The Root Causes of Mass Shootings
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The Root Causes of Mass Shootings in the U.S., and the shattering of illusions – by Michael Novakhov pic.twitter.com/DMrK7jCrlu
Posted by 
mikenov on Wednesday, November 8th, 2017 5:07pm
mikenov on Wednesday, November 8th, 2017 5:07pm
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4:55 AM 11/9/2017 – Mueller could indict Putin for multiple violations of American law | M.N.: Prepare the VIP prison cell at Rikers Island! pic.twitter.com/zP5cwQfudm
Posted by mikenov on Thursday, November 9th, 2017 10:41am
mikenov on Thursday, November 9th, 2017 10:41am
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Robert Manson, a supervisor in the FBI’s counterterrorism division, got drunk — allegedly — during a party with exotic dancers, better known as strippers, at a hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina, went to bed, woke up and found his service weapon missing.
This isn’t just embarrassing. It’s downright dangerous to innocent American citizens.
Cut to video, “When FBI Guys Go Crazy.” The subtitle? “FBI Follies: Following in the Footsteps of the Secret Service.”
Seriously. Could we please keep the federal law enforcement weapons out of the hands of strippers? Seems a simple request.
Here’s how the New York Times reports the story: “Manson, a unit chief in the F.B.I.’s international terrorism section, had his Glock .40-caliber handgun, a $6,000 Rolex watch and $60 cash stolen from his room at the Westin hotel in Charlotte. … Manson and other senior agents were in Charlotte for training … The agents later told the police that they had been drinking with women who said they were exotic dancers.”
Nice.
What a red-faced moment for the agency. To say the least.
Police officers for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department were called to investigate the thefts, during which they ascertained “Manson was incapacitated because of alcohol.”
In other words, he was stone-cold drunk — a stumbling, bumbling idiot.
“A fellow agent, Kevin Thuman, gave the report,” the New York Times went on.
And here’s the kicker — the red flag to watch.
“Federal law allows agents to carry concealed weapons while off duty, but not while they are intoxicated. … FBI rules prohibit agents from leaving their guns in unsecure places,” the newspaper reported. “No arrests have been made and police officers have not recovered the gun.”
Great. So an FBI agent’s gun is out there, floating around in some undisclosed circle — some undisclosed circle related to the field of stripping. And the cover-up at the federal level goes on. The incident occurred in July, post-James Comey and pre-Christopher Wray, when Andrew McCabe was interim agency director (McCabe, who’s married to the Democratic-donating, Hillary Clinton-loving Jill McCabe). Yet America’s taxpayers, the ones who pay, apparently, for FBI agents to get drunk and hang with strippers and compromise citizen security by losing their weapons, are just learning of it all now.
Remember when Secret Service agents went similarly wild?
As CNN noted in early 2015: “Gate-crashing agents make 4 Secret Service scandals in 3 years.”
The story detailed how the second-in-charge of Barack Obama’s presidential detail went out for a night of drinking and driving that ended only when the taxpayer-funded vehicle smashed into a White House barrier — and how agents serving in Colombia were caught in embarrassing throes of passion with local prostitutes, just feet from where Obama’s own hotel digs. That latter story came to light ‘cause the prostitutes were pissed they didn’t get paid.
Eight Secret Service agents lost their jobs over that public relations headache.
Now how about Manson?
Michael Kortan, a spokesman for the FBI, said the North Carolina hotel incident was under internal investigation. But come on now. It happened back in July — July 10, to be exact, according to Fox News.
Does it really take that long to review a hotel camera or two?
Regardless, this is more than embarrassing for the FBI. Citizen safety is at issue. There’s a missing weapon involved — a missing weapon the FBI let into the world. And try as the agency might to keep a lid on the whole shameful drunken partying hotel matter, fact is, if a citizen ends up being injured by this weapon, the FBI will be culpable. And that’s not just red-faced. That’s near-criminal.
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Russian Intelligence Service fire: Bblaze at Moscow secret service HQ | World | News | Express.co.uk
Syria's army declared victory over the Islamic State (ISIL) militant group on Thursday, saying its capture of the jihadists' last town in the country marked the collapse of their self-declared caliphate.
The army and its allies say they are still fighting ISIL in desert areas near the eastern town of Albu Kamal, which was the group's last major urban stronghold in Syria.
Government troops earlier linked up with Iraqi forces at the border after taking the nearby city of al-Qaim.
ISIL already l…
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2017/11/09/syria-declares-victory-over-islamic-state-group
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2017/11/09/syria-declares-victory-over-islamic-state-group
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Rep. McCaul speaks out on the ongoing technology hurdles facing law enforcement.
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Ditto for Dylann Roof, the racist who murdered nine African-American churchgoers in South Carolina in 2015, and Christopher Harper-Mercer, the angry young man who killed nine people at a community college in Oregon the same year.
Nor does anything in these criminals’ history — including domestic violence, like Mr. Kelley’s — serve to reliably predict their spectacularly cruel acts. Even if spree killers have committed domestic violence disproportionately more often — and this assertion is in dispute — the vast majority of men who are guilty of that crime never proceed to mass murder.
