Germany’s Foreign Ministry says that Turkey will grant Berlin consular access to a German-Turkish journalist detained since January on charges of producing terrorist propaganda and incitement to hatred.
Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, a former general who was elected but rules with a heavy hand, may find a kindred spirit in Donald Trump when the two meet on Monday.
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· · ·
Mr Sisi was not invited to the White House by Barack Obama amid concern over human rights violations.
Afghan officials confirm that at least four provincial intelligence service agents have been killed in an attack by Taliban insurgents in eastern Ghazni province.
A small Jewish centre is targeted with Nazi symbols and threatening messages and decides to close.
PARIS (Reuters) - French presidential candidate Francois Fillon, an outsider to win after involvement in financial scandal, said on Monday he would order a parliamentary inquiry into allegations President Francois Hollande interfered in the justice system, if elected.
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State-owned media in the United Arab Emirates are reporting that Dubai police have arrested a group of foreign hackers that targeted five White House officials in an email blackmail scheme.
The European Union’s top diplomat says it’s “completely unrealistic” to think that President Bashar Assad could retain power over any future government in a post-war Syria.
WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish prosecutors said on Monday they would press charges against two Russian air traffic controllers of deliberately causing a 2010 plane crash that killed Poland's president and 95 other people.
BBC Panorama investigates where Marine Le Pen's National Front gets its money.
BERLIN (Reuters) - At least 262 Turkish diplomats and army personnel have applied for asylum in Germany since a failed July coup that Turkey blames on supporters of a U.S.-based cleric, a spokeswoman for the German Interior Ministry said on Monday.
President Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner arrived in Baghdad in a surprise visit to meet U.S. and Iraqi officials and to receive military briefings on the fight against Islamic State.
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ANKARA (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan on Monday called on Turkish voters in Europe to defy the "grandchildren of Nazism" and back a referendum this month on changing the constitution, comments likely to cause further ire in Europe.
Syrian activists say government forces have intensified their bombardment of opposition-held areas around Damascus and the central city of Hama.
Explosion in a St Petersburg metro station, casualties reported - Russian media
A Kremlin spokesman said relations between the U.S. and Russia may be more tense than they were during the Cold War.
In an interview with ABC’s This Week on Sunday, spokesman Dmitry Petrov said the countries’ relationship was at the “lowest possible point” and “worse” than after World War II — but he said a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump could change that.
“I think if two presidents meet each other, if they exchange views and if they decide that they want to reestablish a dialogue, then there will be chance for our volatile relations to get better,” Petrov said during the interview.
Putin said last week that he’d be open to meeting with Trump, floating the G20 Summit in July as a possible location. “We are ready for that discussion. It’s necessary for the other side to also show goodwill and readiness for constructive work,” the Associated Press reports he said on March 30.
Petrov spent much of his interview denying any Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, despite the U.S. intelligence communities’ repeated statements that Russia was behind the hacks.
“Actually, this campaign, we’ve been saying from the very beginning, that it was nothing else but slander,” Petrov said Sunday. “And that’s why we’ll continue to suggest to everyone insisting that Russia was interfering in this or that way in — into domestic affairs of the United States, we will suggest them to read Mr. Putin’s lips.“
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Several Russian media reports say there has been a blast in the St. Petersburg subway system.
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Indian police say they are searching for two men suspected of raping a German tourist in the beach town of Mamallapuram in southern India.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - An explosion in a metro station in St Petersburg on Monday has injured several people, according to Life News, a news outlet with close ties to Russia's security services.
Politico |
Trump revives Clinton criticisms in early morning tweets
Politico President Donald Trump questioned Monday whether the brother of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta accepted money to have sanctions against Russia lifted and that the former secretary of state and Democratic presidential candidate may ... 'Just asking!': Trump goes on another early morning tweetstorm about Hillary Clinton and RussiaBusiness Insider Trump praises Fox News report on 'unmasking and the crooked scheme against us'The Hill Trump praises Fox News for running 'the real story'Washington Examiner Washington Times -Townhall -TPM -The Week Magazine all 30 news articles » |
More than 100 men suspected of being gay have been detained by Chechen authorities in a campaign against homosexuality, according to a report in a Russian newspaper.
Novaya Gazeta reported on Saturday that three people have been killed in the roundup of men ranging ages 16 to 50; the paper reported that more men may have died in extrajudicial killings.
Two local television reporters and religious figures are among those detained “on account of their sexual orientation — or suspicion of such,” Novaya Gazeta reports. The paper also suggests that others may have been handed back to their families, where they risk being victims of honor killings, “a measure to wash away the shame of the family by killing the perpetrator of this shame.”
The spokesperson of Chechnya’s leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, called the report “lies,” saying there are no gay people in the quasi-independent state, which is formally a part of Russia. “You cannot detain and persecute people who simply do not exist in the republic,” Alvi Karimov told Interfax news agency, according to the New York Times. “If there were such people in Chechnya, the law-enforcement organs wouldn’t need to have anything to do with them because their relatives would send them somewhere from which there is no returning.”
Anti-gay sentiment has been rising in the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region, where Chechnya is, after an LGBT-rights group applied for permits for gay pride parades.
Read the whole story
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Follow all of the latest developments as they happen.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - An explosion in the St Petersburg metro system on Monday has killed at least 10 people, according to "preliminary information," Russian news agency TASS reported.
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CBS News |
Deadly blast reported at Russian subway station in St. Petersburg
CBS News Last Updated Apr 3, 2017 9:40 AM EDT. ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- Russian state media reported Monday that an explosion at a St. Petersburg subway station left at least 10 people dead and an unknown number injured. State-run news agency TASS ... St Petersburg metro explosions kill ten - mediaBBC News Russia subway bomb blast: At least 10 reported deadFox News At least 10 dead as blast hits St. Petersburg metro station in Russia, reports sayWashington Post BuzzFeed News -CNN -Bloomberg -New York Times all 134 news articles » |
A large explosion went off inside a train at a central St. Petersburg subway station.
Russian state media: An explosion at the St. Petersburg subway has injured an unknown number of people.
