Putin Dials the Hit Squad for This

Posted on February 26, 2016February 26, 2016 by Denise Simon

By RFE/RL’s Russian Service: An organizer of an upcoming march to commemorate slain Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov has been severely beaten in Russia’s Urals city of Chelyabinsk.

A member of the opposition PARNAS party, Aleksei Tabalov, wrote on his blog that Vyacheslav Kislitsyn was attacked by unknown men in Chelyabinsk on February 26.

According to Tabalov, Kislitsyn was hospitalized with numerous wounds, a broken rib, and heart problems.

Tabalov quoted Kislitsyn as saying that city police officers were among the attackers.

Tabalov says the attack was connected to the planned march to commemorate Nemtsov on February 27.

Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister and vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead near the Kremlin on February 27 last year.

****

Others on the Putin list? Likely….

Russian Oppositionist Leonid Gozman To Putin: ‘Mr. President, You Must Resign!’

MEMRI: On February 15, 2016, Russian oppositionist politician Leonid Gozman, president of the neoliberal movement Union of Right Forces, published an open letter[1] calling upon Russian President Vladimir Putin to resign, saying that this is the only way to save Russia. In his letter, Gozman blames Putin for the deterioration of Russia’s economic, political and security situation, and for the country’s isolation. He states further that, due to the regime’s repressive policies and the rise in corruption, old fears have resurfaced and Russians once again feel the need to hide their opinions. He reminds Putin that dictatorial regimes tend to fail and that Russia’s last Tsar, Nicolai II, was quite popular in his day but this did not keep him from being assassinated.

The following are excerpts from Gozman’s open letter

“You Turned Russia Into A Bogeyman In The Eyes Of The Entire World”

“Your Excellency, Mr. President, you have been the leader of our country for the past 16 years. Evidently, the balance of successes versus failures has recently been moving in a negative direction. No matter what your propaganda is trying to hide, people are beginning to sense what is really going on.

“The quality of life in Russia is going downhill, our situation in the social sphere is deteriorating, real incomes are plummeting. You have not freed the country from its dependence on oil and, judging by your own declarations, you have no master plan for getting Russia out of this crisis.

“You promised victory over the terrorists, yet terrorist acts continue to occur. Under your leadership, these [terrorist] acts have already claimed more than three thousand lives, and, in most cases, the masterminds behind them have not been apprehended. In the Northern Caucasus [i.e., Chechen Republic], a criminal enclave has been created, which effectively functions independently of Russia yet nevertheless uses our resources. In addition to all this, you began a fratricidal war in Ukraine and then launched a war in Syria.

“You have turned Russia into a bogeyman in the eyes of the entire world. Your highly-publicized turning to the East has yielded no results, we are at loggerheads with our neighbors and have run out of allies in general. Sanctions and counter-sanctions, and the arms race provoked by your policies, weigh heavy on our economy. Tens of millions of people are being forced to pay the price of your not always solidly-founded geopolitical declarations.

“Social morale has plummeted to unprecedented depths. During the years of your leadership, deception, unjust trials and corruption have blossomed. Many people are convinced that your closest friends and officials are corrupt and that you yourself are often guilty of corruption. Everyone is increasingly talking about high-ranking officials having connections with criminal elements.[2] Against this backdrop, hypocrisy has reemerged in our lives and an old fear has resurfaced: people are now afraid to express what they think…”

“You Have Exhausted Your Potential”

“One should not delude oneself with high [support] ratings; these ratings reflect a state of collapse and a lack of any real alternative. They were drummed up artificially and they will naturally drop once the resources that feed them dry up.

“[Tsar] Nicholas II’s popularity in August 1914 [at the start of World War I] was probably greater than yours is today. People would kneel in his presence and would kiss the hem of his jacket. However, two and a half years later, exactly 99 years ago, the monarchy was toppled. Less than a year later, the Tsar was assassinated and the country was plunged into chaos for decades.

“Mr. President, the system you created is not the first authoritarian regime in history to find itself in a situation of economic, moral and political crisis. Such regimes usually end in catastrophe. However, there are examples of authoritarian [regimes] that at least ended peacefully and without bloodshed. Unlike many of your opponents, I believe that you do care about the fate of Russia. You still have a chance – though it is diminishing with each passing day – to save Russia.

