Posts

Largest in History: Ex-CIA Engineer Charged With Massive Leak to Wikileaks

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

By Politico. A former CIA computer engineer has been indicted on charges he masterminded what appears to be the largest leak of classified information in the spy agency’s history.

Joshua Schulte, 29, was charged in a new grand jury indictment with providing WikiLeaks with a massive trove of U.S. government hacking tools that the online publisher posted in March 2017, the Justice Department announced on Monday.

Schulte was previously facing child pornography charges in federal court in New York, but the indictment broadens the case to accuse him of illegally gathering classified information, damaging CIA computers, lying to investigators and numerous other offenses.

In January, attorneys involved in the child porn case revealed in court that Schulte was the target of a major investigation into WikiLeaks’ release of a CIA collection known as “Vault 7.” (Read more from “Largest in History: Ex-CIA Engineer Charged With Massive Leak to Wikileaks” HERE)

__________________________________________________

Ex-CIA Worker Charged for Massive Leak of ‘Vault 7’ Hacking Tools to Wikileaks

By South China Morning Post. A former employee in the CIA’s cyber-spying operation was indicted Monday on charges of leaking hacking tools to WikiLeaks in one of the most damaging of the agency’s breaches in recent years.

Joshua Schulte, 29, was charged with leaking unspecified information on the Central Intelligence Agency’s intelligence-gathering capabilities to a group identified only as “Organisation-1”, which then released the information on the internet.

While the indictment gave no other details, in earlier filings Schulte’s lawyer indicated the investigation involved the leak to WikiLeaks of the “Vault 7” collection of hacking tools, malware, viruses, trojans, and “zero day” exploits which comprised the CIA’s most valuable tools for tapping into adversaries’ computers.

WikiLeaks began releasing the 8,761 documents from Vault 7 in March 2017, embarrassing the agency and providing professional and amateur hackers around the world with the same tools that US spies used. (Read more from “Ex-CIA Worker Charged for Massive Leak of ‘Vault 7’ Hacking Tools to Wikileaks” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

U.S. Identifies Suspect in Major CIA Leak

/0 Comments/in , /by

The U.S. government has identified a suspect in the leak last year of a large portion of the CIA’s computer hacking arsenal, the cyber tools the agency had used to conduct espionage operations overseas, according to interviews and public documents . . .

Joshua Adam Schulte, who worked for a CIA group that designs computer code to spy on foreign adversaries, is believed to have provided the agency’s top-secret information to WikiLeaks, federal prosecutors acknowledged in a hearing in January. The anti-secrecy group published the code under the label “Vault 7” in March 2017. It was one of the most significant and potentially damaging leaks in the CIA’s history, exposing secret cyber weapons and spying techniques that also might be used against the United States, according to current and former intelligence officials . . .

Federal authorities searched Schulte’s apartment in New York last year and obtained a personal computer equipment, notebooks, and hand-written notes according to a copy of the search warrant reviewed by The Washington Post. But that failed to provide the evidence that prosecutors needed to indict Schulte with illegally giving the information to WikiLeaks.

“Those search warrants haven’t yielded anything that is consistent with [Schulte’s] involvement in that disclosure,” Matthew Laroche, an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, said at a hearing on Jan. 8, according to a court transcript. (Read more from “U.S. Identifies Suspect in Major CIA Leak” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

CIA Interrogator Sends Whoopi Goldberg a Warning After She Suggests Trump Be Waterboarded

/0 Comments/in , /by

The former CIA agent who interrogated Khalid Sheikh Mohammed warned Whoopi Goldberg against suggesting that President Donald Trump undergo waterboarding before he passes judgement on it, telling Fox News that the president might conclude it isn’t torture and that it works during interrogation.

Dr. James Mitchell, appearing Saturday on “Fox & Friends,” was responding to remarks made by “The View” host earlier in the week as she discussed Trump’s nominee for CIA director, Gina Haspel, who’s come under fire for her part in the George W. Bush administration’s enhanced interrogation program. . .

“I think people who have actually been tortured who are saying this is not a good thing, you should listen to them because you have never been tortured,” she added in a nod to Sen. John McCain, who suffered torture as a POW during the Vietnam War and has opposed Haspel’s nomination.

