TBR News October 2, 2018

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Isaiah 40:3-8 

Washington, D.C. October 2, 2018: “There is no effective defense against a global smallpox epidemic other than immediate vaccination.

Vaccination is about 97% effective against the contraction of this disease.

Unfortunately, much vaccine and the capacity to manufacture it, has greatly diminished and to restart a vaccine program would take so long that the disease would have a catastrophic global effect.

It would be very easy for a hostile element to infect a single person without their knowledge and send them into the United States on legitimate business.

From this single, unknowing carrier the disease would spread geometrically, not only throughout the United States, where the projected death rate is over 77,000,000 people, but also throughout the world.

There have been no realistic estimates of deaths in such crowded locations as Japan, China, India, and Egypt.

The projected use of US military units to immediately execute  a national quarantine program would prove ineffectual because of the widespread travel habits of American citizens and the probability that many troops once considered as possessing immunity through vaccination do not possess this immunity due to the deterioration  of stocks of old vaccine.

When the public discovers that there is no immunity, no effective treatment and no visible support program, there will very likely be a catastrophic breakdown in domestic confidence followed by the onset of panic and descent into anarchy.

The only coherent solution, and this is by no means guaranteed, is to implement an immediate and urgently accelerated vaccine program and to only hope that it will be in place when, and not if, this disease erupts anywhere in the world.”

 

The Table of Contents

• Donald Trump has said 2291 false things as U.S. president: No. 38
• The CIA Confessions: The Crowley Conversations
• Washington Times retracts false article on murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich
• Supreme Court rejects California billionaire’s ‘private beach’ case
• Sunni Islamic Terrorism and the United States

 

Donald Trump has said 2291 false things as U.S. president: No. 38

August 8, 2018

by Daniel Dale, Washington Bureau Chief

The Toronto Star, Canada

The Star is keeping track of every false claim U.S. President Donald Trump has made since his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017. Why? Historians say there has never been such a constant liar in the Oval Office. We think dishonesty should be challenged. We think inaccurate information should be corrected

If Trump is a serial liar, why call this a list of “false claims,” not lies? You can read our detailed explanation here. The short answer is that we can’t be sure that each and every one was intentional. In some cases, he may have been confused or ignorant. What we know, objectively, is that he was not teling the truth.

Last updated: Aug 8, 2018

• Nov 12, 2017

“But we’ve made a lot of big progress on trade. We have deficits with almost everybody.”

Source: Remarks in joint appearance with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

in fact: The U.S. has surpluses with more than half of all countries in merchandise trade, figures from the U.S. International Trade Commission show — and merchandise trade is a measure that doesn’t count the services trade at which the U.S. excels. Major countries with which the U.S. has a surplus in merchandise trade include Australia, Brazil, the Netherlands, Argentina, and the United Kingdom.

Trump has repeated this claim 21 times

“We’ve made some very big steps with respect to trade, far bigger than anything you know, in addition to about $300 billion in sales to various companies, including China — that was $250 billion and going up very substantially from that.”

Source: Remarks in joint appearance with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

in fact: The U.S. didn’t make $300 billion in actual sales during Trump’s Asia trip, nor did it sell $250 billion to China. Many of these agreements were not actual sales but rather memoranda of understanding that may or may not turn into sales in the future. “The announcement, also heralded a week earlier by Chinese and U.S. officials, represents previously struck deals, tentative investments, statements of intent and extensions of business with existing Chinese customers, with some new orders,” the Associated Press reported. “For example, the initiative provides for the Chinese purchase of 300 Boeing jetliners that have a list price totaling $37 billion. That deal is known to be a mix of old and new orders and appears to fit in the normal order of business. As well, airlines get deep discounts from the list price.” The Washington Post noted: “The largest single project unveiled was China Energy Investment Corp.’s plan to invest $83.7 billion in power generation, chemical manufacturing, and underground storage of natural gas liquids and derivatives in West Virginia. But the two sides signed only a memorandum of understanding, not a formal contract.”

Trump has repeated this claim 7 times

“I got to tour parts of Vietnam, and it’s really looking well. It’s looking beautiful. And the people are happy, and the people are waving, and they like the United States; perhaps they like me. But they were really lined up in the streets by the tens of thousands, and we very much appreciate that.”

Source: Remarks at bilateral meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc

in fact: “By the tens of thousands” is an exaggeration. Videos show perhaps several thousand people lining the streets, but certainly not 20,000 or 30,000. Journalists accompanying Trump on the trip confirmed that the president’s figure was inflated.

