Conspiracy or Not

04/11/2019 by The Doctor Of Common Sense Leave a Comment

WikiLeaks Julian Assange Has Been Arrested By British After US Pressure

Julian Assange being arrested but no one from the Obama Administration.

JULIAN Assange gave a thumbs up as he was dramatically arrested by British cops today and dragged screaming from the Ecuadorian Embassy after seven years hiding inside.

The pale and bearded WikiLeaks founder, 47, was pulled out in handcuffs as Ecuador withdrew its asylum status – ending Assange’s 2,487 days holed up since 2012.

As he was hauled from the building – looking grey and clutching Gore Vidal’s History of the National Security State – he appeared to shout “The UK has no civility” and “the UK must resist”.

Until today, Assange hadn’t left the embassy since August 2012 – costing the British taxpayer more than £10m.

He had feared stepping off Ecuador’s diplomatic soil would see him arrested and extradited to the US for publishing thousands of classified military and diplomatic cables.

Assange took refuge at the embassy in 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation. Today one of his accusers demanded the case be reopened.

WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR:

Julian Assange has been arrested after 2,487 days holed up – costing British taxpayers more than £10m
He went into hiding in August 2012 to avoid facing extradition to Sweden for sexual assault and rape allegations
Sweden dropped the charges in 2017 but Swedish accuser today called for case to be re-opened
Wanted in US for espionage and publication of sensitive government documents, and in UK for skipping bail in 2012
He fears he could face death penalty if extradited to US over WikiLeaks scandal
Ecuadorian President said Assange release dependent on not facing extradition to country with death penalty
Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan said ‘UK courts will decide’ his future
US State Department has not yet commented

Scotland Yard confirmed he is being held on behalf of the US authorities – where he is wanted for espionage – as well as breaching his bail conditions in Britain.

Espionage- the practice of spying or of using spies, typically by governments to obtain political and military information.

America’s involvement raises further questions over the forthcoming battle to be had on his extradition – as his lawyers fear he will face the death penalty if sent to the US.

But Ecuadorian President Moreno said today Britain had confirmed it would not extradite Assange to a country where he could face the death sentence.

After the arrest, Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan said Assange will face “justice in the proper way in the UK” and it will be “for the courts” to decide what happens next.

He insisted Assange would not be extradited to any country where he would stand to face the death penalty. The US State Department has not yet commented.

During his time in hiding Assange has been visited by numerous famous faces – most notably ex-Baywatch star Pamela Anderson, once rumoured to be his “lover”.

Today she tweeted her support for him – dubbing him a “hero” – after earlier retweeting an old photograph of him alongside the caption “truth will prevail” in Latin.

The actress wrote she was “in shock”, adding “he looks very bad” and claiming Assange’s arrest is “a diversion from your idiotic Brexit b*******”.

He has also been visited by ex-Ukip leader Nigel Farage, who is alleged to have handed him a “thumb drive” of secret data.
Farage has openly admitted visiting the WikiLeak founder but dismissed claims of sharing data as “tosh” and “conspiratorial nonsense”.

ASSANGE DETAINED

Assange was arrested after cops were invited into the embassy when Ecuadorian authorities withdrew the asylum he has clung onto for seven years.

Dozens of officers swarmed his hideout in Knightsbridge, West London, this morning and pulled him down the steps, as he fought against the arrest.

Cops struggled to push him into a police van, as he screamed out and gestured with cuffed hands. Once inside the police van, the heavily bearded Assange gave a thumbs up to journalists.

Announcing the arrest today, Ecuador’s president Lenin Moreno said on Twitter it came “after his repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life protocols”.

But WikiLeaks said he had acted illegally, with the organisation accusing “powerful actors” of an effort to dehumanise it’s founder.

Edward Snowden today tweeted Assange’s detention was a “violation of his human rights”, as Russia brazenly accused Britain of “strangling freedom” following his arrest.

‘NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW’

Home Secretary Sajid Javid, who is due to make a statement in the House of Commons on the arrest later, tweeted: “Nearly 7yrs after entering the Ecuadorean Embassy, I can confirm Julian Assange is now in police custody and rightly facing justice in the UK.

“I would like to thank Ecuador for its cooperation & @metpoliceuk for its professionalism. No one is above the law.”

And Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Assange’s arrest proved “no one is above the law”.

He said: “Julian Assange is no hero. He has hidden from the truth for years and years and it is right that his future should be decided in the British judicial system.

He added that the WikiLeaks’ founder had “held the Ecuadorian Embassy hostage in a situation that was absolutely intolerable for them.”

Praising Ecuador’s decision to stop his asylum, Mr Hunt added: “President Moreno took a courageous decision which has meant we were able to resolve the situation today.

“We’re not making any judgement about Julian Assange’s innocence or guilt, that is for the courts to decide.

“But what is not acceptable is for someone to escape facing justice and he has tried to do that for a very long time and that is why he is no hero.”

ASSANGE SAGA TIMELINE

Here are the key dates in the long-standing saga involving Wikileaks boss Julian Assange.

July 2010: Wikileaks releases 720,000 classified files on Afghanistan and Iraq wars
August 2010: Arrest warrant issued for Assange over rape and molestation allegations in Sweden, which he denies
December 2010: Assange presents himself to London cops and appears at an extradition hearing
December 2010: He is later granted conditional bail at the High Court in London after supporters pay £240,000 in cash and sureties
February 2011: Brit courts rule Assange should be extradited to Sweden
June 2012: The Wikileaks chief enters Ecuadorian embassy in London requesting political asylum
June 2012: Just 24 hours later Scotland Yard says he’ll be arrested for breaching bail conditions
August 2012: Ecuador grants asylum, allowing him to stay in the embassy – where he will remain for the next six and a half years
August 2012: Assange makes first public appearance on embassy balcony calls for end to US ‘witch hunt’
September 2014: Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson and fashion designer Vivienne Westwood enjoy a trip to the embassy to meet their pal Assange. They join a long list of celebrity visors to enter the building – including Lady Gaga and Eric Cantona
February 2016: UN says cooped-up Assange has been ‘arbitrarily detained’ and should claim compo from Britain and Sweden, but both countries ignore ruling
May 2017: Swedish prosecutors close 7-year sex assault investigation, but Brit cops say they’ll still arrest Assange for breaching bail
January 2018: Ecuador says it’s trying to find solution to resolve ‘untenable’ situation
March 2018: Assange’s communications cut off after Ecuador alleges he broke agreement about interfering in other countries’ affairs
April 2019: Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno says Mr Assange has ‘repeatedly violated’ asylum conditions
11 April 2019: Brit cops arrest Assange at embassy after asylum withdrawn and drag him screaming from building

FACING JUSTICE: Assange rape accuser demands case is reopened

ONE of Julian Assange’s rape accusers today demanded Swedish prosecutors re-open the sex assault case against him.

In August 2010, an arrest warrant was issued for Assange for two separate allegations – one of rape and one of molestation – after he visited Sweden.

The Wikileaks journalist, who denies the allegations, requested political asylum after British courts ruled that he should be extradited to Stockholm.
Sweden later dropped the charges in 2017 – five years after he sought refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy to hide from the allegations.

The reason the case was dropped was because authorities did not believe Assange would be handed over within a reasonable time.

Speaking today, the lawyer of one of the accusers said she hopes the Swedish preliminary investigation against Assange will resume.
Elisabeth Massi Fritz said: “My client and I have just received the news that Assange has been arrested.

“That what we have been waiting for and hoping for almost seven years now, of course, comes as a shock to my client.

“We will do everything we can to ensure that the prosecutors resume the Swedish preliminary investigation so that Assange can be extradited to Sweden and prosecuted for rape.”

It comes after it was revealed blackmailers have allegedly threatened to reveal sex secrets about Assange’s life inside the embassy as part of a £2.6million extortion plot.

Wikileaks chiefs have accused spies of installing hidden cameras to watch Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy.

The editor-in-chief of Wikileaks Kristinn Hrafnsson claimed Assange has been the victim of an “extreme spying operation”.

Immediately after Assange’s arrest, a prankster posted a joke Ecuadorian Ambassador AirBnB ad for a “spare room” with “stains on the wall”.

Scotland Yard confirmed Assange will now appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court at 2pm.

Confirming his arrest, a Met Police spokesman said: “He has been taken into custody at a central London police station where he will remain.

