(It's on the Drudge of the Left): Ex-Wasserman Schultz IT aide arrested for bank fraud may have been a ‘substantial security threat’

Soooo, does this mean that this bit of news is going to finally hit the proverbial oscillating device? Is there too much in this story to keep buried? Apparently all the threats in the world couldn't help DWS keep this story buried.

Just look at the change in tone when referring to DWS. Before all these little internet equivalents to the National Enquirer treated her like a revered member of Her Heinous' royal court. Now here's this:

Data transfers between disgraced one-time Democratic National Committee chairwoman and Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her former IT aide Imran Awan

That's quite a comedown. Anyway...

Ex-Wasserman Schultz IT aide arrested for bank fraud may have been a ‘substantial security threat

Data transfers between disgraced one-time Democratic National Committee chairwoman and Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her former IT aide Imran Awan may have constituted a significant security breach, one lawmaker claims.

*

Fox News reported that on Tuesday, Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), who sits on the Homeland Security subcommittee on cyber security, told fellow Republicans Awan created 5,400 unauthorized logins on the House server belonging to former Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA), who is now California’s attorney general.

*
Wasserman Schultz, however, kept him on her payroll until he was arrested in July. Perry told his colleagues that Capitol Police found a bag with Wasserman Schultz’s initials that held a laptop, believed to be Awan’s, inside the House’s Rayburn office building two months after the former aide was banned from it.

These accusations of data transfers between Wasserman Schultz and Awan, Perry argued, “indicate a substantial security threat.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/10/ex-wasserman-schultz-it-aide-arrested-f...

No other mainstream political/social gossip site that I've seen has touched this story. Could this be the comeuppance Ms. DWS so richly deserves? Could there really be a serious security problem thanks to the 'disgraced one-time Democratic National Committee chairwoman'?

Only time will tell. So stay tuned for the next instalment of 'Debbie Does a Security Breach' brought to you by the Homeland Security subcommittee on cyber security looking for revenge for, well just about everything that's happened the last 8+ years.

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Dhyerwolf's picture

But so far they've weaseled their way out of everything. I unfortunately don't expect that to change now.

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but much of the coverage will tend to minimize the scale of the security breach. It's not just that DWS's personal devices were compromised, the entire congressional server may well have been mirrored off site. If so, members' email, appointment calendars, committee records, potentially embarrassing relationships and a trove of classified material may have gone off the reservation, to parts unknown.

The members of the House and Senate are just beginning to reluctantly acknowledge the posibility of a security breach of unprecedented proportions, months after a virtual wrist slap of bank fraud charges were handed down by a Federal Grand Jury.

Judicial Watch put together an informal meeting with a Daily Caller reporter and a handful of Republican Congressmen yesterday that may be enough to break the logjam of unwillingness in Congress to face the facts, as uncomfortable and as embarrassing as that might be. I certainly hope it does.

DWS may feel like a satisfying target to focus the blame on, and she may well be looking at the undercarriage of the bus very soon, but know that the ripples of this scandal reach much further than DWS's already tarnished career. I would take little comfort in an investigation and prosecution that stopped there.

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

gulfgal98's picture

@ovals49 For months George Webb has been chipping away on this investigation and Luke Rosiak of the Daily Caller has been publicizing it. Now that Judicial Watch has joined in, we may actually see an acknowledgement by our Congress critters that not only were certain members' data breached, but the data of nearly every member and that of very sensitive committees like Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security has been compromised.

The unauthorized logins have not stopped either. George Webb believe that either Rao Abbas or Imran Awan via proxy is still downloading data from Congress.

Meanwhile the Democrats are hoping that the investigation stops with the bank fraud charges.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Lily O Lady's picture

@gulfgal98

they would probably not care. The only politician to show interest in actual issues is Bernie Sanders. Nearly everyone else is playing on the see-saw of power politics.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

@Lily O Lady

No party will come out unscathed if the whole picture is revealed, consequently it is unlikely that party loyalists from either party are going to pursue it aggressively. This needs to continue to be driven by the people, since we are the ones who will unquestionably benefit from excising the rot in government.

Bernie can not save us, we must save ourselves.

