[Daily Caller] The federal judge who recused himself from the Michael Flynn case is personal friends with Peter Strzok, the FBI agent who conducted the White House interview in which the former national security adviser has pleaded guilty to lying.
The friendship between Strzok and Rudolph Contreras, a judge on the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., is discussed in text messages the FBI agent exchanged with his mistress, Lisa Page.
The Justice Department redacted the references to Contreras in 384 pages of text messages provided to Congress. Congressional investigators read the underlying documents and have filled in some of the gaps. The unredacted versions of the texts were obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Now, two Republican lawmakers are questioning the DOJ’s handling of the text messages and also asking if Contreras’ recusal is tied to his friendship with Strzok.
In the texts, exchanged on July 25, 2016, Strzok refers to Contreras, an Obama appointee, as his friend. He also appears to acknowledge that the relationship could cause conflicts of interest warranting recusal.
Two months before the exchange, Contreras was appointed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). As the FBI’s deputy chief of counterintelligence at the time, many of Strzok’s investigations went through FISC.
#1
Two months before the exchange, Contreras was appointed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). As the FBI’s deputy chief of counterintelligence at the time, many of Strzok’s investigations went through FISC.
One of the funniest articles I've ever had the pleasure of reading, because of the denouement.
[News.FIU.edu] Twelve-year-old Michelle Flores shared a special moment with her family at FIU this past Saturday: She and her sister Gabriela joined their parents, FIU alumni Leonor and Henry Flores MIS ’01, to watch a 950-ton section of a pedestrian bridge swing into its permanent position across Southwest 8th Street.
Leonor Flores ’98 is a project executive and one of 63 FIU alumni who work for MCM, the construction firm building the FIU-Sweetwater UniversityCity Bridge, which will further connect FIU and its northerly neighbor, the City of Sweetwater. She was excited to share her work with her family, especially Michelle, who is interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) in school.
Michelle said she might want to follow in her parents’ footsteps and go to FIU when the time comes, and that it was fascinating to see her mom’s work in action. "I’m interested in the architecture and the design of the bridge, and the math portion of it," she said.
UPDATE, March 16, 2018, 11 a.m.: To clarify, Leonor Flores did not work on the FIU-Sweetwater UniversityCity Bridge project in any capacity. Basically quota queen preening, following by a disowning of any culpability.
#5
"We’re able to put in an artistic touch and we’re able to build, too.”
"Fascistic, the chauvinist cis-dick!
Stiff, socially awkward, simplistic,
Obsessed with his rocks
And his long, boring talks:
Narcissistic, but hardly artistic!"
[All Africa] Danish national Peter Frederiksen, who was placed in durance vile I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! after 21 clitorises were found in his freezer, has been sentenced to two life terms in prison for rape and conspiracy to commit murder.
Frederiksen was sentenced in the Free State High Court in Bloemfontein on Thursday.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regional spokesperson Phaladi Shuping said apart from two life sentences for rape and conspiracy to murder, Frederiksen was also given 52 years for charges including assault, loss of firearms, conveyance and possession of unregistered medication and production of child pornography.
Frederiksen was arrested on September 17, 2015, at his home in Langenhoven Park, Bloemfontein.
He was also investigated for the murder of his wife, 28-year-old Anna Matseliso Molise, who was shot four times outside her home in Maseru, Lesotho, on October 20, 2015.
Shuping said Frederiksen initially faced 58 charges at the start of his trial, but Judge Johann Daffue dropped 20 charges related to illegally removing human tissues over a technicality as "the National Health Act does not clearly indicate the nature of penalties that should be imposed to any person who contravenes the act".
"He was also sentenced to a fine of R5 000 or six months' imprisonment for providing false information in order to remain in the Republic of South Africa," Shuping said.
Shuping added that Frederiksen was also declared unfit to possess firearm. The judge also ordered that his name should be included in the national register for sex offenders.
"The NPA welcomes this sentence with the hope that it will serve as a deterrent to like-minded people," said Shuping.
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#1
"They were from Muslim Wymyns. They weren't using them"
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03/17/2018 8:48 Comments ||
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[The Sun] A MALAYSIAN firefighter dubbed "the Snake Whisperer" has died after he was bitten by a giant cobra he was hunting.
Abu Zarin Hussin, who has been bitten by his own pet King Cobras eight times, was 33 when he passed away in hospital. Hussin headed the King Cobra Squad of his local fire department, teaching his colleagues how to capture the reptiles without harming them.
His luck finally ran out when he was called out to a snake catching operation in Bentong, where he was fatally biten. Hussin rose to fame when he was pictured kissing a King Cobra, one of several 14ft snakes he claimed to play football and read bedtime stories with.