“The MPS had a duty to execute the warrant, on behalf of Westminster Magistrates’ Court, and was invited into the embassy by the Ambassador, following the Ecuadorian government’s withdrawal of asylum.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We can confirm that Julian Assange was arrested in relation to a provisional extradition request from the United States of America.

“He is accused in the United States of America of computer related offences.”

TAKING ITS TOLL: SEVEN YEARS IN HIDING

Pale, heavily bearded and unsteady, Julian Assange cut a very different figure today to the whistle-blower who sought asylum almost seven years ago.
Assange, the enigmatic figure behind the whistle-blowing WikiLeaks website, has become a poster boy for campaigners against state spying and censorship.

To his critics, he is a danger to national security and his work could make him the subject of espionage charges in the US.

The Australian started hacking into networks of the powerful elite when he was part of the “computer underground” in his late teens.

The 47-year-old shot to public attention after founding the pro-transparency website in 2006 as an online library of otherwise secret documents from governments, intelligence agencies, political parties and multinational corporations.

WikiLeaks servers are located all over the world, but the central server is located in an underground nuclear bunker in Stockholm, Sweden.

As the self-styled editor-in-chief of the site, he has overseen the publication of more than 10 million documents and attracted high-profile supporters including Pamela Anderson, novelist Tariq Ali, filmmaker Ken Loach and Jemima Goldsmith (nee Khan).

He has been quoted as saying: “It is the role of good journalism to take on powerful abusers.”

Among the major leaks since the site’s foundation were battlefield reports from Iraq and Afghanistan, diplomatic communications and a military video showing a US helicopter attack that killed at least 11 men.

Assange has been forced to deny Russian intelligence sources provided a trove of tens of thousands of emails from senior figures within the Democratic National Congress (DNC) during the US election campaign.
He published these alongside thousands of emails from the private server of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, originating from her time as Secretary of State, which the site obtained through freedom of information laws.

Assange, who studied at the University of Melbourne, stood down as editor of Wikileaks in September last year.

For more than a year, doctors have warned of the Australian’s declining health due to the “prolonged uncertainty of indefinite detention”.
A legal defence fund was set up in January amid fears the WikiLeaks founder was under “increasingly serious threat”.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8839586/julian-assange-dragged-by-cops-removed-ecuadorian-embassy-london/

03/07/2019 by The Doctor Of Common Sense

James Clapper Busted About Lying To Congress: Wyden Says He Was Sent NSA Surveillance Question Before Testimony

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) on Wednesday slammed former National Intelligence Director James Clapper for claiming he did not purposely lie to Congress when asked about an NSA mass surveillance program in March 2013, saying he sent the longtime intelligence official the question ahead of the hearing.

“James Clapper needs to stop making excuses for lying to the American people about mass surveillance. To be clear: I sent him the question in advance. I asked him to correct the record afterward. He chose to let the lie stand,” the Oregon Democrat responded to Clapper’s excuse in a tweet.

Ron Wyden✔@RonWyden

James Clapper needs to stop making excuses for lying to the American people about mass surveillance. To be clear: I sent him the question in advance. I asked him to correct the record afterward. He chose to let the lie stand.Mediaite✔@MediaiteJames Clapper: ‘I Didn’t Lie’ to Congress About NSA Surveillance, I ‘Simply Didn’t Understand’ the Question http://mediaite.com/a/zlalp 10.6K 1:03 PM – Mar 6, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy 6,482 people are talking about this

Ron Wyden✔@RonWyden · Mar 6, 2019

Ron Wyden✔@RonWyden

When intelligence leaders mislead the public about surveillance, they fuel the cynicism and mistrust of government that lets wannabe authoritarians gain power.3,230 1:03 PM – Mar 6, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy 1,054 people are talking about this

“When intelligence leaders mislead the public about surveillance, they fuel the cynicism and mistrust of government that lets wannabe authoritarians gain power,” the lawmaker added.

On Tuesday, Clapper denied making false statements to Congress on whether the National Security Agency (NSA) used to spy on American citizens’ phone records, claiming he bungled his answer because he did not understand the surveillance program Wyden quizzed him about.

