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Laptop

Anomalies in Clinton's mystery Gmail account probe reveal more questions than answers

Ivan Pentchoukov
The Epoch Times
Wed, 28 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
HRClinton
© Reuters/Carlos BarriaFormer Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
FBI Section Chief Peter Strzok looked dismissive and aloof as he listened to Office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General investigator Frank Rucker relay an alarming lead for the Clinton email investigation on Feb. 18, 2016, at the bureau's headquarters in Washington, according to Rucker and Jeanette McMillian, an attorney who accompanied him to the meeting.

Days earlier, Rucker had discovered an anomaly in all but four of the 30,490 emails Clinton's lawyers provided to Congress. Each message contained "carterheavyindustries@gmail.com" in the metadata, suggesting that a copy of each message that passed through Hillary Clinton's private, unauthorized server during her tenure as secretary of state was forwarded to the Gmail address in real-time. Rucker's concern was amplified when he searched for "Carter Heavy Industries" on Google and came up with information for a Chinese company with a similar name.

On the same day, more than 1,600 miles away in Denver, Colorado, FBI agents interviewed Paul Combetta, the information technology aide who allegedly created the mystery Gmail account. Combetta told the agents that he used the account in February 2014 to transfer an archive of Clinton's emails from her tenure as the secretary of state to the Clinton email server he was administering for Platte River Networks in Secaucus, New Jersey. As a result, "carterheavyindustries@gmail.com" ended up in the metadata of each message.
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Attention

IG report says Comey violated FBI policies regarding memos on Trump discussions

Brooke Singman, Gregg Re
Fox News
Thu, 29 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
Comey
© UnknownFormer FBI director James Comey
A scathing inspector general report released Thursday said that fired FBI Director James Comey violated bureau policies by drafting, leaking and retaining memos documenting private discussions with President Trump.

The Justice Department's official watchdog concluded that the memos Comey kept were, in fact, "official FBI records," and said Comey set a "dangerous example" with his actions.

IG report, on Comey's actions stated:
"By not safeguarding sensitive information obtained during the course of his FBI employment, and by using it to create public pressure for official action, Comey set a dangerous example for the over 35,000 current FBI employees — and the many thousands more former FBI employees — who similarly have access to or knowledge of non-public information."

Comment: See also: READ THE IG REPORT ON COMEY and have a look at both these videos.



See also:

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Attention

Clinical psychologist on Assange: They are attempting to break him both 'physically and psychologically'

Oscar Grenfell
World Socialist Web Site
Wed, 28 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
Lissa Johnson
© unknownClinical psychologist Lissa Johnson addressing a Sydney protest called by the Support Assange and WikiLeaks Coalition
Australian clinical psychologist Lissa Johnson has been an outspoken defender of Julian Assange, writing extensively on the grave implications of his persecution for democratic rights and freedom of speech. Johnson explained to the WSWS that she "writes about the psychology of politics and social issues." She has a background in media studies and sociology, and a PhD in the psychology of manipulating reality-perception.

Earlier this year, Johnson wrote an extensive five-part investigative series titled The Psychology of Getting Julian Assange, published on the New Matilda website. Johnson provided the following responses to a series of questions from the World Socialist Web Site earlier this week:

WSWS: John Shipton and John Pilger have recently detailed the punitive conditions of Assange's detention in Belmarsh Prison. Could you speak about the way in which his isolation, and the denial of his right to access computers/legal documents is aimed at stymieing his defence against the US extradition request and increasing the psychological pressures upon him?

Lissa Johnson: If anyone takes a moment to imagine what it must be like to face the prospect of 175 years in a US prison, having already been subjected to nearly a decade of arbitrary detention and judicial harassment, knowing that you have no chance of a fair trial in the US, having been smeared in the media and branded a "terrorist" and enemy of the state, then that gives you an inkling of what Julian Assange was dealing with even before being placed under lockdown in Belmarsh prison. If you add to that having read hundreds of documents from Guantanamo Bay and knowing, in intimate detail, what the United States does to those it brands terrorists and enemies of the state, then Julian Assange's reality becomes even clearer.
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Boat

Countering China? Indo-Pacific region becomes the Pentagon's new priority

Darius Shahtahmasebi
RT
Thu, 29 Aug 2019 16:17 UTC
US navy boats
© Flickr/US Department of Defense
After devastating the Middle East through sanctions, warfare, and the backing of extremists to fight proxy wars, the Indo-Pacific region - not the Middle East - is now the Pentagon's "priority" region.

