Category Archives: Presidential campaign

Operation to Liberate Mosul Takes the Life of a U.S. Servicemember

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A MULTI-PRONGED OFFENSIVE

The special forces backed by attack helicopters fought their way into the town of Bartella, where IS militants unleashed at least nine suicide truck bombs. Lt. Gen. Talib Shaghati said the special forces retook Bartella, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the edge of Mosul. But Iraqi forces were facing stiff resistance inside the town shortly before he spoke.

The U.S. trained special forces are Iraq’s most highly trained and least sectarian fighters, and will lead the charge into Mosul.

Kurdish peshmerga forces also announced a “large-scale operation,” and peshmerga forces stationed on mountains northeast of Mosul descended from their positions and charged toward the front line. Military operations also appeared to be underway in the town of Bashiqa, northeast of Mosul, which was pounded by airstrikes and peshmerga mortars the day before. More here.

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Stripes: WASHINGTON— A U.S. servicemember died Thursday after being wounded by an improvised explosive device in northern Iraq, according to a statement by the military’s Combined Joint Task Force Inherent Resolve.

A U.S. Army M109A6 Paladin conducts a fire mission at Qayyarah West, Iraq, in support of the Iraqi security forces’ push toward Mosul, Oct. 17, 2016. Christopher Brecht/U.S. Army

The command did not identify the servicemember or immediately provide any additional information about the death, which coincides with a joint U.S. operation to retake the city of Mosul from the Islamic State group. As many as 200 special operators were embedded with Iraqi and Kurdish units this week moving to the front lines of the battle, the Pentagon has said.

A total of about 4,800 troops are in Iraq assisting in the mission to liberate Mosul and its roughly 1 million inhabitants. The death announcement comes a day after two Americans – one a U.S. servicemember – were killed in Afghanistan in an apparent insider attack.

Earlier this week, the Pentagon said the embedded U.S. forces in northern Iraq were advancing to the last secure areas on the outskirts of Mosul as Iraqi and Kurdish forces wage a long-awaited offensive that could continue for weeks or months.

Iraq has about 18,000 troops moving on the city and the Kurdish peshmerga forces number about 10,000, according to Pentagon estimates.

Many U.S. troops were providing air support including nighttime raids by Apache helicopters, artillery bombardment, intelligence and forward air controllers who relay target information from Iraqi forces, according to the joint task force.

A Pentagon spokesman said troops were all operating behind the front lines of the conflict, which is the biggest offensive against the Islamic State group since it was defeated and pushed from Ramadi in western Iraq in December. The extremist group seized Mosul, which was Iraq’s second largest city, after a lightning assault from Syria in 2014.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon was looking into what could have been the first insider attack this year in Afghanistan.

On Wednesday, an assailant reportedly dressed in an Afghan National Army uniform killed an unidentified U.S. servicemember and an American civilian who were working on a NATO mission to train local forces at Camp Morehead in Kabul. Another servicemember and two civilians were also injured.

The assailant was killed during the attack.

 

Back to Baghdad and who is leading the fight to liberate Mosul:

Baghdad’s Finest: A look at Iraq’s vaunted special forces

WT/BAGHDAD (AP) – Iraq’s special forces, which barreled into a town east of Mosul on Thursday despite a wave of suicide attacks, are the country’s most professional and least sectarian fighting force.

A member of Iraq’s elite counterterrorism forces pauses as they advance towards the city of Mosul, Iraq, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016. Iraq’s special forces, which barreled into a town east of Mosul on Thursday despite a wave of suicide attacks, are the country’s most professional and least sectarian fighting force. Officially known as the Counter Terrorism Service, the troops have played a key role in wresting back towns and cities from IS, and are expected to lead the charge in Mosul. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

Officially known as the Counter Terrorism Service, the U.S. trained troops have played a key role in wresting back towns and cities from IS, and are expected to lead the charge in Mosul, their toughest battle yet.

Here is a look at Iraq’s special forces:

MADE IN AMERICA

The CTS was established by the American military shortly after the 2003 invasion as an elite commando unit charged with hunting down top insurgents and carrying out complex raids. They were trained, armed and supplied by U.S. Special Forces, who fought alongside them at the height of the insurgency.

The force proved to be a more reliable partner to the Americans than the mainstream security forces, where corruption was rife and many units were tied to parties or militias. But many Iraqis saw the special forces as the shock troops of an occupying power, and took to referring to them as the “Dirty Division.”

A PRAETORIAN GUARD?

The force grew in size over the years and expanded beyond its commando roots, with some taking part in conventional battles and even mundane tasks like manning checkpoints. Today they number around 12,000 men, including administrators, and up to 2,600 are taking part in the Mosul operation.