Cheney told CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo last week that he felt the enhanced interrogation program — which included waterboarding — should be restarted. While Trump had been a supporter of restarting waterboarding during the 2016 campaign, he backed off at the urging of Defense Secretary James Mattis, who opposes the tactic . . .

“Honestly, who cares what Whoopi Goldberg thinks?” Mitchell said of the talk-show host. “You know, I’m tempted to just completely dismiss it, but on second thought, maybe she could show us how it’s done. (Read more from “CIA Interrogator Sends Whoopi Goldberg a Warning After She Suggests Trump Be Waterboarded” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Watch: Green Beret Tim Kennedy Gets Waterboarded in Defense of CIA Nominee Gina Haspel

/0 Comments/in , /by

On Friday, Green Beret Tim Kennedy live-streamed himself being waterboarded in his backyard by friends in order to demonstrate his belief that the procedure is not “torture,” as some claim.

Kennedy, who is also a UFC fighter, made the video to protest those who oppose Gina Haspel, Trump’s nominee for director of the CIA.

Haspel has been criticized for her work at a CIA black site in Thailand where “enhanced interrogation techniques” such as waterboarding were used in the aftermath of 9/11.

In 2005, then-head of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service (NCS), Jose Rodriguez, allegedly asked Haspel, who was his chief of staff, to write a cable directing personnel to destroy 92 tapes which are said to have shown the interrogations of Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. Rodriguez claims that he ordered the destruction of the tapes because the faces of CIA agents could allegedly be seen.

However, Haspel was cleared of wrongdoing after a “disciplinary review” in 2011. In the review, then-Deputy Director of the CIA Mike Morell writes: “Ms. Haspel claims that she believed — incorrectly as it turned out — that Mr. Rodriguez was going to obtain approval from then (CIA) Director (Porter) Goss before releasing the cable.” (Read more from “Watch: Green Beret Tim Kennedy Gets Waterboarded in Defense of CIA Nominee Gina Haspel” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

House Set to Investigate Ex-CIA Director Brennan’s Apparent Perjury

/0 Comments/in , , /by

By Real Clear Investigations. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes next plans to investigate the role former CIA Director John Brennan and other Obama intelligence officials played in promoting the salacious and unverified Steele dossier on Donald Trump — including whether Brennan perjured himself in public testimony about it.

In his May 2017 testimony before the intelligence panel, Brennan emphatically denied the dossier factored into the intelligence community’s publicly released conclusion last year that Russia meddled in the 2016 election “to help Trump’s chances of victory.”

Brennan also swore that he did not know who commissioned the anti-Trump research document (excerpt here), even though senior national security and counterintelligence officials at the Justice Department and FBI knew the previous year that the dossier was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Last week, Nunes (R-Calif.) released a declassified memo exposing surveillance “abuses” by the Obama DOJ and FBI in their investigation of Trump’s ties to Russia. It said the agencies relied heavily on the uncorroborated dossier to take out a warrant to secretly surveil a Trump adviser in the heat of the 2016 presidential election, even though they were aware the underlying “intelligence” supporting the wiretap order was political opposition research funded by Clinton allies — a material fact they concealed from FISA court judges in four separate applications. . .

[A senior House investigator stated,] “John Brennan did more than anyone to promulgate the dirty dossier . . . He politicized and effectively weaponized what was false intelligence against Trump.” (Read more from “House Set to Investigate Ex-CIA Director Brennan’s Apparent Perjury” HERE)

_________________________________________

Did Obama’s CIA Boss Lie About Trump Dossier?

By WND. Under oath before the House Intelligence Committee last May, former CIA director John Brennan testified that the infamous anti-Trump “dossier” funded by the Democratic Party played no role in the intelligence community’s publicly released conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

Brennan further declared he did not know who commissioned the opposition-research document, even though senior national security and counter-intelligence officials at the Justice Department and FBI knew the previous year it was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Now, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., is investigating whether or not Brennan committed perjury, reports Paul Sperry at RealClear Investigations . . .

Nunes has said his committee is working on a second phase of the investigation, focusing on the Obama State Department’s role in creating and disseminating the dossier . . .