Clapper said in an interview with CNN’s New Day host John Berman:

[T]he original thought behind this, and this program was put in place as a direct result of 9/11, and the point was to be able to track quickly a foreign communicant talking to somebody in this country who may have been plotting a terrorist plot, and was put in place during the Bush administration for that reason. I always regarded it as kind of a safeguard or insurance policy so that if the need came up you’d have this to refer to.

The Deep Stater added:

As far as the comment, the allegation about my lying: I didn’t lie, I made a big mistake and I just simply didn’t understand what I was being asked about. I thought of another surveillance program, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act when I was being asked about Section 215 of the Patriot Act at the time. I just didn’t understand that.

In the exchange below, Wyden asks Clapper directly: “Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions, or hundreds of millions of Americans?”

“No, sir. … Not wittingly,” Clapper infamously replied.

That, of course, was false.

The Washington Times reported:

Three months later, Classified documents leaked to the media revealed three months later that the NSA had been compelling U.S. telecommunication providers for copies of telephone records, known as metadata, for essentially every call and text occurring over domestic networks.
Secretly implemented after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the NSA bulk metadata collection program was significantly reformed under the USA Freedom Act passed in 2015 and is slated to expire at the end of the year unless renewed by Congress.
Luke Murry, a national security adviser to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, said in a recent interview that the NSA quietly suspended the program in 2018 and that it is not guaranteed to be reauthorized, however.

In a June 2013 letter to the Senate Oversight Committee, Clapper wrote that he “simply didn’t think” of the NSA’s efforts to collect the phone records when testifying that the agency “not wittingly” survived their communications. “I simply didn’t think of Section 215 of the Patriot Act,” the intelligence official wrote to panel chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). “I apologize,” he continued. “While my staff acknowledged the error to Senator Wyden’s staff soon after the hearing, I can now openly correct it because the existence of the metadata program has been declassified.”

Some Republican lawmakers called on the Department of Justice to prosecute Clapper before a five-year statute of limitations for perjury passed on March 12th, 2018, but the matter was never taken up by the law enforcement agency.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/03/06/ron-wyden-james-clapper-lying-was-sent-nsa-surveillance-question-before-testimony/

02/08/2019 by The Doctor Of Common Sense

Liberal Idiots Reveal New Green Climate Deal And It Will Ban Cars And Plane

You can’t fix stupid

(D-N.Y.) on Thursday introduced a new climate change resolution with aims to bring the progressive Green New Deal to life legislatively and push the U.S. to take a lead role in reducing carbon emissions through the economy.

The proposal, titled “Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal,” has a goal of creating millions of “good, high-wage jobs” by striving for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is introducing a companion proposal in the upper chamber.

The legislation offers a natural transition for Ocasio-Cortez, who before even formally entering office championed the idea of a Green New Deal as the basis for creating a special committee on climate change.

Engaging in a sit-in at Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) office with members of the youth climate advocates the Sunrise Movement, Ocasio-Cortez pushed to make climate change a main focus of the Democratic Party as they took back control of the House.

Her proposed special committee was ultimately rejected by Democratic leaders, who opted instead for a panel on climate crisis that lacks legislative and subpoena power. Pelosi Thursday announced the names of eight members of Congress who will sit on that panel. Ocasio-Cortez is not one of them.

The resolution aims to continue the tenants of that committee, priming congressional leaders to accept the dire climate situation as laid out in this November’s United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that the world has 12 years to reverse emissions trends in order to thwart irreversible global warming.

“Whereas, because the United States has historically been responsible for a disproportionate amount of greenhouse gas emissions, having emitted 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions through 2014, and has a high technological capacity, the United States must take a leading role in reducing emissions through economic transformation,” the resolution reads.

The proposal says that accomplishing the plan would take a 10 year “national mobilization” and would include resilience building, a 100 percent renewable-energy driven power grid, updating “smart” power grids and increasing building energy efficiency. Buried in the resolution is also a commitment that all future infrastructure bills would specifically address climate change.

The text also calls for a long wish list for Ocasio-Cortez, including seeking environmental changes not directly related to climate change such as supporting family farming, guaranteeing universal access to clean drinking water and investments in high-speed railroads.

“Even the solutions that we have considered big and bold are nowhere near the scale of the actual problem that climate change presents to us, to our country, to the world,” Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview on NPR on Thursday.

“This is really about providing justice for communities and just transitions for communities. So, really the heart of the Green New Deal is about social justice.”

