Facebook to give Congress copies of 3,000 political ads bought through Russian accounts, reversing previous decision
By Washington Post Staff September 21 at 3:26 PM
The
company had previously shown some of the ads to Capitol Hill
investigators but took back copies before they could be studied
carefully, citing concerns over user privacy at the time. Facebook has
reversed that position amid rising complaints from Capitol Hill that the
company was not cooperating fully with its investigation.
Chief
Executive Mark Zuckerberg was to announce the decision on Facebook Live
at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time, citing “an extensive legal and policy review”
that concluded that it was “vitally important” to cooperate fully with
Congress and that the company could do so in a way that didn’t endanger
user privacy, according to a blog post by Facebook General Counsel Colin
Stretch.
Twitter Will Meet With Senate Intelligence Committee on Russia
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Twitter has confirmed it
will meet with the Senate Intelligence Committee investigating Russian
interference in the 2016 election. The company tells WIRED that it will
speak with Senators next Wednesday about the prevalence of bot accounts,
as well as the widespread dissemination of fake news and
misinformation, on its platform.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
WI 6/27/98 WI 10/8/00 MO 10/11/00 IL 4/23/03 MN 6/26/06 MN 6/27/06 WI 6/30/06 IL 8/5/07 IL 8/21/08 (EV) IL 8/22/08 (EV) IL 8/23/09 IL 8/24/09 IN 5/7/10 IL 6/28/11 (EV) IL 6/29/11 (EV) WI 9/3/11 WI 9/4/11 IL 7/19/13 NE 10/09/14 IL 10/17/14 MN 10/19/14 FL 4/11/16 IL 8/20/16 IL 8/22/16 IL 08/18/18 IL 08/20/18 IT 07/05/2020AT 07/07/2020
Twitter Will Meet With Senate Intelligence Committee on Russia
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Twitter has confirmed it
will meet with the Senate Intelligence Committee investigating Russian
interference in the 2016 election. The company tells WIRED that it will
speak with Senators next Wednesday about the prevalence of bot accounts,
as well as the widespread dissemination of fake news and
misinformation, on its platform.
Those clever Russians..... They have this shit mastered. It's almost embarrassing. (I didn't post the entire article, since it's too long for it to work - just pasted the first section - click the link for more, it's fucking interesting)
Russian operatives used Facebook ads to exploit divisions over black political activism and Muslims
The
batch of more than 3,000 Russian-bought ads that Facebook is preparing
to turn over to Congress shows a deep understanding of social divides in
American society, with some ads promoting African-American rights
groups including Black Lives Matter and others suggesting that these
same groups pose a rising political threat, say people familiar with the
covert influence campaign.
The Russian campaign — taking
advantage of Facebook’s ability to simultaneously send contrary messages
to different groups of users based on their political and demographic
characteristics -- also sought to sow discord among religious groups.
Other ads highlighted support for Democrat Hillary Clinton among Muslim
women.
These targeted messages, along with others that have
surfaced in recent days, highlight the sophistication of an influence
campaign slickly crafted to mimic and infiltrate U.S. political
discourse while also seeking to heighten tensions between groups already
wary of one another.
Tech News Alerts
Breaking news about technology and tech companies.
The
nature and detail of these ads has troubled investigators at Facebook,
on Capitol Hill and at the U.S. Justice Department, say people familiar
with the advertisements who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share
matters still under investigation.
The
House and Senate Intelligence committees plan to begin reviewing the
Facebook ads in coming weeks as they attempt to untangle the operation
and other matters related to Russia’s bid to help elect Trump in 2016.
“Their
aim was to sow chaos,” said Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), vice-chairman
of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “In many cases, it was more about
voter suppression rather than increasing turnout.”
The top
Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff of
California, said he hoped the public would be able to review the ad
campaign.
“I think the American people should see a
representative sample of these ads to see how cynical the Russian were
using these ads to sow division within our society,” he said, noting
that he had not yet seen the ads but had been briefed on them, including
the ones mentioning “things like Black Lives Matter.”
The ads
which Facebook found raise troubling questions for a social networking
and advertising platform that reaches two billion people each month and
offer a rare window into how Russian operatives carried out their
information operations during an especially tumultuous period in U.S.
politics.
Investigators
at Facebook discovered the Russian ads in recent weeks, the company has
said, after months of trying in vain to trace disinformation efforts
back to Russia. The company has said it had identified at least $100,000
in ads purchased through 470 phony Facebook pages and accounts.
Facebook has said this spending represented a tiny fraction of the
political advertising on the platform for the 2016 campaign.
The
previously-undisclosed ads suggest that Russian operatives worked off of
evolving lists of racial, religious, political and economic themes.
They used these to create pages, write posts and craft ads that would
appear in user’s news feeds — with the apparent goal of appealing to one
audience and alienating another. In some cases, the pages even tried to
organize events.
“The idea of using Facebook to incite
anti-black hatred and anti-Muslim prejudice and fear while provoking
extremism is an old tactic. It’s not unique to the United States and
it’s a global phenomenon,” said Malkia Cyril, a Black Lives Matter
activist in Oakland, Calif. and the executive director for the Center
for Media Justice. Social media companies “have a mandate to standup and
take deep responsibility for how their platforms are being abused.”
Facebook
declined to comment on the contents of the ads being turned over to
congressional investigators, and pointed to a September 6 statement by
Alex Stamos, the company’s chief security officer, who noted that the
vast majority of the ads run by the 470 pages and accounts did not
specifically reference the U.S. presidential election, voting or any
particular candidate.
“Rather,
the ads and accounts appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social
and political messages across the idealogical spectrum — touching on
topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights,”
Stamos said at the time.
A Cold War tactic
Moscow’s interest in U.S. race relations date back decades.
In
Soviet times, operatives didn’t have the option of using the Internet,
so they spread their messages by taking out ads in newspapers, posting
fliers and organizing meetings.
Much like the online ads
discovered by Facebook, messages spread by Soviet-era operatives were
meant to look as though they were written by bonafide political
activists in the United States, thereby disguising the involvement of an
adversarial foreign power.
Russian information operations didn’t end with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
After
a lull in tensions, Russia’s spy agencies became more assertive under
the leadership of President Vladimir Putin. In recent years, those
services have updated their propaganda protocols to take advantage of
new technologies and the proliferation of social media platforms.
“Is
it a goal of the Kremlin to encourage discord in American society? The
answer to that is yes,” said former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael A.
McFaul, director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International
Studies at Stanford University. “More generally, Putin has an idea that
our society is imperfect, that our democracy is not better than his, so
to see us in conflict on big social issues is in the Kremlin’s
interests.”
Clinton Watts, part of a research team that was among
the first to warn publicly of the Russian propaganda campaign during
the 2016 election, said that identifying and exploiting existing social
and cultural divisions are common Russian disinformation tactics dating
back to the Cold War.
