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    Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis Is Running – Not Afraid of Trump

    By
    Paul Crespo
    -
    2
    Ron DeSantis via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    ANALYSIS – ‘Run, Ron, Run.’ – It’s about as official as it can get without a formal filing – Florida’s conservative Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, is running for the GOP nomination to be President of the United States. 

    And he is clearly not afraid of Donald Trump.

    With the end of the Florida legislative session now over – after making an exception to allow Florida officeholders to run for President or Vice President without resigning their office – DeSantis seems to have unofficially launched his campaign.

    He is expected to formally file within two weeks but is already making waves with his speeches and weekend stops in Iowa, shortly after Trump canceled his planned Iowa stop due to “bad weather.” And even the New York Times took note with a story titled: DeSantis Impresses in Iowa, Showing Up an Absent Trump.

    While echoing some of the policies and positions of Trump, DeSantis took some veiled shots at the former president who is leading massively among GOP primary voters, blasting Republicans (aka: Trump) as having been losers.

    And that seems to be his initial strategy. Attacking Trump without attacking him directly.

    This despite Trump striving to make his own GOP nomination appear inevitable and having launched numerous broadsides directly at DeSantis who he sees as his biggest potential GOP rival. 

    Trump has called DeSantis disloyal and said that his political career would have been over had Trump not endorsed the governor’s ultimately successful 2018 campaign.

    “He was dead as a dog; he was a dead politician. He would have been working perhaps for a law firm or maybe a Pizza Hut, I don’t know,” Trump told reporters aboard his plane enroute to Iowa back in March, reported Politico.

    Asked if he regretted endorsing Ron DeSantis for governor in 2018, Trump responded this March: “Yeah maybe, this guy was dead. He was dead as a doornail.”

    Whether that is true or not, DeSantis has gone on to be a highly popular and effective governor. He has also won over conservatives with his battles against wokeness and Disney. During his time as governor, Florida has also gone from being a battleground state to one that is solidly Republican.

    As Newsmax reported: “We had a lot of those folks in places like Miami who had been Democrats and voted for Democrats and they came on our side – not only voting for me, but now they’re registering as Republicans,” DeSantis said. “So don’t buy this idea that we can’t expand our bases of support.

    “Of course, you can do that, he added. “You can’t win big with just Republicans, and we proved that. But here’s the thing: We didn’t do it by trimming our sails. We didn’t comport ourselves to be anything that we’re not. We lead boldly. We lead conservatively, and we delivered results and people responded.”

    Trump appears to be having trouble picking an insulting nickname for DeSantis, something that proved effective against previous rivals. He has called him ‘Ron DeSanctimonous,’ but that one doesn’t seem to be sticking.

    The former president has also reportedly nixed calling him ‘Meatball Ron,’ as being too crude. Meanwhile, in Iowa, DeSantis continued to reference Trump without naming him. DeSantis told the small, but passionate, crowd:

    If we make the 2024 election a referendum on Joe Biden and his failures, and if we provide a positive alternative for the future of this country, Republicans will win across the board. If we do not do that, if we get distracted, if we focus the election on the past or on other side issues, then I think the Democrats are going to beat us again, and I think it will be very difficult to recover from that defeat.

    DeSantis added his warning about the current and future state of our nation under Democrat rule:

    I think our country is floundering, in part because so many of our institutions have become unmoored from the truth: They’ve been lost in a sea of relativism. And this is important because we’re really at a crossroads as a country.

    As bad as things are going right now, if things do not go well for us Republicans in 2024, it’s going to get a whole lot worse. The left in this country is really playing for keeps. They are more aggressive and more strident than at any time in my lifetime.

    Amen to that. 

    Still, even after being found liable for sexual assault and defamation, Trump’s status as the GOP front-runner was amplified Wednesday night during a CNN’s town hall event. 

    The fireworks are just beginning.

