Free Republic

A major witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation was arrested Monday on child-pornography charges, after flying into the U.S. for the first time since his cooperation with Mr. Mueller’s team. George Nader, a dual U.S. and Lebanese citizen, was charged in a criminal complaint more than a year ago, in April 2018, after he had spent hours with Mr. Mueller’s investigators detailing his contacts with Trump allies and efforts to set up meetings between Trump campaign associates and a Russian businessman close to President Vladimir Putin. Nobody connected to the Trump campaign was charged as a result of Mr....

A man with citizenship in Lebanon and the United States was arrested this morning after arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on charges of transporting visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. According to court documents, George Aref Nader, 60, was charged by criminal complaint after he arrived at Washington-Dulles International Airport on Jan. 17, 2018 from Dubai in possession of a cell phone containing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The charges were unsealed after his arrest this morning. Nader previously pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Virginia to...

Let the games begin! House Intelligence chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) told the Washington Post’s Robert Costa that he will make a criminal referral to the Department of Justice against Erik Prince for perjury. At issue is Prince’s testimony to his committee that a meeting in the Seychelles with a Russian financier was unplanned, while Prince’s testimony to special-counsel investigators suggest it was planned: House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that his panel would make a criminal referral to the Justice Department regarding potential false testimony by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of the private military...

The GoFundMe campaign that generated $20 million in private donations is being shutdown and those who donated are being refunded their money unless they decide to donate it to a newly-established 501(c)4. Brian Kolfage, the veteran who started the campaign, on Friday posted the following message on the campaign's website: Eight days before Christmas I started this GoFundMe campaign because I was tired of watching the U.S. government’s inability to secure our southern border. Like most Americans, I see the porous southern border as a national security threat and I refuse to allow our broken political system to leave my family...

The Clinton’s get busted again. It’s a never-ending saga that somehow always seems to out do itself. Special counsel Robert Mueller is getting the cooperation of a Lebanese-American businessman with ties to Arab royalty in his probe of foreign influence on the Trump presidential campaign, including the possibility of a back channel between the Kremlin and the Trump transition team. George Nader testified last week to the Mueller grand jury. Mr. Nader is an adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates. According to The Times, Mr. Mueller...

The founder of the Blackwater private security firm and brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is pitching a risky plan to “privatize” the war in Afghanistan, and officials are increasingly worried that POTUS Donald Trump will embrace the plan. After 17-odd years, and following surges and withdrawals — and surges and withdrawals — of U.S. troops through the years, Blackwater founder Erik Prince says the president is “frustrated” by the lack of progress to date, even as he’s given the Pentagon what it has requested to ‘win’ the war there. As such, he has been shopping a new operation to...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is increasingly venting frustration to his national security team about the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and showing renewed interest in a proposal by Blackwater founder Erik Prince to privatize the war, current and former senior administration officials said. Prince's idea, which first surfaced last year during the president's Afghanistan strategy review, envisions replacing troops with private military contractors who would work for a special U.S. envoy for the war who would report directly to the president. It has raised ethical and security concerns among senior military officials, key lawmakers and members of Trump's national security...

A $40 million yacht owned by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was reportedly untied from the dock at a northern Ohio marina and set adrift. The captain of the 163-foot yacht, named "Seaquest," called the Huron Police Department early Sunday morning when the crew realized the boat was floating in the Huron Boat Basin, The Toledo Blade reported. The yacht hit a dock, causing between $5,000 and $10,000 in damage, the newspaper added, citing a police report. Investigators are hoping surveillance footage will show who untied the yacht from the dock. It is one of 10 boats owned by DeVos and...

Erik Prince, the founder of private security company Blackwater, has found himself embroiled in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of potential coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. During the campaign, Prince reportedly met at Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr., operative George Nader, and social media specialist Joel Zamel to discuss a potential pro-Trump social media influence operation. He also met with Russian sovereign wealth fund manager Kirill Dmitriev during the transition period—a meeting reportedly planned to set up a backchannel between the Trump administration and Russia. Those revelations raise questions about his relationship to the Trump administration—questions...

Unsealed search warrant reveals how panic-stricken Anthony Weiner gave all his electronic devices to private investigators TWO days after DailyMail.com exposed his sexting relationship with 15-year-old girl Weiner connected with the Manhattan-based Granite Intelligence just two days after his sexting relationship with a 15-year-old girl was revealed He turned over his cell phone, iPad and laptop to the private investigative firm - possibly in and attempt to keep them out of the hands of federal agents A federal warrant unsealed last week says that Weiner's devices were being held by the private firm when the FBI tried to obtain them...