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

Lily O Lady's picture

@ovals49

the only high profile politician to consistently focus on the issues that affect the 99%. Every other politician is busy explaining why their opponent is a dookey-head.

I hope the details of this case do come to light as it is so much serious than anything the chattering buffoons in the MSM have been getting the vapors over.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

gulfgal98's picture

@Lily O Lady Those of us who have been following this case are not doing so because of the voyeur aspect of watching DWS fall on the sword. We are watching this and hoping that as much information will come out that will precipitate the collapse of corruption that exists within our government. It is very important that the public learn of what is going on so as to keep the pressure on.

Right now, Luke Rosiak of the Daily Caller is the only reporter who has been consistently covering this case. Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge has also been covering this, but not in as much detail as George Webb and Luke Rosiak. Most other MSM outlets are still suppressing this story but will eventually be forced to cover it, instead of calling it a "nothing burger." We must remember that those same outlets were the ones who said the same thing about Hillary Clinton's private server and her emails.

Speaking of Zero Hedge, Tyler Durden reported yesterday that Hina Alvi has filed a lawsuit in Pakistan against her husband, Imran Awan, for fraud and bigamy.

With the so called left media failing to do its job, I will take whatever I can from other sources. I am a mature person who can use my personal critical thinking skills to analyze the information from those "right wing" sites along with any other information I can get. For the record, George Webb is not a right winger, but was a Bernie supporter doing 2016.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Lily O Lady's picture

@gulfgal98

am leery of stories that are merely meant to unseat the other side’s a—hole in favor of the a—hole from the other party. Certain sources favor candidates from one party, while other sources favor candidates from the other party. We know ther is no “fair and balanced” news.

I agree that the national security implications and underlying corruption can have serious consequences for the US, entirely dwarfing any possible impact of teh Rooskies. But how to make this about those issues and rather than the whole thing devolving into mud slinging?

Before we found out what a perv Anthony Weiner is, he was speaking out on issues the 99% care about. Once his (for the sake of discussion) rather large feet of clay were exposed, that voice was gone. Few others have dared to stray very far from the party line, perhaps because they would have to be purer than a newborn baby to stand up to political character assassination. Bernie is clean and has stood up over time, but short-term smears harmed him.

Politicians and TPTB use scandal to manipulate us and ruin each other. I don’t want to kick out one (or more) a—hole[s] in favor of another.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Amanda Matthews's picture

@Lily O Lady

with. As Roseanne Roseannadanna would say, “it’s always something”.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

mimi's picture

@gulfgal98 @gulfgal98
Wife Of Indicted IT Staffer Imran Awan Turns: "My Husband Committed Fraud Along With Polygamy"

That said, Alvi stirred rumors that she may have 'flipped' last month when she struck a deal with the FBI to return to the U.S. to appear at an arraignment...rumors that have seemingly now been confirmed by the Daily Caller.

Meanwhile, within the lawsuit, we also learn that Alvi apparently only learned of Awan's second marriage over the summer, a full two years after he was married in August 2015.

Respondent has contract a second marriage on 17-08-2015 with one Mst. Sumaira Shehzadi alias Sumaira Siddique… without obtaining prior permission. Rather he mentioned himself as bachelor in… marriage certificate, he falsely declared that he has no wife or biological children at the time of contracting second marriage. This act of the respondent was shocking for the complainant and she asked the respondent about his second marriage on which he became furious while admitting the same and said he has no need to obtain permission from the complainant.

He further said furiously that the complainant has no right or power to restrain him from second and even third marriage. Furthermore, the respondent threatened the complainant of dire consequences, he also threatened to harm the lives of family of the complainant if she intervenes into the affairs of the respondent.

The Pakistani legal motion filed by Alvi states: “A few months ago I got apprised of the fact that my husband has contracted second marriage secretly, fraudulently and without my consent with Mst. Sumaira Shehzadi Alias Sumaira Siddique Daughter of Muhammad Akram r/o Township, Lahore. The second marriage of my husband is illegal, unlawful and without justification.”
“The court has recorded the testimonies of the applicant and other witnesses,” the Pakistani news outlet ARY reported.

