[Redstate] Last week, it was reported that Admiral Mike Rogers, who served as Director of the National Security Agency under President Obama, has been cooperating with U.S. Attorney John Durham’s criminal inquiry into the origins of the Trump/Russia collusion investigation. This was big news for two reasons.
I wrote about the first reason in a recent post, in which I called Rogers the "Unsung Hero." He was one of the few Obama administration officials who actually had integrity, a man who noticed that something was amiss and acted. It was this man who traveled to Trump Tower on November 17, 2016, to brief then-President-elect Donald Trump that communications from the building were being tapped. He did not notify his superior, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, beforehand.
Later that day, the Trump transition team announced they were moving their operations to a new location in New Jersey. Within days, the Washington Post reported that "James Clapper and Defense Secretary Ash Carter had recommended the removal of Mike Rogers from his NSA position." Rogers was not fired, for obvious reasons.
The second reason predates the FBI’s application to the FISA Court for a warrant to spy on Carter Page by a couple of years, but in light of IG Horowitz’s report, this story becomes even more relevant. Rogers discovered that American citizens were being spied upon and drew attention to the abuse of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by the Obama administration. According to former U.S. Attorney Joe DiGenova, Section 702 allows the government to essentially weaponize the NSA’s ability to collect data and surveil private U.S. citizens.
Used as intended, it has been a useful law enforcement tool. Abused as it had been by Obama administration officials up until Rogers’ discovery in 2014, it became a weapon. DiGenova said, "For more than four years before the election of Donald Trump, there was an illegal spying operation going on by FBI [private] contractors ‐ four of them ‐ to steal personal information, electronic information about Americans and to use it against the Republican Party."
In a Christmas Eve interview with WMAL radio station (audio below), diGenova explains how the FBI’s efforts to cover up the 702 spying brought us "Crossfire Hurricane." Rogers discovered it and reported it to the FISA Court and said "she" stopped it (I assume "she" refers to FISC Judge Rosemary Collyer). DiGenova says it led to the "crescendo of activity by Comey, Clapper, and Brennan. It led to the so-called Crossfire Hurricane investigation to cover-up the previous spying that had been going on."
#2
"For more than four years before the election of Donald Trump, there was an illegal spying operation going on by FBI [private] contractors ‐ four of them ‐ to steal personal information, electronic information about Americans and to use it against the Republican Party."
WIKISteele had been a paid confidential human source for the FBI before preparing the Steele dossier, and the FBI found "Steele's information to be valuable and that it warranted compensation", with Steele receiving $95,000 from the FBI between 2014 and 2016 for information on previous matters unrelated to Trump.[99] From information in the report...
#6
Kind of ironic that the maroons squealing about Russia "collusion" are likely the same sh!ts who would have spied on the GOP candidate whom Zero mocked for his "cold war" "1980s" foreign policies that were too tough on Putin-- the ones that lacked a certain, so to speak, flexibility.
#7
Using an MI6 cutout (Orbis), to collect intelligence on US Persons (USP)? Kicking FISA and 'FIVE EYES' sharing and EO-12333 circumvention up a notch I'd say. Could be viewed by some as treason.
It would appear that at some point someone crossed the line and Admiral Rogers dropped the flag.
#9
Well the foking Intelligence Community (IC), Brennan, Clapper, and associates, gave themselves away early on. They must have known that it would only be a matter of time until the 'Joe DiGneova's' of the world assembled the social network.
Key takeaway here is; it appears to have all taken place on Soetoro's watch and would have likely never have seen the light of day had the Hildebeest defeated the Orange Man.
#11
Seriously? Nobody will talk about it at all. Al Gore's CALEA Wiretap Law of 1994 is the base of all future attacks from that date on US Citizens.
It required the phone and cellular companies to fork their communications streams and send 1/4 of all voice communications and all data to the FBI!
#12
Think about that. All the missing emails and data on everybody have been quietly copied to the FBI and they never raise their hand and say "WE HAVE IT".
Seriously, if your computer crashes, the chance is high enough, that somewhere in the FBI archives should be everything to restore your data!
#13
That would include: every virus, every email from a Nigerian Prince, every requested and unrequested piece of Pr0n. every Hillary email, every Microsoft update .... everything...
#15
...also requires competent people in long term handling, storage, and preservation. If it's physical, it deteriorates. Nah. NASA can't even read its old stuff anymore. Come on guys, we're talking civil service employees here.
