[Daily Caller] A criminal suspect in an investigation into a major security breach on the House of Representatives computer network has abruptly left the country and gone to Pakistan, where her family has significant assets and VIP-level protection, a relative and others told The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group.
Hina Alvi, her husband Imran Awan, and his brothers Abid and Jamal were highly paid shared IT administrators working for multiple House Democrats until their access to congressional IT systems was terminated Feb. 2 as a result of the investigation. Capitol Police confirmed the investigation is ongoing, but no arrests have been reported in the case.
The Awans are "accused of stealing equipment from members’ offices without their knowledge and committing serious, potentially illegal, violations on the House IT network," according to Politico. Many of the Democrats who employed the Awans are members of the House Committee on Homeland Security, the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. (A list of potentially compromised members is listed below.)
Their positions gave them access to members’ emails and confidential files. In addition, Imran was given the password for an iPad used by then-Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat. The five came to infiltrated the U.S. from Pakistan.
#1
Ah, these were the traitors who blew the operation where that SEAL was killed. They knew the Navy was coming and the object of the raid ran off and taunted them later. Didn't know there were more of them.
Posted by: Herb McCoy7309 ||
05/23/2017 3:52 Comments ||
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#2
Perhaps Mr. Comey can explain this, how they got away, and what was actually taken. Then explain HIS actions
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/23/2017 7:21 Comments ||
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...for half a decade a bought creature of the Chinese government...
60, of Washington, D.C., and an employee of the U.S. Department of State, with obstructing an official proceeding and making false statements to the FBI, both felony offenses, for allegedly concealing numerous contacts that she had over a period of years with foreign intelligence agents.
The charges were announced by Acting Assistant Attorney General Mary B. McCord for National Security, U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips of the District of Columbia and Assistant Director in Charge Andrew W. Vale of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.
"Candace Marie Claiborne is a U.S. State Department employee who possesses a Top Secret security clearance and allegedly failed to report her contacts with Chinese foreign intelligence agents who provided her with thousands of dollars of gifts and benefits," said Acting Assistant Attorney General McCord. "Claiborne used her position and her access to sensitive diplomatic data for personal profit. Pursuing those who imperil our national security for personal gain will remain a key priority of the National Security Division."
"Candace Claiborne is charged with obstructing an official proceeding and making false statements in connection with her alleged concealment and failure to report her improper connections to foreign contacts along with the tens of thousands of dollars in gifts and benefits they provided," said U.S. Attorney Phillips. "As a State Department employee with a Top Secret clearance, she received training and briefing about the need for caution and transparency. This case demonstrates that U.S. government employees will be held accountable for failing to honor the trust placed in them when they take on such sensitive assignments"
"Candace Claiborne is accused of violating her oath of office as a State Department employee, who was entrusted with Top Secret information when she purposefully mislead federal investigators about her significant and repeated interactions with foreign contacts," said Assistant Director in Charge Vale. "The FBI will continue to investigate individuals who, though required by law, fail to report foreign contacts, which is a key indicator of potential insider threats posed by those in positions of public trust."
More at the DOJ website.
#1
*sigh* What ever happened to the old fashioned charge of Treason? But then I guess we would have to string up a damn good portion of Washington D.C.
I find it very hard to find a downside in that....
[FoxNews] The number of concealed carry permits in the United States has topped 15 million over the last year, according to data collected by the Crime Prevention Research Center.
That’s the largest one-year increase ever in the number of permits issued, according to the research center. In July 2016, the center reported that 14.5 million people had concealed handgun permits. As of May of this year, the number is already 15.7 million.
John Lott, founder of the group and a Fox News columnist, said several states, including Arizona, Florida, Michigan and Texas, have seen a big jump in the number of gun permits issued. There are several reasons for the increase – most notably, a rise in women and minorities seeking to purchase handguns, Lott said.
Between 2012 and 2016, Lott said, the growth rate for women was twice as much as it was for men. He also said minorities are purchasing handguns at a higher rate compared to previous years.
