Russiagate PROVES That "A Nation Of Laws And Not Men" Is Utter Nonsense!!!

taibbi |   Last week, in the trial of former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann, prosecutor Andrew DeFilippis asked ex-campaign manager Robby Mook about the decision to share with a reporter a bogus story about Donald Trump and Russia’s Alfa Bank. Mook answered by giving up his onetime boss. “I discussed it with Hillary,” he said, describing his pitch to the candidate: “Hey, you know, we have this, and we want to share it with a reporter… She agreed to that.”

In a country with a functioning media system, this would have been a huge story. Obviously this isn’t Watergate, Hillary Clinton was never president, and Sussmann’s trial doesn’t equate to prosecutions of people like Chuck Colson or Gordon Liddy. But as we’ve slowly been learning for years, a massive fraud was perpetrated on the public with Russiagate, and Mook’s testimony added a substantial piece of the picture, implicating one of the country’s most prominent politicians in one of the more ambitious disinformation campaigns we’ve seen.

There are two reasons the Clinton story isn’t a bigger one in the public consciousness. One is admitting the enormity of what took place would require system-wide admissions by the FBI, the CIA, and, as Matt Orfalea’s damning video above shows, virtually every major news media organization in America.

More importantly, there’s no term for the offense Democrats committed in 2016, though it was similar to Watergate. Instead of a “third-rate burglary” and a bug, Democrats sent schlock research to the FBI, who in turn lied to the secret FISA court and obtained “legal” surveillance authority over former Trump aide Carter Page (which opened doors to searches of everyone connected to Page). Worse, instead of petty “ratfucking” like Donald Segretti’s “Canuck letter,” the Clinton campaign created and fueled a successful, years-long campaign of official harassment and media fraud. They innovated an extraordinary trick, using government connections and press to generate real criminal and counterintelligence investigations of political enemies, mostly all based on what we now know to be self-generated nonsense.

The Clintons, and especially Hillary, have been baselessly accused of all sorts of things in the past, the murder of Vince Foster being just one example. The “vast right-wing conspiracy” was so successful that the Clintons ended up aligning with and helping fund its chief architect, David Brock, ahead of the 2016 cycle. Along with Perkins Coie and the research agency Fusion-GPS, headed by former Wall Street Journal reporter and current self-admiring sleaze-merchant Glenn Simpson, they engineered three long years of phony “collusion” headlines. No matter what papers like the Washington Post try to argue this week, this was an enormous scandal.

The world has mostly moved on, since Russiagate was thirty or forty “current things” ago, but the public prosecution of the collusion theory was a daily preoccupation of national media for years. A substantial portion of the population believed the accusations, and expected the story would end with Donald Trump in jail or at least indicted, scrolling for a thousand straight days in desperate expectation of the promised justice. Trump was bounced from Twitter for incitement, but Twitter has a policy against misinformation as well. It includes a prohibition against “misleading” media that is “likely to result in widespread confusion on public issues.”

I’m not a fan of throwing people off Twitter, but how can knowingly launching thousands of bogus news stories across a period of years, leading millions of people to believe lies and expect news that never arrived, not qualify as causing “widespread confusion on public issues”?

Let’s travel back in time to the first months of 2017, when “Russiagate” became the dominant news story in the world. Full panic arrived on the wings of a series of blockbuster events. One was the release of an Intelligence Assessment by the office of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on January 6, 2017, which concluded Russia ordered an “influence campaign” with a “clear preference” for Trump. Days later, there was an “absolute bombshell” of a leak reported in CNN, about four intelligence chiefs — Clapper, CIA head John Brennan, FBI chief James Comey, and the NSA’s Mike Rogers — who supposedly presented president-elect Trump with “claims of Russian efforts to compromise him.”

Instantly, much of America was in a fever of speculation over the suddenly plausible-sounding possibility that the incoming president was a real-world “Manchurian Candidate” under Russia’s control. That phrase would be used by the Washington Post, New York Times, Vanity Fair, Salon, Daily News and countless others:

The Greatest Crime Since World War 2 Has Been U.S. Foreign Policy

FP |  U.S. President Joe Biden has approved a Defense Department plan to redeploy American troops to Somalia to shore up counterterrorism efforts against one of Africa’s deadliest and most powerful militant groups. 

Biden’s decision will send several hundred U.S. special operators back into Somalia to help the fragile Somali federal government fight off the al Qaeda-linked al-Shabab terrorist group. The decision largely reverses former President Donald Trump’s directive to withdraw some 750 U.S. troops from the East African country shortly before leaving office in January 2021, as part of his broader efforts to draw down the U.S. military’s presence abroad. 

A senior Biden administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity in a briefing to reporters under ground rules set by the White House, characterized Trump’s directive as “an abrupt and sudden transition to a rotational presence” that allowed the al-Shabab terrorist group to gain further strength and step up attacks against the Somali government and civilian targets in recent years. 

The senior official said “under 500” U.S. troops would be redeployed to Somalia under the new plan but did not give additional details on the troops being deployed, citing security. The United States had about 750 troops in Somalia until Trump ordered the withdrawal that took place just days before Biden’s January 2021 inauguration. Since then, U.S. troops have rotated in and out of Somalia for specific missions, which the official characterized as a difficult and inefficient system that undermines U.S. efforts to help Somalia and other partnering governments fight al-Shabab. 

“Restoring a persistent U.S. military presence will help to increase the security and freedom of movement of other personnel, such as State Department and [U.S. Agency for International Development] colleagues as they conduct critical diplomatic and development missions,” the official added. 

Biden also reportedly authorized the Pentagon to target top al-Shabab leaders in addition to the new troop deployment, as the New York Times reported. 

The news of Biden’s decision comes after a major international anti-Islamic State coalition conference in Morocco last week, where leaders from dozens of countries warned that the terrorist group was gaining traction across western Africa even as it lost territory and influence in the Middle East. American gunsights, in contrast, are trained on the al Qaeda-linked al-Shabab in Africa’s east. Biden has authorized at least five drone strikes against al-Shabab since he took office.

Al-Shabab, considered one of the world’s deadliest terrorist groups, has claimed responsibility for a spate of attacks targeting the federal Somali government and peacekeepers from the African Union. It orchestrated the siege of a Kenyan university that killed nearly 150 people and a massive truck bombing in Mogadishu in 2017 that killed nearly 600. It was also responsible for a 2020 attack on a U.S. air base in Manda Bay, Kenya, that killed three Americans.

In 2021, after Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces, al-Shabab stepped up its attacks, particularly around Somalia’s elections, and was expected to be implicated in over 2,000 violent incidents and a 28 percent increase in clashes with government security forces, according to a report last July from the Africa Center for Strategic Studies. 

U.S. military officials have long believed that al-Shabab has the intent to attack the United States, though it lacks the capabilities to do so currently, and the Pentagon considers the group both the fastest-growing and most kinetically active terrorist cell on the continent.

