The President of Ecuador may have accused Julian Assange of "spying" on rather dubious evidence, but a grand jury in the United States may be on firmer footing. A federal judge has unsealed the original criminal complaint against the Wikileaks founder, originally filed two years ago. It includes transcripts of online chats between Assange and Chelsea (then Bradley) Manning. And the charges make it sound as if the two of them were certainly conspiring to do something... but what?
A federal judge on Monday ordered the release of previously sealed documents filed in the case against Julian Assange, offering up new details about the U.S. government’s allegations against the WikiLeaks founder.
The original affidavit and criminal complaint were made public in a Virginia federal court for the first time since they were filed in 2017, and they include chat logs between Assange and former U.S. intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.
Assange was arrested last week in London at the request of U.S. authorities, after the Ecuadorian government decided to stop allowing Assange to remain in their U.K. embassy. The Justice Department later unsealed its indictment against the WikiLeaks founder.
They're citing a number of logs of online chats between Manning and "the individual" cited in the criminal complaint. While Assange isn't named in the transcripts, they point to a number of statements aligning that individual with various events Assange attended and references to his activities at Wikileaks. Also, Manning later went on to say that it took him several months to figure out that he was actually communicating with Assange, but he eventually did.
So what was Assange talking about with Manning? Some of it is just what you would expect, but the portion standing out for the prosecution is an instance where Mr. Wikileaks was offering advice on how to crack a password that would give Manning access to a Defense Department network containing classified information. If true, that sounds like grounds for a conspiracy charge.
The unanswered question is whether or not Manning eventually was able to break into the system and if he extracted any classified documents. If that's the case, the conspiracy charge is taken to a new level. It's probably a fair bet that these are the questions prosecutors wanted Manning to answer before the grand jury last month, resulting in his current confinement in jail after he refused.
Assuming we manage to extradite Assange from London (still a major assumption since the Swedes are asking for him on sexual assault charges as well), it's going to be a barnburner of a trial. Everyone on the left claiming that Assange is a journalist will call this a witch hunt and a threat to the First Amendment. Critics of President Trump will be lined up to see if Assange has any dirt on the alleged Russian collusion story. And the woke protests in support of both Assange and Manning will fill cable news stories for months or years to come. If Assange was working with Manning (a big if), his goose is cooked as far as the US in concerned. They may even throw more charges at Manning over this.
#5
Manning's lawyers actually put up the crazy plea at one time that all charges be dropped since Bradley Manning was a super-posited gender identity forced upon farm-girl Chelsea and doesn't really exist anymore.
[Jpost] The Counter-Terrorism Bureau warned Israelis of a serious threat of terrorist attacks in the Sinai as it issued a travel warning, according to Mivzak Live.
The bureau told all Israelis living or visiting the Sinai to leave immediately. The director of the Foreign Ministry’s overseas department toured the Israel-Sinai border on Monday according to the report.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/16/2019 00:00 ||
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[11125 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
I’m not sure if this is important, but Al Ahram is exercised enough on the subject to post an article.
[AlAhram] French weapons are being used by the United Arab Emirates and Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... in Yemen, according to a classified note revealed by French media on Monday which contradicts the claims of La Belle France's government.
The note from the French military intelligence service, published by new investigative media outlet Disclose, concluded that the UAE and Saudi Arabia deployed French weaponry from artillery to ships in their war against Houthis.
Under pressure from rights groups in La Belle France over the sales, the Gay Paree government has always insisted that French arms are only used in defensive circumstances to deter attacks by the Huthis.
La Belle France, the third-biggest arms exporter in the world, counts Saudi Arabia and the UAE as loyal clients in the Middle East, its biggest regional market in 2017.
Those two countries intervened in 2015 to support the Yemeni government against Houthis, which are backed by Iran, in a war that has left around 10,000 dead and pushed millions to the brink of starvation.
The UN calls the situation in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
ARTILLERY, TANKS, SHIPS, HELICOPTERS
The classified note -- provided to the French government in October 2018, according to Disclose -- said that 48 Caesar artillery guns manufactured by the Nexter group were being used along the Saudi-Yemen border.
Leclerc tanks, sold in the 1990s to the UAE, have also been used, as have Mirage 2000-9 fighter jets, while French missile-guiding technology called Damocles might have been deployed, according to the assessment.
Cougar transport helicopters and the A330 MRTT refuelling plane have also seen action, and two French ships are serving in the blockade of Yemeni ports which has led to food and medical shortages, the DRM military intelligence agency concluded.
Asked for comment by AFP, the French government said that "to our knowledge, the French weapons owned by members of the coalition are for the most part in defensive positions, outside of Yemen or in military bases, not on the frontline."
