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Judge orders State Department to speed up latest Clinton e-mail review

Andrew M Harris
Bloomberg
Mon, 22 Aug 2016 18:11 UTC
clinton
© Denis Balibouse / Reuters
A federal judge has ordered the U.S. State Department to accelerate its review of almost 15,000 previously undisclosed documents recovered by the FBI from private e-mail servers used by Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state.

Those documents are among tens of thousands of records the State Department is sifting through to cope with the demands of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the conservative group Judicial Watch as the presidential race between Democrat Clinton and Republican Donald Trump enters a crucial phase.

U.S. District James Boasberg on Monday ordered the State Department to process that first batch of records by Sept. 22 and report back to him that day. While he didn't set a schedule for their being made public, a Justice Department lawyer proposed a phased release beginning Oct. 14, a rate that raised the ire of Judicial Watch lawyer Lauren Burke.

"What have they been doing for the past four weeks?" she asked Boasberg, complaining that the government will have had the recovered records for 10 weeks before any of them are released.
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Light Sabers

Japan planning to deploy new missiles in East China Sea by 2023

Ben McGrath
World Socialist Web Site
Fri, 19 Aug 2016 17:53 UTC
japan
Japan is planning to deploy a new type of missile to the East China Sea, where Tokyo is engaged in a tense territorial dispute with Beijing. The decision marks a significant milestone in the drive by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to remilitarize Japan. The planned missile system will be designed locally, by the country's expanding defence industry, rather than being supplied by the United States or another ally.

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported on August 14 that the new surface-to-ship missile will have a range of 300 kilometres, the longest of any missile currently in Japan's armament. The weapon will be GPS-guided and vehicle-based, making it easy to deploy. Placed on islands in the East China Sea, any Chinese or other vessel approaching the disputed Senkaku (Diaoyu in China) Islands would fall within its range.

Later this month, the government intends to request funding for its new missile in the military budget for the 2017 - 2018 fiscal year. Japan has steadily increased its budget in recent years, including record-high military spending in March of this year.

Comment: Further reading: China warns Japan: Joining U.S. 'freedom of navigation' provocations is a red line

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Bad Guys

The geostrategic background to the Balochistan bombing

Andrew Korybko
Gpolitic.com
Sun, 21 Aug 2016 17:02 UTC
Balochistan bombing
© gpolitic.com
Last week Pakistan was rocked by a carefully plotted suicide attack which killed dozens of lawyers and drew international attention to the province of Balochistan. The details of the attack prove that this was a premeditated assault against a particular class of victims in the most vulnerable geostrategic location in all of Pakistan, and this makes one wonder exactly what the terrorists' long-term objectives are in doing this.

To put everything into context, Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan and it has an up-and-down history within the country, sometimes being the scene of insurgent revolts and terrorism - not always the same thing, mind you, but nowadays overlapping - and other times being the peaceful peripheral location that it's otherwise known for.

The reason why I mention Balochistan's separatist inclinations isn't because this group of fighters was responsible for the terrorist attack, but because the terrorists wanted to spark a militant reaction from them which would create more complications for Islamabad and possibly embroil the Pakistani Armed Forces in yet another internal conflict alongside the one they're periodically fighting in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA.
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Bomb

Kirkuk law enforcement thwart bomb attack in Iraq, defuse child suicide bomber's belt


RT
Sun, 21 Aug 2016 03:24 UTC
child suicide bomber kirkuk
© Reuters
Security forces remove a suicide vest from a boy in Kirkuk on August 21.
Chilling footage has emerged purporting to show Kurdish security forces defusing an explosive belt attached to a teenage suicide bomber in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

The tense moment, captured on camera, showed Kurdish law enforcers arresting a young suicide bomber in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk late Sunday, Rudaw reports.

The boy, who allegedly wore a suicide belt and was reportedly aged between 12 and 13, can be seen surrounded by several armed officers. The youngster's hands are held by two law enforcers while another one is defusing the explosive device attached to the boy's body.

"Security forces are now defusing the explosives belt," Rudaw reporter commented on the operation. The arrest was also reported by Kurdish Kurdistan24 channel, with the media outlet posting the full clip of the incident on their YouTube channel.

After the suspected bomb was removed the boy was arrested by authorities and taken to a police car. Kurdish media outlets did not provide any details on where the boy planned to stage a potential attack and who was behind the action.

