Forwarded late last evening by our very own Classical_Liberal as a comment and link. Might just become relevant as current events in Washington unfold, or at least one can hope.
[Daily Caller from 19 Dec 2017] The used car dealership known as CIA never seemed like an ordinary car dealership, with inventory, staff and expenses.
On its Facebook page, CIA’s "staff" were fake personalities such as "James Falls O’Brien," whose photo was taken from a hairstyle model catalog, and "Jade Julia," whose image came from a web page called "Beautiful Girls Wallpaper."
If a customer showed up looking to buy a car from Cars International A, often referred to as CIA, Abid Awan ‐ who was managing partner of the dealership while also earning $160,000 handling IT for House Democrats ‐ would frequently simply go across the street to another dealership called AAA Motors and get one.
"If AAA borrows a car to Cars International and they have a customer, it was simply take the car across the street and sell it, and then later on give the profit back or not," Nasir Khattak, who ran the longstanding AAA dealership, testified in a lawsuit. "There was no documentation... If you go and try to dissect, you will not be able to make any sense out of them because there were many, dozens and dozens, of cars transferred between the two dealerships and between other people."
Khattak did not explain why he would ruin his existing business to help the Awans. "All of those transactions was to support Cars International A from AAA Motors," he testified. "That’s why I did not make any money from my dealership because my resources were supporting Cars International A."
He said only Imran Awan knew what became of the money. "It was Imram, [Abid] Awan’s brother, who was running the business in full control," he said.
Imran Awan and his family members were congressional IT aides who investigators said made unauthorized access to the House Democratic Caucus server thousands of times. At the same time as they worked for and could read all the emails of congressmen who sat on committees like Intelligence, Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs, they also ran a car dealership that took money from a Hezbollah-linked fugitive and whose financial books were indecipherable and business patterns bizarre, according to testimony in court records.
#1
Easy access to vehicles 'without' Diplomatic Plates would have been a huge benefit to foreign diplomatic personnel who desired un-monitored travel within or outside of the beltway.
With the exception of one stay-behind fellow who was arrested at Dulles on a tax violation, I believe the entire Awan family was permitted to return to Pakistan. Not sure where the tax violation case ended up.
When you learn of these strange occurrences that end up vaporizing or turning into 'bridges to nowhere', one is led to ask why ?
#4
/\ Yes, years ago (don't know if they even bother today), the counterintelligence division of the FBI used to follow these foks and track their activities. Switching plates and vehicles makes CI work a little more challenging.
#9
Ref #6: ISI assets. They were allowed to leave town in an attempt to obscure who the Awans really were.
I can't believe our National Capital Region counterintelligence apparatus is that bad. Who they were actually working for is anyone's guess.
Likely working for whomever had the fattest wad of cash that day. Could have been receiving both internal DNC monitoring taskers from Other Gov't Agencies, and sending tailored stuff back to their ISI handlers in PAK. I have no proof or evidence of either, just postulating various possibilities.
The Awan's placement and acccess (P&A) was absolutely golden. I cannot believe someone or a group of someone's wasn't exploiting it.
#12
How.can this story not be investigated given such obvious corruption? Oh wait, Democrats and Muslim perps, so the MSM lets DWS and the dem power structure get away with it, and the FBI yet again is at best clueless or more likely waived off at the WFO.by the 7th floor of the Hoover building YJCMTSU!!!!
[LATimes] Robert Conrad, the rugged, contentious actor who starred in the hugely popular 1960s television series "Hawaiian Eye" and "The Wild, Wild West," has died. He was 84.
Family spokesman Jeff Ballard said Conrad died Saturday morning in Malibu from heart failure. A small private service is planned for March 1, which would have been Conrad’s 85th birthday.
"He lived a wonderfully long life and while the family is saddened by his passing, he will live forever in their hearts," Ballard said. Always liked him, starting with the reruns of "Wild Wild West".
