Friday, July 1, 2016

"The Obama administration is understandably trying to find some creative way to salvage its Syria policy in its final months. But the proposal that Obama offered Putin will have costs for the U.S. position vis-à-vis Russia as well as for the Syrian crisis long after Obama leaves office." - WP

It comes as pictures emerged of the three suicide bombers - seen smiling together just moments before they carried out the deadly massacre, killing 42 and injuring hundreds
...the three suicide bombers - seen smiling together just moments before they carried out the deadly massacre, killing 42 and injuring hundreds [in Istambul airport]. 


"The Obama administration is understandably trying to find some creative way to salvage its Syria policy in its final months. But the proposal that Obama offered Putin will have costs for the U.S. position vis-à-vis Russia as well as for the Syrian crisis long after Obama leaves office."

"As the influx of foreign fighters into Syria intensified in 2013, the total number of terrorist attacks registered inside Russia declined by 30%. The following year, when ISIS declared the creation of a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria, the number of terrorist attacks in Russia fell by half, according to the FSB, Russia’s state security service... 
The flight of Islamist recruits to Syria over the past few years may have brought a lull in terrorist activity on Russian soil. But that trend could quickly be reversed if those recruits start coming home with a few years of experience earned on the front lines in Syria and Iraq.

"U.S. intelligence agencies are convinced that Russian hackers who may be operating under orders from Vladimir Putin are preparing to release thousands of emails stolen from Hillary Clinton's private server... 
Russian intelligence is considered to be the most capable nation-state cyberespionage and cyberwarfare power, and its intelligence-gathering operations in the U.S. are said to be going at Cold War levels.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB intelligence officer schooled in the black arts of covert operations, would be the top authority to order the release of the Clinton emails, if in fact Moscow has obtained the tens of thousands of private emails.
A possible Russian motive for making public all the emails would be to undermine any Justice Department influence in the ongoing FBI investigation of the private email server, an investigation said by FBI sources to have expanded into whether the server was used improperly to boost the fortunes of the Clinton Foundation... 
Mr. Putin may being calculating that the release of some of the highly classified information within the emails could be used against Mrs. Clinton to influence the U.S. presidential election. Alternatively, Mr. Putin could use his access to the emails for blackmail should Mrs. Clinton win the election in November.
This is a story that sounds good but may be an effort by anti-Hillary intel officials to embarrass her." 

"While some legal experts said they believed that criminal indictments in the case were unlikely, the investigation continues to cast a shadow over Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign." 


"Apart from fierce partisans making a case for a litany of crimes she should face and certain defenders summarily dismissing all allegations of wrongdoing, there has been little sober, legal analysis of the issues... 

The reality as I see it is one that won’t entirely satisfy either side — that based on what we know today, she likely did violate government procedures and rules, but not the law... 
Based on what we know today, however, charging Clinton with Espionage would be overreaching to say the least... 
But based on what we do know from what has been made public, there doesn’t seem to be a legitimate basis for any sort of criminal charge against her... 
Hillary bashing is good clean political sport but a federal criminal indictment is serious business, saved for serious crimes and hopefully based on serious evidence, which as of yet, has not materialized."
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