News of the World

[kyonides]

USA

---

Another $10 Billion Waiver for Iran

Biden admin quietly renewed controversial $10B Iran sanctions waiver two days after Election Day

The Biden administration quietly extended a sanctions waiver that will grant Iran access to roughly $10 billion from Iraq two days after President-elect Donald Trump’s Election Day victory.

The controversial waiver, which has been repeatedly extended by Secretary of State Antony Blinken despite strong opposition from congressional Republicans, allows the Iranian regime access to funds from Iraq in exchange for electricity purchases.

“On November 7th, the [State Department] did renew Iraq’s electricity waiver for the 23rd time since 2018,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel confirmed last week.   

“It was done so for an additional 120 days,” Patel noted – a time frame that will overlap with the early months of Trump’s second term in office.

Under the conditions of the waiver, Iran will receive nearly $10 billion being held in escrow accounts in Iraq that US officials claim may only be used for humanitarian trade.

However, the waiver extension allows the Iranian regime to transfer the electricity payments to accounts in Oman, which can then be converted to other currencies for the Islamic Republic to purchase non-sanctioned products.

It’s unclear if Trump, 78, plans on scrapping the Iran sanctions waiver when he returns to office.

In September, the Justice Department brought charges against three members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for hacking Trump campaign staffers and leaking sensitive information to media outlets and the campaign of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in an effort to undermine the 45th president’s White House bid.

The Trump-Vance transition team did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.

Blinken on Syria

Antony Blinken: Biden Will ‘Recognize and Support’ a Syrian Government Arising from ‘Inclusive’ Jihadi-Led Process

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will begin a brief trip to the Middle East on Wednesday with stops in Jordan and Turkey, the State Department announced following remarks from Blinken supporting the creation of a “credible, inclusive, and non-sectarian” government in Syria.

Blinken promised America would “recognize and fully support” a Syrian government that arises from “an inclusive and transparent process” to replace Bashar Assad, currently being led by an al-Qaeda offshoot led by a U.S.-wanted terrorist.

The longtime government of Syria under Iran-backed dictator Assad fell on Saturday as members of the jihadist al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) arrived in Damascus, the national capital. HTS, formerly known as the Nusra Front, has long been one of the many factions fighting in the Syrian Civil War that began in 2011 and launched a new campaign to topple the regime in late November that proved rapidly successful.

Following Assad’s decision to flee to Moscow, Russia, this weekend, HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani – now wishing to be referred to by his real name, Ahmed al Sharaa – positioned himself as the leader of a transition process to replace Assad with a government representative of the Arab Sunni majority of Syria.

HTS is a U.S.-designated terrorist organization and America has an outstanding $10 million bounty in place for information leading to the arrest al-Jolani’s (or al Sharaa’s) arrest. Global terrorist organizations such as Hamas and the Taliban have celebrated HTS and its success in ousting Assad this week.

Despite the rise of a jihadist organization in the face of the collapse of the brutal Assad regime, outgoing President Joe Biden has openly celebrated the developments in Syria and taken credit for them. An unnamed “senior administration official” told reporters on Monday that it was “impossible not to place” the fall of Assad “in the context” of decisions Biden made as president. In reality, the United States was not a major player in the events of the past month, as its top ally in Syria, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has been embroiled in its own war against the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) militia.

Blinken issued a statement on Tuesday insisting that the United States would play no major political role in the future of Syria, but stood by to help whatever government arose from the collapse of the decades-old Assad regime.

$267 Million to Fight... Misinformation!?

Feds blew $267M fighting ‘misinformation’ under Biden — as Trump vows to ban ‘censorship cartel’

President Biden’s administration used $267 million of your money to study “misinformation” since he took office, a new report reveals — as President-elect Donald Trump vows to purge the term from the federal lexicon and make sweeping spending cuts.

The cash doled out to universities, nonprofits and companies peaked at $126 million in 2021 while US public health officials were imposing mandates they later admitted had no scientific basis, the taxpayer-transparency group OpenTheBooks said in its report Friday.

