Trump Reasserts Tough Line on Immigrationby webdesk@voanews.com (Jim Malone)
If you are waiting for a kinder, gentler Donald Trump on immigration, don’t hold your breath. In what may have been a pivotal day in the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump doubled down on his tough stance on illegal immigration in Phoenix, Arizona late Wednesday, just hours after presenting a more presidential persona in a meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. Trump outlined an aggressive 10-point plan to stop illegal immigration during his rally, reminding voters of the central issue in his rise to claim the Republican Party’s presidential nomination. Trump’s main focus was on removing criminal elements who had entered the country illegally, and he reiterated his pledge to build a border wall with Mexico and have that country pay for it. Looking for a softer reboot Some moderate Republicans have been pushing Trump to soften his tone on immigration, especially his previous vow to deport the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants who have come into the country over the past several years. Illegal immigration has been Trump's signature issue since he launched his presidential campaign in June of last year. His sometimes divisive rhetoric has also alienated large numbers of Hispanic voters, according to numerous public opinion polls. At the moment, Trump is running behind the levels of support from Hispanic voters accorded to the 2012 Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, and the 2008 nominee, John McCain. Trump seemed to take a firm line in his speech on Wednesday, harkening back to his tough rhetoric during the primary season. “For those here illegally today who are seeking legal status, they will have one route and one route only - to return home and apply for re-entry like everybody else. We will break the cycle of amnesty and illegal immigration. We will break the cycle.” Abrupt about-face Trump’s aggressive stance was a swift change from hours earlier when he met with President Pena Nieto in Mexico City. Trump said they discussed the border wall but not who would pay for it. Pena Nieto did not challenge Trump’s account during their joint press appearance but later said on Twitter he told Trump at the outset of their meeting that Mexico would not pay for the wall. The Hillary Clinton campaign blasted Trump’s Arizona speech in a written statement and accused Trump of “doubling down on his anti-immigrant rhetoric” and attempt at “demonizing immigrants.” Candidate Clinton has also been warning voters of late to beware of any Trump efforts to moderate his rhetoric or policy positions. “And now Trump is trying to rebrand himself as well. But don’t be fooled. There is an old Mexican proverb that says, tell me with whom you walk and I will tell you who you are. Well, we know who Trump is,” Clinton told supporters at a recent rally in Reno, Nevada. Clinton continues to lead Trump in national and key state polls, although some recent national polls have grown tighter. Trump, however, appears to be struggling to broaden his base of support beyond the groups he appealed to in the Republican primaries, according to Georgetown University analyst Stephen Wayne. “Because he appealed to an angry segment of the Republican Party, which is not necessarily the country as a whole. This general election seems to be a referendum for or against Trump. And he won it in the primaries and he’s losing it in the general election because of the very appeals he made in the primaries.” Clinton's high negatives Clinton has some problems of her own. The Trump campaign hammers her on a daily basis for refusing to hold a news conference. And recent polls show an increase in voters who don’t consider her trustworthy, another factor that may explain why Clinton’s lead may be slipping. “Hillary Clinton has massive flaws,” said Jeremy Mayer, an assistant professor of government at George Mason University in Virginia. “And had the Republicans nominated a typical Republican, not a former President Ronald Reagan but just your average politician, the race would probably be neck-and-neck right now, given her vulnerabilities.” Trump’s latest affirmation of his strong stand against illegal immigration may buttress his support among his political base; but, Georgetown’s Stephen Wayne argued that Trump has yet to unify the Republican Party behind his candidacy. “So he has to solidify the Republican base, and he has not done that as yet, and two, he has to reach beyond that base because Republicans have not won a majority in a presidential election since 2004.” Clinton has built a lead since the party conventions in July; but, with the race tightening once again, Gallup pollster Frank Newport cautions there could be more surprises to come in the final two months of the campaign. “If you look at history, things do change between now and election day, so you can’t say everything is frozen at this point.” Both candidates increasingly are likely to focus on the coming presidential debates with the first one scheduled for September 26.
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U.S. News & World Report |
'Window Closing' on U.S.-Russia Deal on Syria
U.S. News & World Report 26 and that just a few issues remained to be resolved, it seems increasingly unlikely that the United States and Russia will conclude a deal on Syria before US President Barack Obama andRussian President Vladimir Putin are expected to meet on the ... Lavrov: Western 'Partners' Have Much Work to Do to Restore Russia's TrustSputnik International all 43 news articles » |
His grisly propaganda empire seemed to know no limits. Filming the decapitation of journalists. Taping the immolation of a caged Jordanian pilot. Broadcasting the massacre of Iraqi troops. Nothing, it seems, was off-limits for the jihadist video empire built by Abu Muhammad al-Adnani.
