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Max Blumenthal·February 10, 2026

A US-funded opposition journalist revealed the Trump DOJ has crafted a secret indictment of Venezuela’s Acting President to “hold it over her head,” and will execute it if she “derails.”

The Trump administration is using a secret indictment to assert leverage over Venezuela’s Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, according to the editor-in-chief of the US government-funded outlet, Armando.info.

“One of the information we manage is that the US is holding an indictment against [Rodriguez] to make it public, just in case she derails,” Valentina Lares Martiz revealed during a February 6, 2026 webinar hosted by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an outlet also sponsored by the US government.

“Just to hold it over her head?” asked OCCRP deputy editor Julia Wallace.

“Yeah, so, I think she, she and her brother [Jorge Rodríguez], they are in this survival mode, and they will have the capacity to move the pieces, as long as the US backs her up,” Armando.info’s Lares Martiz affirmed.

A January 17, 2026 report by the Associated Press revealed that the Drug Enforcement Administration classified Acting president Rodríguez as a “priority target” almost as soon as she was appointed as Vice President in 2018.

David Smilde, an academic who crusades for regime change in Venezuela at the US government and ExxonMobil-funded Atlantic Council, described the DEA investigation of Rodríguez as “logical.” Smilde explained to the AP that the investigation “gives the U.S. government leverage over her. She may fear that if she does not do as the Trump administration demands, she could end up with an indictment like Maduro.”

During the OCCRP webinar, Steven Dudley of the State Department-funded Insight Crime outlet remarked that “this isn’t without precedent, in terms of [the US government] hanging an indictment over somebody to cajole them into doing their bidding.”

Dudley added, “They don’t need an indictment to cajole people. They have a giant military, and they’ve shown that they’re willing to use that military. That is the biggest stick.”

Confronting “a military aggression unprecedented in our history”

Delcy Rodríguez stepped in as Acting President following a deadly US military raid on Caracas this January 3 which left over 100 dead, including 32 Cuban military officers, and resulted in the kidnapping of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. In an interview with The Atlantic the following day, US President Donald Trump recognized Rodríguez as the new leader, but warned, “if she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.”

Since then, Rodríguez has presided over the passage of an Organic Law on Hydrocarbons which rolled back the socialist reforms the late President Hugo Chavez made to the country’s state oil company, PDVSA. In a January 16 speech to Venezuela’s National Council of Economic Productivity, Rodríguez explained the impetus for the new law:

“Enough time has passed, and Venezuela has been subjected to an unprecedented economic blockade. Well, recently, there has been a military aggression unprecedented in our history, and Venezuela must move forward…without compromising historical principles or compromising Venezuelan dignity. And in that direction, we have made the decision, seeing the successful results of the business models contemplated in the organic anti-blockade law, to take the models that are there and incorporate them into the Organic Law on Hydrocarbons.”

While the law allows Venezuela to draw new revenue streams from an oil sector that has withstood years of punishing sanctions, the Trump administration has assumed custody of Venezuela’s oil revenue at the point of a gun, holding the profits in a private account in Qatar which is not accountable to Congress.

Rodríguez and her older brother, Jorge, have both served in influential roles under Maduro, with Delcy Rodriguez operating as Vice President while overseeing hydrocarbon policy. In 2018, she initiated a project to survive Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy, successfully guiding an Organic Anti-Blockade law through the Constituent Assembly which reformed PDVSA. Since Maduro’s abduction, the Rodríguez siblings have been under mounting pressure to accommodate onerous demands from Washington in order to prevent a destabilizing process of regime change. Looming behind every move is the memory of their father, Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, a leftist militant who was tortured to death in prison by CIA-trained interrogators under a pro-US government in 1976.

In the past, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has used sealed indictments to deny targets of its global lawfare regime the chance to pre-empt investigations. As The Grayzone revealed, Trump’s DOJ secretly indicted Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange on December 21, 2017, just one day after CIA spies learned that Assange was planning to leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he had been given sanctuary. On April 11, 2019, British police stormed the embassy on US orders and arrested Assange in a blatant violation of diplomatic sovereignty.