USA TODAY |
Police tell Fla. woman to 'stop calling 911' hours before her death
USA TODAY Police told a Florida woman to “stop calling 911” hours before she and her son were fatally shot last week, according to police body camera footage obtained by a local TV station. Sanford police were called twice on March 27 to mediate an altercation ... Woman told 'stop calling 911' killed hours later with sonAOL Cops ask woman to stop calling 911 hours before she and her son, 8, were killedNew York's PIX11 / WPIX-TV Florida woman, son found murdered hours after police told her stop calling 911WNCN NBC 6 South Florida -Hawaii News Now -WESTERNMASSNEWS.com -WESH Orlando all 19 news articles » |
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Russian media is reporting that 10 people are dead in an explosion on a subway train in St. Petersburg.
The subway’s administration says several stations in the northern Russian city have been closed and that an evacuation is underway Monday afternoon.
Social media users posted photographs from one subway station in the city center, showing people lying on the floor and a train with a mangled door nearby.
Russian news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been informed about the explosion. Putin is visiting the city Monday and is expected to hold talks with the Belarusian president later in the day.
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· ·
MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - For Iraqi police officer Jassem and his brothers, the battle against Islamic State is personal. The militants captured and beheaded their father, a Shi'ite militiaman, in 2014; before that, the family lost another son fighting the jihadists.
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Swedish police say all three people who were killed when a bus skidded off the road and crashed Sunday in central Sweden were high school students.
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St. Petersburg subway press office: Explosive device was set off on a train in Russian city.
TPM |
Document Dump Reveals Flynn's Russian And Turkish Income Sources
TPM WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn has disclosed that he earned more than $1.3 million for work for political groups and government contractors, as well as for speeches to Russian companies and ... Flynn's Pursuit Of Immunity Means He May Be Willing To Tell All About Trump And RussiaForbes Flynn initially failed to disclose Russia-linked payments on ethics formFox News Michael Flynn: new evidence spy chiefs had concerns about Russian tiesThe Guardian Bloomberg -CBC.ca -New York Times -Wall Street Journal all 3,016 news articles » |
Newsmax |
DNC Chair: Trump, Republican Party Doesn't Care About People
Newsmax As to the protesters the day after the inauguration, all they were were tantrums thrown by spoil children who have never been taught personal responsibility, self determination, rule of law, and that elections have consequences. If Mr. Perez and the ... and more » |
Blasting News |
Russians and Americans fighting close together in Syria
Blasting News The United States and Russia are both supporting the Kurdish YPG fighters because they are one of the major groups on the ground that is taking the fight to ISIS in Syria and Iraq. The Pentagon halted military-to-military cooperation with Russia since ... A forceful Assad regime could soon face western troops in SyriaThe National Turkey ends Euphrates Shield: Battle for Raqqa will be the next tricky stage in SyrianconflictTimes of India (blog) Turkey to maintain military presence in Syria despite ending 'Shield' operationARA News all 41 news articles » |
ClickLancashire |
Syrian Kurdish militia says it's getting Russian training
ClickLancashire Russia and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia have signed a bilateral agreement establishing a Russian military base in northwestern Syria, a YPG spokesman said ... The Battle Over Syria's FutureThe Globalist Russians and Americans fighting close together in SyriaBlasting News US, Russia back terrorists in Syria: Turkey's BahceliAnadolu Agency The National all 56 news articles » |
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Reuters |
Flynn did not disclose income from Russian companies: White House
Reuters The retired general, who was forced to resign after only 24 days, is under scrutiny for his contacts with Russian officials in a wider investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He has requested immunity if he testifies ... Document Dump Reveals Flynn's Russian And Turkish Income SourcesTPM Michael Flynn offers to testify in Trump-Russia probeAljazeera.com Trump calls Russia probe 'witch hunt' as Flynn seeks immunityPress TV Fox News Insider -CBC.ca -Daily Beast -Wall Street Journal all 1,147 news articles » |
cleveland.com |
Trump's Flynn-flam man seeks immunity deal: Darcy cartoon
cleveland.com On Thursday, Flynn, through his attorney, requested immunity before testifying before the Senate and House Intelligence Committees investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election, and collusion between the Trump administration and Russia ... and more » |
The U.S. intelligence official who “unmasked,” or exposed, the names of multiple private citizens affiliated with the Trump team is someone “very well known, very high up, very senior in the intelligence world,” a source told Fox News on Friday.
Intelligence and House sources with direct knowledge of the disclosure of classified names told Fox News that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., now knows who is responsible -- and that person is not in the FBI.
For a private citizen to be “unmasked,” or named, in an intelligence report is extremely rare. Typically, the American is a suspect in a crime, is in danger or has to be named to explain the context of the report.
“The main issue in this case, is not only the unmasking of these names of private citizens, but the spreading of these names for political purposes that have nothing to do with national security or an investigation into Russia’s interference in the U.S. election,” a congressional source close to the investigation told Fox News.
The unmasking of Americans whose communications apparently were caught up in surveillance under the Obama administration is a key part of an investigation being led by Nunes, who has come under fire from Democrats for focusing on that aspect.
Nunes has known about the unmasking controversy since January, when two sources in the intelligence community approached him. The sources told Nunes who was responsible and at least one of the Trump team names that was unmasked. They also gave him serial numbers of reports that documented the activity.
This was long before Trump sent out his now-infamous March 4 tweets claiming then-President Barack Obama “wiretapped” Trump Tower during the 2016 election.
Nunes had asked intelligence agencies to see the reports in question, but was stonewalled.
He eventually was able to view them, but there was only one safe place to see the documents without compromising the sources’ identities -- the old executive office building on White House grounds, which has a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) required to view classified or top secret reports. The White House did not tell Nunes about the existence of the intelligence reports, but did help him gain access to the documents at his request, the source said.
The White House, meanwhile, is urging Nunes and his colleagues to keep pursuing what improper surveillance and leaks may have occurred before Trump took office. They’ve been emboldened in the wake of March 2 comments from former Obama administration official Evelyn Farkas, who on MSNBC suggested her former colleagues tried to gather material on Trump team contacts with Russia.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Friday her comments and other reports raise “serious” concerns about whether there was an “organized and widespread effort by the Obama administration to use and leak highly sensitive intelligence information for political purposes.”