The unit was never incorporated into the Defense Ministry and answers directly to the prime minister. In the latter years of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s rule, many feared the special forces had become a praetorian guard that would cement his grip on power, but those fears were laid to rest when al-Maliki peacefully stepped down in 2014.

FROM “DIRTY” TO “GOLDEN”

When the Islamic State group swept across northern and central Iraq in 2014, Iraq’s security forces crumbled. Officers fled and their soldiers beat a humiliating retreat, many stripping off their uniforms and leaving their weapons and Humvees behind.

But not the special forces, who held their ground and became a source of national pride.

The CTS “retained its organizational cohesion and structure in 2014 when many other units of the Iraqi army fell apart,” said David M. Witty, a retired U.S. Army Special Forces colonel and former adviser to the CTS. “The key leaders of CTS have become central figures in the Iraqi public’s perception of the campaign to destroy IS.”

“Dirty” no more, the 1st Brigade is now widely known as the “Golden Division.”

A NON-SECTARIAN FORCE

The CTS was designed to be a non-sectarian force, with Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish members who were strictly vetted to ensure they had no ties to political factions or militias. In the early years, the force mainly battled Sunni insurgents, but it also played a lead role in a 2008 offensive against Shiite militias. Maj. Gen. Fadhil al-Barwari, who leads the Golden Brigade, is a Kurd.

The force also has a better human rights record than most of the other participants in the Mosul Offensive. An Amnesty International report released this week documenting abuses in Anbar mainly focused on state-sanctioned Shiite militias, and included only passing mention of the CTS.

LEADING THE CHARGE INTO MOSUL

The special forces launched their first assault in the Mosul operation early Thursday, pushing into the town of Bartella with the aid of attack helicopters despite stiff resistance from IS, which unleashed nine suicide truck bombs, one of which struck an armored Humvee. The rest were destroyed before hitting their targets.

“We will lead the charge into Mosul as we are specialized in the battles in urban areas and guerrilla war,” said special forces Brig. Gen. Haider Fadhil. “We are trained to break into towns and cities with fewer casualties.”

The special forces are expected to help drive IS out of Mosul in the coming weeks or months. But they can’t police the country, and will eventually have to hand things off to Iraq’s army and police, as well as Shiite militias and Sunni tribal fighters. It will be left to them to ensure that IS, which has recovered from past defeats, does not return.

___

Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Bartella, Iraq contributed to this report.

Czech Police Arrest Russian Hacker of U.S.

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Czech police arrest Russian with alleged connections to hacking in U.S.

 

WashingtonPost: A Russian man thought to have connections to hacking in the United States has been arrested in the Czech Republic, authorities there said Tuesday.

Czech police worked with the FBI to detain the man at a hotel in Prague, according to a statement published online Tuesday evening.

The arrest is not related to the Russian hacks of the Democratic National Committee and other political organizations or the ongoing probe of Russian interference in the U.S. election, federal law enforcement officials said.

“As cyber crime can originate anywhere in the world, international cooperation is crucial to successfully defeat cyber adversaries,” the FBI said in a press statement Wednesday. The arrest, the bureau noted, was made pursuant to an INTERPOL red notice, highlighting the collaboration between U.S. law enforcement and international partners.

Immediately after his arrest, authorities said, the man collapsed. He was provided first aid and was later hospitalized.

Czech courts will decide whether to extradite the man to the United States.

It was unclear what hacking attacks the man was suspected of participating in. A police spokesman declined to provide Reuters with additional information about the arrest. In Moscow, a Russian Foreign Ministry official said the Kremlin opposed the extradition.

Konstantin Dolgov, whose group monitors legal and rights issues at the Foreign Ministry, called the plans to move the suspect to the United States an “unacceptability,” according to the Interfax news agency.

Dolgov said Russian officials were monitoring the case and ready to provide the suspect with assistance, including legal help. “We expect that his procedural rights won’t be violated,” Dolgov was quoted as saying.

Although there are no apparent links between the arrest and hacking of U.S. political groups, the case is certain to draw closer attention to data infiltration tactics with suspected Russian fingerprints.
Nearly two weeks ago, the Obama administration officially accused Russia of attempting to interfere with the 2016 U.S. election, a claim that had been reported widely for months but not formally alleged by the federal government.

The alleged hacks have included digital intrusions into systems at the Democratic National Committee this summer that was followed by a major leak of emails that, in turn, led to the resignation of the committee’s chairwoman, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.). Russia has also been blamed for hacking and, later, leaking emails of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. In the October statement officially accusing Russia of the hacking attacks, the federal government said an online persona calling himself Guccifer 2.0 had claimed responsibility for the intrusions and said that it thinks only top Russian officials could have authorized them.

