[Business Insider] One thing that has become clear as the Edward Snowdenski saga unfolds is that WikiLeaks and Russia have both been integral to the No Such Agency leaker's arrival and extended stay in Moscow.
The Kremlin and the renegade publisher haven't overtly coordinated moves in regards to Snowdenski, but they certainly haven't been working against each other. And the two had a shared history before Snowdenski arrived in Moscow.
Here are a few notable details from a tentative timeline of Edward Snowden and his associates created by former senior U.S. intelligence analyst Joshua Foust:
November 2, 2010: An official at the Center for Information Security of the FSB, Russia's secret police, told the independent Russian news website LifeNews "It's essential to remember that given the will and the relevant orders, [WikiLeaks] can be made inaccessible forever."
December, 2010: Israel Shamir, a long-standing associate of Wikileaks traveled to Belarus, a close ally of Russia, in December with a cache of Wikileaks files. Belarussian authorities published the cables and cracked down, harshly, on pro-democracy activists.
April 17, 2012: Government-funded Russian TV station RT gives [WikiLeaks founder] Julian Assange his own talk show. They have Assange, we have 'The View'.
June 23, 2013: Izvestia, a state-owned Russian newspaper, writes that the Kremlin and its intelligence services collaborated with Wikileaks to help Snowden escape from Hong Kong (Wikileaks did not mention any official involvement in Snowdenski's departure from Hong Kong in their press statements).
Ever since the 30-year-old ex-Booz Allen contractor got on a flight from Hong Kong to Moscow, Russia and WikiLeaks have been working parallel to each other. I thought that was a given.
When informed of this, President Obama said, "Tell him to call on my grandpop's friend Vasili. He's a hoot!"
On June 23, after the U.S. voided Snowdenski's passport while he was in Hong Kong, WikiLeaks tweeted that the organization "assisted Mr. Snowdenski's political asylum in a democratic country, travel papers ans [sic] safe exit from Hong Kong."
As an aside, I guess the Wikileakers aren't mad at Mr. Assange anymore.
That was followed by the update that "Mr. Snowdenski is currently over Russian airspace accompanied by WikiLeaks legal advisors."
It turned out that Assange convinced Ecuador's consul in London to provide a travel document requesting that authorities allow Snowden to travel to Ecuador "for the purpose of political asylum." The country's president subsequently said the document was "completely invalid."
When Snowdenski arrived in Moscow with void travel papers, all signs suggest that Russia's domestic intelligence service (i.e. FSB) took control of him. That would certainly be a safe assumption.
That day a radio host in Moscow "saw about 20 Russian officials, supposedly FSB greeters agents, in suits, crowding around somebody in a restricted area of the airport," according to Anna Nemtsova of Foreign Policy.
WikiLeaks, meanwhile, insisted that Snowden was "not being 'debriefed' by the FSB."
"They're teaching him to properly appreciate Russian tea. Would you care for a cup?"
Nevertheless, Snowdenski's FSB-linked Moscow lawyer, Colonel Anatoly Kucherena, has been speaking for Snowden ever since Snowden accepted all offers for support and asylum on July 12.
On July 11 WikiLeaks had said that Snowdenski and it had "made sure that he cannot be meaningfully coersed [sic] by either the US or its rivals," even though that cannot be guaranteed when Russian intelligence is in play.
On Thursday a smiling Colonel Kucherena announced that Russia has granted Snowden temporary asylum -- giving him "the same rights and freedoms possessed by [Russian] citizens" -- and led him to a car that would take him to a "secure location." This is your new safe house, these are your new minders.
"And here is your voter registration i.d. Don't forget to pull the lever for Putin when the time comes."
#5
Hey, is it possible that Snowden is a CIA mole? I mean, he drops all that information and then conveniently winds up in Moscow? Nah, I think the KGB FSB would be wasting its time looking into that, and I'm sorry I started the rumor.
Posted by: Matt ||
08/04/2013 13:04 Comments ||
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#6
Possible, but unlikely. His actions, whereabouts, and communications will be under constant surveillance. His profile is far too high. Much easier to recruit one their well placed [Russian or former Soviet Satellite] malcontents and collect reporting and periodic updates over time.
