Author: Oui

1904 World Fair -- Meet me at St. Louis!

Black-Ops Mercenaries On the Internet

Using tools denied by Western adversaries … Russia, China, India and Korea trying to level the playing field.

Black Cube Targets Cyber-Security NGO at Behest of Leading Israeli Malware Maker | Tikun Olam |

The Israeli TV news magazine, Uvdah and the NY Times have collaborated on, and amplified a major story originally published by AP. It documents an elaborate, and ultimately unsuccessful sting operation on the Canadian cyber-security NGO, Citizen Lab (CL).  The latter is the key organization which has exposed a series of malware attacks by various hacking outfits whose government, police, and intelligence clients, use the surveillance products to spy on citizen activists.  Citizen Lab has documented the use of the Israeli dirty ops company, NSO Group’s Pegasus malware by Mexican and Gulf (and many other) government agents to spy on, and even kill dissidents who seek to expose official corruption and who seek the reform their political systems.

Continued below the fold …

However, more recently NSO felt compelled to escalate its response to such attacks against its hacking activities.  That’s because Saudi intelligence agents used Pegasus to track the communications between two dissidents working against the regime abroad.  One of them, the Washington Post journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, was later murdered by Saudi assassins dispatched by the Crown Prince, Mohammed ibn Salman, and his underlings.  It is exceedingly possible that Pegasus had infected either sets of cell phones used by both activists and permitted the killers to track the victim up to the very moment he set foot in the Saudi embassy, where he was ultimately murdered.

In this case, two operatives identified by Uvdah as working on behalf of another Israeli commercial investigations company, Black Cube, approached Citizen Lab staff posing as business clients interested in donating to the NGO’s work …

I’ve written a number of diaries on this topic throughout the years …

○ Saudi Murder Suspect Trained in Offensive Spying

The New York Times broke a story about an unreported August 3, 2016 meeting at Trump Tower attended by Erik Prince, George Nader, Donald Trump Jr., Stephen Miller, and Joel Zamel, who had presented a multimillion-dollar proposal for his company Psy-Group to implement a social media manipulation campaign to help elect Trump.

A mercenary (Erik Prince), a Middle East power broker (George Nader), and the head of an Israeli version of #CambridgeAnalytica (Joel Zamel) walk into a bar….

○ Egypt five years on: was it ever a ‘social media revolution’? | The Guardian |

RAMNIFICATIONS!!

Cambridge Analytica-linked businessman helped start Black Cube, lawsuit claims | Times of Israel – Aug. 28, 2018 |

Vincent Tchenguiz, an Iranian-born British entrepreneur and property tycoon who until 2015 was the largest shareholder in the parent company of the scandal-hit data firm Cambridge Analytica, also played a prominent role in the founding stages of the controversial Israeli business intelligence company Black Cube, and provided it with vital funding, according to a 2013 Israeli lawsuit filed by lawyers for Tchenguiz.

Tchenguiz, whose family is of Iraqi-Jewish origin, fell out with the secretive Israeli company and its founders and sued it for fraud and other alleged offenses, seeking almost a million pounds in damages. The case, which received very little media coverage at the time, was ultimately settled out of court.

DEATH OF DEMOCRACY – A LOST CAUSE IN THE INTERNET AGE

Ohh?

Project Raven

Inside the UAE’s secret hacking team of American NSA educated mercenaries (Reuters)

Monitoring the Arab Uprising

IDF’s New Media – war propaganda through social media (Nov. 2012)

Boeing/Narus helps Egyptian dictatorship fight pro-democracy movement (Nov. 2012)

[Update-1] : linked article expanded …

Project Raven: Secret hacking team of American mercenaries

Two weeks after leaving her position as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. National Security Agency in 2014, Lori Stroud was in the Middle East working as a hacker for an Arab monarchy.

She had joined Project Raven, a clandestine team that included more than a dozen former U.S. intelligence operatives recruited to help the United Arab Emirates engage in surveillance of other governments, militants and human rights activists critical of the monarchy.

Stroud and her team, working from a converted mansion in Abu Dhabi known internally as “the Villa,” would use methods learned from a decade in the U.S intelligence community to help the UAE hack into the phones and computers of its enemies.

Stroud had been recruited by a Maryland cybersecurity contractor to help the Emiratis launch hacking operations, and for three years, she thrived in the job. But in 2016, the Emiratis moved Project Raven to a UAE cybersecurity firm named DarkMatter. Before long, Stroud and other Americans involved in the effort say they saw the mission cross a red line: targeting fellow Americans for surveillance.

[…]

Purple Briefing, Black Brieving

Stroud is the only former Raven operative willing to be named in this story; eight others who described their experiences would do so only on condition of anonymity. She spent a decade at the NSA, first as a military service member from 2003 to 2009 and later as a contractor in the agency for the giant technology consultant Booz Allen Hamilton from 2009 to 2014. Her specialty was hunting for vulnerabilities in the computer systems of foreign governments, such as China, and analyzing what data should be stolen.

In 2013, her world changed. While stationed at NSA Hawaii, Stroud says, she made the fateful recommendation to bring a Dell technician already working in the building onto her team. That contractor was Edward Snowden.

The Citizen Lab: Mapping Hacking Team’s “Untraceable” Spyware

Hacking Team advertises that their RCS spyware is “untraceable” to a specific government operator. However, we claim to identify a number of current or former government users of the spyware by pinpointing endpoints, and studying instances of RCS that we have observed. We suspect that agencies of these twenty-one governments are current or former users of RCS: Azerbaijan, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Panama, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, and Uzbekistan. Nine of these countries receive the lowest ranking, “authoritarian,” in The Economist’s 2012 Democracy Index.5 Additionally, two current users (Egypt and Turkey) have brutally repressed recent protest movements.