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

    Woke Disney Executives Back Out of Meeting with Victims of Communist Chinese Genocide

    By
    Donny Ferguson
    -
    5
    Jrobertiko, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

    Executives from the liberal Disney corporation are now under fire from Congress for backing out of a meeting with victims of Communist China’s brutal dictatorship, with whom Disney has partnered and is increasingly changing corporate policies to please.

    Disney had initially agreed to meet with and listen to members of the ethnic and religious Uyghur community, who are targets of a brutal campaign of genocide by Beijing leaders.  The meeting came after Disney was loudly criticized for ignoring and glossing over Chinese human rights abuses while promoting the film “Mulan,”

    U.S. House Select Committee on China Member Jim Banks (R-IN) is now hammering Disney CEO Bob Iger after Disney representatives for cut-off communications with Uyghur advocates and genocide victims and backed out of a promised on-the-record meeting.

    “Disney executives pulled out of an off-the-record meeting with Uyghur genocide victims. It couldn’t have been to protect Disney’s public image or bottom line, so maybe the executives were just worried about a good night’s sleep,” said Banks.

    “Whatever the reason, Disney publicly praised Chinese Communist Party agencies committing genocide and then privately scorned their victims. It’s time for Disney to own up to its mistakes and make amends,” said Banks.

    “In September 2020, U.S. lawmakers and human rights groups from around the world condemned Disney for its decision to film a live-action remake of Mulan in the Xinjiang Uyghur

    Autonomous Region (XUAR), the center of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) ongoing

    genocide against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim groups,” a letter from Banks to Iger begins.

    “While filming, Disney cooperated with Chinese security and propaganda authorities active in the XUAR, including ones complicit in Beijing’s human rights atrocities,” Banks reveals.

    “(I)n Mulan’s credits, your company thanked several Chinese government agencies

    participating in the genocide, including the Public Security Bureau of Turpan, which then President Trump placed on the Commerce Department’s Entity List in 2019 for ‘human rights

    violations and abuses’ against Uyghurs and other ethnic groups,” Banks continues.

    “Disney’s credits also expressed gratitude to the ‘Publicity Department of CPC Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Committee,’ the CCP propaganda arm charged with covering up the abuses,” Banks writes.

    “Disney never apologized for partnering with and praising Chinese Communist Party agencies

    actively engaged in genocide,” Banks adds. 

    In response to the initial 2020 criticism, Disney agreed to meet with advocates for Uyghur victims.

    Communist China opposes such a meeting, and Disney has now backed out.

    “We are writing to request a meeting between you, other Disney executives, and a representative from the Uyghur American Association and the Uyghur Human Rights Project,” Banks writes.

    “We have no doubt that such a meeting would prove educational for your company and would be

    a simple first step in clarifying to millions of Americans that Disney does, in fact, care about the

    Chinese Communist Party’s systematic extermination of minority ethnic groups,” Banks concludes.

    Representatives Mike Gallagher, John Moolenaar, Neal Dunn, and Ashley Hinson cosigned Rep. Banks’ letter.

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

    France’s Riots are Like our BLM Riots – Not Really About the Police

    By
    Paul Crespo
    -
    5

    ANALYSIS – Another summer of rage erupts in Paris, this time sparked by the police shooting several days ago of a 17-year-old Muslim man of North African origin. Many liken the fiery French riots to our own Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots of 2020. 

    And in many ways, they are similar.

    They both used the police killing of a man of color to justify violence, arson, looting, and spreading chaos. Their initial stated agenda was to highlight police brutality and police racism, then just racism. 

    Then a bunch of other stuff.

    In the United States, a lot of the BLM rioting was targeted at President Donald Trump. In France, some of the rage is directed at Jews. 

    Meanwhile, both violent rampages were quickly co-opted, if not initially instigated, by extremist ideologies and agendas. In the U.S., BLM was run by the far left and often became dominated by issues totally unrelated to the police or even racism. 

    In Paris, the riots are as much about a growing unassimilated Arab/North African Muslim minority bringing radical Islam to France, as it is about the police or race.

    It’s also about being anti-Jewish, anti-Catholic, and anti-French.

