October 29th, 2017 • 4h 1m
Shownotes
Every new episode of No Agenda is accompanied by a comprehensive list of shownotes curated by Adam while preparing for the show. Clips played by the hosts during the show can also be found here.
PR
F-Russia
Clinton Campaign's Law Firm Brought In Both Fusion GPS and CrowdStrike '-- the Lone Sources of 'Russian Hookers' and 'Russian Hacking' Claims
Sun, 29 Oct 2017 13:51
CrowdStrike is the third-party company ultimately relied upon by the FBI to make its assessment about alleged Russian hacking into the DNC. The DNC reportedly did not allow the FBI to gain access to servers that were suspected of being hacked, instead coming to an arrangement with the federal agency in which CrowdStrike carried out forensics on the servers and shared details with the FBI.
The information about Perkins Coie's reported role in bringing in CrowdStrike, first documented by the Washington Post last June, is newly relevant as attention in the Russia probe shifts to the law firm that represented the Clinton campaign and the DNC.
The Washington Post on Tuesday reported that in April 2016, attorney Marc E. Elias and his law firm, Perkins Coie, retained Fusion GPS to conduct the questionable research on behalf of both the Clinton campaign and the DNC that ultimately resulted in the now infamous, largely discredited dossier claiming that President Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Russia.
Through Perkins Coie, Clinton's campaign and the DNC continued to fund Fusion GPS until October 2016, days before Election Day, the Post reported.
Adding more intrigue upon reassessment, the Post in June cited DNC officials claiming that ''hackers'' into the DNC servers had ''gained access to the entire database of opposition research on GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump.''
That characterization may require further investigation following the revelation that it was Perkin Coie, reportedly acting on behalf of the DNC and Clinton's campaign, that paid for Fusion GPS's opposition research into Trump.
CNN reported that in private interviews with Congressional investigators prior to the Post's report revealing Perkins Coie's reported payment to Fusion GPS, former Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and former DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz both denied that they were aware of any arrangement to fund Fusion GPS's opposition research. CNN reported that Elias was seated next to Podesta during the private interview.
That report prompted former CIA Director Leon Panetta to advocate for the Senate Intelligence Committee to investigate both the Clinton campaign and the DNC about whether they had any knowledge of the payment to Fusion GPS to produce the dossier.
''Well, it certainly makes the situation very awkward,'' Panetta said of Elias's alleged involvement. ''If you're testifying and saying you have no knowledge, and the attorney sitting next to you is one of those that knew what was involved here, I think it does raise an issue that the committee is going to have to look at and determine just exactly who knew what.''
Perkins Coie, however, was reportedly more involved in matters related to the Russia probe beyond hiring Fusion GPS.
In a report that may take on renewed significance, the Washington Post last June documented how Michael Sussmann, a partner with Perkins Coie who also represented the DNC, was involved in bringing in Crowdstrike after the DNC suspected its servers had been hacked. CrowdStrike then identified hacker groups allegedly tied to Russia.
The Post reported that Sussman called in Shawn Henry, president of CrowdStrike.
The Post reported:
DNC leaders were tipped to the hack in late April. Chief executive Amy Dacey got a call from her operations chief saying that their information technology team had noticed some unusual network activity. ''It's never a call any executive wants to get, but the IT team knew something was awry,'' Dacey said. And they knew it was serious enough that they wanted experts to investigate.
That evening, she spoke with Michael Sussmann, a DNC lawyer who is a partner with Perkins Coie in Washington. Soon after, Sussmann, a former federal prosecutor who handled computer crime cases, called Henry, whom he has known for many years.
Within 24 hours, CrowdStrike had installed software on the DNC's computers so that it could analyze data that could indicate who had gained access, when and how.
According to the Post, citing DNC officials, the ''hackers'' had ''gained access to the entire database of opposition research on GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump.''
In January testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, then-FBI Director James Comey confirmed that the FBI registered ''multiple requests at different levels,'' to review the DNC's hacked servers. Ultimately, the DNC and FBI came to an agreement in which a ''highly respected private company'''--a reference to CrowdStrike'--would carry out forensics on the servers and share any information that it discovered with the FBI, Comey testified.
A senior law enforcement official stressed the importance of the FBI gaining direct access to the servers, a request that was denied by the DNC.
''The FBI repeatedly stressed to DNC officials the necessity of obtaining direct access to servers and data, only to be rebuffed until well after the initial compromise had been mitigated,'' the official was quoted by the news media as saying.
''This left the FBI no choice but to rely upon a third party for information. These actions caused significant delays and inhibited the FBI from addressing the intrusion earlier,'' the official continued.
Comey's statement about a ''highly respected private company'' gaining access to the DNC servers was a reference to CrowdStrike, the third-party company ultimately relied upon by the FBI to make its assessment about alleged Russian hacking into the DNC.
