[Freebeacon] The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has pushed back the estimated completion date of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for documents pertaining to its communications with the security firm that examined the Democratic National Committee's hacked servers to October. New guy, same as old guy? Appears to be a much larger problem than previously indicated.
The Washington Free Beacon submitted the FOIA request in July 2017 with the FBI seeking all communication between the bureau and CrowdStrike, Inc., the California-based cyber security firm that examined the DNC's servers following the infiltration that led to the release of John Podesta's emails. The FBI said in December the documents should be available by March.
The FBI, which was never granted access to the DNC's servers for inspection, instead relied on the third-party firm that was brought in by the DNC for information regarding the compromised network who concluded that Russia was behind the hack.
The FBI previously awarded an unrelated $150,000 contract to CrowdStrike in July 2015. Details and communications between the firm and the bureau regarding that past contract were requested as part of the FOIA.
The request additionally sought all communications spanning from April 1, 2016‐one month before the firm was brought in by the DNC to analyze the servers‐and July 7, 2017, the day the FOIA request was submitted to the FBI.
After inquiring about the estimated completion date for the documents in early December, an FBI public information officer said requests are divided into two processing tracks: Simple, which are under 50 pages of potentially responsive documents, and complex, which are more than 50 pages of potentially responsive documents. Complex requests are further divided into medium, large, and extra-large sub-tracks based upon the request size.
Simple track requests are averaging approximately 80 days from the date of receipt for processing, the officer said. Requests in the large complex processing track are averaging 774 days for processing.
The Free Beacon request falls into the complex medium processing track and was given an estimated completion date of March 2018.
However, the documents were not made available in March. The Free Beacon again reached out to the records office.
A public information officer later left a message saying the estimated completion date is now October, seven months after the initial completion date.
CrowdStrike has figured prominently in the Democratic National Committee cyber attacks and the attribution of those attacks to Russian intelligence services. On March 20, 2017 during testimony before congress, James Comey stated "CrowdStrike, Mandiant, and ThreatConnect review[ed] the evidence of the hack and conclude[d] with high certainty that it was the work of APT 28 and APT 29 who are known to be Russian intelligence services."[20] However, the FBI did not independently verify these findings because the DNC refused to give the FBI access to the server.[21]
Emphasis added.
How far along are you? Ten percent finished? Fine, send over your first ten percent Monday morning or the Director can find a new job. We'll need the balance within 30 days. How your copy? Over.
#2
A public information officer later left a message saying the estimated completion date is now October, seven months after the initial completion date.
Ah, the motto of Massachusetts - 'Don't kill the job!'
I.e., we're going to hold the documents back until after the election (not hard to go from October to November) and if the Dems win we'll be able to forget all about this silliness.
Posted by: Matt ||
04/28/2018 13:17 Comments ||
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#5
How about all these agents working on this get held in jail, general pop, while we send the federal Marshall service in to collect everything. And while enjoying their shower frolics, we can draw up charges of aiding and abetting foreign enemies (Russia and China) so they can have nice treason trials later. Or if they want to take the honorable option, give them a gas can and a zippo.
#6
Eight years of ValJar Nd ChMp salting their minions deep in the ranks of the civil service at critical 13-16 levels. Below the radar but visible now as they provide a wide, cooperative resistance to this administration and any attempt to undo the tsunami of progressive policies and imported voters.
[Hot Air] Credit to Sean Davis at the Federalist for catching this today. The newly declassified report on Russia from the House Intel Committee states that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was the person who leaked word of the dossier being briefed to Trump last January. From the report:
When initially asked about leaks related to the ICA in July 2017, former DNI Clapper flatly denied "discussing the dossier [compiled by Steele] or any other intelligence related to Russia hacking of the 2016 election with journalists." Clapper subsequently acknowledged discussing the "dossier with CNN journalist Jake Tapper," and admitted that he might have spoken with other journalists about the same topic. Clapper’s discussion with Tapper took place in early January 2017, around the time IC leaders briefed President Obama and President-elect Trump, on "the Christopher Steele information," a two-page summary of which was " enclosed in" the highly classified version of the ICA."
