A US Air Force intelligence specialist has been charged with espionage for allegedly defecting to Iran and revealing sensitive information to Iranian authorities, the Unites States claims.

Tehran has not made any comments about allegations posited in a Wednesday indictment of Monica Elfriede Witt.

She was “indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia for conspiracy to deliver and delivering national defense information to representatives of the Iranian government,” read the indictment. 

“Monica Witt is charged with revealing to the Iranian regime a highly classified intelligence program and the identity of a US Intelligence Officer, all in violation of the law, her solemn oath to protect and defend our country, and the bounds of human decency,” claimed US Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers. View image on Twitter

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Monica Elfriede Witt is #wanted by the #FBI for her alleged involvement in criminal activities to include espionage & conspiracy to commit espionage. If you have info concerning Witt, contact your local FBI office or the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate. http://ow.ly/Frxd50lk1ZV 1,2094:42 PM – Feb 13, 20191,470 people are talking about thisTwitter Ads info and privacy

‘Dangers to US intel. professionals’

Four Iranians were also mentioned in the indictment, charged with what was claimed to be “various computer crimes targeting members of the US intelligence community who were Ms. Witt’s former colleagues.”

“This case underscores the dangers to our intelligence professionals and the lengths our adversaries will go to identify them, expose them, target them, and, in a few rare cases, ultimately turn them against the nation they swore to protect.  When our intelligence professionals are targeted or betrayed, the National Security Division will relentlessly pursue justice against the wrong-doers,” Demers claimed.

Executive Assistant Director for National Security Jay Tabb also claimed that the discovery of Witt’s alleged defection took “years of investigative work.”

“The charges unsealed today are the result of years of investigative work by the FBI to uncover Monica Witt’s betrayal of the oath she swore to safeguard America’s intelligence and defense secrets” Tabb claimed. “This case also highlights the FBI’s commitment to disrupting those who engage in malicious cyber activity to undermine our country’s national security. The FBI is grateful to the Department of Treasury and the United States Air Force for their continued partnership and assistance in this case.”

Ever since President Donald Trump appeared in office, the US has been stepping up its anti-Iran policies and propaganda.

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U.S. President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort breached his plea agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office by lying to prosecutors about matters which are material to its Russia probe, a judge ruled on Wednesday.

The ruling concludes weeks of wrangling between Manafort’s lawyers and the special counsel over whether he had intentionally lied to prosecutors, impeding their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is overseeing the Manafort case in a Washington court, found there was a “preponderance” of evidence that Manafort lied on three different topics, including his communications with his former business partner Konstantin Kilimnik, whom prosecutors say has ties to Russian intelligence.

Kilimnik has denied such ties.

Jackson cleared Manafort of allegations that he intentionally lied on two other subjects – Kilimnik’s role in an obstruction of justice charge and statements Manafort made about his contacts with members of the Trump administration.

Nevertheless, the ruling will almost certainly dash Manafort’s hopes of avoiding significant time in prison, as Mueller’s prosecutors are now released from their obligation to support a lighter sentence. Sentencing experts have said Manafort, 69, could face a decade in prison.

Michael Zeldin, a former federal prosecutor, said one possible reason Manafort chose to lie was because he was hoping for a presidential pardon — echoing speculation raised by one of Mueller’s prosecutors at a court hearing last week.

“Why he lied is a great mystery unless he is covering up something of significance,” Zeldin said. “Unless he is pardoned he is going to spend the rest of his life in prison.”

The heart of the matter

The judge found that Manafort lied about his interactions with Kilimnik including about the sharing of polling data on the Trump campaign and their discussions over a “Ukrainian peace plan,” a proposal that envisioned ending U.S. sanctions on Russia – long an important objective of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government.

A court transcript released last week showed that Mueller’s team believed those lies to be “at the heart” of their investigation into potential collusion, which Trump and Russia have both denied.

In a court filing ahead of Wednesday’s ruling, Manafort’s lawyers repeated their argument that their client never intentionally lied to prosecutors and stressed that he corrected any mistakes once they were pointed out to him.

Manafort struck the deal with Mueller in September when he pleaded guilty in Jackson’s court to conspiracy against the United States, a charge that includes a range of conduct from money laundering to failing to register as a lobbyist for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, as well as conspiracy to obstruct justice for his attempts to tamper with witnesses in his case.

