CENTCOM Reports Altered to Follow Obama’s Lead

Posted on August 12, 2016August 12, 2016 by Denise Simon

Not all intelligence professionals complied with the reports declaring in Congressional testimony conditions that were dramatically worse than what Barack Obama was telling the American people. The consequence of the top CENTCOM staff altering and filtering factual summaries can never be fully measured however, immediately after General Mattis left CENTCOM, the process was changed and reporting began to go south. When General Austin replaced Mattis, collaboration and use of all intelligence tools were amended. Timing is important such that the fall of Ramadi and Fallujah happened but notably within days of Obama making the declaration that Islamic State was the JV team, Mosul fell.

The United States officially left Iraq in 2011, there were an estimated 700 terror fighters that remained, within several months the number grew to several thousand while the top count going into 2014 it was 31,000. Today, Islamic State has functional operating cells in 24 countries. Attention to al Qaeda, Boko Haram, the Taliban and other terror factions has been eliminated from the political lexicon.

The Congressional 17 page report is.

House probe: Central Command reports skewed intel on ISIS fight

FNC: Intelligence reports produced by U.S. Central Command that tracked the Islamic State’s 2014-15 rise in Iraq and Syria were skewed to present a rosier picture of the situation on the ground, according to a bombshell report released Thursday by a House Republican task force.

The task force investigated a Defense Department whistleblower’s allegations that higher-ups manipulated analysts’ findings to make the campaign against ISIS appear more successful to the American public.

The report concluded that intelligence reports from Central Command were, in fact, “inconsistent with the judgments of many senior, career analysts.”

Further, the report found, “these products also consistently described U.S. actions in a more positive light than other assessments from the [intelligence community] and were typically more optimistic than actual events warranted.”

Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., who was involved in the House report, said Thursday the data was clearly “manipulated.”

“They wanted to tell a story that ISIS was the JV, that we had Al Qaeda on the run,” he told Fox News. “This is incredibly dangerous. We haven’t seen this kind of manipulation of intelligence … in an awfully long time.”

It is unclear how high up the reports in question went, though the task force found “many” Central Command press releases, statements and testimonies were “significantly more positive than actual events” as well.

The joint task force report blamed “structural and management changes” at the CENTCOM Intelligence Directorate starting in mid-2014 for the intelligence products. Surveys provided to the task force, according to the report, showed 40 percent of analysts later claimed they “had experienced an attempt to distort or suppress intelligence.”

The report also said senior leaders relied on details from coalition forces rather than “more objective and documented intelligence reporting,” using this as a rationale to change reports – sometimes “in a more optimistic direction.”

The Defense Department inspector general is now taking a close look at the findings – and looking for more possible whistle-blowers. The joint task force described its assessment released Thursday as an “initial report” and continues to investigate.

“The facts on the ground didn’t match what the intelligence was saying out of the United States Central Command,” Pompeo said.

The Pentagon did not comment in depth on the report, citing the ongoing IG investigation.

However, spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Patrick L. Evans said the intelligence community assessments are “based on multifaceted data related to the current security environment.”

“Experts sometimes disagree on the interpretation of complex data, and the Intelligence Community and Department of Defense welcome healthy dialogue on these vital national security topics,” he said in a statement.

When the allegations initially surfaced last year, the White House insisted no one in the administration pressured anyone, and suggested blame may rest with the military.

Meanwhile there is Rosneft, Deeper Russian Terror

Posted on August 11, 2016August 11, 2016 by Denise Simon

Primer: From January 2015

Foreign Firm Funding U.S. Green Groups Tied to State-Owned Russian Oil Company

Executives at a Bermudan firm funneling money to U.S. environmentalists run investment funds with Russian tycoons, a shadowy Bermudan company that has funneled tens of millions of dollars to anti-fracking environmentalist groups in the United States is run by executives with deep ties to Russian oil interests and offshore money laundering schemes involving members of President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. One of those executives, Nicholas Hoskins, is a director at a hedge fund management firm that has invested heavily in Russian oil and gas. He is also senior counsel at the Bermudan law firm Wakefield Quin and the vice president of a London-based investment firm whose president until recently chaired the board of the state-owned Russian oil company Rosneft.In addition to those roles, Hoskins is a director at a company called Klein Ltd. No one knows where that firm’s money comes from. Its only publicly documented activities have been transfers of $23 million to U.S. environmentalist groups that push policies that would hamstring surging American oil and gas production, which has hurt Russia’s energy-reliant economy.