Most mass murderers instead belong to a rogue’s gallery of the disgruntled and aggrieved, whose anger and intentions wax and wane over time, eventually curdling into violence in the wake of some perceived humiliation.
“In almost all high-end mass killings, the perpetrator’s thinking evolves,” said Kevin Cameron, executive director of the Canadian Center for Threat Assessment and Trauma Response.
“They have a passing thought. They think about it more, they fantasize, they slowly build a justification. They prepare, and then when the right set of circumstances comes along, it unleashes the rage.”
This evolution proceeds rationally and logically, at least in the murderer’s mind. The unthinkable becomes thinkable, then inevitable.
Researchers define mass killings as an event leaving four or more dead at the same place and time. These incidents occur at an average of about one a day across the United States; few make national headlines.
At least half of the perpetrators die in the act, either by committing suicide (Mr. Kelley is said to have shot himself in the head) or being felled by police.
Analyzing his database, Dr. Stone has concluded that about 65 percent of mass killers exhibited no evidence of a severe mental disorder; 22 percent likely had psychosis, the delusional thinking and hallucinations that characterize schizophrenia, or sometimes accompany mania and severe depression. (The remainder likely had depressive or antisocial traits.)
Among the psychotic, he counts Jared Loughner, the Arizona man who shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat of Arizona, and 18 others in 2011. By most accounts, including his own, Mr. Loughner was becoming increasingly delusional.
Adam Lanza, who in 2012 killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., exhibited extreme paranoia in the months leading up to his crime, isolating himself in his room.
But what to make of John Robert Neumann Jr., who in June shot and killed five former co-workers at a warehouse in Orlando before turning the gun on himself? Mr. Neumann was not overtly psychotic, as far as anyone knows, and this is far more typical of the men who commit mass killings generally.
“The majority of the killers were disgruntled workers or jilted lovers who were acting on a deep sense of injustice,” and not mentally ill, Dr. Stone said of his research.
In a 2016 analysis of 71 lone-actor terrorists and 115 mass killers, researchers convened by the Department of Justice found the rate of psychotic disorders to be about what Dr. Stone had discovered: roughly 20 percent.
The overall rate of any psychiatric history among mass killers — including such probable diagnoses as depression, learning disabilities or A.D.H.D. — was 48 percent.
About two-thirds of this group had faced “long-term stress,” like trouble at school or keeping a job, failure in business, or disabling physical injuries from, say, a car accident.
Substance abuse was also common: More than 40 percent had problems with alcohol, marijuana or other drugs.
Looking at both studies, and using data from his own work, J. Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist who consults with the F.B.I., has identified what he believes is a common thread: a “paranoid spectrum,” he calls it.
At the extreme end is full-on psychosis of the Loughner variety. But the majority of people on this spectrum are not deeply ill; rather, they are injustice collectors. They are prone to perceive insults and failures as cumulative, and often to blame them on one person or one group.
“If you have this paranoid streak, this vigilance, this sense that others have been persecuting you for years, there’s an accumulation of maltreatment and an intense urge to stop that persecution,” Dr. Meloy said.
“That may never happen. The person may never act on the urge. But when they do, typically there’s a triggering event. It’s a loss in love or work — something that starts a clock ticking, that starts the planning.”
Mental health treatment might make a difference for the one in five murderers who have severe mental disorders, experts say. Prevention is also possible in a few other cases — for instance, if the perpetrators make overt threats and those threats are reported.
But other factors must be weighed.
“In my large file of mass murders, if you look decade by decade, the numbers of victims are fairly small up until the 1960s,” said Dr. Stone. “That’s when the deaths start going way up. When the AK-47s and the Kalashnikovs and the Uzis — all these semiautomatic weapons, when they became so easily accessible.”
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President Trump on Tuesday quickly sought to distance himself from Republican gubernatorial hopeful Ed Gillespie in the Virginia governor’s race as Democrat Ralph Northam was projected to win by multiple news outlets. “Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for,” Trump said on Twitter in the midst of his […]
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Fox News Trump met over the summer with Putin at the G-20 summit in Germany. The U.S. and Russia have since been in a diplomatic tit-for-tat, all while the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign escalates. Tillerson ... Serafin ... |
The blaze ripped through part of the secret service facility in Yasenevo, Moscow.
Local media reported 15 fire crews had been sent to battle the flames.
Workers were evacuated as the fire raged.
It is thought the fire affected a two-storey building in the complex, situated on the outskirts of Moscow.
Colonel Sergei Ivanov, a spokesman for the spy agency, later said the fire happened at one of the service's "technical installations.
He later said the fire had been extinguished, and there were no casualties.
Russian media, quoting unnamed sources in the emergency services, said that the fire broke out in a cable gallery under the spy service's headquarters.
The job was made more complex by the fact that mobile communication is blocked at the centre.