Towards resilient cyber security as a Vision 2030 enabler  – BAe

Fire Mueller by BooMan
Mon Jan 18th, 2010 at 11:47:19 PM EST

From my diary – Sliding Ethics – 3 Years Ago: Fire Mueller

Same day another blogger @BooMan opinioned – Hero or FRAUD by sjct

More …

○ British MOD Issued DA-notice on Snowden (Aug. 2013)
○ NSA-GCHQ Espionage – Deceiving the Nation and the World

My six diaries since July 2018 where Black Cube, led by former Mossad spooks, is mentioned here @EuroTrib – archive.

INTELLIGENCE TIES BETWEEN AGENCIES ARE STRONGER THAN POLITICAL TIES BETWEEN NATIONS OR DIVISION BY BREXIT

 

[Update-1] : Earlier writings about the US military involvement with the Emirates, in particular Abu Dhabi.

○ US Elite Military Taking Mercenary Jobs In Abu Dhabi [Dec. 2012]

○ Erik Prince’s XE, now Frontier Services, and Halliburton HQ moved to Emirates

○ Cambridge Analytica 2.0 (EmerData Ltd) Linked to Mercers and Prince

Linked in my diary – Geheimdienste Amyntor – Victor In Chains …

○ Trump White House Weighing Plans for Private Spies to Counter “Deep State” Enemies

 
[Update-2] : < despicable >

○ Blackwater Founder Erik Prince’s Business Ties With Netanyahu’s Disgraced Chief of Staff | Haaretz – Dec. 6, 2017 |

○ Vincent Tchenguiz’s Consensus Business Group Invests $6 million in Israeli Venture Fund

Key words | Erik Prince | SCL Group | Vincent Tchenguiz | Black Cube | Pinhas Buchris | Unit 8200 | Surveillance | Cybercrime |

My opinion last two years, beware of tunnel vision by focusing solely on Russia and Putin .. thinking of Israel’s Netanyahu and the alliance Aby Dhabi / KSA with Salman.

Archive

○ International Coalition to Defeat Democrats and Hillary in 2016

 
[Update-3] ::

This story was reported in Dec 2017 & that the firm, DarkMatter, was under investigation by the FBI ….

Deep Pockets, Deep Cover| FT |

Former CIA and government officials were drawn to the Gulf nation by the promise of interesting work and, perhaps even more importantly, lucrative careers.

“The money was fantastic,” one former employee told FP. “It was $1,000 a day — you could live in a villa or in a five-star hotel in Abu Dhabi.”

The key figure behind this growing intelligence training operation, according to multiple sources, is Lawrence Sanchez, a former intelligence officer who helped kickstart a controversial partnership between the CIA and the New York Police Department that tried to pre-empt the radicalization of potential terrorists by tracking people — many of them Muslims — in mosques, bookstores, and other places around New York.

But Sanchez is just one of many former Western security professionals who has made his way to the Gulf nation to provide security training. Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, famously moved to the UAE to create a battalion of foreign troops serving the crown prince, details of which were first revealed by the New York Times in 2011. And Richard Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism czar, is also a longtime top advisor to the crown prince of Abu Dhabi as the CEO of Good Harbor Security Risk Management.

The UAE’s reliance on foreigners to build its security institutions is not new, but the Gulf state has usually tried to keep the details of that help out of public view, and when it comes to training its nascent intelligence operations, details have been kept particularly quiet.

[..]

While Sanchez was at the NYPD, the department also had an expanding — and unusual — relationship with the UAE. In 2008, the NYPD and the UAE’s government struck an intelligence-sharing deal, and New York police set up a satellite office in Abu Dhabi. The UAE also gave the New York City Police Foundation a million dollars for its intelligence division in 2012, providing funds to enable “the NYPD to station detectives throughout the world to work with local law enforcement on terrorism related incidents,” per a public tax filing.

During his tenure at NYPD, Sanchez developed “an ongoing relationship” with high-level Emirati officials, including Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi, according to a former law enforcement source.

C.I.A. Report Finds Concerns With Ties to New York Police) | NY Times – June 2013 |

Stanley McChrystal – US Elite Military Taking Mercenary Jobs In Abu Dhabi

My diary – Mubarak Ramadan! Eid Al Fitr.

Seychelles Back-channel Leads to Abu Dhabi

BREAKING NEWS:

Roger Stone arrested in Fort Lauderdale FL. on an indictment for witness tampering and making false statements under oath … that’s it for now.

[Update]

See follow-up front-page story by Martin Longman …

○ On a Normal Day, This Would Be the Story

The leading Democrats in the House Intelligence Committee will finally focus on the REAL risk to US security and its national interest.

Trump appointee ‘overruled’ rejection of Jared Kushner for top security clearance | The Guardian |

Last February, the Washington Post reported that at least four countries had discussed the president’s son-in-law as a possible target of manipulation given his financial straits – the paper named the United Arab Emirates, China, Israel and Mexico.

More below the fold …
What about the publicized “back-channel” with a Russian delegate on the Seychelles?

○ What happened in the Seychelles: Erik Prince’s account | Vox |

Family ties between Jared Kushner and Bibi Netanyahu … they get along quite well together!!!

○ Trump’s Israel First!
○ Political Divide UAE (Trump) and Qatar (Clinton)
○ The curious case of Jared Kushner and the Israel lobby

[Most links added below are mine – Oui]

In January 2017 Erik Prince attended a meeting in the Seychelles with the United Arab Emirate’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund Kirill Dmitriev, and George Nader, a former consultant for Erik Prince’s company Blackwater.

The princes, the president and the fortune seekers | AP – May 2018 |

In return for pushing anti-Qatar policies at the highest levels of America’s government, Broidy and Nader expected huge consulting contracts from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, according to an Associated Press investigation based on interviews with more than two dozen people and hundreds of pages of leaked emails between the two men. The emails reviewed by the AP included work summaries and contracting documents and proposals.

The AP has previously reported that Broidy and Nader sought to get an anti-Qatar bill through Congress while obscuring the source of the money behind their influence campaign. A new cache of emails obtained by the AP reveals an ambitious, secretive lobbying effort to isolate Qatar and undermine the Pentagon’s longstanding relationship with the Gulf country.

A lawyer for Broidy, Chris Clark, contended the AP’s reporting “is based on fraudulent and fabricated documents obtained from entities with a known agenda to harm Mr. Broidy.”