Of course, if the name Sumaira Siddique sounds familiar at all it's because she is the woman that the Daily Caller previously reported had filed charges against Awan for domestic abuse and keeping her locked up in the house "like a slave."

Last month, TheDCNF published police reports showing that two women who appeared to be in romantic relationships with Awan, but who were not Alvi, called the police on him in Virginia. One, Salam Chaudry, said she “just wanted to leave,” while the second was named Sumaira Siddique.

Criminal investigations involving Siddique and Awan in Virginia took place on Oct. 16, 2015 into assault, and Nov. 16, 2015 into telephone threats. Siddique called them again on July 18, 2016 and said he kept her there “like a slave.” Alvi’s lawsuit says he only married Siddique in August 2015.

So, what say you? Just another meaningless twist in a truly bizarre case or is Imran about to learn the meaning to the saying "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?"

Ah, yeah, polygamy, fury of women scorned, husbands being angry that their right to have several wives is taken away from them ... That's the stuff people get all exited about. No better way to distract from everything else.

BTW. Is the husband legally right? Does he need a permission? If so, in which country are his marriages legal and in which countries they are not? Is it dependent on the geographical area where the second and third marrigages have been "consumated / put into effect / confirmed legally".

You know that's a case where I like to throw a Bomb at everyone involved. But of course that's because I am the only real Fool around here.

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gulfgal98's picture

@mimi Imran Awan broke the law which prohibits polygamy. He also beat her up and threatened her and two other women.

There had been rumors that the only reason Hina Alvi returned to the US was if she was given immunity or a plea deal. The fact that she seems to have turned against her husband may be a good sign that she will cooperate.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

mimi's picture

@gulfgal98
too dumb. Did he marry his first wife in the US?
Ok, I don't want to get into that anymore. It's just too easy a case for me to be taken at face value. And I know I am usually alone in that that kind of scepticism.

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Deja's picture

@gulfgal98
I wondered today if any of this is some type of smear of Awan and his brother because of my distrust of anything even remotely connected to Her. I'd want to see the police reports, and marriage records; but, didn't the wife charge him with polygamy without permission in Pakistan? That's what I thought. If not, she might be able to file there, regardless of where she married him - depending on their laws. Not that it makes any difference, but, eh.

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gulfgal98's picture

@Deja @Deja her lawsuit against Imran Awan for fraud and polygamy was filed in Pakistan. I do not know where he married either wife number one or wife number two. The second wife information came out as a result of her calling police on Imran Awan in which she claimed that he was keeping her a prisoner.

However if Hina Alvi has filed against him for fraud and polygamy, this may mean that she will turn state's evidence against him.

Edit to add: Alvi may have filed in Pakistan before she made an agreement to return to the United States, so she may not have planned upon returning to the US at that time.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

mimi's picture

@gulfgal98
I have to admit I even didn't follow so far your and Alligator Eds essays on the Awan "Brotherhood" case in detail other than scanning them and deciding that "it was too complicated for me".

Now I have read through your updated october 1 essay, read through both of the timelines you provided links for and ... was pretty much knocked off the floor and over my head and ... I got hooked, darn it, gulfgal98, how could you do this to me? (just joking).

I will now re-read Alligator Ed's essays to try to dance through his funny language and not step over my own feet doing it in the hope I get all exited about the next dances.

I am not yet finished reading it. So far I get away with the following;

The Imran Awan and his brother and wives are dispicable, deplorable, miserable con artist criminals, the Democrats who hired them are at least very dumb and/or very clueless about who and what was handed to them in those they hired. If they had nothing to hide, that is, and no one could have pressured them to play the dummies. I think there are the clueless ones in Senate and Congress, and there are the threatened ones, including Sen. Sanders, who I feel was threatened at or shortly before the eve of the National Democratic Convention.

Reading through the timeline, I kind of felt a bit of a pity feelings with the father of Imran Awan, who died and tried to change his name to distance himself from his sons.
Why did Imran Awan transferred title of a house he owned to his father? Not for good reasons and the father knew it. It's in my imagination that is is quite possible to pressure and threaten your own parents to comply with your criminal intent to do lots of bad stuff for money. I was kind of reminded of Iranians, who fled after Iran's Shah's imperial regime was deposed. Remember the Shah was also the guy who headed the Iranian SAVAK, which was was established by Iran's Mohammad Reza Shah with the help of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Israeli Mossad regime.