Washington Post |
Hacker known as Guccifer sentenced to 52 months in prison
Washington Post The Romanian hacker who first revealed that Hillary Clinton used a private email address while she was secretary of state was sentenced to more than 4 years in federal prison Thursday by a U.S. district judge in Northern Virginia. Marcel Lehel Lazar ... 'Guccifer' gets 52 months in prison for hacking Bush family, othersPolitico The infamous hacker who exposed Clinton's email server is going to jail for 4 yearsBusiness Insider Hacker 'Guccifer' jailed for four yearsBBC News NBCNews.com-The Hill- CBS News- New York Daily News all 34 news articles » |
PARIS (Reuters) - President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel support a deal struck by the trilateral contact group in Ukraine for a general ceasefire which must be implemented by the start of the school year, an Elysee statement said on Thursday.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of the Treasury said on Thursday it had expanded its sanctions against Russia in relation to the Ukraine crisis.
BERLIN (Reuters) - In a sharp change of tone, Chancellor Angela Merkel wants German authorities to accelerate the deportation of foreigners who are denied asylum, in response to growing public fears over the soaring numbers of migrants, members of parliament told Reuters on Thursday.
The opposition says this is a new phase in its struggle against the socialist government.
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Thousands March in Venezuela to Demand President’s Ousterby NICHOLAS CASEY and PATRICIA TORRES
Opponents of President Nicolás Maduro took to the streets of Caracas to protest the nation’s economic collapse and its government.
Two retired U.S. commanders say President Obama still does not have a winning strategy for defeating the Islamic State group after three years and billions of dollars invested in the cause.
Retired Gens. James "Mad Dog" Mattis and Anthony Zinni were asked by Time magazine Tuesday to assess the U.S.-led ...
The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday said that it expanded sanctions on Russia for its activities related to the conflict in Ukraine.
The department said in a release that its Office of Foreign Assets Control had updated its sanctions lists targeting individuals and entities that have played a role in the Ukraine conflict. The Treasury Department has added several individuals to the Specially Designated Nationals List and several entities to the Sectoral Sanctions Identifications List.
Among the entities now targeted with sanctions are several subsidiaries of Russian gas company Gazprom, bridge companies Mostotrest and SGM-Most, and several financial companies.
The United States first announced sanctions against Russia in March 2014 following Russia’s deployment of military forces to Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. The European Union has also imposed sanctions against Russia for its annexation of Crimea.
Notice of the updated sanctions lists comes ahead of the G-20 Summit in China next week, where President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to meet.
Tensions over the situation in Ukraine have heightened in recent weeks, after Russia accused Ukrainian intelligence analysts of plotting terrorist attacks on critical infrastructure in Crimea. Ukraine has denied the accusations, which President Petro Poroshenko described as a false “pretext for more military threats against Ukraine.”
Since then, Russian military forces have been staging near the border with Ukraine and in Crimea, and over the past week Russia has conducted unannounced military exercises to test “combat readiness” of ground, naval, and air forces.
The post U.S. Treasury Expands Sanctions on Russia Over Ukraine Conflict appeared first onWashington Free Beacon.
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Battlefield successes against the Islamic State could force the group to shift away from nation-state status to a less visible terror threat, the commander of the U.S. Central Command said this week.
Army Gen. Joseph Votel, who took over the lead war-fighting command in March, told reporters at the Pentagon the ultraviolent jihadi group’s capabilities have been greatly degraded and dismantled in Iraq and Syria, including significant loss of territory it once controlled. Recent military operations have cut off key supply lines and routes used by foreign fighters.
“As you look across the full battle space, you see that [Islamic State] is under more pressure now than at any other time in the campaign,” Gen. Votel said Tuesday. “We are causing the enemy to have to look in multiple directions and they are struggling to respond under this pressure.”
Read the entire article at the Washington Times.
The post Inside the Ring: Islamic State: From Nation-State to Terror Group appeared first onWashington Free Beacon.
Washington Post |
FBI recovered 30 potentially new Clinton emails related to 2012 Benghazi attacks
Washington Post The Justice Department closed the email investigation without criminal charges, and FBI Director James B. Comey has said investigators did not believe emails on the private server were intentionally deleted in an effort to conceal them, but purged ... FBI recovers Clinton emails involving Benghazi attackChina.org.cn all 183 news articles » |
Washington Post |
There's almost no chance our elections can get hacked by the Russians. Here's why.