 

• Nov 14, 2017

“But we’ve had a tremendously successful trip. Tremendous amounts of work was done on trade, not only on the deals — and we have at least $300 billion worth of deals, but that will be, I think, way triple that number in a fairly short period of time.”

Source: Remarks to media after East Asian Summit

in fact: The U.S. didn’t make $300 billion in actual sales during Trump’s Asia trip. Though Trump claimed $250 billion in sales to China alone, many of these agreements were not actual sales but rather memoranda of understanding that may or may not turn into sales in the future. “The announcement, also heralded a week earlier by Chinese and U.S. officials, represents previously struck deals, tentative investments, statements of intent and extensions of business with existing Chinese customers, with some new orders,” the Associated Press reported. “For example, the initiative provides for the Chinese purchase of 300 Boeing jetliners that have a list price totaling $37 billion. That deal is known to be a mix of old and new orders and appears to fit in the normal order of business. As well, airlines get deep discounts from the list price.” The Washington Post noted: “The largest single project unveiled was China Energy Investment Corp.’s plan to invest $83.7 billion in power generation, chemical manufacturing, and underground storage of natural gas liquids and derivatives in West Virginia. But the two sides signed only a memorandum of understanding, not a formal contract.”

Trump has repeated this claim 7 times

“Vietnam treated us incredibly, as did — I mean, the Philippines, we just could not have been treated nicer. And as you know, we were having a lot of problems with the Philippines. The relationship with the past administration was horrible, to use a nice word. I would say ‘horrible’ is putting it mildly. You know what happened. Many of you were there, and you never got to land. The plane came close but it didn’t land.”

Source: Remarks to media after East Asian Summit

in fact: This never happened. What actually happened: Obama and Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte were scheduled to meet in Laos; Duterte profanely insulted Obama and his mother; Obama called off the meeting. Obama was never stranded in the sky above the Philippines as Trump claims.

Trump has repeated this claim 3 times

“Well, I think we made a lot of progress, just in terms of relationship. We actually sold $300 billion worth of equipment and other things. And I think that number is going to be quadrupled very quickly. So that’s over a trillion dollars’ worth of stuff.” And: “But, you know, it’s minimum $300 billion, and that’s going to be very quickly over a trillion dollars, that in itself.”

Source: Remarks to media on Air Force One

in fact: The U.S. didn’t make $300 billion in actual sales during Trump’s Asia trip. Though Trump claimed $250 billion in sales to China alone, many of these agreements were not actual sales but rather memoranda of understanding that may or may not turn into sales in the future. “The announcement, also heralded a week earlier by Chinese and U.S. officials, represents previously struck deals, tentative investments, statements of intent and extensions of business with existing Chinese customers, with some new orders,” the Associated Press reported. “For example, the initiative provides for the Chinese purchase of 300 Boeing jetliners that have a list price totaling $37 billion. That deal is known to be a mix of old and new orders and appears to fit in the normal order of business. As well, airlines get deep discounts from the list price.” The Washington Post noted: “The largest single project unveiled was China Energy Investment Corp.’s plan to invest $83.7 billion in power generation, chemical manufacturing, and underground storage of natural gas liquids and derivatives in West Virginia. But the two sides signed only a memorandum of understanding, not a formal contract.”

Trump has repeated this claim 7 times

• Nov 15, 2017

“Everywhere we went, our foreign hosts greeted the American delegation, myself included, with incredible warmth, hospitality, and most importantly respect. And this great respect showed very well our country is — further evidence that America’s renewed confidence and standing in the world has never been stronger than it is right now.”

Source: Speech about Asia trip

in fact: Trump is entitled to his opinion that America is generally doing well under his leadership, but there is objective evidence that America’s standing in the world, and the world’s confidence in America, is far from the strongest it has ever been. A widely respected international survey by Pew Research, released in July, showed that a mere 22 per cent of people in the 37 countries surveyed had confidence in Trump to do the right thing in global affairs, down from 64 per cent under Obama. The country’s overall image was also down markedly under Trump: just 49 per cent of people had a positive view of the U.S., down from 64 per cent under Obama. “Some of the steepest declines in U.S. image are found among long-standing allies,” Pew noted.

“That is why we have almost an $800-billion-a-year trade deficit with other nations. Unacceptable.”

Source: Speech about Asia trip

in fact: The overall trade deficit was $502 billion in 2016. It was $750 billion if you count only trade in goods and exclude trade in services, but Trump, as usual, did not specify that he was talking about goods alone.

Trump has repeated this claim 30 times

• Nov 19, 2017

“Shoplifting is a very big deal in China, as it should be (5-10 years in jail), but not to father LaVar (Ball).”