Those Iranian refugees and appeared in Germany, all of them supposedly poor and threatened asylum seekers in the late seventies, just that they always had tons of money to buy real estate and the most expensive designer clothes some with diamonds sewed into their seams. Oh well, memory lane.

On the other hand the same is true for wives, lovers and so on, in all cultures, including the NSA, CIA, FBI cultures as the other ones, Muslim, Pakistani, Christian and Russian/Ukrainian ones.

But honestly, I can't see, who is pressuring whom and for what reason. This is really a "very deep" case and one with a long history and with long legs and multiple heads like a dragon that grows new ones as soon as you cut out (kill) one of them.

The only reason I reacted to the "polygamy charge" filed by Imran Awan's wife is, because it's a bit easier, if wanted to, to obtain falsified official papers (including marriage certificates, death certificates and all those pesky personal documents a decent person wouldn't question or want to dig into) overseas (ie Pakistan and all those other evil doing countries /s) than it would be in the US. Remember that the US fell for falsified documents once before. Oh well, memory lane.

Inheritance feuds and power structures in other countries' family cultures may be horrible to recognize in our social environment, but they are real. So they can also be used by those, who want to cover up something. Seems a lot of parties involved would like to be cover up as much as they can, inside the US and outside. In that sense I understand your "transnational" remark.

For the common guys and gals here, evil husbands, scared beaten-up women, fleeing wives taking all the money with them etc. is as good as it gets to make "a story" believable, interesting and confusing. But hooked you get. So, all in the interest of all sorts of media, main street as well as alternative media.

Really scary. I think the story goes back at least into the 19709es. And who can follow it all? it's way beyond my capacities. I give up on it.

In hindsight I see that you and Alligator ED and everybody else who tries to follow that and bring light into that story, deserve all big thanks and praise. It's hard work !

I hope you forgive me for feeling a bit overwhelmed to follow all those dots, timeline points and connect them correctly.

But then, there is a bit of hope in there too. If one of my loved younger ones should ever get fired from their minimum wage MacDonald's' job, there is still the hope they can get a high-end salaried job in the upper five-digit range in the US Congress. See, only in America. It's the greatest country on earth !!! I am all with Mr.MacChickenDrumstick here. /s

Peace. There is no other choice.

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@Lily O Lady

And it's the tip of the iceberg forming a floating veritable Bullshit Mountain of Corruption also forming government...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Amanda Matthews's picture

@ovals49
Up to now it’s been:

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

@Amanda Matthews

Crickets or ravenous locusts?

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

@ovals49

Thanks for posting the video! I was initially only going to listen to some of this lengthy video, but wound up watching the whole thing.

And I'm wondering why it is that the video completely fails to match up with the audio at any point?

If the audio portrays what was actually officially discussed, it would be very heartening, the more so as it was pointed out (on the audio I heard) that the DNC/Dem-claimed-as-Russian hacking of DNC emails nonsense (my phrasing throughout), having been shown to be virtually impossible, as thumbdrive speeds are far faster than download speed, especially if purportedly from a server in a distant country, and was declared to have a 'Russian fingerprint' based on the hearsay of the private DNC corporation and the claims of a private company run by a Russian-hating Ukrainian, with this hearsay accepted by the FBI - despite having been denied access to the DNC server by the DNC - makes it seem quite probable that the Awans may have been involved also in the release of the leaked DNC material and that this should be introduced in questioning. (I'd personally think that they may have been involved in that 2nd DNC email download with the planted and discredited 'Russian thumbprints', creating the Guccifer 2 situation to try to discredit Wikileaks)

On the other hand, the fact that the video shows something completely different from what's going on in the audio is something I'd like investigated myself. Perhaps the audio and video are simply wildly mismatched but if so, how and why?

Personally, I'd like to see a match between the video and audio where I could lipread what I'm hearing at any and all points, before I believe a word of any of this to be official and something likely to be used in investigation. Something I'd love to see actually and properly done, maybe even with appropriate results and a full investigation with all complicit charged and, at the least, barred from public office. (Yes, I do love unicorns!)

