Link between pill mills, pain clinics and opioid deaths?
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Insight from Eric Eyre, statehouse reporter for the Charleston Gazette-Mail
At the Westside Theatre in New York City, audiences are watching "Othello: the Remix," a retelling of William Shakespeare's classic play that transforms the protagonist into a rising hip-hop star. NewsHour Weekend's Ivette Feliciano sits down with the Q Brothers, the rap and theater artists who created the show, and other cast members.
The two contrasting Californians who lead House of Representatives oversight of U.S. intelligence operations will be tested as never before once Donald Trump becomes president.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. federal authorities cautioned local law enforcement on Friday to be aware that supporters of Islamic State have been calling for their sympathizers to attack holiday gatherings in the United States, including churches, a law enforcement official said.
Politicians respond to Friday nights UN Security Council vote.
 The Atlantic |
Donald Trump's Hot-and-Cold Bromance With Vladimir Putin
The Atlantic Subscribe to The Atlantic's Politics & Policy Daily, a roundup of ideas and events in American politics. What's the appropriate, slightly unhip portmanteau to describe the relationship between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin these days? Is it a bromance? Mr. Trump Flirts With an Arms RaceNew York Times The Latest: Trump calls Putin election remarks 'so true!'Washington Post Michael Dorf: What Trump Should Say, but Won't, About Putin's CyberhackNewsweek CBS Local -ABC News -Politico -Raw Story all 1,409 news articles » |
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As President-elect Donald Trump leads an attempted makeover in Washington, Republican governors and lawmakers will simultaneously push an aggressive agenda in the states
Netanyahu told the crowd that he was there to comfort everyone following the UN's decision.
 РИА Новости |
Израильская оппозиция требует отставки Нетаньяху
РИА Новости ТЕЛЬ-АВИВ, 24 дек — РИА Новости. Лидер израильской оппозиции Ицхак Герцог призвал премьер-министра Биньямина Нетаньяху уйти в отставку, назвав "стратегическим провалом" для страны принятую накануне резолюцию Совета Безопасности ООН с требованием о прекращении ... В МИД РФ объяснили, почему Москва поддержала резолюцию СБ ООН о запрете еврейских поселенийРосбалт.RU МИД объяснил свой голос за резолюцию Совбеза ООН по ИзраилюРБК МИД России прокомментировал резолюцию ООН по ИзраилюТАСС Комсомольская правда -Правда.Ру -Вести.Ru -Коммерсантъ Все похожие статьи: 553 » |
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office accused the Obama administration Friday evening of secretly conspiring against Israel after the U.S. abstained from voting on a United Nations resolution that condemned his country's construction of settlements in Palestine as a "flagrant violation" of international law.
In sitting out Friday's vote, the U.S. ...
PM claims president breached ‘specific commitment’ with Security Council abstention; ‘our friends’ in Trump team promising fight to cancel resolution; cuts funds to 5 UN groups
PM compares president’s abstention in UN Security Council vote to the actions of Jimmy Carter, ‘who was hostile to Israel’
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December 24, 2016, 9:04 PM (IDT)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Saturday night that Israel and its friends will exact a heavy diplomatic and economic price from the opponents of Israel including the supporters of the UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements.. For starters, he announced the cutoff of Israel’s donations to five UN agencies. Speaking at the Bet Levinsteain rehabilitation center for wounded soldiers, before lighting a candle on the first day of Hanukkah, he asked: “Is there anything more absurd than labeling the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem or the Western Wall ‘occupied territories?”
Flatly rejecting the UN resolution, Netanyahu said he was greatly encouraged by his conversations with Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Washington, who promised to stand by Israel and get the UN resolution reversed.
Prime minister said measure is part of the “swan song of old world bias against Israel.”
Was Rudy Giuliani At The Center Of An FBI-Trump Campaign ...
Huffington Post-Dec 22, 2016
It's surprising that Rudy Giuliani has been out of the news lately, given that, .... Because if current FBI agents issued targeted leaks to retired FBI ...
Giuliani on Whether He's Interested in Running the FBI
Fox Business-Dec 23, 2016
Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani on immigration, the fight against terrorism, his decision not to join President-elect Donald Trump's ...
It's Crucial to Purge and Prosecute 'Rogue' FBI Agents Collaborating ...
PoliticusUSA-Dec 17, 2016
The growing consensus is that Putin's espionage and FBI-created ... to have given information about the Russian hacking to Rudy Giuliani.