Just this week, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper made the call to expand base locations in the Pacific region while speaking at the Naval War College, dubbing the Indo-Pacific theatre "our priority theatre." The remarks were clearly part of the Pentagon's wider goal of curbing and containing China's expanding influence throughout the region.

Esper made it evident that the US had its eye on a number of key locations in the Indo-Pacific region, in which he would be looking to invest "more time and resources into certain regions we haven't been to in the past."

While it is not so apparent what those regions or locations are, there are some glaring possibilities that come to mind, including Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and even some of the smaller Pacific Island nations less known to the US public such as Palau. Palau is a likely candidate, given the Western media has already applauded its "standing up to a giant" over the Taiwan question.
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Arrow Down

Despite violating FBI rules (and his own contract!) there will be no prosecution for James Comey for leaked memos


RT
Thu, 29 Aug 2019 17:54 UTC
comeysmirk
© Reuters/Clodagh KilcoyneFormer FBI director James Comey
Former FBI director James Comey set a "dangerous example" and acted out of self-interest when he leaked memos documenting private meetings with President Donald Trump to the media, a scathing new DOJ report concludes.

Comey violated both the FBI policies and his own employment agreement when he leaked sensitive information about Trump to the New York Times, according to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report, released Thursday. Despite the clear findings of wrongdoing, however, the former FBI director will face no prosecution for the mishandling of memos.

Comey's memos detailed his private interactions with Trump, including a claim that the president asked him to "let go" of an investigation into his former national security advisor, Michael Flynn.

The information leaked by Comey was enthusiastically cited in the media as proof of "collusion" between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia — a narrative which Comey helped to promote while frequently lecturing Americans on morality and justice following his firing.

Comey admitted in 2017 that he gave sensitive but unclassified information to a friend with instructions for that person to share it with a reporter. He also admitted that he did this with the intention of ensuring Trump would be investigated — a ploy which was successful, as former special counsel Robert Mueller was drafted to investigate claims of Russian "collusion" soon after.

Comment: See also:

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X

DOJ IG Horowitz: All four Carter Page FISA warrants were illegally obtained

Daniel Chaitin
Washington Examiner
Wed, 28 Aug 2019 09:08 UTC
Carter Page
© Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesCarter Page
The Justice Department inspector general has determined all four Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants against onetime Trump campaign aide Carter Page were illegally obtained, attorney Joe diGenova said this week.

In an investigation that began last year, Inspector General Michael Horowitz examined the DOJ's and FBI's compliance with legal requirements, as well as policies and procedures in applications filed with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court related to Page as part of a larger counterintelligence inquiry into President Trump's campaign.

Back in May, diGenova, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said the three FISA warrant extensions against Page were illegally obtained, adding, "The only question now is whether or not the first FISA was illegally obtained."

Now diGenova says Horowitz made the same determination about the warrant that started it all. "I can report categorically that the inspector general has found that all four FISA warrants were illegal. They were based on false information supplied to the FISA Court. And Michael Horowitz has concluded that all four FISA warrants were illegal," he told WMAL on Monday.

Comment: See also:

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Star of David

Israeli drone strikes in Iraq likely launched from SDF-held Syria says Baghdad

David Hearst
Middle East Eye
Tue, 27 Aug 2019 14:37 UTC
Iraqi bases attack mapIraq's intelligence services believe that five recent drone attacks on Iraqi paramilitaries were launched from bases under the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia's control in north Syria, an official told Middle East Eye.

The Iraqi official, who has knowledge of the latest intelligence briefing from Baghdad's security services, said the strikes were conducted by Israel, with the understanding of the SDF and backing of Saudi Arabia.

Since July, a series of explosions have hit bases, weapons depots and a convoy belonging to the Hashd al-Shaabi (PMF), a grouping of mostly Shia militias with close ties to Iran. The most recent, on Sunday, saw two unmanned aircraft strike one of the PMF's positions near the border with Syria, killing one fighter and severely wounding another, according to the group.