#3
...Kind of a sad story re WWW - the show was actually in the Nielsen Top 10 when it was cancelled. The problem was that in the wake of the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, TV violence was blamed as one of the underlying causes, and WWW was unfortunately one of - if not the most - violent shows on at the time. So CBS chairman Robert Paley offered it up as a sacrifice.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/09/2020 10:29 Comments ||
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#4
Wild Wild West was one of my favorite shows growing up. While the character West was in two or three athletic "fistfights" per episode, he hardly ever just drew his gun and started blasting. Plus the show had a whimsical, tongue-in-cheek aspect. Ross Martin (Gordon) getting into disguise and hamming it up was a big part of the fun. The movie with Will Smith was OK but mostly missed the spirit of the original show.
Two schools near a French ski resort where five Britons have been diagnosed with the new #coronavirus will be closed as authorities try to determine with whom those infected had been in contact, according to a regional health official.https://t.co/hVG4vLCIGs
With 86 more people dying in mainland China — the highest one-day jump so far — the toll was closing in on the 774 killed worldwide during the SARS epidemic in 2002.https://t.co/9yGz1vrEdX
[CNN] Six oil executives held in Venezuela ...a country in Central America that sits on an enormous pool of oil. Formerly the most prospereous country in the region, it became infested with Commies sniffing almost unlimited wealth. It turned out the wealth wasn't unlimited, the economy collapsed under the clownish Hugo Chavez, the murder rate exceeds places like Honduras and El Salvador, and a significant proportion of the populace as refugeed to Colombia and points south... for more than two years were suddenly moved from house arrest into prison on Wednesday night, just hours after Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó ...Venezuelan politician, a member of the social-democratic Popular Will party, and serves as a federal deputy to the National Assembly representing the state of Vargas. In 2019 he was appointed by the Popular Will party to become the president of the National Assembly, after which he declared he was acting president of the country, challenging Nicolás Maduro's presidency and starting the 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis.... met with US President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... The "CITGO 6" -- Tomeu Vadell, Gustavo Cardenas, Jorge Toledo, Alirio Zambrano, Jose Luis Zambrano and Jose Angel Pereira -- were taken by the Maduro regime's intelligence services from their separate house arrest locations, according to several family members, Vadell's legal team, and the State Department. According to the legal team, they were removed "without warnings or judicial order" and are being held together in the same cell at El Heliocoide prison, even though "the house arrest has not been revoked by the appropriate court."
"Lawyers and relatives were not informed, and the only information shared by the SEBIN officials on duty was that [they were taken away] 'for medical checks,'" the lawyers' statement said referring to the Venezuelan intelligence service.
The six men were hauled away by masked security agents while at a meeting in Caracas just before Thanksgiving in 2017. They had been lured to Venezuela in order to attend a meeting at the headquarters of Citgo's parent, state-run oil giant PDVSA.
The group flew out on a corporate jet. They included Tomeu Vadell, vice president of refining; Gustavo Cardenas, head of strategic shareholder relations as well as government and public affairs; Jorge Toledo, vice president of supply and marketing; Alirio Zambrano, vice president and general manager of Citgo's Corpus Christi refinery; Jose Luis Zambrano, vice president of shared services; and Jose Angel Pereira, the president of Citgo.
The men are awaiting trial on corruption charges stemming from a never executed plan to refinance some $4 billion in Citgo bonds by offering a 50% stake in the company as collateral.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2020 00:00 ||
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NAKHON RATCHASIMA, Thailand (Reuters) - Thai security forces on Sunday shot and killed a rogue soldier who went on a rampage in a shopping mall in a northeastern city, ending an overnight siege after a series of attacks that left at least 20 people dead.
Update from the article at 10:20 a.m. ET:
A soldier angry over a property deal gone sour killed at least 29 people and wounded 57 in a rampage that spanned four locations in and around the northeastern Thai city of Nakhon Ratchasima before he was shot dead early Sunday.
Most of the victims were at the city’s Terminal 21 shopping center, where the shooter held out against an overnight siege with an assault rifle and ammunition stolen from his army base.
Police named him as 32-year-old soldier Jakrapanth Thomma. He initially posted written messages on Facebook during the attack before his account was shut down by the company.
