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these trump women .. . dumb as rocks !...
Ivanka Trump To Critics: ‘I Don’t Know What It Means To Be Complicit’ (VIDEO)
well, they've painted a smile on her for this one .. how sickening..
these people are so fake that .. but the good thing is that it easily can be wiped off !
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ivanka-trump-i-dont-know-what-complicit-means--2
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.. still stuck on Obama I see ...
man you guys take him to bed with you AND dream about him ..
sooooooooooooo funny ..... you've got him under you skin..
scratching doesn't work does it ? .. AHHHHHHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
you big duMBO!!!! ... elephant ears a flapping .. dreaming every nite about O B A M A ... want to see his beautiful hands again? ... I'll go get a beautiful picture ... god I miss them ..... and his speech and English .. he could actually speak it and write it ...yes, I see how you just can't let him go . .You talk about him more than the people who voted for him and respect him .........you're hooked!
HA!
go to the doctor .. go to the bathroom ..Eat, Throw UP.. please re-leave yourself some how
get on a chat board .. with all the other Islamophobs ... to me? You are a fly that my husband would like to splat ..............
go away .. leave me alone ... you're soooooo boring .. no juice . .no swag . .. no brains ... no nuffin!!!! ... .. .seek help .. .NOW!
Trump to meet with 'Putin's favorite congressman' as Russia story swirls
By Dan Merica, CNN
Updated 1:19 PM ET, Tue April 4, 2017
Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump, amid questions about his campaign's ties to Russia during the 2016 election, will meet with Dana Rohrabacher, a California congressman so well-known for his pro-Russia views that he has been referred to as Russian President Vladimir Putin's "favorite congressman."
Trump, according to his public schedule, will meet with Rohrabacher in the Oval Office Tuesday afternoon.
Ken Grubbs, a spokesman for Rohrabacher, declined to disclose the focus of the conversation, calling it "a general conversation at the President's invitation."
"We have nothing more than that," Grubbs said.
Rohrabacher, after operating as an anti-communism congressman during the end of the Cold War, has become a vocal pro-Russia voice in the Republican Party, regularly taking Russia's side in public debates and backing Trump's comments on the country.
He even has bragged about arm-wrestling and playing soccer with Putin during a trip Russian leaders made to the United States in the early 1990s.
"We started arguing about who won the Cold War. And so we decided to settle it like men do when they've had too much to drink in the pub. So we got to these arm wrestling matches, and I ended up being paired off with Putin," Rohrabacher said during a 2013 interview with KPCC, a California public radio station. "He's a little guy, but boy, I'll tell ya. He put me down in a millisecond! He is tough. His muscles are just unbelievable."
His meeting with Trump comes at a significant time for the administration: Two congressional committees are looking into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, and the FBI is looking into contacts between Trump advisers and Russian operatives during the election.
mpre - http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/04/politics/donald-trump-dana-rohrabacher-putin/
Trump just keeps creating smokescreens to mask his Russia problem
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/04/politics/donald-trump-barack-obama-unmasking/
Everyone knows these fascists tactics by this time .. I'm glad to see
some of the press .. taking a stand against it. They needed to do that back then . .but hell! I'll take it anytime .........;)
republicans love them .. I was reading an article earlier that was telling how much republicans .. really that's not a proper name anymore for them ... I mean really, they cannot be classified with Lincoln, Eisenhower .. etc.... they have become terrorists, racists ... white supremacists . ..religious fanatics .. run for cover!!!!! .. ;) so .. I was reading that these people started loving russia some years back .. ? .. I'm going what? .. and here I thought they were crazy for Ronnie .. guess they've moved on ...
they can have them I don't like them and have not liked them for years and years ... .. ohh .. they are such upstanding people .. LOLOLOLOL .. yeah .............love the way they play sports ...........
What's his stupid daughters name? eh? . .well whatever .. .. boy oh boy .. has she ever been a big
help to woman .. YAY!!! bed bath and beyond for dumping her ordinary rags ....
Donald Trump Revokes Order That Protects Women in the Workplace
http://theslot.jezebel.com/donald-trump-revokes-order-that-protects-women-in-the-w-1793988166
and daughter trumpee.............we never believed you anyway ...so stay at the bottom of the pool for awhile . .bitch !
Thanks Hookrider ........I don't know a thing about it .. these factual things are missed when
one spends time with russian trolls ... and Islamophobs... that we have here on this board and in our country.
Hey I know! .. You need to go find a good Islamophobic forum .. so you can get the feedback you are begging for ... I'm sure that it can't be hard to find Islamophobic chat boards .. go for it .. then you can all sit together stick your tongues out ...scratch yourselves and scream hate hate hate hate Muslims .. !!!! and other horrid things ..
just stay out of my face ... you terrorist .. !
maybe he is one of those types that belong to those christian religions
that take everything that is written literally or something?
.. .. I think they call it .. 'fundamentalist' ?
I even know one .. whose wife divorced him, because in younger days he was fooling around a bit in New York... lol .. but they are wonderful wonderful Fathers for the most part .... anyway . .after the kids finished college ... got out on their own .. .. moved to different states etc... a little bit of time passed .. and suddenly she was forty eight or so .. and she said . .you know what? .. I'm divorcing 'him' ... .. we all said YaY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!... and she did .. and he still takes care of her .. AND the family and his grand kids ... you ought to see the house he just bought her again ... .. ohh my ..
They never stop being Fathers and they never stop being husbands, living with the wife or not .. doesn't matter
I'll tell you ... just like all men ... . If they are good they are very very good ! ... oh and by the way .. now they are friends .. ;) he won her over again ..............sigh...it's easy to see why .. ;) she let's him stay at the house he bought for her and keeps up for her and of course the car he bought her ... ;) but He can't stay too long .. as somehow she gets agitated again .. and he is asked to leave ... He does .. he has many places to stay ...
His first born daughter wanted children, the husband didn't this battle went on and on and on ..finally The father came and out they went for a long long walk up in San Francisco ... .. and I have no idea the conversation, someone does, but no one is talking ... but somehow .......... he agreed to have a child ... and they now have two BEAUTIFUL BOYS! ... these father in law talks appear to be most helpful to famlies ! .. God I love a good man ! ............;)
I asked his wife .. what do you think he said ? . .she said something like ... he told him without a family .. You are nothing! .. nothing .. she says it's our legacy ... .. etc.. . without children there is no life ! now she doesn't know what he said because he's not talking .. but that is what she guesses .. .and I kind of believe her after observing him for many many years .... ..
not a bad protest ... I would have to think about it more.. but on first thought ..
sure .. I would do it to protect someone else .. it's just a religion .. god knows I've seen
weirder religions right here in the usa .. christ .. swaying .. babbbling ... .. falling out on the floor .. holy shit!
by the way, Do you know any Muslim men? I do and as family men and Fathers . .they are Number ONE! ..
yeah.. sure. His time living in moscow, running a paper, taught
him how to write his propaganda .. they're good at it!
I am glad to see though that he is off his obsession with the banks ..
talk about over done ....
Egypt's president is a bloodthirsty dictator. Trump thinks he's done a "fantastic job.”
Really, they needed to just say ,stupid thinks he's done a 'fantastic job' that would have been much more accurate!
Trump hosted Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi at the White House on Monday.
by Jennifer Williams and Zack Beauchamp Apr 3, 2017, 4:20pm EDT
President Donald Trump welcomes Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to the White House on April 3, 2017, in Washington, DC.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the brutal military dictator who overthrew his country’s democratically elected president in a 2013 coup, killed more than 800 protesters in a single day, and has imprisoned tens of thousands of dissidents since he took power, was President Donald Trump’s honored guest at the White House on Monday. [ http://www.vox.com/2015/8/14/9153967/rabaa-sisi ]
This is Sisi’s first official state visit to Washington as Egypt’s president. That’s because although the US has long viewed Egypt as a vital strategic ally in the Middle East, President Obama steadfastly refused to meet with the Egyptian strongman over concerns about serious human rights abuses carried out by Sisi’s security forces — including torture, mass detention, and forced disappearances of journalists, aid workers, activists, students, and Islamists. In one particularly gruesome incident, a 28-year-old PhD student from Italy studying in Cairo was abducted, tortured, and murdered in what many believe was an attack by Egyptian state security forces. [ https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2017/country-chapters/egypt ] [ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/24/why-was-he-killed-brutal-death-of-italian-student-in-egypt-confounds-experts ]
Clearly, Trump — whose lavish praise for another repressive dictator, Vladimir Putin, has already raised eyebrows — isn’t bothered by any of that. For Trump, all that matters is that Sisi is a tough leader who has done what Trump seems to think is a bang-up job of fighting terrorism in Egypt and who is one of Israel’s closest allies in the Middle East. [ http://www.vox.com/2016/9/7/12843184/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-comments-town-hall ] [ http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/fikraforum/view/sisis-new-approach-to-egypt-israel-relations ]
Speaking to reporters Monday after meeting with Sisi, Trump said, “We agree on so many things. I just want to let everybody know in case there was any doubt that we are very much behind President el-Sisi. He's done a fantastic job in a very difficult situation.”