In a statement released Thursday, Varshini Pakash, founder and executive director of the Sunrise Movement, said, “Young people put the Green New Deal on the national agenda. The historic support for this resolution, especially among 2020 contenders, shows how far the movement has shifted the political conversation.”

The proposal has been met in some instances with scorn from people on the right, who criticize it as a radical pipe dream rather than an achievable climate goal.

While a number of 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls, from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) to Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), have openly embraced “the concept” of the Green New Deal, they too at times have been reserved in what components of the massive undertaking they are getting behind.

The proposal comes a day after two congressional hearings Wednesday focused on addressing climate change. The hearings in the House Natural Resources and the Energy and Commerce committees were the first on the topic in nine and six years, respectively, and Democratic leadership has vowed to make the issue of curbing greenhouse gas emissions front and center in their new majority.

While many Republicans on the committees said they would try to work with Democrats to find common ground on the issue, at least one lawmaker, Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), called the proposal “radical.”

“We should be open to the fact that wealth transfer schemes suggested in the radical policies like the Green New Deal may not be the best path to community prosperity and preparedness,” Shimkus said.

According to The Washington Post, Gillibrand and Booker will sponsor the plan along with other 2020 hopefuls Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is also considering a run for the White House, will also back the plan.

Co-sponsors of the bill in the House include Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.).

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/428902-ocasio-cortez-unveils-green-new-deal-climate-bill

01/25/2019 by The Doctor Of Common Sense

Roger Stone Arrested And The Media Thinks Trump Is In Trouble

How did the media know when the FBI was going to his house.

Roger Stone, a longtime confidant and former political advisor to President Donald Trump, appeared in federal court Friday on the heels of his indictment by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Stone was arrested by a cadre of FBI agents at his Florida home before dawn Friday. He was reportedly then taken to the Broward County courthouse for an 11 a.m. hearing before Judge Lurana Snow.
Stone’s court appearance was set to begin just after his former associate and ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, another target of Mueller’s probe, appeared in U.S. court in Washington, D.C.

Roger Stone, a longtime confidant and former political advisor to President Donald Trump, appeared in federal court Friday on the heels of his indictment by special counsel Robert Mueller.

The appearance in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, came a day after Stone was indicted on seven criminal counts as part of Mueller’s ongoing investigation of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

Before dawn Friday, Stone was arrested by a cadre of FBI agents at his Florida home. He was reportedly then taken to the Broward County courthouse for an 11 a.m. hearing before Judge Lurana Snow.

Trump, without mentioning Stone by name, vented rage against the special counsel in a tweet Friday morning after the court appearance was scheduled to begin.

“Greatest Witch Hunt in the History of our Country!” Trump said.

Stone was charged with five counts of making false statements, one count of obstructing another probe of Russian interference conducted by the House Intelligence Committee, and one count of witness tampering.

The 24-page indictment alleges that Stone had contacted, and had been contacted by, an array of Trump campaign associates about leaking Democratic officials’ stolen information on the eve of the 2016 election to sway the contest against Hillary Clinton.

The organization that coordinated the document-dumping campaign is unnamed in the indictment but clearly refers to Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks. That whistleblowing site dumped tranches of emails from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign John Podesta that were allegedly hacked by Russian operatives.

Stone has repeatedly denied colluding with Russia. His lawyer, Grant Smith, told NBC News on Friday that if the special counsel had “found any collusion, they would have charged him with it.”

Stone’s court appearance was set to begin just after his former associate and ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, another target of Mueller’s probe, appeared in U.S. court in Washington, D.C.

Manafort’s hearing relates to Mueller’s allegation that the Republican operative repeatedly lied in breach of his plea deal with the special counsel. Manafort had pleaded guilty to multiple crimes related to his work for pro-Russia politicians in Ukraine.

“This has nothing to do with the president,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said of Stone’s indictment Friday morning. “The president did nothing wrong. There was no collusion on his part.”

Trump’s counsel, Jay Sekulow, said: “The indictment today does not allege Russian collusion by Roger Stone or anyone else. Rather, the indictment focuses on alleged false statements Mr. Stone made to Congress.”

