Trump genuflects to Saudis as Wahhabism continues to metastasize through Islamic world and beyond… D.C. distractions with Russia ruse amidst three letter turf wars… much, much more…

It was never entirely clear to us what the Obama/Clinton “Asia pivot” policy was meant to be – if it was to be a containment of the rising military power of China, then Trump/Tillerson have inherited a buckling pivot, with China now asserting itself in other theaters…

SHTFPlan – Beijing Goes Global: China to Expand Marine Force by 400%; First Overseas Military Base Almost Complete

Military Times – Chinese troops appear to be operating in Afghanistan, and the Pentagon is OK with it

Xinhua – FM: China, U.S. can avoid Thucydides Trap, Kindleberger Trap

Japan Times – Did America’s top diplomat inadvertently offer China a ‘new great power relationship’?

Philippine Star – Duterte hits US for lack of action in South China Sea

Intelligence Online – Duterte could befriend Tel Aviv to arm himself against Beijing

Reuters – Japan plans to send largest warship to South China Sea, sources say

Space.com – Japan launches new spy satellite to keep eye on North Korea

Wall Street Journal (also Zero Hedge) – White House Options on North Korea Include Use of Military Force

Korea Central News Agency (March 7) – Kim Jong Un Supervises Ballistic Rocket Launching Drill of Hwasong Artillery Units of KPA Strategic Force

Feasting his eyes on the trails of ballistic rockets, he appreciated that Hwasong artillery units of the Strategic Force are very good at organizing and commanding fire strikes and strictly ensuring rapid and simultaneous fire strikes.

The four ballistic rockets launched simultaneously are so accurate that they look like acrobatic flying corps in formation, he said.

Alert 5 (NHK) – North Korea launched 4 ballistic missiles; 3 flew 1,000km into East Sea

KCNA (March 19) – Kim Jong Un Watches Ground Jet Test of Newly Developed High-Thrust Engine

The development and completion of a new-type high-thrust engine would help consolidate the scientific and technological foundation to match the world-level satellite delivery capability in the field of outer space development, he noted, adding with pleasure that today when a great leaping forward has been made in the development of the rocket industry is the day to be always remembered, a historic day which can be called “March 18 revolution”.

38 North – Preparations for a Future Test Continue at North Korea’s Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site

– Continued Activity at Key Plutonium Production Facilities at North Korea’s Yongbyon Nuclear Complex; Purpose Unclear

Defense One – US Anti-Missile Batteries Arrive in South Korea, Touching Off Geopolitical Tumult

South China Morning Post – China readying countermeasures against missile defence shield in South Korea, retired PLA general says

Reuters – North Korea missile test fails, U.S. and South say, as tensions simmer

– U.S. deploys attack drones to South Korea amid tension with North

KBS World Radio – S. Korea, US to Create Joint Missile Command

Alert 5 (Commander U.S. 7th Fleet) – JMSDF, ROKN, USN destroyers in missile defense informational link exercise

Korea JongAng Daily – North may be developing an anti-ship missile

– SEAL team that took out Osama bin Laden joins drills in Korea

Yonhap News Agency – Ex-CIA chief: U.S. should consider nuclear attack on N. Korea if necessary

– Ex-President Park arrested in corruption probe

Following her impeachment…

Sputnik – Park Geun-hye Accused of ‘Illegal Occupation’ of S Korean Presidential Residence

ABC – US attempt to recoup Cambodian debt ‘cack-handed’: former Australian Ambassador

In Europe, the rising tide of nationalism suffers a setback in Dutch election…

Reuters – Dutch PM cheers EU leaders by seeing off far-right’s Wilders

In spite of, or thanks to Erdogan’s diplomatic volleys?…

RT – Turkey bans Dutch ambassador, suspends diplomatic flights and high-level govt meetings – Deputy PM

The Duran – Turkey plays nuclear card, warns EU it will flood Europe with millions of refugees

Malaysia Sun – Shocking claims made by former captive: A second Islamic State is rising near Europe and the Turkish border

Middle East Eye – ‘I could see people being hit’: London suffers attack at heart of democracy

Tim Pool (Youtube) – SWEDEN HAS REAL PROBLEMS

Judicial Watch – U.S. Gives Soros Groups Millions to Destabilize Macedonia’s Conservative Govt.

