Bioscience Research Project, previously told The Epoch Times. He said the NIH’s wording choice “unexpected” was “absurd,” “when clearly these experiments were expressly designed to detect increased pathogenicity.”

An April 2020 memo (pdf) reveals that the State Department assessed lab leak as the most likely origin of COVID-19.

“The Wuhan labs remained the most likely yet least probed. All other possible places of virus’ origin have been proven false,” the memo stated, citing circumstantial evidence such as safety standard lapses, experiments on bats by WIV researchers, and the lab’s role in a “deliberate coverup, especially destruction of any evidence of leaks and disappearance of its employees as Patient Zero.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to the FBI for comments.

Corruption is Everywhere > Beirut's Explosion Inquiry Getting Nowhere; China Tackles Corruption; Investigation into Kurz's Corruption; Boeing Test Pilot Takes Fall for 737MAX; Passport for Cash - Cyprus

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Beirut blast probe frozen for second time in weeks after top

judge issues warrant to arrest former finance minister

12 Oct, 2021 10:49

FILE PHOTO: A still image taken from a drone footage shows the damage two days after an explosion in Beirut's port area, Lebanon August 6, 2020. © Reuters / Reuters TV

The judge leading the probe into last year's explosion in Beirut port has had to pause his investigation, for the second time in weeks, shortly after handing out an arrest warrant for Lebanon's ex-finance minister.

On Tuesday, Judge Tarek Bitar issued a request for the arrest of former finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil, a senior member of the Shiite Amal movement and an ally of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, following his absence from the court.

The probe, however, was frozen for the second time in under three weeks, after two politicians filed a new complaint against Bitar, according to a judicial source. A former public-works minister, Ghazi Zeiter, also close to Hezbollah, was due in for questioning on Wednesday.

Lebanese Hezbollah's chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Monday called for the investigating judge to be replaced, accusing him of politicizing the inquiry and of being biased, his strongest attack against Bitar since he assumed his role.

"The targeting is clear, you are picking certain officials and certain people. The bias is clear," Nasrallah said, claiming that the truth will never come out if Bitar continues with the investigation.

The judge's inquiry into the port blast, which killed more than 200 people, wounded around 7,500, and caused widespread devastation in the capital on August 4, 2020, was paused at the end of September after an official under investigation filed a complaint against him.

Despite attempts to serve justice, the probe has made little headway in holding senior officials accountable. In August, Bitar slapped ex-caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab with a subpoena for failing to turn up to his inquiry, which the secretary general of Lebanon then ruled was an excessive use of power.

Bitar's predecessor, Fadi Sawan, was axed from leading the probe in February after former ministers accused of negligence complained that he was acting out of his jurisdiction.

Being Lebenon, you can expect nothing to be accomplished from this investigation. Hezbollah will make sure of that.

China launches major audit of country’s financial system

to root out corruption

12 Oct, 2021 14:49

© AFP / Hector Retamal

Beijing has announced a major inspection of the country’s financial regulators, insurers, bad-debt managers and its biggest state-controlled banks, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in a statement.

The two-month scrutiny of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) is reportedly expected to root out corruption in the nation’s $54-trillion financial system. The commission also said that complaint reports from whistleblowers would be accepted until mid-December.

The move reflects Beijing’s focus on financial regulation, according to CBIRC Chairman Guo Shuqing, who said that cooperation with inspectors would be their top priority.

The close audit comes as part of a broader program of inspection that was launched in 2017 and zeroed in on 25 financial organizations. While previous checks had targeted other central and local government agencies along with state-owned corporations, the latest one will reportedly be focused on the People’s Bank of China, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, the biggest state-owned banks, as well as bad-debt managers including China Huarong Asset Management.

The measure is a reflection of the government’s tough policy towards corruption among corporate executives. Over 1.5 million government officials have been brought to trial during the long-running crackdown.

Earlier this year, a Chinese court sentenced Lai Xiaomin, the former chairman of state-owned financial giant Huarong, to death after finding him guilty of bribery. The former chairman of China Development Bank Hu Huaibang was sentenced to life behind bars for taking $13.2 million in bribes.

The People’s Bank of China, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, sovereign wealth fund China Investment, and Huarong reportedly issued similar statements on Tuesday, announcing the launch of inspections. The inspection team leaders stressed the need to prevent “systematic financial risks,” while the top officials of the audited agencies vowed full cooperation.

What about auditing the country's political system for corruption?

Fall of an Austrian Chancellor

The Stench of Corruption Leads to Kurz's Sudden Resignation

Initially celebrated as a wunderkind, Sebastian Kurz resigned as Austrian chancellor over the weekend amid a far-reaching corruption probe. Documents from that investigation hint at a mafia-like system involving political leaders and the media built up over many years.