Why is that significant? Because according to James Comey, he briefed Trump on the salacious elements of the dossier specifically because he was aware that CNN and other outlets were looking for a "news hook" that would give them an excuse to get the dossier before the public. From Comey’s memo [emphasis added]:
#2
Clapper subsequently acknowledged discussing the "dossier with CNN journalist Jake Tapper," and admitted that he might have spoken with other journalists about the same topic.
Obama muddied the waters by making sure intelligence was shared among more agencies so it would be difficult to single out one agency and fire everyone involved in any misbehavior. Clapper used the same technique to make sure CNN couldn't be singled out as well.
[GP] After a delay, five different Congressional committees received some of the ’missing’ Strzok-Page text messages Thursday evening. The DOJ is still withholding the damning text messages between these two FBI lovebirds.
The FBI previously claimed the messages were erased due to a tech glitch with the FBI-issued phones, then the IG magically recovered them.
#4
These two also used unofficial iPhones to hide their communications, and one or more gmail accounts. Have messages been recovered from those other, covert channels?
The latest batch of messages is clearly incomplete, with non sequiturs, and they briefly mention these other channels - so it is easy to conclude that they had shifted the majority of their communication elsewhere, in an effort to hide their tracks.
Posted by: Si vis pacem ||
04/28/2018 15:04 Comments ||
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[Breitbart] 27-year-old Kiley Lane leaves behind a daughter of two years ‐ the tragic ending to a prolonged battle with the vicious hantavirus.
When Lane first grew ill in January, she assumed it was just a terrible flu. Her husband Kevin urged her to get tested as her symptoms worsened, with nausea and stabbing pain in her stomach. But it was not until February and several diagnoses later that she was discovered to be carrying the hantavirus.
Hantavirus is a deadly disease, most often contracted from deer mice urine or feces. It is an exceptionally rare diagnosis, with only a little more than 700 cases recorded across 36 states in the U.S. More than one-third of the people who contract it die, and Lane was tragically added to its list of victims on April 20.
Lane’s struggles were posted on a YouCaring fundraising site created to help her family with the burden of this sudden expense. For a while, her loved ones were hopeful that treatments including the Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machine would allow her to pull through. However, even the forefront of modern medicine was unable to save her life.
Washington (CNN) The secretary of homeland security faced sharp questioning about agency priorities from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing Thursday, with many expressing deep concerns about whether the Trump administration is properly promoting Americans' safety.
Democrats in particular questioned Kirstjen Nielsen about the administration's prioritization of immigration enforcement and the building of a border wall while also seeking to cut funding for state and local governments to prepare for and respond to security threats.
"Tell us how cutting this kind of funding helps America be safer," demanded Rep. Bill Keating, D-Massachusetts.
The top Democrat on the committee, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, had sharp words for Nielsen in his opening remarks, accusing the department of intentionally attacking non-dangerous immigrants as a distraction.
#1
"How dare you harass these future Democrat voters!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/28/2018 11:18 Comments ||
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#2
Perhaps we could just send absentee ballots to Honduras and save the poor dears that long trek across Mexico. It would be just like absentee ballots for our military, except these would get counted.
#5
Dangerous or not, they don't belong here. They have homes, and if home is really that dangerous, they're required to stop in the first safe place -- Mexico. If Mexico isn't safe, then we should wall off all of Latin America as a Failed Experiment and let them sort it out.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
04/28/2018 18:00 Comments ||
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#6
Expect a deluge of such "human interest stories" as the critical moment nears.