Colombian-born Venezuelan official Alex Saab was also the target of a secret US indictment that was only publicized after he was abducted from an airport in Cape Verde while on an official diplomatic mission in 2020.

During the OCCRP webinar, Armando.info’s Lares Martiz noted that the US slapped sanctions on Delcy Rodríguez in 2017, however, “she doesn’t have an open and formal investigation against her.”

But that could all change, she insisted, if the Acting President defies the Trump administration’s paternalistic instructions.

Pro-transparency Armando.info: based at a Delaware mailbox, funded by Washington

Lares Martiz is in a prime position to know if the US is preparing a secret indictment of Rodriguez, as the publication she edits, Armando.info, functions at the center of a network of US government-funded journalistic outlets which exist to shop dirt on Latin American leaders targeted by Washington.

Though its staff operate from Bogota, Colombia, Armando.info is registered at a post office box in Newark, Delaware, where it is listed by Delaware’s Division of Corporations as “not in good standing.”

One of Armando.info’s top donors is the National Endowment for Democracy, a CIA spin-off which channels US money into opposition parties and media promoting regime change. The outlet is also listed as a member of the “global network” of OCCRP, which has received most of its budget from the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

A 2024-25 Frontline documentary series about Armando.info’s work in Venezuela, “A Dangerous Assignment,” made it clear the outlet’s staff were dedicated anti-Chavista operatives seemingly coordinating their work with the US government. The documentary chronicled the investigation by Lares Martiz and her colleague, Roberto Deniz, of the Colombian-born Venezuelan official Alex Saab, who had spearheaded a food importation program known as CLAP that aimed to prevent widespread hunger amid crushing American sanctions by providing food at below market value to the Venezuelan public. Published by the US government’s Public Broadcasting Service, “A Dangerous Assignment” received “investment support” from Luminate, an NGO founded by US intelligence-adjacent billionaire Pierre Omidyar.

In 2020, Saab was abducted under orders from US authorities following a series of Armando.info reports accusing him of using the CLAP program as an avenue for corruption. He was released from US federal prison through a December 2023 prisoner swap. By this point, Armando.info’s leadership had left Venezuela following lawsuits by Attorney General Tarek William Saab.

In the aftermath of Maduro’s abduction, the Armando.info team is homing in on Saab once again, and apparently working to whip up a dossier on the newly-inaugurated president.

But during the OCCRP webinar, Lares Martiz conceded that she lacks compromising information on Delcy Rodriguez and her brother, Jorge: “they are hardly [in any] cases of corruption that I have written [about], or in Armando.info, or even OCCRP has investigated.”

But she suggested that US intelligence is actively investigating Venezuela’s state oil company in search of dirt on Venezuela’s new president. “Everything is related to corruption in PDVSA,” she remarked. “I think it’s going to be looked up very carefully.”

On January 16, Rodriguez met in her office with CIA Director John Ratcliffe. Later that month, CNN reported that the CIA “is poised to help actively manage the Trump administration’s dealings with Venezuela’s new leadership.

[…]

Via https://thegrayzone.com/2026/02/10/secret-indictment-delcy-rodriguez-opposition-journo/

© AP Photo / Sepahnews

Sputnik World

“If the US continues to use its missiles in such a manner, their stockpile will swiftly run out,” Russian military expert Yuri Knutov tells Sputnik, commenting on a recent video of apparently 10 Patriot interceptors downing just one Iranian ballistic missile.

Knutov explains that the US missile stockpile includes about 400 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors, which “may be already exhausted in 10 days even if they are used properly.”

“As for Patriot interceptors, their larger stockpile could be exhausted in around three weeks, especially if 10 such missiles are launched to hit one Iranian air target,” the expert points out.

According to him, the US quickly increasing the production of the aforementioned missiles is unrealistic, given that the monthly output currently stands at merely 55, which is “not serious.”