Truth Telling About EthnoFascism Can Get You Fired, Sanctioned, Arrested Or Killed

borkena  |   Hermela Aregawi, born in Ethiopia and raised in the United States, is making headlines in the Ethiopian media after she exposed pro-Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) supporters in the diaspora in connection with the delivery of humanitarian assistance in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. 

Her favorite quote displayed on her Twitter profile reads  “if all the truth were known abt everything in the world, it would be a better place,” and that is what she seems to be doing. 

A journalist by profession, works for CBS,  from ethnic Tigray background,  tweeted earlier this week that the Pro-TPLF Tigreans in the diaspora “don’t want aid to get to people because it will make @AbiyAhmedAli Government look good.”

The Ethiopian government has been under immense pressure from the US government and European Union, among other actors, on alleged grounds of obstructing humanitarian aid delivery to the Tigray region. 

Hermela Aregawi’s view of the conflict in northern Ethiopia, including aid delivery and alleged blockade of it, seems to have changed. 

In fact, she said it in her three parts tweet:

“My perspective on Tigray evolved bc of inconsistencies I’ve seen & heard in 10+ mnths. I stayed quiet for mnths hoping to see a shift towards peace & truth bc lives of millions – including my families’ – depend on it. There was no such shift. #Ethiopia 1/3 … If you’re going to label this a genocide from Day 2 then you can’t also try to control efforts to send life-saving basics to the poor ppl in it. Likely millions$ raised in diaspora but little to no accountability about where it’s going. To fund a civil war? #Tigray #Ethiopia 2/3 …We’ve seen counts of # of civilians killed in Tigray, but how many young soldiers have been killed fighting this questionable war? Diasporans should have the conscience to ask these ?s before continuing to blindly support an ethnic-based war in the year of 2021. #Ethiopia 3/3” 

Reacting to a picture of a child affected by famine, she tweeted “Heartbreaking images. I care enough to ask this ?: If it’s true @UN claims that Ethiopian govt has aid blockade in effect, how is it @UNEthiopia recently reported 466 aid trucks went into Tigray since July 12? A claim neither side of the conflict denied.” 

It was only last week that the UN branch office in Ethiopia disclosed that only 38 of 466 trucks that went to the Tigray region returned. Ethiopia’s Ministry of Peace has confirmed the claim by the UN office. Unverified video footage circulating on social media showed the trucks being used by the TPLF to transport its forces to the battle front in the Amhara region ,one of the regions where the TPLF took its war after the Ethiopian Defense Force withdrew from Tigray region at the end of June following unilateral declaration by the Ethiopian government. 

Ethiopians who have been trying to expose TPLF crimes on Twitter have been hailing Hermela for standing for the truth. In reaction to her inquisitive remark about Associated Press statement published on September 20, Teshome Borago wrote : 

“You are good woman of honor

Please know that the writer of this article Cara Anna recently justified z mass killing of Amharas in #ChenaMassacre by saying the Amhara civilian victims were fighting back vs TPLF

These Westerners just want us Ethiopians to fight forever” 

Many other Ethiopians have been expressing appreciation for Hermela for what she has revealed and for being inquisitive about narratives that were rather regarded as distorted despite they seem to have been used by policy makers including in the U.S government. 

Last week, president Joe Biden signed an executive order approving action regimes against Ethiopia. 

Mass Shootings And Psychiatric Medications

midwesterndoctor  |  In the 1990s, school shootings transition from being very rare to a frequent facet of American life. As this timeline overlaps with the entrance of SSRIs to the US market, many articles have evaluated the link between mass shootings and psychiatric medications.  I will quote a one of the more comprehensive summaries (written in 2013) which attempted to analyze all known mass shootings:

•Eric Harris age 17 (first on Zoloft then Luvox) and Dylan Klebold aged 18 (Columbine school shooting in Littleton, Colorado), killed 12 students and one teacher and wounded 23 others, before killing themselves. Klebold’s medical records have never been made available to the public. [A detailed summary of the clear contribution of the psychiatric medication's to their mass shootings can be found here]. 

•Jeff Weise, age 16, had been prescribed 60 mg/day of Prozac (three times the average starting dose for adults!) when he shot his grandfather, his grandfather’s girlfriend and many fellow students at Red Lake, Minnesota. He then shot himself. Ten dead, 12 wounded.

•Cory Baadsgaard, age 16, Wahluke (Washington state) High School, was on Paxil (which caused him to have hallucinations) when he took a rifle to his high school and held 23 classmates hostage. He has no memory of the event.

•Christopher Pittman, age 12, murdered both his grandparents while taking Zoloft.

•Kip Kinkel, age 15, (on Prozac and Ritalin) shot his parents while they slept then went to school and opened fire, killing two classmates and injuring 22 shortly after beginning Prozac treatment.

•Luke Woodham, age 16 (Prozac) killed his mother and then killed two students, wounding six others.

•A boy in Pocatello, ID (Zoloft) in 1998 had a Zoloft-induced seizure that caused an armed standoff at his school.

•Michael Carneal (Ritalin), age 14, opened fire on students at a high school prayer meeting in West Paducah, Kentucky. Three teenagers were killed, five others were wounded.

•Andrew Golden, age 11, (Ritalin) and Mitchell Johnson, aged 14, (Ritalin) shot 15 people, killing four students, one teacher, and wounding ten others.

•TJ Solomon, age 15, (Ritalin) high school student in Conyers, Georgia opened fire on and wounded six of his classmates.

•James Wilson, age 19, (various psychiatric drugs) from Breenwood, South Carolina, took a .22 caliber revolver into an elementary school killing two young girls and wounding seven other children and two teachers.

•Elizabeth Bush, age 13, (Paxil) was responsible for a school shooting in Pennsylvania

•Jason Hoffman (Effexor and Celexa) – school shooting in El Cajon, California

•Neal Furrow (Prozac) in LA Jewish school shooting reported having been court-ordered to be on Prozac along with several other medications.

•Hammad Memon, age 15, shot and killed a fellow middle school student. He had been diagnosed with ADHD and depression and was taking Zoloft and “other drugs for his conditions.”

•Matti Saari, a 22-year-old culinary student, shot and killed nine students and a teacher, and wounded another student, before killing himself. Saari was taking an SSRI and a benzodiazapine.

•Steven Kazmierczak, age 27, shot and killed five people and wounded 21 others before killing himself in a Northern Illinois University auditorium. According to his girlfriend, he had recently been taking Prozac, Xanax, and Ambien. Toxicology results showed that he still had trace amounts of Xanax in his system.

•Finnish gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen, age 18, had been taking antidepressants before he killed eight people and wounded a dozen more at Jokela High School – then he committed suicide.

•Asa Coon from Cleveland, age 14, shot and wounded four before taking his own life. Court records show Coon was on Trazodone.