LA-based lawyer sues FBI over Clinton email warrant
Fox News-Dec 8, 2016
L.A.-based lawyer sues FBI over Clinton email warrant ... New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani as potential sources for the FBI's investigation.
Judge Sides With 'Woman in Gold' Lawyer, Orders Clinton Search ...
Forward-Dec 19, 2016
The lawyer battling to unseal the search warrant used by the FBI to ... New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, and the FBI, Schoenberg thinks its ...
L.A.-based Holocaust claims lawyer sues FBI over Clinton warrant
Jewish Journal-Dec 7, 2016
7 he took on another major cause by filing suit against the FBI, ... Rudy Giuliani, all Trump allies, as potential sources for the FBI's investigation.
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Russian Envoy's Killer Fought for Nusra Front in Aleppo: Turkish Newspaper
Al-Manar TV The Turkish newspaper Zaman announced the preliminary investigations revealed that the Russian envoy's killer fought for Nusra Front terrorist group in Aleppo in 2015, adding that he, with the knowledge of the Turkish leadership, ferociously ... |
Mediaite |
MSNBC Contributor: Russia Manipulating Trump Will Turn U.S. Into 'Third Class Country' With Nukes
Mediaite During a panel discussion on MSNBC today, MSNBC contributor and counter-terrorism expert Malcolm Nance discussed the mutual admiration expressed between President-elect DonaldTrump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, concluding that Trump is ... and more » |
Seeker |
America's History Of Meddling In Foreign Elections
Seeker America's History Of Meddling In Foreign Elections. Despite claims of Russia influencing the U.S. election, America is no stranger to similar tactics. Which elections have the U.S. meddled in? BY SEEKER. Learn More: The Guardian: CIA admits role in ... |
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AOL News |
Trump on Putin's criticism of Hillary Clinton and Democrats: 'So true!'
AOL News President-elect Donald Trump tweeted his agreement with Vladimir Putin on Friday evening, after the Russian president said top Democrats were humiliating themselves by blaming their election loss on alleged Russian hacking. "Vladimir Putin said today ... |
New York Times |
Denying Conflict, Trump Family Tries to Resolve Potential Problems
New York Times “This is a process that my father and my family are taking incredibly seriously,” said Eric Trump, who will help oversee the Trump Organization, and who announced last week that he was terminating fund-raising for his own charity, the Eric Trump ... Donald Trump Complains About Pressure Against Son's FundraisingABC News all 136 news articles » |
Russian authorities have reportedly succeeded in unlocking an Apple iPhone owned by the off-duty police officer who shot and killed its ambassador to Turkey at an art show in Ankara last week as investigators look for potential links to terrorism.
Both Russian and Turkish authorities sought the contents of the ...
WASHINGTON (AP) - India's national security adviser made a low-key visit to Washington earlier this week to meet with a senior aide to President-elect Donald Trump, Indian diplomats said Friday, in a sign of New Delhi's desire to forge close ties with the incoming U.S. administration.
India's Ajit Doval met ...
Both the CIA and National Security Agency missed warning signs that renegade contractor Edward Snowden was a disgruntled worker who would eventually steal 1.5 million secret documents, according to a congressional study made public Thursday.
Snowden, who fled to Moscow after publicizing some of the documents through left-wing journalists, also “has had, and continues to have contact with Russian intelligence services” and voiced admiration for China during his brief career at the CIA and then NSA.
A declassified and redacted report by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence concluded that Snowden’s actions resulted in the Obama’s administration’s most damaging intelligence failure.
“The American people can now get a fuller account of Edward Snowden’s crimes and the reckless disregard he has shown for U.S. national security, including the safety of American servicemen and women,” said Rep. Devin Nunes (R., Calif.), the intelligence committee chairman. “It will take a long time to mitigate the damage he caused, and I look forward to the day when he returns to the United States to face justice.”
Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif), the committee’s ranking member, added that “Snowden and his defenders claim that he is a whistleblower, but he isn’t, as the committee’s review shows. Most of the material he stole had nothing to do with Americans’ privacy, and its compromise has been of great value to America’s adversaries and those who mean to do America harm.”
The report concluded that intelligence documents disclosed by Snowden “caused massive damage to national security.” All examples of the damage, however, were blacked out in the report.
On Twitter, Snowden stated in response to the report: “Was I a pain in the ass to work with? Perhaps; many technologists are. But this report establishes no worse.”
“Bottom line: this report’s core claims are made without evidence, and are often contrary to both common sense and the public record,” he said.
