[American Thinker] A lawsuit by an anti-Clinton PAC has been filed against the Federal Election Commission for ignoring complaints about money laundering by the Hillary Clinton campaign during the 2016 election.
The scheme involved up to $84 million dollars in big donations that was funneled through state Democratic parties and eventually ended up in the coffers of the Clinton campaign. The lawsuit alleges that the FEC ignored complaints about the scheme from the Committee to Defend the President (CDP), a political action committee formally known as Stop Hillary PAC.
[Daily Caller] Only one IT aide currently working directly for members of Congress has ever completed a background check, members’ data have been improperly mixed with other members’ data, and members provided almost no supervision, officials revealed Thursday in a House hearing spurred by "egregious" violations by former IT aide Imran Awan.
Members of Congress threw "$10 million" in additional funding to the [chief administrative officer (CAO)] in order to enhance their cybersecurity program" in June 2017. The move followed repeated cybersecurity threats against members of Congress, including the detection of what an IG report called "unauthorized access" by Awan. They also had the CAO and others propose how best to clamp down on vulnerabilities. But the CAO revealed Thursday that members blocked the resulting proposal, which called for eliminating Awan’s job category, that of a floating IT aide accountable only to members.
System administrators like Awan "hold the ’keys to the kingdom,’ meaning they can create accounts, grant access, view, download, update, or delete almost any electronic information within an office," Inspector General Michael Ptasienski said at the House hearing.
"A rogue system administrator could inflict considerable damage to an office and potentially disclose sensitive information, perform unauthorized updates, or simply export or delete files," he continued. "A rogue system administrator could take steps to cover up his/her actions and limit the possibility that their behavior being detected or otherwise traced back to them." Are you by chance referring to someone like NSA leaker Edward Snowden ?
#1
Futher explained from the link found in the above article:
“Based on the modest way Awan was living, it is my opinion that he was sending most of his money to a group or criminal organization that could very well be connected with the Pakistani government,” said Wayne Black, a private investigator who served as law enforcement group supervisor in Janet Reno’s Miami public corruption unit. “My instincts tell me Awan was probably operating a foreign intelligence gathering operation on US soil.”
Officials told Politico that prosecutors refused to help them punish top Hezbollah operatives involved in its money laundering network because of political concerns, such as fears of jeopardizing the Obama administration’s deal with Iran. Similarly, the Awans, who had close relationships to House Democrats including Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Gregory Meeks, have not been charged with any crimes surrounding the dealership nor with their House activities. The disclosure of a House IT breach shortly before the election by Pakistani-born Democratic staffers would have had political fallout.
No sense conducting full background checks and documenting their neferious foreign contacts now is there ?
#2
...Sadly, nothing will come of this. The Awans are in Pakistan laughing at us, and the politicians are covering each other.
And I would bet the house payment that Congress' IT program isn't one tiny bit more secure.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/17/2018 5:11 Comments ||
Top||
#3
This long-running Awan business (data manipulation and transfer) could have been impetus for the Clinton off-site server effort. Why alter what is working so well ?
Sounds like your typical Democrat...
[Mirror UK, via Drudge] - A robot has been nominated to run for the position of mayor in Tokyo, promising to be "fair and balanced" to all its constituents. Wait a minute - did Sean Hannity program this thing?
The mayoral election in Tama City features the usual high-ranking local politicians, as well as an artificial intelligence candidate competing alongside its human counterparts. AI guy - you're in the wrong line of business!
Posters plastered across the district feature the faces of smiling party leaders, with slogans promising change for the city. If a pol is smilin', he's lyin!
And in line with election propaganda, the robot nominee, dubbed Michihito Matsuda, has branded vans, posters and inspirational soundbites. Can't be any worse than canned politicians.
[Townhall] Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, claimed that women were literally dying because Democrats are losing elections. He linked high maternal mortality rates to Democratic losses during a speech Friday before the Progressive Change Campaign Committee candidate training event.
