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Service Quality and Reputation
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SCMedia: Attacks believed to be Iranian in origin were fended off for more than two weeks in April, but security experts examining the code detected snippets of code from an underground Russian marketplace.
Iranian hackers targeting critical infrastructure
Attacks believed to be Iranian in origin were fended off for more than two weeks in April, but security experts examining the code detected something they’d never seen before: snippets of code baring similarities to a known Russian toolkit available on the underground Russian marketplace.
The code had previously been used in a damaging cyber-attack on the Ukraine’s infrastructure in 2015.
Carl Wright, general manager and executive vice president of worldwide sales at TrapX Security, the San Mateo, California-based security firm that blocked the hackers last month, told an interviewer it was the first time his firm had detected an attack where hackers based in Iran were collaborating with Russian hackers-for-hire, according to an article in the New York Times.
Wright could not reveal the target of the attack owing to a confidentiality arrangement. But other security experts said the attackers could have purchased the Russian toolkit from an online forum and customised it for their campaign.
This hypothesis is countered by TrapX researchers, however, who noted that a number of “web domains used in the attack had been registered to a Russian alias, and that three email addresses continue to be used by a hacker in Russian hacking forums and in the underground web.”
The Iranian attackers behind the latest campaign, dubbed OilRig for their previous attacks on oil companies in Saudi Arabia and Israel, have been expanding their geographical range with hundreds of new attacks targeting a number of military, financial and energy companies in Europe as well as the United States, the Times reported.
Nearly three-quarters of the code employed in the latest campaign was previously used by OilRig in hundreds of attacks on other enterprises, including government agencies and oil companies.
But, as the defences of the newest target became more robust and the attackers evolved their tactics, the security researchers noted new weapons in their arsenal: a typical hacker’s kit, used to siphon out data, such as to steal usernames and passwords; but, more revealing, a tool never before detected in an OilRig campaign.
This was obfuscated with encryption to evade security investigators. After weeks spent decrypting the code, the researchers at TrapX determined that besides code similar to that used by OilRig in prior attacks, the bad actors were employing malware called BlackEnergy, also used previously, specifically by the Russian hackers who attacked the Ukraine power grid. Further, data was being transferred from the target to a server also used in the Ukraine attack.
TrapX lured the miscreants to inject their malware onto a server, which was then analysed by the TrapX team who were able to then shut the attackers out of their client’s system.
Forbes
*** There is more:
Iranian hackers which previously targeted organizations in Saudi Arabia are now targeting organizations in other countries, including the US, as part of a campaign identified as OilRig campaign.
In addition to expanding its reach, the group has been enhancing its malware tools.
Researchers at Palo Alto Networks have been monitoring the group for some time and have
reported observingattacks launched by a threat actor against financial institutions and technology companies in Saudi Arabia and on the Saudi defense industry. This campaign referred to as “ OilRig,” by Palo Alto Networks, entails weaponized Microsoft Excel spreadsheets tracked as
“Clayslide” and a backdoor called “Helminth.” More here.
More: Last month
The Israeli Cyber Defense Authority yesterday announced that it believes Iran was behind the a series of targeted attacks against some 250 individuals between April 19 and 24 in government agencies, high-tech companies, medical organizations, and educational institutions including the renowned Ben-Gurion University. The attackers – whom security experts say are members of the so-called OilRig aka Helix Kitten aka NewsBeef nation-state hacking group in Iran — used stolen email accounts from Ben-Gurion to send their payload to victims.
“This is the largest and most sophisticated attack they’ve [OilRig] ever performed,” says Michael Gorelik, vice president of R&D for Morphisec, who studied the attacks and confirms that the final stage was thwarted for the most part. “It was a major information-gathering [operation],” he says.
OilRig has been rapidly maturing since it kicked off operations around 2015. The attack campaign against Israeli targets employed the just-patched Microsoft CVE-2017-0199 remote code execution vulnerability in the Windows Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) application programming interface. This flaw had been weaponized in attacks prior to the patch, including Dridex banking Trojan and botnet attacks, and in at least one other cyber espionage campaign.