Source: Twitter

in fact: Trump was misstating Chinese law, which sets varying penalties for shoplifting depending on the value of the goods stolen; Ball’s son LiAngelo, a UCLA basketball player, did not appear to be facing the possibility of five years in prison, let alone 10. According to the Washington Post’s correspondent in China, the sunglasses allegedly stolen by Ball and two other UCLA basketball players were priced at about 4,900 yuan (about $750 U.S. at the time), which would have given them a maximum of two years in prison. Experts in Chinese law, though, told the Post and New York Times that foreigners are far more likely to be booted from the country than subjected to prison time for such an offence, even without the president’s intervention in the case. “It’s nonsense,” Fu Hualing, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong, told the Times of Trump’s claim. “I would be surprised if they were even prosecuted.”

Trump has repeated this claim 2 times

• Nov 20, 2017

“A lot of things are happening along the border — the southern border — and we’re going to straighten it out. We’ve already reduced the numbers — and you see the numbers — they’re back to 78 per cent down from what they were.”

Source: Remarks prior to Cabinet meeting

in fact: There has never been any basis for Trump’s oft-repeated “78 per cent” figure. Trump and others use the number of apprehensions on the southwestern border as a way to measure illegal immigration. Comparing the first seven full months of Trump’s tenure — February through August — to the same months in 2016, apprehensions were down 54 per cent, not 78 per cent. (The federal government has not yet posted data from September and October.)

Trump has repeated this claim 12 times

“We’ll go from being one of the highest-taxed nations in the world to one of the lowest-taxed nations in the world.”

Source: Remarks prior to Cabinet meeting

in fact: The U.S. is far from the highest-taxed nation in the world. While its corporate tax rate is near the top, it is below the average of developed OECD countries when other taxes are included.

Trump has repeated this claim 28 times

“Last year, we lost over $800 billion on trade — on trade deals with other countries. So we had a negative number, a trade deficit of almost $800 billion with other countries.”

Source: Remarks prior to Cabinet meeting

in fact: The overall trade deficit was $502 billion in 2016. It was $750 billion if you count only trade in goods and exclude trade in services, but Trump, as usual, did not specify that he was talking about goods alone.

Trump has repeated this claim 30 times

“We brought back more than $300 billion worth of deals (from Asia), which could reach well over a trillion dollars within a very near future. That means jobs for the United States at a very high level.”

Source: Remarks prior to Cabinet meeting

in fact: The U.S. didn’t make $300 billion in actual sales during Trump’s Asia trip. Though Trump claimed $250 billion in sales to China alone, many of these agreements were not actual sales but rather memoranda of understanding that may or may not turn into sales in the future. “The announcement, also heralded a week earlier by Chinese and U.S. officials, represents previously struck deals, tentative investments, statements of intent and extensions of business with existing Chinese customers, with some new orders,” the Associated Press reported. “For example, the initiative provides for the Chinese purchase of 300 Boeing jetliners that have a list price totaling $37 billion. That deal is known to be a mix of old and new orders and appears to fit in the normal order of business. As well, airlines get deep discounts from the list price.” The Washington Post noted: “The largest single project unveiled was China Energy Investment Corp.’s plan to invest $83.7 billion in power generation, chemical manufacturing, and underground storage of natural gas liquids and derivatives in West Virginia. But the two sides signed only a memorandum of understanding, not a formal contract.”

Trump has repeated this claim 7 times

• Nov 21, 2017

“It was 70 years ago that the National Turkey Federation first presented the National Thanksgiving Turkey to President Harry Truman — who, I might add, did not grant the pardon. He refused. He was a tough cookie. Today, I’m going to be a much nicer President.”

Source: Speech at turkey pardoning ceremony

in fact: It feels a bit silly to fact-check a joke, but: Trump’s account was incorrect. The first turkey, gifted to Truman in 1947, was a Christmas gift, given to him on Dec. 15, not a Thanksgiving gift — and Truman didn’t “refuse” the pardon. Rather, the concept of a presidential turkey pardon had not yet been invented, and the whole point of the exercise was to encourage the eating of turkey. The Federation made the gift to Truman just after it had expressed outrage over the administration’s controversial “Poultryless Thursday” marketing campaign that fall. The campaign was designed to conserve grain to distribute to the suffering countries of post-World War II Europe, but the industry wanted Americans to continue to eat turkey, and it wanted the president to set an example.