By Walter Mayr in Vienna

11.10.2021, 11.41 Uhr

When the political bomb exploded in Vienna, Sebastian Kurz wasn’t even 20 kilometers south of the Austrian border. And he was in surroundings where he feels most comfortable – among Europe’s political leaders, including Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron and Mario Draghi. The Western Balkan Summit had brought the EU’s most powerful together, and if Kurz has achieved one thing during his tenure, then it is giving off the impression that he and his country are among the heavyweights in Europe and not one of the smaller member states.

The article you are reading originally appeared in German in issue 41/2021 (October 8th, 2021) of DER SPIEGEL.

SPIEGEL International

It was shortly after 10 a.m. on a Wednesday and the European heads of state and government were sitting in a plenary meeting when the news began spreading in Vienna and in Brdo, where the summit was being held: In the early morning hours, the authorities had searched the Austrian Chancellery, the headquarters of Kurz’s Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), the Finance Ministry and one of the country’s most important publishing houses. The search warrant, which DER SPIEGEL and the Austrian daily Der Standard have seen, granted the authorities permission to confiscate "electronic data and data storage devices, servers, laptops, mobile phones and thumb drives.”

It is nothing short of a political earthquake which has shaken the Austrian capital. And over the weekend, it looked as though it could ultimately mark the ignominious end of the meteoric political career of 35-year-old Kurz. "My country is more important to me than my person,” he said on Saturday in his resignation statement, handing over the reigns to erstwhile Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg.

An anti-Kurz protest in Vienna late last week Foto: Lisa Leutner / AP

Given the loyalty of the ÖVP party to Kurz, it is presumed that much of the power will remain in his hands. Still, it is a blow to the executive branch the likes of which hasn’t been seen in postwar Austria. On that Wednesday morning, information quickly spread that the Kurz and nine other suspects were under investigation. The focus of the probe: Suspicions of infidelity and abetment of corruption, while two media executives are under suspicion of infidelity and bribery. In addition, the media group Österreich is under suspicion as is the federal organization of the ÖVP.

Austria, in short, is facing an affair of state. At stake is whether the dazzling success story of Sebastian Kurz must be rewritten and whether his climb to the top of his party and to the pinnacle of state power was actually rooted in a corrupt system involving those surrounding him, his party and the most powerful media moguls in the country. That, at least, is the clear message of the search warrant obtained by state prosecutors from the office in charge of investigating white collar crime and corruption, WKStA for short.

Austria spent 222 million euros in taxpayer money for

advertising in 2020. That is 44 million euros more than

in 2019 and 43 million euros more than in 2016.

Source: Wienerzeitung

Chance discoveries on mobile telephones that had been confiscated in a different case led investigators to conclude that they had sufficient evidence to go after the Kurz and his inner circle. At the heart of the investigation are suspicions that Kurz – earlier as foreign minister and then as chancellor – prompted his close confidant Thomas Schmid, general secretary in the Finance Ministry, to buy favorable coverage in outlets belonging to the media group Österreich. The publishing house is under the control of the brothers Wolfgang and Helmuth Fellner. The two brothers are thought to have been compensated in the form of 1.33 million euros worth of ads purchased by the Finance Ministry over the course of two years.

All of those under suspicion have denied the accusations leveled against them. But WKStA investigators seem rather sure of themselves. They say that with the help of "manipulated and thus falsified” public opinion polls, and with opinion polls that had allegedly been pre-formulated by Kurz’s team and which mostly appeared in the free newspaper Österreich, an attempt was made to improve the electorate’s opinion of an up-and-coming Sebastian Kurz. With the help of "faked invoices” for the sum of 144,000 euros, the costs for the image campaign on Kurz’s behalf was paid for using Finance Ministry funds. Taxpayer money.

There is much more to this story on Spiegel International.

Test pilot takes fall for Boeing's 737 MAX

Former Boeing test pilot charged for ‘deceiving regulators’ about 737 MAX safety,

to ‘save money’ & not become fall guy

15 Oct, 2021 04:52 / 

Dozens of grounded Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are seen parked at Grant County International Airport

in Moses Lake, Washington, US, November 17, 2020 ©  Reuters / Lindsey Wasson

Boeing’s former chief test pilot has been indicted for fraud, accused of lying to regulators about a safety problem with the 737 MAX that ultimately caused two fatal crashes, in what DOJ officials said was a bid to “save money.”

Mark Forkner, 49, a chief technical pilot for the aerospace giant between 2014 and 2018, was charged on Thursday by a federal grand jury, according to the Department of Justice, which claimed he “deceived” the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Aircraft Evaluation Group about a particular system on the MAX, later determined to have led to a pair of crashes that took hundreds of lives. 

“In an attempt to save Boeing money, Forkner allegedly withheld critical information from regulators,” Acting US Attorney Chad Meacham said in a statement, adding that the DOJ “will not tolerate fraud – especially in industries where the stakes are so high.” 