    Just as BLM often disparaged all of white America as being racist while targeting cops, many French Muslims see the entire French system as evil.

    And part of that ruling system includes French Jews.

    The Times of Israel reported that “perpetrators did vandalize a monument for Holocaust victims in Nanterre, the Paris suburb where the 17-year-old, identified in the French media only as Nahel M., was killed. The perpetrators spray-painted the words ‘Police scum’ on the monument.”

    Antisemitic chants have also  been heard during the riots, “part of a well-documented sentiment among some Muslims who see Jews as part of an oppressive power structure.”

    While Jews haven’t been attacked directly yet, these riots remind many French Jews of 2014, when Muslim rioters singled out Jewish-owned shops in a Paris suburb nicknamed “little Jerusalem” due to its large Jewish population.

    That anti-Jewish violence, which also targeted several synagogues, was partly spurred by Muslim anger toward Jews amid the 2014 Gaza war between Israel and Hamas and other terrorist groups.

    Today we have Israel engaged in a major military operation in the West Bank against Palestinian terrorists using the Jenin refugee camp as a base for attacks against Israelis. This operation began Monday, and we have yet to see its impact on the riots in France.

    If the conflict extends in the West Bank, expect things to heat up more in Paris.

    But as The Times of Israel also noted, this violent uprising in Paris is far more widespread than ever before. And might be a turning point for how the French view their suicidally insane immigration policies.

    “In 2014, I was afraid as a Jew. This time, I’m afraid as a Frenchman,” said Jonathan C., noting that he does not have a Middle Eastern appearance.

    The Times added:

    Police and firefighters are common targets of violence by rioters whom many believe are acting out of resentment of French society, where the anti-immigration far right is the second-largest political force.

    Other incidents are seen by some as reflecting a religious dimension of the riots, which are occurring in heavily Muslim areas.

    On Thursday, two unidentified individuals beat up and robbed a priest in Saint-Etienne near Lyon. Disagreements exist on whether the assault, the second attack of a priest in the region in three weeks, was part of the riots.

    Hate attacks against Christians are multiplying in France, where in 2021 the interior ministry recorded 1,052 anti-Christian hate crimes, nearly double the assaults on Jews. It meant that Christians were, in absolute numbers at least, the religious group that was most targeted that year.

    This worries many in France. They see the huge number of antisemitic and anti-Christian attacks, as well as attacks against police, as part of a resurgence of radical Islam in unassimilated migrant communities.

    Even if these riots subside, the bigger danger remains. And that should be a concern for not just Paris, but other major European cities as well.

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

    Chinese Drones May Be Spying All Over DC

    By
    Paul Crespo
    -
    3
    Ted Eytan from Washington, DC, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

    ANALYSIS – We have recently heard a lot about UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) and the newer UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena).

    The Pentagon has even weighed in on their myriad interactions with military pilots and astronauts.

    Some analysts have concluded many of these UAP sightings are simply aerial or space debris. 

    While enemy spy aircraft account for many of the incidents as well.

    In that vein, experts and lawmakers are now raising the alarm over what are likely large numbers of Chinese Communist (Chicom) drones on spy missions over DC.

    This more down-to-earth threat needs to be addressed quickly and forcibly.

    POLITICO reports:

    Hundreds of Chinese-manufactured drones have been detected in restricted airspace over Washington, D.C., in recent months, a trend that national security agencies fear could become a new means for foreign espionage.

    The recreational drones made by Chinese company DJI, which are designed with “geofencing” restrictions to keep them out of sensitive locations, are being manipulated by users with simple workarounds to fly over no-go zones around the nation’s capital.

    …officials say they do not believe the swarms are directed by the Chinese government. Yet the violations by users mark a new turn in the proliferation of relatively cheap but increasingly sophisticated drones that can be used for recreation and commerce.

    Still, lawmakers are concerned.

    …DJI has secured funding from investment entities owned by the Chinese government — a fact that DJI reportedly sought to conceal. And the ease with which recreational users can evade the flight restrictions means that their high-definition cameras or other sensors could also be hacked into for intelligence-gathering.