Forbes has more on corporate and individual hack operations in the United States by OilRig including other countries.
Primer: Remember the media told us and the polls told us Hillary would win. When Trump prevailed, the left went into action in earnest and that is being aided by television and print media. All things Russia will be in our daily lives for a long while and there is good cause for that. There are truths that are being omitted, frankly we need complete truth, wherever it leads. For the sake of the country and gaining any kind of confidence in political leaders, the double edged sword will draw blood.
So, here we go and will Robert Mueller and his team perform and provide a final report that is honest, complete and true? America needs President Trump to succeed, of this there is no question. There is a legislative agenda that must advance.
Read on.
When it comes to Moscow’s long term operation to bring Ukraine under Russian influence, Medbedchuk is Putin’s man. Viktor Medvedchuk continues to work diligently to keep Ukraine from any membership into the European Union or NATO. As an aside, Viktor is also the god-father to Putin’s daughter Darina.
With historical targets by the Kremlin to hold power over Ukraine, Medvedchuk was trusted by the KGB/FSB using all the normal KGB tactics.
Superyacht Royal Romance, owned by Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk
Medvedchuk’s private jet with registration P4-GEM
So, why is Medvedchuk important? He has some nasty history inside Ukraine. Further, those members of the Trump campaign and transition team had communications with Medvedchuk. Would one of those on the Trump team be Paul Manafort? Yes, glad you asked. Manafort was tapped to aid Yanukovych’s victory as Prime Minister of Ukraine until matters fell apart and he fled Ukraine for Russia. Manafort was in country when this occurred and stayed in Ukraine to rally old supporters and create a new party that would oppose pro-Westerner Poroshenko and alter the parliament. That black ledger discovered by a Ukraine government investigations shows that Manafort was paid $12.7 million for his work.
A side note, the law firm Wilmer Hale, is where Reginald Brown is representing Paul Manafort, happens to be the same law firm that now independent counsel for the Russian probe, Robert Mueller worked. So, is this new independent investigation a ploy due to history and conflicts of cases and legal representation? Humm, let’s continue.
***
Exclusive: Trump campaign had at least 18 undisclosed contacts with Russians: Sources
Michael Flynn and other advisers to Donald Trump’s campaign were in contact with Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least 18 calls and emails during the last seven months of the 2016 presidential race, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the exchanges told Reuters.
The previously undisclosed interactions form part of the record now being reviewed by FBI and congressional investigators probing Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election and contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
Six of the previously undisclosed contacts described to Reuters were phone calls between Sergei Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, and Trump advisers, including Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, three current and former officials said.
Conversations between Flynn and Kislyak accelerated after the Nov. 8 vote as the two discussed establishing a back channel for communication between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that could bypass the U.S. national security
bureaucracy, which both sides considered hostile to improved relations, four current U.S. officials said.
In January, the Trump White House initially denied any contacts with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign. The White House and advisers to the campaign have since confirmed four meetings between Kislyak and Trump advisers during that time.
The people who described the contacts to Reuters said they had seen no evidence of wrongdoing or collusion between the campaign and Russia in the communications reviewed so far. But the disclosure could increase the pressure on Trump and his aides to provide the FBI and Congress with a full account of interactions with Russian officials and others with links to the Kremlin during and immediately after the 2016 election.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment. Flynn’s lawyer declined to comment. In Moscow, a Russian foreign ministry official declined to comment on the contacts and referred Reuters to the Trump administration.
Separately, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Washington said: “We do not comment on our daily contacts with the local interlocutors.”
The 18 calls and electronic messages took place between April and November 2016 as hackers engaged in what U.S. intelligence concluded in January was part of a Kremlin campaign to discredit the vote and influence the outcome of the election in favor of Trump over his Democratic challenger, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
Those discussions focused on mending U.S.-Russian economic relations strained by sanctions imposed on Moscow, cooperating in fighting Islamic State in Syria and containing a more assertive China, the sources said.
Members of the Senate and House intelligence committees have gone to the CIA and the National Security Agency to review transcripts and other documents related to contacts between Trump campaign advisers and associates and Russian officials and others with links to Putin, people with knowledge of those investigations told Reuters.