[Forkner’s] callous choice to mislead the FAA hampered the agency’s ability to protect the flying public

and left pilots in the lurch, lacking information about certain 737 MAX flight controls.

The department went on to say that the test pilot “abused his position of trust” with the government and provided the FAA with “materially false, inaccurate, and incomplete information” about the 737 MAX’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS).

In a 16-page charging document, the government accused Forkner of deliberately misleading the FAA in order to influence a change to the agency’s pilot training requirements, saying he believed this could help Boeing to save money in negotiations with airlines. 

Negotiating contracts was obviously not his job. It seems there may have been inordinate pressure from those who do the contracting and who are in charge. I'll bet someone put great pressure on him.

It first emerged that Forkner was on the FAA’s radar after documents leaked to Reuters showed the agency possessed text messages between himself and another pilot in 2019, in which he appeared to admit that he “basically lied to the regulators” about potential issues with the MCAS, though maintained he did so “unknowingly.” At the time, the FAA said the exchange was “concerning” and that it was determining the next steps, though the DOJ waited nearly two years before pressing charges on Thursday.

The department invoked other private communications in its indictment, citing an email in which Forkner complained that if the FAA changed its training requirements it would be “thrown squarely on my shoulders,” adding, in the third-person: 

It was Mark, yes Mark! Who cost Boeing tens of millions of dollars!

The MCAS was an anti-stall mechanism designed to automatically push the MAX’s nose downward under certain conditions, but a malfunction with the system and Boeing’s failure to inform pilots of its specifics was blamed for causing the crashes of two MAX jets between 2018 and 2019 – one operated by Lion Air and another by Ethiopian Airlines – which claimed a total of 346 lives. All 737 MAX planes were later grounded and put out of service worldwide, pending investigations by US regulators. 

An internal probe conducted by the FAA in 2019, however, found that the regulator was far too lax in how it handled testing for the aircraft, and effectively allowed Boeing to perform its own inspections with limited oversight. While the agency claimed that Boeing had failed to notify the government about the MCAS issues, it concluded that greater scrutiny of the multi-billion-dollar corporation may have identified the problem.

Boeing was later charged for criminal conspiracy to defraud the government, though was allowed to settle for $2.5 billion – what amounts to a slap on the wrist for the massive company. It paid $243.6 million in criminal penalties and shelled out another $1.77 billion to airlines that purchased the faulty plane, while just $500 million of the settlement was devoted to a fund to help the families of crash victims. Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg was also pushed out of the company at the height of the scandal, and while he was denied a major severance package, nonetheless walked away with a cool $60 million in pension benefits and stock.

Cyprus strips 45 passports obtained by investors and their families

under cash-for-citizenship scheme

15 Oct, 2021 16:04

© Getty Images / hamzeh shatnawi

The Cypriot government announced on Friday that it has decided to formally strip passports from 39 people who obtained citizenship under a disgraced investment scheme, as well as six of their dependents.

The Council of Ministers has decided to remove “Cypriot citizenship for 39 investors and 6 members of their families,” government spokesman Marios Pelekanos said, although he didn’t specify the names of the individuals impacted.

The government is also investigating a further six cases, and has put another 47 “under continuous monitoring... on the basis of the procedures provided.”

Cyprus agreed in October last year to end its Golden Visa scheme on November 1, 2020, which had allowed foreigners to secure residence and citizenship rights in return for investing millions into the country. To qualify, individuals would have to, at least, invest €2 million ($2.43 million) in Cypriot properties on top of a donation to the government research fund.

"Research fund", right!

The scheme, dubbed cash-for-citizenship, is thought to have raised €7 billion ($8.12 billion) before the government accepted it had been open to “abusive exploitation.”

Around 7,000 people are thought to have secured citizenship under the scheme before it was shut down, with a government appointed commission subsequently finding that more than 53% of those who received passports through this method did so unlawfully.

Once an individual has received a Cypriot passport, they would be able to travel, work, and reside in any of the other European Union member states. Previously, the European Commission criticized Cyprus for granting these passports, claiming that “European values are not for sale,” and accusing the scheme of “trading European citizenship for financial gains.”

European Politics > Possible Inquiry into Novichok Poisonings; EU Clamps Down on Members with Lax Terrorism Procedures; Poland Fined €500,000 Per Day; Migrants Dying on Poland-Belarus Border; Angela Who?

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U.K. Novichok poisoning inquest should be public inquiry, coroner says

Inquiry would allow coroner to examine Russia's possible involvement in death of Dawn Sturgess

The Associated Press · 

Posted: Sep 22, 2021 4:30 PM ET 

Police stand near Salisbury, Britain, home of Dawn Sturgess in July 2018. Sturgess died after being exposed to the nerve agent Novichok. The coroner presiding over the inquest into her death wants to examine Russia's possible involvement. (Hannah McKay/Reuters)

A coroner presiding over an inquest into the death of British woman poisoned by a Soviet-developed nerve agent after a similar attack targeting a Russian ex-spy said Wednesday that she wants the probe to be turned into a public inquiry so she can examine Russia's possible involvement.

