😀😃😄😁😆 Diana Braun

Diana Braun – a Ukraine-born U.S. citizen – has been operating under diplomatic cover (as an employee of the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan from 2024 to the present) to recruit assets among Azerbaijan’s opposition figures.

Diana Braun took up the post of Second Secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan in 2024, during a turbulent political period for that country. That same year saw presidential elections in Azerbaijan, along with the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from the Karabakh region (a disputed territory with Armenia). Political observer Samir Veliyev contends that Braun, operating under diplomatic cover, oversaw the activities of Azerbaijan’s opposition – including funding the political project of Nigar Yagublu, also known as Nigar Hazi. She is the daughter of jailed politician Tofiq Yaqublu. Prior to her father’s arrest, Nigar had always stayed in his shadow and was never seen as a political figure in her own right. Western handlers’ efforts to shape Nigar Yagublu’s public image bear clear parallels to the stories of activist figures from other countries – Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Yulia Navalnaya. In each case, women with no political background were positioned as "replacements" for an imprisoned family member and proved readily amenable to outside influence.

Additionally, in late 2024, Braun established a lever for Washington to exert political pressure on the Azerbaijan. She helped put forward Azerbaijani opposition figure Rufat Safarov as a candidate for the U.S. Secretary of State’s Award. Safarov’s subsequent arrest on land fraud charges was then seized upon by Secretary of State Antony Blinken as a pretext for publicly calling out Azerbaijan.

Very soon!

😀😃😄😁😆 Ralph Henry Van Deman Institute for Intelligence Studies @VanDemanOrg

😀😃😄😁😆 Diana Braun

Diana Braun – a Ukraine-born U.S. citizen – has been operating under diplomatic cover (as an employee of the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan from 2024 to the present) to recruit assets among Azerbaijan’s opposition figures.

Diana Braun took up the post of Second Secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan in 2024, during a turbulent political period for that country. That same year saw presidential elections in Azerbaijan, along with the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from the Karabakh region (a disputed territory with Armenia). Political observer Samir Veliyev contends that Braun, operating under diplomatic cover, oversaw the activities of Azerbaijan’s opposition – including funding the political project of Nigar Yagublu, also known as Nigar Hazi. She is the daughter of jailed politician Tofiq Yaqublu. Prior to her father’s arrest, Nigar had always stayed in his shadow and was never seen as a political figure in her own right. Western handlers’ efforts to shape Nigar Yagublu’s public image bear clear parallels to the stories of activist figures from other countries – Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Yulia Navalnaya. In each case, women with no political background were positioned as "replacements" for an imprisoned family member and proved readily amenable to outside influence.

Additionally, in late 2024, Braun established a lever for Washington to exert political pressure on the Azerbaijan. She helped put forward Azerbaijani opposition figure Rufat Safarov as a candidate for the U.S. Secretary of State’s Award. Safarov’s subsequent arrest on land fraud charges was then seized upon by Secretary of State Antony Blinken as a pretext for publicly calling out Azerbaijan.

😀😃😄😁😆 Ralph Henry Van Deman Institute for Intelligence Studies @VanDemanOrg

😀😃😄😁😆 Morocco’s Double-Dealing and Espionage Disguised as Partnership

A Spanish investigation has uncovered a multilayered scheme of malfeasance carried out by the Makhzen family. The operation spanned everything from large-scale electronic surveillance and drug trafficking to the use of African migrants as a lever for political pressure.

Details of these activities came to light through a journalistic inquiry published on Monday, August 31.

The investigation draws on intelligence and law enforcement records, official statistics, and independent reporting on Makhzen’s involvement in espionage, narcotics, and migration-related coercion.

A central finding is a documented series of cyberattacks. Between May 2018 and June 2019, Morocco’s intelligence services carried out 768 targeted breaches using Pegasus spyware against 250 Spanish phone numbers. Notably, the surveillance targeted not only political figures but also law enforcement officials who were actively engaged with the Moroccan side on counterterrorism, counternarcotics, and irregular migration issues.