Washington Post FBI director James B. Comey said his agency took "very seriously" any attempt to "influence the conduct of affairs in our country." That's the question at its root: Could hackers change the numbers to change our elections? The Fix spoke by phone and ... and more » |
One of the men caught burglarizing the offices of the United States Democratic Party in 1972, a ploy that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon, was an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency, according to a newly declassified document.
Title: Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence
Author: Robert W. Pringle
Pringle, Robert W (2015).Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence (2nd ed.). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield
LCCN: 2015008634
Subjects
- Intelligence service–Russia–Encyclopedias.
- Military intelligence–Russia–Encyclopedias.
- Spies–Russia–Biography–Encyclopedias.
- Intelligence service–Soviet Union–Encyclopedias.
- Military intelligence–Soviet Union–Encyclopedias.
- Spies–Soviet Union–Biography–Encyclopedias.
- Intelligence service–Russia (Federation)–Encyclopedias.
- Military intelligence–Russia (Federation)–Encyclopedias.
- Spies–Russia (Federation)–Biography–Encyclopedias.
Date Posted: August 30, 2016
Reviewed by Hayden B. Peake[2]
Robert Pringle served in the State Department and later as a CIA analyst. This new edition of his book has 66 additional pages. While most of the additional pages are devoted to new entries, the extensive bibliography (with its own table of contents) and the appendices have been updated.
Pringle’s thoughtful introduction is worth the attention of those wondering about the background of the Russian intelligence services and why they remain of interest today. At first glance, readers may not find entries for relatively recent cases, as, for example, Adolf Tolkachev.
But he is mentioned in the entry for Edward Howard, the former CIA officer who exposed him to the KGB before defecting to Moscow in 1985. Had the publisher provided an index, this kind of problem would have been prevented.
Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence is a valuable contribution to the intelligence literature, especially for those seeking reliable summaries for important cases, evidence of how the Russian services function today, and some history on their origins.
[1] On occasion, personal loyalties and opinions can be carved in stone and defended with a vengeance — at times with some venom thrown in. In these situations, the actual importance of the subject matter is dwarfed by the amount of aggression expressed. Retain a sense of proportion in all online and in-person discussions. [From The Intelligencer: Journal of U. S. Intelligence Studies.]
[2] Peake, Hayden in The Intelligencer: Journal of U.S. Intelligence Studies (22, 2, Spring 2016, p. 120). Hayden Peake is the Curator of the CIA’s Historical Intelligence Collection. He has served in the Directorate of Science and Technology and the Directorate of Operations. Most of these reviews appeared in recent unclassified editions of CIA’s Studies in Intelligence, Other reviews and articles may be found online at http://www.cia.gov
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FBI Warns of Possible State Election-system Hacksby In Homeland Security Staff
The FBI is warning state officials to boost their election security in light of evidence that hackers targeted related data systems in two states.
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Political issues weigh on upcoming G-20 summit in Chinaby In Homeland Security Staff
While the global economy will dominate at this weekend's summit of the Group of 20 industrialized and emerging-market nations, politics and security issues form the backdrop.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have directed their venom at each other, but neither candidate has provided any form of substantive foreign policy proposal.
CryptoCoinsNews |
Former CIA Analyst Says Terrorists Utilize Bitcoin to Boost Funding
CryptoCoinsNews A former counterterrorism analyst for the CIA has found that terrorists are utilizing innovative technologies to boost their funding, one of which is through the use of bitcoin. Yaya Fanusie is the director of analysis for the Foundation for Defense of ... |
Pravda |
Secret documents reveal bloody history of CIA
Pravda The US involvement in overthrow of regimes all over the world has been confirmed once more by the declassified CIA documents, among which are texts for briefings prepared for presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford in 1960-1970s. Some data has ... |
SOFREP (press release) (subscription) |
Watergate: CIA withheld data on double agent
SOFREP (press release) (subscription) Entitled “Working Draft – CIA Watergate History,” the 155-page study was largely written by John C. Richards, a CIA officer who died in December 1974, and was brought nearly to completion by unnamed Agency colleagues who built on Richards' typed draft ... and more » |
Deseret News |
Russian hacking of US elections 'playing with our heads,' ex-CIA director says
Deseret News SALT LAKE CITY — Former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden called Russian hacking of American elections a "covert influence campaign" but not one designed to engineer a certain outcome. "I am not prepared, based on what I know to date, to conclude ... and more » |