The country’s Foreign Intelligence Service, a successor to the KGB, is the centre for the regime’s spy network, directing espionage activities outside the country.
Its building complex has doubled in size in recent years.
The service is led by Mikhail Fradkov, an ex-diplomat who is thought to have served with the KGB.
More than a decade before he became Donald Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort started advising another future president, Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine. That relationship would lead him into a network of Russian and pro-Russian business and political interests, netting him millions of dollars.
On Monday, it led to his surrender to the FBI to face criminal charges in the widening investigation into the Trump campaign’s connections to Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
While the White House said that the indictment of Manafort and his longtime business partner had nothing to do with President Trump or his campaign, Manafort’s Ukrainian connections put him near the center of a political drama that experts say became a prelude to Russia’s eventual determination to interfere in the presidential election.
In interviews for the film Putin’s Revenge, FRONTLINE’s months-long investigation into the origins of Russia’s electoral meddling, former U.S. diplomats, intelligence officials, historians, and Russian and American journalists singled out protests in 2014 to oust Yanukovych as a pivotal moment for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who blamed the Obama administration for the unrest.
It was in Ukraine, that Putin would test out a new type of “hybrid” warfare, a strategy combining diplomatic and military deception along with cyber attacks and efforts to sow confusion through propaganda and “fake news” – foreshadowing what would eventually transpire in the U.S. elections two years later.
As demonstrators marched on the Ukrainian capital, hackers intercepted a phone call between Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. On the call, Nuland appeared to signal a preference for a new government in Ukraine and uttered a profanity about the European Union, a key American ally during negotiations over the crisis.
Intercepting diplomatic communications was nothing new. But the subsequent leak of the conversation, experts said, was designed to create division between U.S. negotiators and the EU.
“Clearly they were looking to discredit me personally as the main negotiator at that time to thereby reduce U.S. influence,” Nuland told FRONTLINE.
“In retrospect, some people think we should have taken this a lot more seriously than we did … Because it was the first demonstration that Russia was willing and able to use techniques against the United States that it had previously not dared to attempt,” Evan Osnos of The New Yorker said in an interview with FRONTLINE.
Ukraine would also become a testing ground for using disinformation as a weapon, most notably, in Putin’s denials after Russian forces moved into the Ukrainian territory of Crimea. The forces numbered in the thousands, and although they wore Russian-style combat uniforms, the uniforms lacked Russian insignia, providing the Kremlin a measure of deniability.
“This is a classic example of [Russia] using asymmetric tactics,” said Antony Blinken, who served as deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017. “It sent in small numbers of special forces who allied themselves with local separatists, gave them instruction, gave them equipment, gave them money, gave them direction, and then Putin denied their presence.”
“It was striking,” added Blinken. “We would be in the Oval Office, and the president would be on the phone with Putin, and Putin would be denying, and in fact, flat-out lying, about Russia’s presence in Ukraine. Obama would say to him, ‘Vladimir, we’re not blind. We have eyes. We can see.’ And Putin would just move on as if nothing had happened.”
Based on the success of his efforts in Ukraine, by the start of the 2016 election, Putin saw a ripe opportunity for intervention in the U.S. election, according to interviews for Putin’s Revenge.
One reason was Trump’s public praise of Putin and the involvement in the Trump campaign of officials with ties to Russia. These included Manafort, a longtime Republican political operative who had worked as a political consultant to Yanukovych and his pro-Russia Party of Regions.
Manafort was brought onto the Trump campaign in 2016 to help keep GOP delegates from breaking with Trump. Just three months later, he was promoted to the role of chief strategist and campaign manager. In August, Manafort was fired following reports about his business dealings in Ukraine, but not before raising Russia’s profile within the candidate’s team.
“Manafort has these connections to Putin-friendly forces in Eastern Europe, so the campaign suddenly started to reflect more of Manafort’s instincts than the disorienting Trump instincts on foreign policy that we saw earlier in the campaign,” said Robert Costa, a national political reporter for The Washington Post. “There wasn’t really a Russia view from Trump or his campaign team until the summer of 2016, the spring of 2016, when Manafort comes on.”
Manafort not only “spent years in Ukrainian politics,” he also “became close to Russian oligarchs,” according to Ryan Lizza, the Washington correspondent for The New Yorker.
“If you’re Putin, you’re saying: ‘Huh, OK. This is a whole new team. This is not Hillary Clinton and her circle of anti-Putin hawks. This is a group of people that knows that region, is skeptical of NATO, and is probably willing to reach out to Moscow,’” said Lizza.
President Trump is now trying to distance himself from Manafort, saying in a tweet on Monday, “Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign.” But the 31-page indictment alleges that for nearly a decade — including while he running the Trump campaign — Manafort and his longtime business partner, Rick Gates, used overseas shell companies to launder millions of dollars earned while lobbying on behalf of pro-Russian officials in the Ukrainian government. The two men were also charged with making false statements and other counts. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Putin and the Kremlin have denied any involvement in the U.S. election. But the case against Manafort and Gates is just part of the intensifying Russia probe, which now also includes the cooperation of a former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, George Papadopoulos, who admitted lying to the F.B.I. about how he sought to meet with Russians offering “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.