But I'm kinda wondering if this is just more propaganda to quiet things down, fooling people into thinking that this time, at long last, at least something will finally get somewhere and clean out at least some of the more blatant corruption from the US Money Mint so many are profiting from, by draining public funds. Another PR stall...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@Ellen North
and a couple of brief "drop outs" but I saw nothing to indicate that the audio was other than what the people in the video were saying.

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

@ovals49 @ovals49

Maybe it was something related to my computer, as there was complete discrepancy for me, with camera views also changing up to perhaps close to a minute after the person speaking changed, and with no regard for who, either?

And I'm sorry to hear it was nothing official, as I'd somehow thought they were seeking to have this looked into and establishing that there was valid cause, not just a having a casual discussion.

Drat!

Edit: found it online and all of the parts I checked matched up just fine. No idea why it was so weird on my computer in the embedded copy...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@Ellen North
and nobody was testifying under oath, there is nothing "official" about it at all.

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

Amanda Matthews's picture

is finally seeing exposure on a site that went all in fir the Clinton Creature. It had 'journalists' who could-would-DID come up with a BS excuse for every single misstep, lie, or scandal that's ever concerned the Clinton Creature, DWS, Slick & the kid, and the family slush fun.

I wonder if they (Raw Story editors) know how funny seeing this story on their site really is? Because these people are ALL IN when it comes to the RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA!!! craziness and they think the Clinton Creature was denied her rjghtful throne.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

@Amanda Matthews

We need as many eyes on the endemic corruption in our government, and we need to demand a real investigation. As encouraging as RawStory and Judicial Watch coverage is, it is still pretty far from the sworn testimony, Special Prosecutor and an earnest Congressional investigation that we need.

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

@ovals49

it has been a while since the last one was spotted.

as it seems most blame goes to the dems, maybe the republicans can get their teeth into something.

who knows? I will stay tuned.
hoping, not quite hopeful.

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@irishking

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

Socialprogressive's picture

Hrc had this to say.

get.jpg

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When I offer to wash your back in the shower, all you have to say is yes or no.
Not all this "who are you, and how did you get in here?" nonsense.

@Socialprogressive

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

@Socialprogressive I had to read it twice before it registered. lol

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

thanatokephaloides's picture

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

@Socialprogressive

Classic! Thanks for the giggle!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

SnappleBC's picture

I went there and found exactly one article published on this. The diarist underplayed the whole thing by quite a bit but still was fairly accusatory towards DWS. The site rallied to her defense. I saw no other stories. Compare that to #Russiagate, a claimed global conspiracy missing any shred of evidence to back it up. That "story" is written about in great and loving detail, every piece of it polished to a golden shine.

So on one hand an actual court case involving actual foreign nationals doing actually illegal things for insane amounts of money paid for by sitting officials inside our own congressional buildings is not worth discussing. On the other hand, $50k of facebook ads which are loosely connected to Russia in some way (but not the Russian government at all), most of which went to a single anti-Trump push and the rest of it covering various political points is enough to literally start WW3.

Here's a little humor for you. JtC could easily prove that I'm a Russian agent if he looked at the access logs on this server. I'm pretty sure once or twice I was logged in "from a Russian IP address". I'm sure he can also identify me as a Norwegian agent, an American agent, a Canadian agent, and a Korean agent using that same inarguable evidence. (Yeah, turnover in the secret agent industry is awful and they keep us on the move constantly)

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

@SnappleBC
for any new registrants, if you were using a Russian proxy your registration would not have been activated.

FWIW, we get over a hundred spam registrations per day and 99% of them are from Russia, I'm pretty good at spotting them. Much of my day is spent vetting and deleting those accounts. So yes, in that sense, c99p has been invaded by the Russians.

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SnappleBC's picture

@JtC

You provide me great cover with that argument. But a discerning person would understand that the real picture is the reverse of what you have portrayed. In fact, I AM a Russian agent who normally VPN's to Canada. My registration was Canadian as are most of my accesses. But I slipped a few times and let my real IP show.

