| Democrats accuse Trump appointee of destroying Postal Service Posted: 24 Aug 2020 02:32 PM PDT  Democrats used a Monday hearing on Capitol Hill to savage U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, whom they accused of intentionally sabotaging the nation's postal system in order to help President Trump's reelection prospects.
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| California wildfires: Death toll rises as thousands of residents urged to evacuate Posted: 24 Aug 2020 04:34 AM PDT  A 70-year-old man died in California on Sunday as huge wildfires continued to tear through the state.Authorities said the victim was discovered near Last Chance Road, Santa Cruz County as the CZU Complex Fire caused widespread damage in the area.
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| Rumors about Kim Jong Un dying are going viral again, but experts say not to believe them Posted: 24 Aug 2020 04:04 AM PDT  A former South Korean minister claimed that Kim was in a coma, triggering a wave of social media posts speculating on his death.
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| 'I can't forgive you', victim of New Zealand mosque shooting tells Brenton Tarrant at sentencing hearing Posted: 23 Aug 2020 09:23 PM PDT  The white supremicist who gunned down Muslims at two Christchurch mosques last year could become the first person sentenced by a New Zealand court to life imprisonment without parole. Sentencing for Brenton Tarrant began on Monday, at the Christchurch High Court where the Australian, 29, pleaded guilty to 51 charges of murder, 40 charges of attempted murder, and one charge of terrorism. The minimum sentence for murder is life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 10 years. He stormed Christchurch's Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre armed with semi-automatic rifles on 15 March last year, broadcasting his shooting sprees live on social media. Prior to the attacks, Tarrant circulated a now-banned manifesto outlining his motivation: to spark fear in non-European migrant communities. Before the hearings began, 48-year-old Taj Mohammed Kamran paced the sidewalk outside court aided by crutches. His right buttock carried shrapnel from the massacre at Al Noor Mosque, where a bullet hit him and another killed his best friend. A refugee wearing traditional Afghani robes, Mohammed said he felt proud to be a New Zealand citizen able to see justice served to the man who shot him. He said he didn't get that opportunity when his siblings were killed by a bomb in Afghanistan.
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| Democratic convention fell flat with viewers. Republican convention may do the same Posted: 24 Aug 2020 11:40 AM PDT  The Democratic National Convention failed to draw many viewers this year making things look worse for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris than expected.
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| NBA star LeBron James' group plans effort to recruit poll workers for November Posted: 24 Aug 2020 02:45 PM PDT  More Than a Vote, a group of prominent athletes fighting voter suppression, will collaborate with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund on the program in a dozen states, including battlegrounds such as Georgia, Michigan, Florida and Wisconsin, where disenfranchisement affects Black voters, the source said. The New York Times first reported the effort, which will recruit young people as poll workers and include a paid advertising program and corporate partnership to encourage employees to volunteer as poll workers.
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| Iowa State University forced a professor to change his syllabus after he threatened to kick students out of class if they participate in racism, sexism, or homophobia Posted: 24 Aug 2020 12:50 PM PDT  The syllabus said "arguments against gay marriage, abortion, Black Lives Matter" will be "grounds for dismissal from the classroom."
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| US signals it will deport Colombian warlord to Italy Posted: 24 Aug 2020 01:59 PM PDT  Attorneys for the Justice Department signaled the U.S. would deport a former Colombian paramilitary warlord to Italy within the next two weeks despite a last-minute challenge by the South American nation to seek his extradition. The announcement came in a hearing Monday in Washington, DC federal court in which Salvatore Mancuso was seeking a judge's order to force Attorney General William Barr to immediately remove him to Italy, where he also has citizenship, after completing a 12-year narcotics sentence in March. Mancuso, the former top commander of the United Defense Forces of Colombia, known as the AUC, argued that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have "illegally detained" Mancuso beyond the maximum 90 days allowed for the removal of aliens, according to a pre-hearing memorandum filed by his attorneys.
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| Ted Cruz is 'just a coward' for backing Trump, former aide Rick Tyler says Posted: 24 Aug 2020 03:23 PM PDT  Rick Tyler, a leading Republican analyst and so-called Never Trumper, told Yahoo News on Monday that his former boss Sen. Ted Cruz is "just a coward" for publicly supporting Trump even though he knows he's a bad president.
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| 10 Best Drones for Kids, According to Engineers Posted: 24 Aug 2020 07:26 AM PDT |
| Six ‘water tornadoes’ spotted in Gulf of Mexico as tropical storms approach US mainland Posted: 24 Aug 2020 05:57 AM PDT  Six water sprouts were spotted swirling simultaneously in the Gulf of Mexico last week, as two tropical storms headed for the US mainland.Video captured by Frank Leday shows towering columns of seawater being sucked into the air off the coast of Louisiana.
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| These states require travelers to self-quarantine or present negative COVID-19 test Posted: 24 Aug 2020 06:36 AM PDT  States are opening back up, but some still require or recommend visitors self-quarantine for two weeks. Find out where.