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Why is this important? Arms trafficking….there is always a darker side including people. Anyone remember the name Viktor Bout?

Photo: CNN

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Notorious Russian arms dealer ‘refused US offer for lighter sentence’

FITSANAKIS: The wife of Viktor Bout, the imprisoned Russian arms dealer dubbed ‘the merchant of death’, said he rejected an offer by his American captors who asked him to testify against a senior Russian government official. Born in Soviet Tajikistan, Bout was a former translator for the Soviet military. After the end of the Cold War, he set up several low-profile international air transport companies and used them to transfer large shipments of weapons that fueled wars in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. He made millions in the process and acquired international notoriety, which inspired the Hollywood blockbuster Lord of War. But his business ventures ceased in 2008, when he was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, with the cooperation of the Royal Thai Police. He was eventually extradited to the US and given a 25-year prison term for supplying weapons to the Afghan Taliban, and for trying to sell arms to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Bout is currently serving his sentence at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center in New York.

In a newspaper interview on Tuesday, Bout’s wife, Alla Bout, said her husband could have gotten away with a considerably lighter sentence had he agreed to testify against a senior Russian government official. Speaking to Moscow-based daily Izvestia, Alla Bout said her husband had been approached by American authorities after being extradited to the United States from Thailand. He was told that US authorities wanted him to testify against Igor Sechin, a powerful Russian government official, whom American prosecutors believed was Bout’s boss. In return for his testimony, US prosecutors allegedly promised a jail sentence that would not exceed two years, as well as political asylum for him and his family following his release from prison. Alla Bout added that her husband’s American lawyers were told by the prosecution that the ‘merchant of death’ “would be able to live in the US comfortably, along with his wife and daughter”, and that his family could stay in America during his trial “under conditions”. Alla Bout claimed she was told this by Bout himself and by members of his American legal team.

From 2008 to 2012, Sechin, who has military background, served as Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister. Today he heads the Board of Directors of Rosneft, a government-owned oil extraction and refinement company, which is considered one of the world’s most powerful business ventures. Many observers see Sechin as the most formidable man in Russia after Russian President Vladimir Putin. He is also believed to be a senior member of the Siloviki, a secretive group of government officials in the Putin government who have prior careers in national security or intelligence. Although Bout and Sechin have never acknowledged having met each other, some investigators of Bout’s weapons-trading activities believe that the two were close allies. It is believed that the two men first met in Angola and Mozambique in the 1980s, where they were stationed while serving in the Soviet military. But the two men deny they knowing each other. According to Alla Bout, Viktor told his American captors that he “never worked for Sechin and did not know him in person”. He therefore turned down the prosecution’s offer and was handed a 25-year sentence. When asked by the Izvestia reporters whether Bout was simply protecting the powerful Russian government official, Alla Bout insisted that the two “have never even met, not once”.

**** Igor Sechin

Forbes: Igor Sechin may be the left hand man to the World’s Most Powerful Man, but that didn’t stop him or his giant oil company, Rosneft, from landing on a U.S. visa and financial sanctions list announced after the Russian military intervention in the Ukraine. “Putin trusts him more than anyone else,” says Russian expert Mark Galeotti of NYU. “And if Putin trusts you, power and wealth always follow.” Suffice it to say that the Kremlin is one of Rosneft’s major stockholders.

It WAS the Russians that Hacked the DNC and More

Posted on August 11, 2016August 11, 2016 by Denise Simon

This website reported several weeks ago along with evidence it was the Russians that hacked the Democrat Nation Committee, and these hacks are reported to be wider and deeper than previously reported. This site also reported that the FBI went to the Hillary campaign headquarters with evidence of a hack and asked only for the sign in activity logs to further the investigation, but the Hillary camp refused to cooperate or collaborate.

Well, turnabout is fair play. It is all about favors right? Yuppers….

Cyberattack on Democrats bigger than originally believed: report
TheHill: The cyberattack targeting Democratic politicians was more widespread than originally believed, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
The likely Russian cyberattack breached the private email accounts of more than 100 party officials and groups, sources told the Times.
Email accounts of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign officials, party operatives and Democratic Party organizations seem to have been the focus of the attack.

The FBI is now widening its investigation, and officials have started to tell Democrats that Russians may have gained access to their email accounts.

