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“Those who are capable of tyranny are capable of perjury to sustain it.”

-- Lysander Spooner

News and Opinion

Surprise: "The report was criticized by security experts, who said it lacked depth and came too late."

FBI and Homeland Security detail Russian hacking campaign in new report

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and FBI have released an analysis of the allegedly Russian government-sponsored hacking groups blamed for breaching several different parts of the Democratic party during the 2016 elections.

The 13-page document, released on Thursday and meant for information technology professionals, came as Barack Obama announced sanctions against Russia for interfering in the 2016 elections. The report was criticized by security experts, who said it lacked depth and came too late.

The government report follows several from the private sector, notably a lengthy section in a Microsoft report from 2015 on a hacking team referred to as “advanced persistent threat 28” (APT 28), which the company’s internal nomenclature calls Strontium and others have called Fancy Bear. Also mentioned in the government document is another group called APT 29 or Cozy Bear.

Details Still Lacking on Russian ‘Hack’

The tip-off to how little proof was being offered came in the report’s statement that “The U.S. government assesses that information was leaked to the press and publicly disclosed.” When you read a phrase like “the U.S. government assesses,” it really means the U.S. government is guessing – and the report notably uses a passive tense that doesn’t even assert that the Russians did the leaking.

A well-placed intelligence source told me that there’s little doubt that elements of Russian intelligence penetrated the emails of the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, but the Russians were far from alone. Indeed, placing various forms of malware on computers is a common practice, as average folks who periodically take their laptops to an I.T. professional can attest. There’s always some kind of “spyware” or other malicious code to be discovered.

The source said the more debatable issue is whether Russian intelligence then turned over the emails to WikiLeaks, especially given that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and an associate, former British Ambassador Craig Murray, have stated that the material did not come from the Russian government. Murray has suggested that there were two separate sources, the DNC material coming from a disgruntled Democrat and the Podesta emails coming from possibly a U.S. intelligence source, since the Podesta Group represents Saudi Arabia and other foreign governments.

CIA, White House owe US people proof of Russian role in US election – whistleblower John Kiriakou

Lots of interesting detail in this piece. Worth a peek.

FBI/DHS Joint Analysis Report: A Fatally Flawed Effort

The FBI/DHS Joint Analysis Report (JAR) “Grizzly Steppe” was released yesterday as part of the White House’s response to alleged Russian government interference in the 2016 election process. It adds nothing to the call for evidence that the Russian government was responsible for hacking the DNC, the DCCC, the email accounts of Democratic party officials, or for delivering the content of those hacks to Wikileaks.

It merely listed every threat group ever reported on by a commercial cybersecurity company that is suspected of being Russian-made and lumped them under the heading of Russian Intelligence Services (RIS) without providing any supporting evidence that such a connection exists. ...

If the White House had unclassified evidence that tied officials in the Russian government to the DNC attack, they would have presented it by now. The fact that they didn’t means either that the evidence doesn’t exist or that it is classified.

If it’s classified, an independent commission should review it because this entire assignment of blame against the Russian government is looking more and more like a domestic political operation run by the White House that relied heavily on questionable intelligence generated by a for-profit cybersecurity firm with a vested interest in selling “attribution-as-a-service”.

GRIZZLY STEPPE only restates premise that APT 28/29 are Russian gov, rather than proving it. let’s hope for more in congressional testimony

— Sam Biddle (@samfbiddle) December 29, 2016

NYT on Iraq and Russia: Newspaper of Record or Journalistic Home to Intelligence Sources and Warmakers

December 29, under the headlines “Obama Punishes Russia for Hacking” and “Obama Strikes Back at Russia for Election Hacking,” the Times’ David Sanger, a lead reporter at the Times on Iraqi WMD and the lead writer today on Russian hacking, wrote: “President Obama struck back at Russia on Thursday for its efforts to influence the 2016 election, ejecting 35 suspected Russian intelligence operatives from the United States and imposing sanctions on Russia’s two leading intelligence services.”

Like the Bush administration’s claims of Iraqi WMD, the charges that Russia “hacked” the presidential election in November have not been established beyond secret intelligence sources, which have been treated and printed by the New York Times as impeccable.

