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Briefcase

Dossier lawsuit: British court orders Christopher Steele to appear for deposition

Chuck Ross
The Daily Caller
Fri, 16 Mar 2018 04:51 UTC
Gubarev/Steele
© McClatchy Washington Bureau/the daily trumpAleksej Gubarev • Christopher-Steele
The former British spy who wrote the infamous dossier has been ordered to appear for a deposition in a lawsuit over the salacious document filed in the U.S.

A British court ordered Christopher Steele to testify about his role in compiling the dossier, which alleges that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential campaign. Steele's report was funded by the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee. BuzzFeed News published the 35-page document in Jan. 2017.

Aleksej Gubarev, a Russian businessman named in the dossier, is suing BuzzFeed in Florida and Steele in London. The dossier claims that Gubarev was recruited as a Russian spy and that his web hosting companies were used to infiltrate the DNC's computer systems.

Gubarev's lawyers have tried for months to force the London-based Steele to provide a deposition for the lawsuit against BuzzFeed, which is being heard in federal court in Florida. Steele has resisted the efforts to provide a deposition, arguing that Gubarev's lawyers are attempting to use his deposition in the BuzzFeed case in order to collect information for use in the lawsuit pending against him in the U.K. But a British judge sided against that argument.

Comment: See also:

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Gear

What's really happening: US and UK trying to 'Iraq' Russia

Mark Boden
Russia Insider
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 19:16 UTC
Theresa May with phial
Wondering why it looks like WW3 might be breaking out?

Prominent Russian political analyst Sergey Mikheev explains it all in 3 minutes. Well worth listening to this man.

Full transcript below:


Transcript:

Comment: See also: 'Evil' Putin wins 'fraud-tainted' vote: MSM slanders Russian election

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Attention

Civil liberties groups urge Senate to halt Haspel nomination until records on CIA torture involvement declassified

Spencer Ackerman
The Daily Beast
Fri, 16 Mar 2018 19:54 UTC
As confusion swirls over what exactly Gina Haspel's role in brutal interrogations was, a civil libertarian letter to the Senate calls for sunlight into the black sites.
gina haspel
As the CIA begins to defend its possible next director, civil liberties groups are urging the Senate to halt Gina Haspel's nomination "until all the records on her past involvement in the CIA torture program are declassified and released to the public," according to a Friday letter sent to Capitol Hill and provided to The Daily Beast.

The letter, part of an emerging strategy to fight Haspel that The Daily Beast reported Wednesday, highlights the lack of clarity-mostly the result of aggressive CIA classification-over aspects of Haspel's time overseeing torture at a "black site" secret prison in Thailand in 2002. The version seen by The Daily Beast, a draft, was signed by 29 civil-liberties groups, including the ACLU, Reprieve, Physicians for Human Rights and the Sunlight Foundation, though more may sign on.

Ahead of what is likely to be a bruising confirmation hearing, the letter places pressure on the CIA to open the books on Haspel, currently the agency's deputy director. But the intelligence agency has gone to extraordinary lengths to prevent disclosure of what its now-shuttered torture program actually included-and particularly over the names of operatives involved in it-even to the point of previously spying on Senate investigators' work product stored on a shared CIA-established network.

Comment: 'She tortured just for the sake of torture' says CIA whistleblower on CIA pick Gina Haspel

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Arrow Down

Failed presidential hopeful and clueless ex-socialite 'educates' a meager 1.5% of Russians on evils of Putin government


RT
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 17:40 UTC
Ksenia Sobchak
© Maksim Blinov / SputnikKsenia Sobchak speaks at her elections HQ in Moscow
Upon getting just 1.5 percent of votes in Sunday's presidential election, Ksenia Sobchak told RT that she did not intend to win, but rather "educate" Russian citizens, and went on to present a plan to unite all liberal opposition.

"Of course, this is not the result one can dream of, but I had entered the race not for the result's sake. I wanted to tell the people the truth on pro-Putin nationwide TV channels," Sobchak said in an interview with RT's Ilya Petrenko, soon after the end of the election.

"This was my goal - to do something so that the largest possible number of people learned the truth about the real situation in Russia. This goal has no relation whatsoever to the result of the vote," she said.
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Bad Guys

Trump hints at firing Mueller during tweetstorm against Comey, McCabe

Tom Howell Jr.
The Washington Times
Sun, 18 Mar 2018 15:23 UTC
Trump McCabe
© Evan Vucci/Associated Press"Spent very little time with Andrew McCabe, but he never took notes when he was with me. I don't believe he made memos except to help his own agenda, probably at a later date. Same with lying James Comey. Can we call them Fake Memos?" President Trump tweeted Sunday.
President Trump lashed out at special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling Sunday, saying it is tainted by political bias and won't find evidence of collusion with his 2016 campaign - sparking bipartisan fears that he is stress-testing a plan to have the high-profile investigator fired.

Mr. Trump, in a series of online posts, celebrated the firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe over actions related to an investigation of the Clinton Foundation. He said Mr. McCabe's termination supports his belief that federal investigators cannot be trusted and will cook up ways to fault him.