Iran’s ‘Trump Card’

“So, Iran now has a very important trump card. By strategically using its ballistic missiles and saving the advanced hypersonic Fateh missiles for the final stage, Tehran has a chance to deal a very painful blow to Israel and the US and avenge the surprise attack on the Islamic Republic,” the expert notes.

He says that when it comes to Iranian ballistic missiles, they might not be exhausted for another month, and despite their low accuracy, the mass use of this munition yields results.

“Out of a large number of launched missiles, one or two hit their targets, which is a significant result. It creates a psychological effect and, in turn, impacts the enemy’s morale. Therefore, when we talk about Iran’s use of ballistic missiles, this tactic has so far proven effective,” Knutov concludes.

[…]

Via https://sputnikglobe.com/20260302/irans-missile-might-vs-americas-arsenal-who-will-run-out-first-1123737265.html

The attack reflects Tehran’s willingness to target economic chokepoints in retaliation for recent airstrikes, raising concerns about potential escalation in the region

Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura refinery, the world’s largest oil refining facility, has been struck by drones, causing a major fire and forcing authorities to halt operations temporarily. The refinery, operated by Saudi Aramco, produces over 550,000 barrels of crude oil per day and serves as a critical hub for the kingdom’s oil exports.

According to sources, the drones responsible for the strike originated from Iran.

Saudi Aramco authorities are currently assessing the full extent of the damage, with operations at the site suspended until further notice. No official statement has yet been released by the company or the Saudi government regarding casualties or the broader impact on oil exports.

[…]

Via https://www.news18.com/world/saudi-arabias-ras-tanura-refinery-hit-by-iranian-drone-ops-halted-at-worlds-largest-oil-hub-ws-l-9937951.html

Rahim Nathoo

@nathoo_rahim

Israel’s rape entitlement stems from its foundation

Kompromat: A theory of blackmail as a system of governance

For decades, scattered reports have emerged of pedophiles hiding in Israel, of rape within the military, of Orthodox sects protecting abusers, of Palestinian children subjected to systematic sexual violence. Each case was dismissed as an aberration. But when you connect the evidence, a darker picture emerges: Israel has built a civilization-scale apparatus where child rape is not a failure of governance — it is a doctrine of governance, cohesion, and control.

Israel’s Law of Return, intended to offer refuge to Jews worldwide, has been systematically exploited as a haven for child rapists. Jewish-American pedophiles routinely flee to Israel to escape prosecution [1].

Extradition requests often stall for years [5]. Inside Israel, abuse is pervasive. Tens of thousands of pedophiles operate in the country every year [2]. Hundreds of children are sexually assaulted annually [3]. Orthodox communities conceal molestation within yeshivas, rabbinical courts silence survivors, the military suppresses reports of rape among female conscripts [6].

Predators fleeing from the United States and Europe don’t just disappear. They bring with them archives of crimes and kompromat, which become assets for Israeli intelligence. Sanctuary is a pipeline for importing leverage [4]. This feeds directly into Israel’s intelligence doctrine.

The Epstein-Maxwell network, with its ties to Israeli intelligence, exemplifies the model: children as currency, sex as leverage, silence as control [9]. Honey-traps involving minors ensnare foreign politicians. Mossad archives compromise U.S. officials and UN staff.

Diplomatic immunity shields predators abroad. In the occupied territories, Palestinian children are subjected to detention, rape, and sexual humiliation. These are not random war crimes — they are systematic [7]. Minors are coerced into collaboration under threat of rape [8]. For Israel, occupation doubles as an inexhaustible reservoir of child victims [10]. The machine operates in plain sight because global institutions act as mirrors, not protectors. Media reports surface, then vanish [1][2]. The UN blocks reports of Israeli sexual war crimes [7].

Sputnik World

“Gas prices may rise, because approximately 20% of the world’s LNG transits through the Strait of Hormuz, including all of Qatar’s production,” Igor Yushkov, a top Russian energy expert, told Sputnik, commenting on the Persian Gulf crisis.