“We have seen them operating on both sides”
said Watts, a fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a
former FBI agent.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
WI 6/27/98 WI 10/8/00 MO 10/11/00 IL 4/23/03 MN 6/26/06 MN 6/27/06 WI 6/30/06 IL 8/5/07 IL 8/21/08 (EV) IL 8/22/08 (EV) IL 8/23/09 IL 8/24/09 IN 5/7/10 IL 6/28/11 (EV) IL 6/29/11 (EV) WI 9/3/11 WI 9/4/11 IL 7/19/13 NE 10/09/14 IL 10/17/14 MN 10/19/14 FL 4/11/16 IL 8/20/16 IL 8/22/16 IL 08/18/18 IL 08/20/18 IT 07/05/2020AT 07/07/2020
Those clever Russians..... They have this shit mastered. It's almost embarrassing. (I didn't post the entire article, since it's too long for it to work - just pasted the first section - click the link for more, it's fucking interesting)
Russian operatives used Facebook ads to exploit divisions over black political activism and Muslims
The
batch of more than 3,000 Russian-bought ads that Facebook is preparing
to turn over to Congress shows a deep understanding of social divides in
American society, with some ads promoting African-American rights
groups including Black Lives Matter and others suggesting that these
same groups pose a rising political threat, say people familiar with the
covert influence campaign.
The Russian campaign — taking
advantage of Facebook’s ability to simultaneously send contrary messages
to different groups of users based on their political and demographic
characteristics -- also sought to sow discord among religious groups.
Other ads highlighted support for Democrat Hillary Clinton among Muslim
women.
These targeted messages, along with others that have
surfaced in recent days, highlight the sophistication of an influence
campaign slickly crafted to mimic and infiltrate U.S. political
discourse while also seeking to heighten tensions between groups already
wary of one another.
Tech News Alerts
Breaking news about technology and tech companies.
The
nature and detail of these ads has troubled investigators at Facebook,
on Capitol Hill and at the U.S. Justice Department, say people familiar
with the advertisements who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share
matters still under investigation.
The
House and Senate Intelligence committees plan to begin reviewing the
Facebook ads in coming weeks as they attempt to untangle the operation
and other matters related to Russia’s bid to help elect Trump in 2016.
“Their
aim was to sow chaos,” said Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), vice-chairman
of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “In many cases, it was more about
voter suppression rather than increasing turnout.”
The top
Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff of
California, said he hoped the public would be able to review the ad
campaign.
“I think the American people should see a
representative sample of these ads to see how cynical the Russian were
using these ads to sow division within our society,” he said, noting
that he had not yet seen the ads but had been briefed on them, including
the ones mentioning “things like Black Lives Matter.”
The ads
which Facebook found raise troubling questions for a social networking
and advertising platform that reaches two billion people each month and
offer a rare window into how Russian operatives carried out their
information operations during an especially tumultuous period in U.S.
politics.
Investigators
at Facebook discovered the Russian ads in recent weeks, the company has
said, after months of trying in vain to trace disinformation efforts
back to Russia. The company has said it had identified at least $100,000
in ads purchased through 470 phony Facebook pages and accounts.
Facebook has said this spending represented a tiny fraction of the
political advertising on the platform for the 2016 campaign.
The
previously-undisclosed ads suggest that Russian operatives worked off of
evolving lists of racial, religious, political and economic themes.
They used these to create pages, write posts and craft ads that would
appear in user’s news feeds — with the apparent goal of appealing to one
audience and alienating another. In some cases, the pages even tried to
organize events.
“The idea of using Facebook to incite
anti-black hatred and anti-Muslim prejudice and fear while provoking
extremism is an old tactic. It’s not unique to the United States and
it’s a global phenomenon,” said Malkia Cyril, a Black Lives Matter
activist in Oakland, Calif. and the executive director for the Center
for Media Justice. Social media companies “have a mandate to standup and
take deep responsibility for how their platforms are being abused.”
Facebook
declined to comment on the contents of the ads being turned over to
congressional investigators, and pointed to a September 6 statement by
Alex Stamos, the company’s chief security officer, who noted that the
vast majority of the ads run by the 470 pages and accounts did not
specifically reference the U.S. presidential election, voting or any
particular candidate.
“Rather,
the ads and accounts appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social
and political messages across the idealogical spectrum — touching on
topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights,”
Stamos said at the time.
A Cold War tactic
Moscow’s interest in U.S. race relations date back decades.
In
Soviet times, operatives didn’t have the option of using the Internet,
so they spread their messages by taking out ads in newspapers, posting
fliers and organizing meetings.
Much like the online ads
discovered by Facebook, messages spread by Soviet-era operatives were
meant to look as though they were written by bonafide political
activists in the United States, thereby disguising the involvement of an
adversarial foreign power.
Russian information operations didn’t end with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
After
a lull in tensions, Russia’s spy agencies became more assertive under
the leadership of President Vladimir Putin. In recent years, those
services have updated their propaganda protocols to take advantage of
new technologies and the proliferation of social media platforms.
“Is
it a goal of the Kremlin to encourage discord in American society? The
answer to that is yes,” said former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael A.
McFaul, director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International
Studies at Stanford University. “More generally, Putin has an idea that
our society is imperfect, that our democracy is not better than his, so
to see us in conflict on big social issues is in the Kremlin’s
interests.”
Clinton Watts, part of a research team that was among
the first to warn publicly of the Russian propaganda campaign during
the 2016 election, said that identifying and exploiting existing social
and cultural divisions are common Russian disinformation tactics dating
back to the Cold War.
“We have seen them operating on both sides”
said Watts, a fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a
former FBI agent.
Exploiting a nation which does not think critically enough in attempts to drive political opinion is nothing new, and has been done by Americans (and arguably far more than has been done to Americans). This should be recognized as the new normal, and is a natural byproduct of ease of spreading information.
I still say the best way to deal with this undue influence, is to work on building a nation which thinks critically. If a nation thinks critically, they are naturally skeptical, and resilient to it. This in addition to the fact that a nation that thinks critically is better for so many other reasons (more demanding of transparency, more educated, more accepting of foreign ideas and thus more open to diversity, etc.)
I don't blame the Russian government for seizing a golden opportunity. It's sad that so much of the American population has sought being proven correct rather than seeking debate and enlightenment.
'05 - TO, '06 - TO 1, '08 - NYC 1 & 2, '09 - TO, Chi 1 & 2, '10 - Buffalo, NYC 1 & 2, '11 - TO 1 & 2, Hamilton, '13 - Buffalo, Brooklyn 1 & 2, '15 - Global Citizen, '16 - TO 1 & 2, Chi 2
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
Those clever Russians..... They have this shit mastered. It's almost embarrassing. (I didn't post the entire article, since it's too long for it to work - just pasted the first section - click the link for more, it's fucking interesting)
Russian operatives used Facebook ads to exploit divisions over black political activism and Muslims
The
batch of more than 3,000 Russian-bought ads that Facebook is preparing
to turn over to Congress shows a deep understanding of social divides in
American society, with some ads promoting African-American rights
groups including Black Lives Matter and others suggesting that these
same groups pose a rising political threat, say people familiar with the
covert influence campaign.