The report is dated Sept. 15 and was originally classified “top secret.” Markings indicate the report dealt with signals intelligence—sensitive data collected electronically by NSA around the world.
“In June 2013, former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden perpetrated the largest and most damaging release of classified information in U.S. intelligence history,” the report said.
The findings were based on a two-year committee probe that did not include interviews with Snowden, who is currently facing U.S. espionage charges.
Contrary to some media portrayals, the House report indicates Snowden was a disgruntled employee who argued with his superiors, ultimately fleeing NSA’s Kunia facility in Hawaii in May 2013. He then began disclosing documents in what he asserted was a bid to expose improper NSA surveillance.
The committee’s findings “demonstrate that the public narrative popularized by Snowden and his allies is rife with falsehoods, exaggerations and crucial omissions, a pattern that began before he stole 1.5 million sensitive documents,” the report said.
Snowden compromised secrets that once protected American troops overseas and secrets that were used in countering terrorism along with dealing with threats from states such as China and Russia.
Some of the disclosures “resulted in the loss of intelligence streams that had saved American lives,” the report said.
The Pentagon identified 13 high-risk areas of potential damage from future intelligence disclosures, including several that related to defense capabilities. “If the Russian or Chinese governments have access to this information, American troops will be at greater risk in any future conflict,” the report said.
Snowden was described as a “serial exaggerator and fabricator” who intentionally lied about his past in order to promote himself to senior positions and gain greater access to secrets.
However, the report includes new disclosures that security officials at both CIA and NSA failed to recognize that Snowden was likely to betray the government’s trust and disclose significant U.S. intelligence capabilities that have been lost or restricted as a result.
For example, NSA security officials failed to conduct a routine check of Snowden’s educational background. Had they done so, NSA would have learned that Snowden had dropped out of high school in his sophomore year, yet falsely stated on his resume he had graduated from “Maryland High School” in 2001. There is no high school in Maryland with that name.
Snowden also was granted a “top secret” security clearance in 2005 despite an associate warning security investigators he should not be given access to secrets.
Snowden was hired as a computer technician by a CIA contractor and converted to CIA employment in 2006 after obtaining a security clearance. While at CIA, he complained of harassment by a supervisor.
He was posted overseas, but was relieved of his position after altering CIA software improperly and disobeying orders.
Snowden then applied for work at NSA and was hired by an NSA contractor in 2009. However, the report revealed that CIA failed to update a security database with derogatory information about Snowden. As a result, NSA failed to learn of his problems at CIA before hiring him.
The Office of Personnel Management updated Snowden’s security clearance in 2011 with an investigation later found to have been incomplete.
“Among other flaws, the investigation never attempted to verify Snowden’s CIA employment or speak to his CIA supervisors, nor did it attempt to independently verify Snowden’s self-report of a past security violation—areas where further information could have alerted NSA to CIA’s concerns,” the report said.
Investigators also failed to check job references on Snowden beyond those he offered: his mother and girlfriend.
While working for NSA in Hawaii, Snowden was described by coworkers as “arrogant” and “squirrelly.” They said he was chronically late for work, and would claim he overslept as a result of staying up late to play video games.
Coworkers said Snowden expressed few political views, but voiced sympathies for China based on meetings with Chinese hackers.
Snowden, according to the report, once claimed “the United States caused problems for China but China never caused problems for the United States.”
Another NSA coworker said Snowden defended Wikileaks’ collaborator Army Pvt. Bradley Manning, who stole tens of thousands of State Department and Pentagon documents while posted in Iraq.
The report also disclosed the methods used by Snowden to break into NSA’s classified computer networks and download large numbers of documents.
The secrets were stolen from NSANet, the agency’s internal computer network, and from an intelligence community-wide system called the Joint Warfighter Information Computer System. The 1.5 million documents, if printed out, would form a pile more than 3 miles high.
As a computer systems administrator, Snowden used downloading tools called scraping software, specifically a program called “wget” and “DownThemAll!” that allowed large numbers of files to be downloaded over slow networks.
NSA failed to use monitoring tools that could have detected the illegal document downloading, the report said.
Snowden also used a desktop computer in Hawaii, a loophole that allowed him to avoid security scrutiny while stealing documents.
The document theft began in the summer of 2012 at the same time Snowden sought full-time NSA employment. According to the report, Snowden was able to cheat on a test he was given in pursuit of full-time NSA position by accessing the test answers on an NSA network.