How 2 Gulf Monarchies Sought to Influence the White House | NYT – March 2018 |

A cooperating witness in the special counsel investigation worked for more than a year to turn a top Trump fund-raiser into an instrument of influence at the White House for the rulers of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to interviews and previously undisclosed documents.

Hundreds of pages of correspondence between the two men reveal an active effort to cultivate President Trump on behalf of the two oil-rich Arab monarchies, both close American allies.

High on the agenda of the two men — George Nader, a political adviser to the de facto ruler of the U.A.E., and Elliott Broidy, the deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee — was pushing the White House to remove Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, backing confrontational approaches to Iran and Qatar and repeatedly pressing the president to meet privately outside the White House with the leader of the U.A.E.

Mr. Nader’s cultivation of Mr. Broidy, laid out in documents provided to The New York Times, provides a case study in the way two Persian Gulf monarchies have sought to gain influence inside the Trump White House. Mr. Nader has been granted immunity in a deal for his cooperation with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.

[…]

Mr. Nader, 58, a United States citizen born in Lebanon, previously ran a Washington-based journal called Middle East Insight, acted as an informal emissary to Syria under the Clinton administration, and, according to a short biography in the emails, later worked for Vice President Dick Cheney.

Early in the Trump administration, the two men also noted with approval a successful effort to block a top Pentagon position for Anne Patterson, a former ambassador to Cairo whom the Emiratis and Saudis have long criticized as too sympathetic to the deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood during his one year in office.

In one message to Mr. Nader in March 2017, Mr. Broidy referred to Secure America Now, an advocacy organization that he suggested had campaigned against Ms. Patterson, as “one of the groups I am working with.”

The foundation [Hudson Institute] said in a statement that it was approached by Mr. Broidy in 2017 seeking to fund a conference on Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood. “As is our funding policy, we asked if his funding was connected to any foreign governments or if he had business contracts in the Gulf. He assured us that he did not,” the statement said.

Documents show Mr. Nader’s payment was made by an Emirati-based company he controlled, GS Investments, to an obscure firm based in Vancouver, British Columbia, controlled by Mr. Broidy, Xiemen Investments Ltd.

○ George Nader held meetings with top Iraqi officials for UAE influence | Middle East Eye – Nov. 2018 |

More on Bannon, Prince and bin Zayed …

○ From the Seychelles to the White House to Cambridge Analytica, Erik Prince and the UAE are key parts of the Trump story | Medium – Apr. 8, 2018 |
○ Bannon, banished from the Trump team, takes on UAE talking points | Al Jazeera  – Apr. 6, 2018 |

Related reading …

○ Obama Administration Backed Muslim Brotherhood
○ US Administratons’ Failure to Distinquish Strands of Islam

Mass Protests Expected in Washington DC

The opposition calls by Democrats have been mounting due to the Women’s Rights abuse by “dictator” Donald Trump during his presidency. On Saturday a mass rally will call for Trump to step aside and let National Assembly (House) leader Nancy Pelosi become to de facto leader of the Nation. It will be difficult to comprehend Trump to relinquish power and abdicate his Office to a woman. Trump as commander-in-chief still has the MAGA armed forces under control who expect to help him clear the streets from DemoRats and the fake call for a new president.




○ Anarchy two blocks from the White House: More than 200 are arrested as riot police teargas masked mob of “Trump haters” smashing stores and burning cars [footage January 2017]

More below the fold …
It’s expected that Nancy Pelosi will soon get support from foreign entities: France’s Macron and Germany’s Angela Merkel in the lead.

○ UPDATE: France’s Macron calls election of America’s MVGA president ‘illegitimate’

White House cuts ties with Europe …

○ US State Downgrades Diplomatic Status EU

Tell me, did I just postulate a leadership take-over by popular protest because of the numbers by confusing Washington DC with let’s say Caracas?

Leaders across the globe have their position challenged by massive protests due to inequality, rising cost of healthcare and large groups condemned to poverty missing out on the digital revolution combined with economic globalization.

Grupo de Lima respalda a Guaidó

El Grupo de Lima mostró este miércoles su respaldo al líder de la Asamblea Nacional venezolana, Juan Guiadó, quien se autoproclamó como presidente encargado de Venezuela, y apoyó realizar elecciones “en el más breve plazo”

    The Group of Lima showed its support on Wednesday to the leader of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Juan Guiadó, who proclaimed himself president in charge of Venezuela, and supported holding elections “in the shortest time”

“Apoyan el inicio del proceso de transición democrática en Venezuela en el marco de su Constitución a fin de realizar nuevas elecciones en el más breve plazo con la participación de todos los actores políticos”, se asegura en un comunicado de este grupo, firmado por Argentina, Brasil, Canadá, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Panamá, Paraguay y Perú.

Guaidó anunció que se adjudicó las competencias del Ejecutivo en el marco de lo que llamó la lucha en contra de la “usurpación” de la Presidencia por parte de Nicolás Maduro, al que considera “ilegítimo”.

    “They support the beginning of the process of democratic transition in Venezuela within the framework of its Constitution in order to hold new elections in the shortest time with the participation of all political actors,” said a statement from this group, signed by Argentina. , Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay and Peru.

    Guaidó announced that he was awarded the powers of the Executive within the framework of what he called the fight against the “usurpation” of the Presidency by Nicolás Maduro, which he considers “illegitimate”.

DEMOCRACY is the POWER of the PEOPLE!

Related reading …

○ Now the judges agree – the vote for Brexit was clearly tainted | The Guardian Opinion |
○ Brexit is not the will of the British people – it never has been | LSE Study |

More …

○ The Faces Behind the Election Coup with Trump as Winner
○ Pre-BrExit Chaos Ensues

During the past two years, I have written many diaries on all topics listed below. There was an overwhelming opposition to a liberal, progressive agenda. The Conservatives have built their alliance over decades from the 1964 loss of Barry Goldwater, the Reagan years and the “dreadful” Clinton years. In the election campaign of 2016 all those forces came together with all their might with a Trump presidency as a result. Special attention for Netanyahu and Israel. Their collusion remains for some in the shadow, for me it’s as clear as blue skies: Netanyahu got his revenge on the Obama administration and the JCPOA deal with Iran. You will hear more about the “former” Mossad agents in the Black Cube intelligence enterprise. All attention of the Trump team has been to reward Israel for its support in getting him elected. Busy job for Jared Kushner and his corrupt financial backers with Israeli citizenship.