#7
#6 Expect a deluge of such "human interest stories" as the critical moment nears.--Posted by: g(r)omgoru
Only until November. If a new Congress has a Democratic Majority it will disappear off the front page. Remembering 2006, the day after the election local corruption and pink llamas (!?!) were now more important to the local paper than the above the fold photos of Iraq that had dominated most every issue before. *Poof!* What burning issue?!? Nancy Pelosi is Speaker, now, and why put pressure on her To. Do. Something. Substantive.
[Wash Times] A federal appeals court ruled Friday that Texas’s new version of its voter-ID law can go into effect, rebuking a lower court judge for trying to block the law and delivering a significant victory to voter-integrity advocates.
The original law passed earlier this decade had been blocked after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded both its purpose and effect was to punish minority voters.
But the state legislature went back and made changes, and the 5th Circuit, in a 2-1 ruling, now says the new version cures what ailed the previous one.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton hailed the ruling.
"The court rightly recognized that when the Legislature passed Senate Bill 5 last session, it complied with every change the 5th Circuit ordered to the original voter ID law," he said. "Safeguarding the integrity of our elections is essential to preserving our democracy."
The new law includes a longer list of ID options that are acceptable for voting purposes, allows people to use expired identification for even longer and requires mobile dispensaries to dole out election identification documents to those who might not otherwise have a valid ID for voting purposes.
#4
Skid, in Texas a Concealed Handgun Carry license is considered a higher level of ID reliability than a driver's license.
A driver's license requires birth certificate, tests, a photo, and a fee.
A Carry license requires birth certificate, test, fingerprints, photo, an FBI background check, and a fee.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
04/28/2018 11:10 Comments ||
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#5
Skid, I have voted using my concealed carry permit as ID. My driver's license had expired (five days before the election), but the permit hadn't. This was in Ohio.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
04/28/2018 17:58 Comments ||
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#6
I've tried to use my retired naval officer ID to vote here in Virginia. They prefer a driver's license because they have a scanner that can read the bar codes.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/28/2018 20:18 Comments ||
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[MAIL] Britain's elite forces are being pushed to their limits in Europe's biggest NATO military exercise to ensure they are equipped and deployment ready.
Operation Joint Warrior in Dalbeattie, Scotland, involves more than 11,600 military personnel from 17 nations, along with 35 naval units.
The UK's war chest has been raided as battlefield tech, ships and aircraft are sent in to showcase the nation's military prowess over two weeks.
Royal Marines have been spotted during a dramatic beach-landing as they dive from RHIB boats and deploy onto the shore in a war zone scenario.
NATO's bi-annual exercise is running from the 21st April to 4th May and involves forces from the US, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands.
The mission, operating out of Her Majesty's Naval Base Clyde and incorporating forces from RAF Lossiemouth in Moray, will see action taking place across air, land and sea.
The biannual exercise is designed, planned and delivered by the Joint Tactical Exercise Planning Staff (JTEPS) based at Northwood in London who deploy to HM Naval Base Clyde to coordinate events.
A Royal Navy statement said: 'Over the fortnight participants will be faced with a period of increasing political and military tensions, along with a huge range of realistic military tasks such as: intelligence gathering and reconnaissance; anti-smuggling and counter-terrorism operations; humanitarian assistance and evacuation operations.'
[CNN] Gabriela Hernandez and her two boys joined the "migrant caravan" of travelers across Mexico toward the United States, some hoping to cross the border. This is her story of the journey, compiled from multiple visits and interviews
#4
When soccer mom Gabi Hernandez
Pops up to your Starbucks on Sundays,
Her boys split a "Tall,"
Cuz they're still very small,
But their mother has, always, "dos Grandes!"
#6
Sorry, no visa, no entry. We'll send aid to Mexico, but you aren't going break the law to drop anchor here - arrest and immediately put back into Mexico. And jail anyone attempting to aid here to break federal law, RICO their ass, jail em and seize all assets.
[The Hill] Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. and others at Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential race, appears to have greater ties to the Russian government than she previously admitted.