Unlike an inquest, British law allows a public inquiry to consider sensitive intelligence material during partly closed hearings. The inquiry that coroner Heather Hallett requested in order to consider any role played by the Russian government in the 2018 death of Dawn Sturgess would be unlikely to start before 2023.

Sturgess, 44, and her partner collapsed in the southwest England town of Amesbury after coming into contact with a small perfume bottle containing Novichok, a military grade nerve agent.

The pair were exposed three months after Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were sickened in a Novichok attack in the nearby city of Salisbury.

Adam Straw, a lawyer representing Sturgess' family and her partner, Charlie Rowley, said the "overriding concern is to ensure the truth of how Ms. Sturgess died is established."

A photo made available by London police shows Sturgess, 44, who died in 2018 after being exposed to Novichok. (EPA-EFE)

"No family should wait five and a half years to find out how someone died," he said.

Britain's government on Tuesday named and charged a third Russian suspect in the Novichok poisonings.

It alleges that three men working for Russia's military intelligence service travelled to the U.K. for a mission targeting the Skripals before flying back to Moscow. Russia vehemently denies the allegations.

Rowley told authorities he found the perfume bottle containing traces of the nerve agent in a trash bin.

Since all three Russian suspects returned immediately to Russia, it begs the absurd question, 'how often are garbage bins emptied in Amesbury?' 

Britain has acknowledged that extradition requests for the three suspects would be futile and they cannot be brought to trial as long as they remain in Russia. While there is almost no chance of a criminal trial, lawyers believe a public inquiry is the best way to find out what happened.

The Skripals became seriously ill after Novichok was smeared on Sergei Skripal's door handle in March 2018, but the father and daughter survived.

Sturgess died in July that year after she and Rowley came into contact with the discarded perfume bottle the month before. Rowley later recovered.

Police said they could not account for the whereabouts of the perfume bottle between the attack on the Skripals and when Rowley said he found it three months later.

Cathryn McGahey, a lawyer representing the British government, said she hoped authorities will make a decision about the public hearing by the end of the year.

Porton Down is a microbiology lab that happens to be equidistant from Amesbury and Salisbury

I'm sure that's a coincidence!

Brussels begins infringement proceedings against Austria and other

states for failing to implement EU rules on combating terrorism

24 Sep, 2021 12:42

European Union flag in Brussels

The European Commission announced that it has launched infringement procedures against Austria, as well as Finland, Croatia and Luxembourg for failing to correctly implement certain elements of EU rules on combating terrorism.

On Thursday, the bloc’s executive body announced that it was sending a letter of formal notice to Vienna, remarking that it now has two months to respond to arguments put forward by Brussels. If there is no response, the Commission may send a “reasoned opinion”.

Oh my gosh, no! Not a reasoned opinion!

Aside from Austria, the EU said that it will be sending formal notices also to Croatia, Luxembourg and Finland for their failure to adopt the union’s terrorism measures.

Under the EU directive, there are regulations that criminalize and sanction terrorist training, going overseas for terrorism, as well as returning to or traveling across the bloc to commit offences.

The rules in place also have provisions for victims, such as making sure people affected receive professional and specialist support and reliable information, both in the wake of incidents and in the long term if needed.

Austrian Social Democrats security spokesman Reinhold Einwallner called for Interior Minister Karl Nehammer and Justice Minister Alma Zadić “to explain how this government failure could occur”, slamming the lack of action in a statement.

“The Austrian population deserves the highest protection of terrorism”, Einwallner remarked, calling it a scandal that Vienna “has been failing to implement the EU-directive since 2017.”

The central European country’s capital was rocked by a terrorist attack on November 2, 2020, when a shooting broke out outside of the city’s main synagogue, which then spread to other locations. The attack claimed four victims and left over 20 injured.

In the wake of the attack, the Austrian Interior Ministry confirmed reports that the gunman had met with a group of fellow jihadists from Switzerland and Germany in Vienna several months prior. Nehammer also admitted that Austrian officials had made “intolerable mistakes” and had failed to act on information from Slovakia about suspects trying to buy ammunition there in the summer.

Poland must pay €500,000 daily for ignoring

top EU court’s ruling on Turow mine

Is EU's overreaction being pushed by the 'Climate Change' hysteria crowd?

20 Sep, 2021 15:25 / Updated 1 day ago

The Polish coal-fired power plant Turow is seen from a hill near Vitkov village in the Czech Republic

on June 28, 2021. © AFP / Michal Cizek

Poland must pay a daily penalty of €500,000 ($585,550) for ignoring a previous order from the European Union’s top court to cease operations at the Turow lignite mine, with its CEO slamming the fine as “bizarre”.

