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Feds Sued for Refusing to Reveal Unclassified Report on Russian Meddling

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Russia is all over the news these days. The Democrats charge the Russians colluded with the Trump campaign to get him elected. The GOP says Hillary Clinton’s financial windfall of some $140 million donated by Russians to her foundation should be investigated. It was Russian “sources” who supplied details of the largely discredited “dossier” about then-candidate Trump.

So when the government has details in an unclassified report about Russian intervention, it seems reasonable that information should be available to the public.

The Washington watchdog Judicial Watch, however, was denied access through a Freedom of Information Act request and filed a lawsuit against the office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The ODNI failed to respond to an Aug. 4, 2017, FOIA request seeking the intelligence community assessment required by Section 502 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016, Judicial Watch said.

That law requires the DNI, “not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this act,” to give to congressional committees a report on the “funding of political parties and nongovernmental organizations in former Soviet states and countries in Europe by the Russian Security Service since January 1, 2016.” (Read more from “Feds Sued for Refusing to Reveal Unclassified Report on Russian Meddling” HERE)

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Russian Jet Buzzes US Navy Spy Plane Over Black Sea

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A Russian Su-30 fighter jet buzzed a Navy reconnaissance plane flying in the Black Sea while conducting a routine patrol in international airspace Saturday, an official told Fox News.

The Russian jet crossed 50 feet in front of the Navy P-8 in full afterburner causing “violent turbulence,” the official said. The provocation lasted 24 minutes.

It appears to be first known incident of this type since June, when an armed Russian fighter jet buzzed a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance aircraft over the Baltic Sea. The Russian Su-27 jet had air-to-air missiles under its wings and approached the U.S. Air Force RC-135 recon jet “rapidly,” coming within 5 feet of the American aircraft, officials said.

Once alongside, the Russian jet was “provocative” in its flight maneuvers and flying “erratically,” according to another official. . .

Multiple U.S Navy F/A-18 jets were dispatched to escort two Russian TU-95 bombers away from the ship currently stationed near North Korea and operating in the Sea of Japan, according to Navy officials. (Read more from “Russian Jet Buzzes US Navy Spy Plane Over Black Sea” HERE)

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How the KGB Birthed the JFK Assassination Conspiracy Industry

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President Donald Trump’s release of the classified documents connected with John F. Kennedy’s assassination is a crucial step toward helping the United States – and the rest of the world – to understand the Kremlin’s “science” of disinformation. Its deliberate lies about the circumstances surrounding that assassination have generated 54 years of alleged American involvement in that hideous crime, 45 years of Cold War, and the still-emerging evidence of Kremlin interference in our 2016 election.

Unfortunately, President Trump’s courageous exposure of the KGB lies may now endanger his own life as well. The recent cold-blooded assassination of Boris Nemtsov, a leader of Russia’s opposition, shows that the KGB (under whatever name) – which has killed 20 million people within the Soviet Union alone – is still secretly assassinating its enemies.

One of the most important things I have learned in the 64 years I have been involved in the intelligence business – 27 in the Soviet bloc and 37 in the U.S. – is that disinformation is an arcane and duplicitous undertaking, and that in the hands of the Soviets it developed into a whole philosophy. To really understand the mysteries of the Kremlin’s disinformation, it will not help to see a spy movie, read a spy novel, or watch TV news about Russia, as entertaining as those might be. You must have lived in that world of secrecy and deceit, and even then you may not fathom all its darker moments unless you are one of the few at the very top of the pyramid.

At the end of a summit meeting held in Slovenia, President George W. Bush said, “I looked the man [Putin] in the eye [and] found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy.” But Robert Gates, who as director of the CIA became familiar with KGB disinformation, looked into Putin’s eyes and saw “a stone-cold killer.” Familiarity with the super-secret, widely unknown Russian “science” of disinformation could indeed change day into night.

