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588 security violations found in Clinton email probe, and only 38 people cited - but no one's covering for Hillary

Joshua Caplan
Breitbart News
Fri, 18 Oct 2019 20:31 UTC
Huma Abedin and Hillary Clinton
© J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo
Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin
The investigation covered 33,000 emails. The department said it found , but it could not assign fault in 497 cases.

The U.S. State Department concluded its investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email usage and determined nearly 40 people committed violations, the Associated Press reported Friday.

The department determined that those 38 people were "culpable" in 91 cases of sending classified information in messages that ended up in Clinton's personal email. The 38 are current and former State Department officials but were not identified in the report that was sent to Congress this week.

The investigation covered 33,000 emails that Clinton turned over for review after her use of the private email account became public. The department said it found a total of 588 violations involving information then or now deemed to be classified, but could not assign fault in 497 cases.

Comment: The Daily Caller adds:
Clinton exchanged more than 60,000 emails on a private email account hosted on a server that she kept at her residence in New York. She emailed frequently with longtime aides Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills, Jake Sullivan, and an outside adviser, Sidney Blumenthal.

The FBI investigated whether Clinton mishandled classified information by using the server. Former FBI Director James Comey announced July 5, 2016, that he would not be recommending charges against Clinton over the server, though he did say she was "extremely careless" in using an off-the-books email system.

State Department investigators reviewed all of Clinton's emails, obtained hundreds of statements, and conducted dozens of in-person interviews with current and former State Department officials, according to the report.

Investigators determined personal email use to conduct official State Department business "represented an increased risk of unauthorized disclosure." Clinton's use of the private server "added an increased degree of risk of compromise as a private system lacks the network monitoring and intrusion detection capabilities of State Department networks," the report stated.

Investigators said there was "no persuasive evidence" of "systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information."

One reason that investigators were unable to assign culpability in the 497 incidents was because of the duration of the investigation. Many of the subjects of the probe, including Clinton and her circle of aides, has left the State Department by the time the investigation began.



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Stop

Energy Sec. Rick Perry announces plans to resign; House Dems subpoena him regarding Ukraine

Gregg Re
Fox News
Fri, 18 Oct 2019 00:00 UTC
Rick Perry
© AP/Andrew Harnik
Energy Secretary Rick Perry gesturing as he arrived on Air Force One with President Trump at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth, Texas, on Thursday.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry notified President Trump on Thursday that he intends to leave his job soon, two administration sources familiar with the matter said.

Perry was traveling with the president to Texas when he shared the news aboard Air Force One. Speaking to reporters later Thursday, Trump called Perry "outstanding" and announced, "We already have his replacement." But, Trump said Perry would stay on until the end of the year.

"It's his time. Two years is a long time," Trump said. "We have the man ... we're going to be putting in Rick's place."

Fox News is told Perry had planned to resign at the end of the year. However, the former Texas governor had come under scrutiny over the role he played in the president's dealings with Ukraine, which are currently the subject of an impeachment inquiry -- raising questions as to whether the probe factored into his announcement Thursday. House Democrats subpoenaed Perry earlier in the day as part of their investigation.

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Cell Phone

Information from Mifsud Blackberrys may answer key Russiagate questions

Jeff Carlson
The Epoch Times
Fri, 18 Oct 2019 19:37 UTC
Joseph Mifsud
© Juan Manuel Herrera/OAS via AP
Maltese academic Joseph Mifsud during a meeting in Washington, on Nov. 12, 2014.
John Durham, the U.S. Attorney for Connecticut tasked with investigating the origins of the FBI's probe into the Trump campaign, has obtained two cell phones belonging to Maltese professor Joseph Mifsud.

Mifsud, who disappeared from public view shortly after his name was outed in the media in 2017, played a key role in events that led the FBI to investigate the Trump campaign. The news of the cell phones was first made known in an Oct. 15, 2019, filing by Sidney Powell, the attorney for Trump's former national security adviser, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. In the motion, she requested that the U.S. Government be ordered to "produce evidence that has only recently come into its possession."

The evidence being requested were two Blackberry phones — including all data and metadata — that had been "used by Mr. Joseph Mifsud."