“Dr. Farkas’ admissions alone are devastating,” he said.
Farkas parted ways with the White House in 2015 and defended herself on Twitter, saying she didn’t personally “give anybody anything except advice” on Russia information and wanted Congress to ask for facts.
The communications collected from Trump team associates apparently were picked up during surveillance of foreign targets. But an intelligence source familiar with those targets said they were spied on long before Trump became the GOP presidential nominee in mid-July.
In addition, citizens affiliated with Trump’s team who were unmasked were not associated with any intelligence about Russia or other foreign intelligence, sources confirmed. The initial unmasking led to other surveillance, which led to other private citizens being wrongly unmasked, sources said.
"Unmasking is not unprecedented, but unmasking for political purposes ... specifically of Trump transition team members ... is highly suspect and questionable,” an intelligence source told Fox News. “Opposition by some in the intelligence agencies who were very connected to the Obama and Clinton teams was strong. After Trump was elected, they decided they were going to ruin his presidency by picking them off one by one."
Nunes first revealed on March 22 in a press conference that the U.S. intelligence community “incidentally collected” information on Trump’s transition team, putting the information and names into various intelligence reports. His committee had been investigating whether Russia interfered in the U.S. election as well as how names of private citizens from these reports were leaked.
House Intelligence Ranking Member Adam Schiff, D-Calif., criticized Nunes for his handling of the investigation, claiming he should never have briefed Trump. Nunes apologized the following day, but said he briefed the president because the information he found was not related to Russia.
The minority members on the House Intelligence Committee were expected to visit a National Security Agency facility on Friday to view the same reports Nunes has seen, an intelligence source told Fox News.
Malia Zimmerman is an award-winning investigative reporter focusing on crime, homeland security, illegal immigration crime, terrorism and political corruption. Follow her on twitter at @MaliaMZimmerman
Adam Housley joined Fox News Channel (FNC) in 2001 and currently serves as a Los Angeles-based senior correspondent.
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· · · ·
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- President Donald Trump's call for "extreme vetting" obviously never applied to his former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
Saturday, The White House released financial statements for its staff, revealing Flynn had not initially disclosed financial payments from Russian entities, when disclosure forms were filled out in February.
The payments to Flynn included a $45,000 speaking fee from RT, the Russian television network operated by the government.
On Thursday, Flynn, through his attorney, requested immunity before testifying before the Senate and House Intelligence Committees investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election, and collusion between the Trump administration and Russia.
"General Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should circumstances permit," wrote Flynn's attorney, Robert Kelner.
Kelner explained that "no reasonable person, who has the benefit of advice from counsel, would submit to questioning in such a highly politicized, witch-hunt environment without assurance against unfair prosecution."
Both the Senate and House committees indicated they would not consider granting Flynn immunity until they are further along in their investigations.
In their press conference last week, the leaders of the Senate Intel committee said they wouldn't call individuals to even testify until they had done their due diligence on them.
Normally, Congress does not grant immunity before first consulting with the Department of Justice, because granting immunity to a target of a DOJ investigation can seriously jeopardize the DOJ's chances of sustaining a conviction, as was proven in the case of Oliver North.
North's convictions in the Iran-Contra scandal were overturned due to his being given immunity by Congress for his testimony.
It's speculated that the North case may have been one of the reasons Flynn's lawyer has made an aggressive move seeking immunity, hoping maybe House Chairman-Trump lap dog, Devin Nunes might bite.
Usually, prosecutors only grant immunity when they know what the subject is going to say, and know that testimony will hook a bigger fish. The only bigger fish than the President's National Security Adviser, linked to the Russia investigation, are Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and Trump himself.
During his speech at the Republican National Convention, Flynn egged on "Lock Her Up!" anti-Clinton chants. Turns out, they should have been playing John Lennon's "Instant Karma."
In September, on "Meet the Press" Flynn, said that "when you are given immunity that means you've probably committed a crime, " referring to Clinton associates.
A day later at a rally, Trump asked,"If you're not guilty of a crime, what do you need immunity for?"
Now, of course, Trump's tweeting out a different tune when it's his former National Security Advisor seeking immunity.
"Mike Flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch hunt (excuse for big election loss), by media & Dems, of historic proportion!"
Press Secretary Sean Spicer said, "The president is very clear that he wants Mike Flynn to go and be completely open and transparent with the committee and whatever it takes to do that he is supportive of."
A week earlier, Spicer was in full cover-up spin mode, dismissing Flynn as just a campaign "volunteer" and Manafort, the campaign manager for six months, as someone who had a "limited role" for a "limited time,"
Flynn's immunity request "doesn't look good," said Rep. Jason Chaffetz, House Oversight Committee Chairman. "The witch hunt, I don't buy that either. We're just trying to get to the facts."
Here are the known facts so far on Trump's flimflam man, Michael Flynn:
Mislead Mike Pence and FBI about calls to the Russian Ambassador.
Flynn was ousted as National Security advisor after misleading Vice President Mike Pence and the FBI about his calls to the Russian Ambassador and the nature of those calls. Flynn had indicated to the FBI that he had not discussed the sanctions that had just been imposed by the Obama administration. The transcripts showed that he had. Lying to the FBI is a felony.
DOJ warned Trump that Flynn could be compromised.
Prior to being fired, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates warned Trump that Flynn had mislead Pence about his conversations with the Russian Ambassador and that Flynn could be compromised by the Russians. Despite this grave notice, Trump did not take immediate action to remove Flynn.
Flynn did not disclose he was a "foreign agent" for Turkey.
Flynn did not disclose he was a "foreign agent," as legally required, doing consulting and lobbying work for Turkey, until after he was ousted.
Flynn failed to report financial payments from Russian entities.
Saturday, the White House released staff financial disclosure forms showing Flynn failed to report payments from Russia, including a speaking fee of $45,000 from RT, the state-run Russian propaganda television network.
Former CIA Director implicates Flynn in kidnapping plot.