The scope of the “misinformation” grant-making emerged as Trump’s advisory Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) looks for areas to trim wasteful spending.

“When it comes to government spending, the truth is often stranger than fiction,” entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who is leading the DOGE with billionaire Elon Musk, told The Post regarding the findings.

“We’re gearing up to fix the egregious waste of taxpayer dollars,” Ramaswamy said.

OpenTheBooks, which was founded by Republican budget hawks, does not account for the cost of in-house efforts by the Biden White House and various executive branch agencies to fight purportedly incorrect speech, including by pressuring social media companies to censor content.

Proponents of fighting alleged “misinformation” argue that it’s in the public’s interest to weed out false claims — with Biden personally accusing social media companies of “killing people” by platforming posts critiquing the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021, as anti-“misinformation” spending surged.

Opponents of speech-policing argue it both violates the First Amendment and prevents vigorous debate and competing narratives that allow for a more full understanding of issues of public concern.

Critics also note that much of what is initially deemed “misinformation” later turns out to gain evidentiary support, such as the theory that COVID-19 leaked from a Chinese lab that was doing risky US-funded “gain of function” research.

Iranian Drones Flying Over NJ & NY?

Mystery NJ drones are coming from Iranian mothership offshore, congressman suggests: ‘Should be shot down’

A New Jersey congressman claimed Wednesday that the mystery drones over the Garden State are from Iran, and they’re being launched by a mothership parked off the East Coast.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a Republican, said the drones “very possibly could be” from Iran, citing confidential sources during an appearance on Fox News Wednesday morning.

“These drones should be shot down,” he said, adding that “the military is on full alert with this.”
He did not reveal where he got the information. Van Drew, whose district includes most of the Jersey Shore, sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
“I’m going to tell you the real deal. Iran launched a mothership that contains these drones,” Van Drew said. “It’s off the East Coast of the United States of America. They’ve launched drones.”
“These are from high sources, I don’t say this lightly,” he added, categorically ruling out that the drones were being flown by hobbyists or the US government itself.

Van Drew’s startling claim comes as officials have continually told Americans that the drones pose no threat — even as the FBI has admitted it has no idea what they are or how to stop them.

The large drones have been spotted flitting across the night skies across New Jersey for weeks, baffling residents with mysterious arrays of flashing lights and seemingly aimless movements.

Activists Rally in Albany Against Closure of Hotel Migrant Shelters

Activists rally in Albany after NYC closes additional hotel migrant shelters

Activists and several elected officials gathered outside New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office in the Capitol in Albany on Monday to protest the closure of two hotels housing several hundred migrants in the state’s capital region.

New York City has a “right to shelter” law, requiring the city to provide shelter for anyone who asks for it and has no other options.

Protest organizers said they were advocating for Hochul to intervene to prevent the migrants’ eviction and to provide new state funding to shelter the migrants.

Speaking during the protest, Angelica Perez-Delgado, president of the pro-migrant nonprofit Ibero-American Action League, said, “Our need right now is to ensure that people in our hotels are not evicted. We need leadership and money from Gov. Hochul right now to fund at least six months of housing and related services.”

The migrants in Albany have been staying at a Ramada Plaza and Holiday Inn Express, both of which are being paid for by the New York City government and are set to close this month.

The hundreds in Albany are just a fraction of the 58,000 migrants being housed by the city of New York and the more than 223,000 migrants who have received taxpayer aid since 2022.

According to a report released this year by the New York City Comptroller’s Office, the city is projected to spend $987 million in two years on contracted hotels for tens of thousands of migrants. In total, the city is projected to spend more than $12 billion in responding to the migrant surge through fiscal 2025.

Since the election of President-elect Donald Trump last month, however, the city has moved to scale back its shelter program, closing some 12 shelters by the end of the year.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been behind many of the moves to crack down on services for migrants, saying, “We have been wasting taxpayers’ money for far too long.”