According to the senior official, the plan to strike the Iran-backed paramilitaries in Iraq was hatched when Thamer al-Sabhan, the Saudi minister of state for Gulf affairs, visited SDF-held northeastern Syria in June. There Sabhan, who is known to be one of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's top lieutenants, laid the groundwork by offering the initially reticent SDF funds in return for their base being used as a launchpad for the strikes.
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Target

Trump eyeing China for century-old debt in a new trade war maneuver


RT
Fri, 30 Aug 2019 05:16 UTC
ChinaCurrencyTrump
© Unknown/KJN
The Trump administration may be eyeing long-defaulted Chinese bonds as a weapon in its ongoing trade war with Beijing, according to people who hold the antique debt and say they've met with the president to discuss it.

Trump's top trade warriors are "studying" the possibility of calling in century-old debts incurred by China before the nation went communist, according to a Bloomberg report published on Thursday. China doesn't recognize the debt, of course, and decades of attempts to collect by owners of the aging bonds (which sell on eBay as collectors' items) have amounted to naught, but with a full-blown economic battle between Washington and Beijing raging, desperate times may call for desperate measures.

China owes over $1 trillion, adjusted for inflation, interest and other fees, on the long-defaulted debts, according to Jonna Bianco, whose American Bondholders Foundation (ABF) represents holders of the seemingly worthless paper. Bianco has been pushing for 18 years to convince the US to force China to honor the certificates, roping a stable of former government officials into taking up the cause.
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Russian Flag

Here we go again: Israeli opposition leader's phone reportedly 'breached by Russian hackers'


Sputnik
Thu, 29 Aug 2019 17:05 UTC
russian hackers
If you're about to call bonkers on this, you're not the only one: the same Israeli party which was purportedly hacked by villainous Russians dismissed the report, citing its suspiciously convenient timing.

Just when you think the world had had enough of the constant 'Russian hacker' narrative that US politics and mainstream media keep pushing without coherent proof, some Israelis decided to kick that excruciatingly dead horse just one more time.


Comment: Israelis seem to have a remarkable affection for dead horses. Case in point: "anti-Semitism."


According to a report by Israel's Channel 12, tech security audit company CGI - hired by the Blue and White party to check for cybersecurity flaws - came to the conclusion that those notoriously pesky Russian hackers had breached the phones of Benny Gantz, party leader and main political opponent of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as phones belonging to Hod Betzer, Ido Har-Tuv and Ronen Moshe - Gantz's chief of staff, campaign leader and adviser, correspondingly.

"This is a powerful hack the likes of which we have never seen before," CGI gushed in their summary, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Instead of ringing alarms, however, the party took the CGI report with a big bag of salt and turned to other cyber experts for a second opinion. Why? Because the CGI findings come suspiciously close to the upcoming 9 September Parliamentary election.

Comment: According to Moshe Yalon, one of the leaders of the bloc:
"Neither Russians nor Iranians hacked our phones. What we see here is an attempt to divert attention from important issues...to a story that did not happen", one of the leaders of the bloc, former defence minister Moshe Yalon, said in an interview to Army Radio.
...
Meanwhile, a Russian diplomatic source responded to the rumours by saying that they are not worth commenting on and are fake.


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Handcuffs

Planned Hong Kong protest cancelled after arrest of key 'color-revolution' activists

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Fri, 30 Aug 2019 11:11 UTC
Agnes Chow, Nathan Law, Andy Chan, hong kong color revolution
Agnes Chow, Nathan Law, Andy Chan

Agnes Chow, Nathan Law, Andy Chan

Summary: Saturday's planned protest in Hong Kong has been canceled after the arrest of three of Hong Kong's pro-democracy protest leaders on Friday; Joshua Wong, Andy Chan, and Agnes Chow.

CNBC's Eunice Yoon notes that the arrests are being described on Chinese media as a crackdown on "the activists who create chaos in Hong Kong."

Update (0105ET): Saturday's planned protest marking the fifth anniversary of the 2014 event which sparked the Umbrella Movement has been canceled, according to The Guardian.

Comment: Has Beijing's patience finally worn thin with the empire's useful idiots?

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