Comment:

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Whistle

Schiff flip-flops on whistleblower testimony as reports of 'coordination' surface

Mollie Hemingway
The Federalist
Fri, 18 Oct 2019 00:00 UTC
Schiff
© Boston Herald
House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff
House Democrats' top impeachment inquisitor abruptly changed from repeatedly insisting on the testimony of a whistleblower against President Donald Trump to working to prevent it.

The change occurred as soon as it was revealed the complainant had secretly worked with Rep. Adam Schiff's Democratic staff prior to filing his formal complaint on Aug. 12.

At first, Schiff insisted an anti-Trump bureaucrat sharing allegations against the president must share his story with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. But after news broke that Schiff's staff had secretly worked with the whistleblower prior to the complaint being lodged, discussions that the whistleblower failed to mention when specifically asked about them as part of the official whistleblower process, Schiff moved to prevent the testimony. The move appears designed to prevent Republican lawmakers from asking the individual under oath about his discussions with House Democrats, media, and others involved in the impeachment effort.


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Pirates

Not going home: US troops leaving Syria to head for Iraq


Sputnik
Sun, 20 Oct 2019 09:28 UTC

Comment: Question is: are they taking what remains of ISIS with them?


Us troops
© AFP 2019 / AHMAD AL-RUBAYE
The US secretary of defence has shared with journalists that the US troops, who, as Donald Trump argued the other day, should finally come home, are not actually doing so.

According to Defence Secretary Mark Esper, the current plan presupposes that US troops leaving Syria will head for western Iraq and the military will persist in its anti-Daesh* operations to make sure there is no resurgence of terrorism in the area.

Speaking to reporters while on a flight to the Middle East, the defence chief mentioned he had talked to his Iraqi counterpart about the plan to redirect over 700 of the 1,000 US troops, from Syria to Iraq, adding that the data was fluid and the details would be worked out in due time.

Per Esper, the troops leaving for Iraq will largely have two missions:

Comment: Sputnik also reports:
According to the SANA news agency, the group of transport trucks, accompanied by military vehicles, is heading for the Syrian city of Qamishli to complete the evacuation of US bases from Syria.

The news comes after on Thursday, Washington and Ankara agreed to suspend Turkish military operation in northeastern Syria for 120 hours and withdraw Kurdish forces from the 30-kilometre (18 miles) buffer zone on the Turkish-Syrian border. Despite the ceasefire, there were reports of continued fighting.

Commenting on the situation in the region, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that the United States would pull out an approximate 1,000 troops from the northern part of Syria after the start of the Turkish offensive.
us turkey
© REUTERS / TURKISH DEFENCE MINISTRY
Turkish and U.S. military vehicles are seen on the Syrian-Turkish border during a joint U.S.- Turkey patrol near Tel Abyad, Syria, September 8, 2019
Ankara launched the Operation Peace Spring on 9 October, saying that the military action aimed to create a safe zone near the Syrian-Turkish border after multiple fruitless discussions between Turkey and the US.

The territory on the Syrian side of the border is currently controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which used to be a US ally but regarded by Ankara as affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is blacklisted in Turkey.
Meanwhile the US has been funneling its terrorists in Syria through corridors towards Iraq. In Iraq, just a week ago, the government was placating a citizen uprising against unacceptable living standards - even the Iraqi PM himself called their motives "righteous" - but it's notable that a number commentators had, months before, predicted these protests would occur and assigned blame on dark forces fomenting discord in the region. It's no surprise, then, that unidentified snipers were observed at these protests, fanning the flames of an already troublesome situation.

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Handcuffs

Puigdemont testifies before Belgian authorities over arrest warrant; Spain seeks his extradition

Sam Jones, Jennifer Rankin
The Guardian
Fri, 18 Oct 2019 07:32 UTC
Puigdemont
© europapress
Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont
Carles Puigdemont, the former Catalan president sought by Spanish courts over his role in the region's failed independence bid, has been released on bail after testifying before judicial authorities in Belgium in response to the reactivation of an international arrest warrant against him this week.

News of his court appearance came as Catalonia prepared for a general strike and a huge demonstration in Barcelona after a fourth night of violent protests triggered by the jailing of nine pro-independence leaders by the Spanish supreme court on Monday.

Puigdemont, who led the region between January 2016 and October 2017, fled to Belgium to avoid arrest after being sacked by the Spanish government for staging an illegal referendum and making a unilateral declaration of independence two years ago.