It had been previously reported that Russian hackers accessed the networks of the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and the Clinton campaign’s network was also believed to have been breached.

But the hack may also have extended to other organizations such as the Democratic Governors’ Association, according to the Times.

Ahead of the Democratic National Convention last month, a trove of emails was released by WikiLeaks that appeared to show officials at the DNC planning how to undermine Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign.

The emails resulted in the resignation of former DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other top officials.

Last week, FBI officials briefed staff members of House and Senate Intelligence Committees on its investigation into the issue and are expected to brief other congressional committees in the coming days.

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Impeach Loretta Lynch! Why? She is not serving justice under a RICO or public corruption.

Report: Loretta Lynch’s Justice Dept. Declined FBI Request To Investigate Clinton Foundation

DailyCaller: The Department of Justice declined a FBI request to open up a public integrity investigation into the Clinton Foundation, CNN reported on Wednesday.

According to the news network, the FBI made the request earlier this year, but the DOJ said it did not have enough evidence to open a formal probe. CNN reported:

The Clinton Foundation was not part of the recent investigation into her private server; it was separate. The FBI went to Justice Department earlier this year asking for it to open a case into the foundation, but the public integrity unit declined. The Justice Department had looked into whether it should open a case on the foundation a year prior and found it didn’t have sufficient evidence to do so.

Opposition to the FBI’s request — if the report is accurate — is likely to raise even more questions about whether the DOJ is acting impartially. Attorney General Loretta Lynch came under fire last month after it was revealed that she met in secret on her government airplane with Bill Clinton in late June.The meeting occurred days before the FBI and DOJ were set to interview Hillary Clinton as part of its investigation into whether Clinton or her aides mishandled classified information by using a private email system.

Lynch has insisted that she did not discuss the investigation with the former president. It has also been reported that the Clinton campaign has considered asking Lynch to remain as attorney general if Hillary Clinton is elected president.

The CNN report helps settle a question that government officials have largely avoided addressing.

FBI Director James Comey declined last month to say whether an investigation into the Clinton Foundation was underway.

Clinton’s campaign spokesman Brian Fallon recently said that there is “no evidence” that the Clinton Foundation is or was under investigation.

Though the DOJ decided not to pursue a public integrity investigation, new questions about the Clinton Foundation were raised on Tuesday after the watchdog group Judicial Watch released a new set of emails showing that a top adviser for the non-profit asked Clinton’s State Department aides to help out several individuals — including a major Clinton Foundation and a close associate. (RELATED: Clinton Foundation Official Asked Hillary’s State Dept. For Favors For Donor, Associate)

The Clinton Foundation official was Doug Band. He has worked for Bill Clinton for years and now runs the consulting firm Teneo Strategies.

In an April 25, 2009 email, Band asked Clinton aides Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills to help put Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagoury in touch with the State Department’s “substance person” on issues related to Lebanon.

Chagoury, a longtime Clinton donor who was once a close associate of Nigerian dictator Sani Abache, has given between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation. In 2009 he pledged $1 billion to help with a project undertaken by the Clinton Global Initiative, a Clinton Foundation offshoot which Band helped advise.

“This is very important,” Band said in his request to Mills and Abedin. “He’s key guy there and to us.”

In another April 2009 email, Band forwarded an email to Mills, Abedin and another Clinton aide, Nora Toiv, entitled “A favor.”

The individual seemingly asked for a job with the State Department.

“Important to take care of [redacted],” Band wrote.

On April 29, 2009, Band emailed the same trio of advisers asking: “Can someone pls call [redacted]? He calls me every day and we owe him some attention.”

It is unclear who the individual was, but Abedin told Band that she would place the call. Band’s remark that “we owe him some attention” suggests that the functions of the Clinton Foundation overlapped with the State Department.

Abedin and Toiv later landed a job at Band’s firm, Teneo.

The Clinton campaign denied to CNN that the Band emails were evidence of collusion between the Clinton Foundation and Hillary Clinton’s State Department.

“Neither of these emails involve the secretary or relate to the Foundation’s work,” Clinton campaign spokesman Josh Schwerin told the network. “They are communications between her aides and the President’s personal aide, and indeed the recommendation was for one of the Secretary’s former staffers who was not employed by the Foundation.”

Notably, Schwerin’s comment does not address Band’s request on behalf of Chagoury, the major Clinton Foundation donor.