But the special counsel does implicate multiple top-ranking Trump campaign officials in Stone’s charges. CNBC reported Friday that one such person, referred to as a “high-ranking Trump Campaign official” in the indictment, is former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/25/trump-ally-roger-stone-in-court-after-mueller-indictment-and-arrest.html

12/14/2018 by The Doctor Of Common Sense

The FBI Let The So-Called Deadline To Provide Documents To The Judiciary Committee Probing The Whistle Blower Raid Past

I bet you are shocked right?

The Justice Department and FBI have missed a Wednesday deadline to provide information about the government’s mysterious raid on a former FBI contractor-turned-whistleblower’s home last month.

Sixteen FBI agents on Nov. 19 raided the home of Dennis Nathan Cain, who reportedly gave the Justice Department’s Inspector General (IG) documents related to the Uranium One controversy and potential wrongdoing by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The documents in question allegedly showed that federal officials failed to investigate possible criminal activity related to Clinton, the Clinton Foundation and Rosatom, a Russian nuclear company. Its subsidiary purchased Canadian mining company Uranium One in 2013.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, whose panel has oversight of the Justice Department, penned a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Justice Department IG General Michael Horowitz, requesting information on the justification for the raid. Grassley gave Wray and Horowitz until Dec. 12 to respond to his request.

That deadline has come and gone, and neither the FBI nor DOJ has produced any documents or response.

“We have not yet received answers to the chairman’s questions on this matter,” a Judiciary Commitee spokesperson told Fox News late Thursday.

The FBI consistently has refused Fox News’ request for comment on the whistleblower raid and the Judiciary Committee’s requests. On Thursday, an FBI spokesperson told Fox News the agency would respond only to inquiries from the entity that requested the documents — in this case, the Judiciary Committee.

Questioning whether “we now live in a secret police state,” Cain took his frustration about the situation to Twitter earlier this week.

“So I blow the whistle on the FBI, get raided by the same FBI, and now they want to keep the FBI’s reasons secret? Do we now live in a secret police state? Feels a little like 1984,” Cain tweeted late Monday. The tweet eventually was deleted.

The Daily Caller requested that a court unseal the relevant search warrant materials, but the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, in a court filing, said: “the request should be denied.”

“Public disclosure of any search warrant materials would seriously jeopardize the integrity of the ongoing investigation,” the filing by the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. “Continued sealing is essential in order to guard against possible tampering of witnesses and destruction of evidence, to maintain the ability of the grand jury to investigate this matter, and to prevent the disclosure of sensitive investigative techniques and methods.”

A spokesperson for U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur declined to comment.

Cain’s lawyer, Michael Socarras, told The Daily Caller the agent who led the raid accused his client of possessing stolen federal property. In response, Cain reportedly claimed he was a protected whistleblower under federal law, and said he was recognized as such by Horowitz.

Socarras also claimed Horowitz had transmitted information on the sale of Uranium One to a Russian firm’s subsidiary to both the House and Senate intelligence committees.

Report: FBI won’t release Uranium One documents

The bureau refuses to release 37 pages of new documents related to the controversial deal; reaction and analysis from Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz, former Republican congressman from Utah.

A spokesperson for the inspector general declined to comment.

“As frustrating and violating as this feels to me and my family. I will continue to put my trust in God. Some day this life will pass away. I will stand before my maker with a clean concience[sic] and Jesus as my defender. Until then I continue to fight the good fight with God’s help,” Cain tweeted Monday night.

ANTI-TRUMP FBI AGENTS’ PHONES COMPLETELY WIPED AS DOJ WATCHDOG LOOKS FOR THEIR TEXT MESSAGES

On Tuesday, he added: “Thank you for the outpouring of encouragement. You all are awesome. A boxer goes into his corner to rest for a minute, refocus, and get some sideline coaching. Then the bell rings and he’s ready to go another round. This fight is spiritual and God is in our corner. Ding! Rom 8:31.”

Nate Cain

@cain_nate

Thank you for the outpouring of encourment. You all are awesome. A boxer goes into his corner to rest for a minute, refocus, and get some sideline coaching. Then the bell rings and he’s ready to go another round. This fight is spiritual and God is in our corner. Ding! Rom 8:31

4,702

9:14 AM – Dec 11, 2018

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Fox News has previously reported that Douglas Campbell, an FBI informant involved in the Uranium One deal, has testified to lawmakers that Moscow paid millions to American lobbying firm APCO Worldwide to influence Clinton and the Obama administration.