Someone should send this over to DKOS so they could make one of those charts that showed my 6 degrees of freedom connections to Putin... a piece of cake really since I voted for Stein who sat next to him at a dinner one time. (LOL, actually that IS a funny idea. I need to make one of those for myself)

Also worth noting is that you have admitted Russian interference with this site. The only thing left is for all of us here to start receiving our Kremlin paychecks.

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

@SnappleBC
and indeed you are posting from Canada although the proxy or VPN check was negative. So I tend to believe you are here as Canadian governmental obsfucator looking to promote the tentacles of the great Canadian empire and also most likely a Putin puppet by 6 degrees of separation.

Seriously though, I am hip to folks using proxies and VPNs when they register, but the email address determines much of the decision whether to activate an account or not. It must be a real email address and be clean of spam fingerprints. If I have any doubt I just delete the account and err on the side of caution. In your case when you registered your email addy was valid and I knew you from DKos. The chance of a spammer registering with a DKos username is rather slim. But as a last step in the registration vetting I do also check the username with a search engine query and also by using Dkos' user search. So far only one spammer has gotten through my system and I caught it the first spam comment that it left here and promptly deleted its ass.

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@JtC

Wow! You're good! Almost Super-Putin good! Everywhere and doing everything all at once!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

SnappleBC's picture

@JtC

For the sake of the less geekly among us, I'd like to strip the humor out of this. My actual point remains. Trying to prove identity... or pretty much any other physical attribute... over the internet is an exceedingly difficult task. While yes, it is possible to check for commonly used VPN strategies and providers, it really isn't all that hard to truly obfuscate one's physical attributes. In other words, every single time TPTB have claimed something about "accounts originating in Russia" I always have to wonder how they know that. If they are relying solely on digital forensics (and cursory ones at that) as seems likely, the claims are specious.

From StackExchange:

Question:
I would like to block all connections to my server that use a VPN or Proxy. Is there anyway to detect that a VPN or proxy connection is being used?

Answer:
Unfortunately, there's is no proper technical way to get the information you want. You might invent some tests, but those will have a very low correlation with the reality. So either you'll not catch those you want, or you'll have a larger number of false positives. Neither can be considered to make sense.

Generating any kind of traffic backwards from an Internet server in response to an incoming client (a port scan, or even a simple ping) is generally frowned upon. Or, in the case of a port scan, it may be even worse for you, eg when the client lives behind a central corporate firewall, the worst of which is when the client comes from behind the central government network firewall pool...

Frankly, IP-based bans (or actually, any kind of limiting focusing on people who do not exclusively possess their public IP address: proxy servers, VPNs, NAT devices, etc) have been unrealistic for a long time, and as the IPv4 pools have been getting depleted in many parts of the world, ISPs are putting more and more clients behind large NAT pools (it's this week's news in my country that the largest ISP, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, has started handing out private IPv4 addresses as a standard way of business to its customers, and people have to ask the provider explicitly to get a public IP address), so there's even less and less point in doing so. If you want to ban clients, you should ban them based on identity (account), and not based on IP address.

So unless JtC knows something that I do not (always a distinct possibility) I'm going with the assumption that every claim of "accounts tied to Russia" is smoke & mirrors. It's either an actual Russian who made no effort to hide his tracks (eg: not any sort of operative), or else it's a real operative who cannot reasonably be located where he/she obviously appears to be located.

PS: Justin Trudeau is our Obama. I doubt he needs my help in extending the control of the global elite. He seems to be on the job.

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

@SnappleBC
on all points.

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ggersh's picture

@JtC probably happening to all "real left" leaning
websites for use at some later point in time by tptb.

BWTFDIK

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

@ggersh
when registering on discussion boards/blogs/social media is to drop their inane comments about the products or services that they are hawking for search engine optimization. The more they get there product posted anywhere on the web the higher up in the search engine rankings it goes and the more potential money made for those that hired the spammers. Most of them are bots. That's why rock crushers are such a hot commodity.

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SnappleBC's picture

@ggersh

Any web site operator is familiar with spammers. I also deal with this regularly and yes, Russia is typically excluded from my IP lists for just this reason.

That interesting tidbit raises yet another point. I doubt that there is a single web site in North America (and probably the world) that isn't under constant attack by spammers and hackers, many of them Russian. I could make a claim that my wife's art web site was attacked by Russians during the elections. That claim makes about as much sense as all these claims about state election agency attacks.