The Russian campaign — taking
advantage of Facebook’s ability to simultaneously send contrary messages
to different groups of users based on their political and demographic
characteristics -- also sought to sow discord among religious groups.
Other ads highlighted support for Democrat Hillary Clinton among Muslim
women.
These targeted messages, along with others that have
surfaced in recent days, highlight the sophistication of an influence
campaign slickly crafted to mimic and infiltrate U.S. political
discourse while also seeking to heighten tensions between groups already
wary of one another.
Tech News Alerts
Breaking news about technology and tech companies.
The
nature and detail of these ads has troubled investigators at Facebook,
on Capitol Hill and at the U.S. Justice Department, say people familiar
with the advertisements who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share
matters still under investigation.
The
House and Senate Intelligence committees plan to begin reviewing the
Facebook ads in coming weeks as they attempt to untangle the operation
and other matters related to Russia’s bid to help elect Trump in 2016.
“Their
aim was to sow chaos,” said Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), vice-chairman
of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “In many cases, it was more about
voter suppression rather than increasing turnout.”
The top
Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff of
California, said he hoped the public would be able to review the ad
campaign.
“I think the American people should see a
representative sample of these ads to see how cynical the Russian were
using these ads to sow division within our society,” he said, noting
that he had not yet seen the ads but had been briefed on them, including
the ones mentioning “things like Black Lives Matter.”
The ads
which Facebook found raise troubling questions for a social networking
and advertising platform that reaches two billion people each month and
offer a rare window into how Russian operatives carried out their
information operations during an especially tumultuous period in U.S.
politics.
Investigators
at Facebook discovered the Russian ads in recent weeks, the company has
said, after months of trying in vain to trace disinformation efforts
back to Russia. The company has said it had identified at least $100,000
in ads purchased through 470 phony Facebook pages and accounts.
Facebook has said this spending represented a tiny fraction of the
political advertising on the platform for the 2016 campaign.
The
previously-undisclosed ads suggest that Russian operatives worked off of
evolving lists of racial, religious, political and economic themes.
They used these to create pages, write posts and craft ads that would
appear in user’s news feeds — with the apparent goal of appealing to one
audience and alienating another. In some cases, the pages even tried to
organize events.
“The idea of using Facebook to incite
anti-black hatred and anti-Muslim prejudice and fear while provoking
extremism is an old tactic. It’s not unique to the United States and
it’s a global phenomenon,” said Malkia Cyril, a Black Lives Matter
activist in Oakland, Calif. and the executive director for the Center
for Media Justice. Social media companies “have a mandate to standup and
take deep responsibility for how their platforms are being abused.”
Facebook
declined to comment on the contents of the ads being turned over to
congressional investigators, and pointed to a September 6 statement by
Alex Stamos, the company’s chief security officer, who noted that the
vast majority of the ads run by the 470 pages and accounts did not
specifically reference the U.S. presidential election, voting or any
particular candidate.
“Rather,
the ads and accounts appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social
and political messages across the idealogical spectrum — touching on
topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights,”
Stamos said at the time.
A Cold War tactic
Moscow’s interest in U.S. race relations date back decades.
In
Soviet times, operatives didn’t have the option of using the Internet,
so they spread their messages by taking out ads in newspapers, posting
fliers and organizing meetings.
Much like the online ads
discovered by Facebook, messages spread by Soviet-era operatives were
meant to look as though they were written by bonafide political
activists in the United States, thereby disguising the involvement of an
adversarial foreign power.
Russian information operations didn’t end with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
After
a lull in tensions, Russia’s spy agencies became more assertive under
the leadership of President Vladimir Putin. In recent years, those
services have updated their propaganda protocols to take advantage of
new technologies and the proliferation of social media platforms.
“Is
it a goal of the Kremlin to encourage discord in American society? The
answer to that is yes,” said former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael A.
McFaul, director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International
Studies at Stanford University. “More generally, Putin has an idea that
our society is imperfect, that our democracy is not better than his, so
to see us in conflict on big social issues is in the Kremlin’s
interests.”
Clinton Watts, part of a research team that was among
the first to warn publicly of the Russian propaganda campaign during
the 2016 election, said that identifying and exploiting existing social
and cultural divisions are common Russian disinformation tactics dating
back to the Cold War.
“We have seen them operating on both sides”
said Watts, a fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a
former FBI agent.
Those clever Russians..... They have this shit mastered. It's almost embarrassing. (I didn't post the entire article, since it's too long for it to work - just pasted the first section - click the link for more, it's fucking interesting)
Russian operatives used Facebook ads to exploit divisions over black political activism and Muslims
The
batch of more than 3,000 Russian-bought ads that Facebook is preparing
to turn over to Congress shows a deep understanding of social divides in
American society, with some ads promoting African-American rights
groups including Black Lives Matter and others suggesting that these
same groups pose a rising political threat, say people familiar with the
covert influence campaign.
The Russian campaign — taking
advantage of Facebook’s ability to simultaneously send contrary messages
to different groups of users based on their political and demographic
characteristics -- also sought to sow discord among religious groups.
Other ads highlighted support for Democrat Hillary Clinton among Muslim
women.
These targeted messages, along with others that have
surfaced in recent days, highlight the sophistication of an influence
campaign slickly crafted to mimic and infiltrate U.S. political
discourse while also seeking to heighten tensions between groups already
wary of one another.
Tech News Alerts
Breaking news about technology and tech companies.
The
nature and detail of these ads has troubled investigators at Facebook,
on Capitol Hill and at the U.S. Justice Department, say people familiar
with the advertisements who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share
matters still under investigation.
The
House and Senate Intelligence committees plan to begin reviewing the
Facebook ads in coming weeks as they attempt to untangle the operation
and other matters related to Russia’s bid to help elect Trump in 2016.
“Their
aim was to sow chaos,” said Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), vice-chairman
of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “In many cases, it was more about
voter suppression rather than increasing turnout.”
The top
Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff of
California, said he hoped the public would be able to review the ad
campaign.
“I think the American people should see a
representative sample of these ads to see how cynical the Russian were
using these ads to sow division within our society,” he said, noting
that he had not yet seen the ads but had been briefed on them, including
the ones mentioning “things like Black Lives Matter.”
The ads
which Facebook found raise troubling questions for a social networking
and advertising platform that reaches two billion people each month and
offer a rare window into how Russian operatives carried out their
information operations during an especially tumultuous period in U.S.
politics.