“The contract called for four payments of $750,000 over 12 months,” Campbell said in his statement this past February. “APCO was expected to give assistance free of charge to the Clinton Global Initiative as part of their effort to create a favorable environment to ensure the Obama administration made affirmative decisions on everything from Uranium One to the US-Russia Civilian Nuclear Cooperation agreement.”

STATE DEPT PROVIDED ‘CLEARLY FALSE’ DOCS TO DERAIL CLINTON PROBE, ‘SHOCKED’ FEDERAL JUDGE SAYS

APCO has denied Campbell’s claims while Clinton called any claims of wrongdoing related to the Uranium One deal “the same baloney they’ve been peddling for years, and there’s been no credible evidence by anyone.

“In fact,” Clinton told C-SPAN in October 2017, “it’s been debunked repeatedly and will continue to be debunked.”

Separately, the DOJ and Special Counsel Robert Mueller face a Friday afternoon deadline to turn over documents related to their questioning of fired National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Flynn’s team has alleged the FBI pressured him not to have a lawyer at the White House meeting in January 2017, after which Flynn was charged on one count of lying to federal authorities.

Flynn — who had to sell his house this year amid mounting legal bills — later pleaded guilty to lying to agents about a conversation he had with the Russian ambassador in December 2016 about sanctions that had recently been imposed by then-President Barack Obama. Flynn has since acknowledged seeking to convince Russia not to retaliate for those sanctions during the presidential transition period.

But Flynn’s lawyers, in an explosive Tuesday court filing that threatens to upend his pending sentencing, charged that the FBI had not finalized their pivotal, and only, account of Flynn’s statements until August 2017 — nearly eight months after their interview with him. Fired FBI Director James Comey has since admitted the Flynn meeting broke normal agency protocol.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fbi-misses-deadline-to-provide-docs-to-judiciary-committee-probing-whistleblower-raid

10/26/2018 by The Doctor Of Common Sense

A Man in Florida Was Arrested In Connection With Bomb Threats

Did anyone die?

President Trump called the suspected mail bombs “terrorizing acts” and praised law enforcement officers for the arrest in Florida.

“We will prosecute them, him, her, whoever it may be, to the fullest extent of the law,” he said at a White House event. “We must never allow political violence to take root in America and I’m committed to doing everything in my power as president to stop it and stop it now.”

Authorities had been pursuing a lead that some of the devices could have been mailed from South Florida. After news of the arrest broke, FBI agents and other law enforcement personnel could be seen in news footage draping a blue tarp over a van in a South Florida parking lot before loading it onto a truck and driving it away.

According to someone familiar with the investigation, the suspect in custody lives in Florida near a facility through which the packages were mailed. It remains unclear if he acted alone or had help, this person said.

[What we know about the 12 pipe bombs sent to prominent Democrats and Trump critics]

News of the arrest emerged hours after investigators recovered the latest explosive devices, packages sent to Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr.

The FBI said a package, “similar in appearance to the others” found this week, was addressed to Booker and located in Florida. A spokesman for Booker, a prominent Democrat and potential 2020 presidential candidate, declined to comment and referred questions to law enforcement.

Police in New York said they were responding to a suspicious package in midtown Manhattan, just blocks from where one of the explosive devices was found earlier this week at CNN’s offices in the Time Warner Center. The package was “safely removed” from the post office, police said.

A law enforcement official said that package was a device addressed to Clapper, a CNN contributor, and sent to him at the news network. This is the second time this week a suspected explosive was sent to CNN and addressed to a former intelligence official turned cable news commentator. A device sent to CNN’s New York offices and addressed to John Brennan, the former CIA director, was found in the mail room there, prompting an hours-long evacuation.

The package sent to Clapper was found at a mail-sorting facility in New York City, the law enforcement official said. CNN President Jeff Zucker sent a message to staffers confirming that a suspicious package addressed to CNN was intercepted at a post office, and he reiterated that “all mail to CNN domestic offices is being screened at off-site facilities.”

Clapper appeared on CNN shortly after news broke a package was addressed to him, saying he felt relief no one was harmed by that device.