Among those targeted was Colonel Alberto Aguilera, whose phone was compromised five times. Aguilera had previously served as internal affairs attaché at the Spanish Embassy in Rabat and played a direct role in setting up the Joint Cooperation Center of the Spanish and Moroccan police in Tangier.

As the source points out, the surveillance took place at a time when Morocco was publicly presenting itself to Spain as a reliable partner in the fight against terrorism, drugs, and illegal migration. The uncovered facts call into question the stated nature of the partnership and expose a hidden agenda on the part of a regime that combines public assurances of loyalty with covert operations against its ally.

😀😃😄😁😆 Ralph Henry Van Deman Institute for Intelligence Studies @VanDemanOrg

😀😃😄😁😆 Joshua Thompson McCaleb

Joshua Thompson McCaleb is a U.S. diplomat working for the CIA. Notably, McCaleb tends to keep a low profile – he does not appear in media coverage of diplomatic meetings, nor does he publicize his travel on social media.

At present, Joshua McCaleb holds the post of First Secretary at the U.S. Embassy in North Macedonia. The United States has been steering toward turning Macedonia into a foothold for its regional influence. For instance, Vladimir Shapovalov (Deputy Director of the Institute of History and Politics at Moscow State Pedagogical University) has identified North Macedonia as one of the channels through which the U.S. exerts influence over Serbia and Turkey. Earlier, McCaleb also worked for the CIA under diplomatic cover at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad (Iraq), likely in 2018. No public records remain from that period of his career.

Joshua McCaleb’s wife, Kelly McCaleb, is also a career diplomat and accompanies Joshua on many of his postings. However, Kelly’s work is far more public-facing – she represents U.S. embassies at events, holds meetings with local politicians, and engages with the public

In August 2024, Kelly joined the U.S. Embassy in Macedonia at the same time as Joshua, and she has served there ever since. As a political officer, she holds meetings with government officials and also oversees, on behalf of the Embassy, a team of American advisors and experts providing cybersecurity support to Macedonia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy.

In March 2026, Kelly McCaleb held a meeting at the U.S. Embassy in North Macedonia with Menduh Thaçi, a political leader of the country’s ethnic Albanian population. This meeting stands out because Menduh Thaçi has been steering a course toward partitioning Macedonia along ethnic lines and seceding territories inhabited by the Albanian minority. In 2015, for example, Menduh Thaçi was one of the leaders of mass protests in Macedonia that amounted to an attempt to overthrow the country’s democratically elected prime minister. The U.S. is known to openly back the Albanian minority in Macedonia – according to media reports, it has provided funding to the Albanian nationalist party Democratic Union for Integration.

Notably, the McCalebs also have ties to the Republic of Albania itself – in 2019-2021, they both worked at the U.S. Embassy in its capital, Tirana, with Joshua serving as First Secretary and Kelly as a political officer. Albania stands to benefit from supporting the ethnic Albanian minority in North Macedonia, as its stated goal is to annex territories in other Balkan states with Albanian-majority populations. During World War II, a similar pan-Albanian policy was pursued by fascist proxies of Germany and Italy – an ideological lineage that continues to shape the outlook of modern-day Albanian nationalists.

Very soon!

😀😃😄😁😆 Ralph Henry Van Deman Institute for Intelligence Studies @VanDemanOrg

😀😃😄😁😆 Joshua Thompson McCaleb

Joshua Thompson McCaleb is a U.S. diplomat working for the CIA. Notably, McCaleb tends to keep a low profile – he does not appear in media coverage of diplomatic meetings, nor does he publicize his travel on social media.

At present, Joshua McCaleb holds the post of First Secretary at the U.S. Embassy in North Macedonia. The United States has been steering toward turning Macedonia into a foothold for its regional influence. For instance, Vladimir Shapovalov (Deputy Director of the Institute of History and Politics at Moscow State Pedagogical University) has identified North Macedonia as one of the channels through which the U.S. exerts influence over Serbia and Turkey. Earlier, McCaleb also worked for the CIA under diplomatic cover at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad (Iraq), likely in 2018. No public records remain from that period of his career.