Of particular interest to investigators will be what Trump officials knew about Papadopoulos’s contacts with Russians ahead of a June meeting at Trump Tower between Russians who were promising damaging information on Clinton and senior members of the Trump campaign, including the candidate’s eldest son and Manafort.
Court documents released Monday show that Papadopoulos informed members of the Trump campaign about his conversations with the Russians. What the documents leave out, however, is whether Papadopoulos informed campaign officials about a conversation in which he was told by that Moscow had “dirt” on Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails.”
Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told FRONTLINE that the Trump Tower meeting suggested that its members had previous knowledge about what the Russian government wanted to achieve.
“It’s significant because a whole context of the meeting was set up under the premise, ‘We have some dirt to give you on Hillary Clinton as a part of our effort to help elect Donald Trump,'” he said. “It was part of the Russian government’s effort to help Donald Trump. That suggests a prior relationship, prior work, prior communication about what the Russian government hopes an effort was designed to accomplish.”
In their initial response to the meeting, Trump officials did not say whether the presidential campaign was discussed, but maintained that the conversation focused “primarily” on the issue of Russian adoptions. The New York Times later reported that Trump officials attended the meeting after a trusted intermediary told Trump’s eldest son that a senior Russian government official was offering documents that “would incriminate Hillary … and would be very useful to your father.”
Donald Trump Jr. responded, “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.” Trump Jr. agreed to the meeting and said he would bring colleagues, including “Paul Manafort (campaign boss).
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And there are some easy ways to address it.
RT |
Russian intelligence building in Moscow catches fire
Daily Sabah A building used by Russia's foreign spy service on the outskirts of Moscow caught fire Wednesday, Russia's RIA news agency quoted the service as saying. Colonel Sergei Ivanov, a spokesman for the External Intelligence Service, one of the successor ... Fire breaks out at Russian foreign intel service facility in Moscow, reports of people trappedRT Fire in Russian foreign spy buildingThe Sun Daily Russia: Fire flares at spy agency headquarters; no injuriesWashington Post all 7 news articles » |
Express.co.uk |
Russian Intelligence Service fire - Huge blaze at Moscow secret service HQ
Express.co.uk Colonel Sergei Ivanov, a spokesman for the spy agency, later said the fire happened at one of the service's "technical installations. He later said the fire had been extinguished, and there were no casualties. Russian media, quoting unnamed sources in ... Fire breaks out at Russian foreign intel service facility in Moscow (VIDEO)RT Russian intelligence building in Moscow catches fireDaily Sabah Russia: Fire flares at spy agency headquarters; no injuriesABC News Newsmax -The Australian all 9 news articles » |
Compton Herald |
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at a glance
Compton Herald Organizational Structure and Budget: The FBI is a field-oriented organization in which nine divisions and three offices at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., provide program direction and support services to 56 field offices, approximately 400 ... |
Saved Stories Trump Investigations Twitter Searches Saved Stories – None HOLY SHIT!! I would love to see this Brent Budowsky: Mueller could indict Putin – The Hill #MuellerTime #LockHimUp https://apple.news/An1O7nwyeSgm2Gezz1NpzBw Conspiracy against the US” or otherwise Treason! Get ready for prison It was his buddy Vlad Putin calling wasn’t it? #indict This should not even … Continue reading "Vox Populi: HOLY SHIT!! I would love to see this: “Brent Budowsky: Mueller could indict Putin” – The Hill | Trump Investigations Twitter Searches"
HOLY SHIT!! I would love to see this— Brent Budowsky: Mueller could indict Putin - The Hill #MuellerTime #LockHimUp https://apple.news/An1O7nwyeSgm2Gezz1NpzBw …
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Brent Budowsky: Mueller could indict Putin
The Hill-11 hours ago
Based on publicly available evidence there is a compelling case that special counsel Robert Mueller could indict Russian dictator Vladimir ...
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At first glance, the indictments issued October 30 against former ... There are many ties linking Team Trump to Team Putin, and Gates and ...
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He indicted former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his ... He tried to set up a meeting between Trump and Vladimir Putin, and had ...
Manafort Indictment Reveals Trump Russia Collusion.
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Manafort and Gates Under House Arrest, John Kelly says Robert E ...
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Based on publicly available evidence there is a compelling case that special counsel Robert Mueller could indict Russian dictator Vladimir Putin for crimes involving multiple violations of American law, as the U.S. once indicted former Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega.
_____________________________________
All Americans, including all Republicans serving in Congress, must fully understand the dangerous implications of the continuing covert war waged against American democracy, in violation of American law, by Russian operatives acting under the command and control of Putin.
Were Mueller and his special counsel team to name Putin as an unindicted co-conspirator, and publicly detail the full list of crimes that have been committed during these attacks against American democracy, they would offer America and the world a breathtaking case that every democratic citizen must fully understand.