•Jon Romano, age 16, on medication for depression, fired a shotgun at a teacher in his New York high school.

The article also discussed a few recent school shootings where the information to determine if a psychiatric medication was used was not available:

•What drugs was Jared Lee Loughner on, age 21…… killed six people and injuring 14 others in Tuscon, Az? [I was unable to locate any information on this case]

•What drugs was James Eagan Holmes on, age 24….. killed 12 people and injuring 59 others in Aurora Colorado? [Holmes was on Zoloft, which likely triggered violent behaviors in him in the weeks preceding the mass shooting, all of which his psychiatrist ignored.]

•What drugs was Adam Peter Lanza on, age 20, Killed 26 and wounded 2 in Newtown Ct.? [Lanza was later confirmed to have been prescribed Celexa in the past and was on a questionable antipsychotic, fanapt, known for inducing violent behavior at the time of the shooting]

Since the time this article was published, there have been four additional large school shootings:

•Christopher Harper-Mercer (2015) who killed 10 was likely on psychiatric medication but there is no definitive proof.

•Nikolas Cruz (2017) who killed 17 was likely on on psychiatric medication but there is no definitive proof.

•Dimitrios Pagourtzis (2018) who killed 10 was probably not on a psychiatric medication. His attorney said he was not (which may have been a deceitful legal maneuver, but most likely was the truth), while the president of the NRA said he was (and I was not able to determine his basis for this assertion).

Lastly, for Salvador Ramos (2022) who recently killed 22, there have been many posts stating he was on antidepressants, but while there is some circumstantial evidence suggesting this, there is presently no reliable information to confirm or deny it. For a more detailed summary of my thoughts on this matter, please see this comment.

American Police Don't Exist To Protect And Serve You...,

theintercept  |  The more details that emerge about how police responded to the massacre in an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, the clearer it is that the already well-funded, heavily armed and amply trained law enforcement officers on the scene failed to save the lives of 19 children and two of their teachers.

Here’s what we know so far, based on haunting videos from the scene outside Robb Elementary School and statements from police officials themselves. Salvador Ramos murdered 21 people. Despite earlier, misleading claims from law enforcement officials, it appears that no police officers engaged with the shooter before he entered the school. Instead of rushing in to protect the children and staff when reports of a gunman approaching the school were made at 11:30 a.m., police instead waited outside and aggressively confronted parents who were begging them to enter. The parents were threatened with arrest — one cop brandished a Taser — as they attempted to access the school to save their kids themselves.

One mother who was urging the police to enter the building, Angeli Rose Gomez, was handcuffed. When she was released, she managed to run into the school, grab her kids, and bring them out to safety, which is the alleged job of the police. According to one Texas Department of Public Safety lieutenant interviewed by local news, some officers did run into the school — but only to grab their own children.

The Border Patrol SWAT team that eventually engaged with and killed the shooter — 40 minutes to an hour after first shots were reported — was not able to break down the door to the classroom where the killer was holed up with more children. A staff member had to unlock it with a key. According to the chilling firsthand account of a fourth grader in the room, cops told children to yell “if you need help”; when one little girl did, the gunman immediately shot her.

The police failed at protecting the schoolchildren, yes, but we should not be under the illusion that this is an example of the cops failing at their jobs. As far we can tell from reports, police at the scene acted as they usually do, in accordance with standard policing practice: Rather than risk a hail of gunfire to stop the killer, they kept themselves safe.

As Akela Lacy noted on Wednesday in The Intercept, the approach is not an outlier: “As the number of school resource officers has ballooned over the last two decades, so has the number of school shootings. There is no evidence that police have the ability to stop these shootings from happening.”

Why Didn't School Shootings Happen Before 1999?

 WaPo  | The Washington Post has spent years tracking how many children have been exposed to gun violence during school hours since the Columbine High massacre in 1999.

Beyond the dead and wounded, children who witness the violence or cower behind locked doors to hide from it can be profoundly traumatized.

The federal government does not track school shootings, so The Post pieced together its numbers from news articles, open-source databases, law enforcement reports and calls to schools and police departments.

While school shootings remain rare, there were more in 2021 — 42 — than in any year since at least 1999. So far this year, there have been at least 24 acts of gun violence on K-12 campuses during the school day.

The count now stands at more than 311,000 children at 331 schools.

The Post has found that at least 185 children, educators and other people have been killed in assaults, and another 369 have been injured. 

The Post’s search for more shootings will continue, and it’s possible reporters will locate additional incidents from previous years.

Hundreds of outlets cover the deadliest attacks, such as the Feb. 14 rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Fla., where a 19-year-old man with an AR-15 rifle killed 17 people.

Others are covered by a single newspaper, such as a 2001 shooting at Pearl C. Anderson Middle School in Dallas, where a 14-year-old boy held a revolver to a girl’s chest and asked her whether she was “ready to die” before a bullet fired, grazing her hand.

Even as the list of incidents has expanded, however, the trend lines have remained consistent.

Among The Post’s most important findings: the disproportionate impact of school shootings on children of color.

 

Police Protection For Cowardly Uvalde IQ-75 LARPS In Uniform?

dailybeast  |  As families in this rural town prepare to bury the 19 children and two adults gunned down in a brutal school massacre this week, they are left shell-shocked by not only the devastation the gunman wrought, but by the revelation that, as they see it, those who were sworn to protect and serve them did just the opposite.

“While those babies were in there dying, they stood there with their thumbs in their asses trying to figure out what to do,” said Roger Garza, a friend of the family of teacher Irma Garcia, who was killed by the gunman as she tried to shield her fourth-grade students.

“I mean don’t we pay them to rush in and protect people? Somebody needs to be held accountable for this,” Garza told The Daily Beast.

“We were waiting outside and yelling about how we wanted to go in and storm the classroom,” said Javier Cazares, whose fourth-grade daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the attack. “I came running and the police were in a panic trying to figure out what to do. Now we know children, including my daughter, were dying in there. That is what hurts. Knowing they could have maybe protected her and those other kids.”

Cazares wants to know why they didn’t do anything; it is a question that everyone here is asking.

“While those children sat in there with this madman, as many as 19 officers had to think about what to do,” said Ignacio Perez, who was doing his best to comfort Cazares. “I promise you these parents had a plan and were ready to act on it. Where was the bravery? In those kids. That is where it was.”

Amid the growing outrage over the botched police response, authorities in Uvalde have reportedly called in reinforcements from around the state to protect the local officers from potential threats.

The additional cops, from various agencies in other jurisdictions, will supplement Uvalde’s ranks for an unspecified period, and will also provide security for the mayor, officials with the Texas Police Chiefs Association told CBS DFW.

In the immediate aftermath of the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary, Gov. Greg Abbott lauded the police response, insisting that officers had acted heroically and saved numerous lives. But he lashed out angrily when a different narrative later emerged, saying he was “livid” over having been “misled.” Federal agents on the scene said no one seemed to be in charge, and at one point, agonized parents waiting outside considered rushing the school themselves.