Although the “Grizzly Steppe” document is as impervious to public scrutiny as Powell’s UN speech, today’s response from the Times editorial page, titled “President Obama Punishes Russia, at Last,” likewise supports the unconfirmed charges of Russian hacking:

While it is definitely too late, and may also be too little, there should be no doubt about the correctness of President Obama’s decision to retaliate against Russia for hacking American computers and trying to influence the 2016 presidential election. It would have been irresponsible for him to leave office next month and allow President Vladimir Putin to think that he could with impunity try to undermine American democracy.

Just as the Times editorial page in February 2003 had no basis for concluding that Colin Powell’s presentation at the UN was “the most powerful case to date” that Iraq possessed WMD, the Times today has no confirmable basis for concluding that “there should be no doubt” that Russia hacked the presidential election last month or that President Obama has any basis for “punishing Russia,” which in any event is unprofessional and jingoistic journalistic usage from the leading newspaper in the United States.

Yet, it reflects the warlike tone and tenor of the liberal political and journalistic establishments, led by the New York Times, which seems determined to drive us over the cliff once again toward war.

Putin says Russia will not expel US diplomats in tit-for-tat measure

Moscow will not engage in a tit-for-tat response to the US decision to kick out 35 Russian diplomats over allegations of interference in the US presidential election, Vladimir Putin has said, in a surprisingly calm reaction that appears to be designed as an overture to the incoming US president, Donald Trump. ...

“While we reserve the right to respond, we will not drop to this level of irresponsible diplomacy, and we will make further steps to help resurrect Russian-American relations based on the policies that the administration of Trump will pursue,” the Russian president said in a statement on the Kremlin’s website.

The statement also wished Obama, Trump and the American people a happy new year and invited “all the children of American diplomats accredited in Russia to the new year and Christmas tree in the Kremlin”.

Putin: Russia will not expel anyone in response to US sanctions

The hacking is 21st-century, but US-Russia relations are stuck in the past

So Barack Obama expels 35 Russian diplomats because Moscow apparently hacked the American election campaign. Big deal. The gesture is, as Moscow replies, “the death throes of political corpses”. In another bout of this archaic ritual, Russia threatened to close Moscow’s Anglo-American school and expel a batch of Americans from Moscow – though Vladimir Putin eventually said he would not stoop to such ‘irresponsible diplomacy’. The next thing we know, Britain will ban Russians from Harrods. It is like reacting to Pearl Harbor by not eating sushi. ...

American policy towards Russia since 2000 has been a catastrophe. It misjudged Moscow’s visceral response to cold war defeat. It failed to learn from its disastrous adventure in Afghanistan. It recklessly pushed Nato and the EU into eastern Europe, where Russian sensitivities have always been strong. Finally America allowed itself to be humiliated by Russia in Syria.

Back in 2009, Obama promised to “reset” relations with Moscow. In this too he failed. The US has taunted, provoked and sanctioned Russia to absolutely no advantage. It has merely forestalled the role that trade and contact should play in opening up Russian society to outside influence. It has diminished opposition to Putin and driven Russia back to autocracy. America (with western Europe) has encouraged Moscow’s worst inclinations, and made Europe more dangerous as a result.

Federal judge preserves CIA ‘Torture Report’ after Guantánamo war court wouldn’t do it

With just weeks until Republicans take control of Congress and the White House, a federal judge has ordered the Obama administration to deliver to his court’s Top Secret storage site a copy of the so-called Senate Torture Report on the CIA’s Black Site prison program.

U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth issued the two-page order Wednesday in Washington, in the mostly dormant federal court challenge of the Guantánamo detention of former CIA prisoner Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, 51. The Saudi who was waterboarded and rectally abused while a captive of the spy agency is awaiting trial by military commission as the alleged architect of al-Qaida’s Oct. 12, 2000, USS Cole bombing off Yemen that killed 17 U.S. sailors.

Lamberth also ordered the government to “preserve and maintain all evidence, documents and information, without limitation, now or ever in the [U.S. government’s] possession, control or custody, relating to the torture, mistreatment, and/or abuse of detainees held in the custody of the Executive Branch” since Sept. 11, 2001. ...