 

The CIA Confessions: The Crowley Conversations

October 2, 2018

by Dr. Peter Janney

On October 8th, 2000, Robert Trumbull Crowley, once a leader of the CIA’s Clandestine Operations Division, died in a Washington hospital of heart failure and the end effects of Alzheimer’s Disease. Before the late Assistant Director Crowley was cold, Joseph Trento, a writer of light-weight books on the CIA, descended on Crowley’s widow at her town house on Cathedral Hill Drive in Washington and hauled away over fifty boxes of Crowley’s CIA files.

Once Trento had his new find secure in his house in Front Royal, Virginia, he called a well-known Washington fix lawyer with the news of his success in securing what the CIA had always considered to be a potential major embarrassment.

Three months before, on July 20th of that year, retired Marine Corps colonel William R. Corson, and an associate of Crowley, died of emphysema and lung cancer at a hospital in Bethesda, Md.

After Corson’s death, Trento and the well-known Washington fix-lawyer went to Corson’s bank, got into his safe deposit box and removed a manuscript entitled ‘Zipper.’ This manuscript, which dealt with Crowley’s involvement in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, vanished into a CIA burn-bag and the matter was considered to be closed forever.

The small group of CIA officials gathered at Trento’s house to search through the Crowley papers, looking for documents that must not become public. A few were found but, to their consternation, a significant number of files Crowley was known to have had in his possession had simply vanished.

When published material concerning the CIA’s actions against Kennedy became public in 2002, it was discovered to the CIA’s horror, that the missing documents had been sent by an increasingly erratic Crowley to another person and these missing papers included devastating material on the CIA’s activities in South East Asia to include drug running, money laundering and the maintenance of the notorious ‘Regional Interrogation Centers’ in Viet Nam and, worse still, the Zipper files proving the CIA’s active organization of the assassination of President John Kennedy..

A massive, preemptive disinformation campaign was readied, using government-friendly bloggers, CIA-paid “historians” and others, in the event that anything from this file ever surfaced. The best-laid plans often go astray and in this case, one of the compliant historians, a former government librarian who fancied himself a serious writer, began to tell his friends about the CIA plan to kill Kennedy and eventually, word of this began to leak out into the outside world.

The originals had vanished and an extensive search was conducted by the FBI and CIA operatives but without success. Crowley’s survivors, his aged wife and son, were interviewed extensively by the FBI and instructed to minimize any discussion of  highly damaging CIA files that Crowley had, illegally, removed from Langley when he retired. Crowley had been a close friend of James Jesus Angleton, the CIA’s notorious head of Counterintelligence. When Angleton was sacked by  DCI William Colby in December of 1974, Crowley and Angleton  conspired to  secretly remove Angleton’s most sensitive secret files our of the agency. Crowley did the same thing  right before his own retirement , secretly removing thousands of pages  of classified information that covered his entire agency career.

Known as “The Crow” within the agency, Robert T. Crowley joined the CIA at its inception and spent his entire career in the Directorate of Plans, also know as the “Department of Dirty Tricks,”: Crowley was one of the tallest man ever to work at the CIA. Born in 1924 and raised in Chicago, Crowley grew to six and a half feet when he entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in N.Y. as a cadet in 1943 in the class of 1946. He never graduated, having enlisted in the Army, serving in the Pacific during World War II. He retired from the Army Reserve in 1986 as a lieutenant colonel. According to a book he authored with his friend and colleague, William Corson, Crowley’s career included service in Military Intelligence and Naval Intelligence, before joining the CIA at its inception in 1947. His entire career at the agency was spent within the Directorate of Plans in covert operations. Before his retirement, Bob Crowley became assistant deputy director for operations, the second-in-command in the Clandestine Directorate of Operations.

Bob Crowley first contacted Gregory Douglas  in 1993  when he found out from John Costello that Douglas was about to publish his first book on Heinrich Mueller, the former head of the Gestapo who had become a secret, long-time asset to the CIA. Crowley contacted Douglas and they began a series of long and often very informative telephone conversations that lasted for four years. In 1996, Crowley , Crowley told Douglas  that he believed him to be the person that should ultimately tell Crowley’s story but only after Crowley’s death. Douglas, for his part, became so entranced with some of the material that Crowley began to share with him that he secretly began to record their conversations, later transcribing them word for word, planning to incorporate some, or all, of the material in later publications.

 

Conversation No. 6

Date: Sunday, March 31, 1996

Commenced: 8:35 AM CST

Concluded: 8:47 AM CST

GD: Hello, Robert. Did you get in touch…or did Corson get ahold of you?

RTC: No, actually, Gregory, I was in touch with him. What do you tell Bill to get him so rattled?

GD: Nothing particularly.

RTC: Did you mention drugs by any chance?

GD: Actually, no but he did.

RTC: He initiated the conversation on that subject?