#19
A very big rock has been turned over and suddenly long standing misbehavior is being exposed. The people whose careers and even freedom and being exposed have amongst them ruthlesswand dangerous people who exercise powerful systems in the Law Enforcement and intelligence are suddenly threatened. Some will flee, some will cower and a few might cause fireworks. Long overdue exposure of people who thought they were a protected elite.
#21
More likely Steele if pre-2015. I don't believe Fusion GPS had yet been formed. IIRC Glenn "F---ing Hack That I Am" Simpson was still whoring writing for Politico at that time
#22
Ref #17: .....for those wondering, ADM Rogers was not part of the DOJ IG report because the IG had very limited jurisdiction to interview outside the DOJ.
ADM Rogers had a severe case of cooties. My guess is he would have likely been the very last person the IG would have interviewed.
both the CIA and the office of the Director of National Intelligence have IGs
but their jurisdiction does not extend to departed officials, (e.g., Brennan, who was CIA chief and Clapper who was Director of Natl Intel) unless those officials volunteer to be interviewed
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/27/2019 12:32 Comments ||
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#24
Key players spoiled rotten by huge bonuses paid by Zero.
[The Federalist] In 2018, the U.S. government filed 1,117 final applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court for authority for the FBI to conduct electronic surveillance and physical searches. One application was withdrawn. One other was denied. The remaining 1,115 were granted.
Hours before the FISA court issued a December 17 order openly declaring that it could no longer trust any of the sworn statements the FBI had submitted to justify spying on Americans, The New York Times published an opinion article by William Webster, a former director of both the FBI and the CIA. Webster wrote, "Today, the integrity of the institutions that protect our civil order is, tragically, under assault from too many people whose job it should be to protect them."
Gone are the days The New York Times worked to expose government abuse of power. The New York Times now defends power from truth.
Continued on Page 49
#6
Soros could speak to that issue BP. He has a history of going into foreign countries and creating chaos, sucking the blood out the country via corruption. Agree with you, it's not cool to go into a democratic country with duly elected officials. Ex. Obozo sent a team into Israel to try to rig their elections. Hope Durham and Barr are looking this evil old bastard. Not cool.
[LA Times] HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam ‐ When John Rockhold drew a low number, No. 12, in the 1971 draft lottery, his adolescence in the San Fernando Valley forever changed. Seeking to avoid the Army, he signed up for the Navy just after graduating from Granada Hills High School. As an enlisted petty officer, he spent months operating boats that dropped off SEALs at night along long and humid Vietnamese shorelines where American troops were trying to stop the communist north from taking over the south.
More than 58,000 U.S. service members died in the war, and since it ended in 1975, innumerable American veterans have returned to Vietnam, seeking understanding, forgiveness or reconciliation. Now some are coming for more mundane reasons: inexpensive housing, cheap healthcare and a rising standard of living.
After his military career, Rockhold worked as a defense contractor, operating mostly in Africa. He first returned to Vietnam in 1992 to work on a program to help economic refugees. He settled in Vietnam in 1995, the same year the United States and Vietnam normalized relations. He married a Vietnamese woman in 2009.
In fact, he liked it so much that he persuaded his mother to move to Vietnam from Santa Maria, Calif., also in 2009.
"She came for the wedding, and decided to stay," he said with a laugh. She lived in Vietnam until her death in 2015 at 94.
#4
Living is cheap and it doesn't sound like some of the other hellholes in the Third World where you are a target for terrorists and/or kidnappers...
Summary of cost of living in Vietnam Family of four estimated monthly costs: 50,930,953 ₫
Single person estimated monthly costs: 25,357,235 ₫
Vietnam is the 3rd cheapest country in Asia (12 out of 14)
Cost of living in Vietnam is cheaper than in 86% of countries in the World (84 out of 98)
1 US Dollar = 23,171 Vietnamese Dong
Last updated · December 27, 4:00 PM CST
[WAPO] "Chicken noodle soup?" she wondered as she sat at her kitchen table with a pen and notepad. "No, I’ll make chicken and biscuits. That’s more filling."
These days, Anne has only about $175 each month to spend on food, beyond the eggs, milk and meat that her family’s dairy operation supplies. So this has become her monthly ritual, going through several drafts to create an affordable meal plan that keeps her husband and five kids from going hungry.