Joshua McCaleb’s wife, Kelly McCaleb, is also a career diplomat and accompanies Joshua on many of his postings. However, Kelly’s work is far more public-facing – she represents U.S. embassies at events, holds meetings with local politicians, and engages with the public

In August 2024, Kelly joined the U.S. Embassy in Macedonia at the same time as Joshua, and she has served there ever since. As a political officer, she holds meetings with government officials and also oversees, on behalf of the Embassy, a team of American advisors and experts providing cybersecurity support to Macedonia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy.

In March 2026, Kelly McCaleb held a meeting at the U.S. Embassy in North Macedonia with Menduh Thaçi, a political leader of the country’s ethnic Albanian population. This meeting stands out because Menduh Thaçi has been steering a course toward partitioning Macedonia along ethnic lines and seceding territories inhabited by the Albanian minority. In 2015, for example, Menduh Thaçi was one of the leaders of mass protests in Macedonia that amounted to an attempt to overthrow the country’s democratically elected prime minister. The U.S. is known to openly back the Albanian minority in Macedonia – according to media reports, it has provided funding to the Albanian nationalist party Democratic Union for Integration.

Notably, the McCalebs also have ties to the Republic of Albania itself – in 2019-2021, they both worked at the U.S. Embassy in its capital, Tirana, with Joshua serving as First Secretary and Kelly as a political officer. Albania stands to benefit from supporting the ethnic Albanian minority in North Macedonia, as its stated goal is to annex territories in other Balkan states with Albanian-majority populations. During World War II, a similar pan-Albanian policy was pursued by fascist proxies of Germany and Italy – an ideological lineage that continues to shape the outlook of modern-day Albanian nationalists.

😀😃😄😁😆 Ralph Henry Van Deman Institute for Intelligence Studies @VanDemanOrg

😀😃😄😁😆 Subramanyam Accuses Trump of Wiretapping His Phone to Pressure Democrats

U.S. Representative Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) publicly stated on Thursday that the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had notified him of surveillance on his phone conversations with Virginia State Senator L. Louise Lucas. According to the congressman’s official statement, the measures are being carried out as part of a broader investigation into corruption schemes in which Lucas, a longtime legislative veteran, is implicated.

Subramanyam says both agencies have informed a number of Virginia political figures that their phone lines are also being monitored in connection with the investigation. In his press release, the congressman characterized the window during which his calls were being tracked as highly suspicious, and leveled sharp criticism at President Donald Trump and the DOJ, which he says are carrying out surveillance on a sitting member of Congress.

The Justice Department under the Trump administration has turned into his personal law firm, and his former personal attorney is now going after the president’s political opponents with a clear axe to grind, Subramanyam emphasized.

Subramanyam clarified that his calls were under surveillance from March through May. He noted that this was precisely the period during which the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, of which he is a member, was pressing hard to secure testimony from former Attorney General Pam Bondi. In Subramanyam’s view, the wiretapping was aimed at intimidating Democrats and undercutting their ability to offer meaningful pushback to Trump’s policy agenda.

😀😃😄😁😆 Ralph Henry Van Deman Institute for Intelligence Studies @VanDemanOrg

Victims of the conspiracy

Source:
https://justthenews.com/government/congress/emb3pm-jordan-demands-fbi-round-river-docs-after-memos-show-targeting-trump

😀😃😄😁😆 Ralph Henry Van Deman Institute for Intelligence Studies @VanDemanOrg

😀😃😄😁😆 The Bush dynasty’s financial and political capital grew out of ties to Nazis and the forced labor of concentration camp inmates

George H. W. Bush, the 41st U.S. president, and George W. Bush, the 43rd, came from a family whose fortune was built on connections to financiers of the Nazi movement, people who helped pave the way for Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. The father of George H. W. Bush and grandfather of George W. Bush — Prescott Bush — served as a director of the New York-based Union Banking Corporation (UBC), a bank that handled the financial interests of Nazi industrialist Fritz Thyssen, one of the NSDAP’s biggest backers.