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| Far-right Proud Boys supporters clashed with Black Lives Matter protesters in Portland Posted: 23 Aug 2020 06:40 AM PDT  Footage of the protest Saturday shows protesters battling with projectiles and batons as police face criticism for not intervening.
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| Lawyers examined Pompeo’s plan to address GOP convention from Jerusalem, aides say Posted: 23 Aug 2020 03:10 PM PDT  The nature of the speech during a visit to Israel is raising concerns in both Washington and Jerusalem.
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| Top California court overturns death penalty of Scott Peterson, who murdered pregnant wife Posted: 24 Aug 2020 01:56 PM PDT  Scott Peterson, the California man convicted of murdering his wife and unborn son during a sensational 2004 trial, won a reversal of his death penalty on Monday after the state's top court ruled that the trial judge had erred in jury selection. The ruling means that Peterson, who has been held on death row at San Quentin State prison since 2005, has the right to a new penalty phase of his trial. California has not executed a condemned inmate since 2006.
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| A 23-year-old Fort Hood soldier who has been missing for a week had reported sexual abuse before his disappearance Posted: 24 Aug 2020 11:28 AM PDT  Sgt. Elder Fernandes, 23, was last seen on August 17 when his staff sergeant dropped him off at his home in Killeen, Texas.
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| Israeli teens find 1,000-year-old gold coins Posted: 24 Aug 2020 07:06 AM PDT  Hundreds of gold coins that are more than 1,000 years old have been unearthed in Israel.
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| White House attacks Trump's sister, niece over leaked audio tapes Posted: 23 Aug 2020 07:50 AM PDT  White House chief of staff Mark Meadows sharply criticized President Trump's sister and niece on Sunday, a day after the Washington Post published leaked audio recordings of conversations of the two Trump relatives insulting the president.
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| Professor, NASA researcher accused of concealing China ties Posted: 24 Aug 2020 11:00 AM PDT |
| Storms Marco and Laura plough through Caribbean, killing 12 Posted: 24 Aug 2020 06:28 AM PDT  Hurricane Marco is expected to hit the US Gulf Coast on Monday and Storm Laura in the coming days.
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| Giuliani: We're headed for a very left administration with Biden Posted: 24 Aug 2020 04:24 AM PDT  Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani weighs in on Biden's agenda, expectations for the RNC.
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| 'Absolutely repugnant': Biden's campaign forcefully disavows an endorsement from neo-Nazi Richard Spencer Posted: 24 Aug 2020 12:38 PM PDT  A Biden campaign staffer tweeted that what Spencer stands for is "absolutely repugnant," adding, "Your support is 10,000% percent unwelcome here."
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| UPS driver randomly shot at vehicles along interstate in Oregon, police say Posted: 24 Aug 2020 08:00 AM PDT  The man is being held on $1 million bail.
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| Libya strongman labels GNA ceasefire announcement a stunt Posted: 24 Aug 2020 04:26 AM PDT  A spokesman for eastern Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar has slammed a ceasefire announcement by the rival Government of National Accord (GNA) as a media stunt, accusing it of preparing a new offensive.
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| The Next Dangerous Front in ISIS’ Holy War Posted: 24 Aug 2020 01:29 AM PDT  ABUJA, Nigeria—In recent months, Islamist militant groups in Africa allied to the so-called Islamic State have been on the rampage—attacking communities, slaughtering aid workers and seizing important government assests.Since ISIS was squeezed out of its self-proclaimed caliphate in the Middle East last year, its offshoots—particularly those in West and Central Africa—seem to be waxing even stronger.In the last five months, about 100 Nigerian and Chadian soldiers have been killed in deadly attacks by the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) around the Lake Chad region (an area in the Sahelian zone of west-central Africa with a freshwater lake at the conjunction of Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Niger). Since late July, the group has murdered several humanitarian workers in Nigeria and are suspected of slaughtering French aid workers in Niger. And after a series of attacks early this year in northwestern Nigeria, the Nigerian government was forced to admit last month that the terror group, which usually operates in the northeastern part of the country, does have a foothold in the northwest region.She Flew Missions Against ISIS-Backed Terrorists—and Died in a Suspicious 'Accident'The Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP), which is active in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and northern Mozambique, has been even more deadly in 2020 than any period of its existence. In the first half of this year, about 447 people died in jihadists attacks—far more than 2019, which saw 309 attacks result in 660 deaths, according to a report by the Babel Street which cited the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project. Much of ISCAP's attacks this year have been in rural and semi-urban communities in northern Mozambique. But last week's attack on the commercial town of Mocímboa da Praia in which many Mozambican soldiers were killed and the local port was seized indicates that the group is extending beyond its traditional areas of operation.One reason why ISIS-backed groups appear to be succeeding in Africa is because they adopt the approach of cultivating relationships with locals to exert great influence rather than fighting to gain territories and govern with brutality like the main Islamic State did in Iraq and Syria.In Nigeria, for example, ISWAP—which broke away from Boko Haram in 2016 because the latter failed to heed to instructions from ISIS, which included ignoring warnings against the use of children as suicide bombers—continually assures Muslims in the conflict-hit northeastern region of its commitment to protecting them from armed elements in the region so as to win their support and loyalty. The group learned from Boko Haram's loss of territorial control and influence in the northeast and does not at the moment seek to acquire land, which would make it easy to target. Rather, ISWAP is taking advantage of its relationship with the locals—offering them loans and allowing them to live freely in their communities—to recruit fighters and target Nigerian security forces in a way that makes it hard for its militants to be caught, as they blend in