On Monday, the EU’s Court of Justice (CJEU) confirmed it was enforcing the financial penalty against Warsaw, stating that Poland must pay the European Commission the daily half-million euro fine until it sees compliance with the earlier order.

Judges from the Luxembourg-based court said that the fine is “necessary… to deter that member state from delaying bringing its conduct into line with that order.”

Wojciech Dabrowski, the CEO of the company that operates the mine, Polska Grupa Energetyczna (PGE), said that the court’s decision to impose fines was “bizarre” and that the firm does not agree with the action taken. The Polish government has also vowed that the mine's operations will continue despite the ruling.

The Czech Republic took legal action against Poland in February over activities at the mine, which also sits close to the German border, claiming that it spoiled its citizens’ drinking water. After Warsaw failed to obey the court orders in May to “immediately cease lignite extraction activities at the mine”, Prague asked the court to fine Poland €5 million per day.

Poland’s PM Mateusz Morawiecki criticized the May ruling, calling it “very dangerous” for the central European country’s energy security and for the 5,000 people employed at the mine.

Unlike neighboring Germany, Poland is still heavily reliant on coal as a major source of power, accounting for around 70% of its total energy production. In 2018, the mine at the centre of the legal action produced some 6.5 million tons of the brown coal, lignite.

If the EU was a genuine union for the betterment of all, it would find a better way to deal with this issue. A big stick is not what unions are about, or shouldn't be. There must be some carrots they can throw around such as assisting Poland to switch to better sources of power.

The EU lied, refugees died: Belarus’ deadly game treats desperate

people as pawns. But the West sees them as something even worse

25 Sep, 2021 08:06

Poland Erects A Border Between Belarus And The EU. © Getty Images / Dominika Zarzycka

By Tarik Cyril Amar, a historian at Koç University in Istanbul working on Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe, the history of World War II, the cultural Cold War, and the politics of memory.

Just a few days ago, four migrants died of exhaustion and hypothermia while trying to cross the border between Poland and Belarus. Nobody knows how many others have perished in this same way, dreaming of a new life in the West.

The would-be asylum seekers have unwittingly become pawns in a wider geopolitical game. EU states, which stand accused of turning back desperate people along the frontier, have alleged that the Belarusian government has laid on flights to troubled destinations such as Iraq and Afghanistan and is now ‘weaponizing’ refugees to create a border crisis for Brussels. The lives at stake, however, have received little sympathy.

At around the same time as the bodies of the four people who had dreamed they would be welcome in Poland were found, the country’s president, Andrzej Duda, gave an address to the UN General Assembly in New York. The contrast is stunning.

Duda made a special point of lecturing his global audience on the merits of “solidarity,” and was clearly trying to cash in rhetorically on the name of the Polish trade union movement that resisted Communism in the 1980s. And not just any solidarity, but that between the wealthy global “North” and the neglected “South.” Tying himself into a bit of a geographical pretzel, Duda even claimed that the “North” had let down Ukraine – apparently now part of the “South,” if you ignore its location, economy, and massive privileges of Western support – over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that Polish conservatives can’t stop bemoaning.

And also at the same time, actual people from the real Global South were being systematically abused in a deadly game of chicken between Belarus’ embattled autocrat, Alexander Lukashenko, and Polish nationalist populists. The essence of the row is simple: Lukashenko, unhappy over EU pressure on his domestic crackdown on the opposition and increasingly repressive rule, is trying to use migrants to deliver payback by encouraging or compelling them to cross the border into the EU – that is, Poland, as well as Lithuania and Latvia.

The countries he has reportedly targeted in this manner have responded by locking down their frontiers with fences and troops and by, declaring states of emergency. Lithuania and Latvia did so first. Poland followed at the beginning of September, severely restricting the media and the civil rights of its own population in the significant area bordering on Belarus. 

This is a clear over-reaction that contradicts the spirit and the letter of Polish law, which reserves a state of emergency for – unsurprisingly – emergencies. That is, situations that pose far greater challenges and cannot be dealt with by ordinary means. 

The Polish measures, undertaken by a government with a well-deserved reputation for repeatedly undermining democracy and the rule of law, reek of panic-mongering and nationalist populism. They have come with the rhetorical cover you would expect: Lukashenko’s dirty tricks are denounced as a “hybrid war,” thereby invoking the dire necessities of wartime in a situation that has nothing to do with it. Here, Polish conservatives follow in the footsteps of the US, with its dishonest “wars” on drugs and on terror.

And, just as in the American case, one big lie requires more to be added to it: Polish government members have indulged in hyperbole, presenting their intransigence towards the migrants as protecting all of the EU from a non-existent great migration crisis (and, as if in passing, darkly warning of the also non-existent dangers emanating from pre-scheduled and transparent Russian-Belarusian military maneuvers). 

Really, non-existent migration crisis? Only because the doors are slamming shut on them.

