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NYC mayor De Blasio logged just 7 hours at work for entire month of May

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 18:47 UTC
de blasio
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasop spent just seven hours at City Hall during the month of May - when he was 'hard at work' launching his bid for the White House, according to records reviewed by the New York Post.

The Mayor showed up just six times in May in order to attend two meetings, four events and hold five phone calls - including his weekly appearance on WNYC radio, according to his official calendar.
The 11 appointments amounted to a meager one-fifth of the 50 meetings, calls and other events at City Hall on de Blasio's calendar for May 2018. He had a total 152 city events scheduled for the month. -New York Post
"If he's trying to show New Yorkers that he's over doing the job, he's doing a good job of it," one ex-aide told the Post, while another 'de Blasio insider' called the Mayor's attendance "real bad," adding "At this point, you've got to wonder how much of his heart is really in it."
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Vader

Huawei accuses US of hacking company's networks, intimidating employees

Tim Korso
Sputnik
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 18:42 UTC
hacker
© CC BY-SA 4.0 / Magnus916 / Hacker-1
Washington has repeatedly accused the Chinese tech giant of stealing technologies, as well as spying on its users under orders from Beijing, something that the company has vehemently denied. The US recently initiated a crackdown, banning Huawei from the American market.

Chinese tech giant Huawei has in a recent statement accused US authorities of using a number of "tools" in a bid to "disrupt the normal business operations" of the company and its partners. The tech giant argues that apart from typical "judicial and administrative powers", Washington has resorted to "a host of other unscrupulous means".

Most notably, among these "means" have been attempts to launch cyber-attacks against the company to "infiltrate [its] intranet and internal information systems" - a method of action that the US earlier claimed that Chinese companies were employing.
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Black Cat

MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell scrapes Russiagate's rock bottom

Aaron Mate
The Gray Zone
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 16:11 UTC
Lawrence O'Donnell Aaron Mate

Lawrence O'Donnell (L) Aaron Mate (R)
Aaron Maté slams MSNBC's latest Russiagate dud, exposing how Lawrence O'Donnell's embarrassing retraction is part of a pattern of bogus conspiracy theories that push the limits of political self-satire.


TRANSCRIPT

AARON MATÉ: When it comes to Russiagate, there have been too many embarrassing media stories to count. And somehow, after nearly three years of this, the most discredited journalists are finding new ways to discredit themselves. The latest is Lawrence O'Donnell of MSNBC. Speaking another prominent conspiracy theorist, Rachel Maddow, O'Donnell shared this bombshell claim.
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: This single source close to Deutsche Bank has told me that the Trump - Donald Trump's loan documents there show that he has co-signers. That's how he was able to obtain those loans. And that the co-signers are Russian oligarchs.

RACHEL MADDOW: What? Really?

LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: That would explain, it seems to me, every kind word Donald Trump has ever said about Russia and Vladimir Putin, if true.
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Briefcase

Flynn lawyers are urging court intervention to view potential exculpatory classified files

Ivan Pentchoukov
The Epoch Times
Fri, 30 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
Michael Flynn, Sydney Powell
© Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images
Michael Flynn and his lawyer Sidney Powell leave the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington on June 24, 2019.
The attorneys for former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn called for a court intervention on Aug. 30 as the government continues to deny them security clearances required to view classified documents which they say likely contain exculpatory information. Attorneys for Flynn stated in a status report filed on Aug. 30:
"Our attempts to resolve that issue with the government have come to a dead-end, thus requiring the intervention of this Court. Our client held the highest security clearance the government provides. We know — but not in any detail because of our lack of clearance — that he briefed and debriefed the DIA [Defense Intelligence Agency] about his foreign contacts and travel. All that material is relevant to the charges against him, and it is most likely Brady [exculpatory] material to boot."
In response to Flynn's claims, the prosecutors said that they have not provided any classified information to the defense and that "the government is not aware of any classified information that requires disclosures to the defendant or his counsel."

Comment: More to this story from The Epoch Times, 2/9/2019 Flynn accuses prosecutors of hiding exculpatory evidence, demands removal
The attorneys accused the government of singling out Flynn for prosecution "motivated by a discriminatory purpose" and suggested that the evidence used against the former national security adviser may have been illegally obtained.

The defense attorney further asked the court to order that the prosecutors preserve all evidence, including the communications of the staff at the now-closed office of special counsel Robert Mueller.