Except that he hasn’t. Sisi has violently cracked down on all forms of dissent and turned Egypt into a police state arguably worse than anything seen under former President Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled in 2011 after 30 years in power. And for all of that, Sisi hasn’t actually done a very good job of fighting terrorism.
President Sisi’s approach to counterterrorism has made things worse, not better
On July 3, 2013, Sisi, who was the head of Egypt’s armed forces, mounted a coup that overthrew the democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi. Morsi had alienated broad swaths of the country by pursuing a pro–Muslim Brotherhood agenda, taking steps to sideline the country’s powerful military, and failing to stabilize the country’s ailing economy. After several days of massive anti-Morsi protests, a cadre of military officers led by Sisi removed Morsi from power, suspended the constitution, and installed an interim government. [ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/03/mohamed-morsi-egypt-president-opposition ] [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/world/middleeast/egypt.html ]
Almost immediately, Sisi began cracking down on dissent from all sides. When pro-Morsi demonstrators staged a peaceful sit-in in Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adawiya Square on August 14, 2013, to protest Morsi’s ouster, Sisi’s troops gunned them down. Sisi killed 813 protesters in a single day, and has since jailed more than 40,000 people in a crackdown on the Brotherhood and other political dissenters. [ http://www.vox.com/2015/8/14/9153967/rabaa-sisi ] [ https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/04/02/sisi-trump-meeting-shows-mutual-contempt-rights ]
These tactics are explicitly intended to clamp down on dissent. “We have taken several measures to ensure activists don’t have breathing space and are unable to gather, and several cafes and other meeting places have been closed, while some have been arrested in order to scare the rest,” an official at Egypt’s homeland security agency told Reuters last January.
The crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization that maintained an armed wing for decades but now says it is committed to pursuing its goals through electoral means, fueled a low-grade insurgency pitting jihadists in Egypt’s strategic Sinai Peninsula against government security forces.
“After the crackdown in Rabaa Square, there was a significant change in the insurgency’s rhetoric, behavior, intensity, and scale of operations, as well as in its overall narrative and goals,” a report from the German Council on Foreign Relations [ https://dgap.org/en/article/getFullPDF/28365 ] explains. The report quotes one jihadist leader in Sinai linking this directly to Sisi’s repression: “After what happened after the military coup, fighting the armed forces became an urgent necessity,” the leader said.
In 2014, the Sinai jihadists pledged allegiance to ISIS. Since then, the group has led an increasingly bloody terrorist campaign against the Egyptian government. Sisi’s repressive response, which has included evicting thousands of families suspected of supporting the jihadists from their homes, has failed to quell the insurgency. [ http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/after-failed-2015-siege-sinai-state-fights-on ] [ I fear this for here .. I fear this stupid stupid president is inciting violence against us which will make 911 Look Like a Ride on a Merry Go Round ... .. he must leave .. leave FAST!
According to Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, the number of terrorist operations in Egypt in 2014-’16 reached 1,165. In the last quarter of 2016, 104 terrorist operations took place across the country, Al Monitor reports. And on October 31, 2015, a Russian passenger airliner, Metrojet Flight 9268, was brought down over north Sinai following its departure from the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing 213. ISIS-linked militants in the Sinai claimed responsibility. [ http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/01/egypt-sinai-war-terrorism-security-passes-residents.html#ixzz4dDbxqPx5 ] [ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/isis-plane-attack-egypt-terrorists-downed-russian-metrojet-flight-from-sharm-el-sheikh-islamic-state-a6893181.html ]
Trump appears to have confused Sisi’s successful repression of political dissidents, like the Muslim Brotherhood, with his relatively ineffective and heavy-handed attempts to combat actual terrorists.
Sisi has actually helped strengthen the jihadist narrative
For decades, jihadists have argued that violence was the only way to topple the entrenched dictators of the Middle East. So when Sisi launched his military takeover of the country, ousted Morsi, and proceeded to crack down hard on dissent of all kind — Islamist or otherwise — it was a bitter “we told you so” moment for jihadists. You thought you could bring down the government with just a few protests and a ballot box? Now look where that got you. You should’ve listened to us. We’ve been saying all along that all these people understand is violence.
By doubling down on US support for Sisi, Trump is not fighting the ideology of radical Islamic terrorism. If anything, he’s making the ideology even more powerful.
“We are very much behind Egypt and the people of Egypt,” Trump said after his meeting with Sisi on Monday. The thousands of dissidents languishing in Egyptian prisons might beg to differ.
[ A side note -
Bashar al-Assad just gassed his own people, then bombed the clinic treating victims ]
http://www.vox.com/world/2017/4/3/15160358/trump-egypt-abdel-fattah-el-sisi-white-house
I fear for ALL our grandchildren. This is what happens when stupid is allowed to vote for stupid.
The thing is we all pay the price, not just yours... unfortunately!
Can you even post anything that a russian troll hasn't written for you . .you little fop !
You know ... if your brain ever became attached to the stem
....... you might make some sense ...
it'd be worth a try ..
I wish he would go take a walk through Tahrir Square as a regular person .. HA!
nah . .when he goes to Egypt he will stay with the HEAD EGYPTIAN KLEPTOCRAT
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-12301713
we REALLLY REALLY don't mind that now! ... Syria is putins playground..and ASSad is his bestest friend ever!
that's why so called sos stated . .that .. uh well.....the Syrians will have to figure out for themselves what to do with Assad
... sheesh
He is moving all 'human rights violations aside' .. for his 'great fascist plan' ...
I'm not kidding .. as you know he is selling massive arms to all the hideous ones over there . .the more hideous, the better. He wants to 'kill Iran' .. that's his wet dream ..
they know it .. the sunnis don't give a shit, nor do they give a shit about attacking us, as everyone knows, I think they know anyway, but then, perhaps not. they also hate Iran and the shia states that are buying up arms too, (Bahrain) .. .. I really don't know, I guess it's all the top dog thing ..and Iran is top Shia Dog...
they do fund terrorists fighting anywhere .. particularly where we fund them, but doesn't everyone? ...
he must go. I was hearing someone saying on the tv .. that so and so and so and so and so and so .. can be trusted in his admin... the ones who make the decisions on starting these 'foreign wars' he has wet dreams about .. and that they will never allow it .. I don't believe it for a second .. I've not seen one gutless man around him express a different opinion on anything .. . they just shut up .. now Nicky Haley .. . she's not afraid to tell the truth ... we'll see how far that gets her .... 'Mattis ' was one of the ones named ... .. all those types this person said can be trusted besides him .... blah blah blah ..really? .. I wonder...
Our Dishonest President
By The Times Editorial Board
April 2, 2017
http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-ed-our-dishonest-president/
I'm smelling the air of impeachment again ...Lee and Zab...
Blackwater founder held secret Seychelles meeting to establish Trump-Putin back channel
Blackwater founder Erik Prince met with a Russian person close to President Vladimir Putin, according to U.S., European and Arab officials. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)
Go to this link to see and hear trumps russian guy for money and erik prince, you may remember? [ https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/blackwater-founder-held-secret-seychelles-meeting-to-establish-trump-putin-back-channel/2017/04/03/95908a08-1648-11e7-ada0-1489b735b3a3_story.html?utm_term=.8f57a133cb19 ]
By Adam Entous, Greg Miller, Kevin Sieff and Karen DeYoung
April 3 at 4:29 PM
The United Arab Emirates arranged a secret meeting in January between Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a Russian close to President Vladimir Putin as part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and President-elect Donald Trump, according to U.S., European and Arab officials.