“It was a personal conflict...over a house deal,” Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha told reporters on Sunday from Nakhon Ratchasima after traveling there to meet wounded survivors.
Prayuth added that the conflict was with a relative of the soldier’s commanding officer.
[Mil.com via Task & Purpose] Military families and retirees receiving care through 38 military hospitals nationwide will soon be forced to go off-base instead, and some pharmacies at those hospitals will stop providing drugs to those not on active duty, Military.com has learned.
A 12-page memo, reviewed by Military.com, was sent to the commanders of 50 military treatment facilities, or MTFs, targeted for changes. It details for commanders the impacts of a planned MTF restructuring, the subject of an upcoming report to Congress. It also includes a letter to commanders explaining upcoming changes, signed by Lt. Gen. Ronald Pace, who directs the Defense Health Agency, and provides communications guidance to public affairs personnel.
Related: Army Secretary Calls for Slowdown of Military Health Care Merger
The changes are a part of a review of military hospital operations and a system consolidation under the Defense Health Agency ordered by Congress in 2016. Aimed at increasing a focus on military readiness, the consolidation includes a plan to cut about 18,000 uniformed medical personnel and increase focus on active-duty support.
But to do so, the hospitals must cull the number of family members and retirees to whom they currently offer care. The report to Congress detailed in the memo lays out the Pentagon's path for those changes.
"DoD must adapt the military health system to focus more on readiness of the combined force, while continuing to meet our access to health care obligations for active duty families, retirees and their families," the Feb. 3 memo states. "With a challenging array of threats around the world, we need our military medical facilities to keep combat forces healthy and prepare our medical personnel to support them."
The memo does not include the locations of the 50 affected MTFs, or a specific timeline for the changes. It's also unclear how feedback from lawmakers might impact the current transition plan.
Under a section of the document noted as "not for public release," the memo lays out a proposed plan to "reduce operations at 48 facilities and to expand or recapitalize operations at two others."
At 38 of those 50 MTFs, "DoD recommends reducing the scope of operations to active duty and occupational health services only, while in many cases maintaining pharmacy services for all beneficiaries," it states. "It is estimated that approximately 200,000 Military Health System beneficiaries who receive care at the MTFs identified for reduction in operations will transition to civilian providers" in the Tricare network.
h/t Instapundit
[Hot Air] - I came across this on Twitter today and at first suspected it was satire but so far as I can tell it’s not. An Australian academic named Patricia MacCormack has a new book out titled, "The Ahuman Manifesto: Activism for the End of the Anthropocene." The idea is that the earth would be better off without us and, therefore, it’s time to start an activism whose goal is our own extinction. Instapundit's comment: I WORRY THAT SOME OF THESE KOOKS WILL ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND MICROBIOLOGY
#8
We don't need total extinction, Say about 30% or whatever the number of die-hard lefties... If they would go the way of most other doomsday cults things would sort themselves out.
#9
It is against this context that Patricia McCormack delivers her expert justification for the “ahuman”. An alternative to “posthuman” thought, the term paves the way for thinking that doesn’t dissolve into nihilism and despair, but actively embraces issues like human extinction, vegan abolition, atheist occultism, death studies, a refusal of identity politics, deep ecology, and the apocalypse as an optimistic beginning.
[MAIL] Trainers at SeaWorld will no longer ride or stand dolphins at the theme parks after coming under fire to stop the practice by PETA and other animal rights activists.
Years after the documentary Blackfish galvanized a movement to end SeaWorld's killer whale performances, animal rights activists have long called for an end to 'circus-style' dolphin shows at the parks.
The 2013 film revealed the company's mistreatment of its orcas and the company's reputation has suffered ever since.
Last year, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) issued a report documenting physical and behavioral harm it says dolphins suffer from their use in live shows and confinement in captivity.
Of greatest concern was the practice of trainers riding dolphins through the water while standing on their backs and beaks, said Dr. Heather Rally, a PETA Foundation veterinarian.