with the local population. And the fact that dozens of Nigerian soldiers, including 20 in June and 13 in July, have been killed in recent months indicates that ISWAP's plan is working and that the group is a major threat to the stability of the West African region. ISWAP's growth in Niger is another example of how it has built close ties with local communities to pursue its jihadist agenda. The U.S. felt the bad effect of this relationship when ISWAP fighters—then operating under the name Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS)—ambushed American Special Forces service members in an attack on Oct. 3, 2017 that left four Green Berets dead in the southwestern village of Tongo Tongo, after a villager tipped off militants to the presence of U.S. soldiers in the area. As I wrote for The Daily Beast after the attack, the ISGS won the hearts of the locals when it began to provide financial assistance to villagers and protection from rustlers who often stole their cattle and other livestock. The group then used the opportunity to convince these villagers to develop hatred for America, giving them the false impression that the U.S. was building a drone station in Central Niger to use to target the area. And as the world paid more attention to ISIS in Syria, the ISGS spread into neighboring Burkina Faso using the same method it adopted in Niger and tested on the Americans. Today, the group, which has adopted the ISWAP brand, has become a very complex unit to target, as it receives wide support from the local population. In Mozambique, ISCAP, which operates in the predominantly Muslim northern region that has long suffered from high levels of poverty and alleged government discrimination, took advantage of the economic and social marginalization suffered by people of the Kimwani tribe, where the majority of its fighters come from, to recruit members with financial incentives. One report noted that the promise of monthly wages to incoming members helped ISCAP, a group that emerged from the local sect, Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jamo (ASWJ) ("adherents of the prophetic tradition"), to expand its operations.The strategy is almost the same in Egypt where ISIS network of cells have blended into a number of Egyptian communities and use their presence there to wage a sectarian war in the country by killing Christians with the goal of denting the glue which holds Egypt together, thereby creating instability. And as long as the government continues to allow the country's security gap to expand, ISIS will continue to have its way. The terror organization is also active in Tunisia and Somalia where its franchises have inserted themselves into local conflicts. And even though they are not the dominating jihadist group in both countries, they play a crucial role to the instability in their respective regions. ISIS African affiliates are known to operate mostly in multi-border areas, where they capitalize on ethnic and religious divides to draw followers from bitterly aggrieved groups. Having an expansive area of operations in border territories, as a former Navy Signals Intelligence Analyst Brian M. Perkins noted in his article for The Jamestown Foundation, allows Islamic State groups "to more easily conduct hit and run style attacks, avoid head-to-head military operations, and draw from a larger recruiting pool." And because controlling territories—like ISIS did in the Middle East—does not appear to be paramount to the Islamic State franchises in Africa, it is extremely difficult for government forces to target these groups, as their fighters have mixed with the local population in the places they are active. ISIS may have lost ground in the Middle East, but it is definitely not diminishing in Africa. The organization is taking a different shape in the continent. The new-look ISIS is not territory-drunk and is opening room for alliances with new groups including al Qaeda, as we've seen in the Sahel where a coalition of al Qaeda loyalists called Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) and ISWAP are working hand in hand to dominate villages. And as long as sectarianism, political conflicts, and ethnic violence continue to increase in Africa, ISIS' chances of expanding will grow even higher.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Melania Trump reportedly taped making 'disparaging' remarks about president and his children Posted: 24 Aug 2020 07:46 AM PDT  A former adviser to first lady Melania Trump has reportedly taped her making "disparaging" comments about President Trump and his adult children.Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, Melania Trump's former friend and adviser, is set to release a tell-all book in September called Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with The First Lady, and on Monday, journalist Yashar Ali reported that Wolkoff "taped the first lady making disparaging remarks about the president and his adult children" that will be revealed in the book.Though Ali's report doesn't include the remarks the first lady evidently made, they're said to include "harsh comments about Ivanka Trump," and in fact, Ali says that "most" of the disparaging comments "were reserved for Ivanka Trump." It's reportedly not clear whether the book itself will disclose that the remarks in question came from audio recordings.Wolkoff's book will be the latest tell-all to emerge from someone in President Trump's orbit after one recently published by his niece, Mary Trump. Last week, The Washington Post revealed that Mary Trump recorded conversations with the president's sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, in which she says the president has "no principles" and that "you can't trust him."Wolkoff's book, which is described by its publisher as a "candid and emotional memoir," will be released on Sept. 1.More stories from theweek.com The Powerpuff Girls will be 'disillusioned 20-somethings' full of resentment in a live-action reboot Jerry Falwell Jr. says his wife had an affair with the Florida 'pool boy,' claims they were being blackmailed Postmaster general admits he doesn't know what it costs to mail a postcard
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| Cyprus denies new allegations in "golden passport" scheme Posted: 23 Aug 2020 11:57 AM PDT  Cyprus on Sunday denied fresh allegations that it was granting citizenship to foreigners accused of crimes in exchange for millions in investments, insisting that all those who received a passport met all criteria in place at the time. The Cypriot parliament last month beefed up the eligibility criteria for the so-called "golden passport" investment program, which has brought billions in revenue since its introduction following a 2013 financial crisis. The program has attracted many investors because a passport from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus automatically grants its holder citizenship to the entire 27-member European Union.