Former CIA Director James Woosely told The Wall Street Journal he attended a meeting where Flynn and representatives of Turkey's government discussed a "covert step in the dead of the night to whisk away" Turkish dissident leader Fethullah Gulen from his home in Pennsylvania. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of Turkey, blamed Gulen for the failed coup attempt against his government. At the time, Flynn was a campaign adviser to Trump and a lobbyist for Turkey.
The only presidential campaign under federal investigation on election day was Trump's, not Clinton's. The only one now seeking an immunity deal, is Trump's former National Security Advise, not Hillary Clinton.
Unfortunately for Trump, flimflam Flynn didn't make his immunity request on April Fool's Day.
Read the whole story
· · · ·
CNN |
Russia condemns US over 'absurd' response to Mosul civilian deaths
CNN Russia's Ministry of Defense issued a statement Sunday that derides US officials' comments about the US-led coalition's possible role in more than 100 civilian deaths in Mosul last month. "Absurd statements of the Pentagon representatives justifying ... and more » |
Kyiv Post |
Conviction of Ukraine's army general causes backlash among military
Kyiv Post On March 27, the Pavlograd district court found General Viktor Nazarov guilty of the death of 49Ukrainian servicemen who were in a plane downed in the sky over Luhansk on June 14, 2014. Nazarov, who sent the plane into Luhansk despite intelligence ... |
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Al-Monitor |
Did the US, Turkey reach understanding on Assad?
Al-Monitor The administration's clarity on Assad allows a more realistic assessment of political and military options in Syria. In addition, the Turkish government announced the end of Operation Euphrates Shield on March 29, the day before Tillerson's arrival, a ... On whirlwind trip to Turkey, Tillerson tries to assuage a frustrated allyNormangee Star all 53 news articles » |
Trump Says US Ready to Act Alone on North Koreaby webdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press)
President Donald Trump says that the United States is prepared to act alone if China does not take a tougher stand against North Korea's nuclear program. Trump's comments in an interview with the Financial Times come just days before he is set to host Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago estate in south Florida. The two are expected to discuss a number of issues, including North Korea, trade and territorial disputes in the South China Sea during their meeting on Thursday and Friday. “Yes, we will talk about North Korea,” Trump told the newspaper for a story that appeared Sunday on its website. “And China has great influence over North Korea. And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won't. And if they do, that will be very good for China, and if they don't it won't be good for anyone.” Trump said trade was the incentive for China to work with the United States. Still, he said the United States could “totally” handle the situation in North Korea without China's help. Asked how he would tackle North Korea, Trump said: “I'm not going to tell you. You know, I am not the United States of the past where we tell you where we are going to hit in the Middle East.” While China provides diplomatic and economic support to its neighbor, it claims that its influence over Kim Jong Un's government is limited. The relationship between the United States and China has been uncertain since Trump's election. During his campaign he accused China of unfair trade practices and threatened to raise import taxes on Chinese goods and declare Beijing a currency manipulator, though it is unclear whether Trump will follow through with either threat. Trump told the newspaper that he doesn't “want to talk about tariffs yet, perhaps the next time we meet.” Trump's ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, also offered tough talk on China, saying on ABC's “This Week” that the U.S. is pressing China to take a firmer stand regarding North Korea's nuclear program. U.N. resolutions have failed so far to deter North Korea from conducting nuclear and missile tests. Last year, the North conducted two nuclear tests and two dozen tests of ballistic missiles. “They need to show us how concerned they are,” Haley said. “They need to put pressure on North Korea. The only country that can stop North Korea is China, and they know that.” Asked what the U.S. would do if China doesn't cooperate, Haley said: “China has to cooperate.” Former defense secretary Ash Carter, however, said he doubted that Beijing will cooperate. “I've been working on the North Korea problem since 1994,” Carter said on ABC. “And we have consistently asked Chinese leaders ... because they uniquely have the historical and the economic relationship with North Korea to make a difference.” “They haven't used that influence, and so it's hard for me to be optimistic with that,” he said.
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· ·
Washington Post |
In Trump's Russia controversy, John McCain sees 'echoes of the Cold War'
Washington Post Russia's actions, McCain told ABC's Martha Raddatz on “This Week,” are “echoes of the Cold War. They just tell flat-out lies.” Raddatz and McCain talked in depth about the recent revelations of purported ties between Russia and President Trump's ... McCain on Russia probe: 'Every time we turn around, another shoe drops from this centipede'The Hill all 5 news articles » |
The Surveillance and “Unmasking” of Trump and his Associates
We learned this week that surveillance of Trump began long before he was the Republican nominee, and that the names in the intercepted communications were “unmasked” -- that is, identified by name or context -- by someone high up in the intelligence community.
In addition, citizens affiliated with Trump’s team who were unmasked were not associated with any intelligence about Russia or other foreign intelligence, sources confirmed. The initial unmasking led to other surveillance, which led to other private citizens being wrongly unmasked, sources said.
"Unmasking is not unprecedented, but unmasking for political purposes... specifically of Trump transition team members... is highly suspect and questionable,” an intelligence source told Fox News. “Opposition by some in the intelligence agencies who were very connected to the Obama and Clinton teams was strong. After Trump was elected, they decided they were going to ruin his presidency by picking them off one by one."
Nunes and Surveillance Reports
The best summation of this week’s distraction -- respecting chairman of the House intelligence committee, Devin Nunes -- is Victor Davis Hanson’s which I urge those of you interested to read in its entirety.
First, the central question remains who leaked what classified information for what reasons; second, since when is it improper or even unwise for an apprehensive intelligence official to bring information of some importance to the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee for external review -- in a climate of endemic distrust of all intelligence agencies?[snip] Nunes also said that the surveillance shown to him “was essentially a lot of information on the President-elect and his transition team and what they were doing.” Further, he suggested that the surveillance may have involved high-level Obama officials. When a reporter at Nunes’ second March 22 press conference asked, “Can you rule out the possibility that senior Obama-administration officials were involved in this?” Nunes replied, “No, we cannot.” Ipso facto these are startling disclosures of historical proportions -- if true, of an anti-constitutional magnitude comparable to Watergate. Given the stakes, we should expect hysteria to follow, and it has followed. [snip]Some notion of such intrigue, or rather the former nexus between Congress, the Obama administration, the intelligence agencies, and the monitoring of incoming Trump officials, was inadvertently disclosed recently by former Obama-administration Department of Defense deputy assistant secretary and current MSNBC commentator Evelyn Farkas. In an interview that originally aired on March 2 and that was reported on this week by Fox, Farkas seemed to brag on air about her own efforts scrambling to release information on the incoming Trump team’s purported talks with the Russians. Farkas’s revelation might put into context the eleventh-hour Obama effort to more widely disseminate intelligence findings among officials, one that followed even earlier attempts to broaden access to Obama-administration surveillance.
