90 Miles From Tyranny

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Lawmakers React To Scathing IG Report On FBI Abuses: ‘Absolutely Outrageous’

Lawmakers are expressing alarm over the release Tuesday of Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report, which found egregious failures in a random sample acquired by his investigators to oversee suspected FBI’s abuse in obtaining warrants with the secret court to spy on Americans.

In Horowitz’s interim report, investigators revealed that they could not review the bureau’s original Woods Files for four of the 29 selected FISA applications. Why? Because the bureau could not locate them and, in 3 of these instances, did not know if they ever existed. In the audit report sent to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Horowitz said “as a result of our audit work to date and as described below, we do not have confidence that the FBI has executed its Woods Procedures in compliance with FBI policy.”

Yesterday’s report demonstrates unequivocally that there has been a major systemic failure at the FBI, David Schoen, Civil Rights Attorney

The report, which was initiated as part of the IG’s ongoing investigation into the FBI’s now debunked probe into whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russia, also revealed that there were apparent errors or ‘inadequately supported facts in all of the 25 applications that the investigators reviewed.” Moreover, Horowitz’s team also interviewed FBI officials who indicated that there were no efforts by the bureau to use existing FBI and National Security Division oversight mechanisms to perform comprehensive, strategic assessments of the efficacy of the Woods Procedures or FISA accuracy.

Ranking Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes, told SaraACarter.com Tuesday that “regardless of whatever ‘reforms’ FBI leaders voluntarily adopt, it’s clear their operations require close oversight by congressional leaders who actually care about Americans’ civil liberties and will not approve of improper spying when it’s aimed at their political opponents.”

When Nunes was Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee his team of investigators were the first to reveal the litany of abuses that occurred at the FBI. In fact, those abuses were first reported by Nunes then in his committee’s Russia report released in April, 2018.

David Schoen, a civil rights and criminal defense attorney, told this reporter that the “IG’s March 30, 2020 report of his preliminary findings concerning FISA applications during a five-year period from 2014 to 2019 is nothing less than shocking.”

“He has found a startling number of instances in which there was no supporting documentation for...

Japanese VP: The WHO Should be Renamed the ‘Chinese Health Organization’

For its role in helping Beijing cover up coronavirus.

The deputy prime minister of Japan says that the WHO should be renamed the ‘Chinese Health Organization’ for its role in helping Beijing cover-up the severity of the coronavirus outbreak.

Referring to a petition which now has almost 700,000 signatures calling on WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom to resign, Taro Aso tore into the organization for conspiring with China and failing to stop a global pandemic that could have been prevented.

“People think the World Health Organization should change its name. It shouldn’t be called the WHO, it should be renamed the Chinese Health Organization (CHO). This appeal is truly resonating with the people,” said Aso.

“Early on, if the WHO had not insisted to the world that China had no pneumonia epidemic, then everybody would have taken precautions,” he added, noting that Taiwan had to face coronavirus on its own because it was excluded from the WHO.

Indeed, as we have highlighted, the World Health Organization repeatedly amplified Chinese propaganda that the coronavirus outbreak was under control, including a January 14th tweet which falsely claimed there was no human to human transmission of the disease, despite this having occurred in December.

Throughout January, the WHO praised China for its open and “speedy” response to COVID-19, even as Beijing authorities were silencing and disappearing doctors like Ai Fen who tried to warn the world that China was engaged in a cover-up.

The global health body also repeatedly told countries not to enforce border controls that could have stopped the spread of the virus, instead placing more importance on...

White House Projects 100,000 to 200,000 US Deaths From COVID-19

Even if Americans follow mitigation guidelines, the United States could see 100,000 to 200,000 deaths as a result of the coronavirus, according to projections explained by health officials Tuesday evening at the White House.

“This is going to be a very, very painful two weeks,” President Donald Trump told reporters of the days to come.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had mentioned before the possibility of more than 100,000 deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

But the number now is the government’s formal projections.

Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House’s coronavirus task force, explained the numbers in a slide show, noting pronounced increases in the states of New York and New Jersey.

“It’s a projection based on using what’s in Italy and then looking at all the [computer] models,” Birx said, adding:

As you saw on that slide, that was our real number, 100,000 to 200,000 [deaths]. We really believe and hope every day we can do a lot better than that [by saving lives], because that’s not assuming 100% of every American does everything they are supposed to be doing. But I think that’s possible.

Trump announced Sunday that the administration was extending social distancing and related government guidelines to “slow the spread” until April 30.

The computer models suggest the number of deaths will peak over the next two weeks, then begin to slowly decline. But deaths will continue into June.

“I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead,” Trump said, adding:

Censorship debate rages as Twitter forced Laura Ingraham to delete tweet about FDA approved drug.

A top Fox News personality and adviser to President Trump has warned that if the White House does nothing to roll back censorship, if the Democrats win in November, “they’re going to crush Fox News.”

Speaking privately to Summit, the host was responding to news that fellow Fox commentator Laura Ingraham had been forced under threat of suspension to delete a tweet about the drug Hydroxychloroquine being a potential cure for coronavirus.

“Lenox Hill in New York among many hospitals already using Hydroxychloroquine with very promising results,” Ingraham tweeted on March 20. “One patient was described as ‘Lazarus’ who was seriously ill from Covid-19, already released.”

Ten days later, Twitter forced Ingraham to delete the tweet under threat of suspension, despite the fact that Hydroxychloroquine has been approved by the FDA and has proven successful at treating COVID-19 in several studies.

Twitter claimed that the tweet triggered their “misleading information policy” with its “Heightened-risk health claims.”

“The real test: How many “journalists” who have dismissed hydroxychloroquine + azithromycin in COVID patients would say no to taking it themselves if seriously ill?” Ingraham asked earlier today.

As one Twitter user pointed out, while censoring tweets about an approved drug, Twitter is perfectly happy to let Chinese propaganda continue to circulate.

This occurred on the same day that Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had his tweets deleted for questioning whether social distancing and quarantine measures were an overreaction.

Infowars’ Google Play store app was also banned last week for the same reason.

The Fox News host and presidential adviser said all this once again illustrated how the left and social media giants have been emboldened by the Trump administration’s lack of action on censorship and that this could spell disaster come the election.

“If Democrats win in November, they’re going to crush Fox News just as they’ve crushed the NRA. And we’re going to deeply regret letting it happen,” said...