One Uvalde cop claimed there “was almost a mutiny,” telling People magazine that he and his colleagues “felt like cowards” for not storming the building earlier.

 

 

EU Fitna Foist The American Style "Asset Forfeiture" Game On Russians

usnews  |  The European Commission proposed on Wednesday to make breaking European Union sanctions against Russia a crime, a move that would allow EU governments to confiscate assets of companies and individuals that evade EU restrictions against Moscow.

Breaking EU sanctions on Russia is now a criminal offence in 12 EU countries. It is either an administrative or a criminal offence in 13 and two treat it only as an administrative offence, Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said. Penalties for sanction breaking across the EU vary accordingly.

The Commission proposal aims to unify that approach to make sanctions evasion a serious crime in all members of the 27-nation bloc, he told a news conference.

"Today's proposals aim to ensure that the assets of individuals and entities that violate the restrictive measures can be effectively confiscated in the future," the Commission said in a statement.

The EU has so far frozen 10 billion euros in physical assets and more than 20 billion euros in bank accounts of Russian oligarchs helping the Kremlin's war effort in Ukraine.

But before these assets could be confiscated and sold off, the oligarchs would first have to be convicted of either trying to evade sanctions or of other crimes and the assets seized would have to be linked to that crime only.

The new EU law, which has to be unanimously approved by all EU governments and get a majority in the European Parliament, would also penalise those who help break sanctions, like lawyers or bankers working with those who circumvent restrictions.

The Commission also proposed to make it generally easier to confiscate assets of criminals in the EU, making it possible to impose an immediate freezing order to prevent the assets from being moved, before a proper court order confirms it.

The Commission estimates annual revenues of criminal gangs in the EU at 139 billion euros, only 2% of which become frozen by the authorities. Only half of the frozen assets are later confiscated.

 

 

Asset Forfeiture As Collective Punishment

americansforprosperity  |  What happens when the federal government blatantly violates a court order and takes the property of citizens who are not under criminal suspicion?

Why should innocent property owners have to prove their innocence in order to get their property back from the government?

These are a few of the questions that have come into play when law enforcement agencies seized private property through the most recent horror story involving civil asset forfeiture.

In this ongoing case in California, federal agents exceeded their authority, took property from citizens not even under criminal suspicion, and are refusing to give it back unless they can successfully navigate the government’s demands.

The stories of these people are unfortunately not the first example of the government violating our rights in this manner, but they are certainly not any less shocking.

The raid on U.S. Private Vaults

On March 22, 2021, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Agency acted under a warrant to shut down a Beverly Hills, California business called U.S. Private Vaults.

USPV provided bank-style safety deposit boxes to customers who wanted anonymity. Through biometric identifiers, or a nondescript key, boxholders could store valuables without ever having to identify themselves by name.

Prosecutors say it was a criminal business however, and a grand jury indicted the company on charges of conspiracies to launder money, distribute controlled substances, and structure transactions.

The warrant authorizing the raid allowed investigators to seize a list of items, including deposit box keys, money counters, biometric scanners, security cameras, and computers.

There’s no public indication however, that law enforcement had specific information about criminal suspects with boxes there or had identified boxes that held ill-gotten gains from specific crimes. And the warrant specifically prohibited law enforcement from seizing the contents of the more than 800 privately held safe deposit boxes at the business:

This warrant does not authorize a criminal search or seizure of the contents of safety deposit boxes … in accordance with their written policies, agents shall inspect the contents of the boxes in an effort to identify their owners in order to notify them so that they can claim their property.

That restriction was ignored. Prosecutors seized the contents of the boxes, intentionally casting a wide net that took in all customers, innocent or otherwise. The FBI now says it intends to hold onto $85 million in cash, and an unspecified haul of gold, silver, and precious metals.

On June 22, U.S. District Judge Gary Klausner found that the FBI “provides no factual basis for the seizure of Plaintiffs’ property,” and issued a temporary injunction against the seizures.

The U.S. Treasury Office Of Asset Forfeiture

treasury.gov  |  ​The Treasury Executive Office for Asset Forfeiture (TEOAF) administers the Treasury Forfeiture Fund (TFF). The TFF is the receipt account for deposit of non-tax forfeitures made pursuant to laws enforced or administered by Treasury and Department of Homeland Security agencies.

About

Established in 1992, the Treasury Executive Office for Asset Forfeiture (TEOAF) was established to affirmatively influence the consistent and strategic use of asset forfeiture to disrupt and dismantle criminal enterprises.  Asset forfeiture is a vital legal tool that serves a number of compelling law enforcement purposes and is designed to deprive criminals of the proceeds of their crimes, to break the financial backbone of organized criminal syndicates and drug cartels, and to recover property that may be used to compensate victims and deter crime.

TEOAF administers the Treasury Forfeiture Fund (TFF), which is the receipt account for the deposit of non-tax forfeitures made pursuant to laws enforced or administered by Treasury and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) law enforcement agencies:

• Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations Division (IRS-CI), U.S. Department of the Treasury;
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Department of Homeland Security;
• U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Department of Homeland Security;
• U.S. Secret Service (USSS), Department of Homeland Security;
• U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security.

Other statutory member agencies include the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and the Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB).

 

The TFF is a special fund, i.e. a federal fund collection earmarked by law for a specific purpose. The enabling legislation for TFF (Title 31 U.S.C. § 9705) defines those purposes for which Treasury forfeiture revenue may be used.  The funds can be allocated and used without the enactment of an annual appropriation by the Congress. 

 

TEOAF’s priorities in administering the Treasury forfeiture program are to:

• Administer and manage the Treasury Forfeiture Fund (TFF) program in a fiscally responsible manner that seeks to minimize administrative costs and maximize the benefits for law enforcement and the compensation of eligible victims. 

• Ensure program policies protect due process rights of individuals.

• Focus resources on strategic cases and investigations that result in actions against high profile criminals and criminal enterprises to affect the greatest financial damage to criminal organizations.
• Foster a strong working relationship between federal and state or local law enforcement agencies.

 

 Additional information about the TFF is included in the following Treasury orders and Directives:

• Treasury Directive 15-04
• Treasury Order 102-14

 

This Week Russia Hosted African Dignitaries In Moscow

mid.ru  |  Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are marking Africa Day today, a holiday that symbolises the African peoples’ unbending will and uncompromising struggle in the name of freedom and independence.

Russia has played a leading role in decolonisation and in consolidating decolonisation processes, as well as drafting UN resolutions. Unfortunately, some of them have been sabotaged by former metropolises to this day. We stand in solidarity with your demands for the complete liberation of Africa from the last vestiges of colonial legacy.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Allow me to read out President Vladimir Putin’s message to heads of state and government of African countries.

Please accept my warmest wishes on Africa Day, a holiday symbolising the aspirations of the countries on your continent for freedom, independence, peace and prosperity.