Manafort also faces sentencing in a separate case in Virginia where a jury in August convicted him of financial crimes including failing to pay taxes on some $16 million he pocketed for his political work in Ukraine.

Manafort lawyers have said he is suffering from depression, anxiety and gout while in detention awaiting sentencing.

Given his age and health issues. Manafort had been in a position to receive some leniency prior to Jackson’s ruling, said sentencing expert Mark Allenbaugh. “That is gone now,” he said. “Manafort will serve a minimum of 10 years’ imprisonment, maybe more, for both cases.”

(REUTERS)

In a renewed attack, Cameroonian government forces struck the Anglophone village of Ossing in Manyu division in the early hours of Sunday, 10th October, killing and maiming scores of civilians with many displaced. This fresh attack follows Thursday Massacre in Besongabang, another Anglophone village in what is now infamously known as the Anglophone Crisis. The conflict in the Southern region of Cameroon is part of the long-standing Anglophone problem.

During the World War 1, allied forces captured “Kamerun”, as it was then known, from Germany. With the help of the League of Nations, the territory was divided between the British and the French, with a large chunk of the territory becoming French Cameroon. The remaining strip bordering Nigeria was christened British Cameroon. By this time, the British Cameroon which had been split into a northern and Southern administrative units, was governed from Nigeria, even though it was not seen as being a part of Nigeria. In 1960, the independence granted Francophone Cameroon and Nigeria, enabled the United Nations to organize a referendum. This allowed  anglophone Cameroonians to decide whether to merge with Nigeria or Cameroon.

As it turned out, independence which was viewed as the most sexy option was not considered in the referendum and so, Northern Cameroons joined Nigeria, while Southern Cameroons opted for reunification with Cameroon. In the wake of its emergence, the constitution of the newly created  Federal Republic of Cameroon ensured adequate recognition for the Anglophone region. This suddenly changed in 1966 when the then President Ahmadou proscribed all existing political parties of the time other than the ruling Cameroonian National Union. 6 years later, the government’s federal structure with a unitary system was replaced with a new constitution through a national referendum, that did not tally with a 1961 accord that “proposals for revision [of the constitution] shall be adopted by simple majority vote of the members of the Federal Assembly, provided that such majority includes a majority of the representatives…of each of the Federated States.”

Two years after he took over power in 1984, President Paul Biya felt more comfortable identifying with the name of the country prior to the 1961 unification, and so renamed the nation the Republic of Cameroon. He goes further to  alter the national flag from a two-star design, which had signified the union of the anglophone and francophone regions, to that of a single star. Biya’s slur to the anglophone region sparked a decline in relations with the central government.

In disagreement,  Fon Gorji Dinka, an astute anglophone lawyer and the first president of the  Cameroon Bar Association, condemned the government’s actions as illegitimate and called for an independent anglophone entity known as the Republic of Ambazonia. This is the battle that is still being fought to this day. This festering conflict represents a major test as Cameroon’s future. In the meantime,  roughly 20% of the country’s population of 24.6 million people are Anglophone while the  majority are Francophone.

The unfair domination of French-speaking politicians in government has long been the source of conflict. Activists in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions are protesting their forced assimilation into the dominant Francophone society, arguing that the process violates their minority rights, which are protected under agreements that date back to the 1960s. Anglophone political representation and involvement at many levels of society has dwindled since the Federal Republic of Cameroon became the United Republic of Cameroon in 1972. This has now led to the growing calls for the Anglophone region to secede from Cameroon.

In his response to the renewed violence in the Anglophone region, NJ Ayuk, an indigene of Anglophone Cameroon and founder of Africa Now Foundation, a charity organization, wants the violence to stop: “. There must be a peaceful solution out of this mess”, he says. “You can’t talk peace with guns”. The leading energy lawyer and CEO of Centurion Law Group, whose family home got burnt in the Sunday’s attack, argues that ” Setting houses ablaze does not bring a solution. I have been blessed and lucky. I am more worried about those who got it worse by this senseless violence. What is troubling is the many people that are being radicalized by the violence. My family can lost property but so many have lost their lives and many are refugees”. “Both sides of this struggle have to seek dialogue. Violence will get our society no where. You only hate those you fear. Politicians can’t claim to love their citizens and then burn their houses at the same time.We are heading towards a point of no return and I have not seen a level of tribalism and ethnic hatred as now and it will take more than words and burnt houses to fix this. It’s real and we must all live up to our responsibility to find peace through dialogue. We are losing a lot of young people. I am saddened by the failure of leaders to find common ground. Violence will not get us anything”.

