Free Republic

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who sits on the sensitive House Intelligence Committee, said in response to an explosive story about ties to a suspected Chinese spy that “congressional leaders knew about” the matter and implied that they apparently did not think that it was a big enough issue to keep him off the Intelligence Committee. The alleged spy, Chinese national Christine Fang, “targeted up-and-coming local politicians in the Bay Area and across the country who had the potential to make it big on the national stage” through “campaign fundraising, extensive networking, personal charisma, and romantic or sexual relationships,” Axios reported....

Academic says Trump trade war cut off spies China influenced American policies for decades through a covert network of “old friends” — sympathizers and agents — who had penetrated the highest levels of the U.S. government and financial institutions before the Trump administration, according to an academic linked to the Chinese government. Di Dongsheng, a professor and associate dean of the School of International Studies at Renmin University in Beijing, also suggested in a Nov. 28 speech that China’s Communist Party helped Hunter Biden, a son of presumptive President-elect Joseph R. Biden, obtain Chinese business deals. On influencing the United...

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) appears to be the subject of a federal criminal investigation. Although no formal statement to that effect has been made by law enforcement, FBI agents reportedly issued a grand jury subpoena last week seeking internal CAIR documents that are the subject of an ongoing civil lawsuit.   CAIR sued P. David Gaubatz and his son Chris Gaubatz in federal court last month, claiming it was the victim of theft and trespassing. In the book, Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America, the Gaubatzes acknowledge that Chris adopted a pseudonym and...

PR executive Doug Goodyear voluntarily steps down after past ties to Burma are revealed.

Around noon today, the powers-that-be at NEWSWEEK posted "A Convention Quandary" on our website. In the story, investigative ace Michael Isikoff reported that the man chosen by John McCain's presidential campaign to run this summer's GOP convention--Arizonan Doug Goodyear--was causing some headaches within the ranks. The problem? Goodyear is CEO of DCI Group, a consulting firm that earned $3 million last year lobbying for ExxonMobil, General Motors and other clients--not the most convenient association for a candidate who's already struggling to reconcile his reputation as an anti-special interests crusader with the sizable number of lobbyists on his senior staff. Further...

Currently VCIOM is the largest research organisation is Russia, engaging in socio-economic, socio-political and marketing research through mass polling, omnibuses, expert and elite studies, in-depth interviews and focus groups and other methods. The Centre provides a full technological cycle of research work - from planning research programmes to presenting analytical reports.

In the furore over the Richard Gott affair (letters, December 13, 16, 20), insufficient attention has been paid to one significant feature – the inability or unwillingness of the Security Service, MI5, to counter the activities of agents of influence. The Times has done more than most to highlight the difference between two wholly distinct types of KGB agent: the intelligence (or espionage) agent, and the agent of influence. The former were spies passing Western secrets to Moscow, whilst the latter were propagandists feeding Moscow disinformation to the West. Both forms of activity are subversive but, since they are not...