In any event, the White House invited the highest ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees to come view the documents themselves. Adam Schiff did, and reported he’d seen what Nunes had, after which he did not deny the intercepted 
communications contained nothing about Russia or Trump. They clearly were of no national intelligence significance, but rather, as Hanson noted, were evidence that the prior administration was snooping on political adversaries using the apparatus of the state to do so.
communications contained nothing about Russia or Trump. They clearly were of no national intelligence significance, but rather, as Hanson noted, were evidence that the prior administration was snooping on political adversaries using the apparatus of the state to do so.
We also learned this week that Hillary (despite her uncontested mishandling of classified information when she was Secretary of State), and her aides, including Farkas, were given access to classified information long after she left the Department of State which, with Farkas’ admission on MSNBC, underscores the apparent misuse of intelligence from her end.
FBI Director James Comey and former DNI James Clapper
As for Comey, Hanson notes:
There is no need to rehash the strange political career of FBI director James Comey during the 2016 election. As Andrew McCarthy has noted in his recent NRO analyses, news accounts alleged that Comey’s FBI investigations of supposed contacts between General Michael Flynn and the Russian ambassador were shared with Obama-administration officials -- but why and how we are not sure. Comey himself was quick to note that his agency is investigating supposed collusion between Team Trump and Russia, but he refused to comment on whether or not the FBI is investigating possibly inappropriate or illegal intercepts of Trump officials and the surely illegal dissemination of intercepted info through leaks to favorable media.
But there’s much more to be said about him and his “investigation” which seems to be continuing only to cover his own backside.
The FBI was concerned that the ill-secured DNC internet communications were being hacked and sought to examine them. The DNC refused and engaged an outfit called Crowd Strike to do the job. Crowd Strike reported the Russia had likely tapped their server. There’s no explanation of why Crowd Strike was chosen, why the FBI allowed this, and why it apparently relied on that outfit’s findings. Recently Crowd Strike has walked back many of its claims after a VOA report that the company misrepresented data published by an influential British think tank.
And then there’s the dossier compiled by the former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele. If you recall, this dossier was commissioned through a DC firm, Fusion GPS, by Hillary to dig up opposition research on her opponents, and when she dropped it, unnamed Republicans followed up on the contract. At some point (accounts vary about how this occurred), dog in the manger John McCain got it and widely distributed it to the press and political figures. These Republicans, too, dropped the service, at which time the FBI picked it up, though they claim not to have paid GPS. Comey apparently has based his still ongoing “investigation” on it. The dossier is utter bunk. Ironically, it is Fusion GPS that is tied to Russian intelligence.
“It is highly troubling that Fusion GPS appears to have been working with someone with ties to Russian intelligence -- let alone someone alleged to have conducted political disinformation campaigns -- as part of a pro-Russia lobbying effort while also simultaneously overseeing the creation of the Trump/Russia dossier,” writes [Senator] Grassley.Akhmetshin hired Simpson and Fusion GPS last year to work on a campaign to roll back the Magnitsky Act, a law passed in 2012 which imposed sanctions against a handful of Russian criminals accused of human rights violations.The law was named in honor of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who was killed by jail guards in 2009. Magnitsky was working for Bill Browder, a London-based investor who once operated in Russia, when he uncovered a $230 million fraud being carried out by the Russian government.After Magnitsky’s death, Browder began lobbying U.S. lawmakers to enact sanctions against Russian criminals engaged in human rights abuses.In a FARA complaint submitted in July, Browder laid out the case that Akhmetshin conducted a covert lobbying campaign to hinder the Global Magnitsky Act, an expansion of the original law.
The report is not worthy of consideration, but the FBI and Rep. Adam Schiff did apparently rely on it, drawing into question the FBI’s “independence from politics” and Schiff’s credulity or venality:
Citing current and former government officials, the New Yorker reported the dossier prompted skepticism among intelligence community members, with the publication quoting one member as saying it was a “nutty” piece of evidence to submit to a U.S. president.Steele’s work has been questioned by former acting CIA director Morell, who currently works at the Hillary Clinton-tied Beacon Global Strategies LLC. Beacon was founded by Phillippe Reines, who served as Communications Adviser to Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state. From 2009-2013, Reines also served in Clinton’s State Department as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Strategic Communications. Reines is the managing director of Beacon...Morell, who was in line to become CIA director if Clinton won, said he had seen no evidence that Trump associates cooperated with Russians. He also raised questions about the dossier written by a former British intelligence officer, which alleged a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia…Morell pointed out that former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said on Meet the Press on March 5 that he had seen no evidence of a conspiracy when he left office January 20.“That’s a pretty strong statement by General Clapper,” Morell said.Regarding Steele’s dossier, Morell stated, “Unless you know the sources, and unless you know how a particular source acquired a particular piece of information, you can’t judge the information -- you just can’t.”Morell charged the dossier “doesn’t take you anywhere, I don’t think.”“I had two questions when I first read it. One was, How did Chris talk to these sources? I have subsequently learned that he used intermediaries.”Morell continued:And then I asked myself, why did these guys provide this information, what was their motivation? And I subsequently learned that he paid them. That the intermediaries paid the sources and the intermediaries got the money from Chris. And that kind of worries me a little bit because if you’re paying somebody, particularly former FSB officers, they are going to tell you truth and innuendo and rumor, and they’re going to call you up and say, “Hey, let’s have another meeting, I have more information for you,” because they want to get paid some more.I think you’ve got to take all that into consideration when you consider the dossier.’
