Wednesday, October 15, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

FBI investigations against the Clintons dropped before the election

Published 24 May 2023
– By Editorial Staff
The Clinton couple.
2 minute read

The FBI had at least four ongoing criminal investigations against Hillary and Bill Clinton that were abruptly closed months before the 2016 presidential election. This is according to a report by Department of Justice Special Investigator John Durham.

The FBI had begun investigating allegations that foreign countries and influential organizations were trying to influence the Clintons through donations to their foundation and Hillary’s presidential campaign. Three of the four investigations launched in early 2016 were to examine whether the Clinton Foundation could be linked to “criminal activity”. The investigations involved FBI offices in Arkansas, New York and Washington, which began their reviews while Hillary Clinton was in the midst of her presidential campaign.

The investigation included allegations that an outside commercial entity “likely engaged a federal public official in a flow of benefits scheme of benefits”. In practice, this would have involved large monetary contributions given to a non-profit organization under the direct and indirect control of the federal public official – “in exchange for favorable government action and/or influence”, according to the report.

The FBI’s Washington office further investigated allegations that the Clintons accepted millions of dollars in donations linked to foreign governments. The fourth investigation involved allegations from what was described as “an inside source” that Hillary Clinton continued to accept illegal donations throughout her presidential campaign.

“Beginning in late 2014, before Clinton formally declared her presidential candidacy, the FBI learned from a well-placed [source] that a foreign government was planning to send an individual to contribute to
Clinton’s anticipated presidential campaign, as a way to gain influence with Clinton should she
win the presidency”, the report states.

FBI informant: “The staff ‘were okay’ with it”

According to the FBI informant, Hillary’s campaign staff was fully aware that her campaign was funded by foreign actors and was “perfectly fine” with it.

An unnamed FBI agent who worked on the Clinton campaign investigations also says that everyone at the FBI was “super careful” and “scared” to investigate Hillary Clinton and that they were “tip-toeing around” because they didn’t want to fall out of favor with a person who could be the country’s next president.

All four investigations were closed before the 2016 elections. Some of them on the direct orders of senior FBI officials with ties to the Clinton family. According to John Durham, the FBI has failed to investigate possible illegal donations linked to the Clinton campaign and has not even properly documented its work.

Furthermore, the FBI allegedly either failed or neglected to apply for a wiretap authorization for its “well-placed” informant when he was in close contact with the Clintons and instead eventually asked the informant to sever all ties with the couple.

A spokesperson for the Clinton Foundation argues that the foundation has never been involved in any illegal activities whatsoever and that Durham’s report also proves this.

“None of the Clintons have ever taken any money from the Clinton Foundation — in fact, the Clintons themselves are major donors to the Clinton Foundation”, the spokesperson claims.

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Hegseth to Europe: Buy more American weapons for Ukraine

The war in Ukraine

Published today 14:44
– By Editorial Staff
Pete Hegseth together with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
2 minute read

Western military support to Ukraine has nearly halved over the summer. Now the US Secretary of Defense is demanding that NATO countries once again open their wallets for more American weapons deliveries – but several major European nations are hesitating.

Pete Hegseth had a clear message when he met with his NATO counterparts in Brussels on Wednesday: Europe must invest even more money in American weapons for Ukraine.

The US Secretary of Defense pointed to a report from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy showing that military support to Kiev fell dramatically during the summer months – a 43 percent decrease compared to the first half of the year.

Hegseth was explicit about his view on how peace is achieved.

— You get peace when you are strong. Not when you use strong words or wag your fingers, you get it when you have strong and real capabilities that adversaries respect, he declared to assembled journalists.

Zelensky wants more

At the center of discussions is the PURL program – Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List – which has fundamentally changed how the U.S. supports Ukraine militarily. Previously, Washington donated weapons directly, but now NATO countries must pay for the deliveries themselves.

According to Hegseth, the logic is simple: The more Europe buys, the faster the war can be concluded.

— Our expectation today is that more countries donate even more, that they purchase even more to provide for Ukraine, to bring that conflict to a peaceful conclusion, he said.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced that $2 billion has been pledged so far through the PURL system, and that he expects additional contributions. But the figure falls far short of the $3.5 billion that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had hoped to secure by October.

