CNN’s ‘Information Warfare Expert’ Duped by Twitter Bot Pushing … (PJ Media)
“McKew is a former Podesta Group “specialist” and the CEO of Fianna Strategies. Up until the election of Donald Trump, she served as a registered foreign agent for opposition parties in Georgia and Moldova.
Having lost her foreign clients after the 2016 election, she has since refashioned herself as a Russian disinformation expert and a go-to source for media on Trump-Russia conspiracy theories. McKew has even testified before a congressional committee.
Yet like an amateur, she was just duped by a Twitter bot on a politically charged incident.”
Jan 23, 2019
How the Clinton machine flooded the FBI with Trump-Russia dirt … until agents bit
BY JOHN SOLOMON
“When at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That’s what Hillary Clinton’s machine did in 2016, eventually getting the FBI to bite on an uncorroborated [and fake] narrative that Donald Trump and Russia were trying to hijack the presidential election.
Between July and October 2016, Clinton-connected lawyers, emissaries and apologists made more than a half-dozen overtures to U.S. officials, each tapping a political connection to get suspect evidence into FBI …”
The articles describes many of this overtures, naming Bruce and Nellie Ohr (FBI and Fusion GPS, respectively), FBI general counsel James Baker, Michael Sussmann from the Perkins Coie, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Australia’s ambassador to London Alexander Downer, Sidney Blumenthal and Cody Shearer, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, CIA Director John Brennan, FBI counterintelligence Peter Strzok and William Priestap etc.
“The tsunami began when former MI6 agent Steele first approached an FBI supervisor his handler in an earlier criminal case, in London. That approach remarkably occurred on July 5, 2016 …”
“Then-senior State Department official Jonathan Winer, who worked for then-Secretary John Kerry, wrote that Steele first approached him in the summer with his Trump research and then met again with him in September. Winer consulted his boss, Assistant Secretary for Eurasia Affairs Victoria Nuland, who said she first learned of Steele’s allegations in late July and urged Winer to send it to the FBI.”
But Nuland had already approved the Steele – FBI contact on July 5! So she knew that was a duplicate approach. She also knew Steele was unreliable: “At times, I thought he had gotten spun up by a source.” (Isikoff, Michael. Russian Roulette. p. 146)
Jan 23, 2019
What to Do about the Emerging Threat of Censorship Creep on the Internet (Cato.org, Nov. 2017), Quotes & Comments
How quickly things change “on the Internet”! What was considered an emerging threat in 2017 became a routine reality a year later!
“In the wake of terrorist attacks in late 2015, European Union (EU) regulators warned tech companies that they would face prohibitively expensive fines and potential criminal penalties unless extremist and hateful content was swiftly removed. In response, the dominant social media platforms have altered their speech policies to ban extremist content in ways that risk censorship creep. Already, European lawmakers have pressed companies to ban “fake news” to help combat extremist expression.”
One of the ways that the EU reacted to the Islamist terrorist attacks was appeasement towards Islamists by cracking down on speech deemed disagreeable to them. The emphasized words “extremist and hateful content” apply equally to encouragement of terrorism and “Islamaphobic” speech.
“To stave off threatened European regulation, tech companies have retreated from a strong free speech stance. In May 2016, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube (referred to in the rest of the paper as “the Companies”) signed an agreement with the European Commission to “prohibit the promotion of incitement to violence and hateful conduct.” The agreement defined “hateful conduct” as speech inciting violence or hatred against protected groups. Under the agreement, the Companies pledged to remove reported hate speech that violated TOS within 24 hours. The European Commission was given the right to review the companies’ compliance with the agreement.“
By signing that agreement with the EC and obeying the EC demands, Google (YouTube), Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft agreed to subject the United States to the same level of censorship as that of the European Commission. They violated a number a criminal statutes, including 18 U.S. Code § 951 – Agents of foreign governments. Since one of the purposes of the EC censorship was to accommodate terrorist groups and/or quasi-states at war with the US, this betrayal seems to fall under the narrow interpretation of Treason (18 U.S. Code § 2381). Since 2016, Big Tech has been squashing all ideas, speech, and speakers who object to the EC orthodoxy, from climate realists to Trump supporters.