The meeting took place around Jan. 11 — nine days before Trump’s inauguration — in the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean, officials said. Though the full agenda remains unclear, the UAE agreed to broker the meeting in part to explore whether Russia could be persuaded to curtail its relationship with Iran, including in Syria, a Trump administration objective that would likely require major concessions to Moscow on U.S. sanctions.
Though Prince had no formal role with the Trump campaign or transition team, he presented himself as an unofficial envoy for Trump to high-ranking Emiratis involved in setting up his meeting with the Putin confidant, according to the officials, who did not identify the Russian.
Prince was an avid supporter of Trump. After the Republican convention, he contributed $250,000 to Trump’s campaign, the national party and a pro-Trump super PAC led by GOP mega-donor Rebekah Mercer, records show. He has ties to people in Trump’s circle, including Stephen K. Bannon, now serving as the president’s chief strategist and senior counselor. Prince’s sister Betsy DeVos serves as education secretary in the Trump administration. And Prince was seen in the Trump transition offices in New York in December.
U.S. officials said the FBI has been scrutinizing the Seychelles meeting as part of a broader probe of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and alleged contacts between associates of Putin and Trump. The FBI declined to comment.
The Seychelles encounter, which one official said spanned two days, adds to an expanding web of connections between Russia and Americans with ties to Trump — contacts that the White House has been reluctant to acknowledge or explain until they have been exposed by news organizations.
“We are not aware of any meetings and Erik Prince had no role in the transition,” said Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary.
A Prince spokesman said in a statement: “Erik had no role on the transition team. This is a complete fabrication. The meeting had nothing to do with President Trump. Why is the so-called under-resourced intelligence community messing around with surveillance of American citizens when they should be hunting terrorists?”
Prince is best known as the founder of Blackwater, a security firm that became a symbol of U.S. abuses in Iraq after a series of incidents including one in 2007 in which the company’s guards were accused — and later criminally convicted — of killing civilians in a crowded Iraqi square. Prince sold the firm, which was subsequently rebranded, but has continued building a private paramilitary empire with contracts across the Middle East and Asia. He now heads a Hong Kong-based company known as the Frontier Services Group.
Prince would probably have been seen as too controversial to serve in any official capacity in the Trump transition or administration. But his ties to Trump advisers, experience with clandestine work and relationship with the royal leaders of the Emirates — where he moved in 2010 amid mounting legal problems for his American business — would have positioned him as an ideal go-between.
The Seychelles meeting came after separate private discussions in New York involving high-ranking representatives of Trump with both Moscow and the Emirates.
The White House has acknowledged that Michael T. Flynn, Trump’s original national security adviser, and Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner met with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, in late November or early December in New York.
Team Trump’s ties to Russian interests GO HERE [ https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/trump-russia/?utm_term=.868a1c3d07a1 ]
Flynn and Kushner were joined by Bannon for a separate meeting with the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who made an undisclosed visit to New York later in December, according to the U.S., European and Arab officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
In an unusual breach of protocol, the UAE did not notify the Obama administration in advance of the visit, though officials found out because Zayed’s name appeared on a flight manifest.
Officials said Zayed and his brother, the UAE’s national security adviser, coordinated the Seychelles meeting with Russian government officials with the goal of establishing an unofficial back channel between Trump and Putin.
Officials said Zayed wanted to be helpful to both leaders who had talked about working more closely together, a policy objective long advocated by the crown prince. The UAE, which sees Iran as one of its main enemies, also shared the Trump team’s interest in finding ways to drive a wedge between Moscow and Tehran.
Zayed met twice with Putin in 2016, according to Western officials, and urged the Russian leader to work more closely with the Emirates and Saudi Arabia — an effort to isolate Iran.
At the time of the Seychelles meeting and for weeks afterward, the UAE believed that Prince had the blessing of the new administration to act as its unofficial representative. The Russian participant was a person whom Zayed knew was close to Putin from his interactions with both men, the officials said.
When the Seychelles meeting took place, official contacts between members of the incoming Trump administration and the Russian government were under intense scrutiny, both from federal investigators and the press.
Less than a week before the Seychelles meeting, U.S. intelligence agencies released a report accusing Russia of intervening clandestinely during the 2016 election to help Trump win the White House.
The FBI was already investigating communications between Flynn and Kislyak. The Washington Post’s David Ignatius first disclosed those communications on Jan. 12, around the time of the Seychelles meeting. Flynn was subsequently fired by Trump for misleading Vice President Pence and others about his discussions with Kislyak.
Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador in Washington, declined to comment.
Government officials in the Seychelles said they were not aware of any meetings between Trump and Putin associates in the country around Jan. 11. But they said luxury resorts on the island are ideal for clandestine gatherings like the one described by the U.S., European and Arab officials.
“I wouldn’t be surprised at all,” said Barry Faure, the Seychelles secretary of state for foreign affairs. “The Seychelles is the kind of place where you can have a good time away from the eyes of the media. That’s even printed in our tourism marketing. But I guess this time you smelled something.”
Trump has dismissed the investigations of Russia’s role in the election as “fake news” and a “witch hunt.”
The level of discretion surrounding the Seychelles meeting seems extraordinary given the frequency with which senior Trump advisers, including Flynn and Kushner, had interacted with Russian officials in the United States, including at the high-profile Trump Tower in New York.
Steven Simon, a National Security Council senior director for the Middle East and North Africa in the Obama White House, said: “The idea of using business cutouts, or individuals perceived to be close to political leaders, as a tool of diplomacy is as old as the hills. These unofficial channels are desirable precisely because they are deniable; ideas can be tested without the risk of failure.”
Current and former U.S. officials said that while Prince refrained from playing a direct role in the Trump transition, his name surfaced so frequently in internal discussions that he seemed to function as an outside adviser whose opinions were valued on a range of issues, including plans for overhauling the U.S. intelligence community.
He appears to have particularly close ties to Bannon, appearing multiple times as a guest on Bannon’s satellite radio program over the past year as well as in articles on the Breitbart Web site that Bannon ran before joining the Trump campaign.
In a July interview with Bannon, Prince said those seeking forceful U.S. leadership should “wait till January and hope Mr. Trump is elected.” And he lashed out at President Barack Obama, saying that because of his policies “the terrorists, the fascists, are winning.”
Days before the November election, Prince appeared on Bannon’s program again, saying that he had “well-placed sources” in the New York City Police Department telling him they were preparing to make arrests in the investigation of former congressman Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) over allegations he exchanged sexually explicit texts with a minor. Flynn tweeted a link to the Breitbart report on the claim. No arrests occurred.
Erik Prince has had lucrative contracts with the UAE government, which at one point paid his firm a reported $529 million to help bring in foreign fighters to help assemble an internal paramilitary force capable of carrying out secret operations and protecting Emirati installations from terrorist attacks.
The Trump administration and the UAE appear to share a similar preoccupation with Iran. Current and former officials said that Trump advisers were focused throughout the transition period on exploring ways to get Moscow to break ranks with Tehran.
“Separating Russia from Iran was a common theme,” said a former intelligence official in the Obama administration who met with Trump transition officials. “It didn’t seem very well thought out. It seemed a little premature. They clearly had a very specific policy position, which I found odd given that they hadn’t even taken the reins and explored with experts in the U.S. government the pros and cons of that approach.”
Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia, said he also had discussions with people close to the Trump administration about the prospects of drawing Russia away from Iran. “When I would hear this, I would think, ‘Yeah that’s great for you guys, but why would Putin ever do that?’?” McFaul said. “There is no interest in Russia ever doing that. They have a long relationship with Iran. They’re allied with Iran in fighting in Syria. They sell weapons to Iran. Iran is an important strategic partner for Russia in the Middle East.”
Following the New York meeting between the Emiratis and Trump aides, Zayed was approached by Prince, who said he was authorized to act as an unofficial surrogate for the president-elect, according to the officials. He wanted Zayed to set up a meeting with a Putin associate. Zayed agreed and proposed the Seychelles as the meeting place because of the privacy it would afford both sides. “He wanted to be helpful,” one official said of Zayed.