The report has an entire chapter on Nashiri’s treatment during his 2002-06 CIA custody, and his Pentagon-paid lawyers asked the military judge in the capital case to furnish them with a copy for trial preparation.

Diana Buttu & Gideon Levy on Israeli Settlements, Kerry, Military Aid & End of Two-State Solution

Theresa May's criticism of John Kerry Israel speech sparks blunt US reply

Theresa May has distanced the UK from Washington over John Kerry’s condemnation of Israel, in comments that appear to be designed to build bridges with the incoming Trump administration.

Kerry, the outgoing secretary of state, delivered a robust speech this week that criticised Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as the “most rightwing coalition in Israeli history” and warned that the rapid expansion of settlements in the occupied territories meant that “the status quo is leading toward one state and perpetual occupation”.

The prime minister’s spokesman said May thought it was not appropriate to make such strongly worded attacks on the makeup of a government or to focus solely on the issue of Israeli settlements. ...

However the US state department last night reacted with some bluntness to May’s statement.

A spokesperson said: “We are surprised by the UK Prime Minister’s office statement given that Secretary Kerry’s remarks—which covered the full range of threats to a two state solution, including terrorism, violence, incitement and settlements—were in-line with the UK’s own longstanding policy and its vote at the United Nations last week.”

Syria Ceasefire remains intact despite apparent government violations

Syrian government troops appear to have violated a nationwide truce that went into effect at midnight by launching attacks on two towns near Damascus close to the city’s water supply.

However, the ceasefire, brokered by Turkey and Russia, has largely held across most of the country despite one of the most powerful rebel groups saying it had reservations and had not signed the deal.

Activists from the Wadi Barada valley, a rebel-held area north-west of Damascus that supplies nearly three-quarters of the capital’s water, said helicopters and artillery had targeted the area throughout Thursday night and into Friday morning.

Much of Damascus has been without water for a week, since Bashar al-Assad’s government and its allied militias launched an offensive to retake Wadi Barada, hoping to capitalise on their victory in Aleppo.

The Assad government has accused the rebels of polluting the water supply, forcing it to cut the flow into the city. The opposition says the water infrastructure was damaged in government attacks and poisoning the supply would also harm residents in rebel-held areas.

As Syrian Ceasefire Starts, Kurds Find Themselves Excluded

The Syrian ceasefire went into effect at Midnight local time, and apart from a few isolated incidents appears to have gone pretty well, with the apparent include of al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front making the ceasefire seem a lot broader than previous ones.

Not that everyone is welcome. ISIS, for instance, was excluded from the ceasefire, and in a surprise addition, the Kurdish YPG were also announced to have been excluded. Syrian rebels say that the YPG not only can’t be involved in the ceasefire, they won’t be welcome at the peace talks in Kazakhstan.

While exactly how this came about isn’t totally clear, the smart money is on Turkey, which has insisted the Kurds are “terrorists,” insisting they be excluded from the process. Turkey has repeatedly attacked YPG targets since invading Syria, and excluding both ISIS and the YPG means Turkey can basically continue their war without any limits.

US Airstrike on Mosul Hospital May Have Killed Civilians, Pentagon Admits

Adding to concerns about the civilian toll of the US air war against ISIS targets, the Pentagon today admitted that they carried out an airstrike against the parking lot of a Mosul hospital, conceding that they “may have killed civilians” in the attack.

The Pentagon’s Combined Joint Strike Force said in a statement that they were after a van they suspected of carrying ISIS fighters, and they blew it up in the parking lot of what “was later determined to be a hospital.” The US has previously insisted all hospital sites in Mosul were well known and that they were taking extreme care not to hit civilians.

Check this out! Joanne Leon and Dan Wright are launching a podcast "Around the Empire."

Around The Empire is creating The Around The Empire Podcast

Around The Empire is a new podcast from Shadowproof reporters Dan Wright and Joanne Leon. Every week we will report on what is going on with the United States' massive global empire which will include a roundup of stories from all around the world as well as original interviews and analysis.