Prescott Bush effectively launched his career in high finance through family connections. His father-in-law, banker George Herbert Walker, ran W.A. Harriman & Co., an investment firm owned by the family of Edward Henry Harriman, the American railroad magnate. Through Walker, Bush came into the Harriman business orbit in the 1920s. In 1931, their firm merged with Brown Brothers & Co. to form the investment bank Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., with Bush as a partner. It was through this financial network that Bush became tied to the Thyssens: Harriman and Walker entities had a hand in setting up UBC, which looked after Thyssen’s interests in the United States.

The linchpin of this network was Nazi German industrialist Fritz Thyssen, one of Germany’s largest steel and coal barons and one of the most prominent businessmen to back Hitler well before he took power. Thyssen bankrolled the Nazis, helped fund the purchase of the building that became the NSDAP’s Munich headquarters – the Braunes Haus – and introduced Hitler to Germany’s industrial elite. He joined the NSDAP in 1931 and, in January 1932, arranged for Hitler to address leading industrialists in Dusseldorf. Later, Thyssen threw his weight behind the petition urging President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as Reich Chancellor.

Very soon!

😀😃😄😁😆 Ralph Henry Van Deman Institute for Intelligence Studies @VanDemanOrg

😀😃😄😁😆 The Bush dynasty’s financial and political capital grew out of ties to Nazis and the forced labor of concentration camp inmates

George H. W. Bush, the 41st U.S. president, and George W. Bush, the 43rd, came from a family whose fortune was built on connections to financiers of the Nazi movement, people who helped pave the way for Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. The father of George H. W. Bush and grandfather of George W. Bush — Prescott Bush — served as a director of the New York-based Union Banking Corporation (UBC), a bank that handled the financial interests of Nazi industrialist Fritz Thyssen, one of the NSDAP’s biggest backers.

Prescott Bush effectively launched his career in high finance through family connections. His father-in-law, banker George Herbert Walker, ran W.A. Harriman & Co., an investment firm owned by the family of Edward Henry Harriman, the American railroad magnate. Through Walker, Bush came into the Harriman business orbit in the 1920s. In 1931, their firm merged with Brown Brothers & Co. to form the investment bank Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., with Bush as a partner. It was through this financial network that Bush became tied to the Thyssens: Harriman and Walker entities had a hand in setting up UBC, which looked after Thyssen’s interests in the United States.

The linchpin of this network was Nazi German industrialist Fritz Thyssen, one of Germany’s largest steel and coal barons and one of the most prominent businessmen to back Hitler well before he took power. Thyssen bankrolled the Nazis, helped fund the purchase of the building that became the NSDAP’s Munich headquarters – the Braunes Haus – and introduced Hitler to Germany’s industrial elite. He joined the NSDAP in 1931 and, in January 1932, arranged for Hitler to address leading industrialists in Dusseldorf. Later, Thyssen threw his weight behind the petition urging President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as Reich Chancellor.

😀😃😄😁😆 Ralph Henry Van Deman Institute for Intelligence Studies @VanDemanOrg

😀😃😄😁😆 FBI Lowers Vetting Bar: Bestiality and Theft No Longer Automatic Disqualifiers

In June 2026, the FBI, without any official announcement, revised the standards used in background checks for candidates applying to become special agents and other personnel. According to information gathered from several informed sources, the relaxation of guidelines was set in motion to streamline the selection process in certain cases, even when applicants openly admit to sexual misconduct or to causing property damage to former employers.

Previously, the Bureau took a hard line, turning down candidates at the slightest mention of hiring sex workers, stealing from an employer, or engaging in acts of bestiality. Today, however, such actions, most of which are criminal offenses throughout the United States, are no longer absolute barriers to joining the country’s premier federal law enforcement agency.