Disclose is a new investigative website working in partnership with established media companies including public broadcaster La Belle France Info, online brand Mediapart and Franco-German television channel Arte.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/16/2019 00:00 ||
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[11132 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia
#1
France's primary war item sorely missing. Must be a white flag shortage at home.
[IsraelTimes] The Israeli delegation that canceled its participation at a conference in Bahrain this week pulled out of the business confab after a Shia terrorist group released a video directly threatening the Israeli participants.
Video can be seen at the link.
The video uploaded to social media by Saraya Waad Allah Militia showed kabooms targeting the hotel the delegation intended to stay at and the conference center where the Global Entrepreneurship Network was being held.
[IsraelTimes] Finland’s leftist Social Democrats won a razor-thin victory in Sunday’s general election, holding off the far-right Finns Party which surged on an anti-immigration agenda.
With 100 percent of ballots counted, the Social Democrats, led by 56-year-old former trade union boss Antti Rinne, picked up 40 seats in parliament, after campaigning on a ticket of fierce opposition to the austerity imposed by the previous center-right government of Prime Minister Juha Sipila.
Meanwhile the Finns Party, which won 39 seats, had focused almost entirely on an anti-immigration agenda under the leadership of hardline MEP Jussi Halla-aho, who also decried the "climate hysteria" of the other parties.
Continued on Page 49
[Rudaw] Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif claimed on Monday that Tehran is not prohibited from enriching uranium by the 2015 nuclear deal, UN Security Council resolutions, or a global pact to prevent the spread of atomic arms. His comments come after a French diplomat implied that the Islamic Theocratic Republic is prohibited from enriching uranium.
"Reminder to our E3 partners in #JCPOA: There is NO prohibition on the enrichment of uranium by Iran under #NPT, #JCPOA or UNSCR 2231. Neither now, nor in 2025 or beyond," he tweeted. Iran summoned French ambassador to Tehran on Sunday protesting about the remarks by the French diplomat with Abbas Araqchi, the political deputy at the foreign ministry calling on the French government to make its position clear on the issue.
[Jpost] Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has announced the launch of OPAL, an innovative solution that will redefine the battlefield by connecting all platforms in the battle arena, manned and unmanned alike.
"The OPAL solution provides an unprecedented range of proven capabilities and operational flexibility, which allows for optimal utilization of the available resources to maximize effectiveness for a wide range of missions. OPAL is installed in a variety of advanced fighters, attack helicopters, refueling aircrafts, UAVs, ships, Command and Control centers, as well as mobile and fixed-base stations," IAI said.
In today’s modern battlefield, the ability to share information and maintain continuous communication between different forces is vital for the success of any mission.
For example, the IDF has recently begun practicing on a new four-dimensional combined battle strategy called the "Gideon Battlegroup" in preparation for a possible war on its northern front with Hezbollah.
The Gideon Battlegroup, which was drilled on during the recent large-scale divisional exercise with the 36th Armored Division, will include an invisible battlefield network having 24 intelligence planes that can detect anything that emits a signal. Once that signal is detected and decoded, it’s exact location is found and turned into a target in a matter of seconds by the "smart trigger" system.
If in previous wars troops could visualize the enemy in one clear location, today’s enemy is decentralized and much harder to visualize. They have become time-sensitive targets which challenge the IDF to strike them immediately after they are detected, before they disappear once again.
OPAL is based on forming a decentralized communication cloud for all members to allow real time information sharing, the company said, explaining that the system "allows all members to exchange relevant information in order to achieve a comprehensive, common operational picture of the battlefield."
The system ‐ which is compatible with any platform including fighter jets, tanks, ships or ground troops ‐ relies on a secure and proven communication network that connects different networks and platforms without fixed-base stations.
It provides users with optimized effectiveness in accomplishing their mission goals by generating and sharing a Common Operating Picture in real time ‐ providing interoperability of fifth-generation fighter aircraft with legacy platforms, maximized utilization of resources and the ability to execute multiple missions within a given time frame.
By sharing threat data, ground forces can improve their survivability in danger zones; pilots will have enhanced flight safety with collision avoidance warning indicators, which provide visual avoidance maneuvers.
OPAL also "significantly reduces the time to introduce new capabilities on the platforms from years to months" by enabling users to develop new operational capabilities and rapidly deploy them without having to change any hardware or aircraft avionic software blocks.
"OPAL is a unique and advanced IAI development that has been operational for many years and is a major factor in operational successes. OPAL provides comprehensive interoperability of communications and operational capabilities between air and ground forces, and serves as a force multiplier," said Yossi Melamed, executive vice president and general manager of Aviation Group. "I believe it will be a major asset for air, sea and ground users, and enhance their performance in the future battlefield."