Investigators
at Facebook discovered the Russian ads in recent weeks, the company has
said, after months of trying in vain to trace disinformation efforts
back to Russia. The company has said it had identified at least $100,000
in ads purchased through 470 phony Facebook pages and accounts.
Facebook has said this spending represented a tiny fraction of the
political advertising on the platform for the 2016 campaign.
The
previously-undisclosed ads suggest that Russian operatives worked off of
evolving lists of racial, religious, political and economic themes.
They used these to create pages, write posts and craft ads that would
appear in user’s news feeds — with the apparent goal of appealing to one
audience and alienating another. In some cases, the pages even tried to
organize events.
“The idea of using Facebook to incite
anti-black hatred and anti-Muslim prejudice and fear while provoking
extremism is an old tactic. It’s not unique to the United States and
it’s a global phenomenon,” said Malkia Cyril, a Black Lives Matter
activist in Oakland, Calif. and the executive director for the Center
for Media Justice. Social media companies “have a mandate to standup and
take deep responsibility for how their platforms are being abused.”
Facebook
declined to comment on the contents of the ads being turned over to
congressional investigators, and pointed to a September 6 statement by
Alex Stamos, the company’s chief security officer, who noted that the
vast majority of the ads run by the 470 pages and accounts did not
specifically reference the U.S. presidential election, voting or any
particular candidate.
“Rather,
the ads and accounts appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social
and political messages across the idealogical spectrum — touching on
topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights,”
Stamos said at the time.
A Cold War tactic
Moscow’s interest in U.S. race relations date back decades.
In
Soviet times, operatives didn’t have the option of using the Internet,
so they spread their messages by taking out ads in newspapers, posting
fliers and organizing meetings.
Much like the online ads
discovered by Facebook, messages spread by Soviet-era operatives were
meant to look as though they were written by bonafide political
activists in the United States, thereby disguising the involvement of an
adversarial foreign power.
Russian information operations didn’t end with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
After
a lull in tensions, Russia’s spy agencies became more assertive under
the leadership of President Vladimir Putin. In recent years, those
services have updated their propaganda protocols to take advantage of
new technologies and the proliferation of social media platforms.
“Is
it a goal of the Kremlin to encourage discord in American society? The
answer to that is yes,” said former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael A.
McFaul, director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International
Studies at Stanford University. “More generally, Putin has an idea that
our society is imperfect, that our democracy is not better than his, so
to see us in conflict on big social issues is in the Kremlin’s
interests.”
Clinton Watts, part of a research team that was among
the first to warn publicly of the Russian propaganda campaign during
the 2016 election, said that identifying and exploiting existing social
and cultural divisions are common Russian disinformation tactics dating
back to the Cold War.
“We have seen them operating on both sides”
said Watts, a fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a
former FBI agent.
Exploiting a nation which does not think critically enough in attempts to drive political opinion is nothing new, and has been done by Americans (and arguably far more than has been done to Americans). This should be recognized as the new normal, and is a natural byproduct of ease of spreading information.
I still say the best way to deal with this undue influence, is to work on building a nation which thinks critically. If a nation thinks critically, they are naturally skeptical, and resilient to it. This in addition to the fact that a nation that thinks critically is better for so many other reasons (more demanding of transparency, more educated, more accepting of foreign ideas and thus more open to diversity, etc.)
I don't blame the Russian government for seizing a golden opportunity. It's sad that so much of the American population has sought being proven correct rather than seeking debate and enlightenment.
agree 100%. I find it hilarious that Americans are all up in arms about a foreign power meddling in their business. Jesus, that's been the American MO for decades.
Twitter finds hundreds of accounts tied to Russian operatives
Twitter's
Carlos Monje, the director of public policy and philanthropy, right,
knocks on the door with Colin Crowell, head of global public policy, to
enter the closed door meeting with the House Intelligence Committee on
Capitol Hill, Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017 in Washington. Officials from
Twitter are on Capitol Hill as part of the House and Senate
investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 elections. (AP
Photo/Alex Brandon) (Alex Brandon/AP)
Twitter
has shut down 201 accounts that were tied to the same Russian
operatives who posted thousands of political ads on Facebook, the
company told congressional investigators Thursday and revealed in a blog
in the afternoon.
The company also found three accounts from the
news site RT — which Twitter linked to the Kremlin — that spent
$274,100 in ads on Twitter’s platform in 2016.
The meeting
between the company and Congressional investigators is part of a
widening government probe into how Russian operatives used Facebook,
Google, Twitter and other social media platforms to sow division and
disinformation during the 2016 campaign. Those companies are under
increasing pressure from Capitol Hill to investigate Russian meddling on
their platforms and are facing the possibility of new regulations that
could impact their massive advertising businesses.
Economy & Business Alerts
Breaking news about economic and business issues.
The
Twitter accounts, which were taken down over the last month, were
associated with 470 accounts and pages that Facebook last month said
came from the International Research Agency, a Russia-connect troll
farm. Twitter said the groups on Facebook had 22 corresponding Twitter
accounts. Twitter then found an additional 179 accounts linked to those
22.
One
congressional investigator has said that the Facebook accounts from the
International Research Agency are likely just the “tip of the iceberg.”
The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the probe freely.
Twitter did not reveal who the ads reached and how many times they were shared.
“There’s
plenty of evidence that Russian intelligence services have been on
Twitter for years and have used Twitter to amplify messages and inserted
lines of attack in ways that got amplified by mainstream and partisan
media,” said Alex Howard, deputy director of the Sunlight Foundation.
“We need to think very carefully about what role we want these companies
to have in our debate – and, since these platforms largely regulate
themselves, what kind of accountability we want them to have.”
Silicon
Valley has long enjoyed a hands off approach from Washington, and has
become a major lobbying force in Washington in order to keep things that
way. But that attitude appears to be shifting quickly.
Last
week Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) urged
colleagues Thursday to support a bill that would create new transparency
requirements for platforms that run political ads online akin to those
already in place for TV stations, according to a letter obtained by The
Washington Post. Lawmakers from across the political spectrum – from
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex) – have called for more
scrutiny into the market power of technology companies over the last few
months.
Facebook
has faced the greatest scrutiny. The company has said it will provide
3,000 political ads, in addition to payment information and data about
who those ads targeted, to Congress in the coming days.
In a
Facebook post on Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg apologized for saying it was
“pretty crazy” that fake news could have influenced the U.S. election.
“Calling
that crazy was dismissive and I regret it. This is too important an
issue to be dismissive,” he wrote. He then emphasized the role Facebook
played in spurring authentic debate and sustaining democratic ideals was
much greater than any exploitation that took place.
“The
data we have has always shown that our broader impact -- from giving
people a voice to enabling candidates to communicate directly to helping
millions of people vote -- played a far bigger role in this election,”
he said.