He was offered a post in NSA’s hacking intelligence unit, the Tailored Access Operations office. However, Snowden’s demand for a higher salary derailed the job offer.
Snowden contacted leftwing journalist Glenn Greenwald and filmmaker Laura Poitras in December 2012 and January 2013, respectively, and provided both with documents.
By late 2013, Snowden went to work for intelligence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton in an NSA office that battled cyber attacks from Russia and China. While working there, Snowden stole additional documents from the NSA National Threat Operation Center—information that would be valuable to governments in Russia and China.
Snowden boarded a flight for Hong Kong on May 19, 2013. The first disclosures from Greenwald were published on June 5, 2013.
The report said Snowden did not use legal whistleblower protections to raise his objections to NSA surveillance.
In a heavily redacted section on foreign influence, the report quoted a Russian official as saying Snowden shared intelligence with the Russian government.
Intelligence agencies conducted limited damage assessments of the Snowden case, and have not investigated his motive or whether he worked as an agent of a foreign intelligence service.
The disclosures of NSA documents to date represent what the report called the “tip of the iceberg” of more damaging disclosures, the report said.
The cost of mitigating the damage could reach $1 billion.
Security reforms also have not been fully implemented by NSA and other agencies to prevent future insiders from compromising secrets.
“The committee remains concerned that NSA, like the [intelligence community] as a whole, have not done enough to reduce the chances of future insider threats like Snowden,” the report concludes.
The post CIA, NSA Missed Warning Signs of Snowden Betrayal appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.
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The Pentagon under the administration of Donald Trump will face challenges in cyber security, acquisitions management, and numerous other areas that demand continued oversight.
The Pentagon’s inspector general this week published its fiscal year 2017 oversight plan, identifying the key challenges facing the Defense Department as the president-elect prepares to take office.
Among 10 “critical” management and performance challenges facing the Pentagon is boosting the military’s cybersecurity and cyber capabilities at a time when hackers from Russia and China are increasingly targeting U.S. systems—including those used by government personnel–with cyber attacks.
The issue of cybersecurity has invited heightened attention after the U.S. intelligence community accused the Russian government of directing cyber attacks on systems used by U.S. political organizations in order to influence the presidential election. Russian hackers also breached the unclassified email system used by the Joint Chiefs of Staff last August, compromising the information of hundreds of military personnel.
“The DoD has become increasingly reliant on cyberspace to enable its military, intelligence, and business operations to perform the full spectrum of military operations without disruption, and cyber threats and exploitable vulnerabilities have grown substantially,” the inspector general report states.
“DoD continues to face significant challenges in protecting and securing its networks, systems, and infrastructure from cyber threats and in increasing its overall cyber capabilities. Cyberspace threats to the DoD continue to increase at an alarming rate.”
The Pentagon inspector general has previously spotlighted the significant cyber-related hurdles facing the department, writing in an annual report issued last week that a “wide range of cyber security weaknesses” had been identified in the Pentagon’s systems and networks over the last year.
Cybersecurity will be one of several areas of focus of the watchdog in 2017, as Trump takes office and retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, the president-elect’s choice for defense secretary, begins his confirmation process to assume the leading role at the Pentagon.
Other serious challenges cited by the inspector general include countering the terrorism threat, protecting key defense infrastructure, developing full spectrum total force capabilities, building and keeping readiness of the U.S. armed forces, and countering the main global strategic challenges posed by Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and terror groups.
The Defense Department also needs to focus on ensuring ethical conduct, improving financial management, and enabling effective acquisition and contract management, according to the watchdog.
Trump has already put heat on expensive Pentagon acquisitions programs, most notably by slamming the “out of control” costs associated with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. Scheduling delays and associated cost overruns have plagued Lockheed Martin’s development of the fifth-general stealth fighter jets and the program’s budget has ballooned to $400 billion—nearly double its initial estimate—over 15 years, making it the Pentagon’s most expensive acquisition program.
Trump, who met with the CEOs of major defense contractors Lockheed Martin and Boeing on Wednesday, wrote on Twitter late Thursday that he had asked Boeing to “price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet,” an older aircraft, because of the high costs of the F-35 development.
“Acquisition and contract management have been high-risk areas for the DoD for many years,” the inspector general’s strategy document states. “Although Congress and the DoD have long sought to improve the acquisition of major weapon systems, many DoD programs are still falling short of cost, schedule, and performance expectations. This can result in unanticipated cost overruns, program development spanning decades, and, in some cases, a reduction in the capability ultimately delivered to the warfighter.”