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CIA declassified: US involved in coups d'etat all over the world
Pravda The US Central Intelligence Agency declassified documents, which had been prepared for briefings of the presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford in the late 1960-70s. These are about 2,500 documents. It is noted that some data has been deleted, ... |
Released document reveals CIA role in Watergate, James Angleton concerns about 'Pentagon Papers'
World Tribune A newly obtained document reveals direct CIA involvement in the Watergate break in and that the deputy director of the CIA and the acting chief of the FBI advised President Richard Nixon to “get rid of the people involved in the cover-up, no matter how ... |
Fox News Latino |
CIA report reveals mole among Watergate burglars – Cuban exile Eugenio Martinez
Fox News Latino Watergate investigators long suspected that Martinez, a CIA informant in Miami who was known as “Musculito” – “Little Muscle” – who fed the agency a steady stream of information about the Cuban exile community, was an active operative of the agency. Released document reveals CIA role in Watergate, James Angleton concerns about 'Pentagon Papers'World Tribune all 2 news articles » |
The Hill |
FBI head: We're taking suspected political hacks 'very seriously'
The Hill Comey's comments were the first he has given publicly since news broke on Monday that theFBI had previously raised alarms about the suspected hacks of voter databases in Arizona and Illinois earlier this month. News of the Aug. 18 alert sparked fresh ... Comey: FBI takes election tampering 'very seriously'Politico Comey: FBI Wants 'Adult Conversation' on Device EncryptionABC News FBI's James Comey: We take election hacking 'very seriously'UPI.com The Daily Dot -Reason (blog) all 23 news articles » |
Los Angeles Times |
Ex-FBI agent who stole drug money to buy cars and plastic surgery for his wife is sentenced
Los Angeles Times A former FBI agent was sentenced Monday to three years in federal prison for stealing more than $136,000 in cash during drug investigations and spending it on lavish gifts for himself and loved ones. In May, former special agent Scott M. Bowman of ... Ex-FBI agent sentenced to prison for on-the-job theftPress-Enterprise all 5 Former FBI agent gets three years' jail for using drug cash on cars, cosme...Reuters all 6 news articles » |
Yahoo Finance |
State: Benghazi emails involving Clinton recovered by FBI
Yahoo Finance WASHINGTON (AP) -- The State Department says about 30 emails involving the 2012 attack on U.S. compounds in Benghazi, Libya, are among the thousands of Hillary Clinton emails recovered during the FBI's recently closed investigation into her use of a ... FBI to make Clinton documents public in coming daysUSA TODAY State Dept: FBI found 30 deleted e-mails on Hillary's secret server about … BenghaziHot Air FBI to release report on Hillary Clinton email investigationCNN all 164 news articles » |
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USA TODAY |
FBI to make Clinton documents public in coming days
USA TODAY WASHINGTON — The FBI is expected to make public within days documents related to its now-closed inquiry into Hillary Clinton's handling of classified information while the Democratic presidential nominee served as secretary of State, a federal law ... State: Benghazi emails involving Clinton recovered by FBIYahoo Finance State Dept: FBI found 30 deleted e-mails on Hillary's secret server about … BenghaziHot Air GOP chairman: FBI should release Hillary Clinton's State Department schedulesCBS News CNN all 164 news articles » |
Business Insider |
The FBI recovered 30 of Hillary Clinton's emails regarding the Benghazi attack
Business Insider WASHINGTON — The State Department says about 30 emails involving the 2012 attack on U.S. compounds in Benghazi, Libya, are among the thousands of Hillary Clinton emails recovered during the FBI's recently closed investigation into her use of a ... FBI Is Releasing Hillary Clinton Email Report, Notes From Her InterrogationDaily Caller FBI vs. State Department Over Hillary Clintons SecretsDaily Beast GOP chairman: FBI should release Hillary Clinton's State Department schedulesCBS News all 614 news articles » |
Fox News |
FBI to release Clinton probe files, as candidate pressed to answer new questions 'under oath'
Fox News Hillary Clinton is facing the possibility of new revelations on her personal email scandal on multiple fronts, as the FBI prepares to release some of the documents from its investigation in a matter of days – and a watchdog group sends the Democratic ... and more » |
The Hill |
FBI recovers 30 deleted Clinton emails involving Benghazi attack
The Hill An undetermined number of those 30 emails were not included in the cache of 30,000 the former secretary of State voluntarily turned over to the State Department in 2014, government lawyers told U.S. District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta, according to ... FBI Recovers 30 Hillary Clinton Emails Involving BenghaziDaily Beast State Dept: FBI found 30 deleted e-mails on Hillary's secret server about … BenghaziHot Air US FBI to give media some Clinton notes over email use: CNNReuters CNN -The Boston Globe -News from The Associated Press -New York Times all 759 news articles » |
CBS News |
Democrats ask FBI: Did Donald Trump aides' Russia connections lead to cyberattacks?