“Your Excellency, you must step down. You have exhausted your potential. The longer you remain in the Kremlin, the likelier it is that events will culminate in a dreadful scenario…

“Of course, after your departure, hard times may [still] await us… It’s not as if without you, everything will suddenly be rosy. But with you, things will only get worse (and neither you nor anyone else can change this).

“Your Excellency, Mr. President, you must resign! You must resign, and the sooner the better. This is the best thing you can do for Russia.”

Endnotes:

[1] The letter was published in Gozman’s blog on the website of the independent radio station Echo of Moscow (Echo.msk.ru, February 15, 2016).

[2] The author is referring to the Anti-Corruption Foundation’s investigation into links between Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika’s family and Russian criminal elements (Chaika.navalny.com, December 1, 2015).

Judiciary Cmte; Muslim Brotherhood, Terror Organization

Posted on February 24, 2016February 24, 2016 by Denise Simon

Yes!!!

Feb 24 2016

Judiciary Committee Calls on Administration to List Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization

Washington, D.C. – The House Judiciary Committee today approved by a vote of 17-10 the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2015 (H.R. 3892), which calls on the State Department to recognize the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization in order to better protect national security.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna, remains headquartered in Egypt but operates throughout the world. The Muslim Brotherhood’s strategic goal “in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” It has supported Islamist terrorism directly through fundraising and extortion, and has been designated as a terrorist organization by several U.S. allies in the Middle East.

H.R. 3892 would have a threefold effect: the Administration would actually have to deny admittance to aliens tied to the Muslim Brotherhood; persons who provide material support to the Muslim Brotherhood would be subject to federal criminal penalties; and the Treasury Department would be able to require U.S. financial institutions possessing or controlling any assets of the Muslim Brotherhood to block all financial transactions involving those assets.

Below is a statement from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Representative Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), the author of this legislation, on today’s Committee vote.

Chairman Goodlatte: “The Muslim Brotherhood’s embrace of terrorism and the very real threat it poses to American lives and the national security of the United States make it long overdue for designation. The bill passed by the House Judiciary Committee today calls the State Department to do the right thing and designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization. This will make it less likely that members of the Muslim Brotherhood will be able to enter the United States. I thank Congressman Diaz-Balart for introducing this bill and urge the House of Representatives to consider it immediately.”

Rep. Diaz-Balart: “The Muslim Brotherhood continues to pose a global threat. The jihadist movement actively supports and finances terrorist networks around the world, including al-Qaeda and Hamas. The United States must recognize and sanction the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization as part of our national security strategy. I thank Chairman Goodlatte for his leadership and assistance in getting this bill through committee, and I look forward to working with him when it is brought to the floor.”

brotherhood

*** In part from JPost: Just a few years ago, the conventional wisdom in Washington, DC, was that the Muslim Brotherhood would be a moderating force in the Middle East and bring democracy to the region. But not three years after the beginning of the “Arab Spring,” the people of countries like Egypt and Tunisia removed their Muslim Brotherhood- led governments. Other Middle Eastern nations have taken measures to designate the organization as a terrorist group and banned their activity entirely. Even our British allies have opened an official investigation into the group’s activities and connection to violent extremism. More here.

*** Gatestone:

“[T]he organization of the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization, and anyone who asks either to reconcile with them, to join them or to ally with them is himself a terrorist.” — Refaat Saïd, leader of Egypt’s Socialist party, al-Tagammu’, and previously close friend of former Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide, Mahdi Akef.

It should come as no surprise, then, that the motto of Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis is also the verse singled out by Hassan al Banna: “Fight them until there is no fitnah [discord], and [until] the religion, all of it, is for Allah.” [Qur’an, Sura VIII, verse 39]

The link between the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas is clear, and confirmed by Article 2 of the Charter of Hamas, which reads: “The Islamic Resistance movement is one of the wings of the Muslim Brothers in Palestine”. Complete details here.

Nightmare for Taxpayers According to an IRS Bulletin

Posted on February 24, 2016February 24, 2016 by Denise Simon

IRS is warning taxpayers of a new surge in tax-related incidents

It is a nightmare for taxpayers according to an IRS bulletin there is a 400 percent surge in tax-related phishing and malware incidents.