[From my diary – International Coalition to Defeat Democrats and Hillary in 2016]

Related reading …

○ The Right Finds Virtue in Extremism

    “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.”

    [Source: Barry Goldwater – 1964 GOP Convention]

[Update-1]

OAS: Pompeo Calls for ‘Military Intervention’

Washington DC, OAS special meeting Permanent Council on Thursday 24 January 2019

The Chair of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States, Ambassador Carlos Calles Castillo, Permanent Representative of El Salvador, presents his compliments to all the delegations and has the honor to advise them that, at the request of the Permanent Missions of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, and the United States
( CP/INF. 8180/19 ), he has called a special meeting of the Council for January 24, 2019, at 11:00 a.m. in the the Simón Bolívar Room, to consider “The recent developments in Venezuela,” in accordance with the accompanying order of business.

Secr. Pompeo lays blame at Cuba, Russia and China for keeping Maduro in power in Venezuela. Calls the regime illegitimate and has de facto installed a new president calling on the military to safeguard the new president and his followers.

○ Venezuelan general says US-backed ‘criminal plan’ risks civil war

○ Maduro brother, stand tall, Erdoğan tells Venezuelan president after US move | Hürriyet Daily News |

○ Russia’s Putin: Foreign interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs grossly violates international law

OAS Panel Dutifully Ignores Zionist Abuses, Pushes Venezuela Regime Change | MintPress – June 2018 |

Venezuela is in the vise-grip of a deep crisis; this much was undeniable even prior to the release of a 400-page report by a dubious “independent panel of experts” at the Organization of American States (OAS).

For the past several years, the South American country has been mired in crippling inflation, major shortages of food and goods, and widespread political turmoil. Tens of thousands of desperate people have spilled across the border, multiplying the presence of unauthorized Venezuelan migrants across the Andes. Cities have witnessed violent clashes between the anti-Chavista­ U.S.-backed opposition and the elected government of President Nicolas Maduro and the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, with opposition forces firebombing public transportation systems and children’s hospitals, and even burning alleged Chavistas alive in broad daylight.

Meanwhile, the streets themselves — deprived of economic security – have become the stage for a virtual war between criminal elements, both organized and unorganized, and state security forces.

Steele Dossier: FBI Biased and Lack of Honor – Shocking

I have been blogging since the fall of 2004 to express my views in favor of John Kerry and as much against the tyranny of George Bush and his Republican henchmen. @BooMan I considered myself an independent researcher and analyst of politics. In the approach to the Nov. 2016 election, the cross-section of bloggers changed and Democrats were divided in tribes: for or against candidate Hillary Clinton in the primaries. From that time troll rating became a new norm which made writing your view a new adventure.

As soon as the Steele dossier was introduced in the media and discussed on the blog, division hardened. My analysis was plenty of skepticism from the start, especially as I started to look at where the dossier was coming from. My view on the matter was not appreciated. Two years have passed and still not all details have come out.

Reading this article published by The Hill, I agree with the headline: SHOCKING!

This item will be making all the headlines in the coming hours.

○ Dossier Shocker: Top DOJ Official Sounded Alarm, Warned Of Clinton Connection And Possible Bias | Zero Hedge |

FISA shocker: DOJ official warned Steele dossier was connected to Clinton, might be biased | The Hill – Jan. 16, 2019 |

When the annals of mistakes and abuses in the FBI’s Russia investigation are finally written, Bruce Ohr almost certainly will be the No. 1 witness, according to my sources.

The then-No. 4 Department of Justice (DOJ) official briefed both senior FBI and DOJ officials in summer 2016 about Christopher Steele’s Russia dossier, explicitly cautioning that the British intelligence operative’s work was opposition research connected to Hillary Clinton’s campaign and might be biased.

Ohr’s briefings, in July and August 2016, included the deputy director of the FBI, a top lawyer for then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch and a Justice official who later would become the top deputy to special counsel Robert Mueller.

Continued below the fold …

At the time, Ohr was the associate attorney general. Yet his warnings about political bias were pointedly omitted weeks later from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant that the FBI obtained from a federal court, granting it permission to spy on whether the Trump campaign was colluding with Russia to hijack the 2016 presidential election.

Ohr’s activities, chronicled in handwritten notes and congressional testimony I gleaned from sources, provide the most damning evidence to date that FBI and DOJ officials may have misled federal judges in October 2016 in their zeal to obtain the warrant targeting Trump adviser Carter Page just weeks before Election Day.

They also contradict a key argument that House Democrats have made in their formal intelligence conclusions about the Russia case.

Since it was disclosed last year that Steele’s dossier formed a central piece of evidence supporting the FISA warrant, Justice and FBI officials have been vague about exactly when they learned that Steele’s work was paid for by the law firm representing the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

A redacted version of the FISA application released last year shows the FBI did not mention any connection to the DNC or Clinton. Rather, it referred to Steele as a reliable source in past criminal investigations who was hired by a person working for a U.S. law firm to conduct research on Trump and Russia.

The FBI claimed it was “unaware of any derogatory information” about Steele, that Steele was “never advised … as to the motivation behind the research” but that the FBI  “speculates” that those who hired Steele were “likely looking for information to discredit” Trump’s campaign.

Yet, in testimony last summer to congressional investigators, Ohr revealed the FBI and Justice lawyers had no need to speculate: He explicitly warned them in a series of contacts, beginning July 31, 2016, that Steele expressed biased against Trump and was working on a project connected to the Clinton campaign.