CBS News Top House Democrats are asking the FBI to investigate whether connections between Donald Trump's campaign aides and Russian interests led to the cyberattacks at the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Harry Reid asks FBI to investigate potential Russian election tamperingThe Verge Dems ask for FBI probe of Trump-Russia link to DNC hackUSA TODAY Politics|Harry Reid Cites Evidence of Russian Tampering in US Vote, and Seeks FBI InquiryNew York Times all 106 news articles » |
Washington Post |
Democrats ask the FBI to investigate Trump advisers' Russia ties
Washington Post On Monday, The New York Times broke the story of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's August 27 letter to FBI Director James Comey asking the bureau to investigate alleged Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election, which followed new ... Congressional Democrats Call on FBI to Investigate Their Political Adversaries' Kremlin TiesThe Intercept House Democrats Ask FBI to Probe Trump Campaign for Link to HacksNBCNews.com Democrats ask FBI to probe alleged Trump-Russia connections over DNC hackRT Yahoo News-Engadget-CBS News-Washington Post all 633 news articles » |
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Los Angeles Times |
State Department says Benghazi emails involving Clinton recovered by FBI
Los Angeles Times The State Department says about 30 emails that may be related to the 2012 attack on U.S. compounds in Benghazi, Libya, are among the thousands of Hillary Clinton emails recovered during the FBI's recently closed investigation into her use of a private ... FBI will release Hillary Clinton interview notes as early as WednesdayCBS News FBI to release Clinton probe files, as candidate pressed to answer new questions 'under oath'Fox News Surprise: FBI Recovers Another 30 Benghazi Emails Hillary Clinton DeletedTownhall Boing Boing-Daily Caller all 206 news articles » |
NBCNews.com |
FBI Director Has High Expectations for New Cyber Security Agents
NBCNews.com He says the perfect applicant would be intelligent, have integrity and the perfect dose of physicality to work competitively at the FBI. But he knows that finding the trifecta of talent in one person can be rare, especially when strict rules can keep ... Rick Perry Calls On FBI Director James Comey To Resign Over Clinton EmailsHuffington Post Cybersecurity, Encryption Keep the FBI BusyGovernment Technology Comey: FBI takes election tampering 'very seriously' - POLITICOPolitico ABC News-The Hill all 51 news articles » |
USA TODAY |
CIA director misled FBI about how agency spied on Pentagon Papers leaker
USA TODAY WASHINGTON — CIA Director Richard Helms misled the FBI in June 1972 to cover up his agency's role in helping to smear the reputation of Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked a secret history of the Vietnam War to the press, a newly released CIA ... |
Why Did FBI Run a Child-Porn Site for 2 Weeks and What Does It Mean for the Future of Internet Privacy?
AlterNet In the spring of 2015, the FBI arrested the North Carolina administrator of the "Playpen," a child pornography online bulletin board. However, the agency didn't take the website down. Instead, the FBI moved its servers to a warehouse in Virginia and ... |
Center for Research on Globalization |
FBI Warns Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton Staffers to Beware of Foreign Spies in US
ABC News Be careful when you're meeting new people in the nation's capital and elsewhere, because you could be a prime target for foreign spies. That's the warning FBIagents gave to presidential campaign staffers Wednesday during two separate security ... Dems: FBI Should Eye Trump Campaign-Russia RelationshipMultichannel News Kremlin-Trump Connections? Democrats Call on FBI to Investigate Their Political Adversaries' Kremlin TiesCenter for Research on Globalization all 6 news articles » |
September 1, 2016, 5:55 PM (IDT)
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida Thursday, during preparations for a pre-launch static fire test of Israel’s Amos 6 communications satellite on Saturday, Sept. 3. “An anomaly on the pad resulted in the loss of the vehicle and its payload, a company spokesman Phil Larson said. The satellite was designed to provide direct satellite data services, including Facebook access, for areas of Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
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September 1, 2016, 6:28 PM (IDT)
The Turkish and Russian presidents join hands to shut US out of N. Syria.
It’s a stretch to suggest the Kremlin leader is the godfather of some sort of global KKK
Last week Hillary Clinton accused Donald Trump of being the leader of the Alt-Right movement. But that wasn’t the only important issue she raised in her big speech. She also tied Trump to Vladimir Putin. Clinton termed Russia’s president “the grand godfather of this global brand of extreme nationalism.” Calling the boss in the Kremlin the leader of a worldwide white supremacy movement is a big deal—particularly when the charge is made by the lady who may become our next president in less than five months.
