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Schiff might have leaked classified info trying to counter FISA memo

Rusty
The Political Insider
Mon, 05 Feb 2018 16:59 UTC
Adam Schiff
In an effort to counter the explosive GOP memo revealing FISA court abuses and a lack of integrity at the top of the FBI and Department of Justice, Rep. Adam Schiff may have released classified information of his own.

Schiff, alongside other prominent Democrats, has denounced the release of the memo, which contains shocking information about surveillance abuse committed against the Trump campaign.

The President referred to the memo as a "disgrace," adding, "a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves."

Schiff, the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, couldn't contain his exuberance in countering the memo, and in doing so, may have let slip some classified information of his own.

The top Democrat claims the political bias of the man behind a dossier that was used as grounds to spy on the Trump team was disclosed to the FISA court judges, a contradiction in what was reported in the memo.

Schiff argued that the memo's assertion is "not accurate," saying the court was aware that there was a "likely political motivation" behind the dossier.

The Law & Crime blog, a site run by legal correspondent Dan Abrams, believes Schiff made a big mistake in making that claim.

Comment: Will Schiff be up for a DOJ investigation now?

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Bug

Assange calls out ex-FBI Dir. Comey's schizophrenia over memo

Timothy Kevin Whiteman
The Conservative Tribune
Sun, 04 Feb 2018 16:17 UTC
comey
James Comey simply can't have it both ways.

With apologies to Marie Antoinette, Comey can't have his conspiracy and eat it, too.

Just on Friday, Comey went to social media regarding the FISA memo that President Trump recently de-classified. In a word, his tweet is schizophrenic.

The ex-Director of the FBI managed to simultaneously blow off the release, and then magically switch to Private Hudson mode from "Aliens."

The only thing missing from Comey's dismissive is his inner-13-year-old sneering "big whoop, man" countered by Bill Paxton's iconic "Game over, man. GAME OVER!"

Comment: Comey's twists and turns seem to be an attempt to downplay his part in lying to the FISA court in order to surveil Trump, both during the campaign and after he took office.

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Briefcase

British judge to rule on separate attempt to have Assange's case dropped 'on public interest grounds'


RT
Tue, 06 Feb 2018 16:43 UTC
woman walks past a sign that reads
© Adrian Dennis / AFP
A woman walks past a sign that reads "free assange" on the facade of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
A British judge will rule on February 13 whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can have his arrest warrant, for breaching bail conditions, lifted on "public interest grounds."

Judge Emma Arbuthnot had earlier rejected a bid by Assange, who is holed up inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, to have an arrest warrant against him dropped on different grounds.

Speaking outside court, Assange's lawyer Jennifer Robinson said all of us should be resisting the threat to free speech posed by the persecution of Assange.
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Attention

Five reasons you can be absolutely assured the establishment media is lying about chemical weapons in Syria

Caitlin Johnstone
Steemit.com
Tue, 06 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC
Nikki Haley
© Getty images
Nikki Haley
Whenever you see UN Ambassador Nikki Haley on video she's trying to start World War Three. At today's UN Security Council Haley gave remarks about why the UN should "take action" against two of the US power establishment's favorite targets, Russia and the Syrian government, due to allegations that Bashar al-Assad has been using chemical weapons.

That's right, just three weeks after the Trump administration unveiled its plan to keep thousands of US troops in Syria in order to force regime change, the tired old chemical weapons allegations have been unearthed and recirculated to trusting western mainstream media audiences.

I am not a Syria expert by any stretch of the imagination. If you want detailed information about what's really going on in that nation I recommend getting in touch with real Syrians online and following the work of independent investigative journalists who regularly go there like Vanessa Beeley. Nevertheless, despite my lack of boots-on-the-ground expertise and intimate knowledge of every detail of what's going on in that country, I am absolutely certain that the western power establishment is lying very extensively about what is going on in Syria.

One hundred percent certain, zero margin for error. I'd bet my life on it.

How can I be so sure? I'll show you.

Comment: It's the WMD story all over again: Chemical weapons claims in Syria raise concerns over US escalation

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War Whore

Pentagon logistics agency lost track of $800 million


RT
Tue, 06 Feb 2018 16:29 UTC
Defense Logistics Agency
© Tim Shaffer / Reuters
In the latest instance of negligent bookkeeping at the Pentagon, its Defense Logistics Agency has failed to account for more than $800mn intended for construction projects, Politico has revealed citing an audit by Ernst & Young.

The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) does not have the proper paperwork to account for at least $465 million it allegedly spent on construction projects completed in the fiscal year that ended September 30, 2016, an Ernst & Young audit discovered. Furthermore, the agency lacks sufficient documentation for another $384 million spent on construction that is still "in progress."
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Handcuffs

Busted: UK Govt caught 'censoring' report that suggests it's using drones to assassinate people


RT
Tue, 06 Feb 2018 16:04 UTC
drones
© koto_feja / Getty Images
The British Ministry of Defence (MoD) attempted to censor a document showing it has assassinated people outside of armed conflict zones using drones, it has been reported. The government is now under pressure to come clean.

The ministry removed a passage from its report on drone use, titled 'Joint Doctrine,' which was published in September 2017, according to the Canary. In the report, it acknowledged that critics have raised concerns about the legality of unmanned and remotely piloted aircraft missions and their potential for misuse.

The MoD acknowledged it was targeting people outside of war zones, and said arguments against drones "may also arise from the recent UK practice of targeting suspected terrorists outside of the armed conflict itself, and the meaning and application of a state's right to self-defence."
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Question

Paul Craig Roberts: Will the conspiracy against President Trump and American democracy go unpunished?