Wealthy Russians and Emirati royalty have a particularly large footprint on the islands. Signs advertising deep-sea fishing trips are posted in Cyrillic. Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov owns North Island, where Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, went on their honeymoon in 2011. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, president of the UAE, built a hilltop palace for himself with views across the chain of islands.
The Emiratis have given hundreds of millions of dollars to the Seychelles in recent years for causes including public health and affordable housing. But when the Emirati royal family visits, they are rarely seen.
“The jeep comes to their private jet on the tarmac and they disappear,” said one Seychellois official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to be seen as criticizing the Emiratis.
Zayed, the crown prince, owns a share of the Seychelles’ Four Seasons, a collection of private villas scattered on a lush hillside on the main island’s southern shore, overlooking the Indian Ocean, according to officials in the Seychelles. The hotel is tucked away on a private beach, far from the nearest public road.
Current and former U.S. officials who have worked closely with Zayed, who is often referred to as MBZ, say it would be out of character for him to arrange the Jan. 11 meeting without getting a green light in advance from top aides to Trump and Putin, if not the leaders themselves. “MBZ is very cautious,” said an American businessman who knows Zayed and spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. “There had to be a nod.”
The Seychelles meeting was deemed productive by the UAE and Russia but the idea of arranging additional meetings between Prince and Putin’s associates was dropped, officials said. Even unofficial contacts between Trump and Putin associates had become too politically risky, officials said.
WOW..I'm smelling that smell again .. It the "Air of Impeachment" smell ... uh huh, ... guess this is why they are talking about it again this week .... sorry, I posted such a long article, I kept looking for a place to cut it off and I never found it .. also knowing that most of you would never ever get through the whole thing.. I wouldn't either .. I'd go to the link .. .; ) maybe. .. anyway......................hmmmmm, Most Interesting
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/blackwater-founder-held-secret-seychelles-meeting-to-establish-trump-putin-back-channel/2017/04/03/95908a08-1648-11e7-ada0-1489b735b3a3_story.html?utm_term=.55c6e8f1cb5c
yes, criminals still hang out together.. .
Blackwater founder held secret Seychelles meeting to establish Trump-Putin back channel
Blackwater founder Erik Prince met with a Russian person close to President Vladimir Putin, according to U.S., European and Arab officials. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)
Go to this link to see and hear trumps russian guy for money and erik prince, you may remember? [ https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/blackwater-founder-held-secret-seychelles-meeting-to-establish-trump-putin-back-channel/2017/04/03/95908a08-1648-11e7-ada0-1489b735b3a3_story.html?utm_term=.8f57a133cb19 ]
By Adam Entous, Greg Miller, Kevin Sieff and Karen DeYoung
April 3 at 4:29 PM
The United Arab Emirates arranged a secret meeting in January between Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a Russian close to President Vladimir Putin as part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and President-elect Donald Trump, according to U.S., European and Arab officials.
The meeting took place around Jan. 11 — nine days before Trump’s inauguration — in the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean, officials said. Though the full agenda remains unclear, the UAE agreed to broker the meeting in part to explore whether Russia could be persuaded to curtail its relationship with Iran, including in Syria, a Trump administration objective that would likely require major concessions to Moscow on U.S. sanctions.
Though Prince had no formal role with the Trump campaign or transition team, he presented himself as an unofficial envoy for Trump to high-ranking Emiratis involved in setting up his meeting with the Putin confidant, according to the officials, who did not identify the Russian.
Prince was an avid supporter of Trump. After the Republican convention, he contributed $250,000 to Trump’s campaign, the national party and a pro-Trump super PAC led by GOP mega-donor Rebekah Mercer, records show. He has ties to people in Trump’s circle, including Stephen K. Bannon, now serving as the president’s chief strategist and senior counselor. Prince’s sister Betsy DeVos serves as education secretary in the Trump administration. And Prince was seen in the Trump transition offices in New York in December.
U.S. officials said the FBI has been scrutinizing the Seychelles meeting as part of a broader probe of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and alleged contacts between associates of Putin and Trump. The FBI declined to comment.
The Seychelles encounter, which one official said spanned two days, adds to an expanding web of connections between Russia and Americans with ties to Trump — contacts that the White House has been reluctant to acknowledge or explain until they have been exposed by news organizations.
“We are not aware of any meetings and Erik Prince had no role in the transition,” said Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary.
A Prince spokesman said in a statement: “Erik had no role on the transition team. This is a complete fabrication. The meeting had nothing to do with President Trump. Why is the so-called under-resourced intelligence community messing around with surveillance of American citizens when they should be hunting terrorists?”
Prince is best known as the founder of Blackwater, a security firm that became a symbol of U.S. abuses in Iraq after a series of incidents including one in 2007 in which the company’s guards were accused — and later criminally convicted — of killing civilians in a crowded Iraqi square. Prince sold the firm, which was subsequently rebranded, but has continued building a private paramilitary empire with contracts across the Middle East and Asia. He now heads a Hong Kong-based company known as the Frontier Services Group.
Prince would probably have been seen as too controversial to serve in any official capacity in the Trump transition or administration. But his ties to Trump advisers, experience with clandestine work and relationship with the royal leaders of the Emirates — where he moved in 2010 amid mounting legal problems for his American business — would have positioned him as an ideal go-between.
The Seychelles meeting came after separate private discussions in New York involving high-ranking representatives of Trump with both Moscow and the Emirates.
The White House has acknowledged that Michael T. Flynn, Trump’s original national security adviser, and Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner met with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, in late November or early December in New York.
Team Trump’s ties to Russian interests GO HERE [ https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/trump-russia/?utm_term=.868a1c3d07a1 ]
Flynn and Kushner were joined by Bannon for a separate meeting with the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who made an undisclosed visit to New York later in December, according to the U.S., European and Arab officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
In an unusual breach of protocol, the UAE did not notify the Obama administration in advance of the visit, though officials found out because Zayed’s name appeared on a flight manifest.
Officials said Zayed and his brother, the UAE’s national security adviser, coordinated the Seychelles meeting with Russian government officials with the goal of establishing an unofficial back channel between Trump and Putin.
Officials said Zayed wanted to be helpful to both leaders who had talked about working more closely together, a policy objective long advocated by the crown prince. The UAE, which sees Iran as one of its main enemies, also shared the Trump team’s interest in finding ways to drive a wedge between Moscow and Tehran.
Zayed met twice with Putin in 2016, according to Western officials, and urged the Russian leader to work more closely with the Emirates and Saudi Arabia — an effort to isolate Iran.
At the time of the Seychelles meeting and for weeks afterward, the UAE believed that Prince had the blessing of the new administration to act as its unofficial representative. The Russian participant was a person whom Zayed knew was close to Putin from his interactions with both men, the officials said.
When the Seychelles meeting took place, official contacts between members of the incoming Trump administration and the Russian government were under intense scrutiny, both from federal investigators and the press.
Less than a week before the Seychelles meeting, U.S. intelligence agencies released a report accusing Russia of intervening clandestinely during the 2016 election to help Trump win the White House.
The FBI was already investigating communications between Flynn and Kislyak. The Washington Post’s David Ignatius first disclosed those communications on Jan. 12, around the time of the Seychelles meeting. Flynn was subsequently fired by Trump for misleading Vice President Pence and others about his discussions with Kislyak.
Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador in Washington, declined to comment.
Government officials in the Seychelles said they were not aware of any meetings between Trump and Putin associates in the country around Jan. 11. But they said luxury resorts on the island are ideal for clandestine gatherings like the one described by the U.S., European and Arab officials.
“I wouldn’t be surprised at all,” said Barry Faure, the Seychelles secretary of state for foreign affairs. “The Seychelles is the kind of place where you can have a good time away from the eyes of the media. That’s even printed in our tourism marketing. But I guess this time you smelled something.”
Trump has dismissed the investigations of Russia’s role in the election as “fake news” and a “witch hunt.”
The level of discretion surrounding the Seychelles meeting seems extraordinary given the frequency with which senior Trump advisers, including Flynn and Kushner, had interacted with Russian officials in the United States, including at the high-profile Trump Tower in New York.
Steven Simon, a National Security Council senior director for the Middle East and North Africa in the Obama White House, said: “The idea of using business cutouts, or individuals perceived to be close to political leaders, as a tool of diplomacy is as old as the hills. These unofficial channels are desirable precisely because they are deniable; ideas can be tested without the risk of failure.”