Powell demands in the filing that the defense team examine information even if the prosecutors deem it inculpatory. According to Powell, the kind of conduct she accuses the prosecutors of is pervasive in the DOJ.

Among the exculpatory evidence Powell believes the defense team may be concealing are FBI notes memorializing the interviews between bureau agent Joe Pientka and senior DOJ official Bruce Ohr. Powell notes that the prosecutors in Flynn's case worked with Ohr in 2016 and 2017. Special counsel prosecutors Andrew Weissmann and Zainab Ahmad were in touch with Ohr in 2016 and 2017, Powell claims.

"Weissmann and Ahmad were not in the DOJ chain of command to be informed by Mr. Ohr at all. They had no legitimate reason to be privy to his operation with FusionGPS and Christopher Steele. It is imperative the defense obtain the Bruce Ohr 302s and notes — unredacted — and all evidence of this circuitous and illicit operation."

"Judge Rosemary Collyer, Chief Judge of the FISA court, has already found serious Fourth Amendment violations by the FBI in areas that likely also involve their actions against Mr. Flynn. Much of the NSA's activity is in direct violation of the Fourth Amendment," Powell wrote.


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X

Rouhani: Iran will never agree to talks with US


RT
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 06:24 UTC
Rouhani Trump
© Unknown
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani • US President Donald Trump
Washington has repeatedly proposed dialogue with Tehran, but the Islamic Republic will always turn down such proposals, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said, shutting down Donald Trump's offer to hold talks.

"No decision has ever been taken to hold talks with the US and there has been a lot of offers for talks but our answer will always be negative," Rouhani told his country's parliament on Tuesday.

Last week, US President Donald Trump stated that he was ready to meet with Rouhani "if the circumstances were right." In order for such a meeting to occur, Tehran would have to "be a good player" and acquiesce to a number of US demands, including the abandonment of its ballistic missiles program, the president said.

Rouhani said at the time that he had no interest in dialogue with Trump as long as US sanctions against Iran remain in place.

Comment: See also:

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Star of David

Hezbollah TV: Footage of missile attack on Israeli army vehicle, response to Israeli drone attacks

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Mon, 02 Sep 2019 20:50 UTC
Hez missile attack
© SCREENSHOT/AL MANAR
Recording footage of Hezbollah anti-tank missile attack on IDF vehicle near Avivim in Galilee.
Hezbollah's Al Manar TV has aired footage which purports to show Sunday's attack on an Israeli military vehicle across the Lebanese-Israeli border at Avivim in the far north of Israel.

Hezbollah and Lebanese media sources had claimed the attack "killed and wounded those inside" — something which Israeli officials, including PM Netanyahu, have denied. The attack involving two guided anti-tank missiles was hailed as successful by Hezbollah leadership, and led to brief Israeli shelling of locations in southern Lebanon; however, no casualties were reported.

The second projectile seen in the video, described by reports as a Kornet anti-tank missile, can be seen landing in the smoke and blast radius of the first. It appears a direct hit on the IDF armored vehicle.


Comment: See also:

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Briefcase

Obama counsel Greg Craig denies lying to investigators, wasn't an agent of Ukraine

Jerry Dunleavy
Washington Examiner
Wed, 28 Aug 2019 04:49 UTC
Greg Craig
© Win McNamee/Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Attorney Greg Craig arrives at US District Court in Washington, DC.
Greg Craig, the Obama White House counsel swept up in a case spun off from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, denied on the stand Wednesday allegations he'd misled investigators looking into whether he'd acted as an agent of Ukraine.

Craig, 74, is charged with misleading Department of Justice investigators about his role promoting the report put together at the behest of the Kremlin-linked government in Ukraine regarding the country's controversial prosecution of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko for alleged corruption.

Craig testified that he did not lie to investigators and that his only involvement in any media outreach was to stop the whitewashing of the conclusions of his report by Ukraine's Ministry of Justice or by people working for Manafort, saying his report was "bad news for Ukraine" and that he was motivated by a desire for his report to be portrayed accurately in the media.

Comment: More from saraacarter.com, 11/4/2019: Thursday Indictments...White House official Greg Craig...
Interestingly, the indictment references Craig's contacts in the media and that he lied about those contacts to investigators.