This year marks 20 years since the Organisation of African Unity was transformed into the African Union. That change marked the emergence of a multilateral pan-African platform on a qualitatively higher level of interaction in the political, socioeconomic and other spheres.

African states have achieved a great deal together over the past two decades. They have developed mechanisms for a collective response to local conflicts and crises, and are consistently promoting regional integration processes in various formats. Africa enjoys growing prestige on the global stage and plays an increasingly important role in resolving important issues on the international agenda.

Our country has always placed particular emphasis on expanding friendly relations with our African partners. The Russia-Africa Summit held in Sochi in 2019 paved the way for expanding fruitful cooperation, both bilaterally and multilaterally. I am confident that by rallying together, we will be able to ensure the development and implementation of many useful and innovative projects and initiatives in various fields for the benefit of our countries and peoples, in the interests of strengthening security and stability in Africa and around the world.

I wish you good health and every success in your public endeavours , as well as peace, well-being and prosperity to your fellow citizens.

Vladimir Putin.

There is no doubt that we can do more above and beyond the existing level of political and economic integration within the African Union. I am confident that our friends will continue to move forward and fulfill their goals in the interest of ensuring the well-being and prosperity of their respective countries.

We will continue to provide comprehensive support and to expand mutually beneficial cooperation. Russian-African relations are traditionally friendly and are making good progress.

Russia has always been and will remain a reliable partner and friend to the countries of Africa. Today, we are confronted with certain Western countries’ unscrupulous attempts to constrain our engagement with Africa. I’m referring to the all-out hybrid war against Russia declared by Washington and its European satellites in connection with the special military operation in Ukraine, the reasons for which you are well aware of.

It is not so much about Ukraine, which is used as a bargaining chip in the global anti-Russian game. The main problem is that a small group of US-led Western countries keeps trying to impose the concept of a rules-based world order on the international community. They use this banner to promote, without any hesitation, a unipolar model of the world order where there are “exceptional” countries and everyone else who must obey the “club of the chosen.”

The US congressmen who are busy drafting a law on countering “malign Russian activities in Africa” are an integral part of this neo-colonial policy. The United States and its allies are pursuing a similar policy regarding Africa's cooperation with the People's Republic of China.

The attempts to reverse history and to subjugate the peoples of the continent once again grossly violate the sovereignty and independence of the countries of that region. They jeopardise the entire international relations system that relies on the UN Charter and the principle of respect for the sovereign equality of states.

It pleases me to state that African countries have adopted a balanced and objective stance with regard to the developments in Ukraine. We know that the African countries openly oppose the Western countries’ unceremonious behaviour. I’m confident that our friends will not succumb to Washington's discriminatory pressure. We highly appreciate your willingness to further expand the political dialogue with our country and to build up cooperation in the economy, culture and other spheres.

In the interests of our peoples, it is important to work together to maintain and expand mutually beneficial trade and investment ties in the new circumstances in order to be able to rely on dependable supply and finance mechanisms that are protected against external interference. It is important to facilitate the mutual access of Russian and African economic operators to each other's markets and to encourage their engagement in major infrastructure projects.

These tasks are central to preparations for the second Russia-Africa summit. In conjunction with our African friends, we hope to agree on the variables for holding the summit and its content soon.

We know that African countries are among the most vulnerable in terms of food security. Some of them are critically dependent on agricultural imports from Russia. We are aware that these supplies are of great importance for maintaining social stability and achieving the benchmarks stipulated by the UN-approved Sustainable Development Goals.

I would like to reassure everyone that Russia is fulfilling and will continue to honestly fulfil its obligations under international contracts in terms of export supplies of food, fertilisers, energy and other commodities that Africa needs.

At the same time, we call on our friends, the African Union, to strongly demand that the West lift illegal unilateral sanctions that undermine the transport and supply infrastructure that international trade depend on, which creates risks for vulnerable groups of the population. Africa’s voice must be heard. The UN Secretary General must adopt a more principled stance on this matter.

I’d be remiss not to mention professional training which is a traditional sphere of ​​our partnership. About 27,000 African students are studying in our country. The Government has decided to gradually increase the annual quota of students admitted from Africa. In addition to student exchanges, we will continue to focus on expanding and deepening social, scientific, youth and sports contacts.

Colleagues, friends,

I would like once again to wish us all a happy holiday and peace and prosperity to our countries and peoples. I wish you personally and your loved ones good health, successes, prosperity and all the best.

America's Quest To Lose Influence And Alienate Neighbors

NakedCapitalism |   As even legacy media outlets in the West (including El País, the Financial Times and Foreign Policy) are conceding, the US is fast losing influence not only globally but also within its own neighborhood. And it needs to change tack, fast. While China was able to pull off a smoothly run virtual summit with Latin American and Caribbean foreign ministers in December, culminating in a unanimously agreed three-year action plan, the Biden Administration has managed to antagonize many of the region’s leaders even before sending out invites to the Summit.

This is after failing to give Latin America and the Caribbean the attention it deserves, even as Washington hopes to reassert influence in the region. The Biden Administration has not even sent ambassadors to many of the region’s nations, including Brazil, Chile, Panama, Haiti, Salvador, Panama, Bolivia and Cuba. Even more incredible, it has not even nominated an ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), the organization that organizes the Americas Summit.

As Anguilar notes, Washington will need to buck its ideas up if it wants to maintain a leadership role in the region. That will mean changing the way it treats many of its neighbors:

In Washington’s list of priorities should be, without a doubt, not taking for granted that these Latin American countries will be aligned with the United States.

This is especially true given the recent election of left-of-center governments in Bolivia, Honduras, Argentina, Peru, Chile and the likely electoral triumphs of Gustavo Petro in Colombia this coming weekend and Lula in Brazil in October. Many countries in the region are no longer willing to accept Washington’s insistence on democratic credentials, particularly given Washington’s own predilection for supporting brutal autocracies in other parts of the world as well as its long history of toppling democratically elected nations in Latin America (and beyond).

The irony has not been lost on the US’ biggest geostrategic rival, Beijing, which is determined to take advantage of perceived US weakness in the Americas. “Instead of benefiting Latin America . . . the US has brought Latin America wanton exploitation, wilful sanctions, inflation, political interference, regime change, assassination of politicians and even armed aggression,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said last week.

Unlike the US, China generally does not try to dictate how its trading partners should behave and what sorts of rules, norms, principles and ideology they should adhere to. What China does — or at least has by and large done over the past few decades until now — is to trade with and invest in countries that have goods — particularly commodities — it covets. As Anguilar notes, it has worked a treat in Latin America and the Caribbean:

What China is doing in Latin America is what it is doing in other regions, through its infrastructure initiatives, generating a tremendous volume of trade. In the last 20 years, China has gone from investing $18 billion to $450 billion, with projects ranging from nuclear power plants in Argentina, the Bogotá Metro, not to mention the [$64 billion of] trade generated with Venezuela, which allows Venezuela to subsist.