    POLITICO adds:

    “Any technological product with origins in China or Chinese companies holds a real risk and potential of vulnerability that can be exploited both now and in a time of conflict,” Sen. Marco Rubio, vice chair of the Intelligence Committee, said in an interview about the potential threats posed by foreign-made drones. “They’re manufactured in China or manufactured by a Chinese company, but they’ll put a sticker on it of some non-Chinese company that repackages it so you don’t even know that you’re buying it.

    And the highly restricted airspace above DC is a prime drone target.

    POLITICO continue:

    …data recently shared with Congress highlights more than 100 incursions in a recent 45-day period but the sources requested that specific numbers, locations and frequency not be published for security reasons.

    But it’s not just potential spying. 

    FBI Director Christopher Wray recently warned  that the Bureau has seen within the U.S., attempts to weaponize drones with homemade [improvised explosive devices].”

    So, what can be done?

    In February, GOP U.S. Senator Marco Rubio introduced legislation to add DJI to a Federal Communications Commission list designating it as a national security threat. 

    This would restrict DJI drones’ ability to link to U.S. telecommunications systems.

    This measure was adopted after it was reported that the company sought to conceal its funding by the Chinese government.

    Unfortunately, the bill has been stalled and hasn’t gone anywhere in Congress.

    It’s time to implement this bill and turn it into law.

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

    Biden’s Disgraced ‘Non-Binary’ Nuke Official Led Anti-Christian Hate Group

    By
    Paul Crespo
    -
    0

    ANALYSIS – Yes, all this transgender stuff is related. First, we have the Los Angeles Dodgers inviting, disinviting, and then re-inviting, the drag-queen, anti-Christian hate group ‘Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’ (SPI) – to be honored at their June opening game. 

    The Dodgers and Major League Baseball (MLB) caved to the intense pressure to re-invite them by far-left Democrat groups. 

    Second, we have Sam Brinton, a cross-dressing, self-identified “nonbinary” man, with an open bondage ‘pup play,’ fetish, who I have also written about here, here, and here, due to his numerous arrests for airport luggage and designer women’s clothes theft. 

    Brinton served as Joe Biden’s Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition before his first couple of arrests made him resign from his sensitive position last year. 

    But this is where it all gets even weirder. Or maybe expected.

    The flamboyant group of gay men who dress garishly as caricatures of Catholic nuns, regularly mocks and ridicules Catholics, and Christianity in general. 

    They often perform lewd semi-nude pornographic shows displaying their anti-Christian hate.

    This includes pole-dancing on a cross with a man on it representing a crucified Jesus. The group’s mission is to attack Christianity and Christians. It has very little to do with LGBT ‘Pride.’

    Yet, the ‘City of Angels’ baseball team will now present this ‘demonic’ hate group with a “Community Hero Award” for LGBT ‘Pride’ month.

    This has created a firestorm of protest. You can go to my earlier article to see how you can show your outrage. 

    Meanwhile, Team Biden initially hailed the pick of Brinton for the sensitive nuke position as a pioneering move for ‘nonbinary gender-fluid’ people (i.e., totally made up, nonexistent, genders).

    Sadly, in this case, ‘gender fluid’ also meant liking to steal women’s clothing.

    Brinton was recently arrested as a fugitive from justice in Maryland following similar larceny in Minneapolis and Las Vegas. A lawyer for a Tanzanian fashion designer said the theft dated back to 2018 and was related to his client’s baggage that contained custom designs.

    But what makes it all come together in an even more concerning manner, is that Brinton was also apparently a leader of the D.C. chapter of the ‘Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.’ He used the nuclear-themed name ‘Sister Ray Dee O’Active.’ 

    This, according to tax filings reviewed by Fox News.

    National Review reports:

    As the head of the D.C. Sisters, Brinton reportedly organized various events, including drag brunches, White House protests, and even a “high heel race.” He was also present at a San Francisco Easter gathering of the Sisters in 2019. As described in a Mission Local report, the event included children among the attendees, raising questions about the appropriateness of exposing them to the group’s provocative activities.