As this reporter documented, CrowdStrike was financed to the tune of $100 million from a funding drive by Google Capital.
Google Capital, which now goes by the name of CapitalG, is an arm of Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company. Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Alphabet, has been a staunch and active supporter of Hillary Clinton and is a longtime donor to the Democratic Party.
CrowdStrike is a California-based cybersecurity technology company co-founded by experts George Kurtz and Dmitri Alperovitch.
Alperovitch is a nonresident senior fellow of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative at the Atlantic Council. The Council takes a hawkish approach toward Russia and has released numerous reports and briefs about Russian aggression.
The Council is funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Inc., the U.S. State Department, and NATO ACT.
Another Council funder is the Ploughshares Fund, which in turn has received financing from billionaire George Soros' Open Society Foundations.
Meanwhile, after the Perkins Coie funding for opposition research, Fusion GPS went on to hire former intelligence agent Christopher Steele to do the purported research. Steele later conceded in court documents that part of his work still needed to be verified.
The dossier contains wild and unproven claims that the Russians had information regarding Trump and sordid sexual acts, including the widely mocked claim that Trump hired prostitutes and had them urinate on a hotel room bed. It also claimed there was an exchange of information between Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government.
Those allegations remain unsubstantiated following numerous public hearings. Indeed, former CIA Director John Brennan made clear in testimony last May that after viewing all of the evidence that was available to him on the Russia probe he is not aware of any collusion between Russia and members of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
According to the BBC, the dossier served as a ''roadmap'' for the FBI's investigation into claims of coordination between Moscow and members of Trump's presidential campaign during the Obama administration.
In April, CNN reported that the dossier served as part of the FBI's justification for seeking the FISA court's reported approval to clandestinely monitor the communications of Carter Page, the American oil industry investor who was tangentially and briefly associated with Trump's presidential campaign.
Senior Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have reportedly requested that the FBI and Department of Justice turn over applications for any warrants to monitor the communications of U.S. citizens associated with the investigation into alleged Russia interference in the 2016 presidential election.
In June testimony to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Comey admitted he pushed back against a request from President Donald Trump to possibly investigate the origins of ''salacious material'' that the agency possessed in the course of its investigation into alleged Russian interference.
Aaron Klein is Breitbart's Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, ''Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.'' Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.
This article was written with additional research by Joshua Klein.
The Twitter pitches
Jack Dorsey's virtue signaling on Russian cyber intervention in the election is blowing up in his face:
1. Thursday
Revealed: How Twitter pushed RT to spend big on 2016 US election
http://www.rt.com/op-edge/407858-rt-twitter-us-election/
" The RT and Twitter teams held a number of direct negotiations, during which we brainstormed potential media strategy ahead of American elections in 2016. The first meeting dates back to as early as April 2016, and involved senior marketing and news partnerships managers from Twitter.
The main idea pitched by Twitter to RT was “to take a stand.” The more money RT spent, the bigger the reach to American voters that Twitter would provide. At the meeting, the RT team was shown an in-depth presentation giving background into Twitter’s advantages as a platform of choice for the election. "
2. Friday
Twitter’s multi-million dollar US election pitch to RT revealed in FULL
http://www.rt.com/news/407919-twitter-multi-million-offer-rt/
" On Thursday, the micro-blogging platform announced a policy decision to ban ads from RT and Sputnik, citing alleged meddling in the 2016 US election. It followed Twitter’s report implying that RT was trying to influence US public opinion, crucially without providing context that virtually all news media organizations spend money on advertising their news coverage.
RT was thereby forced to reveal some details of the 2016 negotiations during which Twitter representatives made an exclusive multi-million dollar advertising proposal to spend big during the US presidential election, which was turned down. Having since been banned, and in order to set the record straight, we are publishing Twitter’s presentation and details of the offer in full. "
Shut Up Slave
'Kabinet zal uitslag referendum over aftapwet negeren' | NU - Het laatste nieuws het eerst op NU.nl
Sun, 29 Oct 2017 15:31
Het kabinet zal de uitslag van het referendum over de nieuwe Wet op de inlichtingen- en veiligheidsdiensten (Wiv) negeren. Dat stelt CDA-leider Sybrand Buma in een interview in de Volkskrant. "Hier ga ik uiteindelijk de keuze maken dat we dit referendum niet beschouwen als een echt referendum."
"En ik wil dat die sleepwet doorgaat." Volgens Buma denkt de rest van de coalitie er ook zo over. Hij noemt het referendum "een rest uit het verleden" en ziet daarom ook niet goed hoe de uitslag moet worden overgenomen, "terwijl we eigenlijk al hebben afgesproken dat we van het raadgevend referendum af willen."