#8
Conspiracies not needed. SNowden was a tech, not a spy. And he walked the info out the door with the "right intent" in his own mind, due to the possibly unconstitutional aspects of the program he was revealing.
Problem is, its not like in the moves - and he's simply not field savvy nor anything but book smart. He's now being played by people far more clever than he is, and with far different motives than he likely had. Snowden is now oficially just another chump, the poor bastard.
Too bad we don't have a free press here in the US he thought he could trust - but if you want to be a whistleblower these days, you know that handing incendiary stuff over to an "investigative" reporter for NBC/CBS, the NY Times or WaPo is like living in the Soviet Union and giving it to a Pravda reporter - even if the reporter is straight up his editors are clearly in the pocket of the government regime in power.
[WASHINGTONTIMES] The woman charged with defacing portions of the Washington National Cathedral with green paint will be monitored by both federal immigration and local officials after her release from the D.C. Jail.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Frederick Sullivan on Friday ordered 58-year-old Jia M. Tian to wear a GPS monitoring bracelet and be released to a halfway house, where she would not be allowed to leave or have visitors, rather than staying in jail pending trial.
But because Ms. Tian is in the country illegally -- she has a Chinese passport and was traveling on an expired visa when she was incarcerated Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! -- federal immigration officials will also keep an eye on her. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement planned to enroll Ms. Tian in a federal monitoring program while "she is in removal proceedings," front man Brandon A. Montgomery said.
And we can't just toss her on the next plane and deport her because...
An ICE detainer placed on Ms. Tian was lifted after the judge's ruling and she won't be deported from the country before her court case is resolved, he said.
It was too early to tell Friday to what extent ICE officials would monitor Ms. Tian, with whom they had not yet met, but options could range from in-person meetings to phone calls to GPS monitoring.
Prosecutors initially worried that with her release from jail that federal authorities could deport Ms. Tian before her case went to trial.
What would be wrong with that?
Judge Sullivan opted to send Ms. Tian to a halfway house after he decided that confinement in jail would be too severe.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
What would be wrong with that?
Maybe they want to know where she got the green paint?
[ANNARBOR] Video footage captured by a Colorado Springs, Colorado restaurant is making the rounds and is equally interesting to watch.
Twice in the last week, a large bear has lumbered to the back of a popular German restaurant with a penchant for authentic weiner schnitzel, and on both occasions, he was caught on tape. He's given dumpster driving -- err, diving -- a whole new meaning.
"He just grabbed right onto it," said Dieter Schnakenberg, manages Edelweiss.
"There's just something about a bear taking a trash dumpster away."
The video cameras were installed not long so, as the restaurant had been the target of graffiti.
Little did anyone know that mischief of this kind would be captured.
"He must like our food. He does take out," mused Helga Schnakenberg, co-owner of the family-run eatery.
"It looks like he's using a shopping cart."
After the second time, it was decided that locking the 500-pound dumpster to the fence would be a wise idea to perhaps dissuade the uninvited guest from continuing his bear buffet.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
LOL! The bear even checked what was inside before deciding to abscond with it!
Leave the cameras rolling, though. That bear may come back with a can of spray paint tomorrow.
[Ynet] Mohamed Salah, an Egyptian soccer player from FC Basel, is expected to arrive with his team to participate in the final match against Maccabi Tel Aviv as part of the third round of the UEFA Champion's League qualifiers.
Salah, and his fellow Egyptian team mate Mohamed Elneny, requested not to come to Israel, but were eventually forced to do so by the club's management.
[MIAMIHERALD] Zim-bob-we's electoral panel on Saturday declared that longtime President Bob Muggsy Mugabe Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case... had won re-election by a landslide, a result that could exacerbate tensions in the country, where the 89-year-old's chief rival and former coalition partner has accused him of poll-rigging.
Mugabe seemed set to strengthen his hold over Zim-bob-we after the state Election Commission said his party won 158 of the 210 parliament seats. That gives it a two-thirds majority in the legislature -- enabling it to amend a recently approved constitution that provides for democratic reforms.
Challenger Morgan Tsvangirai's party, which had gambled that a high turnout in its favor would overcome any alleged fraud in the vote, captured 50 seats and two went to independent candidates.