"I wish I could make lasagna, but it’s expensive," she said. So are fresh vegetables, except for cheap bags of onions and potatoes. Even "Fruit?" had a question mark next to it.
When Anne and her husband, Andy, took over his parents’ 305-acre dairy farm in 2013, they made a good living. But years of falling milk prices, complicated by President Trump’s trade wars, have left the couple nearly $200,000 in debt.
Farmers around the country are struggling to pay for basics like groceries and electricity as farm bankruptcies rise and farm debt hits a historic high. Calls from farmers in financial crisis to state mediators have soared by 57 percent since 2015.
"We’re supposed to be feeding the world, and we can’t even put food on our own table," Anne said.
#3
Took over the farm in 2013? Bet you there's more to this story than they're telling us. Bet there's alot more.
Posted by: Charles ||
12/27/2019 8:39 Comments ||
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#4
It's the WaPo...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/27/2019 10:20 Comments ||
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#5
If you have a 305 acre dairy farm that isn't making money, you switch from dairy to something else. Either that or you sell the farm. I'm sure some developer would be happy to build condos on it. But then, it could be they're just not very good at dairy farming. So this is a sob story complicated, of course, by that Bad Orange Man. WAPO indeed. It's a load of crap.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/27/2019 13:18 Comments ||
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#6
So the farm is faring as well as the WaPo. Misery likes company. Boo hoo.
[The Hill] A new YouGov survey found Germans consider President Trump more dangerous to world peace than North Korean Chairman Kim Jong Un or Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the German broadcaster DW.
Asked to rank the greatest threat to world peace between Trump, Kim, Putin, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Chinese President Xi Jinping, 41 percent named Trump, compared to Kim at 17 percent, Khamenei and Putin at 8 percent and Xi at 7 percent.
Pollsters surveyed 2,000 Germans for the poll between Dec. 16 and 18.
The results were similar to a YouGov poll published in July 2018, although the earlier survey did not include Xi or Khamenei as options.
The poll comes after a contentious NATO summit in London with several European allies, during which Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was filmed apparently joking about the lengths of Trump’s joint press conferences in a conversation with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emanuel Macron.
German Sept 11 theory stokes anti-US feeling
By Kate Connolly in Bonn
20 Nov 2003
A former German cabinet minister is drawing huge crowds and stoking the fires of popular anti-Americanism with a book arguing that the US government mounted the September 11 attacks in a plot to win global domination.
Andreas von Bulow..., a former research minister in the German government, believes that September 11, when more than 3,000 people died, was staged to justify the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
... [Von Bulow's] ideas are very popular in Germany, which is wallowing in a wave of anti-Americanism. Polls show that a fifth of the population, and one in three of those under 30, believe the US government ordered the attacks.
#3
The results were similar to a YouGov poll published in July 2018, although the earlier survey did not include Xi or Khamenei, Joseph Stalin, the Castro bros, as options.
#8
Mainstream media article template F17: That horrid Trump is so horrid that foreigners haaaaate him!
But the Hill article links to a Deutsche Welle article, which links to an earlier DW article that points out that a) Germans are considerably less fearful overall in late 2019 than they’ve been since 1993, and b) concern about President Trump fell significantly since last year, from 69 to 55, now third behind over-demand on resources by migrants and tensions caused by foreigners.
So despite superficial appearances, this report is actual good news as Germans come to terms with the fact that President Trump has not destroyed the world as was so loudly predicted when he had the temerity to actually win the election.
#9
That's alright. By 1945 we thought they were more dangerous to world peace too. Done a pretty good job of defanging them I'd say. Maybe too good. Nah.
#16
3dc #7 nails it. They are just sore losers with a long memory.
Posted by: Tom ||
12/27/2019 14:26 Comments ||
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#17
I like that the Germans fear us. Keeps them in line for a little while.
Posted by: Regular joe ||
12/27/2019 15:22 Comments ||
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#18
Modern Germany is what happens when everyone with a spine is killed, the next generation is likely to be passive snowflakes. Similar thing happened to the British & French because of the one two punch of WW1 and WW2.
Similar thing happened to the Scandinavian countries as all those with a spine went viking and colonized the British Isles and Northern France and Moscow (giving those areas a double-dose of spine genetically).
[CBN] Israel is preparing itself for a "limited confrontation" against Iran, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi said.
"There is a possibility that we will face a limited confrontation with Iran and we are preparing for it," Kochavi said.