Google, the largest online advertising company in the
world, has also been asked to provide information to Congressional
investigators and to testify before Congress, but has not said whether
it will do so. The company has said it will cooperate with any
investigation and has “seen no evidence” of a Russian-promoted ad
campaign. Google did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
In
many ways, Twitter has been the most vulnerable to exploitation of all
the social media companies. The company officially says the 5 percent of
accounts on Twitter are automated bots, but outside researchers say the
number could be much higher.
It’s very easy to buy fake accounts
on Twitter, making it hard for Twitter to discern the extent of the
Russian meddling, analysts said.
“Anyone can create an account
anonymously on Twitter and hide its origin, said Clint Watts, senior
fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
Nah, no collusion. Or, as I prefer, "aiding and abetting." Its all a witch hunt and everything having to do with Russia meddling inour electoral process? All just a coincidence. Jared dear boy, be sure to check that box that says, "female." It'll be sure to throw them off your trail. Now be a dear and feed the hounds and saddle up the ponies, we've got some fox to hunt. Oh, and fetch me my riding crop.
Nah, no collusion. Or, as I prefer, "aiding and abetting." Its all a witch hunt and everything having to do with Russia meddling in our electoral process? All just a coincidence. Jared dear boy, be sure to check that box that says, "female." It'll be sure to throw them off your trail. Now be a dear and feed the hounds and saddle up the ponies, we've got some fox to hunt. Oh, and fetch me my riding crop.
Trump-Propagandizer-in-Chief. Not to mention his soviet style tactics and mannerisms. We have a Manchurian Candidate folks. If you pulled the lever or otherwise support him, you're guilty.
Trump’s company had more contact with Russia during campaign, according to documents turned over to investigators
Michael
Cohen, President Trump's personal attorney leaves Capitol Hill on Sept.
19. Cohen was there to appear privately before the Senate Intelligence
Committee. (Susan Walsh/AP)
Associates
of President Trump and his company have turned over documents to
federal investigators that reveal two previously unreported contacts
from Russia during the 2016 campaign, according to people familiar with
the matter.
In one case, Trump’s personal attorney and a business
associate exchanged emails weeks before the Republican National
Convention about traveling to an economic conference in Russia that
would be attended by top Russian financial and government leaders,
including President Vladimir Putin, according to people familiar with
the correspondence.
In the other case, the same Trump attorney,
Michael Cohen, received a proposal in late 2015 for a Moscow residential
project from a company founded by a billionaire who once served in the
Russian Senate, these people said. The previously unreported inquiry
marks the second proposal for a Trump-branded Moscow project that was
delivered to the company during the presidential campaign and has since
come to light.............
“Jen
you probably have more on this but it looks like POTUS just said he
found out HRC was using her personal email when he saw it in the news…
we need to clean this up - he has emails from her - they do not say
state.gov”
“How
is that not classified?” Huma Abedin to FBI when shown email between
Clinton & Obama using his pseudonym. Abedin then expressed her
amazement at the president’s use of a pseudonym and asked if she could
have a copy of the email.”
I cannot state how huge
this is, it's a cover-up involving the President of the United States.
There are a lot of emails implying this, but this email states it very
clearly so anyone can understand. The email proves obstruction of
justice and shows how they lied to the FBI, and likely perjury of
Congress. This at the very least proves intent by her Chief of Staff.
Obama used executive
privilege in their correspondence. Cheryl Mills (who was given immunity)
states they need to "clean up" the Clinton/Obama e-mails because they
lacked state.gov.
Additionally, Obama on video publicly denied knowing about the server. He also claimed on video
that he learned about the secret server through the news like everyone
else. The corruption goes all the way to the top! Obama is lying to the
American public.
Hillary Clinton set up
her private server to hide her pay to play deals discovered throughout
these leaks, and to prevent FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests.
Paul Combetta was hired
to modify the email headers that referred to a VERY VERY VIP individual,
i.e. change the name of who it was from. If you read Stonetear/Combetta story,
it's easy to see this is exactly what he was attempting. He wanted to
change header information on already sent mail to show "state.gov"
instead of Hillary's private email address. Multiple people informed him
of the infeasibility (and illegality) of it, so somewhere in the next 6
days, it was decided that simply eradicating them was the only option
left.
The FBI said they could
find no intent to break the law, therefore no recommendation of
prosecution. This email proves, in plain language, that there was
intention, and knowingly broke the law.
Ask yourselves: Why
would they both be communicating on a secret server to each other? Why
not through normal proper channels? What were they hiding? We may soon
find out.
“...the
governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine
financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in
the region.”
“Clintons
should know better than to raise money from folks whose primary concern
has been supporting the NIAC, a notorious supporter of the Radical
Islamic Mullahs. "The Clinton’s have thrown principle out the window in
exchange for cold hard cash...putting money ahead of principle.”
Hillary's Chief of
Staff admits in the 2nd link that foreign interests sway Hillary to do
what they want her to do (money for mandatory appearances). She also
admits that the "Friend of Hillary" list is available and rentable to
people who want to influence, but that it’s too sensitive to talk in
email.
This leak shows Hillary
knows Saudis and Qatar are funding ISIS, which is an enemy of the state.
After knowing this, Hillary accepted tens of millions in donations
from these terrorist-funding governments (of course they are getting
something back in return). She also supported arms deals to them.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar
commit horrible acts under Sharia law, including throwing gay people off
of buildings, persecuting Christians, Jews, and atheists, and making it
legal to rape and beat women. They are the leading funders of Hillary and her campaign through the Clinton Foundation.
“Engage
immigrant rights organizations. DREAMers have been bird dogging
Republican presidential candidates on DACA/DAPA, but they’ve learned to
respond. There’s an opportunity to bird dog and record questions about
Trump’s comments and connect it to the policy.”
“It doesn’t matter what the friggin’ legal and ethics people say, we need to win this motherfucker” (from video below)
"I
mean honestly, it is not hard to get some of these ass holes to pop
off, it’s a matter of showing up, to want to get into the rally, in a
Planned Parenthood t-shirt. Or, Trump is a Nazi, you know? You can
message to draw them out, and draw them to punch you."
"Bird-dogging" is a term
coined by high level Clinton staffers who openly talk about it in the
video. They boast about inciting violence at Trump rallies, paying for
every “protest”, manipulating Americans through the media to think that
Trump is dangerous, and tricking people into thinking Trump supporters
are violent and bad.
They laugh about paying
off mentally ill and homeless people for years to incite violence
against conservatives. Truly despicable. And they pretended to be
Bernie supporters while they were "protesting".
They admit to starting
the Chicago riot where police were seriously hurt, and admit to shutting
down the freeway in Arizona, partnering with Black Lives Matter. We
even have proof that Hillary paid people to shut down the Chicago rally.