Episode 2: Reporting from Syria Feat. Rania Khalek

More US police officers killed in 2016 – but number still below 10-year average

The number of police officers killed in the line of duty in the US increased in 2016 compared with the previous year following multiple attacks on police, including ambushes in Dallas and Baton Rouge.

A new analysis released on Thursday morning by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund showed that 135 officers died on the job in 2016, the highest in five years but still well within the recent yearly average.

For the past 10 years, a yearly average of 151 officers have died on the job, according to the memorial fund. ...

But the figure is a fraction of the number of US individuals killed by police. At least 1,058 people have been killed by law enforcement officers this year, according to The Counted, the Guardian’s project to track killings by police. Fatal force by police is disproportionately used against black Americans.

Miami police officers reportedly joked about using black area for target practice

An internal Miami police investigation has found three rookie officers joked in a group chat about using the city’s primarily black neighborhoods for target practice.

According to investigation documents obtained by the Miami Herald, the officers told an investigator they were only joking. The newspaper said officers Kevin Bergnes, Miguel Valdes and Bruce Alcin were fired two days before Christmas. It said Alcin is African American and Valdes has a black grandfather.

The remarks upset colleagues and came as the department is under supervision of the US Department of Justice following a series of police shootings.

“It was senseless, young and reckless,” Justin Pinn, an African American member of a civilian board tasked with monitoring Miami’s federal policing agreement, told the paper.

“It shouldn’t be tolerated. Officers are supposed to be guardians not warriors. I don’t think what they expressed reflects the values of the department.”

The Coming Assault on Social Security

The first assault of the new Trump administration and Republican Congress upon Social Security has been launched. It comes in the form of release of a new report by the Congressional Budget Office, which of course these days is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Republican Congressional Caucus.

Using some financial sleight-of-hand, this CBO report pushes forward by two years the date at which its ideologically driven experts claim Social Security benefits will exhaust the Trust Fund, and since the Social Security program is required to be self-financing, the date at which, barring adjustments by Congress in the program’s funding and/or benefit payment levels, promised benefits would have to be cut by what the CBO claims will have to be 31%.

Such a cut would clearly be a staggering blow to the finances and livelihoods of nation’s retirees, dependents and the disabled.

This end-of-the-year CBO report is at odds with a report issued earlier this year by the Trustees of the Social Security Administration, which projected that the Trust Fund, barring any changes in taxes or benefit payments, would be tapped out in 2033, and that at that point benefits, barring some fixes in Social Security financing, would have to be cut by an also horrific but far lower 21% (with the remaining 79% of benefit payments being covered by current employee FICA taxes being paid into the system). ...

Make no mistake: this CBO report is the opening salvo of an all-out assault on Social Security, as Republicans, now thanks to Trump’s presidential win, seek to take advantage of their full control of the levers of power in Washington for at least the next two or more likely four years, try to do as much damage to the program as possible.

Quietly, Trump and Republicans Are Gunning to Destroy Medicaid

Medicaid, the nation's healthcare program for the poor and disabled, is on the chopping block under President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress—and it will take "intense focus by progressives" to ensure it doesn't meet a dire fate.

In fact, former National Economic Council director Gene B. Sperling wrote Sunday in a New York Times op-ed, "if Democrats focus too much of their attention on Medicare, they may inadvertently assist the quieter war on Medicaid—one that could deny health benefits to millions of children, seniors, working families, and people with disabilities."

As Democrats prepare for battles over the two programs, "the Republican effort to dismantle Medicaid is more certain," Sperling warned—a prediction echoed this week by multiple news outlets.

"Neither Mr. Trump nor Senate Republicans may have the stomach to fully own the political risks of Medicare privatization," he continued. "But not only have Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Tom Price, Mr. Trump's choice for secretary of health and human services, made proposals to deeply cut Medicaid through arbitrary block grants or 'per capita caps,' during the campaign, Mr. Trump has also proposed block grants."

Just this month, Vice President-elect Mike Pence told ABC: "With regard to Medicaid...there's a real opportunity, there's a real opportunity as we repeal and replace Obamacare to do exactly what the president-elect also said on the campaign, and that is block granting Medicaid back to the states."