The U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday it had appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential campaign and possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia. Mueller will now take charge of the FBI investigation that began last July. Trump and his aides have repeatedly denied any collusion with Russia.
‘IT’S RARE’
In addition to the six phone calls involving Kislyak, the communications described to Reuters involved another 12 calls, emails or text messages between Russian officials or people considered to be close to Putin and Trump campaign advisers.
One of those contacts was by Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian oligarch and politician, according to one person with detailed knowledge of the exchange and two others familiar with the issue.
It was not clear with whom Medvedchuk was in contact within the Trump campaign but the themes included U.S.-Russia cooperation, the sources said. Putin is godfather to Medvedchuk’s daughter.
Medvedchuk denied having any contact with anyone in the Trump campaign.
“I am not acquainted with any of Donald Trump’s close associates, therefore no such conversation could have taken place,” he said in an email to Reuters.
In the conversations during the campaign, Russian officials emphasized a pragmatic, business-style approach and stressed to Trump associates that they could make deals by focusing on common economic and other interests and leaving contentious issues aside, the sources said.
Veterans of previous election campaigns said some contact with foreign officials during a campaign was not unusual, but the number of interactions between Trump aides and Russian officials and others with links to Putin was exceptional.
“It’s rare to have that many phone calls to foreign officials, especially to a country we consider an adversary or a hostile power,” Richard Armitage, a Republican and former deputy secretary of state, told Reuters.
FLYNN FIRED
Beyond Medvedchuk and Kislyak, the identities of the other Putin-linked participants in the contacts remain classified and the names of Trump advisers other than Flynn have been “masked” in intelligence reports on the contacts because of legal protections on their privacy as American citizens. However, officials can request that they be revealed for intelligence purposes.
U.S. and allied intelligence and law enforcement agencies routinely monitor communications and movements of Russian officials.
After Vice President Mike Pence and others had denied in January that Trump campaign representatives had any contact with Russian officials, the White House later confirmed that Kislyak had met twice with then-Senator Jeff Sessions, who later became attorney general.
Kislyak also attended an event in April where Trump said he would seek better relations with Russia. Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, also attended that event in Washington. In addition, Kislyak met with two other Trump campaign advisers in July on the sidelines of the Republican convention.
Trump fired Flynn in February after it became clear that he had falsely characterized the nature of phone conversations with Kislyak in late December – after the Nov. 8 election and just after the Obama administration announced new sanctions on Russia. Flynn offered to testify to Congress in return for immunity from prosecution but his offer was turned down by the House intelligence committee.
It is important to note, this is not a special prosecution team, it is a legal investigative team. All three lawyers have formally resigned their positions, which is required from the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.
Robert Mueller
From the National Law Journal in part: Zebley was Mueller’s former chief of staff at the FBI and Quarles worked as an assistant special prosecutor for the Watergate investigation. Mueller worked on a range of issues including cybersecurity, criminal litigation and internal investigations. Last year, he was appointed to oversee settlement negotiations in class action lawsuits over Volkswagen A.G.’s emissions scandal.
The task of this team is solely to investigate the matter of Trump’s campaign operatives having any cooperation or interaction with any Russian entities into the campaign infrastructure in 2016.
Mueller served as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California prior to joining the FBI. He graduated from Princeton University in 1966 and went on to receive his J.D. from the University of Virginia. Mueller has gained the approval of the ACLU, former Attorney General and head of Main Justice, Eric Holder as well as many democrats in both chambers of Congress.
Another partner at the law firm, is Reginald Brown, who worked in the Bush White House and runs the firm’s financial institutions group and congressional investigations practice, is advising Paul Manafort as of this spring. Manafort, who ran Trump’s presidential campaign for six months, may be ensnared in the Russia investigation because of a consulting client he represented in Ukraine who had ties to the Kremlin.
Top Clinton administration alumni at Wilmer include former Solicitor General Seth Waxman and former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, who’s boosted her own resume in recent months by advising Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner on government ethics.
“I determined that it is in the public interest for me to exercise my authorities and appoint a special counsel to assume responsibility for this matter,” Mr. Rosenstein said in a statement. “My decision is not a finding that crimes have been committed or that any prosecution is warranted. I have made no such determination.”