Ohr had firsthand knowledge about the motive and the client: He had just met with Steele on July 30, 2016, and Ohr’s wife, Nellie, worked for Fusion GPS, the same firm employing Steele.

The article ends with the stark reminder …

And the FBI knew the motive of the client and did not have to speculate: Ohr told agents the Democratic nominee’s campaign was connected to the research designed to harm Trump’s election chances.

Such omissions are, by definition, an abuse of the FISA system.

Don’t take my word for it. Fired FBI Director James Comey acknowledged it himself when he testified last month that the FISA court relies on an honor system, in which the FBI is expected to divulge exculpatory evidence to the judges.

The ugly battle of the blogs to get beyond the headlines, to get at the truth!

Why belief the work of spooks? My focus was especially on the background of [former] MI-6 asset Christopher Steele [British Orbis Business Intelligence] and his connections with the British spy agency. As expected, the British Embassy in Moscow was a centre for espionage … what’s new? These persons do today what they were qualified for in the years of the Cold War or its aftermath in the years of president Yeltsin. Bringing capitalism to Russia and steeling the state’s assets bringing anguish and poverty to its people.

Related reading …

○ British Intelligence Delivers Another ‘Dodgy Dossier’ by Oui @BooMan on Jan. 12th, 2017
○ ‘Sir’ Andrew Wood as spy chief in Moscow
○ A Gordian Knot: IC-Gate
○ UK Issued a DA-Notice On My Diary Result
○ Steele’s Dodgy Dossier and Dems’ Train Wreck

 
ADDENDUM:

Fusion GPS also worked on the Magnitski case and worked for HRC’s State Department and Victoria Nuland doing intelligence on Ukraine oligarchs and the Maidan Revolt of 2014.

Russian Oil Wealth, Kremlin and Oligarchs

Music’s Mystery Mogul: Len Blavatnik, Trump and Their Russian Friends | Hollywood Reporter – Oct. 2018 |

In May 2013, Martin Scorsese went to the Cannes Film Festival — not to be feted but to pitch a project: Silence, his not-exactly-commercial saga of two priests in 17th century Japan. The director had dinner aboard billionaire Len Blavatnik’s 164-foot yacht, Odessa, named for his birthplace in Ukraine. Scorsese and Blavatnik then headed to a lavish party hosted by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, owner of the English Premier League’s Chelsea F.C., who, like Blavatnik, had made his fortune following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Abramovich was hosting director Baz Luhrmann, whose The Great Gatsby was having its premiere at the festival. One observer was struck by the scene: “Len got to arrive with his prestigious guest and Abramovich was there with his, so it was oligarchs showing their connections.” Now, sources say, Blavatnik is negotiating a major multiplatform deal with Luhrmann, and Warner Bros. plans to make a long-gestating Elvis Presley film with the Australian director, presumably with Blavatnik’s backing.

The use of the O-word would annoy Blavatnik, 61. The press-shy billionaire has long maintained that he’s not an oligarch but a naturalized American citizen who emigrated from the Soviet Union [Ukraine] as a young man of 21 in 1978. Nonetheless, he has found himself on the radar of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, according to ABC News. Amid the drumbeat of the probe of Russian interference with the 2016 U.S. election, Blavatnik is on a quest to achieve his stated goal of building a “media platform for the 21st century.”

Continued below the fold …

Ignoring the Blavatnik origin story may become a little tougher, however, as he is one of several U.S. citizens with deep foreign ties who have attracted Mueller’s attention by donating millions to GOP causes in the past few years. Foreigners are not permitted to make such donations, but as American citizens, billionaires like Blavatnik can.

Starting in the 2015-16 election season, Blavatnik’s political contributions “soared and made a hard right turn,” according to an analysis by business professor Ruth May in The Dallas Morning News. In that cycle, he contributed $6.35 million to Republican candidates and incumbent senators. The biggest beneficiary was Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose Senate Leadership Fund received a $2.5 million donation followed by another $1 million in 2017. Blavatnik or Access gave generously to PACs associated with Sen. Lindsey Graham ($800,000) and to Sen. Marco Rubio ($1.5 million).

[…]

At a glance, Blavatnik not only is a wildly successful businessman but a philanthropist who has made huge donations to uni­versities, including $117 million to Oxford (the university’s School of Government building, completed in 2015, bears his name). Oxford’s press release announcing the gift obligingly described Blavatnik as an “American industrialist and philanthropist.” That gift drew protests from a group of more than 20 critics, including academics and activists, who argued that Oxford should “stop selling its reputation and prestige to Putin’s associates.”

[…]

Perhaps it was through Blavatnik’s visits to the Cannes Film Festival that he met other regulars, including Brett Ratner and future Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (who now wields considerable influence in determining which oligarchs will be subject to sanctions). Both Ratner and Mnuchin frequented Blavatnik’s yacht. In 2013, Ratner founded RatPac Entertainment with Australian billionaireJames Packer. (A source says Blavatnik was an investor from the beginning.)

Sir Michael Pakenham

Since retiring from the Diplomatic Service, Pakenham has been chairman of Pakenvest International; senior adviser to Access Industries; non-executive director of the Westminster Group; a trustee of Chevening House; and a lay member of the governing Council of King’s College London (and its Vice-Chairman since 2009).

○ Sir Michael Pakenham’s 70th birthday {photo’s attendees)

Access Industries

Len Blavatnik founded Access Industries in 1986 as an investment company. He attended Harvard Business School while running the company on the side, graduating with an MBA in 1989. Among its early investments, Access Industries helped form the large aluminum producer Siberian-Urals Aluminium Company (SUAL) in 1996, which later became part of UC RUSAL.

In 1997, Access acquired a 40% stake in the Russian oil company TNK. Half of TNK was sold to British Petroleum (BP) to form TNK-BP in 2003, in what was the largest-ever foreign investment in a Russian company. In 2013 Rosneft acquired TNK-BP for $55 billion, with Access Industries selling its stake and Blavatnik collecting US $7 billion for his share of the oil venture. The Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR) part of the deal will share the cash pot between Mikhail Fridman, German Khan, Viktor Vekselberg and Len Blavatnik, all of whom emerged as tycoons after the Russian privatisations of the 1990s.