China is very important, because for the United States it really is the new adversary… I believe that this has them very concerned — as it well should… If [Latin American countries] only think in the short term, [they] can also commit the enormous error of ceding sovereignty to a superpower like China. If China buys up ports in Chile, what implications does it have for geopolitics, sovereignty and security?

In an urgent effort at damage control, Washington dispatched a team to bend AMLO’s ear last week. Since then US Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar has called in on Mexico’s National Palace so many times that some pundits have quipped that he may as well install an office next to AMLO’s. Washington has also pledged a partial relaxation of restrictions on Cuba. But it could all be too little, too late.

AMLO has said he will confirm his attendance definitively today (Friday, May 27). Personally speaking, I think it is unlikely that Washington’s paltry concessions will be enough to twist AMLO’s arm, though I could be wrong. The decision to invite Spain to the conference is unlikely to help matters either given AMLO’s recent clashes with Madrid, particularly over his proposed energy reforms.

Even if the Biden Administration wanted to make bigger concessions, its hands are most likely tied by electoral considerations, particularly in Florida. Once the perennial swing state, Florida has been taking on a deep shade of red of late, but is still considered key to the Democrat’s electoral ambitions for this November’s mid-terms. Any significant concessions given by Biden to Latin America’s “axis of evil” (Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua) will be seized upon by Republicans as a gesture of appeasement. And that sort of messaging is likely to be lapped up by many within the Latin American diaspora in Florida.

Even more concerning is the fact that Washington does not seem to be able or willing to change its ways when it comes to regional relations. Margaret Thatcher’s classic dictum “there is no alternative” (Aka TINA) appears to be the name of the game.

The US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations last week put forward the “Upholding the Inter-American Democratic Charter Act of 2022.” The proposed “bipartisan” legislation includes initiatives aimed at “strengthening” US cooperation with the OAS, which AMLO himself has talked about replacing with a “body that is truly autonomous and not anybody’s lackey,” as well as addressing “ongoing and emerging threats to democratic governance in the hemisphere, including on issues related to election interference, dis/misinformation, and corruption.”

Same Old, Same Old

If passed, the legislation will attempt (and most likely fail) to reinstall the US as the dominant force in the region, with zero tolerance for governments that do not meet its high standards of democratic governance.

“While important progress has been made to advance good governance and the rule of law since the signing of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, we must recognize the fact that the Western Hemisphere is not immune to the current wave of democratic decline and creeping authoritarianism facing the world. From Havana to Caracas, Managua to San Salvador, now is the time to bolster the United States’ diplomatic strategy to help confront challenges that are threatening the underpinnings of the Charter’s norms and principles,” said Chairman Menendez.

Washington still appears to be blind to the actual aspirations, needs and interests of the countries south of the Rio Grande. It is also apparently blind to its own democratic decline and creeping authoritarianism. It seems to be incapable of thinking in anything but neo-colonial terms. It does not want to listen to its counterparts or treat them as equals; instead it will continue to impose — or at least try to impose — its own political system and values on others while ensuring they continue to adhere to US economic and geo-strategic interests.

Brandon And Blinken Have Lost All Semblence Of Hegemony Among The Americas

sputnik  |  "Mexican President López Obrador has increased the risk of embarrassing Biden, who will be the host of the meeting in Los Angeles, as he has already announced that his country will not participate in the summit with the absence of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua," says Gustavo Guerreiro, executive editor of the journal World Tensions and a member of the Brazilian Centre for Solidarity with Peoples and Struggle for Peace (CEBRAPAZ). "The likely boycott of the summit denotes the collapse of US hegemony over Latin America."

The ninth Summit of the Americas (SOA) is due to take place on 6-10 June 2022 in Los Angeles, California. It will be convened in the US for the first time since its 1994 inaugural session in Miami. However, after it became clear that leftist states Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua would not be included, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador signaled that he would skip the summit. Bolivian President Luis Arce followed in Obrador's footsteps, saying that he may also boycott the event if the heads of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua were not invited.

 

Honduran President Xiomara Castro de Zelaya stated on Twitter that "if not all nations are present, it's not a Summit of the Americas." For his part, Argentinian President Alberto Fernandez said that he would participate in the meeting but cited deep concerns about excluding nations.

 

Meanwhile, Guatemala President Alejandro Giammattei said last Tuesday that he would not attend after Washington barred Maria Consuelo Porras, the country's top prosecutor, and her family.

 

"Giammattei said he would not participate in the Americas summit after the US criticized the appointment of Guatemala Attorney General, Consuelo Porras, for another four years," says Guerreiro. "This is yet another case of the US interference in the internal affairs of another country. President Giammattei said that although his country is small, his sovereignty must be respected."

 

US Lost Control in Latin America

Meanwhile, the US is scrambling to avoid a boycott. On 19 May, US special adviser, former Senator Chris Dodd, tried to persuade the Mexican president to visit the SOA summit. The same day, the Biden administration pointed the finger of blame at Cuba for "fuelling controversy over its possible exclusion" from the summit to portray the US as a "bad guy."

 

"It is not justified at all," Guerreiro highlights. "On the contrary, Washington insists on maintaining a criminal embargo, which imposes seemingly endless draconian economic and political sanctions, which mainly penalise the population of Cuba. Cuba has every right to manifest against any form of isolation that hegemonic power imposes on him."

 

On 23 May, the US signaled that it was looking for ways to represent the people of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua in the upcoming SOA: "We are still evaluating options on how to best incorporate the voices of the Cuban, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan people into the summit process," a US state department official said.

 

However, Guerreiro forecasts that these attempts are likely to be opposed by a bipartisan coalition of American politicians: "One of those in the campaign against Cuba's participation is Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Cuban-American Democrat who heads the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee," he says.

 

The scholar notes that the controversy surrounding the summit shows deep changes in Washington's traditional perception of Latin America as its backyard. "The US no longer governs the region," he says.

 

At the same time, the US is at pains to maintain the crumbling status quo and has difficulties in establishing working relations with left-wing democratic governments of Latin America, according to the scholar.

 

"The US remains a great world power and will probably continue to be," Guerreiro says. "However, they can no longer command Latin America as before. Of course, there are differences between some leaders, this is natural. However, the US command is no longer accepted and there is awareness that Latin American countries are capable of forming a bloc of common interests."

Russian Combat Lasers End "Full Spectrum Dominance" Till Further Notice...,

stalkerzone |  On May 18, Deputy Prime Minister of the government and curator of the Russian defence industry, Yury Borisov, said that the “Peresvet” combat laser system has already been serially supplied to the Russian troops. According to the Deputy Prime Minister, the laser can disable satellites in orbits up to 1,500 kilometres high. Such technologies were previously considered impossible. A significant number of experiments in this area were conducted by two superpowers of the world.