Firearms instructors are reporting an increase in the number of black women learning how to use guns around the country, as noted in an earlier Fox News report. Gun instructors who teach self-defense courses say more women are looking toward guns to protect themselves against crime.
[WAPO] Retired Master Sgt. Wilburn K. Ross, an Army machine-gunner who received the Medal of Honor for single-handedly fighting back eight German counterattacks during a World War II battle in France, died May 9 in Washington state. He was 94.
His death was announced by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. The cause was not disclosed.
Actor Sir Roger Moore, best known for playing James Bond, has died aged 89, his family has announced. He played the famous spy in seven Bond films including Live and Let Die and the Spy Who Loved Me.
Sir Roger's family confirmed the news on Twitter, saying he had died after "a short but brave battle with cancer".
The statement, from his children, read: "Thank you Pops for being you, and being so very special to so many people."
Sir Roger, who died in Switzerland, will have a private funeral in Monaco in accordance with his wishes, they added.
"The love with which he was surrounded in his final days was so great it cannot be quantified in words alone," read the statement from Debora, Geoffrey and Christian.
"Our thoughts must now turn to supporting Kristina [his wife] at this difficult time."
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
#2
Always seemed like a good guy with a mischievous sense of humor. RIP
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/23/2017 9:45 Comments ||
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#3
In ye olde days I remember reading that his father had been a policeman and he was always supportive of the UK police. I'm old enough to remember when he played the lead in the old Brit TV series "The Saint",as a sort of ethical thief.
#6
Part of the reason he was not my favorite Bond is when he play the role they were trying to make Bond movies comedies. So it wasn't Moore's part. He was a good actor and always seemed to be a pretty likable guy.
RIP
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/23/2017 13:28 Comments ||
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#7
So it wasn't his part fault.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/23/2017 13:28 Comments ||
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#8
Broccoli wanted Moore to be the original Bond, but he couldn't get out of his contract for the Saint. While Connery was great, having read the novels and knowing of Dusko Popov, it always seemed to me the part should really have been filled by Moore from the start. Connery made it a rougher, more action part than Fleming had in mind.
[News24] Johannesburg - A professional big game hunter from Tzaneen, Theunis Botha, 51, died on Friday afternoon during a hunt in Gwai, in Zimbabwe, when a member of his group fired at a storming elephant cow and the animal fell on him. That's why they call hunting a sport. Usually one side wins. Not always. Sometimes it's a draw.
A source who didn’t want to be named told Netwerk24 that a group of hunters had gone for a walk on Friday afternoon when they suddenly came across a breeding herd of elephants.
Three elephant cows stormed the hunters and Botha shot at them. A fourth cow stormed them from the side and one of the hunters shot her after she’d lifted Botha with her trunk. The shot was fatal and as the cow collapsed, she fell on Botha. Botha Website.
[Breitbart] The White House will release its "taxpayer-first budget" on Tuesday, which includes $1.7 trillion in cuts for entitlement spending and a 30 percent reduction in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) budget.
The Trump budget proposal will balance over the next ten years by cutting both mandatory and discretionary funding for agencies such as the EPA and State Department. The budget proposal assumes that the economy will grow at three percent compared to the 1.6 percent growth that America experienced in 2016. White House staffers explained that the proposal is a "post-policy" budget, meaning that the budget assumes that Trump signed the health care overhaul known as the American Health Care Act (AHCA) and tax reform into law.
The budget proposal will make substantial cuts into four entitlement programs, SNAP (food stamps), CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program), and SSDI (Disability Insurance). The Trump budget assumes that the AHCA becomes law, which would roll back Medicaid expansion. White House staffers told Axios that the budget would cut entitlement costs through an "emphasis on work requirements for able-bodied people."
The Washington Post’s Damian Paletta stated, "The White House also will call for giving states more flexibility to impose work requirements for people in different kinds of anti-poverty programs, people familiar with the budget plan said, potentially leading to a flood of changes in states led by conservative governors."
