News Briefs 4/15/25

We have a followup appointment this morning, so we’ll be on the road soon. A short while ago my wife said, from another room, that she was going to take the eye patch/cover off. The next thing I heard was, ‘Wow!’

On to the news. Leading off is that we confirmation from Steve Witkoff of what we’ve been saying all along. Trump, during Trump 1.0, foolishly allowed himself to be gamed into doing the bidding of Jewish Nationalists by unilaterally exiting the JCPOA Iran nuclear regime. He did that with the usual bluster about what a bad deal Obama had done and that he (Trump) would do a beautiful deal that conformed to the Jewish Nationalist wish for a neutered Iran. Now we have Trump 2.0, and Trump is essentially trying to reestablish the JCPOA regime, under cover of the usual bluster about destroying Iran if they don’t agree to the deal that Trump—in obedience to Jewish Nationalists—walked out of. Here’s what I’m talking about.

JCPOA committed Iran to limited civilian enrichment of uranium to go along with Iran’s commitment in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that it would not develop a nuclear weapon. This commitment was accompanied by an inspection regime. Israel—which has made no such commitments—was unhappy with the JCPOA because it didn’t neuter Iran completely. Iran was free to develop its missile forces as a deterrent to Israeli nukes. And so, at the insistence of Jewish Nationalists, Trump walked out of this agreement and engaged in attempts to sabotage Iranian facilities and acts of terrorism against the Iranian regime. The predictable result was that Iran began to enrich uranium to a level that was below military grade but approached it. Iran became what is known as a “threshold” state—non-nuclear, but able to go nuclear in a very short time. This was a direct result of Trump’s craven walk-out from JCPOA.

Trump apparently learned something from that experience and has been desperately seeking Russian help to get back into direct talks with Iran—with the aim of resurrecting the JCPOA regime. For the benefit of Jewish Nationalists and their Neocon allies in the US, Trump is framing this as forcing Iran into an agreement that Iran accepted long ago, but which Trump unilaterally rejected, all the while breathing all sorts of threats against Iran to make it appear to domestic knuckleheads in the US that he is forcing Iran into submission. Witkoff has given the game away, openly stating that the two goals of his negotiations are:

1. To return Iranian enrichment to the JCPOA levels, and

2. Resume an inspection regime that would ensure that Iran’s missiles are not nuclear capable.

The link to the video enlarges on the tweet, and provides—in Witkoff’s own words—the framework that I just described. Please note, because it’s super important, that Witkoff says nothing about Iran giving up its missile program per se, nor surrendering its foreign policy, i.e., surrendering its sovereignty:

OSINTdefender @sentdefender

White House Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff appears to confirm tonight on Fox News that the Trump Administration is no longer pushing for the total denuclearization of Iran or the destruction of its nuclear program, instead wishing to impose limits on Iran’s enrichment of uranium and the weaponization of its nuclear program, very similar to the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal.

Video

9:12 PM · Apr 14, 2025

Of course the next question is, Where does Trump hope to go from there? You can be sure he’s been talking about that what-comes-next with Putin.

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I don’t intend to get back into the Russia Hoax. The release of the now famous 700 pages is not about new revelations—it’s basically just confirmation of what we already know, with a bit of documentation that provides an insider view of it all. What we already knew and has been confirmed is that the FBI knew that their Russia Hoax operation was being done at the behest of the Clinton campaign. What we’re not being told about is the involvement of the CIA and foreign intel services—especially MI6.

What I continue to regard as significant is that the Steele Dossier fabrications contain material that indicate to me that there was input from persons who were intimately familiar with what the legal requirements would be to get a FISA on a US Person (USPER). Those requirements are public information, but in the real world it’s insider information—few people who are not conversant with national security law will realize the significance of those requirements. I’m referring to the requirement that the target of the FISA must be engaged in “clandestine intelligence activity”—a technical term—that includes violation of US law. That turned out to not be easy to allege against any of the then Trump insiders, which is why targeting Carter Page became so important, even though he was peripheral to the Trump circle. There were no other alternatives. NB: the overhear of Michael Flynn was NOT the result of a FISA on Flynn—even though he was the subject of one of the Crossfire Hurricane sub-investigations. It was picked up in routine FISA surveillance of the Russian ambassador, who is not an USPER. There was no credible allegation possible that Flynn was engaged in “clandestine intelligence activity”. Steele was able to provide what looked like credible information against Carter Page because of, 1. Page’s travel to Moscow, and 2. Steele’s FBI supported claim to have intel related sources in Moscow to back up his fabrications. My point is that I don’t believe Steele had the inside legal knowledge of FISA law to understand exactly and specifically what he needed to include in his make believe story. Nor, of course, would Carter Page himself. I believe he framed his fabrications under the guidance of a someone who had a very serviceable knowledge of US NatSec law, whose identity has not yet been—and may never be—revealed. There are a number of logical persons, like Andrew Weissman, but we just don’t know.

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I’ll just provide links to two stories that illustrate how corrupt our federal government has become. The first sheds light on the Biden pardons, although it’s probably only the tip of an iceberg that had to have been the biggest non-secret in DC—the vast extent of the Biden influence peddling operation:

Newly Unredacted Documents Show Joe Biden Was Negotiating Oil, Gas Deal to Benefit Hunter and Burisma Through Private Email Account

And this regarding one of the biggest scandals in US history:

Top CDC Vaccine Safety Officer's Records Missing, HHS Says

Records from a top official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are missing, the CDC’s parent agency has informed a U.S. senator.

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officials told Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) in March that “they are having difficulty locating records,” Johnson said on April 9.

More recently, HHS officials said that Dr. Tom Shimabukuro’s records “remain lost and, potentially, removed from HHS’s email system altogether,” Johnson added.

Shimabukuro, the CDC, and HHS did not respond to requests for comment by publication time.

Shimabukuro is director of the CDC’s Immunization Safety Office, which researches the safety of vaccines, according to the CDC’s website. He frequently spoke at vaccine meetings, at times offering false information, The Epoch Times previously reported.

He was also involved in vaccine research, including monitoring vaccine safety in pregnant women.

Johnson, the chairman of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, disclosed the situation with Shimabukuro’s records in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Juliet Hodgkins, the acting inspector general of HHS.

“Dr. Shimabukuro’s potential mishandling of his official records is highly concerning. His actions, if true, would have directly obstructed my multi-year oversight efforts of the COVID-19 vaccines and would be in clear violation of my November 19, 2024 demand to HHS, CDC, and the Food and Drug Administration to ‘preserve all records referring or relating to the development, safety, and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines,’” Johnson wrote.

“Furthermore, given Dr. Shimabukuro’s role at CDC, which includes monitoring adverse events relating to the COVID-19 vaccines, his communications are directly responsive to my January 28, 2025, subpoena to HHS for records relating to the development and safety of the COVID-19 vaccines. Any attempt to obstruct or interfere with my investigatory efforts would be grounds for contempt of Congress.”

The senator also said that if Shimabukuro mishandled records, he may have violated laws such as the Federal Records Act.

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