“This is some sort of nonsense,” Dmitry Peskov, press secretary for Russian President
Vladimir Putin, told The Washington Post earlier this month. “Every day, Putin’s site gets attacked by tens of thousands of hackers. Many of these attacks can be traced to U.S. territory. It’s not as though we accuse the White House or Langley of doing it each time it happens.”

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Department of Justice
Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Russian National Charged in Largest Known Data Breach Prosecution Extradited to United States

Defendant Brought From Netherlands

After Fighting Extradition for Over Two Years

****

Russian Hackers of DNC Said to Nab Secrets From NATO, Soros

Bloomberg: Weeks before the Democratic convention was upended by 20,000 leaked e-mails released through WikiLeaks, another little-known website began posting the secrets of a top NATO general, billionaire George Soros’ philanthropy and a Chicago-based Clinton campaign volunteer.

Security experts now say that site, DCLeaks.com, with its spiffy capitol-dome logo, shows the marks of the same Russian intelligence outfit that targeted the Democratic political organizations.

The e-mails and documents posted to the DCLeaks site in early June suggest that the hackers may have a broader agenda than influencing the U.S. presidential election, one that ranges from the Obama administration’s policy toward Russia to disclosures about the hidden levers of political power in Washington.

It also means the hackers may have much left in their grab bag to distribute at will. The subjects of the DCLeaks site include a former ranking intelligence official who now works for a major defense contractor and a retired Army officer whose wife serves on the USS Nimitz, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Some of the e-mails go back years.

Open Society Foundations, the Soros group, reported the breach to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in June, said spokeswoman Laura Silber, who added that an investigation by a security firm found the intrusion was limited to an intranet system used by board members, staff and foundation partners.

NATO Commander

The biggest revelation on DCLeaks involves U.S. Gen. Philip Breedlove, who retired in May and was formerly the top military commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. E-mails from Breedlove’s personal account show him complaining that the Obama administration wasn’t paying enough attention to European security. (“I do not see this WH really ’engaged’,” he writes at one point, later wondering “how to work this personally with the POTUS.”) The Intercept subsequently wrote a story about the e-mails, picked up by some cable news channels, inflaming tensions between the U.S. and its European allies.

Breedlove told CNN in July that the e-mails were stolen as part of a state-sponsored intelligence operation and didn’t respond to a request for comment this week.

The leaks highlight the effectiveness of some of the hackers’ tricks, including the targeting of private e-mail accounts to gather sensitive military and political intelligence. DCLeaks also offers some insight for investigators on what appears to be the hackers’ early missteps and ad hoc approach.

Harried Schedule

A cache of hacked Google e-mails from a Clinton volunteer, for example, doesn’t add up to much: They purport to be from the account of Sarah Hamilton, who works for a public relations firm in Chicago and volunteers for Hillary for America, and show little but the harried schedule of the campaign staff. Hamilton didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Similarly, a trove of “redacted” documents from the William J. Clinton Library were declassified and have been publicly available on the library’s website for several years, a spokeswoman for the library said.

“It really looks like the hackers tried a couple of things that just weren’t really working before they hit on using WikiLeaks,” said John Hultquist, the manager of cyberespionage intelligence at FireEye Inc. “With this earlier stuff, it looks like they were experimenting.”

Describing itself as the work of American hacktivists, DCLeaks.com was registered in April, and many of the documents were posted in early June. A DCLeaks administrator, who identified himself by e-mail as Steve Wanders, didn’t respond to written questions, including why much of the material focuses on Russia or Russian foreign-policy interests.

Voracious Appetites

The site seems designed to cater to the U.S. media’s voracious appetites for leaks. It has related Twitter and Facebook accounts that push out nuggets from purloined documents and that suggest angles journalists might pursue.

The Russian government has dismissed the idea that it was involved in the hack of the Democratic National Committee, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said there’s “no proof whatsoever” that Moscow was involved.

Security experts see links to a larger Russian information operation. That’s in part, according to two people familiar with the probe, because the e-mail addresses of Breedlove and Hamilton were among thousands targeted in a several-month campaign that began last fall by a Russian hacking group that cybersecurity firms have referred to by monikers including Fancy Bear, APT28 and the Sofacy Group.

Cyberintelligence firms have linked that hacking group to the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service, whose Moscow headquarters is nicknamed the Aquarium. Three private security groups have linked the DNC incursion to that group and another Russian hacking group associated with the FSB, the country’s civilian intelligence agency. U.S. intelligence agencies have told officials they believe the DNC hack was orchestrated by the Russian government.