#2
Yes. President Clinton signed this bill into law in 1996. Provisions included -
Ending welfare as an entitlement program;
Requiring recipients to begin working after two years of receiving benefits;
Placing a lifetime limit of five years on benefits paid by federal funds;
Aiming to encourage two-parent families and discouraging out-of-wedlock births;
Enhancing enforcement of child support; and
Requiring state professional and occupational licenses to be withheld from illegal immigrants.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/23/2017 13:13 Comments ||
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It should be noted that of the three Axis powers in WWII, only Japan has been completely open about its participation in WWII. Neither Germany nor Italy have been as forthcoming about their participation.
[Regnum.ru] The city of Madrid is facing a court petition to rename a street in honor of the Spanish Blue Division, which participated on the German side in WWII, according to a Russian language news accounts.
A year ago. the municipal government of Madrid embarked on a campaign to rename streets and alleys commemorating dictator Franco and his associates, according to the Russian language regnum.ru A group of relatives who lost people in Soviet Russia during WWII will petition the government to name at least one street in honor of the Blue Division.
Jose Luis Martin, identified as chairman of the group said that a number of monuments to the Italian Army which fought on the German side in WWII have been erected in the Apennines Mountain, so, "in Spain why should it be otherwise.
The Italian Army fought in Soviet Russian from June, 1941 to January, 1943. A total of 90,000 Italian soldiers were killed in Soviet Russia, for which a total of 17 monuments have been erected.
The Spanish Blue Division, otherwise designated as the 250th Infantry Divison, was among the largest units of its size anywhere in the war with more than 18,000 soldiers. The Blue Division fought in the Leningrad area until it was withdrawn in 1944.
Nearly every account of the Blue Division has been one of fulsome praise.
#3
Azul is Spanish for blue. They wore the blue shirts of the Falangists, hence the name.
They marched for a month straight to get to the front, where they discovered Soviet artillery. Huge numbers of them were killed the first day. The rest got to face an attack by Soviet infantry and tanks the next day.
#4
It was a way for Franco to get a lot of fanatics out of the country before they could destabilize his efforts, which were largely the restoration of the 'ancient regime' not the creed of national socialism.
You know my opinion of Franco... We ought to keep these Red Spaniards on the back burner... They're lost to democracy, and to that reactionary crew round Franco too... I believe you to the letter, Speer, that they were impressive people. I must say, in general, that during the civil war the idealism was not on Franco's side; it was to be found among the Reds ... one of these days we'll be able to make use of them... The whole thing will start all over again. But with us on the opposite side.
As quoted in Albert Speer's diary entry for 26 December 1950 recalling a conversation with Hitler in January 1943, published in Spandau: The Secret Diary (2000), p. 167
#5
It should be noted that of the three Axis powers in WWII, only Japan has been completely open about its participation in WWII.
I find that a curious remark--I haven't seen much ownership of such acts as the Rape of Nanking, Bataan Death March, Unit 731, forced conscription of "Comfort Women", etc., nor did Japan face trials near as extensive as the Nuremberg Trials. What am I missing?
Posted by: Dar ||
05/23/2017 13:47 Comments ||
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#6
Missed the Tokyo trials?
On November 4, 1948, the trial ended with 25 of 28 Japanese defendants being found guilty. Of the three other defendants, two had died during the lengthy trial, and one was declared insane. On November 12, the war crimes tribunal passed death sentences on seven of the men, including General Hideki Tojo, who served as Japanese premier during the war, and other principals, such as Iwane Matsui, who organized the Rape of Nanking, and Heitaro Kimura, who brutalized Allied prisoners of war. Sixteen others were sentenced to life imprisonment, and two were sentenced to lesser terms in prison. On December 23, 1948, Tojo and the six others were executed in Tokyo.
Missed the Manila War Crimes Trial of which Gen. Yamashita was the highest prosecuted .