Three countries made new pledges on Wednesday: Sweden, Estonia, and Finland. Corresponding commitments from European heavyweights such as Spain, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom are still lacking.

USA – the big winner?

The Russian government has accused Kiev’s European financiers of prolonging the conflict at the expense of Ukrainian lives, and Moscow claims that European countries are unwilling to acknowledge the failure of their strategy.

Meanwhile, European NATO members continue to bear the economic consequences of their sanctions policy against Russia. After rejecting Russian energy, many EU economies have been hit by rising production costs and widespread bankruptcies in industry.

The United States, however, has benefited from developments through increased investment flows and higher sales of liquefied natural gas to Europe.

$70 billion needed to rebuild Gaza

The genocide in Gaza

Published today 11:28
– By Editorial Staff
Two years of Israeli bombings have left the Palestinian enclave in ruins.
2 minute read

The UN estimates that the reconstruction of Gaza will cost $70 billion. The amount of debris in the bombed enclave is equivalent to 13 pyramids of Giza.

The UN Development Programme describes that the amount of debris in Gaza could be stacked 12 meters high over the entire area of New York’s Central Park.

The estimate was presented on Tuesday and is a joint assessment by the UN, EU and the World Bank. The cost has risen sharply since the previous calculation of $53 billion in February.

Jaco Cilliers, special representative for the UNDP administrator in a program to assist Palestinians, described the extent of the devastation at a press conference in Geneva via video link from Jerusalem.

— The estimated damage and rubble, throughout the whole of Gaza, is in the region of 55 million tons, he said.

— Another way to put it, apart from the example from Central Park that I mentioned, is also equal to 13 pyramids in Giza. That is the amount and size of the challenge.

According to Cilliers, $20 billion is needed over the next three years. The remaining funds are needed over a longer period – possibly decades. He pointed to “good indications” from potential donors in the Arab world, Europe and the US, without providing further details.

Trump: “The easiest part”

US President Donald Trump, who on Monday participated in the signing of the peace agreement for Gaza in Egypt, claimed that the reconstruction will be easier than achieving the ceasefire.

— Rebuilding is maybe going to be the easiest part. We know how to build better than anybody in the world.

During the two years that Gaza was bombed by Israeli missiles and tanks, between 60 and 80 percent of all buildings were damaged or destroyed. The enclave was previously home to over 2.1 million people.

The total number of affected buildings is estimated at over 170,000, including homes, businesses, hospitals and religious sites.

After the end of the war, over 500,000 Palestinians have returned to Gaza in recent days – only to find their homes and neighborhoods in ruins.

Peace researcher: Nobel Peace Prize gives Trump carte blanche in Venezuela

Published yesterday 17:23
– By Editorial Staff
Peace researcher Frida Stranne describes Maria Corina Machado as a divisive force who has supported sanctions that have cost Venezuelans their lives.
2 minute read

The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Venezuelan opposition politician Maria Corina Machado gives Donald Trump “something of a carte blanche” to overthrow Venezuela’s government, warns peace researcher Frida Stranne.

She is harsh in her criticism of the laureate, who has supported sanctions against her own people and advocated for foreign military interventions in violation of international law.

Frida Stranne, associate professor in Peace and Development Research at Halmstad University in Sweden, reacts strongly to this year’s peace prize and argues that the award to Machado is an example of how international institutions have fundamentally changed.

“The institutions we have built to protect freedom, democracy and human development have one by one become tools for forces whose purpose is to preserve an order where the strong can behave essentially however they want while others are expected to meekly fall in line. This year’s peace prize rewards exactly that”, she writes resignedly on Facebook.

She emphasizes that there are good reasons to wish for change in Venezuela but simultaneously stresses that the core of democracy is about different views on governance being able to coexist. Her main criticism is directed at how the prize risks legitimizing violent regime changes.

“If you are a true democrat and simultaneously support international legal principles, you can never accept an order where the US and its allies repeatedly take the right to violently replace regimes that somehow stand in the way of their system”.