Maybe Comey is continuing the investigation to blur his own role in the Obama administration's improper and illegal snooping on his party’s opponents. He has not closed the investigation despite its apparently flimsy basis, perhaps to protect himself. He was supposed to report this investigation in a timely manner to the Congressional and Senate intelligence committees and did not.
As a correspondent with some knowledge of these matters related to me:
“When push comes to shove, no investigation gets opened, no FISA order is applied for, without James Comey's say-so. They can bluster, but it's damned hard to get rid of an FBI Director without a very, very public stink. He could have said no, but he didn't. That means the investigation is bound to focus on him. And count on it -- the decision to short circuit Congressional oversight was probably pushed on him by those same people, but once again, it was ultimately his decision. He could've gone to the Committee, but he didn't. His decision, his responsibility.”
His view is strengthened by Comey’s obfuscation at a Congressional hearing:
The counter-intel investigation, by his own admission, began in July 2016. Congress was not notified until March 2017. That’s an eight month period – Obviously obfuscating the quarterly claim moments earlier.The uncomfortable aspect to this line of inquiry is Comey’s transparent knowledge of the politicized Office of the DNI James Clapper by President Obama.The first and second questions from Stefanik were clear. Comey’s understanding of the questions was clear. However, Comey directly evaded truthful response to the second question. When you watch the video, you can see Comey quickly connecting the dots on where this inquiry was going.There is only one reasonable explanation for FBI Director James Comey to be launching a counter-intel investigation in July 2016, notifying the White House and Clapper, and keeping it under wraps from congress. Comey was a participant in the intelligence gathering for political purposes -- wittingly, or unwittingly.As a direct consequence of this mid-thought-stream Comey obfuscation, it is now clear -- at least to me -- that Director Comey was using his office as a facilitating conduit for the political purposes of the Obama White House.
John Brennan
It’s possible that the tissue-thin, incredible Steele “dossier” was not the only disinformation source. At the Spectator there’s a plausible account of how Obama’s CIA director John Brennan worked with Hillary and certain Baltic figures to discredit Trump with the charge of collusion with Russia.
Brennan pushed for a multi-agency investigation of the Trump campaign, using as his pretext alleged intelligence from an unnamed Baltic state. That “intelligence” was supplied at the very moment Baltic officials had their own political motivation to smear Trump.“Last April, the CIA director was shown intelligence that worried him. It was -- allegedly -- a tape recording of a conversation about money from the Kremlin going into the US presidential campaign. It was passed to the US by an intelligence agency of one of the Baltic States,” reported the BBC’s Paul Wood.Is it just a coincidence that Brennan got this tape recording from a Baltic State intelligence agency in April when officials in the Baltic States were up in arms over candidate Trump? Recall that in March of 2016 -- the month before Brennan allegedly got the recording from Baltic spies -- Trump made remarks about NATO that the press was hyping as hostile to the Baltic States. [snip]Hillary and her allies in the media seized on these remarks and ripped Trump on the false claim that, if elected, he would “pull out of NATO,” leaving Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia to fend for themselves against Russia.Such fearmongering set off an anti-Trump panic in political circles within the Baltic States. Out of it came a steady stream of stories with headlines such as: “Baltic States Fearful of Trump’s Nato Views” and “Estonian Prez Appears to Push Back on Trump’s NATO Comments.”[Snip]Both Brennan and officials in the Baltic States had strong incentives to help Hillary and hurt Trump. That Brennan and some Baltic spies teamed up to inflate the significance of some half-baked intelligence from a recording isn’t surprising. Only in such a feverish partisan milieu would basic questions go unasked, such as: Is it really a good idea to investigate a political opponent on the basis of a lead provided by a country that wants to see him lose?
Flynn
Flynn was Obama’s head of the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) and served only days under Trump. Reports this week initially made it appear that he was under investigation for ties to Russia, but it is more obvious to me that he knows about skullduggery by the prior administration in the Middle East, most likely Iran, and wants protection against the sort of unwarranted prosecutions Ted Stevens and Lewis Libby suffered at the hands of vindictive Democrats and their minions. The charges against him are being leveled by former Obama aide Sally Yates, who has utterly discredited herself earlier by her demonstrably false claim that the White House blocked her from testifying to Congress when the documentation clearly shows she was not.
Perhaps the easiest thing to do is to just consider everything the Democrats say, directly or through the media, which just prints as truth handouts from the same Democratic sources, as a lie. You’d save a lot of time and most likely be right.
There’s so much in print and online about the House and Senate intelligence committees and Russian “collusion” with Trump that I can’t blame people with real lives to lead who just throw their hands up and garden or go hiking. Some will assume there’s got to be a pony in there somewhere, as Ronald Reagan used to joke about the kid digging through manure. I think there is, but it isn’t that Russia corrupted the 2016 election, it’s that Obama and his closest aides, including some at the highest level in the intelligence community, illegally intercepted one or more Republican candidates’ communications before the election, circulated them widely to their cohorts and then tried to use this information to defeat and later to hamstring Trump when Hillary -- to their surprise -- lost the election.
I also suspect that the attacks on Flynn have nothing to do with his Russian contacts which he disclosed, but, rather, to misdeeds respecting the Middle East, particularly Iran, the country he observed as Obama’s head of the DIA.
The Surveillance and “Unmasking” of Trump and his Associates
We learned this week that surveillance of Trump began long before he was the Republican nominee, and that the names in the intercepted communications were “unmasked” -- that is, identified by name or context -- by someone high up in the intelligence community.
In addition, citizens affiliated with Trump’s team who were unmasked were not associated with any intelligence about Russia or other foreign intelligence, sources confirmed. The initial unmasking led to other surveillance, which led to other private citizens being wrongly unmasked, sources said.
"Unmasking is not unprecedented, but unmasking for political purposes... specifically of Trump transition team members... is highly suspect and questionable,” an intelligence source told Fox News. “Opposition by some in the intelligence agencies who were very connected to the Obama and Clinton teams was strong. After Trump was elected, they decided they were going to ruin his presidency by picking them off one by one."