The New York Times reports that Veselnitskaya in at least one instance worked for Russia’s chief legal office against the U.S. Justice Department in a fraud case targeting a top Russian firm with government connections.
And in an interview set to be broadcast Friday on "NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt" and on MSNBC's "On Assignment with Richard Engel," Veselnitskaya calls herself an "informant" for the Russian government, an admission that goes further than her previous claims of just being a private attorney.
"I am a lawyer, and I am an informant," she says in the NBC interview. "Since 2013, I have been actively communicating with the office of the Russian prosecutor general."
[DAWN] At least seven students have been stabbed to death and 12 injured in a knife attack outside a school in northern China, BBC reported quoting officials.
The knife-wielding man attacked the students near a secondary school in Mizhi County in Shaanxi province as they were heading home for the day, officials were quoted as saying.
A suspect is said to be in police custody.
Photos on social media showed several young students lying on the floor, surrounded by shocked onlookers.
A local government statement said the attack happened at Mizhi County Number Three secondary school, at around 18:10 local time (10:10 GMT).
Their exact ages have not been given, but reports suggest they may be middle school children, which would make them aged 12 to 15, reported BBC.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Police on Thursday tossed in the clink Please don't kill me! the headmaster of a primary school for girls in Kalar Syedan after students accused him of attempting to sexually assault them during school hours.
A fifth grade student from the school refused to go to school on Thursday and told her parents that the suspect had been attempting to assault her for the last month.
The child’s father then went to the police with his daughter’s allegation.
The victim revealed to her mother that the headmaster had allegedly attempted to assault two other students, including one of her classmates, as well.
Police said the suspect has been arrested after a criminal case was registered against him.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Chief Justice of Pakistain Mian Saqib Nisar on Friday took notice of the botched investigation of a rape case involving a seven-year-old girl in Faisalabad ...formerly known as Lyallpur, the third largest metropolis in Pakistain, the second largest in Punjab after Lahore. It is named after some Arab because the Paks didn't have anybody notable of their own to name it after... upon the request of the child's father.
The victim's father on Thursday had sent a written request to the chief justice, asking him to order a fresh investigation into his daughter's alleged rape at the hands of their neighbour.
The father, in his request, had stated that the accused had raped the child on October 5, 2017, and a first information report in this regard was filed on October 8.
The father, however, alleges that the case's investigation officer Asmat Cheema conspired with the accused and deliberately tampered with the case's only evidence: the child's trouser.
He said that the police did not follow proper legal procedure while taking the accused for DNA testing and suspects that they also washed the child's trouser ‐ on the basis of which, he claims, the accused was able to secure bail and has been out ever since.
The father told the CJP that he had also written to the Inspector General of Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... (IG), who had assured him of justice but the accused and police officials made sure that nothing came of it.
The father also asked the CJP to inquire from the additional session judge that on what basis he had issued a seven-month bail to the accused.
The chief justice accepted the father's request today, instructing the Punjab IG to submit a report on the case within three days.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2018 00:00 ||
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#3
Increase the pressure on the printer and you could have a "jet injector" that could tattoo circuits into the skin itself. Interesting thought...
Of course the first use would be 'nudie' pr0n tattoos at a parlor -- 1-hour or your money back.
[AAWSAT] The Philippine Government asked Kuwait on Thursday for clarification on the expulsion of its ambassador, expressing "annoyance" and "displeasure" with the Kuwaiti move.
While Harry Roque, official front man for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, expressed the hope that this development "will not lead to further deterioration in the bilateral relations between the two countries," the Philippine foreign ministry said on Thursday it has sent an official letter to the embassy of Kuwait, expressing its surprise and displeasure over the expulsion of its ambassador.
"The department [foreign ministry] served a diplomatic note to the Embassy of Kuwait conveying its strong surprise and great displeasure over the declaration of Ambassador Renato Pedro Villa as persona non grata," the ministry said in a statement.