In reality, the Polish state of emergency has made it easy for the authorities to impede the work of those Poles who do care for refugees, restricting the access of not only the media but also activists and NGOs, such as the Ocalenie Foundation, which are trying to help them. In particular, a group of 32 refugees from Afghanistan who have been stranded in inhospitable terrain and under very harsh conditions near the village of Usnarz Górny, between Poland and Belarus, for more than 44 days, and counting. According to the foundation, which has managed to stay in touch with the group despite its deliberate isolation by the state of emergency, their plight is now “dramatic.” They are surrounded by barbed wire on all sides, weak with hunger, cold, and in despair. At the same time, Polish border guards have repeatedly prevented doctors and UN representatives from reaching them. 

Poland’s president, Duda, meanwhile, has used the same speech in which he held forth on “solidarity” to insist that his country will stand firm and not give in to what he called Belarus’ “instrumentalizing of migrants” and the “use of their difficult situation” to endanger the safety of the Polish border. 

Perhaps rankled by some, far too reticent, criticism of his country’s brutal course, or perhaps aware that the UN presents a very different audience from the one he faces at home, Duda was clearly trying to signal at least some recognition of the migrants’ suffering. Yet words are cheap. In reality, there is a glaring contradiction that makes his talk hypocritical: It is impossible to both stay firm – that is, to continue Poland’s current policy – and to do justice to the humanity of the victims of both Lukashenko’s strategy and Poland’s response.

Poland is, of course, by no means alone in betting on deterrence by brutality. The US has done so for a long time, and the current scandal over the treatment of Haitian migrants stranded in the small Texan border town of Del Rio shows, once again, that this attitude is bipartisan: Despite his promises to do better, when the going gets tough, President Biden uses the tools of his predecessor Donald Trump, even if both the Democrats and the opposing Republicans pretend otherwise, for obvious if different reasons. 

The EU as a whole has a nasty record of abusing migrants and letting them die, rather than letting them in. This year alone, for instance, almost 1,400 migrants have already lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean, continuing a steady trend that reached a peak in 2016, with 3,557 estimated deaths. After a history of scandals over harsh camps, Greece has just opened a facility that critics describe as akin to a prison. 

In that sad sense, both Poland and Belarus, one inside and the other outside the EU, turn out to be really very European: ruthless and bereft of compassion. For the migrants lost between them, exhaustion and hypothermia were the immediate causes of death, yet politics is the fundamental one. And these lethal politics are produced by both governments together. The last thing a Polish president should dare to speak about right now is solidarity.

52% of Germans won’t miss Chancellor Angela Merkel,

new poll indicates a day before general election

25 Sep, 2021 09:42

German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a campaign event in Munich, September 24, 2021. 

© Matthias Schrader / AP

As her long service as chancellor comes to an end, more than half of all Germans will not be missing Angela Merkel, a new poll has shown. The country’s new leader will be determined on Sunday.

In a poll of 5,007 people conducted by Civey for the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper between September 22 and 24, respondents were asked if they would miss Merkel after her chancellorship ended.

The majority (52%) said they would not miss the veteran politician, who has continuously governed Germany since 2005. Just 38% said they would miss Merkel, while the rest were undecided.

Merkel, Germany’s second-longest-serving chancellor since World War II, will step down after this Sunday’s general election. The state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet, is tapped to succeed her as chancellor if the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) draws enough votes.

The CDU’s main rivals are the Social Democratic Party, led by Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and the Greens, whose chief candidate is Annalena Baerbock, the party’s co-leader.

China Refuses to Help WHO With Second Covid Origins Lab Leak Inquiry

..

China refuses to participate in 2nd phase of WHO’s Covid origins probe,

says research into lab leak theory goes against ‘science’

22 Jul, 2021 07:54

Staff members in protective suits stand at Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine in Wuhan, Hubei province, China January 29, 2021. ©  REUTERS/Thomas

Beijing has put the brakes on its involvement in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) investigation into the origins of Covid-19, citing its disapproval of any inquiries into the possibility that the virus came from a lab.

The Chinese government will not take part in a second phase of the WHO’s probe into what caused the pandemic, Zeng Yixin, deputy head of China’s National Health Commission, said on Thursday. 

The senior health official said at a press conference in Beijing that he was “surprised” to see research into the lab leak theory – which was initially dismissed by the WHO as highly unlikely – as a listed objective for the organization’s proposed second visit to Wuhan and other locations in China. 

“In some aspects, the WHO’s plan for the next phase of investigation of the coronavirus origin doesn’t respect common sense, and it’s against science. It’s impossible for us to accept such a plan,” he said.

Liang Wannian, a senior scientist and the representative for the Chinese side of the WHO’s joint investigation, said during the same press briefing that, instead of returning to China, the team of experts should prioritize the “very likely” possibility that coronavirus originated in animals. He also pointed to reports of Covid-19 being found in wastewater from different countries around the same time that the disease was first detected in Wuhan, and suggested that investigators expand their research to locations outside China. 