Block-granting can mean funding cuts, The Hill explained:

Block grants would mean limiting federal Medicaid funds to a set amount given to the states, rather than the current federal commitment, which is more open-ended.

Calls for NC Boycott In Wake of Anti-Democratic GOP Maneuvers

In the wake of the North Carolina Republican Party's anti-democratic grab for power and refusal to repeal the anti-LGBTQ HB2 earlier this month, calls are mounting for an economic boycott of the state. ...

Indeed, political science professor Andrew Reynolds of the University of North Carolina has classified the state as no longer "a fully functioning democracy," according to Reynolds' system of analysis, the Electoral Integrity Project, which compares and scores democracies around the world.

"That North Carolina can no longer call its elections democratic is shocking enough," wrote Reynolds in the News & Observer, "but our democratic decline goes beyond what happens at election time. The most respected measures of democracy [...] all assess the degree to which the exercise of power depends on the will of the people: That is, governance is not arbitrary, it follows established rules and is based on popular legitimacy. The extent to which North Carolina now breaches these principles means our state government can no longer be classified as a full democracy."

A Call For The Economic Boycott Of North Carolina

In recent years, the Republican leadership in the state of North Carolina has built a worldwide reputation for intolerance and bigoted narrow-mindedness. Since its recent loss of the governorship, however, the General Assembly has completely upended the democratic process and engaged in nothing short of a modern-day political and policy coup d’état.

GOP legislators have not only undertaken efforts to suppress the will of the voters, they have seized power from a newly-elected Democratic governor in a special Christmas session; stripped power from the state Supreme Court to which a second African American has been newly elected; and passed draconian laws that harm the poor and working people of the state. This unprecedented scheme to enact major changes in the structure and functioning of government without the consent of the people should alarm the entire nation. ...

In light of all the wrongs perpetrated by a radically regressive legislature that violate our Constitution, our civil rights commitments and our moral values, we as the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP will meet and complete a formal proposal endorsed by the state executive committee to put before the national board that asks approval of and calls for an economic boycott of the state.

We will call for this boycott to be effective until such time as the North Carolina General Assembly:

1. Restores the people’s full and immediate access to the State Supreme Court, recognizing that the legislature may not choose, on a partisan basis, what cases the court shall hear;

2. Repeals the hijacking of the State Board of Elections that seeks to guarantee Republican control despite the loss of the governor’s seat;

3. Passes fair redistricting laws that end gross gerrymandering and gives the people of the state a fair chance to elect legislators of their own choosing and;

4. Repeals the law known as HB2 and all of its provisions, including those that discriminate against the LGBTQ community, those against raising the minimum wage, those in favor of limiting the timeframe to take employment discrimination cases before the state’s courts, and those that undermine the ability of local municipalities to write progressive anti-discrimination laws that serve the best interest of citizens.

Heh, China wants Trump brand toilets.

President as product

Despite all his contentious campaign rhetoric, China has embraced Donald Trump in a big way.

Take the Trump-rooster statue just erected at a shopping mall in Taiyuan, the capital city of China’s Shanxi province, for example. The enormous effigy — to celebrate 2017, the Chinese Year of the Rooster — stands 32 feet tall, complete with the president-elect’s unmistakable quiff and hand gestures. In fact, Chinese retailers incorporate Trump’s “look” or name into their products frequently, including caricatured figurines, skincare items, condoms, and more. ...

But China’s Trumpmania isn’t entirely new. In the past decade, Trump has filed 126 trademark applications in China for products from pet care to lingerie, according to data from the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, reported by the Washington Post. And the president-elect wouldn’t be filing them if they didn’t make him money.

But his next battle lies in fighting off other people trying to use his brand. Registered trademarks already exist in China for Trump condoms, paint, and even toilets.

“It is just a psychological effect,” Zhong Jiye, founder of Shenzhen Trump Industrial Co., told the Washington Post. “They are interested because they want to sit on a toilet or use a urinal that has the name of a U.S. president.”