“Qatar is one of the largest producers of LNG in the world, second only to Australia and the US. If there’s a shortage of LNG on the global market…the exchange price could easily exceed $1k or even 1.5k. We’ve seen similar prices in Europe even without such a shortage. So the price could skyrocket.”

According to Yushkov, “everything will depend on how long the tension in the Strait of Hormuz lasts,” including not only Iran’s readiness to reopen it, but gas producers’ willingness to resume transit.

“In any case, we will see higher shipping costs, higher insurance costs for ships,” with the situation “further exacerbated” by the fact that the Northern Hemisphere is still in the heating season, with Europe’s underground gas storage facilities being gradually depleted.

“Even though Qatar gas physically goes primarily to Asian markets, the exchange price will rise everywhere,” same as oil, Yushkov clarified. Qatar itself also has no alternative to Hormuz. “Therefore, if it is unable to export LNG, Qatar will simply have to stop production.”

Message to China

The current crisis is also “a major wake-up call for China,” with the US demonstrating its readiness to flout international law, Yushkov says.

“China is being shown that anything coming from the south is unsafe. Passage through the Strait of Hormuz may be interrupted today as part of the current conflict, but tomorrow the Americans could close it off to Qatari LNG supplies to the Chinese market.”

“Or they could close the Strait of Malacca, through which all the hydrocarbons going to China from Africa and the entire Middle East flow. Therefore, this is a signal to China that anything coming from the north is much safer, and much more difficult to shut down,” the observer summed up.

[…]

Via https://sputnikglobe.com/20260301/forget-oil-natural-gas-prices-are-about-to-go-through-the-roof-if-hormuz-isnt-reopened-soon-1123729183.html

Comments by Brian Shilhavy
Health Impact News

After weeks of speculation and reporting that the U.S. and Israel were about to bomb Iran, it finally happened earlier today, Saturday, February 28, 2026.

This story will now dominate news headlines for the next several days, at least.

I have purposely not reported on previous news reports about the “imminent” attack on Iran, because it was not clear yet if the U.S. was building up their military in the area to try and force Iran into some kind of deal, or if the Zionist Trump administration was waiting to see if the Epstein files saga would finally blow over and cease being part of the corporate news stream.

I have also been carefully monitoring the moves in the stock markets on Wall Street, because as long as the stock market kept climbing and enriching the billionaires, war was not really necessary.

Well apparently the dam broke this past week, as the most explosive report yet out of the Epstein files clearly showed a cover-up with the FBI and an alleged victim of abuse by Trump as a minor, and Wall Street took massive losses in the final day of trading this week as fears grew over the actual state of the U.S. economy, and the future of Big Tech.

Trump’s Epstein Problems that Will NOT Go Away

NPR was the first corporate media source who reported on the Justice Department and FBI cover-up that links Trump to Epstein and abusing children.

Justice Department withheld and removed some Epstein files related to Trump

Excerpts:

The Justice Department has withheld some Epstein files related to allegations that President Trump sexually abused a minor, an NPR investigation finds. It also removed some documents from the public database where accusations against Jeffrey Epstein also mention Trump.

Some files have not been made public despite a law mandating their release. These include what appear to be more than 50 pages of FBI interviews, as well as notes from conversations with a woman who accused Trump of sexual abuse decades ago when she was a minor.

NPR reviewed multiple sets of unique serial numbers appearing before and after the pages in question, stamped onto documents in the Epstein files database, FBI case records, emails and discovery document logs in the latest tranche of documents published at the end of January.

NPR’s investigation found dozens of pages that appear to be catalogued by the Justice Department but not shared publicly.

The Justice Department declined to answer NPR’s questions on the record about these specific files, what’s in them and why they are not published.

After publication, the Justice Department reached out to NPR, taking issue with how its responses to questions were framed. Department of Justice spokeswoman Natalie Baldassarre reiterated DOJ’s stance that any documents not published are privileged, are duplicates or relate to an ongoing federal investigation.

Following NPR’s reporting, the House Oversight Committee’s ranking member, Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., released a statement about the missing files.

