It couldn't have been a very good day at the White House.

October 24, 2019
By Aaron Katersky and James Hill

Photo (click here)

President Donald Trump’s own records "strongly corroborate" (click here) the sexual assault accusations of Summer Zervos and belie the president’s denials, the former contestant on "The Apprentice" said in a court filing Thursday.

Zervos has alleged Trump "repeatedly touched her, groped her, and kissed her" on multiple occasions in late 2007 and early 2008, but he has denied it and called her a liar....

...Now, Zervos said there is corroborating evidence the Trump Organization was forced to turn over as part of her defamation lawsuit filed in New York Supreme Court earlier this year....

The US Senate Republcans can kick and scream all they want, but, the trial will go forward.

The US Senate has no power over the impeachment process of the US House. I think it is the US House that has the right to condemn the US Senate. The storming of the US House closed hearing attended by many Republicans, is now raising more questions about USA national security.

..."This unprecedented breach of security (click here) raises serious concerns for committee chairman, including me, responsible for maintaining SCIFs," Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in a letter to Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving. “I urge you to take House-wide action to remind all members about the dangers of such reckless action and the potential national security risks of such behavior.”...

October 24, 2019
By Li Zhou

Not to be outdone by their House counterparts, (click here) Senate Republicans are piling onto attacks about the process behind Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, the latest GOP attempt to derail the focus on the substance of the probe itself.

Trump ally and Senate Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham, who’s at the forefront of this push in the upper chamber, introduced a resolution on Thursday that condemns the House inquiry and its interviews with impeachment witnesses behind closed doors. The resolution, which has 41 Republican cosponsors, also urges the House to hold a formal vote to initiate an impeachment inquiry, a move that could give lawmakers in the minority more power to subpoena witnesses.

“If you believe you have a case against the president, vote to open up an inquiry,” Graham said in a press conference announcing the resolution, which is also cosponsored by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell....

Hello...this is more than likely what the DOJ is hoping will lead to infractions in the law.

October 24, 2019
By Clare Hymes

Washington — The Justice Department's internal watchdog (click here) said a highly anticipated report on the department's use of secret surveillance warrants during the Russia investigation is "nearing completion" and will likely be released publicly, according to a letter obtained by CBS News.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz wrote to congressional leaders on Thursday with an update on his investigation into alleged abuses of warrants obtained under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Horowitz said he expects the report "will be released publicly with few redactions," but declined to provide a timeline.

"I can report to you that the process is ongoing and nearing completion, and we are working through these issues constructively with both the Department and the FBI," Horowitz wrote. "The goal from my standpoint is to make as much of our report public as possible."...

This has nothing to do with the Russia investigation. This is the misuse of META DATA. So, is this the price we pay for surveillance of potential terrorist attacks or not?

October 15, 2019
By Nichol Lindsey

According to a new declassified ruling (click here) from the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), FBI personnel systematically abused National Security Agency (NSA) mass surveillance data in both 2017 and 2018. The 138-page ruling, which dates back to October 2018, was only unsealed 12 months later in October 2019. It offers a rare look at how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been abusing the constitutional privacy rights of U.S. citizens with alarming regularity. The court ruling is also a stinging rebuke to the FBI’s overreach of its ability to search surveillance intelligence databases.

The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, itself a super-secret court that traditionally approves each and every request of law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, found that employees of the FBI searched data collected under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in an inappropriate and potentially unconstitutional manner. These abuses, says the FISA court, included accessing NSA surveillance data to look into the online communications of U.S. citizens, including fellow FBI employees and their family members. All told, there may have been tens of thousands of these improper queries, all of them carried out without any reasonable suspicion of a crime or illegal activity posing a risk to national security. Moreover, many of the FBI’s backdoor searches did not differentiate between U.S. citizens and foreign intelligence targets.

Simply put, the data was available to search, and the FBI willingly took advantage of every opportunity to query the NSA intelligence database. For example, FBI employees routinely used mass surveillance data to investigate potential witnesses and informants....

...Perhaps the most contentious and controversial section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is Section 702, which went into effect in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in America. Under Section 702, it became possible for the NSA to conduct monitoring of online communications involving foreign nationals in bulk....

What did anyone expect in the face of impending impeachment and a Senate trial. It's cover for Trump.