#4
That's what I worry about. Sure these systems are great but they will start to be relied on and then when not if they get hacked, they are going to lose quite a bit of effectiveness. It won't be a massive hit, but it will happen. I expect that the Israelis WILL force their troops to conduct training both with and without for just that reason.
[IsraelTimes] After weeks of tension over Prisons Service jamming devices, Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, inmates to hand in some 300 smuggled phones, get access to public telephones.
A hunger strike by dozens of Paleostinian security prisoners belonging to the Hamas terror group has come to an end after Israeli officials reportedly agreed to install public telephones in their prison wards.
"An agreement in principle has been reached between the prisoners and the management of the occupation’s prisons regarding their demands," the Paleostinian Prisoners Club said on its Facebook page on Monday. "And we were hungry. But mostly because we got hungry"
According to representatives of the prisoners who spoke with Hebrew media, the hunger strike, launched by some 150 Hamas prisoners on April 8, formally concluded after Israel agreed to install public telephones in the 44 prison wards where the security prisoners are kept, and to allow prisoners to make regular, supervised calls to their families.
Citing Israeli officials, Channel 12 said Monday the agreement only permitted calls to first-degree relatives, and prisoners have accepted the condition that the calls would be listened to by security officials. "ombBay the oolSchay usBay"
The strike began after the Israel Prisons Service installed cellular jamming devices in the wards to prevent prisoners from using smuggled cellphones. The IPS said some 300 contraband cellphones, some carrying messages between terror cells, had been smuggled into the wards in recent months. The cellphones were being used to coordinate terror attacks, and had been implicated in at least 14 recent attempts at coordinating attacks from inside Israeli prisons, the IPS said.
Reports on the agreement Monday were not entirely consistent. Some Paleostinian sources suggested to the Haaretz daily that Israel had agreed to remove the jamming devices in wards where cellphones were handed over to prison officials. Israeli sources told other outlets the jamming devices would not be removed, as future phone smuggling could not be ruled out, but public phones would be made available to prisoners.
In exchange for the installation of the public phones, the prisoners have agreed to hand over all smuggled cellphones, the reports said.
When the strike began, prisoners were also demanding the reinstating of family visits from the Hamas-ruled Gazoo Strip. It is not yet clear if Israel has acquiesced to this demand in the new agreement.
The hunger strike began in Ketziot and Rimon prisons after talks to avert it collapsed.
The PLO’s Prisoners Affairs Commission said in a statement last week that additional groups of prisoners in other prisons would join the initial group of striking prisoners "in the coming days," the PA’s official Wafa news agency reported.
The row over incarceration conditions has recently sparked violence, including riots at Ketziot Prison that, according to the Paleostinian Prisoners Club, left 120 prisoners hurt in altercations throughout February and March.
Twice last month, Hamas prisoners violently attacked guards at Ketziot Prison, with one guard sustaining serious injuries from a stab wound to his neck on March 3. In the second attack, inmates used shanks to stab guards while the prisoners were being moved between cells, sparking a riot in the prison.
The Prisoners Club said the Israel Prisons Service responded by completely isolating several prisoners involved in the post-stabbing riot in "very dire conditions," stripping them of their personal belongings, family visitation rights and interactions with other prisoners.
The IPS said that 11 prisoners were maimed and hospitalized after security forces quelled the violent March 3 riot. Seven of the prisoners were airlifted to hospitals by the IDF, the Haaretz daily reported at the time.
In late February, Hamas prisoners in Ramon Prison torched 14 beds, setting a fire in the wing. The blaze was quickly extinguished and no injuries were reported. In that incident, too, prisoners were protesting restrictions on cellphone usage.
Iranian border guards opened fire on an Afghan family and their Kurdish guide on the Turkish border killing three of them including the guard Behrouz Chatozadeh father of three. The incident happened on April 9 near Torah village in Khoy, West Azerbijan @KurdistanHRNpic.twitter.com/3lXCLP8P9O
#1
The Lib SJWs are not welcoming them. They want someone else to, particularly red states so they can turn blue. The Libs just want Moralistic Preening
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/16/2019 9:42 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Cher - "We can't take care of our own"
Trump - "I agree with Cher"
Cher - incomprehensible Chernobyl meltdown
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.
The President of Ecuador may have accused Julian Assange of "spying" on rather dubious evidence, but a grand jury in the United States may be on firmer footing. A federal judge has unsealed the original criminal complaint against the Wikileaks founder, originally filed two years ago. It includes transcripts of online chats between Assange and Chelsea (then Bradley) Manning. And the charges make it sound as if the two of them were certainly conspiring to do something... but what?
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
[IsraelTimes] After weeks of tension over Prisons Service jamming devices, 