Comment: Update:

Iraqi police say they apprehended a would-be suicide bomber in the northern city of Kirkuk before he was able to detonate his explosives belt.

"The boy claimed during interrogation that he had been kidnapped by masked men who put the explosives on him and sent him to the area," Kirkuk intelligence official Chato Fadhil Humadi told AP.

Humadi added that the boy was displaced from the Islamic State-held city of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, by military operations in the area.

The boy's name has not been disclosed.

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Info

More US troops sent to Helmand capital as Taliban advances


RT
Mon, 22 Aug 2016 17:48 UTC
US soldiers in Afghanistan
© Omar Sobhani / Reuters
Some 100 US troops have been sent to Lashkar Gah, capital of Afghanistan's Helmand province, where the Taliban is advancing and opium cultivation is booming. A new report shows that the US has three times more contractors than troops in Afghanistan.

The US contingent has arrived in Lashkar Gah with a mission to provide training and support to the Afghan security forces, Brigadier-General Charles Cleveland, spokesman for the US mission in Afghanistan, said Monday.

The Afghan authorities are looking to have more US troops sent to Helmand, since much of the province has been overrun by Taliban insurgents in recent weeks. Fighting "on several fronts" has closed many roads and highways in the province, the head of Helmand's provincial council, Kareem Atal, told AP.

"Around 80 percent of the province is under the control of the insurgents," Atal said. "There are a number of districts that the government claims are under their control, but the government is only present in the district administrative center and all around are under the control of the insurgents."
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Network

James Bamford: Does NSA have another Snowden on their hands?

James Bamford
Reuters
Mon, 22 Aug 2016 17:38 UTC
Snowden
© Dagens Nyheter / AFP
Mr. Snowden, whistleblower, traitor or credit due?
In the summer of 1972, state-of-the-art campaign spying consisted of amateur burglars, armed with duct tape and microphones, penetrating the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. Today, amateur burglars have been replaced by cyberspies, who penetrated the DNC armed with computers and sophisticated hacking tools.

Where the Watergate burglars came away empty-handed and in handcuffs, the modern-day cyber thieves walked away with tens of thousands of sensitive political documents and are still unidentified.

Now, in the latest twist, hacking tools themselves, likely stolen from the National Security Agency, are on the digital auction block. Once again, the usual suspects start with Russia - though there seems little evidence backing up the accusation.
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Snakes in Suits

Not only Paul Manafort: FBI probes firm belonging to brother of Clinton campaign chair for Ukraine corruption ties

Tyler Durden
Zerohedge
Sat, 20 Aug 2016 23:02 UTC
FBI Headquarters
© Wikimedia Commons
The J. Edgar Hoover building, FBI headquarters.
The top political news on Friday was the unexpected resignation of Trump campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, which was the result of emerging revelations that his political consulting firm, DMP International, had orchestrated a covert Washington lobbying operation in the period 2012-2014 on behalf of Ukraine's then ruling political party, attempting to sway American public opinion in favor of the country's pro-Russian government (which was overthrown in a CIA-orchestrated coup in early 2014).

As the AP reported yesterday, the lobbying included attempts to gain positive press coverage of Ukrainian officials in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press. Another goal: undercutting American public sympathy for the imprisoned rival of Ukraine's then-president. At the time, European and American leaders were pressuring Ukraine to free her. Furthermore, under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (or FARA), US entities who lobby on behalf of foreign political leaders or political parties must provide detailed reports about their actions to the Justice Department.

The 1938 U.S. foreign agents law is intended to track efforts of foreign government's unofficial operatives in the United States. A violation is a felony and can result in up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
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Boat

China warns Japan: Joining U.S. 'freedom of navigation' provocations is a red line


RT
Mon, 22 Aug 2016 17:28 UTC
japan destroyer
© Toru Hanai / Reuters
Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) destroyer Kurama.
Beijing warned Tokyo of a harsh response if it ever crossed a "red line" in deciding to sail with US warships near disputed waters surrounding China's artificially reclaimed islands under the pretext of the Freedom of Navigation principle, Japanese media reported.

The warning to Japan reportedly came just ahead of the Hague international arbitration court's ruling over the disputed South China Sea islands which Beijing continues to claim, despite a verdict which stripped China of the disputed territory.

Tokyo will "cross a red line" if Japan's Self-Defense Forces sail with the Americans, Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua allegedly told a Japanese official in Tokyo, Kyodo reported citing a source.