“A decade ago, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) publicly chastised YouTube for refusing to remove terrorist training videos. The senator’s pressure failed to produce results because the company prioritized the protection of users’ free speech over its popularity on Capitol Hill.”
Yielding to the requests of Sen. Lieberman wouldn’t be a betrayal, and wouldn’t provide the benefits (real or imaginary) that traitors seek. More:
“European regulators have effectively exerted power over the expression of people who do not live in their jurisdictions and cannot hold them accountable. The result is worldwide conformity with European speech values without meaningful accountability or oversight. Given the success of these efforts, European regulators will continue to demand more “voluntary” changes to coerce conformity with desired speech norms. Such “public-private partnerships” are fruitful courses of action for state censors. They secure the adoption of governmental preferences without the burdens of formal process. EU regulators will hardly rein in their pressure on their own.”
The Big Tech Terms of Service (TOS) are global.
“YouTube’s description of its TOS is the same for inside the United States as outside it. “Terms of Service,” YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/t/terms. The same is true for Twitter. “The Twitter Rules,” Twitter, https://support.twitter.com/articles/18311.”
“These developments will have a far-reaching impact because TOS agreements typically apply globally. Unlike a court order that applies only within the issuing country’s borders, a company’s decision about a TOS violation applies everywhere its services are accessed. … Removal for a TOS violation means worldwide removal. This sort of censorship is hard to circumvent.”
Jan 19, 2019
Mimicking Google’s “news media initiatives“, Facebook has announced that it will dedicate $300 million dollars to bribe (to “stabilize” and “support” in its PR language) news media.
Jan 15, 2019
After resignation of Scott Pruitt, Ryan Zinke became a top enemy of the climate alarmists. They have been chasing him ruthlessly, “by all means necessary”, including false ethics complaints. Apparently, Obama holdovers in the DOJ attempt to use pages from the Mueller’s textbook – finding inaccuracies in his responses to the investigators of the complaints, and throwing at him 18 USC § 1001 Making False Statements.
Stand with Ryan Zinke!
It's been a high honor to serve @POTUS & the American People as @Interior Secretary. We've restored public lands “for the benefit & enjoyment of the people,” improved public access & shall never be held hostage again for our energy needs. God bless America & those who defend her. pic.twitter.com/JXzVmrpDTg
— Secretary Ryan Zinke (@SecretaryZinke) January 2, 2019
From the Washington Times article:
“Newly departed U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told The Associated Press on Thursday that he’s been truthful with investigators looking into numerous ethics complaints against him and rejected as inaccurate a report that he’s under investigation for lying.
Zinke’s comments came in response to a Washington Post story alleging that the Justice Department’s public integrity section was examining whether the former Montana congressman lied to investigators from Interior Department’s office of inspector general, which provides independent oversight of the agency.
In his first interview since he stepped down on Wednesday, Zinke says the allegations are false and appeared to have been leaked to undermine his accomplishments as head of a department responsible for managing about 500 million acres of U.S. lands, primarily in the West. He resigned last month after Democrats critical of Zinke’s tenure regained control of the House of Representatives in the November election.”
Jan 3, 2019
Sometime ago, I noticed a generous advertising sponsorship of the Washington Post by Qatar Airways and wondered what the deal was. Some of it has just been revealed. WaPo columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a putative Saudi reformer murdered in Turkey, was an influence agent for the Qatari government. See also SSG. WaPo practically acknowledged this, although it feigned the lack of knowledge. Gladly accepting Yuan and Riyals, WaPo was the main media asset used by the DNC and Brennan or Clapper to create and to disseminate the “Russian interference” and Putin–Trump collusion conspiracy theories.