Ellison talked about not giving up after his loss to Tom Perez for the DNC chairmanship.
"They need me to put more in, they need me to put my back into it, more than before," Ellison said of women needing Democrats in office. "Because their lives depend upon it."
"Did you know that in Missouri and in Texas, and maybe other places, maternal mortality has risen?" he asked.
"Women are dying because we are losing elections," Ellison said. "We don't have the right to lose a damn election. We have to win."
Later in his speech, Ellison called for universal healthcare.
[Hot Air] The narrative since the air strikes on Friday has been that the hawks have become ascendant in Donald Trump’s Washington. Isolationists have sobbed about betrayal as the mood turns at least Scowcroftian in the Beltway, if not downright Cheneyesque. Not all hawks are in a celebratory mood, however. Earlier today, Sen. Lindsey Graham told Hugh Hewitt that the strikes were nothing more than a "missed opportunity," and that Trump and his generals seem inclined to leave Syria in the hands of Iran rather than stand up to Russia:
Asked about the president’s response to the attacks in Syria during a radio interview on "The Hugh Hewitt Show," Graham griped that his actions "didn’t lay a glove on Assad’s capabilities to wage war."
"We’re becoming the chemical weapons police," Graham said. "We don’t have a strategy about why Syria matters."
He added: "The military strike itself was a tactical response well short of what I thought was justified. So he’s been a good commander-in-chief in general, but this is a major step backwards."
In the longer transcript, Graham lays the blame on Secretary of Defense James Mattis for the narrow focus on chemical weapons. The issue, Graham claims, is the risk-averse nature of current military and political leadership. Er, what?
#4
...Graham griped that his actions "didn’t lay a glove on Assad’s capabilities to wage war."
US Constitution Article 1, Section 8: Power to Declare War. Go for it, Senator! Go to the floor of the Senate and get a Bill Declaring War on Syria or sit down and STFU.
#6
I can sort of empathize with McCain. If conservative voters had actual conservative options--candidates who would deliver instead of just lying about being conservative in order to get elected--then McCain and his ilk would no longer have any sort of career. It's political life and death for him.
[TruePundit] As FBI Director, Robert Mueller awarded BackPage.com CEO Carl Ferrer recognition from the Justice Department and FBI for working in an investigative capacity to assist the FBI.
That award was bestowed on Ferrer and specifically Backpage,com by the FBI in 2011. Mueller, director at the time, signed the award. The citation may have also included a cash reward, FBI sources said.
Ironic especially since Ferrer — previously charged criminally for pimping — was arrested by the FBI last week and plead out to sweeping criminal charges on Thursday.
Last week the FBI seized the embattled BackPage.com website, the Justice Department alleging its founders and employees — including Ferrer — helped traffic underage sex victims, as well launder millions of dollars among other federal charges.
“For far too long, Backpage.com existed as the dominant marketplace for illicit commercial sex, a place where sex traffickers frequently advertised children and adults alike,” U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday. “But this illegality stops right now.”
Sessions harsh statement came after Ferrer pleaded guilty to state and federal charges of conspiracy, money laundering and more. Ferrer likewise agreed to testify in ongoing prosecutions against other Backpage.com owners who are fighting the charges, authorities said.
But it is not the first time Ferrer has agreed to work as a rat for the FBI concerning BackPage.com’s operations. Mueller’s FBI award lists Ferrer as BackPage.com Vice President.
Issued in May 2011, Mueller’s FBI award to Ferrer reads:
“For your outstanding cooperation and assistance in connection with an investigation of great importance. The FBI’s ability to carry out its investigative responsibilities to the American people has been greatly enhanced through your help, and you can be very proud of your valuable contribution to the success achieved.”
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.
[Al Jazeera] James Comey says US president treats women like 'meat' and there is 'certainly some evidence of obstruction of justice'.
As FBI Director, Robert Mueller awarded BackPage.com CEO Carl Ferrer recognition from the Justice Department and FBI for working in an investigative capacity to assist the FBI.