Such stunts strain the marine mammals' sensitive lower jaws in a way that can damage their hearing, injure joints and muscles and worsen other injuries caused by confinement within holding tanks where the dolphins are kept.
'We are asking SeaWorld to at least stop standing on dolphins' faces and using them as surf-boards in these ridiculous circus-style shows,' Rally said.
#1
Had to happen. For once, I agree with PETA about something controversial. Sceptical about harm (though I'd know more about jawbones of asses than dolphins). Doesn't this noble bycatch kill sharks by ramming them, and not just in dire extremity? Anyways...
A PETAphile dolphin would squeak,
"Say, baby, you looks like a freak!
Yo, be like that, b-tch,
Cause you ain't such a catch
That you gotta go look down your beak."
"Like, can you believe that guy?"
"I know, right? I bet he doesn't even own that pool."
#4
Bullshit. Dolphins are of a critter which needs, crave, physical exercise and mental stimulation.
Yeah, four dolphins harnessed to an aqua chariot while some dude dressed as Neptunus Rex waved a firework trident would be over the top.
This, is like putting cowdogs in kennels all day long.
PETA doesn't give a fvck about animals. We had our fire, and us cowboys and right wingers and whatnot deplorables reached out to PETA for help treating/putting down the burned cows and got nothing. But boy howdy they can break a good time enjoyed by both dolphin and children.
[THECONSERVATIVETREEHOUSE] President Donald J. Trump has named U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Peter J. Brown of Florida as his Special Representative for Puerto Rico’s Disaster Recovery. In this capacity, Admiral Brown will coordinate United States Government efforts to build the infrastructure and resiliency of Puerto Rico.
The island of Puerto Rico was devastated by Category 4 Hurricane Maria in September 2017, suffering significant loss of life and catastrophic damage to infrastructure. In January 2020, Puerto Rico was struck by a magnitude 6.4 earthquake and hundreds of additional aftershocks and tremors, damaging hundreds of homes and infrastructure.
Multiple Federal agencies continue to respond to the needs of the people of Puerto Rico, and billions of dollars in Federal funding have been allocated responsibly to response and recovery work. Admiral Brown will be the White House coordinator for those ongoing efforts at the national level, in collaboration with other White House components, including the Office of Legislative Affairs, Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, and Office of Management and Budget.
In addition, he will work with bigwigs in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Congress to ensure that their concerns are communicated to the appropriate departments and agencies and to ensure the resources of hardworking taxpayers are effectively used to help the people of Puerto Rico.
On Wednesday, February 5, Rear Admiral Brown met with Puerto Rico Governor Wanda Vazquez Garced, along with Puerto Rico’s Congressional Representative, Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon. Admiral Brown, Governor Vazquez, and Congresswoman Gonzalez-Colon discussed the Administration’s commitment to the people of Puerto Rico and Admiral Brown’s new role to help further Puerto Rico’s ongoing recovery.
Before joining the White House in July 2019 as the Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor, Rear Admiral Brown was the Commander of the Seventh Coast Guard District headquartered in Miami, Florida, where he was responsible for all Coast Guard operations in the Southeast United States and the Caribbean Basin.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2020 00:00 ||
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#1
Helluva job Brownie redux?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/09/2020 3:00 Comments ||
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#2
Only will work if martial law is declared and any f'ing pol who obstructs or caught skimming the work is publicly keel hauled. Not going to happen. Might as well push rope up hill.
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.
[LATimes] Robert Conrad, the rugged, contentious actor who starred in the hugely popular 1960s television series "Hawaiian Eye" and "The Wild, Wild West," has died. He was 84.
...a country in Central America that sits on an enormous pool of oil. Formerly the most prospereous country in the region, it became infested with Commies sniffing almost unlimited wealth. It turned out the wealth wasn't unlimited, the economy collapsed under the clownish Hugo Chavez, the murder rate exceeds places like Honduras and El Salvador, and a significant proportion of the populace as refugeed to Colombia and points south...
[MAIL] Trainers at SeaWorld will no longer ride or stand dolphins at the theme parks after coming under fire to stop the practice by PETA and other animal rights activists.