The Philippine foreign minister demanded in the diplomatic note, the Kuwaiti government to explain "the continued detention of four Filipinos hired by the Philippine embassy and the issuance of arrest warrants against three diplomatic personnel."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2018 00:00 ||
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Salem Communications conducts a cleansing of its bloggers, writers and editors.
[Money.CNN] Salem Media, owner of the influential conservative outlet RedState, froze the site on Friday and dismissed many of its writers.
Bloggers were locked out of their accounts -- some just temporarily, while the cuts were made, and others permanently.
Erick Erickson, the site's longtime editor who left in 2015, tweeted about what he called the "mass firing" on Friday morning.
"Very sad to see, but not really surprising given Salem's direction," he wrote. "And, finally, after all these years, they've turned off my account."
Multiple sources told CNNMoney that they believed conservative critics of President Trump were the writers targeted for removal.
"Insufficiently partisan" was the phrase one writer used in a RedState group chat.
"They fired everybody who was insufficiently supportive of Trump," one of the sources who spoke with CNNMoney said, adding, "how do you define being 'sufficiently supportive' of Trump?"
But if it was about politics, it was also about money.
RedState writers work on contract and are paid based on the amount of traffic to their posts.
"Those who had been under a contract with a higher per-click rate were mostly all tossed, only keeping those who were pro-Trump even if their traffic was comparable," another one of the sources said on condition of anonymity.
"Of those who make less under their contracts, they mostly tossed those who had been openly critical of the president," the source said. "It seems to have been a cost saving measure, but the deciding factor between any two people seems to have been who liked the president and who didn't."
Salem had no immediate comment. But an internal memo obtained by CNNMoney confirmed the housecleaning.
"We had to make some tough changes to RedState today," Townhall general manager Jonathan Garthwaite wrote in the memo. "While these changes are painful, they were necessary once we reached the conclusion that we could no longer support the entire roster of writers and editors."
RedState, a 13-year-old blog that was founded by Erick Erickson, is one of several sites in Townhall Media's portfolio. Townhall, in turn, is owned by Salem Media Group, a conservative media company that also operates radio stations and publishes books.
Salem has previously been scrutinized for its treatment of radio hosts who weren't toeing a pro-Trump line during the presidential campaign.
A source with ties to RedState said bloggers had been "wondering if this was going to happen at RedState," meaning "anyone who wasn't a big fan of Trump would be dumped."
RedState has been reflective of the divides within the GOP and the conservative movement, with a spectrum of writers with varying reactions to Trump's political choices and personality conflicts.
Garthwaite did not respond to a followup request for comment on Friday.
His initial email to writers said, "there's no getting around the fact that this is awful news, but I value your contribution to RedState and I hope you will stick with it through this tough period and keep RedState going."
However, some contributors then received a separate email indicating that they were out. Their accounts were locked, meaning publishing rights were revoked.
Caleb Howe, one of the site's lead editors, was among those dismissed.
He cryptically tweeted on Friday, "There is a right way to do something and a f---ed up way."
His tweet aimed at an unknown person, saying, "You can call me back or you can watch this unfold right here, guy."
They can always hire on with their fellow Never-Trumpers at Weakly Standard and National Review, where I can continue to not read them
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/28/2018 11:21 Comments ||
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#2
Think of all the ones that have dropped by the wayside. I wouldn't think of visiting HotAir even if I was bored. Stopped visiting RedState when they swung anti-Trump. No use of Notional Review or The Corner. I dropped my WSJ subscription for the same reason. I gave up the cable TV bundle because I don't want to pay for Sheppy Smith or Chris Wallace any more than I want to pay for Maher or Maddow or Cooper. Really, Pournelle was correct, all organizations are eventually captured by liberals.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/28/2018 18:34 Comments ||
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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.
[The Hill] Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. and others at Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential race, appears to have greater ties to the Russian government than she previously admitted.