Current and former U.S. officials said that while Prince refrained from playing a direct role in the Trump transition, his name surfaced so frequently in internal discussions that he seemed to function as an outside adviser whose opinions were valued on a range of issues, including plans for overhauling the U.S. intelligence community.
He appears to have particularly close ties to Bannon, appearing multiple times as a guest on Bannon’s satellite radio program over the past year as well as in articles on the Breitbart Web site that Bannon ran before joining the Trump campaign.
In a July interview with Bannon, Prince said those seeking forceful U.S. leadership should “wait till January and hope Mr. Trump is elected.” And he lashed out at President Barack Obama, saying that because of his policies “the terrorists, the fascists, are winning.”
Days before the November election, Prince appeared on Bannon’s program again, saying that he had “well-placed sources” in the New York City Police Department telling him they were preparing to make arrests in the investigation of former congressman Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) over allegations he exchanged sexually explicit texts with a minor. Flynn tweeted a link to the Breitbart report on the claim. No arrests occurred.
Erik Prince has had lucrative contracts with the UAE government, which at one point paid his firm a reported $529 million to help bring in foreign fighters to help assemble an internal paramilitary force capable of carrying out secret operations and protecting Emirati installations from terrorist attacks.
The Trump administration and the UAE appear to share a similar preoccupation with Iran. Current and former officials said that Trump advisers were focused throughout the transition period on exploring ways to get Moscow to break ranks with Tehran.
“Separating Russia from Iran was a common theme,” said a former intelligence official in the Obama administration who met with Trump transition officials. “It didn’t seem very well thought out. It seemed a little premature. They clearly had a very specific policy position, which I found odd given that they hadn’t even taken the reins and explored with experts in the U.S. government the pros and cons of that approach.”
Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia, said he also had discussions with people close to the Trump administration about the prospects of drawing Russia away from Iran. “When I would hear this, I would think, ‘Yeah that’s great for you guys, but why would Putin ever do that?’?” McFaul said. “There is no interest in Russia ever doing that. They have a long relationship with Iran. They’re allied with Iran in fighting in Syria. They sell weapons to Iran. Iran is an important strategic partner for Russia in the Middle East.”
Following the New York meeting between the Emiratis and Trump aides, Zayed was approached by Prince, who said he was authorized to act as an unofficial surrogate for the president-elect, according to the officials. He wanted Zayed to set up a meeting with a Putin associate. Zayed agreed and proposed the Seychelles as the meeting place because of the privacy it would afford both sides. “He wanted to be helpful,” one official said of Zayed.
Wealthy Russians and Emirati royalty have a particularly large footprint on the islands. Signs advertising deep-sea fishing trips are posted in Cyrillic. Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov owns North Island, where Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, went on their honeymoon in 2011. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, president of the UAE, built a hilltop palace for himself with views across the chain of islands.
The Emiratis have given hundreds of millions of dollars to the Seychelles in recent years for causes including public health and affordable housing. But when the Emirati royal family visits, they are rarely seen.
“The jeep comes to their private jet on the tarmac and they disappear,” said one Seychellois official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to be seen as criticizing the Emiratis.
Zayed, the crown prince, owns a share of the Seychelles’ Four Seasons, a collection of private villas scattered on a lush hillside on the main island’s southern shore, overlooking the Indian Ocean, according to officials in the Seychelles. The hotel is tucked away on a private beach, far from the nearest public road.
Current and former U.S. officials who have worked closely with Zayed, who is often referred to as MBZ, say it would be out of character for him to arrange the Jan. 11 meeting without getting a green light in advance from top aides to Trump and Putin, if not the leaders themselves. “MBZ is very cautious,” said an American businessman who knows Zayed and spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. “There had to be a nod.”
The Seychelles meeting was deemed productive by the UAE and Russia but the idea of arranging additional meetings between Prince and Putin’s associates was dropped, officials said. Even unofficial contacts between Trump and Putin associates had become too politically risky, officials said.
WOW..I'm smelling that smell again .. It the "Air of Impeachment" smell ... uh huh, ... guess this is why they are talking about it again this week .... sorry, I posted such a long article, I kept looking for a place to cut it off and I never found it .. also knowing that most of you would never ever get through the whole thing.. I wouldn't either .. I'd go to the link .. .; ) maybe. .. anyway......................hmmmmm, Most Interesting
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/blackwater-founder-held-secret-seychelles-meeting-to-establish-trump-putin-back-channel/2017/04/03/95908a08-1648-11e7-ada0-1489b735b3a3_story.html?utm_term=.55c6e8f1cb5c
yes, criminals still hang out together.. .
Perfect example of how this works .. right now ..
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/04/breaking-villainous-susan-rice-news-yet-again
There's nothing true about this. trumpee got it from the bowel breathers.. here we go again
Fox news, donald trumps operation center is beginning to see things clearer.....
Juan Williams: Trump's risk of impeachment rises
By Juan Williams - 04/03/17 06:00 AM EDT
ohh my ...trumpee trweeting to stop investigation .. LOLOLOL!
http://thehill.com/opinion/juan-williams/326930-juan-williams-trumps-risk-of-impeachment-rises
Sox .. it had passed my view.... in other words .. I didn't stop. 1st reaction was .. oh pfaw!!! .. etc..just moved on ...
but now that I'm learning more ... I'm completely aghast!
so really .. I didn't know.. thanks for bringing it up to me, I so appreciate it
I had no idea this stuff was so big with such 'little ''..meaning .. who's gonna waste time with changing 'my view' .. I mean how ineffective .. but I see how they have changed many Americans view and it most definitely has made a difference..for all I know, they are responsible for the original teabaggers .. now the freedom caucus ...
I could bring things up on our side, where dems were taken in ...I won't and to any thinking person they would be obvious anyway..
Just didn't realize how 'everywhere ' how 'many etc.. there were . .and I think I thought .. oh heck .. they are all 'over there..
hello ...;)
Russia disinformation campaign allegedly targets Paul Ryan
Senators Richard Burr (right) and Mark Warner spoke during the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.
By Deb Riechmann Associated Press March 30, 2017
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers heading the Senate intelligence committee focused squarely on Russia as they opened a hearing Thursday on attempts at undermining the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
‘‘Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a deliberate campaign carefully constructed to undermine our election,’’ Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner said.
Russia experts told the Senate intelligence committee that President Vladimir Putin hasn’t stopped his alleged disinformation campaign in America.
Clint Watts is with the Foreign Policy Research Institute Program on National Security. Watts testified Thursday that just this past week, social media campaigns were targeting House Speaker Paul Ryan.
He didn’t offer details, but Watts said the campaigns are evidence that Russia is continuing to seek further unrest among U.S. democratic institutions, leaders and their constituents.
There was no immediate comment from Ryan’s office.
Earlier Thursday, Putin again dismissed what he called ‘‘endless and groundless’’ accusations of Russian meddling in the U.S. election, describing them as part of the U.S. domestic political struggle. He also said he is ready to meet with President Donald Trump at an upcoming arctic summit.
The hearing Thursday is to address how the Kremlin allegedly uses technology to spread disinformation in the U.S. and Europe. Warner and the panel’s chairman, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., provided an update Wednesday of the committee’s investigation into activities Russia might have taken to alter or influence the 2016 elections and whether there were any campaign contacts with Russian government officials that might have interfered with the election process.
‘‘There were upwards of 1,000 paid internet trolls working out of a facility in Russia, in effect, taking over series of computers, which is then called a botnet,’’ Warner told reporters on Capitol Hill Wednesday.
Warner said the committee is investigating to find out whether voters in key states, such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, might have been served up Russian-generated fake news and propaganda along with information from their traditional news outlets.
‘‘We are in a whole new realm around cyber that provides opportunity for huge, huge threats to our basic democracy,’’ Warner said. ‘‘You are seeing it right now.’’
Burr added that Russians are trying to influence elections in Europe as well.
‘‘I think it’s safe by everybody’s judgment that the Russians are actively involved in the French elections,’’ Burr said. The first round of the French presidential election is to be held next month.
Scheduled to appear at the committee’s open hearing are: Eugene Rumer, director of the Russia and Eurasia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Roy Godson, professor of government emeritus at Georgetown University; Clint Watts, senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute Program on National Security; Kevin Mandia, chief executive officer of the cybersecurity firm FireEye Inc.; and retired Gen. Keith Alexander, former director of the National Security Agency and president of IronNet Cybersecurity.