Khan, who effectively heads TNK-BP and is Fridman’s partner in the Alfa Group consortium, sought advice and broached potential partnerships.

○ Rusal with Oleg Deripaska  settles dispute in London Arbitration Court with shareholders Glencore, Victor Vekselberg and Len Blavatnik (2013/14)

Since 2013, Access Industries has owned Clal Industries Ltd. (CII), an Israeli industrial investment group. Among CII’s main investments are Nesher Israel Cement Enterprises, Hadera Paper, Golf & Co., Clal Biotechnology, and the logistics group Taavura. Also since 2013, Access has owned a significant interest in EP Energy, a North American oil and natural gas producer with a portfolio of fields in the United States and Brazil. On August 18, 2017, Access Industries and a consortium of investors agreed to acquire the energy company Calpine Corporation for $5.6 billion.

○ Negotiations Underway to Sell Control of Channel 10 to Jewish Billionaire Len Blavatnik | Haaretz – Nov. 2013 |

Billionaire’s testimony said to shore up Netanyahu bribery suspicions | Times of Israel – Sept. 2017 |

Leonard Blavatnik reportedly confirms tells police he only purchased shares in Channel 10 after PM intervened

The recent testimony of a British-American billionaire in a corruption investigation into Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly “significantly” strengthened suspicions the prime minister received bribes from an Israeli-born Hollywood mogul in exchange for advancing his interests.

During his testimony, which took place a few weeks ago in London, Leonard Blavatnik confirmed to police that a media company he partly owns only purchased a controlling share in Channel 10 after he was approached by Netanyahu, Channel 2 news reported.

Police are said to be investigating whether the prime minister intervened in the sale of the Channel 10 shares in order to financially benefit Arnon Milchan, a Hollywood producer and part-owner of Channel 10, who for years supplied Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, with cigars and champagne.

Monday’s report said Blavatnik also told police that as part of Netanyahu’s involvement in the deal, the prime minister requested he make an offer for the shares and sent his aide Ari Harow to meet with him.

Harow, who was then Netanyahu’s chief of staff, turned state’s witness in August in a that investigation, known as Case 1000, and a second probe, Case 2000.

In Case 1000, Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu are suspected of receiving illicit gifts from billionaire benefactors, most notably the cigars and champagne from Milchan.

Milchan, who was recently questioned under caution by Israeli police investigators in London, is reported to have said there was no basis for the bribery allegations against him and that the hundreds of thousands of shekels’ worth of cigars and champagne he gave to the Netanyahus stemmed from his years-long friendship with the family, Channel 2 reported earlier this month.

<< photo >>

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his wife Sara (C) and their son Yair seen with actress Kate Hudson at an event held at the home of producer Arnon Milchan (right), March 6, 2014. (Avi Ohayon/GPO/Flash90)

○ Confidential, The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon Arnon Milchan
○ 800 Nuclear Triggers Smuggled to Israel, Mastermind Untouchable – Secret FBI Files

Key words with link to stories/diaries @BooMan/EuroTrib ::

| Oleg Deripaska | Rusal | Victor Vekselberg | Chabad-Lubavitch | Leonard Blavatnik | TNK-BP | Glencore | Felix Sater | Rosneft | Steve Mnuchin  | Alan Dershowith | Binyamin Netanyahu | Unit 8200 | Arnan Milchan | Ukraine Poroshenko |

A Blatant Violation of Iraq’s Sovereignty

Parliamentarians call emergency session “to discuss blatant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and to stop these aggressive actions by Trump”

Iraqi politicians criticise Donald Trump’s visit to country | The National UAE |

President Donald Trump’s surprise visit to American troops in Iraq was criticised by political and militia leaders as a violation of the country’s sovereignty.

Iraqi parliamentarians also revealed that a meeting between the US president and Iraqi prime minister Adel Abdul Mahdi had to be cancelled due to a disagreement over venue.

Sabah al Saadi, the leader of the Islah parliamentary bloc, called for an emergency session of parliament “to discuss this blatant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and to stop these aggressive actions by Trump who should know his limits: the US occupation of Iraq is over.”

Continued below the fold …

Prime minister Abdul Mahdi’s office said in a statement that he had been informed about the visit. The statement said the Iraqi prime minister and US president talked by telephone due to a “disagreement over how to conduct the meeting.”

Iraqi lawmakers told Reuters that the pair had disagreed over where their planned meeting should take place: Mr Trump had asked to meet at the Ain al-Asad military base, an offer which Mr Abdul Mahdi declined.

[…]

Qais Al Khazali, the leader of the powerful Iran-backed Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia said on Twitter, “Iraqis will respond with a parliamentary decision to oust your (US) military forces. And if they do not leave, we have the experience and the ability to remove them by other means that your forces are familiar with.”

Some Iraqis, however, were less concerned with the US president’s visit.

“We won’t get anything from America,” said Baghdad resident Mohammad Abdullah. “They’ve been in Iraq 16 years, and they haven’t given anything to the country except destruction and devastation.”

The US legacy in Iraq: violence, sectarianism – and elections | Al Jazeera – Qatar |

Of course UANI is quite active on social media with all frustrations about decision to pull out of Syria while antagonizing the Iranian people hit by US sanctions.

○ In recording, Netanyahu boasts Israel convinced Trump to quit Iran nuclear deal | Times of Israel |
○ Trump Touts Arms Sales To Saudi Crown Prince, Discusses Iran | RFERL |

○ Trump: We give Israel billions, it can defend itself in Syria
○ Israeli official confirms Syria airstrikes, says Iran was the target | Ynet News |
○ Russia’s MFA press briefing on Syria
○ Putin heralds successful tests of Russia’s new hypersonic missile

Iraq Elections: How Iran won a face-off with the US in Iraq

Following Iraq’s “inconclusive” national election on May 12, the United States tried hard to guarantee a second term for former Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. Washington’s special envoy Brett McGurk spent months talking Iraqi politicians into following the American blueprint aimed at isolating Tehran and “keeping anyone friendly to Iran out of power.” But it was all in vain. The US failed to place its desired candidates in the important positions of prime minister, president and speaker of the parliament. Instead, Iran’s Iraqi allies got their way. All three positions were filled with new faces who would not allow Iraq to turn its back to Iran.