An aide who spoke to Sperry on condition of anonymity said Nunes will focus on Brennan as well as Obama’s first CIA director, Leon Panetta. Other Obama intelligence officials the committee will scrutinize are former director of national intelligence James Clapper, national security adviser Susan Rice and security adviser-turned U.N. ambassador Samantha Power. (Read more from “Did Obama’s CIA Boss Lie About Trump Dossier?” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

CIA Boss in Discussion with Trump About Preemptive Strike Attack on North Korea

/0 Comments/in , /by

As tensions remain high between North Korea and the U.S., the director of the CIA indicated that President Donald Trump is being briefed by the agency on the risks and opportunities that would result from a limited attack against the hostile regime.

Mike Pompeo revealed this information during a Tuesday speech at the American Enterprise Institute, and though he would not discuss the “wisdom of a preemptive strike,” he admitted the regime’s nuclear program is an urgent priority for the agency, according to The Daily Beast.

“We’re working to prepare a series of options to make sure that we can deliver a range of things so the president will have the full suite of possibilities,” Pompeo said. “The president is intent on delivering this solution through diplomatic means.”

“We are equally at the same time ensuring that if we conclude that is not possible, that we present the president a range of options to achieve what is his stated intention,” he added.

Pompeo described these “options” as a means to “denuclearize permanently” North Korea, noting that “we’re going foreclose this risk.”

The director spoke on behalf of the information he claims the CIA assessed. He believes North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to be a rational man but is unsure as to how serious the dictator considers the prospect of a U.S. attack.

Pompeo didn’t say whether or not options exist for Trump to attack North Korea without sparking a nuclear war, though analysts have warned that even a limited strike could eventually lead to a nuclear conflict.

The CIA director indicated that the administration is developing numerous options, spanning from diplomacy to war, in order to avoid having to choose between inaction against the regime and a possible nuclear catastrophe.

But in the past months, some analysts have expressed concern with the CIA’s current analysis and statements made by the president.

In October, Trump said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was “wasting his time” in trying to negotiate with Kim. In August, meanwhile, Trump stated that any provocation from North Korea would be “met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

According to a former North Korean spy it’s not possible to denuclearize the regime with diplomacy.

“North Korea won’t give up its nuclear weapons,” said Kim Hyon-hui. “They’re its lifeline.”

Just before Christmas, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis echoed those same fears by stating that “storm clouds are gathering” in the wake of the growing threat.

Many within the CIA believe the missile program in North Korea is aimed at coercion, rather than self-defense.

The next logical step, they suggest, would be for the regime to develop an arsenal of weapons with the capability to fire multiple missiles toward the U.S. in an effort to achieve maximum destruction.

And the possibility of destruction may only get worse, Pompeo said, adding that he spoke last week about North Korea being only a “handful of months” away from a successful nuclear attack.

“I said the same thing several months before that,” Pompeo said. “I want everybody to understand that we are working diligently to make sure that a year from now I can still tell you they are several months away from having that capacity.” (For more from the author of “CIA Boss in Discussion with Trump About Preemptive Strike Attack on North Korea” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Former CIA Officer – Charged with Unlawful Possession of Secrets – Is Suspected of Much Worse Crime

/0 Comments/in , /by

A former CIA officer who was charged Tuesday with unlawful possession of secrets is suspected of a much worse crime: betraying U.S. informants in China, sources familiar with the case told NBC News.

The former officer, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 53, was arrested Monday after flying into New York on a Cathay Pacific flight from his home in Hong King, federal authorities announced.

Lee, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, was charged with a single count of unlawfully possessing national defense information, based on a 2012 search that found him to be in possession of two notebooks containing the true names of CIA assets and covert facilities, which are some of the agency’s most closely guarded secrets.

But sources familiar with the case say he is suspected of funneling information to China that caused the deaths or imprisonment of approximately 20 American agents, in one of the worst intelligence breaches in decades.

The New York Times reported last year that the Chinese government systematically dismantled CIA spying operations in the country starting in 2010, killing or imprisoning more than a dozen sources over two years and crippling intelligence gathering there for years afterward. (Read more from “Former CIA Officer – Charged with Unlawful Possession of Secrets – Is Suspected of Much Worse Crime” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Blockbuster Musician Claims CIA Asked Him to Spread Story About Trump Collusion With Russia

/0 Comments/in , , /by

By Fox News. Singer Moby claimed his friends in the CIA asked him to spread the word that President Trump has ties to Russia because he has a larger social media following than the government agency.

Moby, whose birth name is Richard Melville Hall, told Kentucky radio station WFPK in an interview this week that he has friends in the CIA who asked him for his help.