Reasonable people hope that relations between America and Russia can be restored to normalcy and mutually beneficial relations can be established between our nations. This can only happen when Putin ends his war against American democracy, which American intelligence, counterintelligence and law enforcement agencies warn is continuing today. These crimes appear designed to continue against our national unity, national security and national elections in 2018 and 2020, with ever-growing attacks and ever-increasing violations of American law.
Robert Mueller and his special counsel team offer the great bulwark of protection and defense against this attack against our country by a hostile power that wishes us ill. It is the truth that sets our nation free and the law that protects our nation’s security as much as guns, bombs and courageous troops.
For these reasons, Congress should make it clear that any effort by President Trump to fire Mueller or grant pardons to those who are found guilty or suspected of crimes involving this Russian attack against America would constitute an impeachable offense. The president’s supporters in Congress state that this will not happen. Hopefully they are right, but the fact that these actions would bring the most severe legal and constitutional consequences should be made crystal clear to the president and his advisers today.
Some who travel in Trump circles are facing a cold Russian winter in the American justice system. There have already been two indictments and one major plea bargain. Almost certainly there will be more of both in the coming weeks and months.
There is no need to list the well-known names who have been the subject of speculation, and there is a need to reiterate that no guilt or innocence has yet been determined about anyone.
However, it is self-destructive and damaging to America for the president to constantly attack, criticize, berate or undermine the work of legal or congressional authorities investigating the Russian crimes against democracy.
It would be an abuse of power for the president to pressure the Justice Department or FBI to initiate a wrongful attack against a political opponent such as Hillary Clinton. Readers should revisit the articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon, passed by the House Judiciary Committee in 1974, to understand the grave implications of this presidential conduct.
The fact is: Putin hated Clinton. The truth is: Putin worked to elect Trump. Any lie to the contrary does no service to the political or legal interests of the president. Nor do partisan Republican actions in Congress that misuse taxpayer money to continue legislative vendettas against Clinton, which will not succeed in diverting the crucial investigations of the Russian attacks against America and do not provide any defense for those under suspicion in them.
Robert Mueller and his special counsel team are the vital bulwarks of American democracy under attack from Russian aggression. The innocent should be cleared. The guilty should be convicted. The truth should be revealed. The Russian attacks must end.
Were Mueller and his special counsel team to name Putin as an unindicted co-conspirator, and publicly detail the full list of crimes that have been committed during these attacks against American democracy, they would offer America and the world a breathtaking case that every democratic citizen must fully understand.
Reasonable people hope that relations between America and Russia can be restored to normalcy and mutually beneficial relations can be established between our nations. This can only happen when Putin ends his war against American democracy, which American intelligence, counterintelligence and law enforcement agencies warn is continuing today. These crimes appear designed to continue against our national unity, national security and national elections in 2018 and 2020, with ever-growing attacks and ever-increasing violations of American law.
Robert Mueller and his special counsel team offer the great bulwark of protection and defense against this attack against our country by a hostile power that wishes us ill. It is the truth that sets our nation free and the law that protects our nation’s security as much as guns, bombs and courageous troops.
For these reasons, Congress should make it clear that any effort by President Trump to fire Mueller or grant pardons to those who are found guilty or suspected of crimes involving this Russian attack against America would constitute an impeachable offense. The president’s supporters in Congress state that this will not happen. Hopefully they are right, but the fact that these actions would bring the most severe legal and constitutional consequences should be made crystal clear to the president and his advisers today.
Some who travel in Trump circles are facing a cold Russian winter in the American justice system. There have already been two indictments and one major plea bargain. Almost certainly there will be more of both in the coming weeks and months.
There is no need to list the well-known names who have been the subject of speculation, and there is a need to reiterate that no guilt or innocence has yet been determined about anyone.
However, it is self-destructive and damaging to America for the president to constantly attack, criticize, berate or undermine the work of legal or congressional authorities investigating the Russian crimes against democracy.
It would be an abuse of power for the president to pressure the Justice Department or FBI to initiate a wrongful attack against a political opponent such as Hillary Clinton. Readers should revisit the articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon, passed by the House Judiciary Committee in 1974, to understand the grave implications of this presidential conduct.
The fact is: Putin hated Clinton. The truth is: Putin worked to elect Trump. Any lie to the contrary does no service to the political or legal interests of the president. Nor do partisan Republican actions in Congress that misuse taxpayer money to continue legislative vendettas against Clinton, which will not succeed in diverting the crucial investigations of the Russian attacks against America and do not provide any defense for those under suspicion in them.
Robert Mueller and his special counsel team are the vital bulwarks of American democracy under attack from Russian aggression. The innocent should be cleared. The guilty should be convicted. The truth should be revealed. The Russian attacks must end.
Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was chief deputy majority whip of the U.S. House of Representatives. He holds an LLM in international financial law from the London School of Economics.