Setting Stage for Major Climate Battle, Dem AGs Put Trump on Alert

If President-elect Donald Trump goes ahead with his plan to destroy U.S. climate regulations, he's going to face a whole heap of trouble, a coalition of Democratic attorneys general is warning the incoming president.

In a letter (pdf) dated Wednesday, AGs from 13 states and five additional localities advised Trump against plans to renege on President Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan (CPP), saying that such a course of action "would assuredly lead to more litigation."

The warning is in response to a letter (pdf) sent earlier this month by a number of Republican AGs to Vice President-elect Mike Pence, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Speaker Paul Ryan which declared the CPP "unlawful," and encouraged the GOP lawmakers to issue an executive order "on day one" that would withdraw the rule "and prevent adoption of a similar rule in the future."

However, "history and legal precedent strongly suggest that such an action would not stand up in court," the Democratic AGs argue, adding that they "would vigorously oppose in court any attempt to remand the Clean Power Plan."

"If the challengers are so confident in their oft-repeated claim that the Clean Power Plan is 'unlawful,' why not let the court decide the claims that they themselves brought?" they ask. The CPP is currently being weighed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Can Legal Activist Scott Pruitt Undo Clean Air and Water Protections as Head of EPA?

Though Trump appears to have backed off his pledge to “get rid of [EPA] in almost every form,” his choice of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the agency set off alarms in the environmental community. ...

A close look at Pruitt’s record reveals that he is a very smart, charismatic lawyer and passionate baseball fan who professes to care about protecting the environment. But his swift rise to national prominence was built on anti-EPA legal activism. Since his election as Oklahoma’s attorney general in 2010, Pruitt repeatedly has brought lawsuits claiming that EPA is illegally and unconstitutionally trampling states’ rights. These claims have won him praise in conservative circles, but little success in court.

Pruitt’s signature legal issue was his fight to block EPA from requiring coal-fired power plants in Oklahoma to install scrubbers to reduce pollution that impaired air quality in national parks. Pruitt’s legal arguments were rejected in 2013 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, which ruled in favor of EPA, a decision the U.S. Supreme Court deemed unworthy of review.

[See article for detailed listing of Pruitt's legal failures. - js]

How would Pruitt change EPA? Clearly, given his record of fighting federal authority, states will have much greater leeway in their dealings with the agency. Pruitt wants to repeal the Clean Power Plan and EPA’s “Waters of the United States” rule, which seeks to clarify the limits of federal jurisdiction to protect wetlands. Both rules have been finalized and face court challenges from Pruitt and others. ...

After taking office, the Trump administration likely will announce that it no longer will defend the Clean Power Plan and the waters rule in court. But some states and NGOs have intervened to defend the rules, so litigation will continue. If courts eventually rule that EPA acted unconstitutionally or illegally when it adopted the rules, as Pruitt has claimed, they will strike the rules down.

But if Pruitt loses again and the rules are upheld, EPA will have to repeal them through the same notice-and-comment process it used to adopt them, as Pruitt has acknowledged. This will take considerable time.

To survive judicial review, EPA under Pruitt will have to articulate good reasons for repealing the regulations. When the incoming Reagan administration sought to repeal a rule requiring air bags on new cars in the early 1980s, the Supreme Court rejected the action as “arbitrary and capricious” because the evidence before the agency clearly supported the regulation. As a result, countless lives have been saved.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

We Do Not Live in “Post Truth” World, We Live in a World of Lies and We Always Have

What is the Obama Regime Up To?

To Weapons Dealers, Laws Are Decorative Holiday Ornaments

It's Almost a New Year, but the Inequality Gap Keeps Widening

North Carolina gov.-elect sues over law stripping his powers

“Code of Silence” Revisited: An Update on the Watts Investigation

The starry night in Syria – in pictures

A Little Night Music

Bob Brozman - Love In Vain

Bob Brozman - Highway 49 Blues

Bob Brozman - Look at New Orleans

Bob Brozman - Poor Me

Bob Brozman - I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate

Bob Brozman - Mysterious Mose

Bob Brozman - Chili Blues

Bob Brozman - Obvious Blues

Bob Brozman - Backwards blues

Bob Brozman Interview