    In 2015 Brinton also wrote an op-ed that defended a ‘Rent boy’ website after it was shut down by federal agents. ‘Rent boy’ refers to young boys who are paired up with older men for sexual services, so the website essentially trafficked young, vulnerable boys as escorts.

    So, yes, this cabal of bizarre, Christian-hating, transgender sexual fetishists who have Easter-themed drag shows for children, and are ok trafficking young boys for sex, are apparently a growing force in Democrat politics now. 

    One big remaining question is – how did this guy pass a background security check?

    Fox News contributor Joe Concha and host Rachel Campos Duffy each asked on a recent show how being the leader of the ‘Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’ DC chapter could have been ‘overlooked’ when Brinton underwent a background check for the sensitive, and fairly high level, nuclear-waste job.

    Being part of an extremist hate group and being a borderline sex trafficker should disqualify you from a clearance. 

    But apparently under Team Biden only traditional Catholics are considered extremists. Catholic-hating cross-dressers and pedophiles are just fine.

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

    China Tested Biden with Massive ‘Spy Balloon’ While Likely Practicing EMP Attack

    By
    Paul Crespo
    -
    5
    Joe Biden via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    ANALYSIS – Much of the world watched with rapt attention as a massive, sophisticated, high-altitude Chinese surveillance airship slowly crossed the entire United States last week, and Team Biden did absolutely nothing.

    Despite being detected days earlier over the Aleutian Islands and parts of Alaska, the ‘spy balloon,’ as it has been dubbed, was first reported publicly by the White House when it was spotted over sensitive nuclear missile sites in Montana.

    Most of us with military or intelligence experience quickly saw the danger and risks of allowing this huge thing unfettered access to our national airspace.

    The airship, reportedly 200ft tall and with a payload the size of a jetliner, was likely solar-powered and maneuverable, perhaps using AI technology for guidance.

    But once the news was out, Team Biden’s spin machine kicked into high gear.

    “The balloon is not a threat.”

    “We have everything under control. The Chinese can’t gain any valuable intelligence from the airship that they couldn’t gather from satellites in low earth orbit.”

    And the big one – “we don’t want to shoot it down because the military says that would pose a danger to people on the ground in sparsely populated Montana.

    Of course, much of the establishment news media went along for the ride.

    In a belated show of impotent machismo, Biden finally ordered the balloon destroyed after it had completed its 8-day mission and exited U.S. airspace near South Carolina.

    One of our most expensive and sophisticated stealth fighters, an F-22 Raptor fired a short-range AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missile at the balloon, quickly sending down the airship with its surveillance payload breaking off as it dropped.

    New reports say the balloon contained explosives to self-destruct if needed.

    Hopefully, no boaters, swimmers, or fish were hurt by the falling debris.

    And then the second wave of Biden balloon spin began, with reports that President Trump had ignored multiple similar incursions by Chinese surveillance balloons under his tenure.

    Team Trump pushed back saying no one at a senior level had ever been briefed on any similar Chinese balloon incursions.

    And it turns out Team Trump was correct.

    It appears Team Biden had only gathered information that Chinese balloons had briefly entered U.S. airspace on a few occasions after Trump left office.

    They had either not been detected at the time by the Pentagon, or at least they never briefed Trump or his civilian defense or national security officials.

    Trump did not ignore similar Chinese challenges, and none of the short-lived, undetected balloon forays during his term lasted anything close to eight days and traversed the entire continental U.S. spying on key military sites throughout.

    So, what can we gather from this major test by Communist China?

    Well, despite those who claim otherwise, the unprecedented, slow-moving Chinese surveillance platform that traveled across the entire U.S. gave China intelligence it could not otherwise get on nuclear, communications and other critical military and strategic targets.

    It also tested U.S. surveillance and counter-surveillance abilities and reactions.