GD: Yes. About three days ago. He asked me what I knew about allegations, get that, allegations, that the CIA has some involvement with drugs.

RTC: Keep going.

GD: I detect some unhappiness.

RTC: You do but it’s not aimed at you. Let me get this clear here. Bill initiated a conversation with you about drugs? Am I correct there?

GD: Absolutely. He wasn’t very subtle about it, either.

RTC: Try to remember exactly what he said.

GD: He started out…he said that there were rumors being spread that the CIA was connected in some way with large scale drug smuggling. He wanted to know if I had been talking about it and if I had, where had I gotten the information. I asked him to be specific and he got coy with me. He did say, and I recall this very clearly because it was only a few days ago, he asked me if you and I had talked about it.

RTC: And…?

GD: What do you think? What we say goes no place, not even a hint. I told him that you and I had never discussed this….

RTC: Thank you…

GD: Yes, and then I asked him if I should bring this up to you. I said I would tell you Bill was asking about this. He got very agitated then and told me not to say a word to you because he didn’t want to upset you.

RTC: (Laughter) Oh, well, you did a good job. But was he explicit in his comments about drugs? I mean the who-what-why and when?

GD: No, he actually told me nothing but he wanted to know what I personally knew and if I knew anything, where did I get it?

RTC: That figures.

GD: And I mentioned the KMT General and his flight to Switzerland. He jumped on that and asked me if I got that from you. I told him Kimmel told me.

RTC: (Laughter) Sweet Jesus. That’s putting the cat in the hen house. What did he say to that?

GD: He sounded like he was having an asthma attack.

RTC: I’ll bet he was. You turned it back on him, didn’t you?

GD: I think so. I wonder why he thinks I’m stupid?

RTC: People underestimate you.

GD: Yes, and at the same time they are overestimating themselves. What’s this all about, if I dare ask?

RTC: Drugs are a very sensitive issue with certain departments of the CIA. Very sensitive. It’s well known you and I talk and they are frantic to find out what we’re talking about. Of course if they tapped our phones, they might find out but by Bill asking you that, it’s obvious they have not tapped our phones. If I caught them playing their stupid games with either of us, they would be better off to move to Iceland and fish for flounder or whatever. No, that was a fishing expedition. That I know certain things is bad enough but that I talk to you, the author of the evil Müller books, is something else. No, they wouldn’t dare tap my phone. If they did, as I said, there would be blood running all over certain office floors when the hit men left. No, they’re guessing and the Kimmel business was a shrewd hit. I think he’s into this. He views you as an interesting but unstable person to whom one ought not to be at home when you call.

GD: I have always been civilized with Kimmel and, I think, very helpful in giving his family any papers that might help them about the Admiral.

RTC: Never expect gratitude from such as them, Gregory, and never turn your back on them either. Drugs? Fine. Tell me something, Gregory, where does heroin come from?

GD: The Salvation Army kitchens?

RTC: Be serious.

GD: Heroin comes from opium just as cocaine comes from coca plants.

RTC: Wonderful. And where do we find opium, or rather where does it come from?

GD: The sap of opium poppies. Found in Turkey in places but now getting under control there and mostly in Afghanistan.

RTC: You get a big ‘A’ on your card. Yes, Gregory, opium comes from Afghanistan. And who is very powerful in that country?

GD: The CIA?

RTC: Funny. Who?

GD: The Taliban.

RTC: Yes and do you know who founded that organization of cut throats and killers? We did so they could make trouble for the Soviets. And we trained them and armed them, Gregory which was a terrible mistake.

GD: You should read history, Robert. A poor, tribal area with savage guerrilla people who will fight any occupying power and when they kill them off, they will fight each other.

RTC: That was a first class mess there. Yes, they went after Ivan and then took our weapons and training methodology and took over the country. A nest of vipers.

GD: And all yours.

RTC: Don’t rub it in. There will be serious trouble there, mark my words.

GD: My bet is that they’ll go after Pakistan and when they take over that country…by the way, doesn’t Pakistan have nuclear weapons?

RTC: Oh God, I am so happy I’m retired. Ah, but the drugs. Yes, to be clear on it, I ask you another question. Where do all the drugs in the States come from?

GD: China white heroin comes to this country from, obviously, China. The Chinks smuggle it into Canada using cargo containers that dock on Vancouver Island. That’s one source I know about personally. The bulk of the rest comes up from Mexico.

RTC: Yes, but it isn’t processed there.

GD: No, in Columbia. And smuggled into Mexico via Chaipas and up to our border and the veins of the needy.

RTC: How do you know these things?