Wray Stepping Down as FBI Director

Christopher Wray announces he’s stepping down as FBI director

FBI Director Christopher Wray announced Wednesday he was stepping down as head of the bureau, just days after Republicans expressed a loss of confidence in him.

Wray, 57, told FBI employees in an afternoon town hall that “after weeks of careful thought,” he had decided to resign in January at the end of the current administration, caving to pressure from GOP senators and President-elect Donald Trump.

“My goal is to keep the focus on our mission — the indispensable work you’re doing on behalf of the American people every day,” he said. “In my view, this is the best way to avoid dragging the bureau deeper into the fray, while reinforcing the values and principles that are so important to how we do our work.”

“It should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway — this is not easy for me. I love this place, I love our mission, and I love our people — but my focus is, and always has been, on us and doing what’s right for the FBI,” he added.

“What absolutely cannot, must not change is our commitment to doing the right thing, the right way, every time,” Wray also said. “Our adherence to our core values, our dedication to independence and objectivity, and our defense of the rule of law — those fundamental aspects of who we are must never change.”

The FBI honcho made no reference to Kash Patel, the successor whom Trump, 78, has tapped to lead the bureau.

Does the NYC Hit List Exist or Not?

‘Wanted’ posters with name, photo of UHC CEO Brian Thompson, other execs spotted in NYC

“Wanted” posters bearing the names and photos of murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and other high-profile heath insurance executives began popping up around Manhattan sometime this week.

Videos shared on social media showed “wanted” signs plastered on scaffolding and green boxes featuring a big red X over Thompson’s face appeared on the corner of Canal Street and Centre Street in Lower Manhattan.

Other posters donned the faces of Optum CEO Heather Cianfrocco and UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty were seen on green scaffolding on Wall Street, according to video.

The posters warn that “HEALTH CARE CEOS SHOULD NOT FEEL SAFE” and include “DENY… DEFEND… DEPOSE” — the three words found on the bullets allegedly shot by Luigi Mangione, who is accused of gunning down Thompson outside a Midtown hotel last week.

The “hit lists” are considered a fear-mongering social media stunt to incite hysteria, sources told The Post, adding that there’s no actual person with a hit list.

Remains of the posters on Canal Street were torn down by noon Wednesday.

Mangione’s manifesto, recovered when he was arrested in Pennsylvania Monday, revealed that he targeted the CEO over his disillusionment with US healthcare and health insurance companies.

TD Bank Employee Helped a Gang Launder Money

Feds charge ex-TD Bank employee with helping to launder money to Colombia

A former TD Bank employee based in Florida was arrested and charged with facilitating money laundering to Colombia, New Jersey’s attorney general said on Wednesday, in the first such arrest since the Canadian lender paid a $3 billion fine.

TD Bank’s US arm pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy to commit money laundering, becoming the first bank in the US to do so. It also is the largest bank to plead guilty to US Bank Secrecy Act program failures.

Regulators levied hefty fines, an asset cap and asked to install government-ordered monitors for, among other things, failures in TD’s compliance system that enabled laundering of up to $670 million from the sale of narcotics.

Dozens of people have been arrested or charged in the US in connection with money laundering involving TD in recent years.

In the latest case, Leonardo Ayala, 24, who worked at a TD Bank outlet in Doral, Florida between February and November 2023, is accused of assisting a money laundering network by issuing dozens of debit cards for accounts opened in the names of shell companies in exchange for bribes, court documents show.

Those accounts were used to launder proceeds from narcotic trafficking through cash withdrawals at ATMs in Colombia, according to a statement by New Jersey’s attorney general.

“The investigation has revealed that millions of dollars were laundered to Colombia through accounts Ayala serviced,” the statement said.

Ayala could not immediately be reached for comment.

“We identified the activity, reported it, and cooperated closely with authorities in their investigation. We continue to actively support their efforts,” a TD spokesperson said.

In October, US officials said TD bank employees received at least $57,000 in gift cards in 2020 and 2021 from one criminal who moved more than $400 million in transactions through the bank.