Japan should not take part in a "joint military action with US forces that is aimed at excluding China in the South China Sea," Cheng is reported to have told Japanese officials late in June. "(China) will not concede on sovereignty issues and is not afraid of military provocations."

Comment: Further reading:

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USA

US is fueling Saudi war crimes in Yemen, and ordinary Yemenis know it

Trevor Timm
The Guardian
Thu, 18 Aug 2016 17:09 UTC
saudi Arabia US flags
Saudi Arabia resumed its appalling war in Yemen last week and has already killed dozens more civilians, destroyed a school full of children and leveled a hospital full of sick and injured people. The campaign of indiscriminate killing - though let's call it what it is: a war crime - has now been going on for almost a year and a half. And the United States bears a large part of the responsibility.

This US-backed war is not just a case of the Obama administration sitting idly by while its close ally goes on a destructive spree of historic proportions. The government is actively selling the Saudis billions of dollars of weaponry. They're re-supplying planes engaged in the bombing runs and providing "intelligence" for the targets that Saudi Arabia is hitting.

Put simply, the US is quite literally funding a humanitarian catastrophe that, by some measures, is larger than the crisis in Syria. As the New York Times editorial board wrote this week: "Experts say the coalition would be grounded if Washington withheld its support." Yet all we've heard is crickets.

Comment: This illegal war against Yemen began at the beginning of Obama's first term. The atrocities committed against Yemen since last March are merely the next phase in the same illegal war.

From early 2009 until early 2015, the US targeted Yemen with drones and cruise missiles. It's fitting that the end of Obama's second term has seen a major escalation in war crimes committed there because of the US-controlled 'Saudi' invasion.

Not that any of this really has anything to do with Obama. Like his generals, he just does as he's told (or rather, he learns, after the fact, like the rest of us, via the media, that such-and-such a place has been obliterated).

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Propaganda

Trump advisor Giuliani charges press with ignoring signs of Clinton's illness

Rebecca Morin and Nick Gass
Politico
Sun, 21 Aug 2016 16:34 UTC
rudi giuliani trump
© Fox News
Continuing with the narrative that Hillary Clinton is unfit to be president, Rudy Giuliani, an adviser with Donald Trump's campaign, claimed Sunday there are videos online that show Clinton has an illness.

Giuliani said on Fox News Sunday that Clinton has "an entire media that constantly demonizes Donald Trump."

The former New York City mayor went on to say the media fail to point out how she has not held a news conference in over 200 days and her "several signs of illness."

The media "fails to point out several signs of illness by her; all you gotta do is go online," Giuliani said, before being interrupted by host Shannon Bream, who pointed out that Clinton's campaign has said there is no factual evidence to support those claims.

"Go online and put down 'Hillary Clinton illness,' take a look at the videos yourself," Giuliani continued.

Giuliani's comments are the latest from the Trump campaign questioning Clinton's stamina and health. Last week, Trump told Sean Hannity of Fox News that Clinton "doesn't really do that much. She'll give a speech on a teleprompter, and then she'll disappear. I don't know if she goes home [and] goes to sleep. I think she sleeps."


Comment: Giuliani weighed in on more than just Killary's health status, stating that racketeering charges should be filed against the Clinton Foundation:
"Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani suggested Sunday that the Clinton Foundation should be indicted on racketeering charges.

"If I was attorney general, I would indict the Clinton Foundation as a racketeering enterprise," Giuliani, who served as U.S. attorney in New York and as associate attorney general in the Ronald Reagan administration, told "Fox News Sunday."

Giuliani, who is emerging as the most ardent, high-profile backer of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, argued that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton "did favors to people who gave to the Clinton Foundation" during and after she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.

Clinton stepped down from the nonprofit foundation's board when she launched her presidential campaign in 2015, when she also stopped fundraising for the foundation and giving paid speeches.

The foundation has faced allegations of engaging in a "pay-to-play" operation since Clinton began her candidacy.

And last week, the State Department had to answer fresh questions amid newly-released documents, about plans after Clinton left the agency to potentially buy land for a U.S. Embassy in Lagos from a Lebanese-Nigerian company with ties to Gilbert Chagoury, who donated more than $1 million to the foundation. (The story was first reported by Fox News.)

"She did favors for those very people who gave money to the Clinton Foundation," said Giuliani. "In my definition that was bribery."


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