While a special counsel would remain ultimately answerable to Mr. Rosenstein — and by extension, the president — he would have greater autonomy to run an investigation than a United States attorney would. Mr. Mueller will be able to choose to what extent to consult with or inform the Justice Department about his investigation as it goes forward.
“He’s an absolutely superb choice,” said Kathryn Ruemmler, a former prosecutor and White House counsel under Mr. Obama. “He will just do a completely thorough investigation without regard to public pressure or political pressure.”
She added: “I cannot think of a better choice.”
John S. Pistole, who served as the F.B.I.’s deputy director under Mr. Mueller, also praised the appointment.
“You need an independent assessment of what the president has done, how he has done it and perhaps why he has done it,” said Mr. Pistole, who is now president of Anderson University in Indiana. “The appointment of Director Mueller is exactly what is needed to attempt to bring credibility to the White House when there are so many questions about the president’s actions and motives.”
The order to appoint Mr. Mueller was signed by Mr. Rosenstein on Wednesday, drawing on a regulation granting the attorney general the authority to appoint a special counsel for only the second time in history. The first time it was used was in 1999 by Janet Reno, who appointed Jack Danforth, a former Republican senator from Missouri, to lead an investigation into the botched federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Tex., in 1993 that killed 76 people.
In his capacity as special counsel, Mr. Mueller will be able to request additional resources for the investigation. Those requests will be reviewed by Lee Lofthus, assistant attorney general for administration. More here.
The Trump White House only had this response to the naming of this team:
There is no information that has been released how this legal team will address matters relating to Hillary Clinton, John Podesta or other related issues. It should be noted that only last week, did the Senate Democrats that are also part of a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation on similar Russian probes hired April Doss. Doss held an early career at the NSA and just resigned also from her law firm of Saul Ewing.
Both Mueller’s law firm and Doss’ law firm each has legal specialties in the cyber industry.
One last item, since Paul Manafort was mentioned above:
Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort took out a $3.5 million mortgage through a shell company just after leaving the campaign, but the mortgage document that explains how he would pay it back was never filed — and Manafort’s company never paid $36,000 in taxes that would be due on the loan.
On August 19, 2016, Manafort left the Trump campaign amid media reports about his previous work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine, including allegations he received millions of dollars in payments.
That same day, Manafort created a holding company called Summerbreeze LLC. Several weeks later, a document called a UCC filed with the state of New York shows that Summerbreeze took out a $3.5 million loan on Manafort’s home in the tony beach enclave of Bridgehampton.
Manafort’s name does not appear on the UCC filing, but Summerbreeze LLC gives his Florida address as a contact, and lists his Bridgehampton home as collateral.
From the gasoline that helps your family take vacations to the advanced medical equipment at your community hospital, CITGO is fueling good.
It’s amazing the difference petroleum-based products make in our everyday lives. Based in Houston, Texas, CITGO is a refiner and marketer of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals and other industrial products. In addition to these products, there’s probably a CITGO in your neighborhood, a convenient place to fill up with gas and grab a quick snack.
The story of CITGO Petroleum Corporation as an enduring American success story began back in 1910 when pioneer oilman, Henry L. Doherty, created the Cities Service Company.
When Cities Service determined that it needed to change its marketing brand, it introduced the name CITGO in 1965, retaining the first syllable of its long-standing name and ending with “GO” to imply power, energy and progressiveness. The now familiar and enduring CITGO “trimark” logo was born.
Occidental Petroleum bought Cities Service in 1982, and CITGO was incorporated as a wholly owned refining, marketing and transportation subsidiary in the spring of the following year. Then, in August, 1983, CITGO was sold to The Southland Corporation to provide an assured supply of gasoline to Southland’s 7-Eleven convenience store chain.
In September, 1986, Southland sold a 50 percent interest in CITGO to Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., (PDVSA), the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. PDVSA acquired the remaining half of CITGO in January, 1990 and the company is owned by CITGO Holding, Inc., an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary. With a secure and ample supply of crude oil, CITGO quickly became a major force in the energy arena.
Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), has owned Citgo, an American refiner with headquarters in Houston, Texas, since the 1980s. At the end of 2016, cash-strapped Venezuela, in the throes of a combined economic and political crisis,[1] put up a large stake (49.9%) in Citgo as collateral in exchange for a loan from the Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft. Should PDVSA default on the loan, Rosfnet will gain control over Citgo. It is noteworthy that the U.S. imposed sanctions on Rosfnet following Russia’s seizure of Crimea in 2014.
On May 3, a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators introduced a wide-ranging bill calling for sanctions against the Venezuelan government and demanding President Donald Trump to prevent a deal struck by PDVSA and Rosfnet. CBS News reported: “The bill calls for the [U.S.] State Department to coordinate an international response to the crisis in Venezuela… In addition, a section of the bill highlights a Nov. 30 loan given by Russia’s state-owned oil company, Rosneft, to Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA. The deal would allow the Russian company to take control of nearly half of the U.S. oil company Citgo, which PDVSA owns, if Venezuela defaults on its debts.
“Influential senators from both parties sponsored the bill, including Senators Ben Cardin, D-Md.; Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; John Cornyn, R-TX; Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; John McCain, R-Ariz.; Bill Nelson, D-Fla.; Tim Kaine. D-Va.; Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. and Bob Menendez, D-NJ.”[2]
Earlier, Republican Congressman Jeff Duncan and Democratic Congressman Albio Sires sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin, asking him to undertake an “immediate review of a recent asset transfer between Venezuela’s state-owned oil company. PDVSA, and Rosneft, which is under U.S. sanctions. The situation, if left unchecked, could severely undermine U.S. national security and energy independence.”[3]
On April 14, the Russian media outlet Vestifinance.ru, published an article titled “Rosneft And Citgo: Risk Or Anti-Russian Hysteria?” The article stated that U.S. lawmakers’ actions against The PDVSA-Rosneft deal are prompted by anti-Russian “hysteria.” Vestifinance.ru wrote: “By an amazing coincidence, a letter to Mnuchin was written just before U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit to Moscow. And as long as relations between Moscow and Washington are not improved significantly, politicians will keep finding new pretexts to incite fears.”
Below are excerpts from the Vestifinance.ru article:[4]
(Source: Rt.com)
PDVSA Still Owes Russia $62 billion
“PDVSA, the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, has paid off its [Russian] loan along with interest in the amount of $2.2 billion. This is good news as PDVSA avoided a default. However, the Vice President [of Venezuela] Tarik El Aissami characterized the situation as ‘a merciless economic war’ being waged against the Maduro government. The bad news is that PDVSA still owes [Russia] $62 billion.
“It is well-known that some members of the U.S. Congress are quite concerned about a possible default by Venezuela, since Russian-owned Rosneft can then get access to the American company Citgo. Citgo owns 48 oil terminals in 20 U.S. states as well as 3 oil refineries. It is the control of Rosneft over the American refineries that worries lawmakers the most.
“‘The Russian government could readily become the second-largest foreign owner of U.S. domestic refinery capacity. Such a development would give the Russians more control over oil and gas prices worldwide, inhibit U.S. energy security, and undermine broader U.S. geopolitical efforts’, [U.S. congressmen] wrote in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. ‘We remain deeply concerned over the implications for U.S. national security.’
How Rosneft Can Take Over CITGO
“Venezuela has been desperate for cash lately. Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, has owned Citgo since the 1980s. In exchange for obtaining a loan from Rosneft in December, the Venezuelan oil company put up a large stake (49.9%) in Citgo as collateral. If PDVSA is unable to pay off the loan on time, Rosneft will almost certainly gain control over Citgo. All Rosneft would need for a majority share would be to buy a few more PDVSA bonds, thus clearing the 50% threshold of ownership.
[Rosneft] Is Not Going To Waste Money For The Illusory Opportunity To Harm The U.S.’