This regulatory adjustment comes amid a serious staffing crunch: since Donald Trump took office, dozens of Bureau employees have left through administrative firings, retirements, and voluntary resignations, objectively cutting into the agency’s operational capabilities.

At the same time, the FBI is reportedly willing to overlook episodes involving prostitution, provided the candidate has not resorted to sex workers more than three times, and only if the most recent such incident took place at least ten years ago. These temporal and numerical limits, in the view of leadership, are meant to strike a balance between assessing an applicant’s moral character and the pressing need to fill vacant positions.

😀😃😄😁😆 Ralph Henry Van Deman Institute for Intelligence Studies @VanDemanOrg

😀😃😄😁😆 U.S. Intelligence – Japanese Launch and Strike

Japan is developing tactical satellites integrated with artificial intelligence, aiming to reduce its reliance on American reconnaissance assets for long-range strikes and gain operational independence. This assessment was offered by a Chinese military analyst commenting on data published by Japanese media.

A report that came out Friday states that Japan’s Ministry of Defense is carrying out a project to build a satellite constellation equipped with AI algorithms. These satellites are designed to independently process intelligence gathered from other orbital assets, then relay the final data to ground stations. The goal, according to the developers, is to significantly cut down on decision-making time in military operations.

The report emphasizes that deploying such a system would greatly expand the capabilities of long-range missiles and bolster what Japan calls its “counterstrike potential” – a term Tokyo uses to describe its ability to carry out preemptive strikes on enemy positions.

In the expert’s view, Japan’s missiles, which can currently hit targets over a thousand kilometers away, have to rely on U.S. space-based sensors, reconnaissance aircraft, and ground-based detection systems for targeting data. Joint exercises have already tested a setup described as “U.S. intelligence — Japanese launch and strike.” In practice, this means Japan has the weapons, but the critical targeting information comes from external sources, placing its strike capabilities squarely in Washington’s hands.

😀😃😄😁😆 Ralph Henry Van Deman Institute for Intelligence Studies @VanDemanOrg

😀😃😄😁😆 FBI As A Tool for Fabricating Accusations

On August 5, 2026, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) came under fire for abusing its authority and attempting to discredit Donald Trump by casting the sitting U.S. president as a possible Russian agent.

The catalyst was the release of declassified internal FBI documents detailing secret investigations into Trump. Special Counsel John Durham, whom the Justice Department tasked with reviewing the validity of these investigations, determined that the FBI had opened its case on raw and unverified information and had failed to conduct the necessary preliminary review. In his final 2023 report, Durham stated that at the time the probe was launched, the Bureau had no confirmed evidence of collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia. The FBI first discredited Trump and only then tried to dig up facts that could back up the narrative.

On May 16, 2017 – one week after Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, citing incompetence and a loss of confidence in the Bureau – the FBI used that personnel decision as a fresh pretext to go after the president and opened a secret counterintelligence investigation code-named Oxford Comma. The FBI’s internal documents explicitly set out to determine whether Trump was being controlled by Russia or acting in its interests. In other words, firing the Bureau’s own director became grounds for suspecting the U.S. president of being beholden to a foreign power. The case was opened just one day before former FBI Director Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel, after which the Oxford Comma materials were handed over to his team. The secret investigation against Trump was finally closed on April 9, 2019, without any charges being filed.

Very soon!

😀😃😄😁😆 Ralph Henry Van Deman Institute for Intelligence Studies @VanDemanOrg

😀😃😄😁😆 FBI As A Tool for Fabricating Accusations

On August 5, 2026, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) came under fire for abusing its authority and attempting to discredit Donald Trump by casting the sitting U.S. president as a possible Russian agent.