Volgens de CDA-leider leent het onderwerp zich ook niet voor een volksraadpleging. Hij noemt de wet een "buitengewoon ingewikkeld ding met enorme consequenties als het niet doorgaat". Buma vindt dat daar niet enkel met een ja of een nee over moet worden gestemd.
Zie ook: Achtergrond: Dit moet je weten over de 'aftapwet' en het referendum
ReactiesD66-Kamerlid Kees Verhoeven zegt tegenover het Financieel Dagblad echter dat de uitspraken van Buma "onverstandig" zijn. Hij stelt dat het belangrijk is om een "inhoudelijk en genuanceerd" maatschappelijk debat te voeren over de wet. "We moeten afwachten wat het raadgevende advies van de bevolking is, en dan een verstandige afweging maken."
GroenLinks laat weten helderheid te willen van premier Rutte over het referendum. De partij wil dat de premier voor het debat over de regeringsverklaring op woensdag in een brief laat weten of hierover in de coalitie afspraken zijn gemaakt.
"Wij willen weten of coalitiesfracties hierover afspraken hebben gemaakt, of dat zij vrij kunnen opereren", zegt GroenLinks-leider Jesse Klaver "Het zou toch raar zijn om tegen mensen te zeggen: u mag wel gaan stemmen maar wat de uitslag ook wordt, we doen er toch niks mee."
PVV-leider Geert Wilders noemt de uitspraken "de schaamte voorbij''. Op Twitter sprak hij van "Buma's dictatuur''. Thierry Baudet van Forum voor Democratie vindt het "tijd voor kiezers om CDA te boycotten''.
ReferendumHet referendum zal plaatsvinden in maart volgend jaar, tegelijk met de gemeenteraadsverkiezingen. Maar ook dat "klopt gewoon niet" volgens Buma. Niet in iedere gemeente vinden dan verkiezingen plaats. "Op sommige plekken krijgt je dus een opkomst van 10 procent voor het referendum en op andere plekken van 70 procent."
Tijn de Vos, een van de initatiefnemers van het referendum, zegt de uitspraak van Buma onprofessioneel te vinden. "Ik vind het erg onprofessioneel dat hij dit nu al zegt, nog voor het referendum geweest is. Ik denk dat het nu belangrijker dan ooit is dat iedereen zich uitspreekt, om Buma te laten zien dat deze wet er echt niet mag komen", aldus De Vos.
De aanvragers van het referendum spreken van de 'sleepwet', omdat de wet het mogelijk maakt om bij het volgen van verdachten ook de communicatie van onschuldige burgers af te tappen. Voor het aftappen moeten de minister en een speciale commissie wel eerst hun goedkeuring geven.
Volgens de regering zijn er genoeg waarborgen ingebouwd om misbruik van die gegevens te voorkomen. Diverse instanties, waaronder de Raad van State en de Raad voor de Rechtspraak, hebben zich kritisch uitgelaten over de wet.
Door: ANP/NU.nl
AFG
Kabinet houdt verzoek VS om extra troepen Afghanistan liever geheim | Politiek | AD.nl
Sat, 28 Oct 2017 13:23
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EuroLand
EU plan for Frankfurt to clear out City jobs after Brexit | This is Money
Sun, 29 Oct 2017 10:26
By William Turvill For The Financial Mail On Sunday
Published: 17:30 EDT, 28 October 2017 | Updated: 17:30 EDT, 28 October 2017
Brussels has developed a blueprint for creating a new, 'very lucrative' financial centre to replace London after Brexit, The Mail on Sunday has learned.
The study has been circulated by Deutsche Boerse, the Frankfurt-based operator of Germany's stock exchange.
Frankfurt is seen as being in pole position to take over as the EU's leading financial centre if London loses ground after Brexit.
Main threat: Frankfurt could displace London as Europe's top financial hub
The paper has emerged as the EU gears up for an overhaul '' prompted by Brexit '' of the 'euro-clearing' market, which handles almost a trillion euros of transactions each day.
This is currently dominated by London and supports tens of thousands of jobs in Britain.
The paper '' prepared by the European Parliament policy department '' says that if the City is weakened by Brexit, there will be 'a great opportunity' for the EU to set up a rival financial centre 'on the European mainland'.
It suggested that a 'soft Brexit' was the most desirable outcome for all, but that in any other scenario the EU could take advantage of any damage done to London.
It said: 'This would entail relatively high relocation costs in the short run, but ... may turn out to be (very) lucrative in the long run.'
Moving 'euro clearing' would be key to setting up a new EU hub.
Without 'clearing' '' the process of settling deals, previously done on paper but now through computers '' banks and traders cannot keep track of their transactions.