Several similar programs have been active in the US for some time. One of the most promising was considered to be the development work on the topic of the YAL-1 “flying laser” based on the Boeing 747 aircraft. As a result, $12 billion was spent on a high-energy weapons program to intercept ballistic missile warheads, but the work was completed to no avail.

In the USSR, they went the other way. Few people know, but it was the mock-up of the “Skif-DM” combat laser complex, or “Index 17F19DM”, better known as “Polyus”, that was the first “passenger” of the superheavy “Energiya” rocket back in 1987. As with modern anti-satellite weapons, its principle was based on the defeat of the optical elements of enemy satellites – visors and lenses. The second, cheaper and simpler project in this direction is the A-60 chemical laser based on the Il-76 transport aircraft.

“Peresvet” laser and secret “Zadira”

Work on the “Peresvet” combat laser complex was first announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The exact composition of the equipment inside the complex is not disclosed, however, it is known that “Peresvet” is a high-energy laser in a mobile version: a generator and a combat readiness maintenance system, a radiator and a surveillance system are located in several sections. According to some reports, the complex is effective against all surveillance means, including RQ-4 Global Hawk high-altitude unmanned vehicles, as well as most spacecraft of the American IMINT species reconnaissance system. According to some reports, commercial structures are also periodically connected to it. The most famous example is MAXAR, which provides high-resolution intelligence to the US military. The other two participants in this program are slightly less well known, but Planet Labs and SkyBox have the most high-tech devices.

Back in 2014, with the help of a complex optical circuit, ultra-sensitive matrices and software processing, Skybox was able to achieve outstanding performance. From a height of 600 km, their devices can film the surface of the planet with a detail of about 1 meter, while it’s not only about photos, but also about video. The project turned out to be so impressive that the entire company was bought out by the IT giant Google, and the satellites formed the basis of the Terra Bella surveillance system. Another company, Planet Labs, received the first “spy grant” back in 2016, and since then it has been commercial structures that have been spying on the most important objects of a likely enemy, including in Russia.

The capabilities of the “Peresvet” laser are designed just for such means of reconnaissance. The principle of operation of the weapon is not disclosed, however, it is known that the previous complexes, designed in the USSR and Russia, could operate in several modes. The two most important ones are the “local impact” mode on a specific vehicle flying over a restricted zone, as well as the “continuous defeat” mode, when over a certain zone (a square of several hundred kilometres) a so-called laser curtain is being put up.

here is no detailed data on the combat deployment of the “Peresvet” complexes during the special military operation in Ukraine, however, in early March, Wired reported that American satellites were “experiencing difficulties” in working when flying over the border areas of Russia and Ukraine. According to Wired, the intelligence department of the US Department of Defence could not get any pictures of the desired area at all before the start of hostilities, and the advanced units of Russian troops on the territory of Ukraine were noticed from space only a few hours after the start of “Operation Z”. Neither civilian analysts nor representatives of the Pentagon specify why this happened.

And on February 28, 4 days after the start of the special military operation in Ukraine, Google satellites “fell off”. The company even had to issue a statement informing users about the “temporary shutdown” of updates for images in areas of concentration and movement of Russian troops. In total, according to Professor Todd Humphreys of the University of Texas, at least 50 different synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) satellites were deployed over Ukraine after the start of its military operation by the Russian Army.

It is curious that the combat protection of such objects as the “Peresvet” laser is carried out not only by electronic warfare troops and air defence units, but also by fully-fledged “Zadira” combat lasers. This complex was developed at the Russian Federal Nuclear Center (Russian Federal Nuclear Center — All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics) in Sarov. The power of the weapon is not disclosed, however, according to some reports, a few seconds of radiation is enough to “cut” a small reconnaissance drone into two parts.

Starlink to Ukraine

According to some reports, the American and Ukrainian military had several simultaneous serious problems.

Firstly, a significant part of the equipment of the US surveillance satellites “failed” in the first few days of the special operation in Ukraine. The reasons why this happened are not disclosed in the United States, just as in Russia they do not make statements on the combat use of “Peresvet” lasers capable of burning out the powerful optics of satellites in orbits up to 1,500 kilometres high.

Secondly, the transmission of data from Maxar Technologies’ WorldView-2 satellites to Ukrainian spacecraft was difficult, since the latter, as it turned out, were not designed for such a volume of information. Data overload has led to the fact that a significant part of telecommunications satellites simply failed. It is not possible to restore their functionality at the moment, so the spacecraft are just hanging out in orbit like garbage.

It is for this reason that Elon Musk was urgently brought into the arena. Starlink communications satellites, previously tested at military exercises of the US Army and the Strategic Command, turned out to be the most convenient channel for data transmission. If it were not for the data transmission network that SpaceX deployed in orbit, the UAF would have lost all intelligence — both its own and those transmitted to them by American intelligence.

 

Russia Has Successfully Neutralized Ukraine's NATO Supplied Drones With Something

RT |  Russia has developed its own anti-drone laser capability and is already using it in Ukraine, Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov claimed in an interview on Wednesday. It has a range of 5km and was nicknamed Zadira, or ‘troublemaker’ in Russian, he said. He didn’t disclose any other details about the new device. 

The revelation came as Borisov was discussing the advanced weapons being developed in Russia. He compared the new tool to Peresvet, a laser system first unveiled by President Vladimir Putin in 2018, the exact purpose of which was not explained at the time.

The official confirmed that the Peresvet was designed to disable optic sensors, including on spy satellites orbiting the earth as high as 1,500 km.

“While Peresvet blinds, the new generation of laser weapons causes physical damage to the target, burning it through,” he said.

When asked about the timeline for the Russian military to receive such systems, Borisov said they were already being supplied. When asked further whether the anti-drone laser was deployed in Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, the minister acknowledged that the “first samples were used” there.

According to military experts, lasers have several drawbacks as weapons, including massive power requirements and the deterioration of the beam caused by dust and water vapor in the air cause, among others.

However, they have a major advantage in terms of cost-per-shot compared to traditional anti-aircraft missiles. The advancement in drone technology, which has made the deployment of air assets more financially accessible, has compelled military planners worldwide to look for various ways to counter this threat without depleting their war chests.

 

Valodya Stated That The Peresvet Would Be Operational In December 2018

globalsecurity |  During his address to the Federal Assembly, President Vladimir Putin startled some observers when he said that Russia's progress in laser weaponry was "not just a concept or a plan," and that the army was already being equipped with combat lasers. Speaking to the nation on March 1, President Putin revealed that Russia had "achieved significant progress in laser weapons," and that "combat laser systems" began to be delivered into the military last year. Putin's remarks were complimented by a video showing off what appears to be a heavy, truck-mounted laser platform, whose name and intended purpose remain classified. "I do not want to reveal more details. It is not the time yet. But experts will understand that with such weaponry, Russia's defense capacity has multiplied," Putin added.