    It most certainly served to test China’s own growing capabilities, as it pushed the envelope against the United States.

    But most importantly it tested America’s political will.

    And Biden’s willingness to let the behemoth balloon cross the U.S. before finally shooting it down failed that test.

    It also had the added bonus of showing the world how vulnerable the U.S. is to Chinese power and technology. And how unwilling it is to effectively counter it.

    These might be the biggest wins for China.

    But beyond that, could this balloon be a precursor to a new type of weapons delivery system?

    Some would balk at the idea of a balloon dropping bombs in the 21st century as being far-fetched. But China has tested hypersonic missiles launched from balloons in the past.

    And as noted earlier, these aren’t everyday hot air balloons.

    However, that isn’t a likely use for these airships.

    The biggest threat is sending one or more of these high-altitude balloons over the U.S. with a small nuclear EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) device.

    As the Washington Examiner reports:

    In a 2015 report for the American Leadership & Policy Foundation, Air Force Maj. David Stuckenberg, one of the nation’s leading EMP experts, wrote extensively about the threat balloons carrying bombs pose to national security.

    “Using a balloon as a WMD/WME platform could provide adversaries with a pallet of altitudes and payload options with which to maximize offensive effects against the U.S.,” he wrote in the report.

    Detonated at extremely high altitudes (200 miles) these small nukes could knock out power and communications across the US, wreaking widespread havoc for a year or more without firing a shot on the ground. 

    It also wouldn’t kill anyone or cause kinetic physical damage to anything directly. The damage comes afterward.

    The Examiner continues:

    Stuckenberg cited the research of the late Peter Pry, who headed a congressional commission on EMP and reported on the potential of a balloon-launched attack.

    He wrote in the report, “Peter Pry, a former CIA analyst and member of the Congressional Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from EMP Attack, stated, ‘Imagine the consequences of a balloon EMP attack that damages and destroys electronic systems at the speed of light within an EMP field with a radius of hundreds of kilometers. The Eastern Grid generates 75% of U.S. electricity and supports most of the population.” Pry also notes, “Virtually any nuke detonated anywhere over the Eastern Grid will collapse the entire Eastern Grid, not just the area within the EMP field, because of cascading failures that will ripple outward.”

    This is now a viable threat that Biden’s weakness has made even more possible. 

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

    Amanda Head: Hollywood Star Blasts Covid Inc!

    By
    Amanda Head
    -
    1

    Hollywood actor Woody Harrelson is facing intense criticism after his recent Saturday Night Live appearance…

    Watch Amanda break down the scandal below…

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

    New Documents Reveal Biden FBI’s Panicked Attempt To Cover Up Spying On Christians

    By
    Donny Ferguson
    -
    4

    A lawsuit from a non-profit public interest law firm has uncovered documents showing the Biden administration’s rushed efforts to cover up a Federal Bureau of Investigations operation that spied on Catholic churches, even as Catholics were targeted by pro-abortion terrorists.

    Judicial Watch, working with CatholicVote Civic Action, received 131 heavily redacted pages of records from the FBI “showing top officials rushing to craft a public response to the leaked FBI intelligence memo that revealed its targeting of Catholics who adhere to traditional beliefs on church issues,” JW reports.

    “After seven months of delay and more to come, Joe Biden’s FBI remains committed to one thing: covering up their un-American spying on Catholic citizens,” said former Congressman Huelskamp, Ph.D., Senior Advisor to CatholicVote. “By fully withholding more than 200 pages of public documents, the Biden administration is more interested in hiding the truth than ending this unconstitutional witch hunt of Catholics and other faithful Americans.”

    “The FBI launched a vicious spy effort against Catholics and sought to spy on parishioners as they sat in church pews,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “These records show top FBI officials were panicked in response about their domestic spying abuse leaking out.”

    Judicial Watch received the records “in response to an April 2023 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit it filed along with CatholicVoteCivic Action against the FBI and the Department of Justice after their failure to respond to March 2023 requests for records about an FBI intelligence memo targeting “radical traditionalist” Catholics (CatholicVote Civic Action and Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Federal Bureau of Investigations and Department of Justice (No. 1:23-cv-01166)).”