“The concerns expressed by [the U.S] congressmen are rather strange. What exactly is Rosneft going to do with three oil refineries? U.S. politicians believe that the Russian company will be able to take part in a conspiracy that will lead to a restriction of gasoline production, raise gas prices and thus cause damage to the U.S. national security or the American economy. This is plain silly. Even though Rosneft is a state-owned company, its purpose is still making profit, and it is not going to waste money for the illusory opportunity to harm the U.S. And the scenario offered by congressmen has no bearing on reality whatsoever. “Three refineries is a mere drop in the ocean compared to the rest of the U.S. oil assets. Even assuming that production could be reduced at these refineries, this may at most affect one region in the short term, but then other producers will quickly capture the market and stabilize it. And so if Rosneft takes over Citgo, it will simply produce and sell gasoline in the U.S., making money on it, rather than making insane plans to threaten the U.S. national security.
“Reports in the U.S. media treat the lawmakers’ letter with a healthy dose of irony and that is why it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the congressmen are deliberately trying to incite anti-Russian fears. By an amazing coincidence, a letter to Mnuchin was written just before U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit to Moscow. And as long as relations between Moscow and Washington are not improved significantly, politicians will keep finding new pretexts to incite fears.
“As far as Venezuela is concerned, yielding control of Citgo is a good way to reduce its debt burden. Most likely, this will happen no later than in the fall of 2017, since there is very little chance its economy will stabilize. Most likely, Venezuela will default and begin to restructure its debt this year. According to the credit-default swaps market, investors estimate the chances of Venezuela’s default in the next six months at 41%. And in March that indicator was below 34%.”
Primer: Last year with the attempted coup and the declining relationship between the United States and Turkey, a report to Congress weighed the alternatives to stationing nuclear weapons at Incirlik. Moving the warheads could possibly encourage Russia to cooperate more and possibly reduce their nuclear stockpile, though nothing guarantees that. More here.
The Berlin government is mulling moving its troops out of Turkey’s Incirlik air base after a second snub by Ankara. A German political delegation was denied approval to visit Bundeswehr soldiers at the military facility.
Wolfgang Hellmich, the chairman of the Bundestag Defense Committee, told the German news agency dpa “we’re not going to be blackmailed” by the Ankara government after a second German parliamentary delegation was prevented from visiting Turkey’s Incirlik facility. The air base is being used in the international fightback against so-called “Islamic State” (IS) militants.
A decision on where to move the Tornado units is likely to be made in the next few weeks, with Jordan seen as a favorite, sources from the Bundestag committee said.
New tensions
Turkey’s latest snub follows Germany’s decision to grant asylum to a number of Turkish military officers, who faced persecution following Turkey’s failed coup on July 15 last year, according to dpa.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Turkey’s latest move “unfortunate” in remarks to reporters in Berlin earlier in the day.
“The Bundeswehr is a parliamentary army and this makes it absolutely necessary for our lawmakers to have access to our soldiers,” Merkel said.
Turkey refused last year to grant German MPs access to the air base, only relenting in October after months of waiting.
The reason given then was that Germany had recognized the crimes committed by Ottoman Turks against Armenians in 1915 as constituting genocide.
Relations between Turkey and Germany have been in a downward spiral in recent months, with many German lawmakers outraged at what they see as flagrant repression of freedoms during Ankara’s post-coup crackdown. Dozens of journalists have been imprisoned – including the German-Turkish writer Deniz Yucel-and authorities have carried out mass sackings and arrests of public officials.
Ankara was also incensed by Berlin’s refusal to allow Turkish ministers permission to attend political rallies aimed at Turkish voters living in Germany in support of a referendum granting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan greatly extended powers. Many observers see Erdogan’s referendum success as a further step toward establishing an autocracy in Turkey.
Bundeswehr is key partner
Germany currently has several Tornado surveillance aircraft and a refueling plane deployed at the Incirlik military base in southwestern Turkey. The jets are part of the international coalition carrying out aerial attacks on IS positions in Iraq and Syria. Some 260 German military personnel are stationed there.
BusinessInsider
Meanwhile,
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will hold his first face-to-face meeting with Turkey’s president Tuesday amid accusations that Trump gave Russian officials classified intelligence from a foreign ally.
Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are expected to address the Syrian civil war, refugee crisis and the fight against the Islamic State group, including the U.S. decision to arm Syrian Kurdish fighters despite Turkey’s vehement objections. More here from AP.
*** As such, there is a move to evict the United States from Incirlik due to the matter of the Kurds being in full support by the United States.
WASHINGTON — A prominent Turkish newspaper has demanded the eviction of U.S. troops and warplanes from Incirlik Air Base as fallout there worsens from the Trump administration’s controversial move to arm a Kurdish militia fighting the Islamic State in neighboring Syria.
In a front-page editorial published Friday, the newspaper Sozcu called for Incirlik’s complete closure. It’s an unlikely outcome, military officials and observers say, but a clear sign of how dramatically relations have deteriorated between the NATO allies. The blustery display of anti-Americanism comes as the U.S.-backed coalition in Syria, which is poised to launch a long-awaited offensive to liberate the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, faces widespread criticism across the border for its dependence on the YPG. The Kurdish militia force has emerged as America’s most capable proxy there, but Turkey maintains it’s a terrorist organization and has actively targeted the group’s fighters in recent weeks.
The editorial is noteworthy, too, because Sozcu’s coverage has been deeply critical of the Turkish government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who expressed similar outrage when Washington’s new arms deal with the YPG was announced last week and warned that supporting the Kurds would elicit blow-back. Erdogan is likely to vent his frustration to President Donald Trump when the two leaders meet this week at the White House. Turkey approved the U.S. to fly attack and strike aircraft from Incirlik beginning in 2015, including for close-air support missions conducted by A-10 Thunderbolts. Additionally, the U.S. bases EA-6B Prowlers there, which can jam ISIS communications and improvised explosive detonators, and the KC-135 Stratotankers responsible for aerial refueling.
In May 2016, aircraft based at Incirlik accounted for nearly one-third of the international coalition’s refueling operations and one-fifth of its close-air support. Today, those numbers are likely much higher as the war’s tempo has intensified.
At the same time, Incirlik has become increasingly less hospitable for the 2,500 U.S. troops assigned there. Citing security concerns, commanders first locked down the base two years ago, prohibiting personnel and their families from venturing beyond its gates. Then, in March 2016, all 700 family members who remained there were ordered to evacuate. Inside the Pentagon, arming the YPG is seen as a calculated gamble. To facilitate its air campaign against ISIS, the U.S. relies on Incirlik’s proximity to Syria and Iraq — so there is some risk in alienating the Turks. Yet following last summer’s coup attempt, Erdogan remains unpopular among large segments of Turkish society and, despite his rhetoric, most assuredly sees advantages to keeping the U.S. close.
Retired Adm. James Stavridis, NATO’s supreme allied commander from 2009 to 2013, said Turkey is unlikely to close the base to U.S. operations because Ankara benefits significantly from associated economic incentives and intelligence sharing. “Turkey,” he added, “still values the NATO alliance, which brings prestige and a measure of security in a dangerous neighborhood.”
Consider Operation Nomad, which since 2011 has provided Turkey with intelligence gathered by U.S. drones and beamed into joint fusion centers operating out of Ankara and Incirlik. Those feeds have supplied vital information about terrorists’ movement across northern Syria and Iraq, intelligence Turkey is unlikely to surrender.
Officials at U.S. European Command echoed those sentiments. “Turkey closing their base, that would be hard to believe,” said Capt. Daniel Hernandez, a spokesman. Incirlik, he added, is “strategically important to them and the coalition.”
There would be painful political costs, too, said Aaron Stein, an expert on U.S.- Turkish relations at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank. “They would be blamed internationally for slowing the war against the Islamic State,” he said.
No, “Turkey has concluded it is better to be on the in than the out,” Stein added. “At least on the in, you have a say at every coalition meeting.”
Forbes
Robert Mueller
There is no information that has been released how this legal team will address matters relating to Hillary Clinton, John Podesta or other related issues. It should be noted that only last week, did the Senate Democrats that are also part of a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation on similar Russian probes hired April Doss. Doss held an early career at the NSA and just resigned also from her law firm of 
BusinessInsider