According to the results, Mugabe won 61 percent of the vote, compared to 33 percent for Tsvangirai, who had been prime minister in a tense power-sharing deal with the president. Officially, Mugabe, who has been in power for 33 years, gets another five-year term in office.
Tsvangirai rejected the results as fraudulent and called for fresh elections. He urged a peaceful response to the alleged massive rigging by Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, which has the muscle of the security forces to deter any groundswell of street protests.
In contrast to an election marked by deadly attacks in 2008, the vote on Wednesday was mostly peaceful and African poll monitors, while expressing some concern about reported irregularities, seemed mostly relieved that it was not violent.
Britannia and the United States were more forceful in their criticism of the voting process, though Mugabe has based his career in part on sparring with Western powers and there is little chance their disapproval will sway him.
That leaves the Zim-bob-wean opposition with few options for countering Mugabe, who presides over a country that still has economic problems but enjoys some measure of stability compared to a period of soaring inflation years ago.
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[Ynet] Some 450 Olim arrive this week from La Belle France, England. 'We preferred leaving,' says one immigrant from La Belle France, 'We feel we're home'
The Muslim Middle East is emptying of Christians, Europe of Jews.
Many French citizens have traveled in Israel as part of their annual holiday, but this week a few hundred of them landed at Ben Gurion Airport -- forever. Three flights arrived from Gay Paree and another one made its way from Marseilles. On the aircraft were new immigrants who said they were fulfilling a dream
"I feel I've arrived home, making aliyah is a dream come true," said Sabrina Kozirov, 40, who came from La Belle France with her husband and two teenage daughters. "We made aliyah mainly for the girls. We want to be educated here among Jews and Israelis," she explained. "We're crazy about Israel and connected to the state and to Judaism. Our place is here," she said excitedly.
The Kozirov family came to Israel with another 450 immigrants from La Belle France and England who landed in Israel this week in an airlift organized by the Jewish Agency and the International Christian Embassy. A total of 800 immigrants from La Belle France are expected to arrive in Israel during the summer.
The newcomers will be integrated into communities across the country, and into programs run by the Jewish Agency. Recent data provided by the agency shows that by the end of the year, it is expected that the total number of immigrants from La Belle France will reach about 2,500 people -- an increase of 40% compared to the previous year's number.
Embassy representative David Parsons, who greeted the immigrants at Ben Gurion Airport, said that support for aliyah is meant to express the relationship with the Jewish people. "The backing of aliyah is designed to allow every Jew to realize his desire to move to Israel, as part of our support for the Jewish people and the State of Israel."
Kozirov said, "The situation in La Belle France had become unbearable. There is a large Mohammedan community and harsh political criticism of Israel. Therefore we preferred to leave." The family lived in Gay Paree before they arrived at Tivon. They hope to find an apartment that they can live in over the coming year.
#2
Let's see Jews fleeing European countries, Mass Embassy shut downs, Economic decline everywhere, and etc. Time to buy a shovel. WW III maybe on the horizon.
What is particularly troubling is a growing number of New York jews are talking about leaving the city.
#4
#3 What is particularly troubling is a growing number of New York jews are talking about leaving the city.
They are? For what reason?
Well, duh. To shelter forewarned from an impending apocalypse in their cavernous six-sided council chamber beneath Grossinger's pool, where they'll lounge atop piles of gold and merrily toast one another with goblets of Huey Newton's blood, and maybe watch some Henny Youngman roasts on youtube, while the pure and righteous folk of Gotham burn to ash. Why else?
#6
Significant numbers of French Jews moving to the UK.
Interesting, phil_b. That would be a combination of tax avoidance and harassment avoidance, one assumes... and the possibility of easily moving back to France should conditions improve.
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.
[ANNARBOR] Video footage captured by a Colorado Springs, Colorado restaurant is making the rounds and is equally interesting to watch.
[Ynet] Mohamed Salah, an Egyptian soccer player from FC Basel, is expected to arrive with his team to participate in the final match against Maccabi Tel Aviv as part of the third round of the UEFA Champion's League qualifiers.
[MIAMIHERALD] Zim-bob-we's electoral panel on Saturday declared that longtime President 