The subject came up after the host, Kyle Meredith, asked the electronic singer about his cryptic Facebook post he wrote in 2017. The post stated that after he spent time with friends who “work in D.C.” he could “accurately post” that the Fusion GPS Dossier was “100% real. He’s being blackmailed by the Russian government.” The post also claimed Trump has colluded “with the Russian government, and has been since day one,” wants to go to war and there are “right-wing plans to get rid of Trump.”

Moby said he wrote the post because his “friends” he claimed are “active and former CIA agents” asked him to “pass on some information.”

“They were like, ‘This is the Manchurian Candidate, like [Putin] has a Russian agent as the President of the United States,’” he told Meredith. “So they passed on some information to me and they said, like, ‘Look, you have more of a social media following than any of us do, can you please post some of these things just in a way that sort of put it out there.’”

(Read more from “Blockbuster Musician Claims CIA Asked Him to Spread Story About Trump Collusion With Russia” HERE)

________________________________________

Moby Says CIA Agents Asked Him to Spread the Word About Trump and Russia

By Noah Yoo. Last February, following the Presidential inauguration of Donald Trump, Moby posted on social media claiming to have insider information on connections between the Trump administration and Russia. The producer/DJ said that “after talking to friends in DC,” he had allegedly learned that the Fusion GPS dossier was “100% real” and that the Russian government was “blackmailing” the president. Now, in a new interview with WFPK in Louisville, Kentucky, Moby has doubled down on his claims (as CoS points out) . . .

He added, “It’s really disturbing and it’s going to get quite a lot darker. Like the depths of the Trump family in business and their involvement with organized crime, sponsored terrorism, Russian oligarchs, it’s really dark. I guess we should all, like, fasten our seat belts and hold on.” (Read more from “Moby Says CIA Agents Asked Him to Spread the Word About Trump and Russia” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

CIA Knows Who Leaked 2016 Emails From DNC

/0 Comments/in , , /by

The Central Intelligence Agency knows the identities of the people who leaked DNC emails to the whistleblower organization WikiLeaks during the heat of the 2016 presidential campaign, a former CIA officer contends.

Fred Rustmann, who served as an operations officer in the CIA’s National Clandestine Service for 24 years and was a member of the agency’s elite Senior Intelligence Service, said in an interview with WND that WikiLeaks’ ongoing release of classified information is “disgusting.”

But he said it’s likely the CIA knows who the leakers are.

“WikiLeaks says they want to protect their sources – Julian Assange said that he wouldn’t reveal his sources, but he would say that it wasn’t the Russians,” Rustmann said. “But the agency knows a lot of the information. I suspect they may have a pretty good idea of who provided that information to WikiLeaks.”

The CIA sent a vague threat to WikiLeaks and the potential sources in a tweet on Saturday evening using the CIA’s official Twitter account, referencing comments CIA Director Mike Pompeo gave at the Reagan National Defense Forum. (Read more from “CIA Knows Who Leaked 2016 Emails From DNC” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Ex-CIA: Trump Should Just Pardon Everyone

/0 Comments/in , /by

A former CIA analyst who now advises from his post as senior vice president for policy and programs at the Center for Security Policy says the “Russian investigation” is just a bunch of fabrications – and President Donald Trump should just pardon anyone involved and be done with it.

Fred Fleitz appeared on Fox News this week to explain his inside-the-Beltway take on the so-called Russian “dossier” about Donald Trump, Robert Mueller’s agenda and more.

“The Democrats paid for this dossier, the purpose of which was to set off an FBI investigation,” he explained. “The Trump campaign is made up of outsiders. They’re likely to get caught up in this investigation. After all, when Michael Flynn talked to the FBI, he didn’t have an attorney with him,” he said.

“These last-minute policy decisions by the Obama administration to sanction the Russians? I think it was bait,” he continued, citing Obama’s bottom-of-the-ninth decisions to act against Russia, just as the Trump administration was preparing to take over.

“It was bait to get Trump officials to do something. I think they were being monitored by intelligence agencies. They were looking for evidence to get the Trump transition team with, because I think this was all a trap by the Democrats. If this can be established, I think President Trump should pardon everyone, and I think that’s what Republicans on the Hill should be calling for,” he said. (Read more from “Ex-CIA: Trump Should Just Pardon Everyone” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.