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| Texas, Louisiana brace as Tropical Storm Laura pegged to gather force Posted: 24 Aug 2020 09:48 AM PDT  Residents along the U.S. Gulf Coast prepared for what could be deadly winds, rains, and storm surges. Laura comes on the heels of Tropical Storm Marco, which weakened sooner than expected. The rare threat of two possible hurricanes in the Gulf at once, however, took nearly 10% of the United States' crude oil production offline, as energy companies shuttered operations to ride out the weather.
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| Louisiana protesters call for Lafayette mayor-president to resign after police shooting Posted: 24 Aug 2020 04:09 AM PDT  Protesters gathered for the second night after Trayford Pellerin's death, first in front of Lafayette City Hall and later with several demonstrations.
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| 'First of Many:' Air Force Leaders Watch Flying Car Demo Posted: 24 Aug 2020 11:02 AM PDT  The Hexa is an eVTOL platform that consists of an open cockpit seat surrounded by a honeycomb of small rotors.
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| 56 people got the coronavirus at a Starbucks in South Korea. The only people who didn’t were employees wearing masks. Posted: 24 Aug 2020 09:06 AM PDT  A Starbucks in South Korea has reported a coronavirus outbreak after an infected person sat near an air conditioner. Employees wearing masks were safe
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| Postal worker stole drug shipments and sold them for ‘great profit,’ Ohio feds say Posted: 24 Aug 2020 03:51 PM PDT  Feds are seizing $100,000, a Harley Davidson motorcycle, and a Polaris 3-wheel roadster
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| US blasts WTO ruling in decades-old Canada lumber dispute Posted: 24 Aug 2020 09:34 AM PDT  The United States slammed a World Trade Organization ruling Monday that favored Canada in a longstanding battle over lumber imports, holding the case up as further justification for Washington's campaign to drastically reform the global trade body.
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| Biden says he'd shut down economy if scientists recommended Posted: 23 Aug 2020 05:33 PM PDT  Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said he would follow public health advisers' advice if they called for a national shutdown should he take office and the coronavirus had not abated. Asked specifically whether he'd push to shutter economic activity if scientists said it was necessary, Biden replied: "I would shut it down." The former vice president's remarks came as part of his first joint interview with vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
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| Rudy Giuliani on Democrats ignoring violence in America's cities during DNC Posted: 22 Aug 2020 06:41 PM PDT  Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's personal attorney, joins Judge Jeanine Pirro on 'Justice.'
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| Despite Trump's claims, acting DHS chief says department has no authority to send agents to polling sites Posted: 23 Aug 2020 11:06 AM PDT  President Trump this week said he would send sheriffs, law enforcement officials, and U.S. attorneys to polling stations to guard against voter fraud in November's election. Analysts questioned whether he has the authority to do that since actions that could be interpreted as intimidating voters are prohibited. If anything still remained uncertain, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf cleared it up Sunday.Wolf confirmed to CNN's Jake Tapper that his department has "expressed authorities given to us by Congress" and deploying federal law enforcement to polling sites "is not one of them." Wolf also said Trump has "absolutely" not discussed the idea with him.> Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf says the President has not discussed deploying law enforcement agents from his department to polling locations. "That's not what we do at the Department of Homeland Security." https://t.co/B5wCINmJAO CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/P0tn2nL05S> > -- State of the Union (@CNNSotu) August 23, 2020White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said Trump misspoke and the president simply wants to ensure voters can safely cast their ballots, regardless of whether they're voting for Trump, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, or any other candidate. Meadows implied it wasn't voter fraud that inspired Trump's comments, but concerns about "aggressive behavior" brought on by coronavirus pandemic measures like social distancing. "If the judges at those polling places need any kind of security we're going to make sure they have the resources," he said. > White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows says law enforcement will not be sent to polling locations on Election Day, except to provide security when requested:> > "To the extent that we're going to deploy thousands of sheriffs, no, we're not going to do that." pic.twitter.com/AsypRYhsgS> > -- JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) August 23, 2020More stories from theweek.com Melania Trump reportedly taped making 'disparaging' remarks about president and his children The Powerpuff Girls will be 'disillusioned 20-somethings' full of resentment in a live-action reboot Jerry Falwell Jr. says his wife had an affair with the Florida 'pool boy,' claims they were being blackmailed
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| Sinabung volcano spews new burst of hot ash Posted: 23 Aug 2020 01:18 AM PDT  Villagers advised to stay three miles from the crater's mouth and be aware of lava.
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| In CA: Northern California fires, counties move off watch list, back-to-school on Zoom Posted: 24 Aug 2020 05:34 PM PDT  Some of the largest fires in California history continue burning, as thousands of firefighters battle blazes across the state. And two more counties exit the state's coronavirus watch list.