Russian government-linked hackers potentially targeted as many as 21 states' election systems last year, a Homeland Security official warned Congress on Wednesday.

None of those systems were involved in vote counting, however.
DHS' acting Director of Cyber Division of the department's Office of Intelligence and Analysis, Samuel Liles, said that by late September the intelligence community concluded that 21 states "were potentially targeted by Russian government-linked cyber actors" with scanning of Internet-connected election systems. Liles did not specify which 21 states he was referring to.
-- CNN

Let's deconstruct that a bit, shall we?
"Russian government-linked hackers potentially targeted"
OK, some people with some unspecified connection to the Russian government MAY have done something. Already they are blowing huge amounts of smoke up our asses in the first few words.

None of those systems were involved in vote counting
Ah yes. That makes sense. The incredibly effective Russian spy agencies have decided, for whatever reasons, to hack the US election system but they decided to pass on the part that matters.

and then this gem...

Samuel Liles, said that by late September the intelligence community concluded that 21 states "were potentially targeted by Russian government-linked cyber actors" with scanning of Internet-connected election systems.
So some computer systems in 21 states were "scanned" by Russian IP addresses... just as all of my web sites are and just as C99 is.... and every other server exposed to the internet.

In the infosec biz we call it "the attack surface". That is any technical capability -- such as a web server -- that you expose to the internet. We call it an attack surface because we expect it to get attacked -- constantly. Such attacks, in and of themselves, are evidence of nothing. A meaningful analysis would've included exactly what systems were scanned. It would have identified exactly how they were scanned. Then it would've shown how those scanners were, in fact, connected to "government-linked cyber actors".

As is true in previous #RussiaGate proclamations, the NSA absolutely has this evidence if it happened. They have shown themselves willing to provide that evidence in the past (North Korea). Given the fact that American Intelligence is known to be liars and criminals, I'm holding out for that same evidence on the 21 state theory.

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

thanatokephaloides's picture

@JtC

FWIW, we get over a hundred spam registrations per day and 99% of them are from Russia, I'm pretty good at spotting them. Much of my day is spent vetting and deleting those accounts. So yes, in that sense, c99p has been invaded by the Russians.

We have arrived!

Smile

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

mimi's picture

@JtC

you definitely need a break, a raise and a good Russian vodka. I am so sorry that you have to do that job. And I am really glad that I understand just 20 percent of what I read here. I mean I would go nuts if I understood it all...

New russian
Drinks
Give rose

PS Did I ever say to you that I love your textual smileys?

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Deja's picture

@SnappleBC
I've said it before, but the Sunday before the wiki email leak exposing Donna 'Pick up da Phone' Brazile for the debate question poop, the Killary shills began saying that the Russians were "about to release fake emails."

This was on the ABC Sunday morning show that sometimes has George Stephanopoulos - right before wikileaks released the emails. I went back a year after I heard it, because the bullshit grew legs and wings and fangs, but it had fallen off ABC's video library. Couldn't find it anymore.

My bs detector was engaged, and I even posted about it here the day it happened, in an OT.

DK has to post and spin the Russia!Russia!Russia! bs because Little Nappy's (Little Napoleon aka Kos) handlers say they must, and probably pay for it to be done as well.

Otoh, the same dkos zombies pushing the DNC narrative called Bernie freaking anti-Semitic when he called DWS out for her collusion during the primaries.

That place repulses me.

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SnappleBC's picture

@Deja

But I distinctly remember reading an article that traced the current anti-Russia propaganda campaign to 2014-ish then another going further back. I assumed the more recent events were more of a "two birds with one stone" thing.

- Get to have war with Russia
- Get to provide cover & distraction for Hillary's crimes and failures

I'm assuming that this is just a part of the long-term plan for global hegemony. I can't believe it started with Brazile & Co in 2016.

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

Deja's picture

@SnappleBC
That's when the fake news crap started too. Fake emails, fake news, and it just grew like a virus. Ugh.

Was it 2014 when Dronebama started his shit in Ukraine? Too lazy to look.