“Yesterday, I reviewed unredacted evidence logs at the Department of Justice. Oversight Democrats can confirm that the DOJ appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with this survivor who accused President Trump of heinous crimes,” Garcia stated.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have already been investigating this allegation against the president and will now open a parallel investigation into the DOJ’s decision not to release these particular documents.

Full article.

This is a very serious matter, because if Trump’s DOJ broke the law, a lot of people should go to prison, including Trump.

Here is a 12-minute video from MS Now with Senior Legal Reporter Lisa Rubin, which will show just how serious and damaging this is.

(If the YouTube video doesn’t load, there is a backup copy here.)

Big Tech Stands up Against Trump??

The other big story this week that I was tracking was Anthropic’s refusal to “take the guard rails off” of its AI app that was being used by the Pentagon.

Anthropic stated that it refused to allow Claude, its AI app, to be used for “mass domestic surveillance or for fully autonomous weapons.”

This infuriated Trump and his sidekick Pete Hegseth, who heads up the Department of War, who promptly “Black Listed” Anthropic after a Friday deadline passed.

This resulted in Anthropic’s Claude AI app to leapfrog OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini as the top AI app in the Apple Store. It became the #2 downloaded app altogether, after standing up to Trump.

From CNBC:

Anthropic’s Claude artificial intelligence assistant app jumped to the No. 2 slot on Apple’s chart of top U.S. free apps late on Friday, hours after the Trump administration sought to block government agencies’ adoption of the startup’s technology.

The rise in popularity suggests that Anthropic is benefiting from its presence in news headlines, stemming from its refusal to have its models used for mass domestic surveillance or for fully autonomous weapons.

“The Leftwing nut jobs at Anthropic have made a DISASTROUS MISTAKE trying to STRONG-ARM the Department of War, and force them to obey their Terms of Service instead of our Constitution,”

President Donald Trump wrote in a Friday Truth Social post.

Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he asked that Anthropic be labeled as a supply-chain risk to national security, and therefore, no U.S. defense contractor would be able to draw on Anthropic tools.

“It is the Department’s prerogative to select contractors most aligned with their vision,” Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said in a statement.

“But given the substantial value that Anthropic’s technology provides to our armed forces, we hope they reconsider.”

Historically, other AI chat apps have been more popular among consumers than Claude. OpenAI’s ChatGPT sat at No. 1 on the App Store rankings on Saturday, while Google’s Gemini was at No. 3.

The Claude iOS app has gained momentum this month. On Jan. 30, it was ranked No. 131 in the U.S., and it bounced between the top 20 and the top 50 for much of February, according to data from analytics company Sensor Tower. The data shows ChatGPT has held on to the No. 1 spot for most of February.

Full article.

This has had a “ripple effect” across Silicon Valley, as The Information reported in their weekend edition today, where employees at these Big Tech companies have been divided about using their technology for war in the Middle East, and in particular against Palestinians.

Military Worries Simmer at OpenAI, Google As Anthropic Hits Stalemate With Pentagon

Anthropic’s refusal to cooperate with the Defense Department is having ripple effects across Silicon Valley.

Excerpts:

The conflict between Anthropic and the Department of Defense over how the Pentagon can use the startup’s AI has turned into a standoff.

The agency has given the company a Friday evening deadline to give it unfettered access to its technology—or else be cut off from working with military contractors.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei continues to refuse to do so.

“Threats do not change our position,” he wrote in a blog post published on Thursday.

“We cannot in good conscience accede to their request.”

If the dispute involved only the Pentagon and Anthropic, the feud would still represent an intense, intrigue-filled drama.

But what’s now becoming clear is that the feud has implications extending beyond Anthropic, raising questions about what will happen next at Google, OpenAI and the other AI companies that have lined up military deals.

Amodei has refused to budge on two issues: He doesn’t want Anthropic’s AI used to surveil Americans or to make decisions on lethal autonomous weapons without human supervision.

And now OpenAI has told the Pentagon that it shares the same concerns, an OpenAI spokesperson said on Friday, declining to comment on how its own negotiations with the Pentagon were proceeding.

