Posted as a comment yesterday by our friend and fellow poster who has trekked the old stone bridge at Betws-y-Coed.
[Last Refuge] A report in the New York Times, transparently timed and placed by officials within the intelligence apparatus trying to get out ahead of internal investigations, outlines how the FBI sent counterintelligence spies to engage with Trump campaign officials in 2016.
In a stunning admission The New York Times describes how the FBI enlisted a female agent to work the "operation" in the U.K. during August-September 2016 posing as an aide for U.S. intelligence asset/FBI informant Stefan Halper.
NYT [...] The woman had set up the meeting to discuss foreign policy issues. But she was actually a government investigator posing as a research assistant, according to people familiar with the operation. The F.B.I. sent her to London as part of the counterintelligence inquiry opened that summer to better understand the Trump campaign’s links to Russia.
The American government’s affiliation with the woman, who said her name was Azra Turk, is one previously unreported detail of an operation that has become a political flash point in the face of accusations by President Trump and his allies that American law enforcement and intelligence officials spied on his campaign to undermine his electoral chances. Last year, he called it "Spygate."
Ms. Turk went to London to help oversee the politically sensitive operation, working alongside a longtime informant, the Cambridge professor Stefan A. Halper. The move was a sign that the bureau wanted in place a trained investigator for a layer of oversight, as well as someone who could gather information for or serve as a credible witness in any potential prosecution that emerged from the case.
A spokesman for the F.B.I. declined to comment, as did a lawyer for Mr. Halper, Robert D. Luskin. Last year, Bill Priestap, then the bureau’s top counterintelligence agent who was deeply involved in the Russia inquiry, told Congress during a closed-door hearing that there was no F.B.I. conspiracy against Mr. Trump or his campaign.
Obviously the group (CIA, DOJ and FBI) who constructed the political surveillance and spy operations are trying to present their side of the story, prior to investigation by AG Bill Barr and the soon-to-be-released IG report.
Halper was an FBI operative and Cambridge professor who set up meetings with Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos. The female agent used a fake name, Azra Turk, and presented herself as an assistant to Stefan Halper; however, she was actually an undercover intelligence operative of the FBI.
[DAWN] Facebook on Thursday banned black activist leader Louis Farrakhan, far-right icon Alex Jones and several others from its main service and from Instagram in a heightened crackdown on hate content at the leading social network.
"We've always banned individuals or organizations that promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of ideology," Facebook said in a statement.
"The process for evaluating potential violators is extensive and it is what led us to our decision to remove these accounts today."
The company said on Thursday that it has also banned extreme right-wing figures Paul Nehlen, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson, Laura Loomer and the conservative conspiracy site Infowars. Jones was already banned from Facebook but not from Instagram.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/03/2019 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11130 views]
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#1
Farrakhan's just the polish on the attempt to deplatform right of center figures.
[WashingtonExaminer] Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., says he will ask Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to investigate possible abuse of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court during the 2016 election.
Noting that President Trump is "down" on the FISA court, Graham, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters on Thursday he will make a call to ask, "‘Would you please look and see what happened?’ because I don’t want to lose the FISA program."
As the chief justice, Roberts has the power to appoint judges to the FISA court.
[ZeroHedge] A mysterious Turkish woman who "assisted" FBI spy Stefan Halper in a London operation targeting Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos has been revealed as yet another FBI operative sent to spy on the Trump campaign during the 2016 US election, according to the New York Times.
The woman, who went by the name Azra Turk, repeatedly flirted with Papadopoulos during their encounters as well as in email exchanges according to an October, 2018 Daily Caller report, confirmed today by the Times. "Turk," posed as Halper's assistant according to the report.
#1
And Papadopoulos reported this suspicious contact to the US Embassy immediately of course.
George Papadopoulos
@GeorgePapa19
I agree with everything in this superb article except “Azra Turk” clearly was not FBI. She was CIA and affiliated with Turkish intel. She could hardly speak English and was tasked to meet me about my work in the energy sector offshore Israel/Cyprus which Turkey was competing with
Mark Mazzetti
@MarkMazzettiNYT
NEW: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/02/us/politics/fbi-government-investigator-trump.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share …
[BizPacReview] Criticism from the Senate’s seemingly less conservative Republican legislators appears to have played a role in killing the nomination of would-be Federal Reserve Board member Stephen Moore.
Only days after a handful of Senate Republicans, including Sen. Mitt Romney, expressed concerns about Moore’s credentials and alleged partisanship, the renowned economist withdrew his nomination.
#2
It should be noted thqt 1/3rd of senators will be up for election in 2020, so the NeverTrumperw among them should be under threat of replacement — changing the calculus of such things. That the Democrats among them will also be under threat of replacement, and following the trend of the last few years that means by Republicans, just adds the frosting of amusement — or schadenfreude, depending on one’s bent — to the thing.