“This is definitely domestic terrorism, no doubt about it in my mind,” he said. Clapper said anyone who has criticized Trump should take extra precautions when handling their mail, adding: “This is not going to silence the administration’s critics.”

[Bombs sent to De Niro, Biden found on Thursday]

Authorities had intensified their hunt for a serial mail bomber in recent days after suspected explosives were delivered to a string of political figures and others who have publicly clashed with Trump. On Thursday, the FBI said three suspected pipe bombs were found — one in actor Robert De Niro’s Manhattan office, and two in mail facilities in Delaware addressed to former vice president Joe Biden.

“I thank God no one’s been hurt, and I thank the brave and resourceful security and law enforcement people for protecting us,” De Niro said in a statement Friday before going on to urge people to vote.

The wave of packages began this week with an explosive device sent to George Soros, a billionaire activist known to fund pro-democracy and liberal political groups. Then came packages addressed to former president Barack Obama; former secretary of state Hillary Clinton; Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.); Eric Holder Jr., Obama’s first attorney general; and Brennan.

One of the packages was recovered at a South Florida office of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) because her name was listed as the return address. Current and former investigators have said this suggested she was a possible target of the attacks.

All of the bomber’s targets have clashed sharply with Trump at different times, and the spate of dangerous packages intensified the already full-throated political fights two weeks before congressional elections. Trump condemned the bombs on Wednesday before going on to blame the media for the anger seen in American society. He has also bristled at commentators who have highlighted his rhetoric when discussing the explosive devices, tweeting shortly after 3 a.m. Friday that CNN was “blaming me for the current spate of Bombs.”

[Rep. Maxine Waters on being targeted by mail bombs: ‘I ain’t scared’]

The explosives prompted a sprawling, nationwide investigation. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, speaking in Washington on Friday, pledged that local, state and federal authorities were “working tirelessly to follow every lead” in the case.

“I can tell you this, we will find the person or persons responsible and we’re going to bring them to justice,” Sessions said.

The packages sent to public figures had many of the hallmarks of suspicious mail, including large block lettering and excessive postage aimed at making it harder to track, said Matthew Doherty, who formerly led the U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center. And the fact that none detonated provides investigators with considerable evidence, he said.

NYPD’s Total Containment vessel arrives as law enforcement respond to the scene of a suspicious package at a postal facility, Friday, Oct. 26, 2018 in New York. Two law enforcement officials say a package closely resembling parcels sent to critics of President Donald Trump has been found at the postal facility in Manhattan. The suspicious package was discovered by postal workers. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

“There’s a rich treasure trove of forensic information since they were found intact,” Doherty said. That means FBI investigators can “look for patterns such as the device, the technical expertise, the method of mailing, a whole host of great, rich forensic evidence that can be gathered.”

Officials on Thursday declined to say whether the devices were intended to detonate or to scare people, but they repeatedly urged the public to view them as if they could pose a threat.

“We are treating them as live devices,” NYPD Commissioner James P. O’Neill said at a news briefing, urging people not to touch packages they deem suspicious. “This is something that should be taken seriously.”

Authorities pleaded with the public to send in any tips, and William F. Sweeney Jr., assistant director in charge of the FBI New York field office, said people should remain vigilant, warning that more devices “have been or could be mailed.”

[The instant, inevitable cries of ‘false flag’ after bomb threats targeting the Clintons, Obamas and CNN]

Law enforcement officials described the devices as PVC pipes stuffed with what appeared to be fireworks powder and glass. Electrical wires leading out of the pipe led to an electric timer taped to the pipe, according to law enforcement officials speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation.

The FBI said the packages found so far had shared characteristics, including manila envelopes with bubble-wrapped interiors. They all also had a half-dozen Forever stamps, computer-printed address labels and return addresses bearing the misspelled name of Wasserman Schultz, who chaired the Democratic National Committee during part of the 2016 presidential campaign.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/10/26/suspected-explosive-devices-addressed-cory-booker-james-clapper-probe-expands-packages/?utm_term=.4829fbe007b6

Conspiracy or Not

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) on Wednesday slammed former National Intelligence Director James Clapper for claiming he did not purposely lie to Congress when asked about an NSA mass surveillance program in March 2013, saying he sent the longtime intelligence official the question ahead of the hearing.

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