Pledging cooperation, Burr and Warner said they would steer clear of politics in their panel’s probe of Russian meddling. They made a point of putting themselves at arm’s length from the House investigation that has been marked by partisanship and disputes.
Democrats have called for House intelligence committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes to recuse himself because of his ties to the Trump team, especially because the investigation includes looking at contacts that Russians had with President Donald Trump’s associates. Nunes, R-Calif., met with a secret source on the White House grounds last week to review classified material, which he says indicates that Trump associates’ communications were captured in ‘‘incidental’’ surveillance of foreigners. Nunes says he sees no reason to step aside.
Burr said that so far, the Senate committee has requested 20 individuals to be interviewed. Five have been scheduled, and the remaining 15 are likely to be scheduled within the next 10 days. Additional witnesses could also be interviewed.
Burr identified just one of the witnesses: Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The White House has said that Kushner, a senior adviser to Trump, has volunteered to answer questions about arranging meetings with the Russian ambassador and other officials.
Asked whether the committee had spoken to former national security adviser Michael Flynn or his representatives, Burr told reporters, ‘‘It’s safe to say that we have had conversations with a lot of people, and you would think less of us if Gen. Flynn wasn’t in that list.’’
An attorney for Flynn said his client had not yet been interviewed by the Senate committee. One of Flynn’s lawyers, Robert Kelner, said they have had discussions with committee staff members, but Flynn has not been contacted directly.
Trump asked Flynn, a former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, to step down last month from his post as national security adviser. The president said he made the decision because Flynn had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other White House officials about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S.
I am getting the point, Are YOU?
https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2017/03/30/senate-hearing-focus-paid-internet-trolls-other-russia-tactics/Kt1FzM78kips9wnWnGRkeO/story.html
why do you put this 'Weiner' in between
Rev. Al Sharpton and Rev. Wright ?
russians teach you that slime trick?
lol .. that's the second thing on the russian trolls site
.. the first of course ''.. bringing back the clintons .. lmao!
man they play you like they play sports !
Something Stinks Here .. and guess what? go on Guess!
the author of all your articles 'eliason' .. is a russian troll who writes mostly at op-ed news, known as 'certain
type of site', perfect for russian trolls, along with global research that's mostly the same ....and he has two names ..
.. so once again! stuff IT! I must ask, do you also receive money from something 'russian'? ..most people
could always use a little extra cash ... .we know george eliason did/does .. .
http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-psychological-warfare-in-ukraine-targeting-online-independent-media-coverage/5437883
https://freeukrainenow.org/2015/06/page/2/
https://toinformistoinfluence.com/2016/01/06/hammering-russian-trolls/
I do understand now why you have the 'russian ' view of everything and of course your idolization of their 'amerikan president' ....
stop posting this russian junk written by people being paid by russians , please stop trying to hurt the U.S.
This is the best one I've read yet____
The Perfect Weapon: How Russian Cyberpower Invaded the U.S.
?????? ?????? ??-??????
By ERIC LIPTON, DAVID E. SANGER and SCOTT SHANEDEC. 13, 2016
A filing cabinet broken into in 1972 as part of the Watergate burglary sits beside a computer server that Russian hackers breached during the 2016 presidential campaign at the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters in Washington. Credit Justin T. Gellerson for The New York Times
WASHINGTON — When Special Agent Adrian Hawkins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation called the Democratic National Committee in September 2015 to pass along some troubling news about its computer network, he was transferred, naturally, to the help desk.
His message was brief, if alarming. At least one computer system belonging to the D.N.C. had been compromised by hackers federal investigators had named “the Dukes,” a cyberespionage team linked to the Russian government.
The F.B.I. knew it well: The bureau had spent the last few years trying to kick the Dukes out of the unclassified email systems of the White House, the State Department and even the Joint Chiefs of Staff, one of the government’s best-protected networks.
Yared Tamene, the tech-support contractor at the D.N.C. who fielded the call, was no expert in cyberattacks. His first moves were to check Google for “the Dukes” and conduct a cursory search of the D.N.C. computer system logs to look for hints of such a cyberintrusion. By his own account, he did not look too hard even after Special Agent Hawkins called back repeatedly over the next several weeks — in part because he wasn’t certain the caller was a real F.B.I. agent and not an impostor.
“I had no way of differentiating the call I just received from a prank call,” Mr. Tamene wrote in an internal memo, obtained by The New York Times, that detailed his contact with the F.B.I.
It was the cryptic first sign of a cyberespionage and information-warfare campaign devised to disrupt the 2016 presidential election, the first such attempt by a foreign power in American history. What started as an information-gathering operation, intelligence officials believe, ultimately morphed into an effort to harm one candidate, Hillary Clinton, and tip the election to her opponent, Donald J. Trump.
Like another famous American election scandal, it started with a break-in at the D.N.C. The first time, 44 years ago at the committee’s old offices in the Watergate complex, the burglars planted listening devices and jimmied a filing cabinet. This time, the burglary was conducted from afar, directed by the Kremlin, with spear-phishing emails and zeros and ones.
What is phishing?
Phishing uses an innocent-looking email to entice unwary recipients to click on a deceptive link, giving hackers access to their information or a network. In “spear-phishing,” the email is tailored to fool a specific person.
An examination by The Times of the Russian operation — based on interviews with dozens of players targeted in the attack, intelligence officials who investigated it and Obama administration officials who deliberated over the best response — reveals a series of missed signals, slow responses and a continuing underestimation of the seriousness of the cyberattack.
The D.N.C.’s fumbling encounter with the F.B.I. meant the best chance to halt the Russian intrusion was lost. The failure to grasp the scope of the attacks undercut efforts to minimize their impact. And the White House’s reluctance to respond forcefully meant the Russians have not paid a heavy price for their actions, a decision that could prove critical in deterring future cyberattacks.
The low-key approach of the F.B.I. meant that Russian hackers could roam freely through the committee’s network for nearly seven months before top D.N.C. officials were alerted to the attack and hired cyberexperts to protect their systems. In the meantime, the hackers moved on to targets outside the D.N.C., including Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman, John D. Podesta, whose private email account was hacked months later.
Even Mr. Podesta, a savvy Washington insider who had written a 2014 report on cyberprivacy for President Obama, did not truly understand the gravity of the hacking.
Charles Delavan, a Clinton campaign aide, incorrectly legitimized a phishing email sent to the personal account of John D. Podesta, the campaign chairman.
By last summer, Democrats watched in helpless fury as their private emails and confidential documents appeared online day after day — procured by Russian intelligence agents, posted on WikiLeaks and other websites, then eagerly reported on by the American media, including The Times. Mr. Trump gleefully cited many of the purloined emails on the campaign trail.
The fallout included the resignations of Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, the chairwoman of the D.N.C., and most of her top party aides. Leading Democrats were sidelined at the height of the campaign, silenced by revelations of embarrassing emails or consumed by the scramble to deal with the hacking. Though little-noticed by the public, confidential documents taken by the Russian hackers from the D.N.C.’s sister organization, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, turned up in congressional races in a dozen states, tainting some of them with accusations of scandal.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia during a reception last week at the Kremlin in Moscow. Pool photo by Alexei Nikolsky
In recent days, a skeptical president-elect, the nation’s intelligence agencies and the two major parties have become embroiled in an extraordinary public dispute over what evidence exists that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia moved beyond mere espionage to deliberately try to subvert American democracy and pick the winner of the presidential election.
Many of Mrs. Clinton’s closest aides believe that the Russian assault had a profound impact on the election, while conceding that other factors — Mrs. Clinton’s weaknesses as a candidate; her private email server; the public statements of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, about her handling of classified information — were also important.
While there’s no way to be certain of the ultimate impact of the hack, this much is clear: A low-cost, high-impact weapon that Russia had test-fired in elections from Ukraine to Europe was trained on the United States, with devastating effectiveness. For Russia, with an enfeebled economy and a nuclear arsenal it cannot use short of all-out war, cyberpower proved the perfect weapon: cheap, hard to see coming, hard to trace.
Graphic
I switched from this one and went to the 'open book' one ..