As evidence for this accusation, Hillary noted that Nigel Farage, the British politico who’s thrown his hat in with Trump, appears on Kremlin TV, and that the GOP nominee seems to harbor a serious man-crush on Putin. All this is undeniably true. Moscow’s preference for Trump over Clinton is no secret, and something the Russians no longer bother to hide.
That said, it’s a stretch to suggest Putin is the godfather of some sort of global KKK. The Kremlin boosts far-rightists in many countries, giving them clandestine cash and support—including in the United States. Russian intelligence backs nationalist right-wingers all over the place, especially in Europe, and some of these groups are plausibly placed in the Alt-Right.
It needs to be noted, though, that Putin is ideologically flexible, and Moscow backs leftists abroad, too. In Greece, for instance, the Kremlin has forged ties with both the far-left and the far-right, who share antipathy to NATO, the European Union, and the United States. In many Western countries, Moscow’s ties to leftists are a longstanding Cold War legacy.
Putin’s strategic aim is to harm NATO, the EU, and America’s ties with them. Ideology matters less than a perceived ability to hurt the West and its security structures. Hence the Kremlin’s willingness to get in bed with radicals of almost any ideology as long as they’re eager to play along with what Moscow wants.
Read the rest at The Observer …
Filed under: Counterintelligence, Espionage, History, Radicalism
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The Kremlin is attacking our democracy—and our president let it happen
Practically every day we learn more about the Kremlin’s secret espionage offensive against our country. This week, we discovered that hackers linked to Russian intelligence have cracked into several think tanks in Washington, D.C.
This should not surprise. Moscow considers targeted hacking such as this to be legitimate intelligence gathering, and the Kremlin’s interest in behind-scenes goings-on in our nation’s capital is perennially high. Russian intelligence has spied on Washington—our leaders, politicians, and their battalions of think-tank and media hangers-on—for many decades. This is nothing new.
What is new and alarming is how brazen Kremlin spy operations against America have gotten of late. Everybody spies, but it’s usually wise to be somewhat discreet. The SpyWar is a marathon, not a sprint.
Vladimir Putin has decided that he doesn’t care we know what he’s up to. He’s thrown out the usual espionage rulebook and embraced street-fighting. Putin uses his spies to rough up Americans, the Kremlin assassinates its foes almost openly, even in our nation’s capital, while Russian hackers pillage American institutions, private and public, with near-impunity. The Kremlin even seems to be trying to tamper with our elections, which is an alarming development.
Now that Russia has decided to help Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton in our election, employingfronts and cut-outs to shape our election to Moscow’s benefit, the Democrats are having a collective freak-out. Team Clinton rails against the Russians and their dirty tricks almost daily now. Senate minority leader Harry Reid has asked the FBI to look into the threat of Russian interference in our elections, while House Democrats want the Bureau to investigate Team Trump’s ties to the Kremlin—and whether anybody in the GOP is mixed up in Putin’s increasingly brazen spy games.
Read the rest at The Observer …
Filed under: Counterintelligence, Espionage, USG
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In US, Study Says Social Media Interest in White Nationalism Tops That of IS Groupby webdesk@voanews.com (Ken Bredemeier)
A new study has concluded that white nationalists and self-identified Nazi sympathizers, mostly in the United States, are using social media with "relative impunity," often far surpassing the Internet interest in pronouncements of Islamic State militants. The report, by George Washington University's Program on Extremism in Washington, showed Thursday that major American white nationalist movements added about 22,000 followers on Twitter since 2012, about a 600 percent growth. The study said the white nationalists surpassed Islamic State's usage "in nearly every social metric, from follower counts to tweets per day." The research center said the most popular theme among the Twitter postings related to the concept of "white genocide," the suspicion that the "white race" is "directly endangered by the increasing diversity of society." It said white nationalist activists tweeted hundreds of times a day using repetitive hashtags and slogans advancing the notion of the diminishing fortunes of whites. The university study described the followers of white nationalists on Twitter as "heavily invested" in the U.S. presidential campaign of Republican Donald Trump, a real estate mogul seeking his first elected office in the November contest against Democrat Hillary Clinton, a former U.S. secretary of state. The report said that in April, three of the top 10 hashtags for both white nationalist and Nazi sympathizers related to Trump's campaign. Trump has centered his campaign on strict enforcement of U.S. immigration laws, deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants living in the country and construction of a wall along the southern U.S. border with Mexico to thwart the stream of migrants from entering the country. He has disavowed the support of David Duke, the one-time imperial wizard of the white-supremacist Ku Klux Klan group, but Duke praised Trump's speech Wednesday calling for tough border control measures if he is elected president and assumes office next January. "White nationalist users referenced Trump more than almost any other topic," the report said, "and Trump-related hashtags outperformed every white nationalist hashtag except for #whitegenocide." It said that white nationalists and Nazis had "substantially higher follower counts" than those following Islamic State supporters and tweeted more often. But it said that some of the white supremacists' numerical advantage was attributable to the fact that managers of some social media accounts have aggressively sought to purge links to Islamic State networks. The report said that white nationalist terrorism has increasingly been linked to online activity. It cited two horrific mass killings in which the suspects had made extensive use of Internet accounts, Dylan Roof, a white nationalist charged with killing nine black people at a South Carolina church in 2015, and Anders Breivik, the right-wing Norwegian terrorist who killed 77 people in 2011.