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@Deja

Yes.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/washington-was-behind-ukraine-coup-obama-a...

Washington Was Behind Ukraine Coup: Obama admits that US “Brokered a Deal” in Support of “Regime Change”

US Sticks to Tried and True Policy of Supporting Coups

By Sputnik
Global Research, February 03, 2015
Sputnik News

On Sunday, in his interview with CNN, Obama admitted that the United States “had brokered a deal to transition power in Ukraine.”

… In late 2013 a decision by Ukraine then-President Viktor Yanukovych to avoid signing an association agreement with the European Union triggered mass protests across Ukraine, dubbed Maidan, culminating in the February coup. Following the coup and a rise in aggressive nationalism in the country, Crimea seceded by referendum from Ukraine and rejoined Russia in March 2014.

… Russia’s relations with the West deteriorated sharply in 2014, following Crimea’s reunification with Russia and the start of the ongoing military conflict in Ukraine. The United States and its allies accused Moscow of interfering in Ukraine’s internal affairs and imposed several rounds of economic sanctions, targeting Russia’s energy, banking and military sectors, as well as several high-ranking individuals.

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SnappleBC's picture

@Deja

And guess what. Who is surprised to find out that the actual origins started way back in 1947. And who is surprised to find out that it is our plutocrats who started it because they needed a new external enemy to sustain their positions.

At least, that's what this guy thinks:

John Helmer, the longest continuously serving foreign correspondent in Russia, and the only western journalist to direct his own bureau independent of single national or commercial ties. Helmer has also been a professor of political science, and an advisor to government heads in Greece, the United States, and Asia. He is the first and only member of a US presidential administration (Jimmy Carter) to establish himself in Russia.

But hey, why would he know anything?

Joseph Alsop and George Kennan started the kind of Russia-hating in Washington which, today, President Vladimir Putin, like the businessmen around him, think of as a novelty that cannot last for long.

Alsop was a fake news fabricator, and such a narcissist as to give the bow-ties he wore a bad name. Kennan was a psychopath who alternated bouts of aggression to prove himself with bouts of depression over his cowardice. For them, Russia was a suitable target. The Washington Post was the newspaper which gave their lunacy public asylum. This, according to a fresh history by a university professor from California, started in 1947, long before the arrival in Washington of the anti-communist phobia known after the name of Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Russia-hating was an American upper-class phenomenon, cultivated in the offices, cocktail parties, clubs, and mansions of the deep state, as it emerged out of World War II. It needed a new enemy to thrive; it fastened on Russia (aka the Soviet Union) as the enemy.
-- Naked Capitalism, John Helmer: Lunatic Russia-Hating in Washington Is 70 Years Old. It Started with Joseph Alsop, George Kennan and the Washington Post

So yeah, our plutocrats have engineered the entire, hideously expensive thing to satisfy their greed. The Washington Post (to noone's surprise), led the charge as official propaganda organ. And now, because of their greed, we once again are looking at global annihilation.

How is it again that I'm supposed to feel "stronger together" with Hillary? She scares the crap out of me as do pretty much all of our elites. Personally, I think it's good to remind ourselves regularly that we fight an enemy which lays plans which span decades. Short-term victories and easy wins are not going to be a successful battle plan.

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

Amanda Matthews's picture

@SnappleBC

of royalty and all the powers that came with them. Back then all that was expected of the plebs was to pay the taxes and die in the battles that kept the ‘elites’ in control.

It’s our idea that we don’t owe them our blood and treasure that has them scared and furious.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

@SnappleBC
and it didn't start with the Clintons either. It started long before, deep in the rotten bowels of the US Deep State, and the "defense" industry that keeps it afloat. Brazille is merely a recent iteration of the Democratic Party's longstanding collusion with the actual directorship of America's economy and its military posture. Which has long been and still is, mostly hidden from public view. Brazille herself probably has no idea who and what she is ultimately working for. Most Democrats don't. Mainstream Dem leaders like Brazille are still living in La-La Land. No wonder Hollywood loves them so much.

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native

Oooooo, this is nice to see! Unfortunately, I'm rather expecting another 'not prosecutable, nothing to see here' finding, possibly after some more dead bodies of people related to this show up...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.