Tomorrow is the last day of a separate European Commission consultation on proposals that could also pave the way for clearing to shift to Frankfurt on the River Main, or elsewhere in the EU.
Deutsche Boerse failed in a bid to merge with London Stock Exchange earlier this year. Its chief executive Carsten Kengeter stood down last week, over insider dealing allegations. He denies the claims.
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Subs in the water
Nuclear sub sailors fired after 'absolutely disgraceful' parties with a prostitute and cocaine - The Washington Post
Sun, 29 Oct 2017 10:22
Royal Navy security personnel stand guard on HMS Vigilant at Her Majesty's Naval Base, Clyde, Scotland in 2016. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
The British sailors who spend their lives in submarines safeguarding the nation's nuclear missiles are, without hyperbole, contenders for the most important job in the world.
The gravity of their mission is even evident in the names the British Royal Navy gave to the nuclear missile-equipped tubes of metal that glide beneath the globe's oceans: the Vanguard, the Victorious, the Vengeance, the Vigilant.
But several sailors on the HMS Vigilant have recently been dismissed after their mission devolved into more of a drug-fueled booze cruise '-- transgressions that happened last month as the sub was docked in the United States to pick up nuclear weapons.
According to the Associated Press, at least nine sailors tested positive for cocaine following ''drug-fueled parties.'' The Telegraph reported that one man had sex with a prostitute in a swimming pool.
''We do not tolerate drugs misuse by service personnel. Those found to have fallen short of our high standards face being discharged from service,'' a Royal Navy spokesman said, according to Reuters.
But as British media pointed out, the problems aboard the Vigilant run deeper.
Aboard every Vanguard-class sub is a safe that only the commander and the executive officer can access. Inside is a ''letter of last resort'' '-- instructions from the prime minister that detail what the crew should do if the United Kingdom is attacked with nuclear weapons.
Both command officers of the Vigilant have been embroiled in controversy because of sexual affairs with subordinates. The Navy has a strict ''no touching'' rule, according to the Evening Standard.
[He put on an 82nd Airborne cap and gave a KKK salute in Charlottesville. Vets had words.]
According to the Sun, Cmdr. Stuart Armstrong, the sub's captain, has been relieved of duty amid the investigation, which includes a photo that surfaced of the woman he was allegedly intimate with wearing the captain's uniform. The No. 2, Lt. Cmdr. Michael Seal, also faces disciplinary action.
Other members of the crew have threatened to resign over the widespread breaches in Royal Navy rules.
The Daily Mail did some math on what the recent developments mean for one of the free world's strongest deterrents to nuclear war: ''Around 10 percent of HMS Vigilant's 168-strong crew have either been kicked out, quit, are under investigation or have been removed in what is believed to be one of the biggest sex and drugs scandals to hit the Navy.''
The nuclear sub problems come as tensions around the world's most dangerous weapons are heightening.
Speaking in Seoul on Saturday, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the threat of a nuclear attack by North Korea is growing.
''North Korea has accelerated the threat that it poses to its neighbors and the world through its illegal and unnecessary missile and nuclear weapons programs,'' Mattis told reporters, adding that he could not imagine a ''condition under which the United States would accept North Korea as a nuclear power.''
And there have been reports that the United States and the world's other nuclear powers are dusting off Cold War deterrent protocols.
A few weeks ago, there were repeatedly denied reports that U.S. Strategic Command '-- the government agency that maintains the nation's nuclear weapons '-- has placed its B-52 bombers on 24-hour alert, a state of readiness not seen since 1991.
Crews at Louisiana's Barksdale Air Force Base are conducting renovations near long-vacant ''alert pads,'' where during the Cold War aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons once sat ready on a continual basis. So-called strip alerts were discontinued after the Soviet Union's collapse.
[A lobster boat captain said a freak storm killed his crew. Then doctors found drugs in his system.]
The activity comes amid an escalating international war of words with potentially catastrophic consequences.
Although Donald Trump pledged to tame North Korea while he was running for president, the rogue state has not budged from its stated goal of becoming a full-fledged nuclear power equipped with weapons that can reach the U.S. mainland.
Kim, the North Korean president, has said his nation needs nuclear weapons to stop the United States from asphyxiating its economy and overturning its government.
In a speech to the United Nations, President Trump has threatened to ''totally destroy'' North Korea with ''fire and fury'' if it doesn't back off from its nuclear aims.
President Trump harshly criticized North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the United Nations on Sept. 19, calling him "Rocket Man" and threatening to "totally destroy North Korea" if need be. (The Washington Post)
Kim retaliated with a statement calling Trump ''a mentally deranged U.S. dotard,'' who would ''pay dearly'' for his speech at the United Nations.