Ten years ago, I published “Programmed to Kill: Moscow’s Responsibility for Lee Harvey Oswald’s Assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.” My book was introduced at an Organization of American Historians conference with a review by professor Stan Weber of McNeese State University, who described it as “a superb new paradigmatic work on the death of President Kennedy and a must read for everyone interested in the assassination.” (Read more from “How the KGB Birthed the JFK Assassination Conspiracy Industry” HERE)

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‘Silenced’ FBI Informant Called to Testify on Corrupt Russian Bribery Scheme Involving Hillary

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By Ryan Saavedra. The Senate Judiciary Committee called on a former FBI informant — who says he was silenced by the Obama administration — to testify before the committee regarding the FBI’s investigation into crimes committed by Russian nuclear officials, an investigation that allegedly has direct connections to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

In a letter, Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) asked Victoria Toensing, the lawyer representing the former FBI informant, to allow her client to testify about the FBI’s investigation before the Obama administration approved the sale of Uranium One to Russia’s Rosatom, Circa News reported.

“Toensing said she also possesses memos that recount how the Justice Department last year threatened her client when he attempted to file a lawsuit that could have drawn attention to the Russian corruption during the 2016 presidential race,” The Hill reported on Wednesday.

Toensing said her client witnessed a significant amount of corruption going on in the U.S. and was forced by the FBI to a sign a document that prevents him from revealing what he knows to Congress:

Toensing’s client was an American businessman who says he worked for four years undercover as an FBI confidential witness. Toensing said he was blocked by the Obama Justice Department, under then Attorney General Loretta Lynch, about testifying to Congress about his time as an informant for the FBI. He contends that he has pertinent information that the Russian’s were attempting to gain access to former President Bill Clinton and his wife, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to influence the Obama administration’s decision on the purchase of Uranium One, Toensing said.

(Read more from “‘Silenced’ FBI Informant Called to Testify on Corrupt Russian Bribery Scheme Involving Hillary” HERE)

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Graham: Hillary Implicated in Russia Probe

By Boston Herald. . . .The Hill and Circa media have broken a story the FBI spent years investigating — and actually sent someone to jail over — involving bribery, blackmail and corruption by Russians who wanted to buy up a big chunk of the world’s uranium, located here in North America.

We’ve known for a while that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton both approved the deal and her family foundation received millions of dollars from Russians backing the deal. That’s one reason the nickname “Crooked Hillary” stuck.

What we didn’t know until now is that “the FBI had evidence as early as 2009 that Russian operatives used bribes, kickbacks and other dirty tactics to expand Moscow’s atomic energy footprint in the U.S.,” according to Fox News.

Not only did Hillary’s State Department approve Russia’s purchase of Uranium One — handing 20 percent of the U.S. uranium supply over to allies of Vladimir Putin — but the Obama FBI and Department of Justice let it happen unchallenged. All while the Clinton Foundation collected millions in “donations” from these Russians, and Bill Clinton was paid $500,000 by a Russian investment bank to give a speech in Moscow. (Read more from “Graham: Hillary Implicated in Russia Probe” HERE)

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Russian Bribery Plot Preceded Obama Uranium Deal

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Before the Obama administration approved a controversial deal in 2010 giving Moscow control of a large swath of American uranium, the FBI had gathered substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering designed to grow Vladimir Putin’s atomic energy business inside the United States, according to government documents and interviews.

Federal agents used a confidential U.S. witness working inside the Russian nuclear industry to gather extensive financial records, make secret recordings and intercept emails as early as 2009 that showed Moscow had compromised an American uranium trucking firm with bribes and kickbacks in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, FBI and court documents show.

They also obtained an eyewitness account — backed by documents — indicating Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow, sources told The Hill. (Read more from “Russian Bribery Plot Preceded Obama Uranium Deal” HERE)

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The Memo That a Russian Lawyer Took to the Trump Tower Meeting Is Finally Out

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A four-page memo that has been a central focus of the Trump Tower meeting last June between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian attorney has finally been released.

Foreign Policy magazine published the document, which Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya took into the June 9, 2016 meeting, which was arranged by Trump Jr. and attended by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

The document, and the meeting, have become a focus for congressional and federal investigators looking into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government. The meeting has raised questions about collusion because Trump Jr. accepted it after an acquaintance contacted him promising that a “Russian government attorney” would provide damaging information about Hillary Clinton . . .