In a statement, Puigdemont's office said: "[Carles] Puigdemont, accompanied by his lawyers, has appeared voluntarily before the Belgian authorities in response to the European arrest warrant issued by the Spanish supreme court."

Comment: See also:

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Beaker

Skripal Saga: Update on the inquest into the death of Dawn Sturgess

Rob Slane
The BlogMire
Thu, 17 Oct 2019 00:00 UTC

Comment: Fair play to Rob Slane for slugging it out with updates on the British govt's absolute cock-up of an investigation into 'the Skirpal Saga'.


Dawn Sturgess
© Daily Mail
Dawn Sturgess
In my last post on the Salisbury and Amesbury "Novichok" cases, I said that it was my intention to move on from writing on the subject, unless any significant developments arose. That is still my intention, but as something has arisen that I believe is quite significant, I am returning to it in this piece.

Friday 18th October was scheduled to be the date of the Pre-Inquest Review (PIR) into the death of Dawn Sturgess, but it has been adjourned. Inquest adjournments are of course not uncommon, and according to the guidelines set out by the Crown Prosecution Service: "Inquests will, in most cases, remain adjourned whilst criminal proceedings are being considered."

However, not only is this now the fourth adjournment (the others being 18th July 2018, 16th January 2019, and 15th April 2019), but — as far as I have been able to establish — unlike the previous adjournments no new date has been made public.

But there is more. When contacted for details of the postponement and rescheduling, the Coroner's Office responded by saying that a press release had been sent to Counter Terrorism Command (CTC), which is a branch of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), headed by Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu. However, it seems that even though this press release was sent, CTC does not appear to have released it — at least nothing has appeared in the media regarding it, and there is nothing on the MPS website. All very odd!

Comment: See also:

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Bell

Plan B: UK govt launches Yellowhammer op as ministers prepare for potential no-deal Brexit


RT
Sun, 20 Oct 2019 19:20 UTC
Pro-Brexit demonstrators
© Global Look Press
Pro-Brexit demonstrators outside the UK Parliament.
Ministers are insisting that the UK will leave the European Union by the current Brexit deadline of October 31, despite the government being forced by parliament to ask the bloc for an extension.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson sent an unsigned letter requesting an extension after his Brexit strategy suffered a setback with a defeat in the House of Commons on Saturday.

European Council President Donald Tusk confirmed that he had received the letter and will start consulting EU leaders about "how to react."

Despite this, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and his fellow cabinet minister Michael Gove insisted on Sunday that the UK will leave the bloc by October 31.

Johnson's request was accompanied by a second letter, signed by the Prime Minister, saying he believed a delay would be a mistake. Gove told Sky News that the government still had "the means and ability" to leave on October 31.

Gove, who is in charge of no-deal planning, said that "the prime minister's determination is absolute" and the government's "determined policy" is to meet that deadline. "We know that the EU want us to leave, we know that we have a deal that allows us to leave," he said.

Comment: George Galloway comments:
By postponing a vote on Boris Johnson's Brexit deal, MPs have only complicated Britain's divorce from the EU, and in the case of Labour, stacked their own "electoral funeral pyres," former parliamentarian George Galloway told RT.

Opposition MPs and protesters in the streets of London celebrated the passing of the so-called Letwin amendment earlier on Saturday. The amendment to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Brexit deal requires Johnson to seek an extension to the October 31 Brexit deadline from the EU, so that formal ratification legislation can be debated and passed in both Houses of Parliament.

For the 322 MPs who voted in favour of Letwin, their victory was "pyrrhic," Galloway told RT. The former lawmaker called the amendment a "childish, schoolboy jape" aimed at "frustrating the will of the British people," who simply want Britain's exit from the EU to be over and done with.

For Labour too, the decision to back an amendment authored by Tory MP Sir Oliver Letwin - an architect of Margaret Thatcher's much-maligned Poll Tax in the 1980s - "is now very clear for everyone to see," he continued.
...
"They said that Johnson wanted no deal, and then he got a deal," the former Scottish lawmaker said, referring to Remainers in parliament. "They said that they were holding out, because they could not countenance for a moment the threat to peace in Ireland, and then Ireland got behind the deal."

"Indeed, but for the backwoodsmen of the DUP, every party - including SInn Fein - are now fully behind the deal. Brussels and the EU are behind the deal."