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By Brent Budowsky, opinion contributor — 11/08/17 06:54 PM EST
The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill
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RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty |
Security Experts Chide West On 'Limited And Weak' Response To Russia
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty In a declaration initiated by the Prague-based think tank European Values titled How The Democratic West Should Stop Putin, some 70 experts said steps need to be taken to halt Russian President Vladimir Putin's plan to play "divide and rule in the ... |
Президент провёл совещание с постоянными членами Совета Безопасности.
Обсуждались текущие вопросы внутрироссийской социально-экономической повестки дня. Состоялось также обсуждение в рамках подготовки к участию главы Российского государства в саммите АТЭС во Вьетнаме и к его двусторонним контактам, запланированным на полях саммита.
В совещании приняли участие Председатель Совета Федерации Валентина Матвиенко, Председатель Государственной Думы Вячеслав Володин, Руководитель Администрации Президента Антон Вайно, Министр обороны Сергей Шойгу, Министр внутренних дел Владимир Колокольцев, директор Федеральной службы безопасности Александр Бортников, директор Службы внешней разведки Сергей Нарышкин, спецпредставитель Президента по вопросам природоохранной деятельности, экологии и транспорта Сергей Иванов.
Who Leaked the Paradise Papers?
Wall Street Journal-Nov 7, 2017
With the latest leak of international financial records comes evidence ... won't be investigated—the theft of the papers themselves from Appleby, ...
Queen's offshore tax investments exposed in leaked Paradise Papers
International-Worcester News-Nov 5, 2017
International-Worcester News-Nov 5, 2017
The Guardian view on the Paradise Papers: a light on murky dealings
Opinion-The Guardian-Nov 6, 2017
Opinion-The Guardian-Nov 6, 2017
Paradise Papers: Trump's Commerce Secretary Has Ties to Putin ...
Blog-Slate Magazine (blog)-Nov 5, 2017
Blog-Slate Magazine (blog)-Nov 5, 2017
Is the consortium of journalists fronting for an intelligence agency?
It’s clear Moscow wanted to help Trump, but which campaign officials knew this and did they cooperate?
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Plans for new bases would defend against Russian subs and speed troops across Europe during war.
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Yesterday was filled with legal bombshells for President Donald Trump. As expected, after months of investigation into the White House’s ties to Moscow, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team announced three arrests and indictments. Together, these cases have fundamentally shifted the game in our nation’s capital—very much to the president’s detriment.
The arrest of Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager in the summer of 2016 who secured him the Republican Party’s nomination, was expected by many. For months, rumors had swirled around Manafort, given his longstanding and unsavory ties to Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs, compounded by his barely concealed links to Kremlin intelligence, as I reported three months before the November 2016 election.
Manafort has surrendered to the FBI and faces a dozen federal charges relating to financial crimes including money laundering, failing to register as a foreign agent, plus neglecting to report foreign cash to the IRS. These charges are serious and will be difficult for Manafort to beat, leading to speculation that what Mueller really wants is Manafort’s cooperation against Team Trump—which may be the 68-year-old’s only alternative to dying in prison.
Rick Gates, a Manafort protégé and 2016 Trump campaign associate, has also surrendered to the Feds and is facing a raft of charges relating to money laundering. Gates also played a key role in President Trump’s inauguration and pushed the White House’s agenda as a lobbyist until April of this year, when questions about Gates’ ties to the Kremlin made his position untenable.
On cue, the White House protested that they barely know Manafort and Gates—a transparent falsehood—while stating that their alleged crimes have nothing directly to do with the president. The latter may be technically true, but difficult questions lurk regarding why Donald Trump wanted someone as unsavory and Moscow-connected as Paul Manafort to head his campaign, particularly since the longtime swamp denizen Manafort’s links to Eastern oligarchs were an open secret in Washington.
Read the rest at The Observer …
Filed under: Counterintelligence, Espionage, USG
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This week began with the bombshell legal news that Special Counsel Robert Mueller brought charges against members of Team Trump relating to their illicit ties to Moscow. As I explained, this fundamentally changes the game in our nation’s capital, and the White House is struggling to cope with this new environment, which finds the president on the defensive, awaiting further indictments of his associates.
No aspect of this week’s news is more mysterious than the saga of “the Professor”—in reality, Joseph Mifsud, a Maltese national—who served as the hush-hush go-between for the Trump campaign and the Kremlin in the spring of 2016. Notably, he acted as Moscow’s cut-out for contacts with George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy advisor hired by the Trump campaign in the late winter of 2016.
Mifsud’s role is crystal-clear to anyone versed in Russian espionage tradecraft, what the Kremlin calls konspiratsiya (yes, “conspiracy”). He is a secret operative of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR, as I elaborated:
Papadopoulos met “the Professor” in Italy in mid-March 2016, then again in London later that month; on the latter occasion “the Professor” brought along a Russian female, allegedly Putin’s niece, to help facilitate the engagement. Papadopoulos emailed the campaign about the success of this meeting, which responded enthusiastically about what had transpired and on March 31, he participated in a national security meeting in Washington that included campaign principals, with Trump himself present.