This year the IRS already reported 1,026 malware and phishing incidents, compared to 254 this time last year.

SecurityAffairs: The IRS is warning taxpayers of newer forms of attacks aiming victims into disclosing credentials to third-party tax preparation service accounts.

“The Internal Revenue Service renewed a consumer alert for e-mail schemes after seeing an approximate 400 percent surge in phishing and malware incidents so far this tax season.” states the bulletin. “The emails are designed to trick taxpayers into thinking these are official communications from the IRS or others in the tax industry, including tax software companies. The phishing schemes can ask taxpayers about a wide range of topics. E-mails can seek information related to refunds, filing status, confirming personal information, ordering transcripts and verifying PIN information.”

The IRS Commissioner John Koskinen used the adjective “dramatic” to describe this surge in tax-related incidents inviting taxpayers to watch out for scammers.

“This dramatic jump in these scams comes at the busiest time of tax season,” said Koskinen. “Watch out for fraudsters slipping these official-looking emails into inboxes, trying to confuse people at the very time they work on their taxes. We urge people not to click on these emails.”

Threat actors are very interested in using the tax season as a lure, in a common attack scenario victims receive an email containing links to the domain used to serve malware. In other cases, the attackers used emails with attachments that include documents embedding malicious macros. Once the victims open the document, the macro drops a malware on the victim’s machine, including dreaded ransomware like CryptoLocker, TeslaCrypt and Locky.

These are the alarming statistics provided by the IRS:

There were 1,026 incidents reported in January, up from 254 from a year earlier.

The trend continued in February, nearly doubling the reported number of incidents compared to a year ago. In all, 363 incidents were reported from Feb. 1-16, compared to the 201 incidents reported for the entire month of February 2015.

This year’s 1,389 incidents have already topped the 2014 yearly total of 1,361, and they are halfway to matching the 2015 total of 2,748.

Recently IRS services were abused by crooks to target taxpayers, in May 2015 the Internal Revenue Service was breached by hackers that “used an online service provided by the agency” to access data for more than 100,000 taxpayers. The IRS issued an official statement on the incident and specified that the compromised system was “Get Transcript.” The Transcript service could be used by taxpayers to get a transcript online or by mail to view their tax account transactions.

In August 2015, the Internal Revenue Service disclosed a new review of its system, revealing that 334,000 taxpayers (more than three times it initially estimated) may be affected by the hack it announced in May.

A couple of weeks ago the IRS detected roughly unauthorized attempts using 464,000 unique SSNs, and 101,000 attempts allowed crooks in generating PINs.

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service confirmed that cyber criminals abused the Electronic Filing PIN application running on irs.gov that allows taxpayers to generate a PIN that they can use to file tax returns online.

Pierluigi Paganini

Obama Placing Legacy Above Truth in Cuba

Posted on February 24, 2016February 24, 2016 by Denise Simon

First of 8,000 stranded Cuban migrants cross into US

MEXICO CITY (AP)— The first of 8,000 Cuban migrants recently stranded in Central America have crossed the Mexican border into the United States.

Some 180 migrants flew from Costa Rica to El Salvador, and have been making their way to the U.S., with the first reaching Laredo, Texas, on Thursday night.

“I’m a Cuban who has just acquired the American Dream,” said Daniel Caballero, one of the first to cross into Laredo, according to a Facebook posting of the sponsoring non-profit group, Cubans in Liberty.

***

In Part from Panama City (AFP): The first flight left from Panama’s international airport. The foreign ministry said in a statement it would land in Juarez, a Mexican city on the US border. Other flights would follow this week.

It emphasized that the flights were a “limited” and “exceptional” measure.

They mirrored flights Costa Rica has been carrying out since January, for some 8,000 Cubans who had been stuck on its territory.

The Cubans aim to get to the United States where a Cold War-era law allows them easy entry and a fast-track to residency.

But their journey, to South America, up through Central America and then Mexico and the US border, was frustrated in November last year when Nicaragua — a Cuban ally — closed its borders to them, and Costa Rica dismantled a people-smuggling ring they had been relying on.

Costa Rica in December closed its own border to any more Cuban arrivals as it struggled to clear the migrants from its territory.