I spent a significant amount of time reading something like 120 pages of the counterintelligence report of the Special Counsel and the forensics is there. The forensics of the investigation traced the illegal activity of Russian spies of two different Russian intelligence agencies right into their own computers. The footprint into the hacking of the DCCC and the Clinton Campaign lead to the extensive information that lead to the investigation begun by the FBI under James Comey.

There is too many FACTS. This attempt to discredit the USA intelligence agencies is a plot all by itself and it is announced today because of the storming of the hearing room as if something really nefarious is going on. This is an attempt to discredit the impeachment.

Interestingly, the current information gathered by the US House is about Trump's wrongdoings while still in office and has nothing to do with the Russia investigation. He can't worm his way out of this one.

October 24, 2019

By Michael Balsamo

Washington - The Justice Department (click here) has shifted its review of the Russia investigation to a formal criminal inquiry.

That’s according to a person familiar with the investigation who spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday. The person wasn’t authorized to discuss the ongoing matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The move is likely to raise alarm among Democrats that the Trump administration may be trying to use the government to investigate the president’s political opponents.

It’s unclear what potential crimes are being investigated. But the move gives prosecutors the ability to issue subpoenas and potentially empanel a grand jury.

DOJ had previously considered it to be an administrative review, and it’s unclear when the probe transitioned to a criminal investigation....

Donald Trump has failed the USA and Israel. Moving the USA mission to Jerusalem was cover for what was to come.

This was reported six months ago before Trump's final capitulation to Putin regarding Turkey and the aggression that would follow.

April 7, 2019
By Natasha Turak

World Economic Forum (WEF) President Borge Brende (click here) spoke to CNBC on Sunday, discussing his take on the evolving geopolitical landscape in the Middle East.

It’s no news that Russian presence in the region has grown. American withdrawal and disengagement from several of the region’s hotspots has coincided with an apparent shift eastward, Brende said, inviting Moscow to exert its influence over that of the U.S.

“I think there is a clear reality on the ground that we see more of a Russian footprint in this region,” Brende told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble during the WEF on the Middle East and Africa in Amman, Jordan.

The Norwegian politician and diplomat, who served as foreign affairs minister before taking up the WEF presidency, pointed to some clear areas where Russia’s foreign policy objectives have defined the trajectory of conflicts. This has been the case particularly in Syria, where Russian troops have supported Syrian leader Bashar Assad since 2015, enabling him to survive and essentially win that country’s eight-year-long civil war.

“Of course in Syria, Russia now plays an important role, we also see that there is a lot of interaction between President Putin and Prime Minister Netanyahu (of Israel),” Brende said.

But other examples relating to trade and investment are clear indicators of increased Russian clout, he added. “We also see that the Gulf countries are discussing very much with Russia when it comes to the oil price, because Russia is the largest oil producer in the world, even larger than Saudi.”

Russia’s alliance with OPEC’s largest oil producer Saudi Arabia and agreements for continued cooperation in energy, trade and investment have enabled closer ties between the two, and its sales of weapons systems like the S-400 missile defense system, which is now driving a wedge between NATO allies the U.S. and Turkey, is not lost on Washington.

Moscow has signed technical agreements and memoranda of understanding to sell the S-400 — which is a cheaper, and according to some analysts more effective version of the U.S. Patriot missile defense system — and other weapons to Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar....

Six months of capitulation to Russia has resulted in more demands of the USA to further capitulate control of the region to Moscow. I don't believe the withdrawal of USA forces was at all abrupt to Donald Trump who was talking to Russia and Syria since 2017 about the paradigm shift. Everyone else was surprised because the USA infrastructure was kept unaware of the plans. What else does Trump have in his ultra top-secret file?

October 24, 2019

Russia demanded on Thursday that any remaining U.S. soldiers in Syria (click here) leave the country, denouncing the United States as an occupying force in the war-torn Middle Eastern state.

"As for the presence of American soldiers in Syria, our position is well known. Only the Russian units are present in Syria legitimately at the invitation of the Syrian leadership," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in comments carried by state news agency TASS.

The U.S. abruptly withdrew forces from northern Syria earlier this month, days before NATO ally Turkey began an offensive against Kurdish militants in the region whom the U.S. had been protecting.

Russia, the main military backer of the Syrian government, reached a deal with Turkey this week to share control over parts of northern Syria that had been targeted in the Turkish offensive, obligating the Kurdish militants to leave such areas....