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| Army awards Air-Launched Effects contracts for future helicopters Posted: 24 Aug 2020 03:16 PM PDT  Ten companies will provide air vehicles, payloads and mission systems to the Army that will make up prototypes intended to launch from current and future vertical lift platforms to perform a wide variety of missions.
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| Man who believed virus was hoax loses wife to Covid-19 Posted: 24 Aug 2020 10:10 AM PDT  A couple from Florida did not follow health guidelines after believing lies about the virus online.
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| Clinesmith’s Guilty Plea: The Perfect Snapshot of Crossfire Hurricane Duplicity Posted: 24 Aug 2020 03:30 AM PDT  Author's Note: This is the first of a three-part series.To answer the question posed in last Tuesday's column, Yes, Kevin Clinesmith did plead guilty Wednesday. Sort of.Well, maybe it was a smidge better than "sort of." After all, it did happen in a federal-district-court proceeding (via videoconference) on Wednesday. And Judge James Boasberg did accept the plea after eliciting it in accordance with settled criminal-law rules. Sentencing is scheduled for December 10. So it's official.But I'm sticking with "sort of." If Clinesmith's guilty plea is legally adequate, it is barely so. And neither a judge nor a prosecutor is required to accept an allocution sliced so fine. In "admitting" guilt, Clinesmith ended up taking the position that I hoped the judge, and especially the Justice Department, would not abide, in essence: Okay, maybe I committed the crime of making a false statement, but to be clear, I thought the statement was true when I made it, and I certainly never intended to deceive anyone.Huh?I don't mean to make you dizzy, but in my view, Clinesmith is lying about lying. His strategy is worth close study because it encapsulates the mendaciousness and malevolence of both "Crossfire Hurricane" (the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation) and the "collusion" never-enders who continue to defend it. A defendant's lying about lying does not necessarily make a false-statement guilty plea infirm as a matter of law. The bar is not high. Still, his story is ridiculous, in a way that is easy to grasp once it's placed in context.So let's place it in context.'Page Is a Russian Spy' — the FBI Plants Its Feet on a Fantasy Our point of reference is spring 2017.While indignantly denying news stories portraying him as a clandestine agent of Russian, Carter Page asserts that, actually, he's been an informant for a U.S. intelligence agency. FBI officials should know that Page is telling the truth. They have already heard the same thing from the CIA and from Page himself.The CIA told the bureau ten months earlier, in a memo dated August 17, 2016 (i.e., two months before the FBI sought the first FISA warrant against Page). Page had been a CIA source who provided information about Russians. Page told the bureau about at least some of this work during voluntary interviews in 2009 and 2013, during the period when the CIA had authorized Page for "operational contact" with Russians. The FBI, meanwhile, actually used information from Page in a prosecution of Russian spies. (See my 2018 column, discussing of United States v. Buryakov.)And it's not as if the CIA's acknowledgment of Page's informant status was the only exculpatory fact the FBI knew. Not by a long shot. Page was pleading with the FBI director to sit down with the bureau and explain himself, as he had done on other occasions over the years. More to the point, in August 2016 (again, two months before the first FISA warrant to permit spying on Page), Page had credibly insisted to a covert FBI informant, Stefan Halper, that key allegations about Page (derived from the bogus Steele dosser) were false: Page did not even know Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, let alone act as Manafort's intermediary in a Trump–Russia espionage conspiracy; and Page had not recently met in Moscow with Putin-regime heavyweights Igor Sechin and Igor Divyekin.Thus, (a) Page had not done the very things that led the FBI to accuse him of being an active anti-American spy, and (b) Page's prior contacts with Russians, on which the bureau further rationalized its overwrought suspicions, overlapped with Page's years as a CIA operative. Weeks before the FBI and the Obama Justice Department first applied for a FISA warrant on the theory that Page was a spy for the Kremlin, the FBI team conducting the investigation had information showing the theory was untenable.Yet the bureau chose to plant its feet on the daft theory anyway. Apologists for the bureau and the Obama administration would now have you believe that this is because a single one of the FBI's crack counterintelligence agents, Stephen Somma, dropped the ball -- that he alone knew Page was a CIA informant, but held out on his chain-of-command. Really? If they dropped as many balls in Times Square as Somma did -- purportedly without anyone noticing, in one the most significant investigations in the FBI's history -- we'd have New Year's once a week.The fact is, top officials were drinking the "Donald Trump must be colluding with Russia" Kool-Aid, so the story was too good to check. And once the farcical Steele dossier grabbed the investigators' attention in late summer 2016, the bureau was off to the races, framing Page as a key cog in the Trump campaign's "conspiracy of cooperation" with the Kremlin.But that was autumn 2016. Now, remember, we're in late spring of 2017. At this point, the FBI has been monitoring Page for over eight months. The Page-is-a-Russian-spy theory is in tatters. The surveillance turns up nothing. Halper has nothing. Steele's dossier, a shoddy product on its face, is now a hot, steaming mess. Not only is it uncorroborated and unverifiable; Steele himself is dismissing it as "raw" information that needed to be investigated, and his "primary subsource," Igor Danchenko, has discredited it as fiction and rumormongering.But alas, the FBI is dug in. This was not just office banter. The bureau had taken the claim that Page was a spy to court. It was the