But Misfud’s role soon moved into even darker territory:
Read the rest at The Observer …
Filed under: Counterintelligence, Espionage, USG
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Today's Headlines and Commentary by Garrett Hinck
In a speech to South Korean lawmakers, President Donald Trump warned North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un not to underestimate the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a portion of the address directed at Kim, Trump called for Pyongyang to end its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Heavy fog forced Trump to cancel a surprise visit to the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea, the New York Times reported.
Trump then headed to China, arriving on Wednesday. He plans to ask Chinese President Xi Jinping to increase economic pressure on Pyongyang, according to the Times. Xi opened Trump’s visit by offering a series of business deals and a private tour of the Forbidden City, but Trump and Xi may struggle to find common ground on both trade and measures against North Korea, the Journal reported.
The Senate banking committee approved a bill that would impose harsh new sanctions on Chinese financial institutions assisting North Korea, Foreign Policy reported. The bipartisan legislation targets companies that help North Korea evade sanctions. Sen. Chris Van Hollen said it would put “some real teeth” in sanctions.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief received assurances from U.S. lawmakers that they plan to comply with the Iran nuclear deal, Reuters reported. Federica Mogherini said congressional officials told her their intention is to keep the U.S. in the agreement.
Russia criticized a U.N. report that labeled the Syrian government as responsible for the April chemical weapons attack in Khan Sheikhoun, the Times reported. Russia’s representative to the Security Council faulted U.N. investigators for not visiting the site of the attack. The U.S. and the United Kingdom supported the report’s findings. Russia and the U.S. have circulated conflicting resolutions to extend the investigators’ mandate.
Spain’s constitutional court officially struck down Catalonia’s declaration of independence, according toReuters. The move formally ended the autonomous region’s bid for separation from Spain.
Saudi Arabia expanded its crackdown on political corruption, targeting up to $800 billion of assets belonging to dozens of princes and businessmen, the Journal reported. The anti-corruption push has frozen the accounts of political opponents of the crown prince. Their seized assets may bring in billions to the Saudi government. Separately, Saudi airstrikes killed dozens of civilians in northern Yemen, including women and children, Al Jazeera reported. The strikes targeted Houthi rebel group villages.
Lebanon’s prime minister remained in Saudi Arabia, prolonging a political crisis in Beirut, the Journal reported. Saadi Hariri said he resigned his post on Sunday in Riyadh, but Lebanon’s president said he would not accept the resignation until Hariri returns freely to Beirut. Hariri visited the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday but then returned to Saudi Arabia. The leader of Hezbollah, one of Hariri’s political opponents, said he believed Saudi Arabia was holding Hariri against his will.
The Philippines halted construction on a small island in the South China Sea to avoid angering China,the Times reported. President Rodrigo Duterte ordered military construction on a sandbar in the Spratly Islands to cease after Chinese officials put pressure on the Philippines to stop its building efforts.
Mike Pompeo, the CIA director, met with a former intelligence official who advocates the unsupported idea that Russian intelligence services did not hack the Democratic National Convention (DNC), the Intercept reported. Pompeo met with William Binney, a former NSA official turned critic, to discuss Binney’s paper arguing that a DNC insider committed the hack, not Russian spies. According to Binney, Pompeo told him Trump urged Pompeo to take the meeting.
Politico’s Cory Bennett wrote about one international accord the Trump administration is keeping: the U.S.-China cyber espionage agreement.
The Times’ Paul Mozer detailed how China uses Facebook to spread propaganda abroad.
Politico’s Josh Gerstein covered the released audio of George Papadopoulos’ July arraignment.
ICYMI: Yesterday on Lawfare
Paul Rosenzweig flagged the American Bar Association’s newly released cybersecurity handbook for lawyers.
J. Dana Stuster updated the Middle East Ticker, covering the power play in Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s aggressive foreign policy moves.
Mieke Eoyang, Ben Freeman, Adam Twardowski and Benjamin Wittes analyzed survey data on public confidence in the president and the military on specific national security issues.
Sarah Grant summarized military commissions hearings from last Thursday and Friday, covering the habeas petition for Brig. Gen. John Baker.
Tamara Cofman Wittes and Brian Reeves analyzed policy options for reconstructing the newly captured city of Raqqa.
Robert Chesney and Steve Vladeck shared the National Security Law Podcast, covering developments in the Mueller investigation, military commissions news, and the ‘hybrid model’ of detainee interrogation and prosecution.
Vanessa Sauter posted the Lawfare Podcast, featuring a discussion between Benjamin Wittes and Susan Landau on her new book “Listening In.”
Email the Roundup Team noteworthy law and security-related articles to include, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook for additional commentary on these issues. Sign up to receive Lawfare in your inbox. Visit our Events Calendar to learn about upcoming national security events, and check out relevant job openings on our Job Board.