GD: Never mind.

RTC: And is there a question here, Gregory?

GD: Of course, Robert. We know about opium, or yen shee as the Chinks call it, being grown in Afghanistan and we know it’s processed into heroin in Columbia. The obvious question is how the stuff gets from a land-locked country to Columbia?  The answer is that someone, or some group, transports it there. By boat? By aircraft?

RTC: Both. Boat from Pakistan and plane from Afghanistan itself.

GD: Yes. And who does this? The Afghanistan navy?

RTC: No there is a special branch of the Company involved in this and has been for decades. A large part of our secret budget comes from this. Of course, we do not sell it but we do supply those who both refine it and eventually sell it.

GD: Where and when do you get your cut?

RTC: After it’s refined in Columbia. You see, we also own the refining facilities which we lease out.

GD: And cocaine?

RTC: Well, if we do one, we can always do the other.

GD: Jesus wept. And why would Bill get his withered balls into such an uproar?

RTC: They don’t want you to get your hands on this. It’s bad enough for you to talk about prominent Nazis working for us let alone this drug business. Be very careful where you put your feet, Gregory. You are dealing with a minefield and I will have to ring off now because I have to talk with Bill. No offense but he has to be told to go and lie down in the corner or I’ll lock him in his cage.

GD: Why I thought he was your friend.

RTC: Bill is useful but Bill has an exalted opinion of himself and it’s time I let the air out of his balloon. So I do appreciate this talk and even more your handling of the subject. We don’t need to discuss this and if Tom the Arrow shirt boy gets onto this with you, keep your mouth shut and change the subject. Oh and do tell me if he does.

GD: Absolutely. I hope I gave Bill the right answers.

RTC: In this business, Gregory, there are no right answers.

GD: Yes. We have only the quick and the dead.

 

(Concluded at 8:47 AM CST)

 

Washington Times retracts false article on murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich

Conservative paper concedes op-ed contained statements ‘that we now believe to be false’ and apologizes to his family

October 1, 2018

by Jon Swaine

The Guardian

A conservative newspaper that has repeatedly amplified Donald Trump’s attacks on the media as “fake news” has retracted a false article about a murdered Democratic party staffer and apologised to his family.

The Washington Times deleted a March op-ed about the death of Seth Rich, after conceding it contained statements “that we now believe to be false”, linking the fatal shooting to the release of hacked Democratic party emails.

The retraction was part of a legal settlement between the Times and Rich’s brother, Aaron, who in March accused the newspaper in a lawsuit of displaying a “reckless disregard for the truth”.

Rich, a 27-year-old worker at the Democratic National Committee (DNC), was shot dead in Washington in July 2016. Police said he was killed in a botched robbery. Rightwing conspiracy theorists claim without evidence that he was assassinated for leaking the emails.

The retracted article, by retired admiral James Lyons, falsely claimed it was “well known in the intelligence circles” that Rich and his brother were paid by WikiLeaks for the DNC emails, which the leaks site published online, causing chaos in the Democratic party during the 2016 election.

“The Washington Times now does not have any basis to believe any part of that statement to be true, and the Washington Times retracts it in its entirety,” the newspaper wrote in its retraction.

Aaron Rich’s attorney, Michael Gottlieb, said in a statement: “The Washington Times’ decision to take responsibility and apologise for its role in propagating lies about our client is a milestone in our case, as well as in the broader effort to shine a light on conspiracy theorists who spread malicious lies for personal and political gain.”

US intelligence agencies have concluded that the email accounts of several Democratic officials were hacked by Russian military intelligence operatives before being disseminated by WikiLeaks and a sham “DC Leaks” website.

The Washington Times has frequently republished Trump’s attacks against the mainstream media without noting that they have been baseless or contested. In December 2017 it published another op-ed titled: “Trump is right: Fake news is everywhere.”

The paper said on Monday that it also “retracts and disavows” its article’s implication that Rich’s brother was avoiding investigators when he in fact cooperated with them. “The Washington Times apologises to Mr Rich and his family,” it said.

The newspaper’s decision followed the retraction of another article on Rich’s death by Fox News, where its star anchor Sean Hannity enthusiastically pushed the conspiracy theory connecting the murder to the DNC email hack. A lawsuit against Fox News brought by Rich’s family was dismissed by a judge.

 

Supreme Court rejects California billionaire’s ‘private beach’ case

Vinod Khosla bought $32.5m property south of San Francisco and cut off public access to popular surf spot

October 1, 2018

by Gabrielle Canon in San Francisco

The Guardian

Beach lovers were celebrating on Monday after the US Supreme Court declined to hear a case brought by the billionaire Vinod Khosla that threatened the public’s right to access beaches across California.