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CBS News |
Why there's "nothing to suggest" Russia killed ISIS leader
CBS News The U.S. is rejecting Russia's claims of responsibility for the death of one of ISIS's most powerful figures, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani. Russia said Wednesday it killed al-Adnani along with 40 other militants in a strike in the northwestern Syrian city of ... SitRep: How Deep is the ISIS Bench?; Russia Jumps Into the FrayForeign Policy (blog) Pentagon on Russia claims of killing terror rep: 'We don't trust' MoscowUPI.com all 20 news articles » |
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Observer |
Why Obama Is to Blame for Russia's SpyWar on America
Observer Practically every day we learn more about the Kremlin's secret espionage offensive against our country. This week, we discovered that hackers linked to Russian intelligence have cracked into several think tanks in Washington, D.C.. This should not ... and more » |
Russian intelligence services are conducting "an information war" in the Czech Republic, warns the Central European country's counterintelligence agency, the BIS.
Рабство: голос из прошлого by golosamerikius
Рабство в США было уничтожено полтора века назад. Однако, эпоха рабовладения не забыта: американское общество продолжает платить по старым счетам.
The United States has added 37 individuals and entities to its sanctions blacklist aimed at Russia over its continuing support for separatists in eastern Ukraine and the 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.
President Barack Obama. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Practically every day we learn more about the Kremlin’s secret espionage offensive against our country. This week, we discovered that hackers linked to Russian intelligence have cracked into several think tanks in Washington, D.C.
This should not surprise. Moscow considers targeted hacking such as this to be legitimate intelligence gathering, and the Kremlin’s interest in behind-scenes goings-on in our nation’s capital is perennially high. Russian intelligence has spied on Washington—our leaders, politicians, and their battalions of think-tank and media hangers-on—for many decades. This is nothing new.
What is new and alarming is how brazen Kremlin spy operations against America have gotten of late. Everybody spies, but it’s usually wise to be somewhat discreet. The SpyWar is a marathon, not a sprint.
Vladimir Putin has decided that he doesn’t care we know what he’s up to. He’s thrown out the usual espionage rulebook and embraced street-fighting. Putin uses his spies to rough up Americans, the Kremlin assassinates its foes almost openly, even in our nation’s capital, while Russian hackers pillage American institutions, private and public, with near-impunity. The Kremlin even seems to be trying to tamper with our elections, which is an alarming development.
Now that Russia has decided to help Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton in our election, employingfronts and cut-outs to shape our election to Moscow’s benefit, the Democrats are having a collective freak-out. Team Clinton rails against the Russians and their dirty tricks almost daily now. Senate minority leader Harry Reid has asked the FBI to look into the threat of Russian interference in our elections, while House Democrats want the Bureau to investigate Team Trump’s ties to the Kremlin—and whether anybody in the GOP is mixed up in Putin’s increasingly brazen spy games.
This is appropriate, and all Americans should hope the FBI handles this investigation better than its punting on Hillary’s emails. Democrats need to avoid turning this important matter into more partisan point-scoring theater, while Republicans who value our national security more than their party should assist the FBI in unraveling secret Kremlin games in Washington.
It’s nice that liberals are finally noticing what Putin’s been up to for years.
Part of that investigation needs to be assessing how all this happened. Simply put, Moscow now has a clandestine hold on Washington that it hasn’t enjoyed since the beginning of the Cold War, when Soviet spies lurked in practically every agency and department of our government. It took years to root those moles out and that process caused political torment for the country—an ugly experience no American should seek to relive. Cleaning Russian agents out of the Trump campaign should be the first step, but many more steps must follow.