Chinese officials also used the press conference to reiterate that the Wuhan Institute of Virology had no links to the outbreak. Yuan Zhiming, director of China’s National Biosafety Laboratory and professor at the Wuhan lab, stressed that, before December 30, 2019, he and his colleagues had never preserved or studied the novel coronavirus.

And I absolutely believe him. By the way, did I mention I have a tropical island off the coast of Labrador for sale?

After spending around four weeks in China early this year, the experts concluded in their initial report that the virus likely originated in an animal before spreading to humans in December 2019. But the findings have come under scrutiny from Western states, which claim the investigation lacked transparency. US President Joe Biden has since ordered US intelligence agencies to conduct their own assessment into how the health crisis began. 

The theory that Covid-19 may have leaked from a laboratory – possibly the Wuhan Institute of Virology – was embraced by Donald Trump’s administration in the early months of the health crisis. At the time, US media outlets rejected the idea as implausible and even dangerous misinformation. But, in recent months, the theory has gone mainstream, after Washington began to question the thoroughness of the WHO’s preliminary findings. 

The WHO has expressed similar concerns about China’s purported lack of openness. Last week, its director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called on Beijing to be “transparent and open, and to cooperate” with the organization’s ongoing probe into Covid-19’s origins. 

Beijing has rejected such allegations, insisting it has cooperated fully with the international investigation. 

Not true, they were never allowed to question Wuhan staff without Chinese authorities being in the room.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said last week that the origin probe is a “scientific issue” and “all parties should respect the opinions of scientists and scientific conclusions, instead of politicizing the issue.”

Although Beijing has seemingly dismissed the idea that the virus could have come from a Chinese lab, it has remained open to the possibility that it may have leaked from an American facility. On Wednesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry backed calls for an investigation into whether coronavirus came from Maryland’s Fort Detrick biolab, after 4.7 million Chinese petitioned the WHO to send experts to the US military facility. 

Seems fair enough to me! But it would be astonishing if the coronavirus was created in Maryland and became public down the street from China's only level4 lab, halfway around the world. Mind you, if some person, or some sample was shipped from Fort Detrick biolab to Wuhan in the fall of 2019, there might be a case. That should be easy enough to check-out, even for the Chinese, unless they have already destroyed any such files.

Corruption is Everywhere - But in Canadian Politics? Collingwood

Ex-Liberal MP made $1M on Ontario town deals

while sister was mayor, inquiry reveals

Dave Seglins · CBC News 

Former Liberal MP Paul Bonwick's consulting work for companies doing business in Collingwood, Ont., is under scrutiny.

He was awarded for the work while his sister, Sandra Cooper, was mayor of the resort town, northwest of Toronto.

(Metroland and Dave Seglins/CBC)

Former Ontario Liberal MP, the Hon. Paul Bonwick, earned more than $1 million in consultant's fees on a series of backroom deals involving public money while his sister was a local mayor, a judicial inquiry has revealed.

Public hearings got underway Monday in the ski and summer vacation town of Collingwood, Ont., northwest of Toronto, with inquiry lawyers making public key emails and documents from 440,000 pages of evidence they've gathered.

Town council called the probe after Ontario Provincial Police began investigating the multimillion-dollar sell-off of part of Collingwood's power utility and allegations of improper influence and kickbacks involving the proceeds.

Bonwick told CBC News Monday that he and his company, Compenso Communications, performed "a broad range of consulting services" to earn the money and flatly denies any collusion with his sister, town officials or utility insiders to gain an unfair advantage.

"Absolutely not," Boniwck said in an email, saying he never improperly obtained insider information. "No. Nothing deemed confidential or that wasn't accessible by other parties if requested," Bonwick wrote.

Public hearings got underway Monday into town deals in Collingwood, Ont., that netted

former Liberal MP Paul Bonwick about $1 million in consulting fees. (Dave Seglins/CBC)

The current mayor, Brian Saunderson, elected last fall says he pushed for this inquiry while sitting on the previous council.

"I think the public deserves to know what happened," Saunderson said at the outset of the hearings. "The things that happened here in Collingwood are really not unique. They are things that could happen in any small community."

No one has been charged. The OPP investigation continues.

The public inquiry is to hold hearings through June and deliver its findings in the fall.

Insiders paid bonuses 

Bonwick, MP for Simcoe-Grey from 1997 until 2004, is one of the key subjects of the inquiry over his roles as both a consultant — and as brother to former mayor Sandra Cooper.

Bonwick was a paid consultant for PowerStream, which in 2012 bought a 50-per-cent stake in Collingwood's power utility, Collus, despite the town receiving a much higher bid from another potential buyer.

Former MP Paul Bonwick received consulting fees for the sell-off of Collingwood's public power utility, as well as projects

to build membrane structures atop the town's rink and the Collingwood Centennial Aquatic Centre, seen in this photo.