After purchasing a $32.5m, 89-acre property in Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco, in 2008, Khosla cut off entry to Martin’s Beach, a popular surf spot. California mandates that all beaches be accessible to the public. The Surfrider Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that takes on beach access issues for the public, filed a lawsuit against Khosla in 2013, and has been fighting for public entry through the property through the courts ever since.

Although Khosla repeatedly lost in state courts, he hoped the Supreme Court would take up his case challenging the California Coastal Act, which requires private property owners to allow the public access through their land if there is no other open route to the sand.

Khosla told the New York Times in an interview that he was fighting for property owners on principle.

“I support the Coastal Act; I don’t want to weaken it by winning,” he said in August. “But property rights are even more important.”

Now that the Supreme Court has denied his request for review, Khosla will either have to obtain a permit or allow the public to get through. If he does not comply, he could face millions in fines from the Coastal Commission.

“We are disappointed the United States Supreme Court decided not to hear this important case,” said Dori Yob Kilmer, a lawyer for Khosla’s companies. “No owner of private business should be forced to obtain a permit from the government before deciding who it wants to invite on to its property.

Martin’s was just one of several beaches across the state being protected by affluent owners and advocates are hopeful that this decision has strengthened the Coastal Act and will bolster their continued efforts to take on the others.

“The most conservative and divided supreme court in my lifetime confirmed that even a billionaire, who refuses to acknowledge that the law applies to him, and retains the most expensive attorneys he can find, cannot create a private beach,” the Surfrider attorney Joseph Cotchett said in a statement.

“We certainly hope this will send a message,” said Alex Helperin, senior staff counsel at the Coastal Commission.

 

Sunni Islamic Terrorism and the United States

October 2, 2018

by Christian Jürs

In June of 2018, Sunni Muslims from Saudi Arabia, ALgeria, Egypt, Afghanistan and the Sudan met in Rydiayh to discuss possible punitive operations against the United States, mainly because of its unquestioning support for the state of Israel. This subject was considered to be of great importance because of President Trumps obvious and very firm support of right wing Israeli entities.

A copy of the minutes of this meeting fell into the hands of the German BND and from them to their connections with the American CIA.

Targets of opportunity are to be American financial interests throughout the world, American political and military personalities, (both inside and outside of the United States), prominent objects such as  the Pentagon, the White House and the capital buildings in Washington and the following projected areas of strategic, political and sociological significance:

1st Special Forces Group (Airborne)

2nd Vice Presidential DC Area Bunker

63 US-based Nuclear Power Plants

Arkansas Nuclear

Beaver Valley

Braidwood

Browns Ferry

Brunswick

Byron

Callaway

Calvert Cliffs

Catawba

Clinton

Columbia

Comanche Peak

Cooper Station

Crystal River

Davis-Besse

Diablo Canyon

Donald C. Cook

Dresden

Duane Arnold

Enrico Fermi

Joseph Farley

Fitzpatrick

Fort Calhoun

Grand Gulf

1. B. Robinson

Edwin Hatch

Hope Creek

Indian Point

Kewaunee

LaSalle County

Limerick

McGuire

Millstone

Monticello

Nine Mile Point

North Anna

Oconee

Oyster Creek

Palo Verde

Peach Bottom

Perry

Pilgrim

Point Beach

Prairie Island

Quad Cities

River Bend

Robert E Ginna

Salem

San Onofre

Seabrook

St. Lucie

Sequoyah

Shearon Harris

South Texas Project

Virgil C. Summer

Surry

Susquehanna

Three Mile Island

Turkey Point

Vermont Yankee

Vogtle

Waterford

Watts Bar

Wolf Creek

AF New Boston Sat Tracking Station

Air Force Satellite Control Network

American Type Culture Collection

American controlled oil pipelines in:

Alaska, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Georgia

Anniston Chemical Depot

Argonne National Laboratory

Argonne National Laboratory-West

AU Defence Signals Directorate

Barksdale Air Force Base WSA

Beale Air Force Base

Big Hole Communications Bunker

Bremerton Submarine facilities

Brookhaven National Laboratory

Bunker on White Rock Road

Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant

Camp David Presidential Retreat

Capenhurst Phone-Tap Tower

Central Intelligence Agency Headquarters at Langley, VA

Charleston Naval Weapons Station

Chesepeake Car Tunnel, Norfolk, VA

Chevron Refinery, Pascagoula, MS

Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center

CIA Main Headquarters, Langley, VA

CIA Office of Special Technology

CIA Special Training Center

CIA/NSA Special Collection Service

Cudjoe Key Air Force Station

Defense Nuclear Weapons School

Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant

DIRNSA Residence

Dixon/Stockton Naval Radio Facilities

DoD WMD Contractors

Downtown Manhattan Telephone Hubs

Drug Enforcement Administration

Edwards AFB/NASA Dryden Flight Center

Fairchild Air Force Base WSA

FBI Academy

FBI CALEA Wiretap Homes

Former NSA Rosman Station

Ft. Meade SIGINT Operations Center

GCHQ

Ft. Huachuca Intelligence Center, AZ

Grand Coolie Dam system

Grand Forks Air Force Base

Hanford Nuclear Reservation

Hoover Dam and associated power grid

Horizon-Backscatter Radar

HQ of the Homeland Security Dept.

Indian Point Nuclear Generating Sta.

Janet Airlines Terminal

Jim Creek Naval Radio Station

Kennedy Space Center

Kirtland Nuclear Storage Complex

Lake Kickapoo Space Surveillance Station.

Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Pleasanton, CA

Letterkenny Army Depot

MacDill AFB and Central Command

Marfa v. Chinati Foundation

Marshall Space Flight Center

McGregor Naval Weapons Industrial. Reserve

Medina Regional SIGINT Center

Millstone Nuclear Power Plant

Minot Air Force Base

Mississippi River Bridges

Moyock Naval SIGINT Station

National Air Intelligence Center

National Football League Stadiums

National Reconnaissance Office

National Reconnaissance Office HQ

National Security Agency , Ft. Meade, MD

Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek

Navall Intelliggence Group, Washington, DC

Naval Maritime Intelligence Center

Naval Missile Range Facility

Naval Radio Station Driver

Naval Security Group at Winter Harbor

Naval Security Group San Diego

Naval Security Group Skaggs Island

Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

Naval Station Norfolk, VA

Naval Submarine Base Bangor

Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay

Naval Submarine Base New London/NSGA Groton

Naval Surface Warfare Center

Naval War College

Naval Weapons Station Earle

Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach

Naval/Marine Intel Training Center

Nellis Nuclear Weapons Storage Area

Nevada Nuclear Test Site

New York City Water Reservoirs

Newport Chemical Depot

North Island Naval Air Station WSA

NRO at Moffett Field

NSA Bad Aibling DE Echelon Station

NSA Friendship Annex

NSA Geraldton AU Echelon Station

NSA Kent Island Research Facility

NSA Leitrim CA Echelon Station

NSA Menwith Hill UK Echelon Station

NSA Misawa JP Echelon Station

NSA Neighborhood

NSA Pine Gap AU Echelon Station

NSA Sugar Grove US Echelon Station

NSA Waihopai NZ Echelon Station

NSA Yakima US Echelon Station

NSGA at North Island NAS, San Diego

Nuclear Device Assembly Facilities

NYPD Ammunition Depot

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Panama Canal locks

Pantex Nuclear Warhead Plant

Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant

Presidential Homes in Texas and Maine (Bush Administration)

Pueblo Chemical Weapons Depot

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard

Radio Station Cutler

Ready Reserve Force

San Nicolas Isle Missile Test Center

Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant

Site R – Raven Rock Governmental Bunker

Statue of Liberty

Strategic Petroleum Reserve

Sugar Grove Echelon Station

Tooele and Deseret Chemical Depots

Twenty-eight US Commercial Airports

Chicago  (Ohare and Midway)

Denver

San Francisco

Seattle

Los Angeles

Miami

Washington, D.C. (Dulles and Reagan)

Boston

Houston

Oakland

Sacramento

San Diego

Atlanta

Albuquerque

Phoenix

Tucson

Wichita

Philadelphia

Newark

Columbus

Klamath Falls

Ft. Lauderdale

Orlando

Anchorage

Harrisburg

Detroit

Two Rock Ranch Communications Station.

1. Army Intelligence Center, Ft. Huachuca, AZ

US Army Chemical Center, Ft. Detrick, MD

US Bullion Depositories

US Nuclear Weapons Storage Areas

US Secret Service Training Facility

US Transatlantic Cable Landings

US Transpacific Cable Landings

US Vice Presidential Official Residence, Washington, DC (Naval Observatory)

Warren Air Force Base

Warrenton Training Center Site D, Warrenton, VA

White House, Washington, D.C.

Whiteman Air Force Base WSA

Wilson Blvd Tech Centers, Arlington, VA

WIPP Nuclear Waste Target

Yakima Echelon Station

Yorktown Naval Weapons Station

Yucca Mountain Project