"It proposed leaking the report to a selected media outlet before it's release, having a former Congressman of a U.S. based lobbying firm working for the Government of Ukraine pre-brief the selected journalist on the report, and then ensuring that the journalist "would be given an off-the record briefing call with [Craig]."
And from Bloomberg Law, 27/8/2019: Greg Craig Trial Poses Public Relations Test for Skadden
In 2012, the firm agreed to develop an independent report on the prosecution of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko by the Yanukovych-led government, which hired Skadden. The engagement drew criticism in Ukraine as a ploy to whitewash deficiencies in Tymoshenko's trial.

Of particular concern was the $12,000 Ukraine said it was paying Skadden for the report. At that time, the identity of the report's third-party financier — a Ukrainian businessman named Viktor Pinchuk — wasn't disclosed, and neither was the more than $4 million he allowed Manafort's team to funnel to Skadden.
See also:

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Star of David

ICC prosecutor given orders to consider reopening Gaza flotilla case


Aljazeera
Mon, 02 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
Mavi Marmara anniversary
© Press TV
Second anniversary of the deadly attack on the Mavi Marmara, Turkey
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has ordered the tribunal's prosecutor to reconsider whether Israel should face charges over a deadly 2010 raid on a flotilla carrying aid to the besieged Gaza Strip.

In line with the decision of the appeals judges, prosecutor Fatou Bensouda will now examine once more whether to bring Israel before The Hague-based court. "The prosecutor is directed to reconsider her decision by December 2, 2019," presiding appeals judge Solomy Balungi Bossa told the court on Monday, adding that three out of five judges in the court's appeals chamber had backed the move.

Bensouda said in 2014 that she would not prosecute Israel over the raid that killed 10 people, saying it was "not of sufficient gravity" - which means the case could be determined as inadmissible before the ICC. Bensouda again affirmed the decision in 2017 after judges said she must take another look at the case.
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Bad Guys

Revealed: How a secret Dutch mole aided the U.S.-Israeli Stuxnet cyberattack on Iran

Kim Zetter and Huib Modderkolk
Yahoo
Mon, 02 Sep 2019 17:04 UTC
stuxnet
© AP, Getty Images. Shutterstock
For years, an enduring mystery has surrounded the Stuxnet virus attack that targeted Iran's nuclear program: How did the U.S. and Israel get their malware onto computer systems at the highly secured uranium-enrichment plant?

The first-of-its-kind virus, designed to sabotage Iran's nuclear program, effectively launched the era of digital warfare and was unleashed some time in 2007, after Iran began installing its first batch of centrifuges at a controversial enrichment plant near the village of Natanz.

The courier behind that intrusion, whose existence and role has not been previously reported, was an inside mole recruited by Dutch intelligence agents at the behest of the CIA and the Israeli intelligence agency, the Mossad, according to sources who spoke with Yahoo News.

An Iranian engineer recruited by the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD provided critical data that helped the U.S. developers target their code to the systems at Natanz, according to four intelligence sources. That mole then provided much-needed inside access when it came time to slip Stuxnet onto those systems using a USB flash drive.

Comment: A subtle point being made in this article is that cyber-attacks are just fine if they are being done by the West to its enemies. But when countries that aren't favored by the US engage in the same kind of warfare, they are demonized. Such is the nature of journalism in the West - grovel to the West so that access to "intelligence sources" remains intact and paint countries like Iran or Libya as evil for even considering defending themselves from Western aggression. There is no objectivity left in the MSM, they exist purely as PR departments for Western imperialism.

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Chess

Trump pressures China to make deal soon, or it'll get tougher if he wins in 2020

Fred Imbert
CNBC
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 17:46 UTC
trump outdoor press conference
© Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times
President Donald Trump pressured China on Tuesday to make a trade deal with the U.S. in the near future, warning talks will get much tougher if he is reelected in 2020.

Trump said in a series of tweets: "We are doing very well in our negotiations with China. While I am sure they would love to be dealing with a new administration so they could continue their practice of "ripoff USA"($600 B/year),16 months PLUS is a long time to be hemorrhaging jobs and companies on a long-shot...And then, think what happens to China when I win. Deal would get MUCH TOUGHER! In the meantime, China's Supply Chain will crumble and businesses, jobs and money will be gone!"

Trump's tweets came after new tariffs on both countries' goods came into effect over the weekend. The U.S. imposed 15% tariffs on a variety of Chinese goods on Sunday, while China imposed new charges on U.S. products.
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