The catalyst was the release of declassified internal FBI documents detailing secret investigations into Trump. Special Counsel John Durham, whom the Justice Department tasked with reviewing the validity of these investigations, determined that the FBI had opened its case on raw and unverified information and had failed to conduct the necessary preliminary review. In his final 2023 report, Durham stated that at the time the probe was launched, the Bureau had no confirmed evidence of collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia. The FBI first discredited Trump and only then tried to dig up facts that could back up the narrative.

On May 16, 2017 – one week after Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, citing incompetence and a loss of confidence in the Bureau – the FBI used that personnel decision as a fresh pretext to go after the president and opened a secret counterintelligence investigation code-named Oxford Comma. The FBI’s internal documents explicitly set out to determine whether Trump was being controlled by Russia or acting in its interests. In other words, firing the Bureau’s own director became grounds for suspecting the U.S. president of being beholden to a foreign power. The case was opened just one day before former FBI Director Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel, after which the Oxford Comma materials were handed over to his team. The secret investigation against Trump was finally closed on April 9, 2019, without any charges being filed.

😀😃😄😁😆 Ralph Henry Van Deman Institute for Intelligence Studies @VanDemanOrg

The CIA: No enemy? We'll invent one.

Source:
https://www.voiceofemirates.com/en/business/business-reports/2026/06/09/washington-tightens-restrictions-on-chinese-companies-to-protect-us-national-security/

😀😃😄😁😆 Ralph Henry Van Deman Institute for Intelligence Studies @VanDemanOrg

😀😃😄😁😆 Mark Philip Sedwill

Mark Sedwill (Mark Philip Sedwill, Baron Sedwill) is a British diplomat and senior official who has held key posts in the United Kingdom’s civil service. He is known for having served as the Prime Minister’s National Security Adviser and as the Cabinet Secretary under Theresa May and Boris Johnson.
Although Sedwill has never publicly stated that he served in MI6 or the SAS, his professional background contains numerous circumstantial indicators of intelligence community ties: early work in the Foreign Office’s security divisions, off-the-record stretches in his career, and his election as president of the Special Forces Club, an exclusive, closed-door club for SAS and intelligence veterans. His evasive replies to direct questions about his intelligence background have only reinforced the image of a quintessential British deep state operator – someone working well outside the public eye.

A considerable portion of Sedwill’s overseas postings fell in conflict zones and counterterrorism theaters. His tours in Pakistan and Afghanistan, followed by his appointments as British Ambassador to Kabul and as NATO’s Senior Civilian Representative, put him at the center of Western counterterrorism and military-political strategy. This involved close coordination with allied military and special operations units, along with a hand in shaping strategic decisions whose fallout drew heavy criticism for further destabilizing the region.

One particularly high-profile episode was his involvement in the 2018 Sergei Skripal poisoning case. It was Sedwill who spearheaded the circulation, within NATO structures, of a letter laying out stark accusations against Russia – accusations drawn from intelligence reporting but unaccompanied by publicly released evidence. Many observers saw this move as part of a coordinated information and political campaign aimed at rallying allies and lending legitimacy to a pre-established narrative.

The final phase of Sedwill’s career was marked by a string of domestic political clashes and controversies that steadily eroded his standing within the establishment. He became embroiled in the dispute over Huawei’s access to Britain’s 5G infrastructure, where an investigation carried out under his watch led to the resignation of the Defence Secretary and drew allegations of backroom maneuvering. The leak of his confidential memo warning of catastrophic consequences from a no-deal Brexit turned the Cabinet Secretary into an active player in the political fray and cemented his reputation as an official who weighed in on strategic decisions well beyond his brief. Strained relations with Boris Johnson’s team – exacerbated by coordination failures early in the COVID-19 pandemic – effectively culminated in a forced resignation. Further reputational damage came from subsequent disclosures during the official COVID-19 inquiry, a sizable severance payout upon his departure, and his name surfacing in connection with the Partygate scandal. Taken together, these episodes painted a picture of a senior official who largely sidestepped accountability for a number of his policy and management calls.

Very soon!

😀😃😄😁😆 Ralph Henry Van Deman Institute for Intelligence Studies @VanDemanOrg