He said Israel would continue to act and do so "responsibly" but said it would be better if Israel did not have to act alone.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pointed out that Israel is the only country that is openly, militarily fighting Iran.
The Israeli Air Force has been targeting Iranian bases and weapons supplies inside Syria for more than two years. Israel has said it would not allow Iran to equip its proxies with precision-guided missiles or to establish bases inside Syria from which to strike at Israel.
Kochavi also publicly implied for the first time that Israel is carrying out strikes inside Iraq, saying that Israel would not allow Iran to entrench itself in Syria or Iraq.
"Iraq is undergoing a civil war, when the Quds Force is operating there on a daily basis, when the country itself has turned into an ungoverned area. Advanced weapons are being smuggled by the Quds force in Iraq on a monthly basis and we can’t allow that," he said.
The Iranian-backed Hezbollah as well as the Iranian Quds forces are both established in Syria and Iran is a backer of Islamic Jihad and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Though he did not say when it would happen, Kochavi said that Israel is preparing for the next war, which he said would be "intense."
"In the next war, e it with the north or with Gaza, the intensity of enemy firepower will be great...There can be no war without casualties and I cannot guarantee a short war," he said. "We will need national resilience...I’m looking at everyone in the eye, it will be intense."
Kochavi said Israel will need to be prepared for that "militarily, on the home front, and mentally."
#1
As the smoke gets a little less dense
Round a shot-up old car by the fence,
"Intense..." mutters Otto,
And Bud bleats his motto:
"Kid, repo man's always intense!"
[Salon] Forget "Triumph of the Will" ‐ the most insidious authoritarian propaganda comes in the form of schmaltz
The Hallmark Channel has been having a rough go of it in the past few weeks. The cable TV behemoth, which has been minting money with its patented holiday season schmaltz, drew widespread criticism earlier this month when it pulled ads for the wedding company Zola that featured a lesbian couple kissing at their wedding. The company's initial excuse was that they do not allow ads that feature "overt public displays of affection," claiming the policy is "regardless of the participants."
This was, obviously, nonsense, as couples kissing at weddings is not only not outré, but generally seen as mandatory (and features in the channel's numerous rom-coms). Unsurprisingly, critics quickly found plenty of examples of straight snogging on the channel that shows that sexual orientation was the sole reason for the ad pull. (That, and Hallmark was clearly responding to a right-wing pressure campaign claiming that lesbian kissing "ruined" the channel's "family friendly" offerings.) Hallmark then flip-flopped, apologizing for pulling the ads and claiming they have been "a progressive pioneer on television for decades" and "committed to diversity and inclusion."
Which is, of course, laughable to anyone who has even glancing knowledge of the channel's offerings. Running down this year's schedule of Christmas movie offerings is like a trip into an uncanny valley of shiny-teethed, blow-dried heteronormative whiteness, with only a few token movies with characters of color. It's like watching "The Stepford Wives," but scarier, since the evil plot to replace normal people with robots is never actually revealed.
None of this should be a surprise, because Hallmark movies, as cloying and saccharine as they are, constitute the platonic ideal of fascist propaganda.
#5
We have gone past the point of peak hysteria. Now everything is racist, white crime, patriarchy and class abuse and most people have started to tune out.
The left will thrash and screech and get even crazier as more and more people ignore them and the power of outrage that they had gets weaker and non-effective.
#11
There is a movie scheduled for release on Jan. 24, 2020 entitled the "The Last Full Measure." It is about MOH recipient William H. Pitsenbarger, a United States Air Force Pararescueman who flew almost 300 rescue missions in Vietnam. I dunno, it might be worth a watch. The Last Full Measure.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Redstate] Last week, it was reported that Admiral Mike Rogers, who served as Director of the National Security Agency under President Obama, has been cooperating with U.S. Attorney John Durham’s criminal inquiry into the origins of the Trump/Russia collusion investigation. This was big news for two reasons.
[The Federalist] In 2018, the U.S. government filed 1,117 final applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court for authority for the FBI to conduct electronic surveillance and physical searches. One application was withdrawn. One other was denied. The remaining 1,115 were granted.
[WAPO] "Chicken noodle soup?" she wondered as she sat at her kitchen table with a pen and notepad. "No, I’ll make chicken and biscuits. That’s more filling."
[Salon] Forget "Triumph of the Will" ‐ the most insidious authoritarian propaganda comes in the form of schmaltz