Nunes and Surveillance Reports
The best summation of this week’s distraction -- respecting chairman of the House intelligence committee, Devin Nunes -- is Victor Davis Hanson’s which I urge those of you interested to read in its entirety.
First, the central question remains who leaked what classified information for what reasons; second, since when is it improper or even unwise for an apprehensive intelligence official to bring information of some importance to the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee for external review -- in a climate of endemic distrust of all intelligence agencies?[snip] Nunes also said that the surveillance shown to him “was essentially a lot of information on the President-elect and his transition team and what they were doing.” Further, he suggested that the surveillance may have involved high-level Obama officials. When a reporter at Nunes’ second March 22 press conference asked, “Can you rule out the possibility that senior Obama-administration officials were involved in this?” Nunes replied, “No, we cannot.” Ipso facto these are startling disclosures of historical proportions -- if true, of an anti-constitutional magnitude comparable to Watergate. Given the stakes, we should expect hysteria to follow, and it has followed. [snip]Some notion of such intrigue, or rather the former nexus between Congress, the Obama administration, the intelligence agencies, and the monitoring of incoming Trump officials, was inadvertently disclosed recently by former Obama-administration Department of Defense deputy assistant secretary and current MSNBC commentator Evelyn Farkas. In an interview that originally aired on March 2 and that was reported on this week by Fox, Farkas seemed to brag on air about her own efforts scrambling to release information on the incoming Trump team’s purported talks with the Russians. Farkas’s revelation might put into context the eleventh-hour Obama effort to more widely disseminate intelligence findings among officials, one that followed even earlier attempts to broaden access to Obama-administration surveillance.
In any event, the White House invited the highest ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees to come view the documents themselves. Adam Schiff did, and reported he’d seen what Nunes had, after which he did not deny the intercepted communications contained nothing about Russia or Trump. They clearly were of no national intelligence significance, but rather, as Hanson noted, were evidence that the prior administration was snooping on political adversaries using the apparatus of the state to do so.
communications contained nothing about Russia or Trump. They clearly were of no national intelligence significance, but rather, as Hanson noted, were evidence that the prior administration was snooping on political adversaries using the apparatus of the state to do so.
We also learned this week that Hillary (despite her uncontested mishandling of classified information when she was Secretary of State), and her aides, including Farkas, were given access to classified information long after she left the Department of State which, with Farkas’ admission on MSNBC, underscores the apparent misuse of intelligence from her end.
FBI Director James Comey and former DNI James Clapper
As for Comey, Hanson notes:
There is no need to rehash the strange political career of FBI director James Comey during the 2016 election. As Andrew McCarthy has noted in his recent NRO analyses, news accounts alleged that Comey’s FBI investigations of supposed contacts between General Michael Flynn and the Russian ambassador were shared with Obama-administration officials -- but why and how we are not sure. Comey himself was quick to note that his agency is investigating supposed collusion between Team Trump and Russia, but he refused to comment on whether or not the FBI is investigating possibly inappropriate or illegal intercepts of Trump officials and the surely illegal dissemination of intercepted info through leaks to favorable media.
But there’s much more to be said about him and his “investigation” which seems to be continuing only to cover his own backside.
The FBI was concerned that the ill-secured DNC internet communications were being hacked and sought to examine them. The DNC refused and engaged an outfit called Crowd Strike to do the job. Crowd Strike reported the Russia had likely tapped their server. There’s no explanation of why Crowd Strike was chosen, why the FBI allowed this, and why it apparently relied on that outfit’s findings. Recently Crowd Strike has walked back many of its claims after a VOA report that the company misrepresented data published by an influential British think tank.
And then there’s the dossier compiled by the former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele. If you recall, this dossier was commissioned through a DC firm, Fusion GPS, by Hillary to dig up opposition research on her opponents, and when she dropped it, unnamed Republicans followed up on the contract. At some point (accounts vary about how this occurred), dog in the manger John McCain got it and widely distributed it to the press and political figures. These Republicans, too, dropped the service, at which time the FBI picked it up, though they claim not to have paid GPS. Comey apparently has based his still ongoing “investigation” on it. The dossier is utter bunk. Ironically, it is Fusion GPS that is tied to Russian intelligence.
“It is highly troubling that Fusion GPS appears to have been working with someone with ties to Russian intelligence -- let alone someone alleged to have conducted political disinformation campaigns -- as part of a pro-Russia lobbying effort while also simultaneously overseeing the creation of the Trump/Russia dossier,” writes [Senator] Grassley.Akhmetshin hired Simpson and Fusion GPS last year to work on a campaign to roll back the Magnitsky Act, a law passed in 2012 which imposed sanctions against a handful of Russian criminals accused of human rights violations.The law was named in honor of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who was killed by jail guards in 2009. Magnitsky was working for Bill Browder, a London-based investor who once operated in Russia, when he uncovered a $230 million fraud being carried out by the Russian government.After Magnitsky’s death, Browder began lobbying U.S. lawmakers to enact sanctions against Russian criminals engaged in human rights abuses.In a FARA complaint submitted in July, Browder laid out the case that Akhmetshin conducted a covert lobbying campaign to hinder the Global Magnitsky Act, an expansion of the original law.