Cuban State Media: Obama Visit ‘Disproves Human Rights Violations’ by Communists

Cuba’s communist propaganda newspaper Granma has published an article claiming that President Barack Obama’s scheduled visit to Havana in March “disproves” decades of evidence that the Cuban government violates the human rights of its citizens, on a weekend in which Cuban state police arrested almost 200 dissidents for peaceful marches against communism.

Breitbart: In a column titled “Four Myths Obama’s Trip to Cuba Disproves,” the newspaper cites “Cuba violates human rights” as the top “myth” that President Obama is helping to eradicate by visiting the island. The article calls the fact of Cuba’s rampant human rights violations “the mantra of those who want to justify as a philanthropic crusade the politics of aggression begun in 1959 before the advance of a socialist Revolution in their own backyard.” The fact that Cuba violates international human rights law on a routine basis, the article continues, “permeated realpolitik previous to the December 17, 2014 announcement,” referring to the day President Obama announced a number of concessions to the Raúl Castro regime in exchange for, in Castro’s words, “nothing in return.”

Granma also claims that President Obama’s decision to endorse the legitimacy of the Castro regime with his presence dismantles the allegation that “the ultra-right in Miami, especially legislators of Cuban origin, had totally held hostage the United States’ politics towards Cuba.” Cuban state propaganda often insults ethnic Cuban voters in Miami as “ultra-right” extremists, using terms like “the Miami Mafia” in an attempt to alienate Republican-leaning voters in the region. Cuban-American voters in Miami have also been consistently mocked and derided in American left-wing media, particularly the cable news pundits associated with NBC.

While Granma is open to using President Obama’s visit to promote the lie that the Cuban government does not oppress its dissidents, it continues to condemn the United States for defending human rights internationally. In a separate column published Saturday, the propaganda outlet condemns President Obama for not using executive orders to lift trade bans on Cuba, accusing his inaction of “keeping alive politics of aggression.”

President Obama is expected to meet with dictator Raúl Castro and “other Cuban people” during his visit, though it remains unclear whether he will be present in meetings with Cuban civil society or pro-democracy activists.

Whether any of Cuba’s most prominent dissidents will be out of jail during President Obama’s visit remains to be seen. If this weekend is any indication, there is little hope that the leaders of dissident groups will be allowed to attend events involving the President. Various dissident groups, including the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) and the Ladies in White, staged multiple events across the island this weekend. More than 170 dissidents were arrested, including dozens of Ladies in White arrested for attending Sunday Catholic Mass. An estimated 40 Ladies in White are still in custody after their prayer march in Havana.

The silent marches against the Castro regime this week were dedicated to Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a prisoner of conscience who died during a hunger strike in 2010, and the four men killed in 1996 when the Cuban government shot down a plane belonging to the pro-democracy group Brothers to the Rescue, which included one U.S. citizen.

Cuban dissidents have called President Obama’s decision to visit the island “an error” and warn that “these sorts of visits bring a lot of collateral damage” with them. They note that more than 250 pro-democracy activists were arrested in September during Pope Francis’s visit to Havana, including one man who was beaten and arrested in front of Pope Francis for saying the word “freedom” too loudly near the Pontiff. (The Pope denied having seen the event occurring before him.)

According to the NGO People in Need, President Obama’s efforts to warm up to the Castro regime have significantly deteriorated conditions for dissidents on the island. “There has been no substantial improvement in regard to human rights and individual freedoms on the island. … [The Cuban government] has adapted its repressive methods in order to make them invisible to the scrutinizing, judgmental eyes of the international community, but it has not reduced the level of pressure or control over the opposition,” the group said in a report in December.

Top Cop Says Obama is Spiteful, Schumer

Posted on February 22, 2016February 22, 2016 by Denise Simon

Politics over policy and politics over safety. Iran gets first billing at all costs when it comes to the Obama administration.

The NYPD Commissioner, Bratton is furious.

Bratton furious over Obama’s anti-terror funding cut

White House slashed NYC terror funding to punish Schumer, former top cop says

WashingtonExaminer: New York City’s former top cop said Sunday that the Obama administration cut funding to fight terrorism in the city to retaliate against Sen. Chuck Schumer for opposing a nuclear deal with Iran.