linchpin of the hypothesis that the Trump campaign was a Kremlin influence operation. This theory, bereft of supporting evidence and resistant to exculpatory evidence, had the imprimatur of FBI headquarters. By June 2017, in conjunction with the Justice Department, the FBI had made this claim under oath to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), three times: a first application in October 2016, and renewal applications in January and April 2017. Each time, based on the FBI's representations, the FISC issued a 90-day surveillance warrant against Page.Disclosure Would Mean Epic Humiliation The warrant issued by the FISC on April 7 was due to expire in early July. By mid June, then, the bureau was well into its preparations to submit yet another renewal application.This is the salient time frame for Clinesmith's case. His defense counsel and apologists would have you look at it as a snapshot. But it wasn't just a moment in time. It was a moment shaped by the preceding ten months, since the "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation (i.e., the Trump-Russia probe) was formally opened on July 31, 2016.By June 2017, it would have occasioned epic humiliation for the FBI to admit that it had on three occasions made false assertions under oath in order to persuade federal judges to issue classified surveillance warrants against an American citizen. Not just humiliation. FBI leadership had publicized the existence of the Trump–Russia probe, consciously promoting the media-Democratic political narrative that the president was beholden to the Kremlin. An admission that court warrants had been sought on false premises would have led to certain administrative discipline and potential criminal inquiries.This was not at the back of the bureau's mind. It was front and center. Just read the FISA warrants. Read the in-the-interest-of-full-disclosure footnotes massaged into gibberish as the case was collapsing. And bear in mind: These laborious rationalizations did not come close to revealing the mounds of exculpatory information that the FBI was withholding.To hear FBI and Justice Department officials tell it, the FISA process is so well designed and diligently executed that, at all times, they are profoundly aware of their heightened duty of candor, of their obligations to submit only verified warrant applications. Of their duty to alert the FISC promptly if they discover that something they've represented to the court is inaccurate. They know, they tell us, about the imperative to be transparent regarding exculpatory information. And even if officials were ever to lose sight of these weighty responsibilities, even for a moment, we're to take comfort that their recollection would quickly be refreshed by the multiple, high-level FBI and DOJ approvals the FISA statute mandates. These have spawned an infrastructure of lawyers, analysts, and verification procedures to ensure that the bosses don't embarrass themselves by signing off on FISA warrant applications that are fraudulent, or at least recklessly irresponsible.That's how it's supposed to work . . . on the drawing board.Down here on Planet Earth, though, in all of government's sprawl, there is no institution more self-conscious about its image, more energetic in promoting its pristine reputation, than the Federal Bureau of Investigation. And thus there is none more resistant to damaging disclosures.At the bureau, officials are keenly aware that, when a misrepresentation is discovered, it is often just the visible part of what, on inspection, turns out to be a train of errors, oversights, poor judgments, and, occasionally, misconduct. The disclosure of a single glaring inaccuracy elucidates that investigators, analysts, or lawyers -- or all of them -- were aware of information that should have set off alarm bells, yet they all turned a deaf ear. Alarm bells, after all, signal underlying misfeasance . . . and sometimes malfeasance. If a judge gets spun up by one embarrassing disclosure, it can soon become two . . . then four . . . And then, next thing you know, a case is unraveling as a scandal unfolds.Clinesmith's Motives Mirror His Superiors' MotivesIn June 2017, on the thin line between business as usual and epic embarrassment, stood Kevin Clinesmith.He was then a 30-something assistant general counsel in the bureau's National Security and Cyber Law Branch. It is part of the FBI's Office of General Counsel (OGC), then led by James Baker.Among the branch's responsibilities, it reviews FISA warrant applications. The Carter Page applications, however, were handled in an unusual way. Details of the applications were scrutinized at the highest levels of the FBI and the Justice Department, to the point that the National Security branch's once-over became superfluous.For example, Trisha Anderson, the OGC's former deputy general counsel, told the House Intelligence Committee in 2018 testimony that, though she normally reviewed FISA warrant applications before they went to the upper ranks for statutorily required sign-offs, she did not do that with the October 2016 Page application. By the time it landed on her desk, it had already been reviewed "line by line" by such superiors as the FBI's then–deputy director Andrew McCabe, as well as by then–deputy attorney general Sally Yates at Main Justice. It had even been perused by Anderson's OGC superior, General Counsel Baker. Baker conceded to the committee that it was unusual for him to review a FISA warrant application, particularly at an early stage, as he did with the Page application.In the chain of command, Clinesmith ranked a few notches lower than Anderson: He reported to the National Security branch chief, who reported to Anderson, after which the chain ascended to Baker, McCabe, and ultimately Director James Comey. That is, Clinesmith was a junior officer -- support personnel. The decision to represent to the FISC that Page was a Russian spy had been made way above his pay grade. The bosses were so invested in it, they were relying on it to investigate the sitting president of the United States. And just a few weeks earlier, when the president fired Comey in May 2017, a special counsel had been appointed to take over the investigation. The