Iran needed to make sure that Iraq’s new government would not tilt towards Washington, and support the renewed US sanctions – the way Abadi did. Abadi had adopted the new set of US sanctions against Iran in August, in an attempt to countervail the electoral setback he faced in May and ensure a second term.

Exposing identity of US Navy Seals in Baghdad …

Hybrid Warfare: UK Statecraft Integrity Initiative

Put the first comments in the December thread together in a diary …

Re: December Open Thread (none / 1)

I have somewhat been following the fall-out of the Integrity Initiative documents.

The short version is that somebody put up their documents – hacked or leaked – and the picture have emerged of a US/UK/NATO funded organisation with ties to intelligence services that under the cloak of a charity has been “countering Russian propaganda” by propaganda of their own.

So far their accomplishments appear to be getting a volunteer into the Sanders campaign, stopping an appointment in Spain, writing all kinds of “Russians are coming” articles and dissing Corbyn on Twitter.

The most comprehensive write-up I have found is this: http://syriapropagandamedia.org/working-papers/briefing-note-on-the-integrity-initiative

Anyone noticed any traditional media coverage of it yet?

by fjallstrom on Tue Dec 25th, 2018 at 03:10:57 PM PDT

Worthwhile to put contents in a diary for some visibility as this is not the end of debate …

Continued below the fold …

New to me, I’ll look into it …

From a website of Anon CyberGuerrilla the name Maria de Goeij popped up:

○ Maria de Goeij  – LinkedIn
○ The Institute for Statecraft, London – fellows

Re: December Open Thread (none / 1)

Your link is already pretty comprehensive, what is your question or goal? Link also refers to Tim Hayward’s blog which supports the investigation into “Statecraft”.

I see that the Henry Jackson Society is also linked as a partner. That’s not new to me. See my earlier reporting in November on the USA Intelligence Initiative to smear Russians and legitimate bloggers in the states.

○ Khodorkovsky – The Interpreter – Henry Jackson Society (UK)
○ Unpacking PropOrNot Misinformation Site (2017)
○ PropOrNot: Identifying & Combatting Russian Online Propaganda | OUR ALLIES |

I’ve been pretty much blacklisted since then @BooMan.

You should also reread diary here @EuroTrib in 2008 by  djhabakkuk …

○ ‘Flex players’, and the ‘forward strategy’ …

Further coverage:

○ Foreign Office denies state funds went to Twitter account criticising Labour | The Guardian – Dec 13, 2018 |
○ Newly Released ‘Integrity Initiative’ Papers Include Proposal For Large Disinformation Campaigns | MoA |

The offer claims that the company can launch hundreds of “news” pieces per day on as many websites. It notably also offers to “edit” Wikipedia articles.

In short: This proposal describes large disinformation operations under the disguise of fighting alleged Russian disinformation. It is at the core what the Integrity Initiative, which obviously requested the proposal, is about.

But as we saw in the information revealed yesterday there is more to it. The Initiative, which has lots of ‘former’ military and intelligence people among its staff, is targeting the political left in Britain as well as in other countries. It is there where it becomes a danger to the democratic societies of Europe.

○ British Security Service Infiltration, the Integrity Initiative and the Institute for Statecraft | Craig Murray |

UK Gov: Just a Scottish Charity

Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Integrity Initiative: Written question – 196177

Q  Asked by Chris Williamson (Derby North) [N]             Asked on: 27 November 2018
Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Integrity Initiative         196177

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether his Department has (a) funded, (b) provided contracts to and (c) procured the services of the Integrity Initiative in each financial year since 2015/16.

A  Answered by: Sir Alan Duncan                      Answered on: 03 December 2018

The Institute for Statecraft is an independent, Scottish, charitable body whose work seeks to improve governance and enhance national security. They launched the Integrity Initiative in 2015 to defend democracy against disinformation.

In financial year 2017/18, the FCO funded the Institute for Statecraft’s Integrity Initiative £296,500. This financial year, the FCO is funding a further £1,961,000. Both have been funded through grant agreements.

At the Eastern Partnership Summit in November 2017, the Prime Minister announced that the UK Government has committed £100m over five years to tackling this threat internationally.

Such funding furthers our commitment to producing important work to counter disinformation and other malign influence.

ADDED:

○ ii Integrity Initiative – Defending Democracy Against Misinformation [pdf]

To written answer, a follow-up debate in House of Commons on Dec. 12, 2018 …

○ Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs to make a statement on his Department’s funding of the Institute for Statecraft’s integrity initiative.

Quite revealing, attacking Russia for the hack and denying what’s there for anyone to see! UK Gov transparency?

As quite long debate in the Commons pursued, this reaction was also interesting:

Layla Moran Liberal Democrat Spokesperson (Education)

“In the end, this is about trust. In a recent parliamentary question to do with public money to fund social media ads to promote the Brexit deal, I asked the Government whether they would place the contents of these ads in the Library for us all to see. Unfortunately, this request was declined. Does the Minister agree that, to ensure public trust and transparency, the content and audiences of any ads paid for by public money should be published centrally as a matter of course?”

Tim Hayward’s tweet and the follow-up comments …

○ UK Foreign Office confirms funding the Institute for Statecraft’s Integrity Initiative £296,500 in 2017/18, and this financial year a further £1.96 million.

Also NATO is involved in the funding of Statecraft’s initiative just as Bellingcat is funded by USAID and the Atlantic Council.

In The Netherlands there was also a funded group to open windows to Russia and propaganda. An investigation by journalists uncovered a small number of Ukrainian nationals received the money for this bs operation.

As a whole, this is just part of the Cold War 2.0 and hybrid warfare. PM Theresa May shouldn’t lament when Putin reacts.