Dec 27, 2018
REPORT: Huber and Horowitz Investigations Deep State Cons Constructed by DOJ…
“According to our own independent sourcing, as a direct consequence of the Sessions recusal issues, DAG Rosenstein was in charge of approving all OIG investigative document production and DOJ/FBI scheduling for testimony. Mueller’s team gave Rosenstein a list of restrictive lines of inquiry that would be considered obstructing their own investigation and should thereby be considered ‘out-of-bounds‘ for OIG review; those instructions broadly created limits on what Horowitz could see, and who Horowitz could interview.
According to a person directly involved, an internal investigative complaint was filed to the AG; however, due to recusal issues that complaint was forwarded (by Sessions) to FBI chief-legal-counsel Dana Boente.
General Counsel Boente, hired by Christopher Wray, ultimately concurred with Mueller and Rosenstein’s decision thereby blocking any internal investigative efforts under the auspices of protecting the integrity of the ongoing Mueller probe.
A bureaucratic catch-22.
As a result of team Mueller’s moves, multiple people including John Carlin, Mary McCord, Bruce Ohr, Nellie Ohr, Carter Page and any other inside official with knowledge of the FISA application and downstream issue, is off-limits for DOJ-OIG questioning.
This decision was stunningly ironic considering that Dana Boente was the ultimate arbiter inside the internal debate. Remember, Boente was “acting AG” after Sally Yates was fired.” (The Conservative Treehouse, Dec 22)
BTW, theconservativetreehouse.com is the second most blacklisted by Google website that I had ever encountered. It has PGSTN=6.2%.
Dec 27, 2018
https://www.thenation.com/article/maria-butina-russia-nonprofits/
“After graduating with highest honors, Butina worked as a youth organizer, program consultant to a local businessman/philanthropist, and became executive director for the local Rotary Club. She returned to her university for graduate school, was elected to the Altai Public Chamber, worked in journalism and business but ultimately decided to commit herself to being an activist. Guns were a lifelong hobby …”
https://www.thenation.com/article/russiagate-russophobia-mueller-trump/
“It is perhaps unusual then that merely having contact with a Russian passport holder is deemed suspect. A stark illustration of that xenophobic mentality has come with the newly resolved prosecution of Russian pro-gun activist and graduate student Maria Butina.”
“Retracting an earlier claim, prosecutors now acknowledge that Butina had a genuine ‘interest in a graduate school education’ in the United States. They have also abandoned contentions that she worked with Russian intelligence agencies …”
Dec 27, 2018
What is 97%, other than the fake measure of climate alarmism consensus? From The Hill: “Employees of the Department of Justice, which investigated Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of State, gave Clinton 97 percent of their donations.”
According to the same article, employees of all federal government agencies overwhelmingly gave to Hillary with the numbers from 84% (the Department of Defense) to 99.7% (the Department of Education).
May 28, 2018
Robert Mueller Has Been Botching Investigations Since The Anthrax Attacks (The Federalist)
Quotes:
“Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the anthrax attacks following 9/11 — one of the most important of his career — did not go well, to say the least.”
“The anthrax letters began just a week after the 9/11 attack. While planning the airplane hijackings, Al-Qaeda had been weaponizing anthrax, setting up a lab in Afghanistan manned by Yazid Sufaat, the same man who housed two of the 9/11 hijackers. Two hijackers later sought medical help due to conditions consistent with infection via anthrax: Al Haznawi went to the emergency room for a skin lesion which he claimed was from “bumping into a suitcase,” and ringleader Mohamed Atta needed medicine for “skin irritation.” A team of bioterrorism experts from Johns Hopkins confirmed that anthrax was the most likely cause of the lesion. Meanwhile, the 9/11 hijackers were also trying to obtain crop-dusting airplanes. So how did Mueller’s investigative team handle the case?”
May 21, 2018