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/us/politics/russia-hack-election-dnc.html?_r=0
Oh YES, AND much more with a thousand embedded links . .. not kidding ... I'm done for a bit . .but there is MORE ..much more....I don't think any of this was caused with a purpose by the dnc ... I still blame Russia's PUTIN! .. period ... if people want to blame the DNC .. I know they will just as they did for two gd years ... I think under the circumstances .. no one but the ones who did the hacks meant harm .. Russia's PUTIN! . .that's it .. yeah shit happens .. all the time .. god knows I'll need a bit more time to applaud Comey .. ;) ... even though I'm not nor was ever as mad at him as some were .. I go into a cold spell and nothing, no one can get through until .. until ... I warm up .. which can be never or so far always sometime .. ;) And I expect nothing less from that fake news lover to want to blame the dnc for a hack that was committed by the country that his hero trump has forever loved ... I'm not putting up with him criticizing anyone but trump ... and just like trump .. the only ones he criticizes are us .. ... I'm not up for it I over look him mostly .... but at times not ... perhaps I've overlooked too much .. don't know .. anyway .. ... ;) see you all later! And hope this helps you in figuring out who you/he want to blame .. I got mine! .. ..
F6 this is from Wired .. .. it doesn't sound settled to me .. I didn't follow up on this one from Wired .. I got involved in something wonderful .. ;) tasting.. that is ..............;)
Questions about the Democratic National Committee hack and Russia’s alleged involvement have been swirling for months, and have intensified as the intelligence community prepares to brief president-elect Donald Trump about its conclusions on Friday and release a declassified report next week. Ahead of this announcement, the DNC told Buzzfeed on Wednesday that neither the FBI nor any other intelligence agency ever did an independent assessment of the organization’s breached servers. Instead, they alleged, the FBI relied exclusively on information from private digital forensics company Crowdstrike. Now the FBI is refuting this account of the events.
In a statement to WIRED, a senior FBI law enforcement official wrote in an email Thursday that “The FBI repeatedly stressed to DNC officials the necessity of obtaining direct access to servers and data, only to be rebuffed until well after the initial compromise had been mitigated.” This contrasts with what DNC deputy communications director Eric Walker told Buzzfeed in an email: “The DNC had several meetings with representatives of the FBI’s Cyber Division and its Washington (DC) Field Office, the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, and U.S. Attorney’s Offices, and it responded to a variety of requests for cooperation, but the FBI never requested access to the DNC’s computer servers.”
In its statement, the FBI agreed with the DNC’s implication that it had instead relied on data from Crowdstrike. But the Bureau points the finger for its lack of independent evaluation squarely at the DNC. According to the FBI official, “This left the FBI no choice but to rely upon a third party for information. These actions caused significant delays and inhibited the FBI from addressing the intrusion earlier.”
When asked about the FBI’s comments and the two institutions’ differing accounts of events, the DNC referred WIRED to its statement to Buzzfeed on Wednesday.
So how and why are they so sure about hacking if they never even requested an examination of the computer servers? What is going on?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2017
On Thursday evening Trump tweeted that the DNC’s claim raises fundamental questions about whether a hack even occurred at the DNC at all. But whether the DNC was hacked is not in doubt. On that point the DNC and FBI agree that the hack happened. Third party evidence revealed an intrusion regardless of intelligence community findings (which also agree that a hack occurred).
The possibility that the FBI based its investigation on inferior-quality evidence is significant, though, as the US government and public try to assess the intelligence community’s Russia attribution. The Obama administration issued sanctions against Russian intelligence groups last week, but Trump and others have raised doubts about the conclusion that Russia was behind various incidents of election meddling, including the DNC hack. Meanwhile, in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday morning, US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper alleged that Russia was involved in fake news operations and disinformation campaigns during the US presidential campaign season.
Still, the attribution of the DNC hack to Russia has been extensively vetted by multiple agencies within the US intelligence community as well as the civilian infosec community. Even given healthy skepticism, the overall consensus from both groups is that Russia orchestrated and executed the hacking campaigns. Officials told the Washington Post on Thursday that one factor intelligence agencies considered in their attribution was intercepted communications in which Russian officials openly celebrated Donald Trump’s election and Hillary Clinton’s loss as a political boon to the Kremlin. The Post reports that some of the revelers were Russian officials who knew about initiatives to interfere with the US presidential campaigns.
At the time of publication, the FBI had not yet responded to a request for comment from WIRED about whether it feels that it missed out on higher caliber evidence in investigating the DNC breach or whether it was satisfied with the evidence it collected through other channels. NBC News reporter Ken Dilanian tweeted on Wednesday that a “source close to the investigation says FBI didn’t need the DNC servers because it already had the forensic data from upstream collection.”
The FBI official’s characterization that the DNC “caused significant delays and inhibited the FBI from addressing the intrusion earlier” is somewhat at odds with a report published by the New York Times in mid-December, which indicated that the FBI originally took a “low-key approach” to notifying the DNC about suspicious activity the Bureau had detected on the DNC’s network. In that reported version of the timeline, it wasn’t until seven months after the initial (half-hearted) FBI warning that the DNC was first motivated to defend its network.
At the Senate hearing on Thursday, NSA director Michael Rogers said, “The biggest frustration to me is speed, speed, speed. We have got to get faster. We have got to be more agile.”
Updated 1/5/17 7:30 p.m. to include response from the Democratic National Committee.
Updated 1/5/17 8:00 p.m. to include Donald Trump’s tweet.
https://www.wired.com/2017/01/fbi-says-democratic-party-wouldnt-let-agents-see-hacked-email-servers/
as I said, I didn't follow up on this to see if they had printed something else .. nor did I read the report .. what 13 page report? at buzz feed .. so ... I'm not feeling strong about any of it . but I did trust the last administration ... also .. not completely sold on 'the hill' ....yes, I use it ... but still not sold .... I wonder what the guys at vox ... etc... said about it ............truly I don't care . I still wouldn't trust anything that tunayielding website put up ... no matter what ... ... your reputation goes with you! ....
Remember you read nothing but FaKe News. I actually almost wish I had some feeling of 'something'
for you other than contempt ... but I don't so ...........I'll do this, THIS WAY..
The FBI Never Asked For Access To Hacked Computer Servers
The Democratic National Committee tells BuzzFeed News that the bureau “never requested access”
to the servers the White House and intelligence community say were hacked by Russia.
posted on Jan. 4, 2017, at 2:13 p.m.
WASHINGTON — The FBI did not examine the servers of the Democratic National Committee before issuing a report attributing the sweeping cyberintrusion to Russia-backed hackers, BuzzFeed News has learned.
Six months after the FBI first said it was investigating the hack of the Democratic National Committee’s computer network, the bureau has still not requested access to the hacked servers, a DNC spokesman said. No US government entity has run an independent forensic analysis on the system, one US intelligence official told BuzzFeed News.
“The DNC had several meetings with representatives of the FBI’s Cyber Division and its Washington (DC) Field Office, the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, and U.S. Attorney’s Offices, and it responded to a variety of requests for cooperation, but the FBI never requested access to the DNC’s computer servers,” Eric Walker, the DNC’s deputy communications director, told BuzzFeed News in an email.
The FBI has instead relied on computer forensics from a third-party tech security company, CrowdStrike, which first determined in May [ https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/bears-midst-intrusion-democratic-national-committee/ ] of last year that the DNC’s servers had been infiltrated by Russia-linked hackers, the U.S. intelligence official told BuzzFeed News.
“CrowdStrike is pretty good. There’s no reason to believe that anything that they have concluded is not accurate,” the intelligence official said, adding they were confident Russia was behind the widespread hacks.
The FBI declined to comment.
“Beginning at the time the intrusion was discovered by the DNC, the DNC cooperated fully with the FBI and its investigation, providing access to all of the information uncovered by CrowdStrike — without any limits,” said Walker, whose emails were stolen and subsequently distributed throughout the cyberattack.
It’s unclear why the FBI didn’t request access to the DNC servers, and whether it’s common practice when the bureau investigates the cyberattacks against private entities by state actors, like when the Sony Corporation was hacked by North Korea in 2014.
BuzzFeed News spoke to three cybersecurity companies who have worked on major breaches in the last 15 months, who said that it was “par for the course” for the FBI to do their own forensic research into the hacks. None wanted to comment on the record on another cybersecurity company’s work, or the work being done by a national security agency.