Within OpenAI, employees are watching the negotiations closely and discussing what it could mean for their company, according to a current employee. And more than 60 OpenAI employees and over 300 Google employees have signed on to a public pledge asking their companies to copy Anthropic’s safeguards.

Within Google, over 200 employees at the company’s AI research unit, Google DeepMind, signed a letter this week asking the company to ban uses of its AI involving mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons.

Full article. (Subscription needed.)

Was War with Iran Trump’s Last Shot to Save His Presidency?

The war with Iran has many implications, not the least of which is the control of the flow of the world’s oil. We can be sure that China and Russia are working behind the scenes with Iran supplying intelligence, and probably weapons, to keep the flow of oil flowing.

Since Trump already played the “nuclear weapons” card to justify his strikes against Iran last year, claiming that they put Iran’s nuclear program back decades to rebuild, this time he is claiming that the goal is regime change.

However, if the Trump administration’s hope was for a quick strike to take out Iran’s political and military leaders, they may have failed. Iran was much more prepared this time, after last year’s war, and have made a concerted effort to rid themselves of American technology, such as banning Musk’s Starlink Internet service.

At the time of my writing this, Israel and Trump are claiming that Khamenei was killed by a strike on his home, but Iranian officials dispute that, stating that is alive and well.

(If this YouTube video does not load, there is a backup copy here.)

Please be aware that the U.S. corporate media, whether Right or Left, has been handed their scripts as to how to cover this war. Be sure to also track the English news coming out of the Middle Eastern news sites to get a full picture.

PressTV.ir – Iranian TV

Middle East Eye

Al Jazeera

Al Mayadeen

I have been watching video clips come in from Telegram all day, and most of them are Iranian bombs falling on the rich Arab Gulf states’ most modern cities, such as Bahrain, Dubai, and the United Arab Emirates, home of the rich and wealthy.

Seeing a skyscraper being bombed in Bahrain is rather remarkable, to me.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Middle East, Bahrain is a small island that is accessible by bridge from the eastern portion of Saudi Arabia, where I lived for several years as an English professor.

I have been to Bahrain multiple times when I lived in Dahran, Saudi Arabia, in the 1990s, and it is basically a very modern city.

From the initial video footage coming in right now, it appears that Iranian forces are concentrating on the rich Arab nations that have allowed the U.S. military to occupy their countries for many years, in return for access to their oil.

If that is the case, it is an interesting strategy by the Iranians, by targeting not only just U.S. military sources, but the major suppliers of OPEC.

Pepe Escobar just a while ago posted an image from X on his Telegram channel stating that Trump is already getting pressure to call for a ceasefire:

I don’t know if this is true or not, but it would not surprise me at all if these rich oil Sheikhs are frantically calling him up whining about their cities being bombed.

I would imagine that the members of the Saud family are not sleeping too well tonight….

[…]

Via https://healthimpactnews.com/2026/what-is-the-real-reason-trump-bombed-iran-today/

Press TV

🔺 Three US and UK oil tankers struck, 560 American troops killed or wounded in Iranian Attacks: IRGC

Three violating American and British oil tankers were hit by missiles and are burning in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, while 560 US military personnel have been killed or wounded so far in Operation True Promise 4, Iran’s IRGC announced. The strikes also destroyed America’s Al-Salem Base in Kuwait and severely damaged US naval infrastructure in Bahrain, as missile and drone attacks continue across the region.

Via https://t.me/presstv/177497

✍️ So, just to set the record straight, Trump has➡️ Caused American military bases across the Middle East to go up in smoke

➡️ Further depleted America’s already critically low interceptor missile stockpiles

➡️ Turned the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important energy transportation waterway, into a war zone several months before an election

➡️ Put his Arab allies in the direct line of fire in a war that they didn’t ask for

➡️ And what has he achieved in return? Assassinated a 86-year old leader who viewed martyrdom as the ultimate honor?

🤔 Americans, are you tired “winning” yet?

Via https://t.me/healthimpact/3121