She believes this year’s peace prize risks rewarding exactly that.

“No unifying force”

Stranne is also very critical of Machado herself and argues that the opposition politician has been more of a divisive force than a force for stability and peace in Venezuela.

She urges interested parties to research for themselves what the Nobel laureate stands for and what political contacts she has.

“The laureate is not some innocent dove or unifying political force”, she states.

The peace researcher points out that the politician has advocated strategies that violate international law and supported sanctions against her own people “which have cost both suffering and death”.

An American puppet?

Perhaps the strongest warning concerns what the prize could mean for the future. Stranne sees a direct connection to Donald Trump and American interests in the region.

“With the peace prize in one hand – she will not oppose an American ‘intervention’ for regime change – with the other hand”.

The peace researcher warns that the prize gives Trump “something of a carte blanche to replace (through direct military attacks or CIA-led covert operations) the sitting government” and that Machado will likely become his puppet going forward.

In her conclusion, Stranne is harshly critical of Western actions.

“The Western world seems to be doing everything to undermine itself and its principles. 2025 will be the year when we made ourselves completely irrelevant to the rest of the world”.

María Corina Machado, born in 1967, is an industrial engineer with a master's degree in economics and founder of the Venezuelan electoral monitoring organization Súmate. She led the opposition party Vente Venezuela and served as a member of Venezuela's National Assembly from 2011 to 2014 before being expelled by the government.

Politically, Machado is a liberal conservative who advocates for privatizing Venezuela's state-owned oil industry and free-market policies. She has maintained close ties with the United States since the Bush era and is supported by Republican politicians such as Marco Rubio. After receiving the Nobel Prize, she dedicated the award to Donald Trump.

Machado has openly called for foreign military intervention in Venezuela, supported US sanctions against the country, and participated in the 2002 coup attempt against democratically elected President Hugo Chávez. Critics describe her as an advocate for regime change through violent means.

Trump’s largest donor refused to answer the question: “Do you love the USA or Israel more?”

The Israel lobby

Published yesterday 9:58
– By Editorial Staff
President Donald Trump receives a menorah from Miriam and Sheldon Adelson at the Israeli American Council National Summit 2019.
2 minute read

During his speech in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on Monday, Donald Trump drew attention to his largest financial backer, Israeli-American casino magnate Miriam Adelson – and simultaneously revealed a sensitive question he had asked her.

— Look at her sitting there so innocently,” he said. “I’m going to get her in trouble with this — but I actually asked her once, ‘So Miriam: I know you love Israel. What do you love more, the United States or Israel?’ She refused to answer. That means that might be an issue, I must say, Trump said to muted laughter in the parliament.

Adelson, who was sitting in the gallery, received a standing ovation when Trump praised her support for Israel and noted that she had made “more trips to the White House than anybody else”.

The 80-year-old invested $106 million in her pro-Trump super PAC Preserve America ahead of the 2024 election. Together with her late husband Sheldon, the Adelson family has donated over $600 million to Trump’s three presidential campaigns and other Republican candidates since 2015.

After her husband’s death in 2021, Miriam took over majority control of Las Vegas Sands, which operates major casinos in Singapore and Macau. She also owns one of Israel’s most widely read newspapers, Israel Hayom, and the basketball team Dallas Mavericks. Her fortune is estimated at over $60 billion.

Committed Zionist

Born in Tel Aviv in 1945 to Jewish immigrants from Poland, Adelson trained as a physician before becoming one of the Republican Party’s most important financiers. As a committed Zionist, she has long used her economic influence to shape US policy toward Israel.

The Adelson family was instrumental in getting Trump to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and to recognize Israeli control over the Golan Heights, and Trump awarded Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018.

Her rhetoric hardened further after the attack on October 7, 2023.

“Foreign fans of Hamas are our enemies, the ideological enablers in the West of those who would go to any length to eradicate us from the Middle East. And, as such, they should be dead to us”, she wrote in her own newspaper.

At a campaign event in September, she urged Jewish voters to support Trump “in gratitude for everything he has done and trust in everything he will yet do”.

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