Guccifer 2.0

A hacker calling himself Guccifer 2.0 and purporting to be Romanian initially took credit for the DNC hack. That claim was viewed skeptically, in part because the hacker didn’t appear to speak Romanian. Guccifer 2.0 provided the Smoking Gun with leaked e-mails from Sarah Hamilton’s account, according to a story posted on that site on June 28. FireEye believes Guccifer 2.0 is a cover identity for APT28, Hultquist said.

In the case of Soros’s Open Society, hackers stole a trove of documents after accessing the foundation’s internal intranet, a system called Karl, according to a person familiar with its internal investigation. On August 3, the DCLeaks.com Twitter account tweeted “Check George Soros’s OSF plans to counter Russian policy and traditional values,” attaching a screenshot of a $500,000 budget request for an Open Society program designed to counter Russian influence among European democracies.

The hackers may have had access the foundations’ network for nearly a year, according to another person familiar with the investigation. Although Open Society has about 800 full-time staff, as many as 7,000 people have access to Karl, which is used to circulate draft program proposals, budgets and other internal documents.

DCLeaks.com provides a possible outline of the successful tactics used by the suspected Russian hackers, like targeting personal e-mail accounts to scoop up sensitive information.

The hackers were apparently reading Breedlove’s personal e-mails that went back to at least 2012, a period when he was among the highest-ranking U.S. military officers and was commander of the U.S. European Command and NATO Allied Command Operations.

Among Breedlove’s correspondents, according to DCLeaks.com, were former Secretary of the Air Force James Roche, former presidential candidate Wesley Clark and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Efforts to contact Clark and Powell weren’t immediately successful.

Roche, in an e-mail, said Breedlove is a thoughtful officer who has worked hard for the betterment of the Air Force and his country. Of the Russians, Roche added: “I hope they learned that there are many dedicated officers who are thinking of the best ways to ensure that our country’s leaders can’t be bullied by Mr. Putin and his associates.”

Mastermind of Europe’s Terror Attacks Identified

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U.S. Identifies Key Player in ISIS Attacks on Europe

Frontline: Almost a year after Islamic State terrorists killed 130 people in Paris, U.S. intelligence agencies have identified one of the suspected masterminds of that plot and a follow-up attack in Brussels.

U.S. counter-terror officials said the man, who goes by the name Abu Sulaiyman al Fransi (Abu Sulaiyman, the Frenchman) is a 26-year old Moroccan who once served in Afghanistan as a soldier in the French Foreign Legion. He did prison time for drug running before going to Syria in 2014 and joining ISIS, according to U.S. officials and French court documents. His real name is Abdelilah Himich, according to U.S. counter-terror officials.

Despite his relative youth, Himich’s military experience and knowledge of France have made him a key figure in the Islamic State’s external operations unit, which has led a terror campaign against Europe, officials said. He is thought to be in Syria.

“We believe he is one of the top guys involved in spearheading the Paris attack and the Brussels attacks,” a U.S. counter-terror official said. “He was involved in creating that infrastructure” of the external operations unit.

U.S. and European counter-terror officials were interviewed for this story as part of a report by ProPublica and FRONTLINE about terrorism in Europe.

Officials acknowledged that they have struggled to pin down details about the identities and activities of the ISIS planners. U.S. and European counter-terror officials note that several Islamic State fighters have used the nom de guerre Abu Sulaiyman al Fransi. (The nickname is spelled in a number of ways, U.S. officials say.) In the past, he has variously been described by European officials and media reports as a blond convert and a former physical education teacher.

But U.S. officials said there was strong evidence indicating that the senior French fighter in question is Himich. They said French intelligence has been informed of that assessment and agrees with it.

Click here to see the full documentary.

European counter-terror officials interviewed by ProPublica earlier this year said they also suspect that a militant known as Abu Sulaiyman the Frenchman helped to plan the Paris and Brussels attacks. But they did not disclose his full identity.

Officials said that months of investigations and intelligence work in Europe and the Middle East have begun to shed light on the command structure of what the Islamic State calls external operations. The predominantly Arab leaders of ISIS have given senior and mid-level European fighters considerable autonomy to select targets and decide details of plots in their home turf, according to Western counter-terror officials.

Nonetheless, the ISIS unit that plots attacks overseas is also quite bureaucratized, according to U.S. intelligence officials. The unit exerted increasingly direct control over plots in Europe starting in 2015, according to Western counter-terror officials, and is part of an ISIS intelligence structure known as the Enmi.