[to
be a Catholic is] "an amazing bastardization of the faith. They must be
attracted to the systematic thought and severely backwards gender
relations”
“...no one knows what the hell they're talking about.”
“There needs to be a Catholic Spring, in which Catholics themselves demand the end of a middle ages dictatorship
Top Clinton aides, John
Halpin and Jennifer Palmieri mock Catholics for their faith. They
complain about the large number of Catholics in prominent positions.
This was one of the few
emails to actually make it to the mainstream media (FOX) and Palmieri
when confronted about this revelation didn’t apologize.
Brian Burch,
CatholicVote.org president released a statement proclaiming, "Hillary
Clinton has already called half of her opponents’ supporters ‘a basket
of deplorables’ and ‘irredeemable,’ and now it comes out that her
campaign spokeswoman dismissively question[ed] the sincerity of Catholic
Americans’ faith. Had Palmieri spoken this way about other groups, she
[would be] dismissed. Palmieri must resign immediately or be fired.”
This revelation was brought up at the Al Smith dinner for Catholics.
“Jen
you probably have more on this but it looks like POTUS just said he
found out HRC was using her personal email when he saw it in the news…
we need to clean this up - he has emails from her - they do not say
state.gov”
“How
is that not classified?” Huma Abedin to FBI when shown email between
Clinton & Obama using his pseudonym. Abedin then expressed her
amazement at the president’s use of a pseudonym and asked if she could
have a copy of the email.”
I cannot state how huge
this is, it's a cover-up involving the President of the United States.
There are a lot of emails implying this, but this email states it very
clearly so anyone can understand. The email proves obstruction of
justice and shows how they lied to the FBI, and likely perjury of
Congress. This at the very least proves intent by her Chief of Staff.
Obama used executive
privilege in their correspondence. Cheryl Mills (who was given immunity)
states they need to "clean up" the Clinton/Obama e-mails because they
lacked state.gov.
Additionally, Obama on video publicly denied knowing about the server. He also claimed on video
that he learned about the secret server through the news like everyone
else. The corruption goes all the way to the top! Obama is lying to the
American public.
Hillary Clinton set up
her private server to hide her pay to play deals discovered throughout
these leaks, and to prevent FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests.
Paul Combetta was hired
to modify the email headers that referred to a VERY VERY VIP individual,
i.e. change the name of who it was from. If you read Stonetear/Combetta story,
it's easy to see this is exactly what he was attempting. He wanted to
change header information on already sent mail to show "state.gov"
instead of Hillary's private email address. Multiple people informed him
of the infeasibility (and illegality) of it, so somewhere in the next 6
days, it was decided that simply eradicating them was the only option
left.
The FBI said they could
find no intent to break the law, therefore no recommendation of
prosecution. This email proves, in plain language, that there was
intention, and knowingly broke the law.
Ask yourselves: Why
would they both be communicating on a secret server to each other? Why
not through normal proper channels? What were they hiding? We may soon
find out.
serious question? were the podesta emails more relevant/interesting than this russia "interference" investigation
Here you go, this is for you. It's adjustable in the back, try not to put it on too tight.
WI 6/27/98 WI 10/8/00 MO 10/11/00 IL 4/23/03 MN 6/26/06 MN 6/27/06 WI 6/30/06 IL 8/5/07 IL 8/21/08 (EV) IL 8/22/08 (EV) IL 8/23/09 IL 8/24/09 IN 5/7/10 IL 6/28/11 (EV) IL 6/29/11 (EV) WI 9/3/11 WI 9/4/11 IL 7/19/13 NE 10/09/14 IL 10/17/14 MN 10/19/14 FL 4/11/16 IL 8/20/16 IL 8/22/16 IL 08/18/18 IL 08/20/18 IT 07/05/2020AT 07/07/2020
Comments
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
www.headstonesband.com
https://www.wired.com/story/twitter-senate-committee-russia-bots/
Twitter Will Meet With Senate Intelligence Committee on Russia
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Any response from the, dare I say it, "brilliant" and Honorable Senator Grassley?
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Federal government notifies 21 states of election hacking
https://apnews.com/cb8a753a9b0948589cc372a3c037a567Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/russian-operatives-used-facebook-ads-to-exploit-divisions-over-black-political-activism-and-muslims/2017/09/25/4a011242-a21b-11e7-ade1-76d061d56efa_story.html?utm_term=.da5eadc73c49&wpisrc=al_alert-COMBO-politics%2Bnation&wpmk=1
Russian operatives used Facebook ads to exploit divisions over black political activism and Muslims
The batch of more than 3,000 Russian-bought ads that Facebook is preparing to turn over to Congress shows a deep understanding of social divides in American society, with some ads promoting African-American rights groups including Black Lives Matter and others suggesting that these same groups pose a rising political threat, say people familiar with the covert influence campaign.
The Russian campaign — taking advantage of Facebook’s ability to simultaneously send contrary messages to different groups of users based on their political and demographic characteristics -- also sought to sow discord among religious groups. Other ads highlighted support for Democrat Hillary Clinton among Muslim women.
These targeted messages, along with others that have surfaced in recent days, highlight the sophistication of an influence campaign slickly crafted to mimic and infiltrate U.S. political discourse while also seeking to heighten tensions between groups already wary of one another.
Tech News Alerts
Breaking news about technology and tech companies.
The nature and detail of these ads has troubled investigators at Facebook, on Capitol Hill and at the U.S. Justice Department, say people familiar with the advertisements who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share matters still under investigation.
The House and Senate Intelligence committees plan to begin reviewing the Facebook ads in coming weeks as they attempt to untangle the operation and other matters related to Russia’s bid to help elect Trump in 2016.
“Their aim was to sow chaos,” said Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “In many cases, it was more about voter suppression rather than increasing turnout.”
The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, said he hoped the public would be able to review the ad campaign.
“I think the American people should see a representative sample of these ads to see how cynical the Russian were using these ads to sow division within our society,” he said, noting that he had not yet seen the ads but had been briefed on them, including the ones mentioning “things like Black Lives Matter.”
The ads which Facebook found raise troubling questions for a social networking and advertising platform that reaches two billion people each month and offer a rare window into how Russian operatives carried out their information operations during an especially tumultuous period in U.S. politics.
Investigators at Facebook discovered the Russian ads in recent weeks, the company has said, after months of trying in vain to trace disinformation efforts back to Russia. The company has said it had identified at least $100,000 in ads purchased through 470 phony Facebook pages and accounts. Facebook has said this spending represented a tiny fraction of the political advertising on the platform for the 2016 campaign.
The previously-undisclosed ads suggest that Russian operatives worked off of evolving lists of racial, religious, political and economic themes. They used these to create pages, write posts and craft ads that would appear in user’s news feeds — with the apparent goal of appealing to one audience and alienating another. In some cases, the pages even tried to organize events.