“There’s a certain amount vindictiveness on the part of Washington aimed at Sen. Chuck Schumer,” Ray Kelly, New York City’s police commissioner under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said in an interview with John Catsimatidis on AM 970 in New York.

“Apparently they remember very well that Sen. Schumer did not support their Iran deal,” Kelly said, arguing the proposed cut “was aimed at getting a reaction from Sen. Schumer.”

Schumer was the most senior Democrat in Congress last year to oppose an international agreement under which Iran agreed to give up its nuclear weapons program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.

Schumer, a Democrat set to become the party’s Senate leader, joined New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city’s police and fire commissioners to blast a White House budget plan that would cut annual funding for the city’s Urban Area Security Initiative from $600 million to $330 million.

As the country’s largest city and the only U.S. location repeatedly attacked by terrorists, including the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, New York officials have long sought extra consideration in allocation of federal anti-terror funds.

“New York is an enduring target,” Kelly said. “It always will be.”

Schumer statements drew a pointed White House response, an unusual reaction aimed at a key Democratic ally.

“At some point, Sen. Schumer’s credibility in talking about national security issues, particularly when the facts are as they are when it relates to homeland security, have to be affected by the position that he’s taken on other issues,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday.

“Sen. Schumer is somebody that came out and opposed the international agreement to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. He was wrong about that position,” Earnest said. “And when people look at the facts here when it comes to funding for homeland security, they’ll recognize that he’s wrong this time too.”

Earnest said financing for the program was cut because New York failed to spend the money it had already received.

Kelly, though a de Blasio critic, is a Schumer ally. The senator has unsuccessfully proposed Obama nominate Kelly a head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security.

*** New York Congressman King is not happy either.

Slashed funding for local counterterrorism and other security measures in the White House’s budget proposal is a “punch in the gut” that couldn’t come at a worse time, Sen. Chuck Schumer said Sunday.

From across the aisle, Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) agreed the pot shouldn’t be “decimated” with the threat of the Islamic State looming.

President Barack Obama’s fiscal blueprint recommended funding the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Urban Area Security Initiative grant program — which goes toward NYPD counterterrorism training, FDNY tiered-response training and other first-responder preparedness — with $330 million for the upcoming fiscal year, compared with $600 million in the current year.

“This year, bureaucrats got through a very serious mistake that must, must, must be reversed,” Schumer (D-N.Y.) said at a Manhattan news conference. “Do your homework, bureaucrats, on New York City, on the NYPD, on all the groups on Long Island that have gotten this money. . . . The dollars can save lives.”

The senator said it’s “not an accident” that the region hasn’t seen a successful terror attack since 9/11.

King said security funding across the board was reduced in the budget proposal.

“Here’s time when ISIS has never been more of a threat, when al-Qaida has never been more of a threat,” said King, a former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

He said he would fight alongside Schumer for restoration of the funds.

“This is not a Republican or a Democratic issue,” King said. “In many ways, it’s an issue of life or death.”

NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton called the initiative the “lifeblood” for antiterrorism funding in major American cities.

Among those urban areas, New York City is statically the No. 1 terror target, and the “terrorism threat is more complex and layered than any time since 9/11,” Bratton said in a statement.

“We would hope, in the aftermath of a series of recent plots against New York, as well as the attacks from Paris to San Bernardino, that any such cuts be reconsidered,” he added.

An official with the U.S. Office of Management and Budget said Sunday night the Obama administration has no higher priority than keeping Americans safe.

The grant program was restructured recently for efficiency, and the new funding level is expected to meet demand, the official said, adding that the proposed budget includes $139 million in other regional and state grants to help prepare and respond to complex terror threats.

Obama released his $4.2 trillion spending plan Tuesday. It requests $40.6 billion in net discretionary funding for the Department of Homeland Security, including $2 billion in grants for state and local governments for terrorism and other catastrophes.

Aside from the Urban Area Security Initiative reductions, the budget cuts state homeland security grants to $200 million from $467 million, port security grants to $93 million from $100 million and transit security grants to $85 million from $100 million.

Schumer said he didn’t get a “good explanation” from the administration on why the money would be withheld.

King said the impression he gets is that “because these programs are working, there’s no need to be giving more money — which makes no sense at all.”