“ISIS-directed plots in Europe have usually involved several planners and organizers who might change for each project,” said Jean-Charles Brisard, the chairman of the Center for the Analysis of Terrorism in Paris, who has been studying the unit. “It’s more a team process than a single mastermind’s plan.”

Abu Mohamed al-Adnani, a Syrian who served as a spokesman for the Islamic State, was a top figure overseeing external operations, counter-terror officials say. A U.S. drone strike killed Adnani in August.

There is hard evidence that another ISIS militant in Syria, a man known as Abu Ahmad, played a hands-on role in the Paris and Brussels cases, according to European counter-terror officials. A laptop computer recovered by Belgian police after the Brussels bombings in March contained encrypted communications detailing Abu Ahmad’s direct role in the plot.

During the four months after the Paris attacks, Abu Ahmad discussed targets, strategy and bomb-making techniques from Syria via encrypted channels with survivors of the terrorist cell who were hiding in Brussels. The fugitive suspects referred to Abu Ahmad as their “emir,” or leader, according to Belgian counter-terror officials.

The communications in the laptop indicate that the original plan was to hit France again, European officials say. When Belgian police closed in, however, Abu Ahmad told the fugitives to strike in Brussels instead, officials said. The suicide bombings killed 32 people at the airport and a subway station on March 22.

Abu Ahmad was described by two captured ISIS fighters as a lead planner of the Paris massacre as well. The suspects, an Algerian and a Pakistani, told interrogators that Abu Ahmad chose and prepared them for the plot last fall, and sent them to Europe posing as Syrian refugees, according to European counter-terror officials.

When the two landed in Greece in October, however, Greek border guards discovered they were not Syrian, and held them for a few weeks, according to European and U.S. counter-terror officials. After being released, the duo communicated with Abu Ahmad, who sent them money and instructions not to join the rest of the attackers, according to officials. The two suspects were arrested in Austria in December.

The men described Abu Ahmad as a Syrian, according to European counter-terror officials. But the recovered clandestine communications with the plotters in Europe indicate clearly that he speaks French, raising questions about his true nationality, the officials said.

“He has to be French, or speak French well,” a European counter-terror official said. “They use French slang.”

The investigation shows that Abu Ahmad worked with the senior fighter known as Abu Sulaiyman al Fransi, according to European and U.S. counter-terror officials. During the massacre at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris, witnesses overheard gunmen talk to each other about calling a person named Abu Sulaiyman, according to European and U.S. officials.

Himich, the man identified by U.S. intelligence as Abu Sulaiyman, has an unusual story. He was born in Rabat, Morocco, in 1989, according to U.S. counter-terror officials and French court documents. His family emigrated when he was an adolescent to Lunel, a southern French town about 20 miles from Montpellier, officials say.

Lunel has a population of about 25,000 and a rich history as a Jewish cultural center in medieval times. The town has a large population of Muslim descent as the result of immigration from North Africa beginning in the 1960s.

In 2006, Himich’s name appeared in a Lunel high school newspaper as the author of an article about teenage drinking. Although he went to school in France, he remains a Moroccan citizen, according to officials and court documents. In 2008, he joined the French Foreign Legion, a legendary and hard-nosed force whose soldiers come from all over the world.

Himich “distinguished himself during various missions in Afghanistan,” according to the court documents. In 2010, however, he deserted, according to the officials and documents.

“Wanting to attend the burial of his father, he left his post without authorization,” the documents say. “After his return to France, he did vocational training to work in the security field and also considered becoming a nurse.”

A year later, he got in trouble with the law. French customs police intercepted him arriving on a train from Amsterdam at the Gare du Nord station in Paris on Dec. 13, 2011, according to court documents. Police discovered he was carrying a backpack containing 2.6 pounds of cocaine with a street value of about $55,000. He also tested positive for cocaine and marijuana.

Himich testified that he had met a Senegalese man at a hookah bar in Paris, and told him he needed money because he had left the Foreign Legion. Himich said the man hired him to bring a package from Rotterdam, offering to pay $1,600. Himich, whom the documents describe as “adopting an arrogant attitude” during a court hearing, denied knowing that the package contained drugs.

Himich spent five months in jail. He was convicted in April 2013, and sentenced to three years in prison with a year suspended, according to the documents, though it appears he did not spend much more time behind bars. It was his first criminal conviction. He appears to have followed a classic trajectory from crime into radicalization.

Despite its picturesque setting, Lunel has made headlines as a hub of extremism. By 2015, at least two dozen young people — of North African descent as well as Muslim converts — had left Lunel to fight in Syria, where at least six of them died.