Although both the Anglophone and Francophone regions have been accused of war crimes and refuse to talk to each other. Separatists have since lost confidence in the government after it violated previous agreements. President Paul Biya said that his “government is open to dialogue only as far as the unity and diversity of our country are not questioned.” This seems particularly tone deaf given the Yaoundé regime’s history of undermining the country’s “unity and diversity.”

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US President Donald Trump “may not even be a free person” by 2020, when he is expected to run for a second term, says Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren.

The Massachusetts lawmaker, who is running for the 2020 race, made the comment during a campaign event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Sunday.

“Every day there is a racist tweet, a hateful tweet — something really dark and ugly,” Warren said in the key state. “What are we as candidates, as activists, as the press going to do about it? We’re going to chase after those everyday?”

She further suggested that the ongoing investigations into Trump’s ties with Russia could strip him of his presidency and freedom.

“Here’s what bothers me. By the time we get to 2020, Donald Trump may not even be president. In fact, he may not even be a free person.”

Warren had called Trump a product of a “rigged system that props up the rich and the powerful and kicks dirt on everyone else” during her kickoff speech in Lawrence, Massachusetts Saturday.;

“Today Elizabeth Warren, sometimes referred to by me as Pocahontas, joined the race for President,” Trump tweeted in response. “Will she run as our first Native American presidential candidate, or has she decided that after 32 years, this is not playing so well anymore?”

The Trump campaign is in part accused of collusion with the Kremlin to find damaging information on his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

Russia has denied meddling in the election as well as being in possession of any damaging information on the US president.

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A senior Cameroon government official has said Cameroon is a ticking time bomb. The official, who has elected anonymity, holds that with the chaos taking place in the country, it is clear that if things are not properly managed, the country might derail into a full-blown chaos.

The senior official who spoke to the Cameroon Concord News Group Chairman over the phone was referring to the running battles between hawkers and policemen in Yaounde on Friday, February 8, 2019, which resulted from a bad decision by a police officer who molested a hawker in the Yaounde Central Market, the country’s largest market. The other hawkers quickly jumped into the fray to support their colleague and this developed into a huge stand-off between the hawkers and government security forces.

“Cameroon is a ticking time bomb and if care is not taken, it might go off and the consequences might be far-reaching. This country is gradually drifting into chaos. There are demonstrations every day in the country and the government appears to be unable to put a handle on the issues. We are all living in fear. Even senior government officials are wary of the path the country is taking. We hope things could be brought under control to spare the country the type of chaos we see in other countries,” he said.

“The Anglophone crisis seems to have opened the floodgates for demonstrations and chaos. Even Francophones are now courageous to challenge their own authorities. Anglophones might have lost so many lives, but their determination and selflessness has taught Francophones that they must stand up for themselves. The government has to be very careful the way it handles some of these issues. The country is a tinder box and any little thing can trigger a huge fire,” he stressed.

“Things have gotten worse since the last presidential election whose results Professor Maurice Kamto is protesting. His determination to reclaim his victory is causing some government officials to lose sleep. Many of them have already sent their children out of the country. They are scared of any reprisals in the event of a regime change. They know they have not handled things properly and the use of brute force has not helped matters, especially in the North West and South West regions. We are all living in fear. If I were still young, I would have migrated to another country just to escape the disaster that is hanging over our country like the Sword of Damocles,” he said.

“President Biya is out of steam. Those around him are manipulating him. They are mostly people related to his wife and they are simply implementing Chantal Biya’s agenda. Our country is in for real trouble and the days ahead are not promising. We need divine intervention. Our country is bleeding. The country is losing its young human resources in a war that was declared out of arrogance. Besides, the war itself is consuming lots of resources. The Anglophone regions have been contributing much to the country’s GDP, but with the fighting getting more violent by the day, the country is being robbed of those resources that could help make life better for all Cameroonians. The lock-down is already biting the government and I hear there will be a more rigorous lock-down after February 14. This will trigger more problems and many more souls will be lost,” he regretted.