It emerged last year that Hussin had ended up in a coma twice over snake bites, yet had no intention of ever giving up his perilous pets. A dreadfully slow learner.
[All Africa] The NPA has reinstated 18 charges of corruption, money laundering and racketeering against former president Jacob Zuma.
The charges relate to 783 questionable payments Zuma allegedly received in connection with the controversial multi-billion rand arms deal."I am of the view that there are reasonable prospects of a successful prosecution of Mr Zuma," embattled NPA boss Shaun Abrahams said on Friday.
He said he notified Zuma on his decision earlier in the day.
Former NPA boss Mokotedi Mpshe dropped the charges in 2009, based on the recordings of the so-called "spy tapes", which were presented to him by Zuma's legal team.
The tapes were made up of recordings of telephone conversations between then Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy and former NPA boss Bulelani Ngcuka, which Zuma's legal team claimed showed political interference in the decision to charge him.
The charges were subsequently withdrawn, just before Zuma was sworn in for his first term as president.
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[SecurityWeek] Cyber-attackers tried to trigger a deadly explosion at a petrochemical plant in Saudi Arabia in August and failed only because of a code glitch, The New York Times reported.
Investigators declined to identify the suspected attackers, but people interviewed by the newspaper unanimously said that it most likely aimed to cause a blast that would have guaranteed casualties. A bug in the attackers' code accidentally shut down the system instead, according to the report.
The cyber-attack -- which could signal plans for other attacks around the world -- was likely the work of hackers supported by a government, according to multiple insiders interviewed by the newspaper.
All sources declined to name the company operating the plant as well as the countries suspected to have backed the hackers, The New York Times said.
Security experts however told the newspaper that Iran, China, Russia, Israel and the United States had the technical capacity to launch an attack of that magnitude.
There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia, which has come under frequent cyber-attacks, including "Shamoon", the aggressive disc-wiping malware that hit the Saudi energy sector in 2012.
Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest oil company, was among the firms hit by Shamoon, which was believed then to be the country's worst cyber-attack yet.
US intelligence officials at the time said they suspected a link to the kingdom's regional rival Iran.
But the August attack was "much more dangerous" than Shamoon, according to The New York Times, and likely aimed to send a political message -- investigators said the code had been custom-built with no obvious financial motive.
Tasnee, the Saudi Arabian industrialisation company, had also been attacked by hackers in January 2017, according to Tasnee officials and researchers with the Symantec cybersecurity company interviewed by the newspaper.
The attack destroyed the company's hard drives, wiped all data and replaced it with the now-iconic image of Aylan Kurdi, the Syrian boy in a red T-shirt who washed up dead on the Turkish coast.
Saudi Arabia was also hit by Powershell malware targeting government computers in November.
[Breitbart London] London’s Air Ambulance had to attend more stabbings and shootings than road traffic accidents for the first time in its almost 30-year history in 2017.
Newly released figures reveal that airborne trauma specialists and paramedics treated some 560 shooting and stabbing victims over the course of the year, compared to 533 cyclists, drivers, passengers, and pedestrians who had been involved in road traffic accidents, the Evening Standard reports.
Dr. Gareth Grier, the Air Ambulance service’s lead clinician, said it is now "not unusual now for our teams to perform open-chest surgery for stab wounds twice in a single day," adding: "This would have been unheard of a few years back."
He tried to offer the public some reassurance by telling them his team’s "world-leading treatments mean that we can give these [stabbing and shooting victims] and other patients we treat the best possible chance of survival."
Meanwhile, apologists for city Mayor Sadiq Khan, who has overseen a massive rise in crime and terror attacks since he took office in 2016, have tried to downplay the news, noting that the number of collisions attended by Air Ambulance crews declined compared to 2016 ‐ but this does not disguise the fact that the number of shootings and stabbings attended increased by 60.
#2
I understand the stabbings, but how can there be shootings in London? Guns are illegal!
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/17/2018 10:09 Comments ||
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#3
It must be noted that the world-leading treatments are only available until supplies run out. After that they can join the rest of the triaged unfortunates in the waiting room, while everyone denies that the National Health Service is running out of money.
That was fast!
[Zero Hedge] - After former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was fired by the Justice Department late on Friday night just two days before his retirement, because he lied under oath or as AG Sessions said, McCabe "lacked candor - including under oath - on multiple occasions... all FBI employees know that lacking candor under oath results in dismissal", McCabe has decided he won't go down quietly in what he has dubbed the Trump administration's "war on the FBI."
McCabe, who briefly led the agency after Director James Comey was fired, said his dismissal by Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday night was the latest attack on his credibility. He has claimed he's being singled out because of what he witnessed in the aftermath of Comey's ouster.