But what is these Combat Laser Complex [Voevoi Lazernoy Kompleks] actually for? Veteran military analyst Viktor Murakhovsky may have the answer. "Most likely, this system solves air defense and missile defense tasks," Murakhovsky, editor-in-chief of Arsenal of the Fatherland, a Russian military publication, explained. "The use of a laser beam is far more economical than the use of standard anti-missile missiles. At the same time, its accuracy is far greater," he added.

Alexander Khramchikhin, director of the Moscow-based Institute of Political & Military Analysis, suggested that based on current global trends, Russia's new battle lasers are most likely designed with close-range air defense in mind, and specifically for the destruction of drones and cruise missiles.

Dmitry Kornev wrote about this "... unusual system, first shown in March 2018 ... the Peresvet laser complex. Then many experts wondered what it was intended for. It is already known that its main task is to ensure the deployment of mobile strategic missile systems in a threatened period of time due to illumination and disruption of the operation of space and aviation reconnaissance means of a potential enemy. The complex has already been created, and in addition, its deployment has been completed at several bases of the Strategic Missile Forces in the order of trial operation. If the effectiveness of Peresvet's work is confirmed, it is likely that it will be deployed wherever it is necessary to "close" space reconnaissance and surveillance equipment."

Laser beam control systems have many disparate applications, such as directed energy weapons, both lethal and non-lethal, LIDAR and beacons, countermeasures, remote chemical sensing, target illumination, and micromachining. Among these applications, the high energy laser (HEL) beam control systems are used mainly in directed energy weapons. Beam control in HEL systems is rendered more challenging since such systems are often required to direct the HEL to a target across large distances, thus requiring adaptive optics to correct for atmospheric turbulence and aerosol effects.

High-energy laser weapon systems normally need to compensate for atmospheric fluctuations using adaptive optics. The atmospheric compensation is usually done using a separate beacon illuminator laser to create a pseudo star on the target and sense the return in a wavefront sensor to drive the adaptive optics. In the present invention the high-energy laser itself is used as a beacon illuminator by turning it off periodically for a very short period giving the wavefront sensor and aim point sensor an opportunity to measure the return from the high-energy laser. In addition, the high-energy laser weapon can be snapped ahead of the path of the target to avoid anisoplanatism.

In a high-energy laser weapon system, the laser needs to be maintained on a specific area of the target for a period of time to be effective. Atmospheric compensation using adaptive optics significantly reduces the time the high-energy laser must be maintained on the target. A tracker illuminator (TIL) is employed to measure the angle and range of the target relative to the ground based or airborne HEL weapon system. A beacon illuminator (BIL) is used to create a pseudo star on the target. The BIL return signal is measured by a wavefront sensor to determine atmospheric turbulence between the weapon system and the target. This information is then used to drive adaptive optics (deformable mirrors) to vary the HEL beam to compensate for atmospheric disturbances. This reduces the time on target required for the HEL beam to destroy the target.

For size, weight, and complexity limitations, the HEL and BIL systems are usually shared aperture designs that both transmit the high-energy laser and sense the target through the same telescope since building a second separate telescope and referencing the two to each other tends to be prohibitive. The high-energy laser is often pointed open loop with no feedback as to where it is on the target. The HEL can also be pointed with respect to the BIL, but with no direct feedback if it is hitting the aim point. However, direct feedback can be obtained by looking at the HEL scatter (in band) or heated spot (black body heating or hot spot). The beacon illuminator laser operates at a different frequency than the HEL and could need to be hundreds of watts of power to get enough return signal above the background and electronic noise depending on the range to the target.

HEL beam control systems typically use two illuminators, one to track the hard body of the target (called the "target illuminator") and the other for wavefront sensing (called the "beacon illuminator"). The target illuminator is usually a broader beam, and it is usually directed to a large portion of the target, or sometimes the entire target, to track features of the target, locate and select an aimpoint on the target, and maintain a stable line of sight to the target. The beacon illuminator is a beam directed toward the aimpoint, or alternatively ahead of the aimpoint to correct for distances and target velocity. The beacon illuminator is usually a beam at a wavelength different from the HEL in order to enable distinguishing the two beams. The return from the beacon illuminator is sent to an adaptive optics system to measure the wavefront error resulting from the flow field and atmospheric turbulence between the HEL source and the target. Such two illuminator systems, while functional, are costly, heavy, and complex.

A laser beam return, which includes scatter from the laser beam, is received through the output aperture and detected by a sensor. An optics controller is operationally coupled to the deformable mirror and is adapted to adjust the deformable mirror in response to a wavefront of the laser beam return detected by the sensor. The scatter may result from the laser beam incident upon the target, or it may result from the laser beam passing through a medium between the output aperture and the target.

The method of controlling the laser beam includes directing the laser beam along an optical path through the output aperture and toward a target using at least one of a steering mirror and a deformable mirror. A laser beam return, which includes scatter from the laser beam, is detected, and the detected beam is used to adjust at least one of the steering mirror and the deformable mirror. The scatter may be generated by the laser beam incident upon the target, or it may be generated as the laser beam passes through the medium between the target and the output aperture. Scatter from the two different sources may be differentiated using speckle statistics. As an option, the wavefront of the laser beam return may be detected, in which case the deformable mirror is adjusted in response to the detected wavefront. As another option, a relative position of the laser beam return is detected on a sensor, and the angular position of at least one of the steering mirror and the deformable mirror is adjusted in response to the detected relative position.

I Was Not Aware That The Russian People Chose The Names Of The Russian Wunderwaffen

themoscowtimes |  Russia has unveiled the names for a new generation of nuclear-powered missiles touted by President Vladimir Putin as invincible after more than seven million people took part in a quirky public vote organized by the Russian military.

The names chosen include "Peresvet," after a medieval warrior monk, for a laser and "Burevestnik," after a seabird, for a cruise missile.

The arms systems, which Putin revealed in a bellicose state-of-the-nation speech this month, include a nuclear-powered cruise missile, an underwater nuclear-powered drone, and a laser weapon.

Putin has often used militaristic rhetoric to mobilize support and buttress his narrative that Russia is under siege from the West, and some critics complain that public discourse increasingly resembles that of a country at war.

The culmination of the "name that weapon" vote comes amid fears in both Russia and the West about a new arms race, something Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump have said they don't want, and after Putin won a landslide re-election victory.

Russia's Ministry of Defense asked the public to name the weapons systems in an online vote, something it has never done before, and unveiled the results late on Thursday on state TV.

After the results were announced, Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov explained on state TV, to ripples of applause, what the new weapons were capable of.

Warrior monk, Greek god and seabird

The Defense Ministry said Russians had voted to name the new military laser "Peresvet" after a medieval warrior monk, Alexander Peresvet, who took part in a 14th century battle against the Mongols. Peresvet is revered by some clerics in the Russian Orthodox Church, whose influence has grown under Putin.