    In February 2023, an FBI intelligence document was leaked that revealed FBI infiltrated and spied on several Catholic churches as part of a fruitless operation that claimed traditional Catholics and pro-life Americans were a terrorist threat – even as the liberal pro-abortion terrorist group “Jane’s Revenge” carried out a nationwide campaign of terrorism and arson attacks.

    According to JW, the newly obtained records include a February 8, 2023, email with the subject line “Media Request: FBI Richmond Document cites SPLC” from the FBI’s National Press Office alerting FBI officials regarding media inquiries:

    We have inquiries from the Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal (Heritage Foundation) about an article written by [redacted]. It references a January intelligence product from the Richmond Field office. After speaking with SC Goodwater, I am alerting all of you so we can get a copy of the actual document and hear any recommendations on how to respond. I am attaching a cut and paste of the [redacted] article.

    JW reports Miriam Coakley of the Office of General Counsel then forwarded the email on to other FBI officials, noting, “Adding InTo [Insider Threat Office], SecD [Security Division] and OPR [Office of Professional Responsibility]. The date of the leaked domain perspective appears to be 23 Jan. 2023.”

    “Further along the chain, an official in the Office of Public Affairs forwards the chain to more people, saying, ‘Adding Pamela Bryon from the DI. [Deputy Asst. Director of Intelligence Pamela Byron.] Any info on how this product came about would be appreciated,’” JW repors.

    In a heavily redacted reply, Byron responds:

    As mentioned on FBINET, the type of product leaked is a Domain Perspective (DP) – the purpose of DPs is to offer information and/or highlight how a shift or new development in an AOR (domain) related to an environmental variable could impact the threat. Environmental variables include demographic shifts, technology development, economic conditions, special events, social/cultural conditions, etc. In particular, the analysis in DPs (as in FBI products in general) is focused on the activity of identified or potential threat actors, not on the environmental variables themselves, and how those threat actors react to shifts in the environment and the subsequent impact on the threat posed by those actors.

    In that context, there are a couple of things to note with this situation: [redacted].

    We stand by to assist with any other questions.

    Additional records secured by JW include a February 9 email with the subject line “Coordination of Draft statement regarding leaked RH intel document” from Office of Public Affairs official Douglas Goodwater to top FBI officials, including FBI Chief of Staff Johathan Lenzner, Asst. Dir. for Intelligence Tonya Ugoretz, Asst. Dir. for Counterterrorism Robert Wells and others:

    Draft/pre decision, Coordination for media statement – DI/CTD/OGC [Directorate of Intelligence/Counterterrorism Division/Office of General Counsel]

    Potential statement for review/edits-: [Redacted].

    Asst. Director for Public Affairs Catherine Milhoan then responds:

    All, we have received two new inquiries in addition to the three last night and are making the decision to respond in the next hour. We want to get our statement out before this picks up any steam.

    DI/CTD/OCG,

    Please review the draft and let us know if you have any edits or concerns.

    JW then notes:

    Stanley Meador, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Richmond Field Office, replies, “Looks good. One small suggestion in yellow. I would send it out. It is migrating onto Fox. https://www.foxnews.com/media/purported-fbi-document-suggests-agency-targeting-catholics-attend-latin-mass.”

    On February 10, 2023, FBI Chief of Staff Jonathan Lenzner emails FBI colleagues with the subject “intel piece that has been withdrawn,” saying, “I don’t know if we are there yet, [redacted].”

    Lenzner then follows up on February 13, writing, “Looks like at least one religious organization is speaking out publicly: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/catholic-league-condemns-fbi-internal-memo-targeting-catholics.”

    Ryan T. Young, the Executive Assistant Director of the Intelligence Branch replies to Lenzner, “Not a good look … Real frustrating when it is self-inflicted. I’ll be back in town Wednesday. We can look into next best steps.”

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

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