Of course, some - such as ethics officials belonging to the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility - beg to differ: after all it was they who recommended McCabe's dismissal on Thursday for lying to the Inspector General in the course of a government investigation. As CBS News justice correspondent Paula Reid noted, McCabe's termination takes place just days before the highly anticipated release of the Inspector General's report which is expected to show that he leaked information with the media about the agency's investigation into the Clinton Foundation, and lied under oath.
#1
McCabe lied to the Fisa court and Congress. He may have supervised alteration of 302 forms. He was not candid about his wife's Dem campaign and the $700,000 that came to or thru her. He illegally leaked info. There is probably far more if the DOJ OPR recommended his firing. Why the heck should we give a damn about anything that comes from two liars such as McCabe or Comey?
[DAWN] SARGODHA: Up to 100 more people have been tested positive for HIV/AIDS after a recent screening of the people in the Kot Imrana locality, health department officials say.
The neighbourhood had attracted the attention of the government and the media after screening by the health department had found 37 people the carrier of HIV/AIDS virus a few months ago.
A special centre has been set up at the Kot Momin Tehsil Headquarters Hospital where the virus carriers are provided free treatment and counseling, according to District Health Authority Chief Executive Officer Dr Nusrat Riaz.
He said the disease had spread in the area due to the usage of used syringe by a quack. He said Dr Sikandar Hayat Warraich was supervising the dedicated unit set up at the Sargodha District Headquarters Teaching Hospital.
He said the health department was serving better than private hospitals. He said that special incentives had been given to doctors working in remote areas.
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[DAWN] Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... police have locked away Book 'im, Mahmoud! four men suspected of blackmailing girls after allegedly raping and filming them, a senior police official told Dawn on Friday.
Karachi West Zone DIG Amir Farooqi said police had received complaints from parents regarding the alleged involvement of four suspects in raping and making objectionable videos of girls.
Subsequently, police had launched a manhunt for the arrest of suspects and were able to locate and detain them on Thursday from Samanabad area of the metropolis, he said.
Objectionable video of a girl was also seized from the possession of one detained suspect, revealed the DIG, adding that illegal arms were also recovered from their possession.
According to the senior police official, photographs of the suspects posing with arms were also found on their respective social media accounts.
DIG Farooqi said so far the parents of victims have shown reluctance on becoming complainants in the First Information Report (FIR) against the arrested men, "ostensibly on account of shame".
He explained that police could not investigate this aspect [of rape and pornography] "unless the parents agree to make a formal complaint, therefore, for now, a case has been registered over possession of illegal weapons".
Meanwhile, ...back at the shootout, Butch shot Black Bart's knife out of his hand...... during the initial investigation, the accused ’confessed’ involvement in such activities during the past two years. In this period they had allegedly raped four girls and also recorded videos of them.
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[DAWN] Three police inspectors involved in the murder of 19-year-old student Intizar Ahmed in Defence have been dismissed from police service, it emerged on Friday.
On January 14, Intizar was chased down and rubbed out allegedly by nine undercover personnel of Anti-Car Lifting Cell (ACLC) after he had reportedly failed to stop his car at a picket.
According to an order issued on March 12 by DIG Dr Muhammad Amin Yousufzai, in charge of CIA Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , the then station house officer of ACLC Tariq Mehmood, inspectors Azhar Ahsan and Tariq Raheem, have been dismissed from service after they were found guilty of misconduct in the official inquiry into the matter.
They were found involved in "grave misconduct" as they wore "plain clothes" and travelled in "unofficial vehicles with private weapons" which was deemed a violation of existing SOP. Such unprofessional conduct resulted in the tragic death of the 19-year old only son of the family, which also "damaged the reputation of the police," read the inquiry report.
Intizar was a Malaysia-based student who had returned to Pakistain to spend holidays. He was in his car with a female friend when police in plainclothes had reportedly signalled him to stop. When he had failed to oblige, he was chased and bumped off. However, the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... the friend had managed to escape unscathed.
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#1
I think scientists have known this can be done for several decades now. The trick is making it economically feasible. Probably have to get the big oil companies out of the way too.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/17/2018 12:35 Comments ||
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#2
Key is to make it a continuous rather than batch process. There is a facility in Portland that coverts plastic bottles back to oil. The oil is mostly paraffin.
So, how many actors & other celebrity types actually moved out of the country since Trump was elected, zero?
[AP / MSN] - LOS ANGELES ‐ A publicist for Matt Damon is batting down reports that the actor is moving to Australia with his family.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper in Sydney had reported that Damon was buying a home in Byron Bay near actor Chris Hemsworth. The two recently appeared in "Thor: Ragnarok" together.