Himich joined that exodus in early 2014, according to U.S. counter-terror officials. He rented a car and drove via Italy, Greece and Turkey to Syria, according to Brisard. That route is popular with Syria-bound jihadis who travel with their families, according to Italian police. Himich has a wife and two children, officials said.

In Syria, Himich first fought in an Al Qaeda-linked group, officials say. Then, like many extremists in Syria, he moved to the increasingly powerful Islamic State. He soon became a battlefield commander, according to U.S. officials and Brisard, the French counter-terror expert.

“He was quickly promoted by ISIS to lead one of its fighting brigades in the first half of 2014,” Brisard said. “His rapid rise within ISIS could be explained by his military service in the French Foreign Legion.”

France and Interpol have issued warrants for Himich’s arrest on suspicion of terrorist activity, according to U.S. officials.

Investigators believe Himich is among a group of ISIS militants in their 20s and 30s, predominantly Francophones, who plot against Europe. The group also includes two Muslim convert brothers from Toulouse, Fabien and Jean-Michel Clain, according to counter-terror officials. Fabien Clain is believed to be the Frenchman who read the official statement in which the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks, officials say.

The Clain brothers surfaced in an investigation in 2009 of a French-Belgian extremist network. Suspects in that case had been investigated for a bombing in Cairo and, according to investigators, told Egyptian interrogators they had discussed a potential attack on the Bataclan, the nightclub that was hit in 2015. The suspects allegedly saw the Paris concert hall as a Jewish target because the owners were Jewish and the venue had hosted pro-Israel events.

Given his military experience, Himich’s stature is likely to grow after the recent deaths of Islamic State leaders in U.S. air strikes, officials said.

“He’s probably one of the most important Frenchmen in ISIS, especially after the death of Adnani,” the U.S. counter-terror official said.

10/18/2016: Lawsuit Filed Against Hillary Clinton

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WikiLeaks has in fact been of great assistance and will continue to be. WikiLeaks also tells us Hillary wants Obamacare to fail in order to implement a single payer system.

.pdf of Formal Complaint is here.

October 18, 2016

Office of the General Counsel

Federal Election Commission

999 E Street, NW

Washington, D.C. 20463

Re: Complaint Against Hillary for America, the Democratic National

Committee, Democracy Partners, Americans United for Change, and other

known and unknown individuals and groups.

To Whom It May Concern:

Complainant

The Public Interest Legal Foundation (“PILF”) is a non-profit educational and legal foundation

dedicated to protect the right to vote, preserve the Constitutional framework of American

elections, and educate the public on the issue of election integrity. As part of its mission, PILF

gathers and analyzes information regarding potential violations of federal and state election laws

and informs the public about these violations and concerns.

This complaint is filed on behalf of the Public Interest Legal Foundation by Joseph A.

Vanderhulst, Legal Counsel with PILF at 209 West Main Street, Plainfield, Indiana 46168,

pursuant to 52 U.S.C. § 30109(a)(1).

Respondents

Hillary for America

(Committee ID C00575795)

P.O. Box 5256

New York, NY 10185-5256

Jose H. Villarreal

Treasurer, Hillary for America

P.O. Box 5256

New York, NY 10185-5256

Democratic National Committee

430 South Capitol Street Southeast

Washington, DC 20003

Democracy Partners

1250 Eye Street, NW, Ste. 250

Washington, DC 20005

Bob Creamer

Strategist, Democracy Partners

1250 Eye Street, NW, Ste. 250

Washington, DC 20005

Americans United for Change

P.O. Box 34606

Washington, D.C. 20043

202-470-6954

Scott Foval

National Field Director, Americans United for Change

P.O. Box 34606

Washington, D.C. 20043

202-470-6954

Voces de la Frontera Action

1027 S. 5th Street

Milwaukee, WI 53204

Tel. 414-643-1620

Unknown Groups and Individuals Associated with Respondents

Summary

This complaint is based on information and belief that respondents have engaged in public

communications, campaign activity, targeted voter registration drives, and other targeted GOTV

activity under 11 C.F.R. 100.26 and 11 C.F.R. 114.4 at the request, direction, and approval of the

Hillary for America campaign committee and the Democratic National Committee in violation of

11 C.F.R. 109.20 and 11 C.F.R. 114.4(d)(2) and (3).

Complainant’s information and belief is based on findings from an investigation conducted by

Project Veritas Action and their published reports regarding the same, as well as on news

sources.

“If the Commission, upon receiving a complaint . . . has reason to believe that a person has

committed, or is about to commit, a violation of [the FECA] . . . [t]he Commission shall make an

investigation of such alleged violation . . . .” 52 U.S.C. § 30109(a)(2); see also 11 C.F.R. §

111.4(a).