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“Mass Shootings Don’t Have to Be Inevitable”, just like the New York Times does not have to pontificate all the time. – M.N. Mass Shootings Don’t Have to Be Inevitable Tuesday November 7th, 2017 at 7:38 PM 1 Share Sound familiar? It does to American citizens who must regularly study these bloody rituals and be left by political … Continue reading "7:43 PM 11/7/2017 – “Mass Shootings Don’t Have to Be Inevitable”, just like the New York Times does not have to pontificate all the time. – M.N. "
4:28 PM 11/7/2017 – The Root Causes of Mass Shootings in the U.S.: In my opinion: If you admit as the hypothetical explanatory option the hostile special intelligence operation nature of the mass killings, and it is impossible not to consider this scenario as an, if not the (in majority of cases) explanation, then all the sociological and … Continue reading "4:28 PM 11/7/2017 – The Root Causes of Mass Shootings in the U.S., in my opinion – M.N. | NYT Shows How Not to Analyze Mass-Shooting Data – National Review"
Download audio: https://av.voanews.com/clips/VEN/2017/11/06/20171106-070000-VEN119-program_hq.mp3
Download audio: https://av.voanews.com/clips/VEN/2017/11/06/20171106-190000-VEN119-program_hq.mp3
Download audio: https://av.voanews.com/clips/VEN/2017/11/06/20171106-070000-VEN119-program_hq.mp3
Download audio: https://av.voanews.com/clips/VEN/2017/11/06/20171106-190000-VEN119-program_hq.mp3
Joan Sutherland “Casta diva” from “Norma” 2:13 PM 11/7/2017 – Interpretation update: “Sutherland Springs Only Happens to Be in Texas”, and it produces a lot of “Joan Sutherlands”, such as “Papa-whom?”…November 7, 2017 2:13 PM 11/7/2017 – Interpretation update: “Sutherland Springs Only Happens to Be in Texas“, and it produces a lot of “Joan Sutherlands”, such … Continue reading "3:39 PM 11/7/2017 – Interpretation update: “Sutherland Springs Only Happens to Be in Texas”, and it produces a lot of “Joan Sutherlands”…"
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One year ago, Donald Trump won a surprise victory in the US presidential election, sending shockwaves around the world. Since then, the line has been drawn further in the sand with more and Americans pushed to extremes of either loving President Trump or loathing him. In this special edition of Inside The Amercias, we take a closer look at Trump's Divided States of America.
Twelve months after his election as president of the United States, the billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump continues to cause controversy, through his tweets, his relations with the media and his divisive policies.
With Donald Trump as US president, many minority groups have gone from being protected under the Obama administration to feeling persecuted. Our reporters Philip Crowther and Sonia Dridi have been to the north-eastern city of Baltimore, where some live in very real fear of what Trump’s years in power could bring.
►► On France24.com: Civil rights in the Trump era: Has the White House abandoned American values?
Also, Genie Godula speaks to Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of independent non-profit publication, the Columbia Journalism Review. He explains why 2017 has been "The Year That Changed Journalism" following Trump's election.
Meanwhile, in California, Trump voters are finding it increasingly difficult to live in a state that is a Democratic stronghold. They say they have been ostracized, to the point where some of them have actually decided to leave and move to a more conservative state. Our correspondents Valérie Defert, Romain Jany and Haydé FitzPatrick report from Los Angeles.
Finally, we discover a pop-up store with a difference, where two female activists are calling for resistance to Trump through art.
http://www.france24.com/en/taxonomy/emission/18023
Twelve months after his election as president of the United States, the billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump continues to cause controversy, through his tweets, his relations with the media and his divisive policies.
With Donald Trump as US president, many minority groups have gone from being protected under the Obama administration to feeling persecuted. Our reporters Philip Crowther and Sonia Dridi have been to the north-eastern city of Baltimore, where some live in very real fear of what Trump’s years in power could bring.
►► On France24.com: Civil rights in the Trump era: Has the White House abandoned American values?
Also, Genie Godula speaks to Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of independent non-profit publication, the Columbia Journalism Review. He explains why 2017 has been "The Year That Changed Journalism" following Trump's election.
Meanwhile, in California, Trump voters are finding it increasingly difficult to live in a state that is a Democratic stronghold. They say they have been ostracized, to the point where some of them have actually decided to leave and move to a more conservative state. Our correspondents Valérie Defert, Romain Jany and Haydé FitzPatrick report from Los Angeles.
Finally, we discover a pop-up store with a difference, where two female activists are calling for resistance to Trump through art.
http://www.france24.com/en/taxonomy/emission/18023
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Fox News |
New York City Marathon features massive security effort after deadly truck attack
Fox News Despite widespread news reports and images of the trail of bodies left by the truck attack, the cancellation rate has remained about the same, he said. Boston Marathon organizers, working with local, state and federal law enforcement, also ... Over 2 Million Turn Out For 2017 TCS New York City Marathon Less Than One Week After Lower Manhattan Terror AttackCBS New York New York City Marathon taking place in the wake of deadly truck attackABC News New York marathoners undaunted by deadly truck attackReuters The Week Magazine -WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports | Fort Lauderdale all 479 news articles » |
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