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has spoken with Blackwater founder Erik Prince, two sources familiar with the matter tell The Daily Beast. It was not immediately clear what questions Mueller’s team had or what information Prince shared with the special counsel. Prince attended a now-controversial meeting with the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund in the Seychelles on Jan. 11, 2017—just over a week before Inauguration Day. The Washington Post reported that Mueller is interested in potential efforts at the Seychelles meeting to set up a backchannel between the Trump administration and the Kremlin. A spokesman for the special counsel...

From the team that brought you Blackwater and the pre-9/11 counterterrorism program Able Danger comes “Jellyfish Intelligence.” That’s the name a group of former US intelligence officials and executives from the controversial security firm have chosen for a new private outfit that offers “predictive intelligence” for Fortune 500 corporations and senior-level executives and that aims to “protect human lives and their business interests throughout the world. The company blends traditional models of a strategic consulting firm with what it claims is an extensive network of human sources—people who, in an official context, would be called spies. Jellyfish employs a network...

<p>Special counsel Robert Mueller has gathered evidence that a secret meeting in the Seychelles just before the inauguration of Donald Trump was an effort to establish a back channel between the incoming administration and the Kremlin - apparently contradicting statements made to lawmakers by one of its participants, according to people familiar with the matter.</p>

Shipp was a CIA Anti Terrorism expert and was assigned as a protective agent for the Director of Central Intelligence. He is the recipient of a Medallion for overseas covert operations, two CIA Meritorious Unit Citations and three Exceptional Performance Awards. Zerohedge published a partial transcript of Ship's comments made to USAWatchdog.com's Greg Hunter: "They are terrified, they are terrified right now. They did not expect Trump to do what he is doing now. The reason they tried to get him even before he was elected is they knew he was uncontrollable, and they knew if he got in there,...

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Tuesday the Trump administration is not preparing to set up a private global spy network to circumvent U.S. intelligence agencies. "I haven't asked [President Trump], but it's not something that's currently in the works," Sanders said at the daily White House press briefing. The denial followed a report in The Intercept that the administration was considering reliance on private spies to avoid "deep state" biases against Trump and to provide CIA Director Mike Pompeo supplemental information. The idea reportedly is being considered at the urging of Blackwater founder Erik Prince and Oliver North,...

A retired CIA officer reportedly working with Blackwater founder Erik Prince to pitch the White House on a global, private spy network which as we reported yesterday would allow the White House to circumvent and counter "deep state enemies" within U.S. intelligence agencies, is said to have made the stunning claim that National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster worked with the NSA to perform surveillance on Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump, Steve Bannon and others, according to a report in The Intercept. Former CIA agent John R. Maguire and Blackwater founder Erik Prince The former CIA agent, John R. Maguire -...

Blackwater founder Erik Prince, ex-CIA officer John Maguire, and Oliver North are advising President Trump to create his own private global spy network, which would report directly to him and CIA Director Mike Pompeo.  At this point, President Trump is surrounded by treasonous US Intelligence Agencies, which are part of the vast Deep State network seeking to overthrow his Presidency.   They are working with Special Counselor Robert Mueller to impeach him, and quite frankly they are quickly moving forward.  Mueller has let it be known he has made a deal with General Michael Flynn, which is nothing but a...

The State Department is denying charges it held up a security contract to protect the U.S. Ambassador in volatile post-conflict Libya. On an appearance last night on Piers Morgan Tonight , former Romney and United Nations spokesperson Ric Grenell said he’d been told by State Department officials that Academi “was set to go in and provide security for the Ambassador in Libya.” “They have been waiting,” Grenell said. “They've done some preliminary evaluations, but for two months, they have been waiting while the State Department decides to get the paperwork right." A second source with ties to Foggy Bottom confirmed...

Soldiers from a private US security company with a record of alleged atrocities in Iraq are supporting Ukraine’s security forces in the volatile east of the country, the German newspaper Bild reported Sunday. The report, citing Germany’s federal intelligence agency BND, said 400 of the heavily-armed men employed by the group formerly known as Blackwater were deployed in the vicinity of Lugansk where pro-Russian separatists are seeking self-rule. The BND declined to comment on the report, while the security company -- now known as Academi -- dismissed similar reports in March. Bild reported that according to a BND assessment, US...

Moscow believes information that Western, first and foremost American, mercenaries are operating in Ukraine to be true, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday. “We are waiting for answers, because we … have very strong suspicions that this might be true,” Lavrov said during an English-language interview with Bloomberg. SNIP----- According to the German Bild am Sonntag newspaper, around 400 elite commandos of notorious US private security firm Academi are allegedly helping Ukrainian authorities in a punitive operation against federalists in the country’s eastern regions. The newspaper said the Academi mercenaries have taken part in attacks against federalists near Slaviansk,...