Mueller team's mandate from the deputy attorney general was to get to the bottom of links between the Russian regime and former Trump-campaign advisers, such as Page.This was not a train Clinesmith could have started or stopped on his own. Nevertheless, he was all in.We learn from the Inspector General's report on the FBI's FISA abuse that, from the very beginning, Clinesmith was in on OGC deliberations about seeking FISA surveillance of Page. Even before September 2016, when he first learned about Steele's reporting, he told the IG he believed that there was a "50/50" chance of establishing probable cause that Page was a clandestine agent for Russia. For that assessment, he relied on "Page's historical contacts with Russian intelligence officers." At that point, he says he did not know that the CIA had told the FBI that Page was a CIA informant when these contacts took place. So, when the first FISA warrant was sought in October 2016 (and the second in January, and the third in April), he agreed that the probable-cause standard was easily satisfied by these contacts, weighed in combination with Steele's (uncorroborated) claims about Page, as well as Page's statements to Halper (as bowdlerized by the bureau).Echoing his bosses, then, Clinesmith adopted the "Page is a Russian spy" fantasy from the get-go. If subsequent developments ever called for scrutinizing the kamikaze portrayal of Page as a spy, Clinesmith was sure to be on the hook. And while the higher-ups would take most of the heat if the bureau proved to be embarrassingly wrong, it is always the underlings like Clinesmith who get hung out to dry for misinforming their superiors. That is how Washington works. Clinesmith, a Washington creature, realized this only too well.'The Predication of Our Entire Investigation' Is at RiskOf course, Clinesmith was not putting himself personally on the line with the FISC. That was to be the responsibility of the affiant, the FBI agent assigned to swear to the truth of the warrant application. This difference in the duties of that agent and Clinesmith, along with an obvious integrity disparity, explains the very different way they approached the matter.This affiant-agent is identified only as "SSA" in the criminal information filed against Clinesmith. (This affiant-agent is "SSA 2" in the IG report, one of several unidentified "supervisory special agents" who appear therein). Though nominally a supervising agent, the SSA operated at some remove from the rubber-meets-the-road investigating. In the bureau, the agent who signs a FISA warrant is not the supervisor of agents investigating the case; he is a headquarters "program manager." Furthermore, the SSA was not assigned to Crossfire Hurricane until late December 2016. That is, he was not involved in the initial deliberations over whether Page was a Russian spy and whether to seek FISA surveillance on that theory.Having inherited sign-off responsibility in an ongoing surveillance that his superiors had already green-lighted, the SSA went with the flow, at least at the beginning. The IG report indicates that, in signing the first and second renewal applications (in January and April 2017), the SSA performed only a cursory review of the file. He assumed that other agents had done their work properly.It was only in June 2017, as the third renewal application was being prepared, that he became concerned. It was around that time that the SSA heard about Page's vehement public denials that he was a Russian spy and claims that he had engaged Russians on behalf of an American intelligence service. It dawned on the SSA that he would be expected to swear, under penalty of perjury, that he believed there was probable cause to conclude that Page was a clandestine agent of Russia, working against the United States. Page's public protestations gave him pause. They also created a potentially catastrophic problem for the bureau, which the SSA later summarized for the IG (I'd italicize -- but I'd have to italicize every word):> [If Page] was being tasked by another agency, especially if he was being tasked to engage Russians, then it would absolutely be relevant for the Court to know . . . [and] could also seriously impact the predication of our entire investigation, which focused on [Page's] close and continuous contact with Russian/Russia-linked individuals.If Page had been a CIA operative during meetings with Russians — meetings that the FBI had sworn to the court showed Page was a traitorous spy — then the FBI would have some serious explaining to do. And if it turned out that, before applying under oath for the warrants, the FBI had been informed by the CIA that Page was a CIA operative, then the FBI would be humiliated.Bear in mind: The incumbent Democratic administration had opened an election-year investigation of its Republican opposition, and the FBI had heavily relied on bogus evidence generated by the Democratic campaign to claim that Page was a spy for Russia. With that as background, there would be only two possible explanations for the FBI's failure to inform the court that Page was working for the CIA when the bureau had claimed he was working for the Kremlin: willful abuse of power or monstrous incompetence.End of Part 1.
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| Stolen branch on Yellowstone visitor’s SUV leads ranger to more illegal cargo, feds say Posted: 24 Aug 2020 04:10 PM PDT  The driver had already visited multiple national parks in several states, court documents said.
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| Jeremy Corbyn failed to empathise with British Jews because they are 'prosperous' Posted: 24 Aug 2020 10:22 AM PDT  Jeremy Corbyn failed to empathise with British Jews because they are "prosperous", a former ally has said in a new anti-Semitism row. Andrew Murray, who was a senior adviser to the former Labour leader, insisted Mr Corbyn was "empathetic", but with those in society who are "at the bottom of the heap". According to the new book Left Out: The Inside Story of Labour under Corbyn, Mr Murray said: "He is very empathetic, Jeremy, but he's empathetic with the poor, the disadvantaged, the migrant, the marginalised, the people at the bottom of the heap."