Paul Craig Roberts
Institute for Political Economy
Mon, 05 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC
FISA abuse folder
Dear Readers: This is one of the most important articles I have written, along with this one: The Nuclear Posture Review. If the Russiagate conspiracy against Trump and American democracy goes unpunished, accountable government in the United States will cease to exist. US security agencies have long been involved in coups against foreign governments. Now they are involved in one against America. There is great danger that Republicans are so worshipful of "national security" and so determined to protect the reputation of the US government that they will give a pass to the high officials who participated in a conspiracy against the United States. As for President Trump, he lacks a government that he can count on and is threatened by the military/security complex. The conspiracy could easily be whitewashed as merely a case of the FBI and DOJ not following proper procedures, with the media's participation in the conspiracy being dismissed with mea culpas of "sloppy reporting."
"In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations." - Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

The American people do not realize the seriousness of the Russiagate conspiracy against them and President Trump. Polls indicate that a large majority of the public do not believe that Trump conspired with Putin to steal the presidential election, and are tired of hearing the media prostitutes repeat the absurd story day after day. On its face the story makes no sense whatsoever. Moreover, the leaked emails are real, not fabricated. The emails show exactly what Hillary and the DNC did. The public knows that these transgressions were pushed out of news sight by the false story of a Trump/Putin conspiracy. The fact that the entirety of the US print and TV media served in a highly partisan political way to bury a true and disturbing story with a fake news story-Russiagate-is one reason some polls show that only 6% of Americans trust the mainstream media. All polls show that large majorities of independents, Republicans, and youth distrust the mainstream media. In some polls about half of Democrats trust the media, and that is because the media is servant to Democratic Party interests.

Russiagate is a dagger aimed at the heart of American governmental institutions. A conspiracy involving top officials of the Obama Department of Justice, FBI, and other "security" agencies was formed together with Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, the purpose of which was to defeat Trump in the presidential election and, failing that, to remove Trump from office or to discredit him to the point that he would be reduced to a mere figurehead. This conspiracy has the full backing of the entirely of the mainstream media.

Comment: FISA-Gate: The plot to destroy democracy

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Briefcase

Proving they read nothing: Lawmakers passed bill honoring serial killer for population control back in 1971

John Vibes
The Free Thought Project
Sun, 04 Feb 2018 15:28 UTC
Albert De Salvo
US lawmakers are often criticized for not even reading the bills that they vote on, but instead, voting along party lines or influence from lobbyists. Some of the most notorious cases of this in recent history were the passing of the Patriot Act and the following National Defense Authorization Act.

In many cases, these bills are entirely impossible to read, consisting of hundreds or sometimes thousands of pages of tiny print and legalese, combined with a limited amount of time to decide and vote on the bill.

However, this is a problem that has been going on in Congress for generations and one lawmaker pointed it in a most epic way. On April Fool's Day of 1971, Texas State Rep. Tom Moore proposed a prank resolution honoring a serial killer...and it passed.

Comment: The problem of lawmakers not reading legislation before they sign or reject it is still a big problem: Your government at work: Senator's viral tax bill video exposes how corrupt politicians pass laws

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Propaganda

FISA-Gate: The plot to destroy democracy

Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com
Mon, 05 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC
Memo iceburg
© twitter
You don't need any special analytical abilities to understand "the memo" and its meaning. A simple reading reveals that allegations of skullduggery peeking by the Obama administration during the presidential campaign were entirely accurate: the memo just filled us in on the details. And while the debate has largely been over whether the proper legal procedures were followed by the FBI and administration officials in spying on Carter Page - someone only marginally connected to the Trump campaign - the real question is: why were they sneaking around Page at all?

Oh, he claimed to be an "informal advisor" to the Russian government: he had business interests in Russia and met with Russian officials. Furthermore, and most importantly, he opposed the anti-Russian hysteria that permeates official Washington, and he often said - in public speeches as well as privately - that US sanctions against Russia are a mistake.

But so what? Since when is it illegal to hold these views?

Comment: Intelligence agencies aka "Deep State" always influenced the public perception, politics and elected officials. Once, it is considered conspiracy theory to be ridiculed. These revelations only made them reality. It is interesting to observe that the untouchable "Deep State" is shaken with the release of the memo.The battle is not yet over and it is expected to thin the viel of secrecy that Alphabet agencies enjoyed for generations. See also:

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USA

Despite subpoena, Bannon will not testify before House committee


Reuters
Tue, 06 Feb 2018 04:45 UTC
Steve Bannon
© REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman/File Photo
Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon speaks during a campaign event for Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Judge Roy Moore in Fairhope, Alabama, U.S., December 5, 2017.
Former White House senior strategist Steve Bannon will not testify before the Intelligence Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday, two sources said on Monday, despite a subpoena requiring him to appear.

The panel wants Bannon to testify as part of its investigation of allegations that Russia sought to influence the 2016 presidential election in the United States, following up on his Jan. 16 appearance that failed to satisfy some members of the committee.

Representative Mike Conaway, a senior Republican committee member, told reporters on Monday he expected Bannon to comply with a subpoena and answer questions on Tuesday.

But two sources familiar with the situation said he would not appear, which could leave Bannon facing a charge of contempt of Congress.

Comment: Whenever the source of the information is "sources," you never know what you're going to get. We'll have to wait and see if Sloppy Steve actually shows up. See also:

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