Yamashita was only one of thousands facing trial for their actions during World War II–and before the war for those who had participated in the rape of China. Japanese soldiers had been killing, raping, looting and torturing all across the East since the 1930s. In 1945, at long long last, the bill was coming due. Before the courts-martial and military commissions recessed for the last time, some 5,600 Japanese had been prosecuted in more than 2,200 trials. Of these men–and a few women–more than 4,400 were convicted, and about 1,000 were executed. Testifying to the Allies’ determination to deal fairly with the enemy, there had also been about the same number of acquittals.
Not included are those who committed suicide rather than deal with the process.
Besides Nanking there was the Sack of Manila. Which doesn't get much notice, because you know, you drop 'the bomb'!! /sarc off
#8
What's interesting is that Germany has come up with a 'consolidated' EU military force where certain old friends train and equip with the Wehrmacht Federal German Army. So far they've got the Czech Republic on board (would you believe from the Sudetenland), the Romanians (remember the Brandenburg Regiment) and Northern Dutch (ahem... Group Nord).
Some ideas just won't go away.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
05/23/2017 18:55 Comments ||
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[NYT] In a significant advance in the study of mental ability, a team of European and American scientists announced on Monday that they had identified 52 genes linked to intelligence in nearly 80,000 people.
These genes do not determine intelligence, however. Their combined influence is minuscule, the researchers said, suggesting that thousands more are likely to be involved and still await discovery. Just as important, intelligence is profoundly shaped by the environment.
Still, the findings could make it possible to begin new experiments into the biological basis of reasoning and problem-solving, experts said. They could even help researchers determine which interventions would be most effective for children struggling to learn.
"This represents an enormous success," said Paige Harden, a psychologist at the University of Texas, who was not involved in the study.
For over a century, psychologists have studied intelligence by asking people questions. Their exams have evolved into batteries of tests, each probing a different mental ability, such as verbal reasoning or memorization.
In a typical test, the tasks might include imagining an object rotating, picking out a shape to complete a figure, and then pressing a button as fast as possible whenever a particular type of word appears.
Each test-taker may get varying scores for different abilities. But over all, these scores tend to hang together -- people who score low on one measure tend to score low on the others, and vice versa. Psychologists sometimes refer to this similarity as general intelligence.
#3
Studies will soon focus on genes responsible for the belief in global warming, as will IQ tests. That's the current definition of 'Intelligent' in much of the scientific community.
#4
Punnett square probability - A table that predicts what trait(s) will be passed down to the offspring by showing the combinations of alleles from the two parents.
It will be funny if that happens, because they'll try to rally public support -- from conservatives, the only people who would conceivably defend them -- and we'll be sitting here remembering their years and years of directing the left's terrorism against us.
Kind of like the Saudi princes pouring money to spread Wahabism -- direct the terrorism towards some convenient scapegoat, other than yourself.
So yeah, don't bother, Silicon Valley. If they come after you, you're on your own.
Tech stocks have surged, and Bank of America says it could lead to talk of wealth redistribution
Standout gains in large technology stocks like Amazon.com and Apple show just how much the sector is disconnected from the sluggish growth on the rest of Main Street, one notable strategist said in a report titled "Occupy Silicon Valley."
The tech stock rally "could ultimately lead to populist calls for redistribution of the increasingly concentrated wealth of Silicon Valley," Bank of America Merrill Lynch's chief investment strategist, Michael Hartnett, said in a report released Monday.
Give the Social Justice Warriors space to destroy, I always say. That which you create will come back to destroy you... and pride before the fall.
#8
It'll be interesting to see the difference between how Texas based tech companies and Silicon Valley and Seattle based tech companies handle the SJW pressure.
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.
Actor Sir Roger Moore, best known for playing James Bond, has died aged 89, his family has announced. He played the famous spy in seven Bond films including Live and Let Die and the Spy Who Loved Me.
[News24] Johannesburg - A professional big game hunter from Tzaneen, Theunis Botha, 51, died on Friday afternoon during a hunt in Gwai, in Zimbabwe, when a member of his group fired at a storming elephant cow and the animal fell on him. 
[NYT] In a significant advance in the study of mental ability, a team of European and American scientists announced on Monday that they had identified 52 genes linked to intelligence in nearly 80,000 people.