“The idea of using Facebook to incite anti-black hatred and anti-Muslim prejudice and fear while provoking extremism is an old tactic. It’s not unique to the United States and it’s a global phenomenon,” said Malkia Cyril, a Black Lives Matter activist in Oakland, Calif. and the executive director for the Center for Media Justice. Social media companies “have a mandate to standup and take deep responsibility for how their platforms are being abused.”
Facebook declined to comment on the contents of the ads being turned over to congressional investigators, and pointed to a September 6 statement by Alex Stamos, the company’s chief security officer, who noted that the vast majority of the ads run by the 470 pages and accounts did not specifically reference the U.S. presidential election, voting or any particular candidate.
“Rather, the ads and accounts appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the idealogical spectrum — touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights,” Stamos said at the time.
A Cold War tactic
Moscow’s interest in U.S. race relations date back decades.
In Soviet times, operatives didn’t have the option of using the Internet, so they spread their messages by taking out ads in newspapers, posting fliers and organizing meetings.
Much like the online ads discovered by Facebook, messages spread by Soviet-era operatives were meant to look as though they were written by bonafide political activists in the United States, thereby disguising the involvement of an adversarial foreign power.
Russian information operations didn’t end with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
After a lull in tensions, Russia’s spy agencies became more assertive under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin. In recent years, those services have updated their propaganda protocols to take advantage of new technologies and the proliferation of social media platforms.
“Is it a goal of the Kremlin to encourage discord in American society? The answer to that is yes,” said former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael A. McFaul, director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. “More generally, Putin has an idea that our society is imperfect, that our democracy is not better than his, so to see us in conflict on big social issues is in the Kremlin’s interests.”
Clinton Watts, part of a research team that was among the first to warn publicly of the Russian propaganda campaign during the 2016 election, said that identifying and exploiting existing social and cultural divisions are common Russian disinformation tactics dating back to the Cold War.
“We have seen them operating on both sides” said Watts, a fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a former FBI agent.
I think they got an assist from Cambridge Analytica
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/mg9vvn/how-our-likes-helped-trump-win
I still say the best way to deal with this undue influence, is to work on building a nation which thinks critically. If a nation thinks critically, they are naturally skeptical, and resilient to it. This in addition to the fact that a nation that thinks critically is better for so many other reasons (more demanding of transparency, more educated, more accepting of foreign ideas and thus more open to diversity, etc.)
I don't blame the Russian government for seizing a golden opportunity. It's sad that so much of the American population has sought being proven correct rather than seeking debate and enlightenment.
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
"...I changed by not changing at all..."
https://m.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10104052907253171
www.headstonesband.com
Twitter finds hundreds of accounts tied to Russian operatives
Twitter's Carlos Monje, the director of public policy and philanthropy, right, knocks on the door with Colin Crowell, head of global public policy, to enter the closed door meeting with the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017 in Washington. Officials from Twitter are on Capitol Hill as part of the House and Senate investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 elections. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (Alex Brandon/AP)
Twitter has shut down 201 accounts that were tied to the same Russian operatives who posted thousands of political ads on Facebook, the company told congressional investigators Thursday and revealed in a blog in the afternoon.
The company also found three accounts from the news site RT — which Twitter linked to the Kremlin — that spent $274,100 in ads on Twitter’s platform in 2016.
The meeting between the company and Congressional investigators is part of a widening government probe into how Russian operatives used Facebook, Google, Twitter and other social media platforms to sow division and disinformation during the 2016 campaign. Those companies are under increasing pressure from Capitol Hill to investigate Russian meddling on their platforms and are facing the possibility of new regulations that could impact their massive advertising businesses.
Economy & Business Alerts
Breaking news about economic and business issues.
The Twitter accounts, which were taken down over the last month, were associated with 470 accounts and pages that Facebook last month said came from the International Research Agency, a Russia-connect troll farm. Twitter said the groups on Facebook had 22 corresponding Twitter accounts. Twitter then found an additional 179 accounts linked to those 22.
One congressional investigator has said that the Facebook accounts from the International Research Agency are likely just the “tip of the iceberg.” The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the probe freely.
Twitter did not reveal who the ads reached and how many times they were shared.
“There’s plenty of evidence that Russian intelligence services have been on Twitter for years and have used Twitter to amplify messages and inserted lines of attack in ways that got amplified by mainstream and partisan media,” said Alex Howard, deputy director of the Sunlight Foundation. “We need to think very carefully about what role we want these companies to have in our debate – and, since these platforms largely regulate themselves, what kind of accountability we want them to have.”
Silicon Valley has long enjoyed a hands off approach from Washington, and has become a major lobbying force in Washington in order to keep things that way. But that attitude appears to be shifting quickly.
Last week Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) urged colleagues Thursday to support a bill that would create new transparency requirements for platforms that run political ads online akin to those already in place for TV stations, according to a letter obtained by The Washington Post. Lawmakers from across the political spectrum – from Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex) – have called for more scrutiny into the market power of technology companies over the last few months.
Facebook has faced the greatest scrutiny. The company has said it will provide 3,000 political ads, in addition to payment information and data about who those ads targeted, to Congress in the coming days.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg apologized for saying it was “pretty crazy” that fake news could have influenced the U.S. election.
“Calling that crazy was dismissive and I regret it. This is too important an issue to be dismissive,” he wrote. He then emphasized the role Facebook played in spurring authentic debate and sustaining democratic ideals was much greater than any exploitation that took place.
“The data we have has always shown that our broader impact -- from giving people a voice to enabling candidates to communicate directly to helping millions of people vote -- played a far bigger role in this election,” he said.
Google, the largest online advertising company in the world, has also been asked to provide information to Congressional investigators and to testify before Congress, but has not said whether it will do so. The company has said it will cooperate with any investigation and has “seen no evidence” of a Russian-promoted ad campaign. Google did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
In many ways, Twitter has been the most vulnerable to exploitation of all the social media companies. The company officially says the 5 percent of accounts on Twitter are automated bots, but outside researchers say the number could be much higher.
It’s very easy to buy fake accounts on Twitter, making it hard for Twitter to discern the extent of the Russian meddling, analysts said.
“Anyone can create an account anonymously on Twitter and hide its origin, said Clint Watts, senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Trump’s company had more contact with Russia during campaign, according to documents turned over to investigators
Michael Cohen, President Trump's personal attorney leaves Capitol Hill on Sept. 19. Cohen was there to appear privately before the Senate Intelligence Committee. (Susan Walsh/AP)
Associates of President Trump and his company have turned over documents to federal investigators that reveal two previously unreported contacts from Russia during the 2016 campaign, according to people familiar with the matter.
In one case, Trump’s personal attorney and a business associate exchanged emails weeks before the Republican National Convention about traveling to an economic conference in Russia that would be attended by top Russian financial and government leaders, including President Vladimir Putin, according to people familiar with the correspondence.