Damon spokeswoman Jennifer Allen said Damon has been to Australia a lot recently. But Damon has not bought a home there nor is he relocating there, she said.
The New York Post's Page Six gossip site, citing an unnamed source, said the "Good Will Hunting" and "Jason Bourne" star told friends and colleagues he wanted to leave the country because he disagrees with Trump's policies.
[NR] Vice President Mike Pence has launched an official petition demanding Congress set aside funds to build the wall on America’s border with Mexico that was President Trump’s signature campaign promise.
The "Official Build the Wall Petition" aims to "extinguish" rumors that the plan for the wall is doomed due to lack of funding, the vice president claimed in an email Friday.
"Despite what you might hear from the talking heads in the media, this administration is 100% committed to building a wall along the southern border of the United States of America," he wrote. "Now liberals in the Senate need to hear that YOU, the American people, are ALSO 100% committed to seeing that critical wall built along the border."
Trump visited San Diego this week to evaluate eight border-wall prototypes. The Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection agency is expected to choose a design from among them soon.
"If we don’t have a wall system, we’re not going to have a country," Trump tweeted after his California visit.
Adios Assholes!
[SanDiegoUnionTribune] Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers working out of the San Diego field office arrested 115 unauthorized immigrants over a large, three-day operation that ended Thursday, officials said. we support the efforts to stop the flood
Though the field office covers both San Diego and Imperial counties, all but seven of the arrests were in San Diego County. Though arrests happened in cities across the county, many were concentrated in North County, according to Greg Archambeault, field officer director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in San Diego.
Officers from other parts of the country came to San Diego to help locate and arrest a targeted list of people who had criminal convictions or had been arrested on criminal charges, had been ordered deported by an immigration judge or had returned to the U.S. after being deported, Archambeault said.
"Operations like this reflect the vital work ERO officers do every day to protect the nation, uphold public safety and protect the integrity of our immigration laws and border controls," Archambeault said. "We will continue to conduct similar operations, while seeking to ultimately deport at-large criminal targets and other immigration fugitives who pose a threat to public safety."
Though reports of large-scale arrests have surfaced to much political controversy since President Donald Trump took office, this is the first such operation that the San Diego field office has publicized during his administration.
"We've done it under different administrations," Archambeault explained. "It's nothing new doing a large-scale operation, but we haven't had one here for some time."
It was coincidental that the operation started on the day of the president's visit to San Diego, he said.
The majority of those arrested were from Mexico, and other arrests included citizens of Honduras, Guatemala, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan and Peru.
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[AOL.com] Former San Francisco 49ers safety Eric Reid, who knelt during the national anthem with former teammate Colin Kaepernick to protest systemic inequality and police brutality, has gone unsigned so far in free agency, and he believes his protests are the cause. In a follow-up tweet, Reid went on to make it clear who he believes that league owners are responsible for his current circumstances. Last December Reid had acknowledged that his protests could hurt his chances of finding a new NFL team, as reported by ESPN at the time.
"I would say I understand that's a possibility," Reid said. "And I'm completely fine with it. The things that I've done, I stand by, and I've done that for my own personal beliefs. Like I said, I'm fine with whatever outcome happens because of that."As Sports Illustrated noted, Reid was the first player to join in Kaepernick's protests and has been a vocal in his support of the protests, even writing an op-ed in the New York Times explaining why they had decided to take a knee.
Reid, a former Pro Bowl safety, has good reason to believe that his protests are why he remains unsigned, given that Kaepernick went unsigned all of last season despite easily being good enough to merit at least a backup quarterback spot on an NFL roster.
Kaepernick has filed a grievance against the NFL accusing owners of conspiring to keep him out of the league and is still training to get another shot in the NFL.
#7
Decent player thinks that the endless Bull Market for players means that after finishing his initial 5 year (4 years rookie plus their one year option) he can jump into Free Agency and make $$MONEY$$. If he can't it Has To Be A Conspiracy™.
Idiot. Bull Markets become Bear Markets eventually and the NFL has been trending down the last few years.
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.
[Daily Caller] The federal judge who recused himself from the Michael Flynn case is personal friends with Peter Strzok, the FBI agent who conducted the White House interview in which the former national security adviser has pleaded guilty to lying.
[The Sun] A MALAYSIAN firefighter dubbed "the Snake Whisperer" has died after he was bitten by a giant cobra he was hunting.
[DAWN] SARGODHA: Up to 100 more people have been tested positive for HIV/AIDS after a recent screening of the people in the Kot Imrana locality, health department officials say.