The economic chaos resulting from the war has hit the country like a ton of bricks and it will take Cameroon a long time to recover from the mess it has created for itself. The country is cash-strapped and some of its allies have bad news for the government. The Anglophone problem has now become a millstone around the government’s neck. The people are sick and tired of a government that has nothing to show for its long stay in power. Its ailing and senile leaders hold that only violence can address all the issues facing the country. They are mistaken. Times have changed and approaches must also change if peace has to prevail.

The failure to embrace new ways is ruining many things and enabling nepotism and tribalism to rear their ugly heads. The country is clearly dealing with many crises. The arrest and detention of Professor Maurice Kamto, the clear winner of last year’s presidential election, has opened a new front in the battle to oust the crime syndicate that has been ruling the country for more than five decades.

But it is the Southern Cameroons crisis that is finally robbing the Yaounde government of its sleep. For more than two years, the Yaounde government has been ignoring calls for an inclusive dialogue as a major step towards addressing the political and military crisis that has put the country in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. For three years now, the country’s two English-speaking regions have been the theater of a bloody conflict that has already consumed more than five thousand lives, including some 2,000 army soldiers. The number of those injured is in the thousands too and there is no end in sight.

Government forces are the primary suspect of the violence that has made life unbearable in the two English-speaking regions of the country, as they have the nasty habit of shooting at any and everything, especially when some of their colleagues have fallen in combat.

While the Yaounde government thinks it can ignore every call, the Americans have been figuring out how to bring the corrupt government in Yaounde to order. Americans just like their Canadian and British allies have kept urging the country’s president, Paul Biya, and his government to do the right thing for the sake of peace and stability in the Central African nation which, for many decades, was considered by many in the world as an oasis of peace in a desert of chaos.

But the refusal of the ailing and senile Cameroon president to listen to the world has been upsetting many in the international community, especially the United States government which has been extending military and financial help to the cash-strapped dictator in Yaounde. The government’s refusal has prompted the US government to cut millions of dollars in security and military aid to Cameroon amid growing concerns over the Cameroonian government’s dismal human rights record.

According to a US official who spoke to CNN, the US intends to “terminate” over USD17 million in security aid, including funds for radars, four defender-class patrol boats, nine armored vehicles, training programs for C-130 airplanes and helicopters and the withdrawal of an offer for Cameroon to be a candidate for the State Partnership Program.

A planned US funded upgrade to a Cessna aircraft belonging to Cameroon’s elite Rapid Intervention Battalion has also been terminated. The battalion, which has been previously advised by US troops, has been accused of engaging in human rights abuses. Some of the security assistance money had been put on hold by Congress due to those concerns.

Last May, the US Ambassador to Cameroon, Peter Henry Barlerin, gave a speech that accused pro-government Cameroonian security forces of conducting “targeted killings, detentions without access to legal support, family, or the Red Cross, and burning and looting of villages.”

The US government has continued to urge the Cameroonian government to take all credible allegations of gross violations of human rights seriously, investigate those allegations thoroughly, hold accountable the perpetrators of such abuses, and disclose the outcome of the investigations to the people of Cameroon, these calls have falling on deaf ears because the Yaounde dictators holds that only a military solution can bring peace to the troubled country.

“We have informed the Cameroonian government that lack of progress and clarity about actions undertaken by the government in response to credible allegations of gross violations of human rights could result in a broader suspension of US assistance,” the State Department official said, adding that the US has “been assured by the government of Cameroon at the highest levels that US security assistance will not be diverted from other than its intended purpose.”

Another State Department official emphasized that “it is in Cameroon’s interest to show greater transparency in investigating credible allegations of gross violations of human rights abuses by security forces, particularly in the Northwest, Southwest, and Far North Regions.”

“The successes of the Cameroonian military — in part as a result of our training and equipment — have yielded long term and sustainable increases in Cameroon’s ability to defend its territory, its borders, and come to the aid of its neighbors, in particular northeast Nigeria and the Central African Republic,” the official said, adding that they “recognize the great cooperation we have had in the fight against Boko Haram and in restoring maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea.”