Bizarre: Hillary’s Blood Clot and Big Donation

Posted on August 10, 2016August 10, 2016 by Denise Simon

Clinton Kicked $125K to Hospital After Receiving Treatment for Blood Clot

Clinton family foundation had not donated to hospital before Hillary’s stay

FreeBeacon: Hillary Clinton kicked $125,000 in donations from her family foundation to a hospital after receiving treatment for a blood clot in 2013, the Washington Free Beacon has discovered.

Clinton was discharged from New York Presbyterian Hospital in January 2013 after being treated for a blood clot. Doctors discovered the clot during follow-up treatment for a concussion she sustained weeks earlier after she passed out from dehydration, causing her to fall and hit her head.

The New York Times wrote in January 2013:

Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose globe-trotting tour as secretary of state was abruptly halted last month by a series of health problems, was discharged from a New York hospital on Wednesday evening after several days of treatment for a blood clot in a vein in her head….

…“Her medical team advised her that she is making good progress on all fronts, and they are confident she will make a full recovery,” Philippe Reines, a senior adviser to Mrs. Clinton, said in a statement.

Mrs. Clinton, 65, was admitted to NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital on Sunday after a scan discovered the blood clot. The scan was part of her follow-up care for a concussion she sustained more than two weeks earlier, when she fainted and fell, striking her head. According to the State Department, the fainting was caused by dehydration, brought on by a stomach virus. The concussion was diagnosed on Dec. 13, though the fall had occurred earlier that week.

The clot was potentially serious, blocking a vein that drains blood from the brain. Untreated, such blockages can lead to brain hemorrhages or strokes. Treatment consists mainly of blood thinners to keep the clot from enlarging and to prevent more clots from forming, and plenty of fluids to prevent dehydration, which is a major risk factor for blood clots.

The Clinton Family Foundation—the Clintons’ second, much smaller foundation—then donated six figures to the hospital’s fund, according to records filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

The same year Clinton received treatment for the blood clot, the foundation made a $25,000 donation to New York-Presbyterian Fund Inc., the fund associated with the hospital.

The Clinton Family Foundation then donated $100,00 to the hospital’s fund in 2014. The Clintons did not donate to the hospital from their personal foundation before Hillary was treated in its facilities, records show.

Clinton’s medical history has been called into question in recent weeks, with Fox’s medical team speculating about the Democratic nominee’s neurological records.

***** Photo: NYMag

Six months to recover from the concussion?

In part from DailyCaller: Hillary Clinton “required six months of very serious work to get over” a “terrible concussion” she suffered in December 2012, according to her husband, Bill Clinton.

At the time, doctors said the concussion caused a blood clot, which resulted in a multi-day stay for Hillary at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

He also insisted that, like with everything else over the years, he and his wife have been wholly forthright about Hillary’s festering health problems.

“It’s something she never low-balled with the American people, never tried to pretend it didn’t happen.”

However, Clinton’s current version of the story about a half-year recovery differs by five long months from statements made by the Department of State, over which Hillary Clinton presided at the time of her “terrible concussion.”

On January 7, 2013, just a month or so after Hillary’s serious head injury, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland assured reporters during a briefing that she was already a picture of health. More here from DailyCaller.

China Expanding Militarization of Disputed Islands

Posted on August 10, 2016August 10, 2016 by Denise Simon

Into the equation comes Vietnam.

BI: Vietnam has discreetly fortified several of its islands in the disputed South China Sea with new mobile rocket launchers capable of striking China’s runways and military installations across the vital trade route, according to Western officials.

Diplomats and military officers told Reuters that intelligence shows Hanoi has shipped the launchers from the Vietnamese mainland into position on five bases in the Spratly islands in recent months, a move likely to raise tensions with Beijing.

The launchers have been hidden from aerial surveillance and they have yet to be armed, but could be made operational with rocket artillery rounds within two or three days, according to the three sources. More here from BusinessInsider.

Photos suggest China built reinforced hangars on disputed islands: CSIS

Reuters: Satellite photographs taken in late July show China appears to have built reinforced aircraft hangars on its holdings in disputed South China Sea islands, a Washington-based research group said.

The hangars on Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs in the Spratly islands have room for any fighter jet in the Chinese air force, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in a report on the photographs.

The images have emerged about a month after an international court in The Hague ruled against China’s claims in the resource-rich area, a decision rejected by Beijing. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.