Facts and Violations

Alien Registration Drives

On information and belief based on published reports and findings from an investigation by

Project Veritas Action, several groups including Americans United for Change and Voces de la

Frontera Action and other unknown groups have engaged in voter registration drives and other

GOTV activity during the 2016 election cycle. These activities potentially registered persons

who were not citizens. This activity is regulated under 11 C.F.R. 114.4.

On the same information and belief, these voter registration drives and other GOTV activity

were coordinated with DNC and HFA by express communication through agents of Democracy

Partners and The Foval Group. These communications resulted in coordination of voter

registration activity in violation of 11 C.F.R. 114.4(c)(2) and (d)(2)-(4) by all parties involved.

Also, because they were coordinated with a political party or campaign, there voter registration

activities deliberated targeted demographic groups because they were statistically more likely to

support a particular party or candidate in violation of 11 C.F.R. 114.4(c)(2) and (d)(2)-(4) by all

parties involved.

Paid Protesters

As reported in several news sources, disruptions, including incidents of violence, have occurred

at rallies held by the Trump for President campaign. Based on published reports, these

disruptions were instigated by paid professional protestors arranged by third party groups at the

coordination and direction of agents of Democracy Partners and The Foval Group at the request

and approval of agents of DNC and HFA.

On information and belief based on published reports and findings from an investigation by

Project Veritas Action, these disruptions include the payment of protesters “wherever Trump and

Pence are going to be.” Based on these reports, it appears that all violent disruptions at Trump

for President campaign rallies have been executed by paid protesters trained and instructed in

their speech and conduct to advocate against Trump and in support of Clinton.

On information and belief based on the same source, agents of DNC and HFA communicated

with the third party groups and individuals engaging in the activity and content through agents of

Democracy Partners and The Foval Group in order to request and approve the communications.

Through a direct chain of communication, this constituted coordination under 11 C.F.R.

109.21(d)(1)-(5).

Other Public Communications and Campaign Activities

On information and belief based on published reports, all public communications as defined in

11 C.F.R. 109.21(c) done by Americans United for Change, including the activities described in

Exhibit A, were done at or with the direction, approval, suggestion, or after material discussion

regarding the timing, content, and audience of the communications, of the DNC and Hillary for

America campaign.

Conclusion

Upon information and belief, and based upon the facts set forth above, Respondents Hillary for

America, the Democratic National Committee, Democracy Partners, Americans United for

Change, and their agents, named and unnamed above, have, each of them, individually and

collectively, violated the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended, and must be held

accountable and liable for their unlawful actions.

On behalf of PILF, I hereby request an investigation into whether the respondents identified

above, or any other related parties, have violated federal campaign finance laws. The information

uncovered by this investigation, including this initial complaint, will be used by PILF to educate

the American people about the laws governing our elections and current and potential threats to

election integrity.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please contact me if you have further

questions.

Respectfully submitted,

PUBLIC INTEREST LEGAL FOUNDATION

Joseph A. Vanderhulst

Legal Counsel

I hereby affirm and state under penalty of perjury that the foregoing statements are true and

correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Joseph A. Vanderhulst

Subscribed and sworn to me on this day of , 2016, by Joseph A.

Vanderhulst, President and General Counsel of Public Interest Legal Foundation.

Notary Public

**** Additionally, here is yet an additional Federal Statue where Hillary Clinton is in violation and a lawsuit may be pending in this regard.

 

18 U.S.C. § 208, the basic criminal conflict of interest statute, prohibits an executive branch employee from participating personally and substantially in a particular Government matter that will affect his own financial interests, as well as the financial interests of:

  • His spouse or minor child;
  • His general partner;
  • An organization in which he serves as an officer, director, trustee, general partner or employee; and
  • A person with whom he is negotiating for or has an arrangement concerning prospective employment.

Financial Interests in a Particular Matter

An employee has a disqualifying financial interest in a particular matter only if there is a close causal link between a particular Government matter in which the employee participates and any effect on the asset or other interest (direct effect) and if there is a real possibility of gain or loss as a result of development in or resolution of that matter (predictable effect). Gain or loss need not be probable. The possibility of a benefit or detriment must be real, not speculative. One common point of confusion is distinguishing between an asset or other interest and a financial interest in a particular matter under 18 U.S.C. § 208. The financial interest is the possibility of gain or loss (of the value of an asset or other interest) resulting from a particular matter, not the asset or interest itself. Thus, a person could have a large holding but only a relatively small financial interest in the particular matter, because the potential for gain or loss is small.