Senator McCain was unbeatable in his state, charger, while Mitt Romney is a power in the Republican party — both of whom would not lose in the primary to a Trump supporter, but who might have been brought round with a bit of judicious politicking. I don’t know anything about Mr, Strange.
[WashngtonExaminer] Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh will resign later on Thursday, according to a new report. Ballymore's own Jar Jar Binks
The Baltimore Afro-American Newspaper reported Thursday that Pugh told its publisher she plans to step down from her post Thursday, effective immediately. Pugh’s attorney Steve Silverman told CBS Baltimore that a press conference will be held at his office Thursday, but didn’t disclose why the press conference was being held.
Pugh, who has been on paid medical leave for approximately a month due to pneumonia, has faced pressure to step down from her post amid an investigation into the sales of her children's book, Healthy Holly.
#1
Talk about burying the lede - what, exactly, did this woman lie about to the police? The only thing I can discern from the article is that she was doing 41 MPH in a 30 MPH zone and at some point later she lied about... something. Did she tell the bobby 'No, I wasn't speeding' or something to that effect (like I've done nearly every time I got a speeding ticket)? If that's the case, it's clear that some things in Britain are way over-criminalized.
Posted by: 3dc ||
05/03/2019 00:00 ||
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[11128 views]
Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life,
#1
The US has measures it can take against the officials who take these measures.
Posted by: Daniel ||
05/03/2019 3:19 Comments ||
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#2
...It will, of course, be a measured response.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
05/03/2019 4:33 Comments ||
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#3
NATO should have ended when the Warsaw Pact dissolved. The USA should have demobilized after the Soviet Union collapsed also. But Eisenhower's prophecy about the military industrial complex proved to be accurate.
Europeans offer nearly nothing meaningful to the American alliance. So, ask yourself, what is it about your country that merits US attention?
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
05/03/2019 4:35 Comments ||
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#4
So the EU wants to protect Cuba. Makes some sense to me - communists need to help each other out, or is there something else afoot?
[UK Daily Mail, since no US media will cover this, ever] - Barack Obama admitted 'this stings' after the 2016 election result and spent the night watching the movie Dr Strange to try and distract himself, a new book claims.
The former president went from being confident that Hillary Clinton would beat Donald Trump to seeing it as a 'personal insult' that she lost. Well, then. He took it exactly as I meant it
Obama could not believe the American people had 'turned on him' for a man he had written off as a 'cartoon'.
As the dust settled Obama told his family that 'this hurts' and blamed Clinton who 'brought many of her troubles on herself' and ran a 'scripted, soulless campaign'.
The eye-popping details are in the new edition of 'Obama: The Call Of History' by New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker.
#8
Thought those executive orders and bypassing the congress that he controlled was so clever at the time, he didn't even imagine the other party (or more likely a third party) would take power and could remove everything almost as easily.
[AmericanThinker] Hey Mazie Hirono! Who do you work for? Who is pulling your strings? Surely, it's not the people of Hawaii or the rest of the country.
Your father left the family when you were very young, and your mom managed to bring you and your two siblings to Hawaii. She supported the family by working long hours to put a roof over your head and food on the table. In spite, of your meager surroundings, you managed to get yourself a fine education at the University of Hawaii and prestigious Georgetown Law School.
One would expect gratitude for the opportunity this country offered you, but instead you shamefully and ungratefully had the gall to state to your staff that "people are getting screwed in this country every single second, minute, hour of the day." So, the country that took you in, housed you, fed you, clothed you, and educated you is a country that "screws" everyone every second of every day? Doesn't look like you were screwed, but it does look like you are the one who is screwing the good people of this country.
Wednesday, instead of questioning Attorney General Barr at the Senate Judiciary Hearing, you ran a ten minute monologue slandering a public servant who has served this country for four decades because you are unhappy with the Mueller Report.
#4
Hirono got the "Lazy Mazie" pic-a-nic when it was "her turn" to be Governor so she phoned it in - Lost to Linda Lingle. Guess she decided to be more proactive in keeping her Senate seat and let her freak flag fly.
She does have some cancer problems so maybe her recent personalty change is the result of chemo.
Also IIRC either Sen Inoyue or Akaka married a woman named Hirono, so it may be a case of the family idiot getting out of the closet.
#5
Re: #3: Puppet - don't count on Hawaii following that path. The gov't is a wholly-owned subsidiary of HGEA - Hawai'i Government Employees Association. There is 1 Trunk in the state senate and damn few in the House. Not likely to change
Posted by: Marilyn Clitch6402 ||
05/03/2019 10:03 Comments ||
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#6
This woman's train is completely off the rails.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[DAWN] Facebook on Thursday banned black activist leader Louis Farrakhan, far-right icon Alex Jones and several others from its main service and from Instagram in a heightened crackdown on hate content at the leading social network.