Coincidentally, the scandal aboard the HMS Vigilant was happening at about the same time as Kim and Trump were sparring in the media. The sex scandals surfaced as the sub was docked in Kings Bay, Ga., according to the Daily Mail.
The sailors went back and forth between the sub and a hotel while the vessel was docked and held several parties that raged out of control, something others in the military called ''disgraceful.''
Rear Adm. Chris Parry, former commander of a Type 42 destroyer, told the Daily Mail: ''This is not just a submarine, it is one of our deterrence submarines. It is absolutely disgraceful. People in the Navy should remember playing for our country on an international level is a great privilege. It is a question of putting service before self.''
Britain's Royal Navy has released a series of futuristic submarine concepts which mimic real marine life-forms and radically change the way underwater warfare could look in 50 years. (Reuters)
Read more:
A short history of 'dotard,' the arcane insult Kim Jong Un used in his threat against Trump
A U.S. ambassador told a server she should cash in on her looks. An official inquiry followed.
He patted a man's butt in Dubai and faced months in prison '-- until a royal pardon freed him
WHO rescinds 'goodwill ambassador' appointment of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe
Elite$
Town of Ulster releases video of county legislator's traffic stop | Hudson Valley One
Sun, 29 Oct 2017 12:16
The long-suppressed videotape detailing with what one police officer called ''a routine traffic stop'' four months ago finally saw the light of public scrutiny Tuesday night. The tape was from a police patrol car dash cam which recorded the exchange between county legislator Jennifer Schwartz Berky and officer Gary Short in the Town of Ulster shortly before 7 p.m. in the Aldi's parking lot on May 24.
Berky's lawyers sought to suppress the dash cam on the grounds that it would compromise her chances for a fair trial. The town board, acting on the advice of the state's Freedom of Information office and town attorney Jason Kovacs, voted 4-0 Tuesday night to release the tape. Councilman Joel Brink was absent.
Town supervisor Jim Quigley had ruled that only those who had FOILed the dash cam would receive copies. Berky requested a copy, but was not in attendance during the 30-minute special town-board meeting. Recipients of the tape are free to distribute it as they choose.
Berky was due in town court on June 14, but did not appear and did not contact the court. She did not appear for hearings in July or August. Her attorneys represented her at town board meetings on October 16 and 23. Berky has a trial date in town court, if she so chooses, for November 20.
Joe O'Connor, Berky's lawyer at the special session, told the town board that releasing the video might expose the town to ''hundreds of requests'' for such videos at an expense (with police officers appearing in court) of ''hundreds of thousands of dollars.''
O'Connor said he would discuss with his client whether she wants to appeal the town's decision.
Related:
County legislator apologizes for behavior at traffic stop shown in video
The tape shows Short approaching Berky's Prius in the Aldi's parking lot after following her for about a quarter-mile from the intersection of Ulster Avenue and Morton Boulevard onto Route 9W. On audio she is heard asking the officer why she was being stopped. He tells her it's for speeding, 43 miles per hour in 30-miles-per-hour zone.
Berky told him she never speeds and was driving with traffic. She said she was headed home to feed her young son and had a job interview in downtown Kingston. Sounding increasingly agitated, she said she could not afford a traffic ticket as it will increase her cost of insurance. She says she was ''broke.''
Short went back to his patrol car to write a ticket. Berky stepped out of her car, apparently gasping for air and bent over double. Short returned and inquired about her health. She said she was having ''a panic attack.'' Short asked whether she wanted medical assistance. She did not reply, but seemed to be breathing better.
Short returned and offered to write a ticket for failure to wear a seatbelt, a much lesser offense than speeding. Berky told him she always wears her seatbelt and refused the offer. Short then wrote the speeding ticket.
At about halfway through the 26-minute incident, Ulster officer Kevin Woltman appeared to inquire as to Short's status. The officers chatted briefly and he leaves. Woltman is the nephew of Brian Woltman, Berky's Republican opponent in the November 7 election.
As Short issued her the speeding ticket, Berky was heard to say, ''I don't trust you. I don't feel safe here. Tell me what my rights are. I didn't understand.''
''I've explained everything to you,'' Short replied, his voice reflecting exasperation. ''I'm not going to argue with you any longer.''
Berky, in private, has claimed she was harassed by the officer, but has not filed a formal complaint. He lawyers did not raise that issue.
Her attorneys did cite cited unspecified ''politics'' by the 4-1 Republican town board against Berky, a Democrat.
Rocco Secreto, the board's lone Democrat, voted with majority Republicans Tuesday night. ''Politics had nothing to do with it,'' he said.
Town police chief Kyle Berardi defended his officers against allegations of politics.
''For one thing, my people don't pay a lot of attention to politics,'' he said. ''I doubt if he knew who she was, or cared if he did. That said, if it was politics, it would have been dealt with. That's not the kind of thing we allow in this department.''