Veselnitskaya’s memo, which Foreign Policy obtained from a Russian news station that recently interviewed the lawyer, suggests that little information about Clinton was provided to the Trump campaign. (Read more from “The Memo That a Russian Lawyer Took to the Trump Tower Meeting Is Finally Out” HERE)

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Google, Facebook May Have to Reveal Deepest Secrets

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The investigations into Russia’s role in the 2016 election are threatening to pry the lid off tech companies’ most prized possessions: the secret inner workings of their online platforms.

As the probes unfold into social media’s role in spreading misinformation, U.S. lawmakers are beginning to show an interest in the mechanics of everything from how Facebook weights news items to how Google ranks search results. The questions, which echo European regulators’ interventionist approach to technology, are a stark change for Silicon Valley companies accustomed to deference from U.S. officials on how they run their operations.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, warned Sept. 24 about “the use of Facebook’s algorithms and the way it tends to potentially reinforce people’s informational bias.” He added, “This is a far broader issue than Russia, but one that we really need to know more about.”

A source close to the Senate Intelligence Committee said staff investigators are eager to learn whether Russian elements used Twitter to boost disinformation in Google’s search rankings. While Google has previously said it uses Twitter and Facebook links in calculating search rankings for content, it hasn’t revealed specifics on how social media mentions factor into its algorithm. Google is famously closemouthed about how its immensely valuable search engine works, only parceling out small clues over the years.

Critics of the tech industry say the time has come for the companies to let policymakers take a closer look. (Read more from “Google, Facebook May Have to Reveal Deepest Secrets” HERE)

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Donald Trump Just Retaliated Against Russia. Here’s What He Did.

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A common narrative presented by opponents of President Donald Trump is that he is, at best, too friendly with Russia, and at worst, actively working with the adversarial nation to further his own personal or business interests.

If that was ever the case, it doesn’t appear to be so anymore, as the Trump administration announced Thursday that Moscow will be required to shut down diplomatic posts in several major American cities in a continued tit-for-tat of Cold War-esque maneuvering between the two nations . . .

Why is the Trump administration doing this? Russian President Vladmir Putin ordered the expulsion of more than 700 U.S. diplomats after the U.S. imposed sanctions on Russia in July. Those sanctions were the result of Russian interference in the 2016 election, human rights violations, the annexation of Crimea and military operations in the Ukraine. (Read more from “Donald Trump Just Retaliated Against Russia. Here’s What He Did.” HERE)

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Russia Says War Games Are ‘Purely Defensive’

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The Russian military dismissed Western concerns over a major war game that has underscored Cold War-style tensions in the Baltic Sea region, as the U.S. further beefed up its presence there.

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Alexander Fomin said Tuesday the joint-Russian-Belarusian exercises, which will take place in September partly on Belarus’s border with NATO members Lithuania and Poland, would be of “a purely defensive nature,” testing the ability of troops to respond to a hypothetical adversary.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization officials have warned the maneuvers, planned amid a military buildup in the region by the alliance and Russia, could serve as a screen for Russia to deploy more military equipment and heighten the risk of an accident or miscalculation that could touch off a crisis.

The U.S. has deployed a tank brigade to Central and Eastern Europe, part of a larger deterrent force covering NATO’s eastern flank. On Tuesday, it sent seven F-15C Eagle fighter planes from a base in the U.K. to Lithuania to take over NATO’s Baltic air policing mission from Poland, a larger-than-normal deployment of aircraft. (Read more from “Russia Says War Games Are ‘Purely Defensive'” HERE)

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The Other Russia Story We Need to Talk About Is Adoption

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The Russian government uses orphans as political pawns.

The story of thousands of innocent Russian children in need of adoption has been lost amid the daily flood of news about Russia and the hyped-up debate over whether “adoption” is some kind of code for “sanctions” when it comes to high-level Russian-American meetings . . .

Their plight stems from the 2012 Magnitsky Act, a U.S. law that imposed sanctions on Russia in response to human rights abuses by Russian officials. President Vladimir Putin retaliated by imposing a ban on U.S. adoptions of Russian children.

For years until then, American families had labored through an onerous process to adopt an average of 3,000 Russian children annually.

But the cold-hearted action of Putin, labeled a dictator by many of his critics, dramatically decreased the chance for thousands of orphans to have a family and left hundreds of Americans, who were in the midst of the adoption process, in complete despair. (Read more from “The Other Russia Story We Need to Talk About Is Adoption” HERE)

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