Exemptions

The criminal prohibition has no de minimis level. That is, it applies where any financial interest exists, no matter how small. Under 18 U.S.C. § 208(b)(2), however, OGE has the authority to establish blanket exemptions for financial interests considered too remote or too inconsequential to affect the integrity of the employee’s services. OGE has established several exemptions. The exemptions can be found in the implementing regulation for the statute, 5 C.F.R. part 2640. An employee who qualifies for an exemption can participate in official matters without violating 18 U.S.C. § 208, even though he has what would otherwise be a disqualifying financial interest in the matters. In addition to the exemptions established by OGE, there is an exception in the statute itself at 18 U.S.C. § 208(b)(4) for employees that have certain Native American or Alaska Native birthrights. If the financial interest that would be affected by the particular matter is that resulting solely from the interest of employee or the spouse or minor children in certain Native American or Alaska Native birthrights, the employee may participate in the particular matter without violating 18 U.S.C. § 208.

Waivers

The criminal financial conflict of interest statute has two separate waiver provisions. An employee who has been granted a waiver can participate in official matters without violating 18 U.S.C. § 208, even though he has what would otherwise be a disqualifying financial interest in the matters. Ethics officials often use waivers for broad particular matters, such as general policy matters, in conjunction with a recusal from particular matters involving specific parties for a specific financial interest. The two types of waivers are:

  • 208(b)(1): A waiver issued by the employee’s agency that covers certain financial interests that are not so substantial as to affect the integrity of the employee’s services.
  • 208(b)(3): A waiver for special government employees on Federal Advisory Committee Act committees when the need for services outweighs the potential for conflicts.

FBI Sent Guccifer 1.0 Back to Romania but Guess What was Found?

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Exactly, what is the FBI under Comey really doing and why? America needs answers and perhaps a real vote of lack of confidence in his role as Director.

Guccifer Sent Back To Romanian Prison

Hacker, who exposed private email server of Hillary Clinton, will return to US in 2018 to serve 52-month jail term. 

DR: Cybercriminal Marcel Lazar, more popularly known as “Guccifer,” has been sent back to Romania to finish a seven-year jail term from a previous conviction in Romania on the request of the Romanian Justice Ministry, reports The Washington Times. Guccifer was already serving his sentence, when he was extradited to the US in April 2016 to face charges of multiple felonies.

A US court last month sentenced the hacker to 52 months in prison for a number of high-level computer breaches in the country targeting former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Hillary Clinton advisor Sidney Blumenthal, among others. Guccifer leaked content of emails and also exposed that presidential candidate Clinton used a private server to send and receive classified emails while Secretary of State.

On completion of his term in Romania in 2018, the hacker will be sent back to the US to serve his time in this country.

If that is not disturbing enough, check this out:

FBI: Sidney Blumenthal’s Computer Files Are Found On A Romanian Server

DailyCaller:  A cyber-intelligence company found about 200 files from one of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s closest confidantes on a Romanian server, according to the FBI’s latest release of findings from their investigation into the former secretary of state’s handling of classified materials.

Judicial Watch, the conservative group suing the Department of State over Clinton’s emails, paid an unnamed company $32,000 to conduct a search of the “Deep Web and Dark Web” for data that could have been taken from the private servers of Clinton and adviser Sidney Blumenthal.

Investigators believe Blumenthal was using a private email server since they found about “200 Microsoft Word, Excel and other file types belonging to” Blumenthal on a Romanian server, according to the FBI.

Blumenthal was a senior adviser to President Bill Clinton, and serves as an off-the-books adviser to Hillary Clinton. The FBI found that Blumenthal was keeping touch with Clinton throughout her tenure in the Obama administration, including the sending two dozen emails containing classified information.

One of the main concerns was that Clinton’s use of a private server possibly opened her up to attacks by foreign hackers looking to get access to U.S. intelligence. While there’s no evidence Clinton’s server was successfully hacked, the FBI found an Excel file with an Internet Protocol (IP) linked to Clinton’s private server on a Romanian server.

In reviewing the data, an unnamed investigator found “one sensitive Excel file listing the names of known or suspected jihadists in Libya,” a portion of which was “in Russian,” the FBI reported.

The FBI found:

*** fbireport

Screenshot/TheDCNF

The FBI added:

*** fbireport2

Screenshot/TheDCNF

The discovery is the latest FBI release of findings concerning Clinton’s use of a private email server while working in the Obama administration.

 Drumheller

Related reading: DEALING WITH A “ROGUE STATE”: THE LIBYA PRECEDENT

FBI Director James Comey called Clinton’s handling of classified materials “extremely careless,” though he said there was no precedent to bring a strong case against her.

“Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence they were extremely careless in their handling of highly classified information,” Comey said in July.