"And yet, there is NO COLLUSION!" Mr. Trump said.

The president also cast doubt on Mr. McCabe's claims that he kept detailed memos of his interactions with Mr. Trump. He said Mr. McCabe never took notes in his presence and likely crafted documents to fit his own agenda.
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Snakes in Suits

Putin holds special meeting with PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic medalists in Kremlin


RT
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 15:30 UTC
President Putin
© Aleksey Nikolskyi / SputnikPresident Putin
President Vladimir Putin will hold a special meeting on Tuesday with Russian Paralympians who earned medals at the 2018 PyeongChang Games in South Korea.

"On March 20, President Putin will meet the winners and medalists of the XII PyeongChang Paralympic games in the Kremlin to present them with state honors," the Kremlin press office said on its website on Monday.

As well as the Olympic team, which Putin welcomed at the end of the PyeongChang Games, he also traditionally greets members of the Paralympic squad and presents state honors to those who were among the podium finishers at the Winter Games.

Russian Paralympians were forced to compete in PyeongChang under a neutral flag, but won a total of 24 medals, putting them second in the overall standings.
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Mr. Potato

British Skripal narrative falls apart: Boris Johnson invents new story on 'Russian novichoks'

Craig Murray
craigmurray.org.uk
Sun, 18 Mar 2018 10:04 UTC
boris johnson
© AFP 2018/ Adrian DennisBoris using all his brain power to concoct a new, far more convincing narrative
Boris Johnson has attempted to renew the faltering case for blaming Russia ahead of the investigation into the Skripal attack, by issuing a fundamentally new story that completely changes - and very radically strengthens - the government line on what it knows. You can see the long Foreign and Commonwealth Office Statement here.

This is the sensational new claim which all the propaganda sheets are running with:
The Foreign Secretary revealed this morning that we have information indicating that within the last decade, Russia has investigated ways of delivering nerve agents likely for assassination. And part of this programme has involved producing and stockpiling quantities of novichok. This is a violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
This is an astonishing claim and requires close investigation. If this information comes from MI5 or MI6, there is a process of inter-departmental clearance that has to be gone through before it can be put in the public domain - even by a Minister - which is known as "Action-on". I have been through the process personally many times when working as head of the FCO Section of the Embargo Surveillance Centre, monitoring Iraqi arms acquisitions. It is not, unless actually at war, a Saturday night process - it would have had to have been done on Friday.

Comment: See also:

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Propaganda

'Evil' Putin wins 'fraud-tainted' vote: MSM slanders Russian election


RT
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 11:56 UTC
evil putin trump russophobia
From Soviet comparisons to accusations of authoritarianism, mainstream coverage of Russia's presidential election has barely changed since 2004, though mentions of the UK spy poisoning scandal did add a fresh layer of insinuation.

As Putin was thanking his supporters for a landslide victory from the stage in Red Square, Western outlets rolled out long, pre-written news stories, liberally mixing reporting and opinion.

"The vote was tainted by widespread reports of ballot-box stuffing and forced voting, but the complaints will likely do little to undermine Putin," wrote AP's lead report. "The Russian leader's popularity remains high despite his suppression of dissent and reproach from the West over Russia's increasingly aggressive stance in world affairs and alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. election."

Comment: Putin took on corruption in one of the world's most corrupt societies and he won. He waged war against Islamic extremists in the Chechen War and he won. He's made Western imperialists look like fools every time they try to outmaneuver him. And, each step of the way, he has drastically increased the average person's standard of living.

But we're supposed to believe he was only re-elected because he's an 'evil dictator'? Nah - the free peoples of the Earth salute you, Vladimir Vladimirovich! Hurrah!

Further reading:

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Caesar

Putin: 'Absurd' to believe Russia poisoned Skripals ahead of elections & World Cup


RT
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 11:56 UTC
Putin za američki NBC: Nismo mi započeli utrku u naoružanju - započeo ju je Bush 2002. godine i od onda traje
Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed allegations that Russia was behind the early March poisoning of former double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury.

It is "nonsense and absurd to claim that Russia would do anything like that before the elections and the World Cup," Putin said, touching on the subject for the fist time since the incident. He was responding to a reporter's question in his campaign headquarters, as early results of Sunday's presidential election indicated his landslide victory.

"Concerning this tragedy that you've mentioned, I learned about it from the media," Putin told reporters.

Comment: Further reading:

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Syringe

Trump proposes death penalty for opioid traffickers - What about Big Pharma?


RT
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 11:56 UTC
opioid crisis
President Donald Trump will soon lay out a plan that seeks the death penalty for drug traffickers, a White House official has announced. Earlier, an official hinted that petty dealers would receive less severe sentences.

"The Department of Justice will seek the death penalty against drug traffickers when it's appropriate under current law," Domestic Policy Council director Andrew Bremberg told reporters at a briefing on Sunday.

Trump is expected to announce the measures on Monday at an event in New Hampshire, a state that has been hit especially hard by the opioid epidemic. Trump previously touted the idea at a congressional by-election rally in Pennsylvania the weekend before.

Comment: Further reading:

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