Berky defeated Woltman 352-172 in a Democratic primary in 2015. She polled 1330 votes without opposition in the general election. Woltman, a purchasing agent at city hall, is now an enrolled Republican, according to the board of elections. Berky, an urban planner and former county deputy planner, owns a consulting business.
Edited for time and relevance. Full video here.
Related
Directed Energy Weapons
Cuba presents detailed defense against sonic attack charges
Sun, 29 Oct 2017 10:33
HAVANA (AP) '-- Cuba on Thursday presented its most detailed defense to date against U.S. accusations that American diplomats in Havana were subjected to mysterious sonic attacks that left them with a variety of ailments including headaches, hearing problems and concussions.
In a half-hour, prime-time special titled "Alleged Sonic Attacks," Cuban officials attempted to undermine the Trump administration's assertion that 24 U.S. officials or their relatives had been subjected to deliberate attacks by a still-undetermined culprit. Many officials reported being subjected to loud, grating noises before falling ill. The U.S. has not accused Cuba of carrying out the attacks, but says that Cuba has not met its obligation to protect diplomats on its territory.
The television special pointed out what it alleged was a lack of evidence for the U.S. accusations. It argued the United States had failed to show that such attacks had actually occurred because it had not given Cuba or the public access to the testimony or medical records of U.S. officials who reported attacks, despite three visits to Cuba by U.S. investigators in June, August and September.
"The members of the U.S. delegation said they don't have evidence that confirms that these reported attacks occurred, and brought up that there was no working theory about the cause of the health problems reported by their diplomats," the program's narrator said.
The narrator said Cuba had undertaken an exhaustive investigation ordered by "the highest government authorities," a clear reference to President Raul Castro. Cuba did not possess any technology capable of carrying out a sonic attack and importing it was prohibited by law, according to the special.
"Its entering the country could only take place illegally," the narrator said.
The creators of the report interviewed neighbors of the affected diplomats who said they had not heard any strange sounds or suffered any symptoms, which the special presented as another purported weakness in the U.S. allegations. It said security around U.S. diplomats' homes had been dramatically increased.
The U.S. State Department declined to comment at length on the Cuban critique, saying Thursday that, "the safety and wellbeing of American citizens is our top priority ... We are continuing our investigation into the attacks, and the Cuban government has told us they will continue their efforts as well."
The U.S. has cut staffing at its Havana embassy by 60 percent in response to the incidents, expelled Cuban diplomats from the embassy in Washington, issued a travel warning for Americans going to Cuba and stopped issuing visas for Cubans in Havana. The measures have sent U.S.-Cuba relations plummeting from a high point under President Barack Obama and cut into the increasingly important flow of tourists to Cuba, whose economy went into recession last year for the first time in more than two decades.
Thursday night's special did not present an alternate explanation for the facts presented by U.S. officials, with one significant exception. Officials with Cuba's Interior Ministry said that U.S. investigators had presented them with three recordings made by presumed victims of sonic attacks and that analysis of the sounds showed them to be extremely similar to those of crickets and cicadas that live along the northern coast of Cuba.
"It's the same bandwidth and it's audibly very similar," said Lt. Col. Juan Carlos Molina, a telecommunications specialist with the Interior Ministry. "We compared the spectrums of the sounds and evidently this common sound is very similar to the sound of a cicada."
The program's narrator said that unnamed "North American researchers" had found that some cicada and cricket noises could be louder than 90-95 decibels, enough to produce hearing loss, irritation and hypertension in situations of prolonged exposure.
Cuba said it had reported its findings on the similarity of the recordings to cricket sounds, and the U.S. had not responded.
The special's narrator said U.S. diplomats continued to travel around Cuba after the incidents began to be reported, and there were requests for dozens of visas for visits by friends and family, something the narrator said undermined U.S. allegations that the diplomats were not being kept safe in Cuba.
____
Michael Weissenstein on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mweissenstein
CLIPS & DOCS
VIDEO - Exclusive: First charges filed in Mueller investigation
Sun, 29 Oct 2017 10:40
WH suggests women who accused Trump of sexual misconduct are lying
Mother purposely drove SUV with her 3 children off a cliff, police say
Click to expand UP NEXT
Washington (CNN) - A federal grand jury in Washington, DC, on Friday approved the first charges in the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to sources briefed on the matter.
The charges are still sealed under orders from a federal judge. Plans were prepared Friday for anyone charged to be taken into custody as soon as Monday, the sources said. It is unclear what the charges are.
A spokesman for the special counsel's office declined to comment.
Mueller was appointed in May to lead the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Under the regulations governing special counsel investigations, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who has oversight over the Russia investigation, would have been made aware of any charges before they were taken before the grand jury for approval, according to people familiar with the matter.