The report is not worthy of consideration, but the FBI and Rep. Adam Schiff did apparently rely on it, drawing into question the FBI’s “independence from politics” and Schiff’s credulity or venality:
Citing current and former government officials, the New Yorker reported the dossier prompted skepticism among intelligence community members, with the publication quoting one member as saying it was a “nutty” piece of evidence to submit to a U.S. president.Steele’s work has been questioned by former acting CIA director Morell, who currently works at the Hillary Clinton-tied Beacon Global Strategies LLC. Beacon was founded by Phillippe Reines, who served as Communications Adviser to Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state. From 2009-2013, Reines also served in Clinton’s State Department as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Strategic Communications. Reines is the managing director of Beacon...Morell, who was in line to become CIA director if Clinton won, said he had seen no evidence that Trump associates cooperated with Russians. He also raised questions about the dossier written by a former British intelligence officer, which alleged a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia…Morell pointed out that former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said on Meet the Press on March 5 that he had seen no evidence of a conspiracy when he left office January 20.“That’s a pretty strong statement by General Clapper,” Morell said.Regarding Steele’s dossier, Morell stated, “Unless you know the sources, and unless you know how a particular source acquired a particular piece of information, you can’t judge the information -- you just can’t.”Morell charged the dossier “doesn’t take you anywhere, I don’t think.”“I had two questions when I first read it. One was, How did Chris talk to these sources? I have subsequently learned that he used intermediaries.”Morell continued:And then I asked myself, why did these guys provide this information, what was their motivation? And I subsequently learned that he paid them. That the intermediaries paid the sources and the intermediaries got the money from Chris. And that kind of worries me a little bit because if you’re paying somebody, particularly former FSB officers, they are going to tell you truth and innuendo and rumor, and they’re going to call you up and say, “Hey, let’s have another meeting, I have more information for you,” because they want to get paid some more.I think you’ve got to take all that into consideration when you consider the dossier.’
Maybe Comey is continuing the investigation to blur his own role in the Obama administration's improper and illegal snooping on his party’s opponents. He has not closed the investigation despite its apparently flimsy basis, perhaps to protect himself. He was supposed to report this investigation in a timely manner to the Congressional and Senate intelligence committees and did not.
As a correspondent with some knowledge of these matters related to me:
“When push comes to shove, no investigation gets opened, no FISA order is applied for, without James Comey's say-so. They can bluster, but it's damned hard to get rid of an FBI Director without a very, very public stink. He could have said no, but he didn't. That means the investigation is bound to focus on him. And count on it -- the decision to short circuit Congressional oversight was probably pushed on him by those same people, but once again, it was ultimately his decision. He could've gone to the Committee, but he didn't. His decision, his responsibility.”
His view is strengthened by Comey’s obfuscation at a Congressional hearing:
The counter-intel investigation, by his own admission, began in July 2016. Congress was not notified until March 2017. That’s an eight month period – Obviously obfuscating the quarterly claim moments earlier.The uncomfortable aspect to this line of inquiry is Comey’s transparent knowledge of the politicized Office of the DNI James Clapper by President Obama.The first and second questions from Stefanik were clear. Comey’s understanding of the questions was clear. However, Comey directly evaded truthful response to the second question. When you watch the video, you can see Comey quickly connecting the dots on where this inquiry was going.There is only one reasonable explanation for FBI Director James Comey to be launching a counter-intel investigation in July 2016, notifying the White House and Clapper, and keeping it under wraps from congress. Comey was a participant in the intelligence gathering for political purposes -- wittingly, or unwittingly.As a direct consequence of this mid-thought-stream Comey obfuscation, it is now clear -- at least to me -- that Director Comey was using his office as a facilitating conduit for the political purposes of the Obama White House.
John Brennan
It’s possible that the tissue-thin, incredible Steele “dossier” was not the only disinformation source. At the Spectator there’s a plausible account of how Obama’s CIA director John Brennan worked with Hillary and certain Baltic figures to discredit Trump with the charge of collusion with Russia.
Brennan pushed for a multi-agency investigation of the Trump campaign, using as his pretext alleged intelligence from an unnamed Baltic state. That “intelligence” was supplied at the very moment Baltic officials had their own political motivation to smear Trump.“Last April, the CIA director was shown intelligence that worried him. It was -- allegedly -- a tape recording of a conversation about money from the Kremlin going into the US presidential campaign. It was passed to the US by an intelligence agency of one of the Baltic States,” reported the BBC’s Paul Wood.Is it just a coincidence that Brennan got this tape recording from a Baltic State intelligence agency in April when officials in the Baltic States were up in arms over candidate Trump? Recall that in March of 2016 -- the month before Brennan allegedly got the recording from Baltic spies -- Trump made remarks about NATO that the press was hyping as hostile to the Baltic States. [snip]Hillary and her allies in the media seized on these remarks and ripped Trump on the false claim that, if elected, he would “pull out of NATO,” leaving Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia to fend for themselves against Russia.Such fearmongering set off an anti-Trump panic in political circles within the Baltic States. Out of it came a steady stream of stories with headlines such as: “Baltic States Fearful of Trump’s Nato Views” and “Estonian Prez Appears to Push Back on Trump’s NATO Comments.”[Snip]Both Brennan and officials in the Baltic States had strong incentives to help Hillary and hurt Trump. That Brennan and some Baltic spies teamed up to inflate the significance of some half-baked intelligence from a recording isn’t surprising. Only in such a feverish partisan milieu would basic questions go unasked, such as: Is it really a good idea to investigate a political opponent on the basis of a lead provided by a country that wants to see him lose?
Flynn
Flynn was Obama’s head of the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) and served only days under Trump. Reports this week initially made it appear that he was under investigation for ties to Russia, but it is more obvious to me that he knows about skullduggery by the prior administration in the Middle East, most likely Iran, and wants protection against the sort of unwarranted prosecutions Ted Stevens and Lewis Libby suffered at the hands of vindictive Democrats and their minions. The charges against him are being leveled by former Obama aide Sally Yates, who has utterly discredited herself earlier by her demonstrably false claim that the White House blocked her from testifying to Congress when the documentation clearly shows she was not.
Perhaps the easiest thing to do is to just consider everything the Democrats say, directly or through the media, which just prints as truth handouts from the same Democratic sources, as a lie. You’d save a lot of time and most likely be right.
Read the whole story
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A senior Trump administration official says that Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's senior adviser and his son-in-law, has arrived in Iraq with the highest-ranking Pentagon general.
Trump's Son-in-Law Visits Iraqby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
A senior White House official says Jared Kushner, the son-in-law and senior adviser to President Donald Trump, is in Iraq. The official said Sunday Kushner is traveling with General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Details about Kushner's visit were not immediately available, however Iraq's fight against Islamic State jihadists is likely to be on the agenda.A U.S.-led international coalition has launched airstrikes against the insurgents to assist the Iraqi troops on the ground. Kushner, like his father-in-law, has no previous government experience, but has quickly become one of the most powerful men in Washington. He is married to Trump's daughter, Ivanka.
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