The hack of the DNC servers and the subsequent release of purloined emails by WikiLeaks has become a Washington scandal of proportions perhaps not seen since the Watergate era. The hacks — part of what intelligence officials, the White House, and private sector analysts say was a broader Moscow-directed effort to influence the US election — were specifically designed to undercut democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s path to the presidency and bolster Donald Trump, according to CIA and FBI analysis.
Trump has denied that analysis and mocked the US intelligence agencies that produced it. The president-elect is due to receive an in-depth briefing on the subject on Friday.
In a 13-page report [ https://www.us-cert.gov/sites/default/files/publications/JAR_16-20296A_GRIZZLY%20STEPPE-2016-1229.pdf ] made public the last week of December, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security confirmed in a joint analysis that Russia was behind the widespread hacks, which targeted Democrats with the intention to manipulate the US election. But the analysis was attributed to broad intelligence across both public and private sectors. Nowhere in the report does it say that the government conducted its own computer forensics on the DNC servers.
“Public attribution of these activities to [Russian Intelligence Services] is supported by technical indicators from the U.S. Intelligence Community, DHS, FBI, the private sector, and other entities,” the report says.
On the heels of the report’s release, the White House expelled 35 Russian diplomats, sanctioned, among other things, two of Russia’s premier intelligence agencies, and shut down access to two Russian diplomatic facilities in the US.
Sheera Frenkel contributed reporting to this story.
And let's see? When exactly did your little snowflake flynn pick up the phone and talk to his russian buddies about this ? .. about then .... and he told them NOT to worry, me and donnie will take care of you all .... .oh yes, they will ...........and we will take care of them ... well fed and rested at all times... ;)
https://www.buzzfeed.com/alimwatkins/the-fbi-never-asked-for-access-to-hacked-computer-servers?utm_term=.nhxB1RJYjg#.su1OoNAqJx
libertyunyielding? really? I'm sure thankful that I don't have to ear their tuna fish! you really ought to see about making a change .. Good Tuna packing plants in San Pedro California .... they know the difference between albacore .... and the junk that really should be thrown out to feed things in the sea and once more again join the cycle of sea life ... but you know.. .. money and some people actually buy libertyunyielding ... with cash money, no less. That's really really sad . ..taking the food right out of the mouths of baby shrimps! ... .
Thank YOU Borealis ... Happy Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!....
"NO ONE TO STABILIZE HIM"
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!
take your fake news sites and place them where the sun does not shine
..................I wouldn't read one more lie from you
even If I was hungry for lying ...I found a better place and a
better smarter man.............selling them
Lastly, none of the uranium goes to Russia. That would require export licenses.
We now NEED to keep eyes on those licenses as you all are aware .. there really are
people in our gov. that would give them away to Russia, ... hell! ............any old crazy place!
Uranium Overreach
Trump repeated his misleading claim that Hillary Clinton “gave” Russia one-fifth of all U.S. uranium.
White House launches counteroffensive amid investigations
By DEB RIECHMANN and JULIE PACE
Apr. 1, 2017 2:50 PM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) — On the defensive, the White House is throwing counter punches to deflect attention from three investigations into the Kremlin's interference in last year's election and possible Russian ties to President Donald Trump or his associates.
The White House says the real story is not about Russia, but about how [n]Obama administration officials allegedly leaked and mishandled classified material about Americans. Reaching back to campaign mode, Trump aides also contend that Hillary Clinton had more extensive ties to Moscow than Trump.
Arguing the White House's case Friday, Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said: "There is a concern that people misused, mishandled, misdirected classified information — leaked it out, spread it out, violated civil liberties."
The White House has not pointed to any hard evidence to support its allegations, and instead has relied on media reports from some of the same publications Trump derides as "fake news."
The truth is buried somewhere in classified material that is illegal to disclose.
__
THE FLYNN AFFAIR
Trump fired national security adviser Michael Flynn following news reports that Flynn misled the White House about his contacts with Russia's ambassador to the U.S. But the White House says the problem is that Flynn's conversations were in the news at all.
"The real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington?" Trump tweeted after firing Flynn in February.
The White House has called for investigations into the disclosure of multiple intercepted conversations that Flynn had with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak before the inauguration. The government routinely monitors the communications of foreign officials in the U.S. It's illegal to publicly disclose such classified information.
Officially, the White House said Flynn was forced to resign because he'd give inaccurate descriptions of the discussions to Vice President Mike Pence and others in the White House. But Trump has continued to defend Flynn, suggesting he was only fired because information about his contacts came out in the media.
"Michael Flynn, Gen. Flynn is a wonderful man," Trump said. "I think he's been treated very, very unfairly by the media."
___
THE DEEP STATE?
White House officials say some Obama holdovers are part of a so-called deep state out to tear Trump down.
This week, the White House latched onto a month-old television interview from an Obama administration official who said she encouraged congressional aides to gather as much information on Russia as possible before the inauguration.
Evelyn Farkas, the former deputy assistant secretary of defense, said she feared that information "would disappear" after President Barack Obama left office.
Spicer called Farkas' comments "devastating" and said they "raised serious concerns on whether or not there was an organized and widespread effort by the Obama administration to use and leak highly sensitive intelligence information for political purposes."
Farkas was no longer in government when she urged officials to collect intelligence on "the staff, the Trump staff, dealing with Russians." She left the Pentagon in 2015, just over a year before the election. She says she was offering advice to associates and did not pass on actual information.
Obama administration officials have acknowledged that there were efforts to preserve information that could be related to the Russian investigations, as was first reported in The New York Times. Former Obama officials contend that intelligence was disseminated to pockets of the government where officials had clearance to see classified reports, not publicly leaked.
Still, Farkas herself connected the concerns among government officials about the Trump campaign's possible ties to Russia to the information winding up in the press.
"That's why you have the leaking," Farkas said in the March 2 interview on MSNBC. "People are worried."
___
THE HILL WEIGHS IN
The White House has embraced a top Republican's assertion that information about Trump associates were improperly spread around the government in the final days of the Obama administration. It appears the White House played a role in helping House intelligence committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., acquire some of that information.
Nunes announced last week that he had seen intelligence reports showing that Trump aides' communications were picked up through routine surveillance. But he said their identities may have been improperly revealed. The California congressman later said he viewed the reports at the White House.
The White House contends that Nunes' information — which has not been made public — validates Trump's explosive claim that his predecessor wiretapped his New York skyscraper. Nunes has disputed that but still says he found the reports "troubling."
The White House's apparent involvement in helping Nunes access the information has overshadowed what Trump officials contend are real concerns about how much information about Americans is disseminated in intelligence reports. Trump has asked the House and Senate intelligence committees to include the matter in their Russia investigations.
___
CAMPAIGN MODE
Trump won the election, but thinks it's his vanquished opponent whose ties to Russia should be investigated.
Some of the White House's allegations against Clinton stem from her four years as secretary of state, a role that gave her ample reasons to have frequent contacts with Russia.
To deflect questions about Trump's friendly rhetoric toward Russia, the White House points to the fact that Clinton was a central figure in the Obama administration's attempt to "reset" relations with Moscow — an effort that crumbled after Vladimir Putin took back the presidency.
"When you compare the two sides in terms of who's actually engaging with Russia, trying to strengthen them, trying to act with them, trying to interact with them, it is night and day between our actions and her actions," Spicer said.
Rex Tillerson, Trump's secretary of state, has deep ties to Russia from his time running ExxonMobil and cutting oil deals with Moscow.
The White House has also tried to link Clinton to Russia's purchase of a controlling stake in a mining company with operations in the U.S., arguing that she was responsible for "selling off one-fifth of our country's uranium."
The Clinton-led State Department was among nine U.S. government agencies that had to approve the purchase of Uranium One. According to Politifact, some investors in the company had relationships with former President Bill Clinton and donated to the Clinton Foundation. However, the fact checking site says most of those donations occurred well before Clinton became secretary of state and was in position to have a say in the agreement.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/7fce24e5f1f2427193edf06243e4d89c/white-house-launches-counteroffensive-amid-investigations
Kellyanne Conway took money from the group facing felony
charges for secretly taping Planned Parenthood http://thebea.st/2nI9lOh