On Friday, top lawyers who are helping to lead the Mueller probe, including veteran prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, were seen entering the court room at the DC federal court where the grand jury meets to hear testimony in the Russia investigation.
Reporters present saw a flurry of activity at the grand jury room, but officials made no announcements.
(C) SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, special counsel on the Russian investigation, leaves the US Capitol building following a meeting with members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee on June 21. Shortly after President Donald Trump abruptly fired then-FBI Director James Comey, Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel. Mueller took the reins of a federal investigation that Comey first opened in July 2016 in the middle of the presidential campaign.
Mueller is authorized to investigate "any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation," according to Rosenstein's order.
The special counsel's investigation has focused on potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, as well as obstruction of justice by the President, who might have tried to impede the investigation. CNN reported that investigators are scrutinizing Trump and his associates' financial ties to Russia.
This has been an incredibly confusing week in politics. That's good for Trump. This has been an incredibly confusing week in politics. That's good for Trump.
Mueller's team has also examined foreign lobbying conducted by former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and others. His team has issued subpoenas for documents and testimony to a handful of figures, including some people close to Manafort, and others involved in the Trump Tower meeting between Russians and campaign officials.
Last year, the Comey-led investigation secured approval from the secret court that oversees the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to monitor the communications of Manafort, as well as former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, as part of the investigation into Russian meddling.
In addition to Mueller's probe, three committees on Capitol Hill are conducting their own investigations.
CNN's Marshall Cohen, Mary Kay Mallonee and Laura Robinson contributed to this report.
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VIDEO - Jon Stewart Shreds Donald Trump: 'Our First Openly Asshole President' - Rolling Stone
Fri, 27 Oct 2017 17:05
Jon Stewart returned from his summer break Monday not wanting to talk about the Iran nuclear deal or Greece's economic disaster. Instead, the host feasted on a topic that will likely monopolize much of The Daily Show as Stewart inches toward the end of his tenure. "Donald Trump. The patron saint of topical comedians who are just running out the clock," Stewart said, later admitting, "I so love this man."
Much of Stewart's Trump takedown focused on the real estate mogul's proclamation that former presidential hopeful John McCain "wasn't a war hero," even though McCain spent nearly six years in a prisoner of war camp. Despite a healthy lead in the polls, Trump's comments have drawn the ire of practically everyone, from veterans to his own Republican party.
"Listen, don't flame out now. I've got to squeeze three more weeks of this shit," Stewart advises Trump. "You're at the point where even your fellow Republican presidential candidates '' people who are trying very hard to not recognize what a terrible person you are '' now have to recognize what a terrible person you are." Stewart then rolls clips of Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Rick Perry and Jeb Bush all denouncing Trump over his McCain comments.
"At long last, does the man who accused the vast majority of Mexican immigrants of being drug-addicted rapists have no sense of decency," Stewart asks. "Trump has no control over the projectile vomit of dickishness that comes out of his mouth every time he opens it. It was inevitable that some of his word-puke was going to get on you. And you should have known that. You've been down this road before."
Stewart, who called Trump's hair "comedy entrapment," also teased the candidate's insistence that a bone spur prevented him from enlisting in the military '' a "medical deferment" '' only Trump couldn't remember which foot was hurt.
In a second segment dedicated to Trump, Daily Show senior election correspondent Jordan Klepper talks about how The Donald, if elected, could be "our first openly asshole President." Klepper then says that while Nixon was a "gaping asshole, but closeted," Trump "says it loud and proud." The segment also featured a cameo appearance by noted "asshole" Paul Rudd.
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VIDEO - Elizabeth Warren Says Campus Free Speech Means No Censorship or Violence
Fri, 27 Oct 2017 11:57
The U.S. Senate waded into the debate about free speech on college campuses Thursday, as a panel of experts offered their views on what has emerged as an increasingly controversial issue on college campuses.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions convened the hearing amid a national debate on how to protect free speech on campuses, including by protecting the rights of those who may harbor hateful views. Chaos ensued at the University of Florida last week when white nationalist Richard Spencer spoke on campus, and protests against former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopolous at the University of California, Berkeley earlier this year turned violent. In August, activist Heather Heyer was killed at a march protesting a white supremacist rally at the University of Virginia.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions last month pledged to ''protect students' free expression'' regardless of their political views. But Democrats don't think the Trump administration is doing enough to tackle hate speech, a concern eight of the 11 Democrats on the committee expressed Wednesday in a letter to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.
Toward the end of the committee hearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, one of the signatories on that letter, said colleges should not prohibit speakers no matter how extreme their views are. She also condemned extremists on the right and the left who use violence against people they disagree with.