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| The Latest: Kirk says Trump guarding 'Western civilization' Posted: 24 Aug 2020 04:49 AM PDT  The president of the pro-Trump organization Turning Point USA is calling the president "the bodyguard of Western civilization." Kirk said at the start of the evening portion of the Republican National Convention on Monday that President Donald Trump had reclaimed the U.S. government "from the rotten cartel of insiders that have been destroying our country."
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| Long delays at U.S.-Mexico border crossings after new travel restrictions Posted: 24 Aug 2020 02:12 PM PDT  Americans who regularly cross the border from Mexico reported long wait times to re-enter the United States on Monday after U.S. officials imposed new COVID-19-related restrictions on cross-border travel by U.S. citizens and permanent residents. The U.S. government closed lanes at select ports of entry on the border and began conducting more secondary checks to limit non-essential travel and slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said on Friday. According to CBP data, wait times at some border crossings have since doubled or tripled.
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| A long history of militant activism keeps protests alive in Portland Posted: 24 Aug 2020 03:00 AM PDT  The protesters defend the nightly taunting of police, along with vandalism and destruction of property, as a strategy to draw officers into clashes and expose them as fascists.
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| Dozens of University of Southern California students have COVID-19 Posted: 24 Aug 2020 02:16 PM PDT  The 43 students who have tested positive are living in off-campus residences, and more than 100 others have been told to quarantine.
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| Trump Admin Puts COVID-Wracked Meat Processor on Food Safety Panel Posted: 24 Aug 2020 01:26 AM PDT  The Brazilian meat conglomerate that presided over an alleged "work while sick" culture at a plant in Colorado and deadly COVID-19 cluster at a facility in Nebraska during the early months of the pandemic will now be advising the federal government on health policies.The U.S. Department of Agriculture, an arm of President Donald Trump's administration, announced last week that it had appointed Sherri Williams, a health overseer at JBS, to its National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection. This panel provides recommendations directly to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on oversight matters."Their expertise and advice play a key role in informing USDA's food safety decisions to ensure the U.S continues to have one of the safest food systems in the world," Undersecretary for Food Safety Dr. Mindy Brashears said in a release accompanying the announcement. The appointment comes just months after JBS had to temporarily idle meat mills in Colorado, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania because of outbreaks of the novel coronavirus among their workers. The company also suffered severe rashes of the disease in its facilities in Utah and Texas, and its uniquely troubled history made the appointment a remarkable one during a still-raging pandemic.At JBS' Greeley, Colorado, plant in particular, local health officials reported discovering a "work while sick culture" that kept employees working the line even after they began to feel unwell. More than 300 of the plant's workers tested positive for COVID-19 and at least eight meat handlers succumbed to the ailment. The outbreak was so severe it even grabbed the attention of the White House, which promised to deploy special assistance to the location—although the union representing workers there reported that aid has still not arrived.JBS maintained at the time that it obligated the ill to remain home and had instituted testing and safety protocols to protect its labor force.While JBS is hardly the only meat processor to witness horrific outbreaks amid the global pandemic, it has an unusually lurid history with hygiene and government oversight. Headquartered in São Paulo, JBS was one of more than two dozen companies caught up in a 2017 sting in the South American nation. Authorities in "Operation Weak Flesh" asserted they had caught the processors bribing inspectors, selling expired meat to schools and consumers, and treating their product with illegal fillers and carcinogenic chemicals.JBS denied at the time it had committed any quality violations. However, the company's executives and biggest shareholders, Joesley and Wesley Batista—whose family founded JBS—were simultaneously ensnared in an even larger corruption scandal, Operation Car Wash. The pair confessed to bribing nearly 2,000 Brazilian politicians.The news of Williams' appointment to the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection provoked outrage from Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), one of the company's most vocal critics."The appointment of a JBS official to the USDA's National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection is a slap in the face to farmers and ranchers across America," Pocan said. "This corporation has no businesses dictating the safety of meat and poultry across America, this is Donald Trump's corporate cronyism personified." The USDA did not reply to a request for comment. But in a statement to The Daily Beast, JBS defended its own record and Williams."As anyone who knows her will tell you, Ms. Williams is an accomplished expert and a credit to her family, the food safety profession and American agriculture," said spokeswoman Nikki Richardson, who noted that the company's American division had not been implicated in the Brazilian scandal. "JBS USA has not been accused of any wrongdoing regarding the events in Brazil in 2017."JBS had previously come under attack from politicians in both parties after the firm received $67 million in federal assistance intended to bolster farmers struggling amid the president's trade war with China.The firm was the only meat processor named to the committee last week. Most of the rest of the appointees hailed from universities, consumer groups, and trade organizations—with the only other private companies added to the roster being distributor U.S. Foods and Pride of the Pond, a small seafood company from Mississippi. The sole meat processor already on the panel was Pilgrim's Pride, of which JBS is a majority shareholder. JBS is thus also set to be the only entity to control two of the committee's seats.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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