I will attempt to follow up with the political tweets of this UK and International network attacking Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party or anyone in opposition to this rightwing, militant organisation. A network of spooks, MI6 officers and former military funding young people to operate as shills on social media.

○ The Deep State and Lisa Pease’s Contribution

UAE Hired US Mercenaries for Assassinations in Yemen

The Israeli assassin who teamed up with Mohammad Dahlan | Ynet News – Oct. 2018 |

Israeli-American Abraham Golan was hired by the UAE and Mohammed Dahlan, former head of Palestinian Preventive Security, to head a team of mercenaries tasked with killing a Yemeni Islamist leader, according to a Buzzfeed report.

The popular American news and entertainment website Buzzfeed published an investigative report of a mercenary operation in Yemen that entailed an unusual collaboration between an Israeli-American assassin, the United Arab Emirates and the former head of the Palestinian preventive security forces Mohammad Dahlan.


Former head of security for the Palestinian Authority Mohammed Dahlan (left) and Spear Operations Group founder Abraham Golan

More below the fold …

According to the report, US forces–including former Navy Seals–were hired by a company in the UAE to carry out a series of assassinations. One of the main targets was Anssaf Ali Mayo, a Yemeni Islamist leader who according to the UAE is a terrorist who leads the Yemeni branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The mercenaries’ mission was to plant an explosive charge at the entrance to Mayo’s office, near a football stadium in the center of the city of Aden. The explosion, on December 29, 2015, was supposed to “kill everyone in the office”–but it failed.

The operation against Mayo, which was reported at the time but was not known to have been carried out by American mercenaries, was one of the central factors in the long campaign in Yemen.

[…]
According to him, the model for the assassinations industry is based on Israel’s targeted killing of terrorists. Golan, who maintains good relations with Israel through security deals in which he is involved, said he had lived in Israel for several years. In the past he attended a party with former Mossad chief Danny Yatom, and his expertise “was to provide security for energy clients in Africa.”

A Middle East Monarchy Hired American Ex-Soldiers To Kill Its Political Enemies. This Could Be The Future Of War | Buzzfeed – Oct. 16, 2018 |

Cradling an AK-47 and sucking a lollipop, the former American Green Beret bumped along in the back of an armored SUV as it wound through the darkened streets of Aden. Two other commandos on the mission were former Navy SEALs. As elite US special operations fighters, they had years of specialized training by the US military to protect America. But now they were working for a different master: a private US company that had been hired by the United Arab Emirates, a tiny desert monarchy on the Persian Gulf.

On that night, December 29, 2015, their job was to carry out an assassination.

Their target that night: Anssaf Ali Mayo, the local leader of the Islamist political party Al-Islah. The UAE considers Al-Islah to be the Yemeni branch of the worldwide Muslim Brotherhood, which the UAE calls a terrorist organization. Many experts insist that Al-Islah, one of whose members won the Nobel Peace Prize, is no terror group. They say it’s a legitimate political party that threatens the UAE not through violence but by speaking out against its ambitions in Yemen.

○ How Saudi Arabia uses terror to suppress the Muslim Brotherhood
○ The Hague: Mossad Suspect In Death Threats to ICC Employee
○ Dutch Interview with Ronen Bergman and Danny Yatom on Unit 8200

Earlier report on Mossad’s Danny Yatom [h/t DuctapeFatwa] …

Israelis trained Kurds in Iraq | Ynet News – Jan. 2005 |

According to the report, the Kurdish government contracted Israeli security and communications companies to train Kurdish security forces and provide them with advanced equipment.

Motorola Inc. and Magalcom Communications and Computers won contracts with the Kurdish government to the tune of hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars.

The flagship of the contracts is the construction of an international airport in the northern Kurdish city of Ibril, a stepping stone towards the fulfilment of Kurdish national aspirations for independence.

In addition to Motorola and Magalcom, a company owned by Israeli entrepreneur Shlomi Michaels is in full business partnership with the Kurdish government, providing strategic consultation on economic and security issues.

The strategic consultation company was initially established by former Mossad chief Danny Yatom (Labor) and Michaels, yet Yatom sold his shares upon his election to the Knesset.

○ During 2004-5, Interop and Kudo were run by Shlomi Michaels, a former head of Israel’s counter-terrorist unit | BBC Newsnight |  
○ Middle East Forum: Surprising Ties between Israel and the Kurds

Further reading …

○ Salman Offered Candidate Trump Assassination Program on Iran

Hidden Comments

My two comments erased by AG’s resident trolls 😉

AG’s diary – Agnew? Just Another Corrupt Baltimore Pol. Like…Guess Who???

Re: Just Another Corrupt Baltimore Politician (1.50 / 2)

You must be mistaken AG!

Baltimore monument to one of its favorite sons – here.

Perhaps, in those days it were the Russians and investments in the railroad infrastructure – see the purchase by the city of Baltimore of the Crimea Mansion  and Estate in Leakin Park in the 1940s. Troublesome indeed, the mayor was in opposition.

“If you’re digging in Leakin Park to bury your body, you’re going to find somebody else’s.”

Key words: Thomas D’Alesandro Jr. | Little Italy on East side | Dead Run Valley | Thomas DeKay Winans | Crimea |

A big smile to you AG 🙂

○ American Pioneers in Russian Railroad Building
○ The Evolution of the American Locomotive

 

    Re: Just Another Corrupt Baltimore Politician (none / 1)

    Thank you, Oui!!!

    AG

    Not until faithfulness turns to betrayal-and betrayal into trust-can any human being become part of the truth. – Rumi

    by Arthur Gilroy (arthurgilroy<at>earthlink.net) on Sat Dec 22nd, 2018 at 06:08:57 PM MEST

Hey AG … congratulations!

You’ve still got your resident troll … hilarious. The opinion of these trolls happen to coincide with a 4-star general of the 2007 troops surge in Iraq. A strange world we live in. 😉  

Doing great across the big pond, a trusted user as I was previously here at BooMan’s pond. Still enjoying life and politics. No surprises though, a bit dull once you got the analysis right.

Find me @ET for stories w/o trolls