There’s no point in blaming the Russians for this mess. Of course the Kremlin is the responsible party here, but spying is what Russians do. It’s in their collective DNA. Moscow has been employing aggressive espionage operations against the West for nearly a century—moles, deception,disinformation, and Active Measures to fool and intimidate foreigners. There’s literally nothing new in any of this. The only difference is that the current boss in the Kremlin is a KGB man and he really likes to use these clandestine weapons against his enemies.
Putin’s secret offensive against the West, the serious ramping up of spying and related shenanigans, kicked off back in 2006, when Moscow decided to use its intelligence agencies aggressively against NATO, especially against what the Kremlin in Cold War fashion calls their Main Adversary (that’s America).
Distracted by his Iraq debacle, President George W. Bush didn’t pay sufficient attention to the Kremlin’s declaration of SpyWar, though by his last year in office, between Putin’s breathing fire in public and his invasion of Georgia, it was obvious that the Russian leader no longer wanted to be our friend.
That said, nearly all the really bad news about Russian espionage against America has occurred during Barack Obama’s two terms in the White House. His “reset” with Russia was terribly timed, though at least Hillary Clinton was able to assist Russia in developing the very high-tech industry that’s now being used to cyber-pillage America. True to form, the Clinton Foundation made big money off this too.
Naïve and uninformed yet supremely self-confident, Obama and his bloated National Security Council ignored repeated warnings from the Intelligence Community about nefarious activities by Russian spies against America. Back in 2012, when Obama was castigating Mitt Romney for his “1980s thinking” when the Republican presidential nominee called Russia our main geopolitical threat, Moscow was becoming exactly that.
In response, Obama did basically nothing. His two terms have witnessed the greatest intelligence disasters in American history, most of them at the hands of the Russians. In fairness to Obama, American counterintelligence has been dismal for decades, but his presidency has witnessed it fall off the cliff altogether. The Navy’s captain-of-the-ship principle applies here.
Just how much damage our Intelligence Community has incurred under Obama defies easy description. We’ve had the Snowden debacle, the biggest loss of classified information in world history. There was the giveaway of more than 22 million personnel files held by OPM, exposing pretty much every American who’s had a security clearance since the Reagan years to blackmail. The security clearance process itself has totally imploded. To say nothing of letting Russian moles run rampant in our intelligence agencies, very likely enabling Moscow to tap into our most secret government communications.
Even as unambiguous evidence mounted of how deadly serious the Kremlin was about its secret offensive against America, Obama was AWOL, refusing to seriously wage the SpyWar against Russia. True to form, Obama’s reactions were timid, hedging, and lawyerly. Putin despises such weakness so the Russians simply ramped up their operations, resulting in the awful espionage mess confronting us right now.
The hash Obama made of countering Russian propaganda demonstrates how terrible a leader he’s been. Weaponizing of fake “facts” is one of the Kremlin’s more potent weapons in the online age. However, it’s also one of the easiest to counter. Back in the 1980s, Washington became proficient at debunking Kremlin lies, and after the Russians invaded Ukraine in 2014 it was obvious that we needed to start doing that again, particularly as Moscow’s disinformation got aggressive and nasty.
Merely debunking Russian lies is defensive—nobody was suggesting we start our own propaganda scheme—but even that was too much for Obama. A year ago, a tiny effort at the State Department to counter Kremlin disinformation never got off the ground. It was strangled in the crib by the White House. Intelligence Community officials who asked what happened were informed by Obama’s NSC that what the White House demanded was “not to upset the Russians.”
By refusing to counter Kremlin lies we’ve gotten more Kremlin lies, ever more noxious. By refusing to counter Russian espionage we’ve gotten more Russian espionage, ever more aggressive.
There’s really no point in getting upset at the Russians for spying. That’s as effective as scolding the dog for barking or punishing the cat for playing with yarn. What does work is pushing back, actually waging the SpyWar—aggressively and imaginatively, like Russians do. That’s the only language Putin understands, and Obama doesn’t speak a word of it.
There’s no time now for partisan game-playing. The Russians are winning the SpyWar, threatening our democracy itself. All the same, we must honestly address how it got to this awful point so we can undo the damage and prevent it from ever happening again. Magical thinking won’t help here and Obama and the Democrats must accept their large share of the blame.
It’s nice that liberals are finally noticing what Putin’s been up to for years. The mainstream media isnow onto obvious Kremlin espionage fronts that I exposed years ago. Better late than never. Welcome to the party, it’s going to be a long one.
Disclosure: Donald Trump is the father-in-law of Jared Kushner, the publisher of Observer Media.
John Schindler is a security expert and former National Security Agency analyst and counterintelligence officer. A specialist in espionage and terrorism, he’s also been a Navy officer and a War College professor. He’s published four books and is on Twitter at @20committee.
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