The Pentagon has 1,375 defense acquisitions programs, which it needs $183.9 billion in 2017 to fund.
For its own part, the inspector general intends to audit several acquisition programs in 2017, including the Navy Expeditionary Fast Transport, the Marine Corps Amphibious Assault Vehicle, Navy Mine Countermeasures Mission Package, and the Army and Marine Corps Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, in addition to several audits of military contracts.
The transition process at the Pentagon has already begun, with Trump’s team setting up shop at the department to receive briefings. The inspector general also highlighted the management of the transition process as a key challenge for the Pentagon, given the rotation of personnel and possible national security implications of a bungled transition.
“While managing presidential transitions is a challenging issue for all federal departments and agencies, it is especially true for the DoD because of the national security implications,” the inspector general wrote. “Gaps in leadership, delays in approving key decisions, and uncertainty about policy objectives can have significant effects on national security. For that reason, it is critical that the transition to new leadership be smooth, effective, timely, and seamless.”
Mattis will face confirmation hearings before the Senate Armed Services Committee next year to become defense secretary, but first Congress must pass a waiver allowing him to serve in the top defense post despite not being out of the service for seven years. Trump will be inaugurated on Jan. 20.
The post Key Challenges Facing Trump’s Pentagon Include Cyber, Acquisitions Management appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.
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Toronto Star |
In a flurry of tweets, Trump flips decades of US national security norms
Toronto Star WASHINGTON—Before lunchtime Thursday, president-elect Donald Trump said he would expand the American nuclear arsenal, upending a reduction course set by presidents of both parties over the past four decades, and called for the U.S. to veto a ... Trump says he wants to 'greatly strengthen and expand' US nuclear capabilityWashington Post In a day of tweets, Trump suggests major change on national security issuesThe Boston Globe Trump tweet to 'expand' U.S. nuclear muscle worrisome to security experts, criticsUPI.com CBS News -TIME -Twitter all 974 news articles » |
The President-elect may be pitting defense contractors against each to force down prices, but military and political realities may intervene.
Only we — not Putin — can truly undermine our republic
For someone like me, who’s warned about foreign espionage—especially Russian—for years, usually to little avail, it’s a pleasant change to see the mainstream media talk about so much Kremlin spies these days. It’s gratifying to witness the Obama White House, which downplayed and simply ignored Russian clandestine spy-games for almost eight years, suddenly pledge to get serious about it. That this sea-change is coming as President Obama is packing his belongings and therefore will have minimal real-world impact doesn’t mean it’s not welcome.
All the same, the emerging debate about what exactly Vladimir Putin and his spies did in 2016 to influence our elections is already politically toxic, fundamentally dishonest, and flagrantly partisan. As is now the custom in Washington, both sides are more than willing to ignore inconvenient facts when they get in the way of their preferred narrative about this year.
Therefore, without delay, we need a to debunk a few of the most pernicious falsehoods about the SpyWar events of 2016. The logical place to start is the issue of Russian “hacking” itself, which is being portrayed as a grand criminal conspiracy orchestrated by Putin personally, in the bowels of the Kremlin. All that’s missing is a cat on his lap to perfect the clichéd movie bad spy-guy image here.
That’s a flawed way to look at it, however. In truth, the vast majority of the email theft perpetrated by Russian spies against the Democrats was utterly normal signals intelligence collection, what the pros call SIGINT. Russians do it, we do it—in 2016 every country that can does it. Spies steal secrets, it’s what they do. Of course espionage is illegal basically everywhere, but everybody does it. Hyperventilating about it doesn’t help.
A century ago, when radio hit the world by storm—they called it wireless telegraphy back then—countries put their communications in the ether, and their opponents intercepted them: thus was SIGINT born. It quickly became the world’s most important form of espionage, and so it remains. Today everybody puts most of their communications on the Internet, so that’s where SIGINT professionals hunt for them.
Read the rest at The Observer ….
Filed under: Counterintelligence, Espionage, USG
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India's national security adviser made a low-key visit to Washington this week to meet with a top aide to President-elect Donald Trump in a sign of New Delhi's desire to forge close ties with the incoming U.S. administration
The ex-NSA contractor faces prosecution in the United States for leaking classified secrets.
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The president-elect addressed the nuclear arsenal and the F-35 fighter and slapped down a U.N. resolution on Israel.
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It's a new job for the command whose elite forces hunt the Islamic State.
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