With the tides in Johnson's favor, Galloway sees the British Parliament finding a way to pass the deal before October 31. Failing that, Remainers could be faced with the ironic result of leaving without a deal at all, "the very thing that today's parliamentary opposition always claimed they wanted least of all."
MPs had to be escorted by police to protect them from angry crowds (both pro- and anti-Brexit):



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Star of David

Jerusalem spooked by Moscow's growing influence in the Middle East

Raphael Ahren
Times of Israel
Fri, 18 Oct 2019 18:12 UTC
russian syrian military
© Maxime POPOV / AFP
A picture taken during a guided tour with the Russian army shows Syrian elite soldiers taking part in an instruction session with Russian military trainers, on September 24, 2019, at an army base in Yafour, some 30 kilometers west of Damascus.
US President Donald Trump's newly announced withdrawal of nearly all US troops from northern Syria has cemented Russia's status as the predominant global military power actively engaged in the Middle East.

This week, Russian troops arrived at military bases in northern Syria that the American army had hastily left just days earlier, in what can be regarded as both a literal and figurative handover of regional hegemony.

Many officials in Jerusalem are deeply worried about being abandoned by their superpower ally, as the American decision to gradually disengage from this part of the world — which started under former US president Barack Obama — threatens to embolden Israel's enemies: Iran and its allies and proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and elsewhere.


Comment: It's incorrect to say that a slave can "abandon" its master. Better to tell the truth: a slave escapes its master's clutches.


What does Russia's takeover really mean for Israel? Some analysts are deeply concerned, fretting about the possibility that Moscow could use surface-to-air missiles against Israeli jets attacking Iranian targets in Syria, which would effectively end Jerusalem's campaign against Tehran's establishment of a military foothold near Israel's border.

Others see in Russia's new leadership role an opportunity, as it may make room for an Iranian-Israel modus vivendi that would prevent the shadow war between the two countries from escalating.

Comment: Good news is nice for a change.

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Map

Turkey will view protection of Kurdish units by Damascus as declaration of war


Sputnik
Sun, 20 Oct 2019 16:13 UTC
turkish military
© REUTERS / MURAD SEZER
The possible protection of the Kurdish units, operating in northern Syria, by Damascus will be regarded by Ankara as a declaration of war on Turkey, Yasin Aktay, an adviser of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, said on Saturday.

On October 9, Turkey began the Operation Peace Spring, stating it aimed to rid its southern border of the Kurdish militia, which it views as terrorists. Soon after that Damascus sent troops to the north to protect the Kurdish units.

"If the Syrian regime [government troops] wants to enter Manbij, Ayn al-Arab [Kobani] and Qamishli to provide protection for the Kurdish People's Protection Units [YPG], that will be viewed by Turkey as the declaration of war and it [Damascus] will face a relevant response," Aktay said.

However, if the Syrian government provides Turkey with guarantees that the Kurdish units will not operate in the border area, Ankara may change its position on the Syrian government troops' advance to the northern part of the country, according to Aktay.

He added that the Turkish and other foreign troops would leave Syria after the establishment of peace and security across the country. "Turkey does not grab anyone's territories," Aktay added.

Comment: At least some of the Kurds actually seem receptive to the idea of pulling back from the border with Turkey:
A Syrian Kurdish militia leader has said his forces will withdraw from a border area in northeastern Syria to comply with a U.S.-brokered cease-fire deal if Turkish-led forces allow remaining Kurdish forces and civilians to leave an embattled city there.

The statement came with some reports alleging violations of a fragile truce along Turkey's border with Syria, two days after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed a temporary halt to fighting to allow Kurdish forces time to pull back from regions under assault in Ankara's military drive.

Redur Khalil of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which has been supplied U.S. weaponry in the fight against Islamic State (IS) militants in the region, said late on October 19 that SDF troops will move back 30 kilometers from the Turkish-Syrian border in a 120-kilometer stretch between Ras al-Ayn and Tal Aybad if the evacuations are permitted of those cities.

Even with its built-in contingency, the statement appeared to be the first public acknowledgement by the SDF that they might pull back.
The Turkish defense ministry says one more Turkish soldier has been wounded in fighting with the SDF. The Turks have also taken control of Ras al-Ayn after the SDF left the area. Meanwhile, restoration work is being carried out on the oil and gas fields in Raqqa/Hama/Homs.

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