“For the time being, other programs will continue. We do not take these measures lightly, but we will not shirk from reducing assistance further if evolving conditions require it,” they said. One US official said those programs include education programs for Cameroonian officers focused on professionalization and peacekeeping as well as continuing to support “select counterterrorism and maritime security programs that have been evaluated to have low risk of diversion to the Anglophone region.”

It should be stated that the Pentagon has already withdrawn an offer for Cameroon to participate in its State Partnership Program, a “security cooperation program” that teams US state National Guards with host nation militaries. Originally the Defense Department had intended Cameroon to partner with the Nebraska National Guard. The US has 14 such partnerships with African countries, including Cameroon’s neighbor Nigeria.

The State Department is also seeking to have an additional USD 10 million that was placed on hold released to fund the sustainment of certain military equipment already in Cameroon’s possession such as Cessna airplanes, mud boats for patrolling Lake Chad, and Scan Eagle Drones.

The US has had hundreds of troops in Cameroon tasked with training, advising and assisting local forces in their fight against ISIS West Africa, Boko Haram and other violent extremist organizations in the Lake Chad Basin region.

US Africa Command launched an investigation last August to determine if US personnel were aware of allegations of torture of suspected terrorists being carried out by US-trained Cameroonian troops from the Rapid Intervention Battalion at a base that was also frequently used by US military advisers.

The results of that investigation were not made public, but a US defense official told CNN that the investigation “found that US military forces in Cameroon were not involved in or aware of human rights violations committed by Cameroonian forces.”

However, the official said the Defense Department and State Department “will assess the validity” of claims by Amnesty International that Cameroonian forces engaged in torture in a “separate investigation.”

Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, the commander of US Africa Command, is scheduled to testify Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Trump administration recently decided to cut the number of US troops in Africa engaged in counterterrorism with the bulk of those reductions expected to take place in West Africa.

Meanwhile, another State Department officer who spoke on condition of anonymity to the Cameroon Concord News Group’s chairman over the phone said that with the events unfolding in Cameroon, it is clear that the Biya regime now belongs to the past. The government is anti-democracy. It is jailing and killing opponents who hold political views that are not in line with its own.

“The US stands for democracy and we will not support a regime that is killing its own people. We grant millions in aid to the government and we support many programs in Yaounde to further democracy in Cameroon, but the government’s behavior in recent years has proven that it is not willing to be part of the democratic world and we think it clearly belong to the past. If Mr. Biya and his government do not take appropriate measures to be in line with 21st Century governance principles, the US and its allies will ensure that the government pays for the violations it has been accused of,” the official said.

“If the reduction in military aid does not bite as planned, our administration will resort to other methods and this will include, but not limited to freezing the assets of senior government officials and refusing them and their children visas. We will be working with our allies to make sure Mr. Biya ends the violations taking place in Cameroon,” the official concluded.

It is clear that these measures will hit the Yaounde government like a ton of bricks, especially as rights groups are working hard to ensure the country’s president acts in accordance with international human rights law.

Amnesty International, a global human rights group, has already called on the US to press other donors to cut assistance to Cameroon. In response to reports that the US government has decided to cut security and military aid to Cameroon amid concerns over its human rights record, Adotei Akwei, deputy director for advocacy and government relations for Amnesty International USA said there was evidence Cameroon security forces had been involved in human rights violations.

“Cameroonian security forces have indiscriminately killed, arrested, and tortured people, firing on crowds, displacing thousands of civilians, and destroying entire villages with impunity. These abuses continue, following the presidential elections that took place in October that returned 36-year-incumbent Paul Biya to power.

“The United States must continue to show that it takes human rights violations committed with its aid seriously, through the suspension of all security assistance until the Cameroonian government can show it has not been utilized to commit serious violations of international law and persons responsible have been held accountable. The Trump administration should press other donors of security assistance to review their programs and insist on accountability and reform within the Cameroonian security forces”.

In June 2017, Amnesty International issued a report on torture in Cameron entitled Cameroon’s Secret Torture Chambers: Human Rights Violations and War Crimes in the Fight Against Boko Haram. In June 2018, the organization released a report detailing abuses in Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis, ‘A turn for the worse: Violence and human rights violations in Anglophone Cameroon’. The report was based on in-depth interviews with over 150 victims and eye-witnesses, and material evidence including satellite images.

By Kingsley Betek in Yaounde and Irene Nayongo in North America