In the other case, the same Trump attorney, Michael Cohen, received a proposal in late 2015 for a Moscow residential project from a company founded by a billionaire who once served in the Russian Senate, these people said. The previously unreported inquiry marks the second proposal for a Trump-branded Moscow project that was delivered to the company during the presidential campaign and has since come to light.............
Full article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-company-had-more-contact-with-russia-during-campaign-according-to-documents-turned-over-to-investigators/2017/10/02/2091fe5e-a6c0-11e7-850e-2bdd1236be5d_story.html?utm_term=.d06c62c50682&wpisrc=al_alert-COMBO-politics%252Bnation&wpmk=11. Obama lied: he knew about Hillary’s secret server and wrote to her
using a pseudonym, cover-up happened (intent to destroy evidence)
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/31077#efmAABABT
https://vault.fbi.gov/hillary-r.-clinton/hillary-r.-clinton-part-03-of-04/view
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/779729882146283521
“Jen you probably have more on this but it looks like POTUS just said he found out HRC was using her personal email when he saw it in the news… we need to clean this up - he has emails from her - they do not say state.gov”
“How is that not classified?” Huma Abedin to FBI when shown email between Clinton & Obama using his pseudonym. Abedin then expressed her amazement at the president’s use of a pseudonym and asked if she could have a copy of the email.”
I cannot state how huge this is, it's a cover-up involving the President of the United States. There are a lot of emails implying this, but this email states it very clearly so anyone can understand. The email proves obstruction of justice and shows how they lied to the FBI, and likely perjury of Congress. This at the very least proves intent by her Chief of Staff.
Obama used executive privilege in their correspondence. Cheryl Mills (who was given immunity) states they need to "clean up" the Clinton/Obama e-mails because they lacked state.gov.
Additionally, Obama on video publicly denied knowing about the server. He also claimed on video that he learned about the secret server through the news like everyone else. The corruption goes all the way to the top! Obama is lying to the American public.
Hillary Clinton set up her private server to hide her pay to play deals discovered throughout these leaks, and to prevent FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests.
Paul Combetta was hired to modify the email headers that referred to a VERY VERY VIP individual, i.e. change the name of who it was from. If you read Stonetear/Combetta story, it's easy to see this is exactly what he was attempting. He wanted to change header information on already sent mail to show "state.gov" instead of Hillary's private email address. Multiple people informed him of the infeasibility (and illegality) of it, so somewhere in the next 6 days, it was decided that simply eradicating them was the only option left.
The FBI said they could find no intent to break the law, therefore no recommendation of prosecution. This email proves, in plain language, that there was intention, and knowingly broke the law.
Ask yourselves: Why would they both be communicating on a secret server to each other? Why not through normal proper channels? What were they hiding? We may soon find out.
3. Hillary Clinton received money from and supported nations that she
KNEW funded ISIS and terrorists
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/3774
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/5469
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/1828
“...the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region.”
“Clintons should know better than to raise money from folks whose primary concern has been supporting the NIAC, a notorious supporter of the Radical Islamic Mullahs. "The Clinton’s have thrown principle out the window in exchange for cold hard cash...putting money ahead of principle.”
Hillary's Chief of Staff admits in the 2nd link that foreign interests sway Hillary to do what they want her to do (money for mandatory appearances). She also admits that the "Friend of Hillary" list is available and rentable to people who want to influence, but that it’s too sensitive to talk in email.
This leak shows Hillary knows Saudis and Qatar are funding ISIS, which is an enemy of the state. After knowing this, Hillary accepted tens of millions in donations from these terrorist-funding governments (of course they are getting something back in return). She also supported arms deals to them.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar commit horrible acts under Sharia law, including throwing gay people off of buildings, persecuting Christians, Jews, and atheists, and making it legal to rape and beat women. They are the leading funders of Hillary and her campaign through the Clinton Foundation.
really?????
5. Paying people to incite violence and unrest at Trump rallies
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/3833
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/31335
“Engage immigrant rights organizations. DREAMers have been bird dogging Republican presidential candidates on DACA/DAPA, but they’ve learned to respond. There’s an opportunity to bird dog and record questions about Trump’s comments and connect it to the policy.”
“It doesn’t matter what the friggin’ legal and ethics people say, we need to win this motherfucker” (from video below)
"I mean honestly, it is not hard to get some of these ass holes to pop off, it’s a matter of showing up, to want to get into the rally, in a Planned Parenthood t-shirt. Or, Trump is a Nazi, you know? You can message to draw them out, and draw them to punch you."
This video is the proof, please watch it!
"Bird-dogging" is a term coined by high level Clinton staffers who openly talk about it in the video. They boast about inciting violence at Trump rallies, paying for every “protest”, manipulating Americans through the media to think that Trump is dangerous, and tricking people into thinking Trump supporters are violent and bad.
They laugh about paying off mentally ill and homeless people for years to incite violence against conservatives. Truly despicable. And they pretended to be Bernie supporters while they were "protesting".
They admit to starting the Chicago riot where police were seriously hurt, and admit to shutting down the freeway in Arizona, partnering with Black Lives Matter. We even have proof that Hillary paid people to shut down the Chicago rally.
Inciting a riot is illegal under 18 US Code § 2102.
They also think 50% of people in Iowa and Wisconsin are racists, as they state in the video.
Robby Mook, Clinton Campaign Manager, mentions the Priorities SuperPAC in a leak, which is implicated in the video.
Bob Creamer (who was fired) claims in the video that the campaign knew about everything. Bob Creamer visited the White House 340 times and personally met with Obama 45 times.
Bill Maher pretty much nails the connections here
Top Hillary aides mock Catholics for their faith
https://www.wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/4364
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/29867
[to be a Catholic is] "an amazing bastardization of the faith. They must be attracted to the systematic thought and severely backwards gender relations”
“...no one knows what the hell they're talking about.”
“There needs to be a Catholic Spring, in which Catholics themselves demand the end of a middle ages dictatorship
Top Clinton aides, John Halpin and Jennifer Palmieri mock Catholics for their faith. They complain about the large number of Catholics in prominent positions.
This was one of the few emails to actually make it to the mainstream media (FOX) and Palmieri when confronted about this revelation didn’t apologize.
Brian Burch, CatholicVote.org president released a statement proclaiming, "Hillary Clinton has already called half of her opponents’ supporters ‘a basket of deplorables’ and ‘irredeemable,’ and now it comes out that her campaign spokeswoman dismissively question[ed] the sincerity of Catholic Americans’ faith. Had Palmieri spoken this way about other groups, she [would be] dismissed. Palmieri must resign immediately or be fired.”
This revelation was brought up at the Al Smith dinner for Catholics.
http://www.reverbnation.com/brianzilm
Here you go, this is for you. It's adjustable in the back, try not to put it on too tight.