Warren, D-Mass., gave the example of right-wing intellectual Charles Murray, who she called an extremist who wears a ''fancy suit and peddles racist junk science about how white men are biologically speaking intellectually superior to everyone else.'' She encouraged people to challenge his views.
''As someone who worked as an academic researcher for decades, I think that spouting fake science is extremely corrosive to public policy and should be called out in public at every possible opportunity,'' said Warren, who spent most of her life in academia, including many years teaching law at Harvard University.
Still, she rejected censorship.
''I think it's dangerous to suppress speech. First, suppression can backfire. Instead of shutting up individuals with disgusting views it becomes a launching pad to national attention,'' Warren said. ''Bigots and white supremacists can make themselves out to be First Amendment martyrs and grow their audiences. And second, suppression suggests weakness, It makes us sound afraid, that we're afraid we can't defeat evil ideas with good ideas.''
The senator then turned to panelist Allison Stanger, a Middlebury College professor who says she disagrees with Murray but moderated a talk with him on campus earlier this year. Protesters interrupted the event before it started and forced a change of venue, and Murray was later violently assaulted by a mob of students. Warren used this example to condemn violence and to encourage people to engage in debates rather than silo themselves off.
''The notion that I just want to underline here is that the people who attacked you get no special protection, neither does the Charlottesville white supremacist who murdered a woman there or the three white supremacists who tried to shoot people at the University of Florida last week,'' Warren said to Murray. ''They will go to jail. Free speech is not about violence, it is not about silence. What I'm concerned about is that right now it is all too easy for all of us to avoid hearing anything that we don't already agree with. And that is an enormous threat to our democracy.''
Top photo: Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., questions Richard Smith, CEO of Equifax, during a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in Dirksen on the company's security breach on October 4, 2017.
VIDEO - On Brexit, European Union Tells U.K. 'Show Me The Money' | Here & Now
Sun, 29 Oct 2017 15:28
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street in central London on Oct. 25, 2017. (Chris J. Ratcliffe/AFP/Getty Images)Negotiations to sever ties between the European Union and the United Kingdom have stalled. The big issue is the bill the U.K. will pay the E.U. when the relationship ends.
Here & Now's Meghna Chakrbarti gets an update from NPR's Frank Langfitt (@franklangfitt).
This segment aired on October 26, 2017.
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VIDEO - Exclusive: First charges filed in Mueller investigation
Sun, 29 Oct 2017 10:40
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Washington (CNN) - A federal grand jury in Washington, DC, on Friday approved the first charges in the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to sources briefed on the matter.
The charges are still sealed under orders from a federal judge. Plans were prepared Friday for anyone charged to be taken into custody as soon as Monday, the sources said. It is unclear what the charges are.
A spokesman for the special counsel's office declined to comment.
Mueller was appointed in May to lead the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Under the regulations governing special counsel investigations, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who has oversight over the Russia investigation, would have been made aware of any charges before they were taken before the grand jury for approval, according to people familiar with the matter.
On Friday, top lawyers who are helping to lead the Mueller probe, including veteran prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, were seen entering the court room at the DC federal court where the grand jury meets to hear testimony in the Russia investigation.
Reporters present saw a flurry of activity at the grand jury room, but officials made no announcements.
(C) SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, special counsel on the Russian investigation, leaves the US Capitol building following a meeting with members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee on June 21. Shortly after President Donald Trump abruptly fired then-FBI Director James Comey, Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel. Mueller took the reins of a federal investigation that Comey first opened in July 2016 in the middle of the presidential campaign.
Mueller is authorized to investigate "any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation," according to Rosenstein's order.
The special counsel's investigation has focused on potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, as well as obstruction of justice by the President, who might have tried to impede the investigation. CNN reported that investigators are scrutinizing Trump and his associates' financial ties to Russia.
This has been an incredibly confusing week in politics. That's good for Trump. This has been an incredibly confusing week in politics. That's good for Trump.
Mueller's team has also examined foreign lobbying conducted by former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and others. His team has issued subpoenas for documents and testimony to a handful of figures, including some people close to Manafort, and others involved in the Trump Tower meeting between Russians and campaign officials.
Last year, the Comey-led investigation secured approval from the secret court that oversees the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to monitor the communications of Manafort, as well as former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, as part of the investigation into Russian meddling.
In addition to Mueller's probe, three committees on Capitol Hill are conducting their own investigations.
CNN's Marshall Cohen, Mary Kay Mallonee and Laura Robinson contributed to this report.
More From CNN From James Toback scandal, a sisterhood forms CNNFierce winds and rain may hit New York on Sandy anniversary CNNAmerica's diplomatic vacuum in the Middle East sends its allies to Russia CNN CNN
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