(Dave Seglins/CBC)

The public was never told — and the then-mayor never disclosed — that her brother was involved in the multimillion-dollar sell-off.

Inquiry records released last week revealed for the first time that a number of utility insiders were paid bonuses, and that Bonwick — who worked closely with them and his sister in the mayor's office to help PowerStream clinch the deal — made $323,000 in fees.

The records also suggest PowerStream had insider information and special access to Collingwood council during the bidding.

"It paints a picture which is yet to be proven of a very flawed process that ended up in a deal that brought a subpar return for our taxpayers and will continue to haunt taxpayers for years to come," Mayor Saunderson said.

$756K in fees from construction deal

The public inquiry will also examine what Collingwood officials did with the millions in proceeds from the sale, including $12.4 million the town spent on a sole-sourced contract to build dome structures over a town pool and skating rink.

CBC News last summer revealed that Bonwick secretly made an additional $756,000 fee as a consultant for BLT Construction, helping the firm land the deal with the town in record time with little public scrutiny.

OPP investigators allege Bonwick's role was "shrouded in various layers of secrecy and is evidence of fraudulent activity — to which the Town of Collingwood is the victim," according to a 2014 search warrant.

In the court document, the OPP also accused Bonwick of working closely with the town's then-chief administrative officer Ed Houghton who police suspected of breach of trust for his role.

While the OPP investigation continues, none of those allegations has ever been tested in court and police have charged no one.

Bonwick says the public doesn't have all the facts.

"I remain hopeful that as the inquiry gets underway, and the subsequent recommendations that will be provided by Justice (Frank) Marrocco, a much more clear understanding of the events leading up to the sale of the utility will be made available to the public," Bonwick told CBC News.

Bonwick is attending the inquiry representing himself. He was denied funding for a lawyer in an ongoing dispute with the municipality. Town officials won't offer financial assistance, claiming Bonwick has failed to disclose details about his personal finances to justify support.

Bonwick's sister, ex-mayor Sandra Cooper, is being called to testify at the inquiry.

She has declined numerous opportunities to comment and has hung up on CBC News when asked over the telephone about her brother's role in town deals under her watch.

Houghton, the former town CAO, who also served as president of the utility at the time of the sell-off, has denied any wrongdoing in responses to questions from CBC News.

Collingwood has already changed its own conflict of interest policies to prohibit elected officials from making decisions on deals when a sibling is involved, something not currently prohibited by provincial legislation.

Mayor Saunderson says other small- and medium-sized municipalities across Canada can learn from the Collingwood inquiry, as local governments take on more responsibilities, and face less scrutiny in an age of shrinking media.

"We're increasingly at risk. In the last five years we have seen the closure of the Enterprise Bulletin, which was a newspaper that had been in town for 150 years. Our local TV station is less active. Our fifth estate is not there to shine a light on things."

Inquiry lead counsel Kate McGrann says hearings will continue until mid-June, with the presiding judge to deliver findings and recommendations later this year.

"We're looking to be able to explain to everyone what happened. The people of the town of Collingwood would like to understand what happened when the town sold half of its shares in the public utility." McGrann said in an interview, noting the inquiry will follow the money trail of all involved.

"The inquiry is here to do very specific things. Investigate. Report. And make recommendations."

Saudi Investigation Recovers $107B Linked to Corruption Cases

Corruption is Everywhere - and Definitely in Saudi Arabia

By Sommer Brokaw

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered an anti-corruption crackdown that's recovered $107 billion in assets, a report said Wednesday. File Photo by Hugo Philpott/UPI | License Photo

(UPI) -- Investigators in Saudi Arabia said they've recovered $107 billion stemming from a number of corruption cases that were exposed by a year-long investigation.

An anti-corruption committee submitted its final report Saudi King Salman Wednesday. It showed the money was recovered in assets from corruption cases including real estate, securities and cash.

The inquiry was ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in November 2017 and led to the detention of many high-profile Saudi individuals for months at Riyadh's Ritz-Carlton hotel.

The report said 381 people were subpoenaed by investigators, and some testified. Eighty-seven people confessed to charges that resulted in settlements, the royal court said.

Due to existing criminal charges, the public prosecutor refused to settle the cases of 56 people. Eight have been referred to public prosecution for further legal action after refusing to settle.

Those detained without an indictment were released, the court said.

The committee said it has completed the work and was granted permission by the king to close the investigation.

King Salman pledged the nation will "continue its efforts to preserve integrity, combat corruption, and empower law enforcement and other relevant state bodies so that they are able to effectively practice their role in preserving public funds."

'Preserving integrity' assumes it was there to begin with. $107bn worth of corruption makes it obvious it never was.

It would be interesting to know what motivated bin Salman to clean up the corruption. Could it be his religion? Could it simply be money? If it's religion, how does that fit with his, almost certain, ordering the death of Jamal Khashoggi?