Zero Hedge – Senators Demand State Department Probe Into Soros Organizations

Infowars – Senate Approves Montenegro Joining NATO Despite Rand Paul’s Objection

Time – Sen. Rand Paul: Montenegro Joining NATO Is Against U.S. Interests

Ruptly (Youtube) – 500 people detained as anti-corruption protest hits Moscow

Fort Russ (translating Occhi della Guerra) – The real face of Aleksei Navalny: convicted for embezzlement, he protests “corruption”

– Russia-Belarus Union in Crisis: Part 1 – A Trip Down Memory Lane

– Russia-Belarus Union in Crisis: Part 2 – Lukashenko’s Maidan

(Sputnik) – Belarus arrests “armed provocateurs,” Lukashenko points finger at Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland

(translating RuBALTIC.ru) – SOFA agreement with Baltic states quietly signed by Obama before departure clearing way for permanent US military presence

CBS News – Russian spy ship returns off U.S. coast, near sub base

Zero Hedge (Komsomolskaya Pravda, MEMRI) – Retired Russian Colonel Warns Trump: “We’re Seeding The US Shoreline With Nuclear Mole Missiles”

Reuters – Poland expects to ink $7.6 billion deal for Patriot systems by end-2017

IHS Jane’s 360 – UK to deploy Typhoons to Romania in May

Mirror – British troops join showdown against Vladimir Putin as they travel to the frontline in Russia

Estonian World – British and French troops arrive in Estonia

RT – EU ministers agree to create joint military command center in NATO footsteps

– 8,000 NATO troops launch exercise near Russian-Norwegian border

Barents Observer – Norway moves military intelligence away from Russian border

Strategic-Culture – Russia Invites NATO to Take Part in Moscow Security Conference

TASS – Russian and NATO top brass hold first talks over past years

Executive Intelligence Review – NATO Military Committee Chair Initiated Call to Russian Chief of Staff

Moscow Times – Russian Military Pilot in Fatal Black Sea Crash Was in ‘Full Control of Plane’ — Reports

Not since the Battle of Karkov have such fireworks been seen?…

Накануне (translation at ThereAreNoSunglasses) – “Диверсия Порошенко” под Харьковом: подробности

Fort Russ (РБК) – Former Russian MP murdered in downtown Kiev

Reuters – Ukrainian intelligence officer killed in car blast in Mariupol port

RT – Arms smugglers used postal service to deliver weapons from US to Russia – FSB

Russia Insider – Washington Cracks Down on Kiev: Feds Bust Ukrainian Weapons Smuggling Ring

– Investigation Into Murder of Russian Ambassador Takes an Unexpected Turn

The Hill – State Dept. seeks to keep Russian diplomat’s cause of death private

Independent – French police sniper accidentally shoots two people during Francois Hollande speech

– Nicola Sturgeon announces second Scottish referendum

BBC – Holyrood and the great Brexit numbers game

Reuters – G20 financial leaders acquiesce to U.S., drop free trade pledge

True Publica – EC Entrenches Dangerous ISDS System – Global Super Court For Corporations To Subvert Democracy

Quartz Africa – Namibia doesn’t want “aid” to make up for Germany’s genocide—it wants $30 billion

Global Research (Stephen Lendman) – Israel’s Crime of Apartheid: UN Agency Head’s Forced Resignation

Continuing D.C. skullduggery…

CBS News – Suspicious cellular activity in D.C. suggests monitoring of individuals’ smartphones

The Atlantic – Washington’s Spy Paranoia

N.Y. Times (March 1) – Obama Administration Rushed to Preserve Intelligence of Russian Election Hacking

Note the new WashPo motto: Democracy Dies in Darkness – very apt inasmuch as this paper has for decades been committing sins of omission (on the JFK assassination, CIA, 9/11, etc.), and our democracy has suffered immeasurably because of it. Meanwhile, making much ado about nothing…

Washington Post (March 2) – Sessions met with Russian envoy twice last year, encounters he later did not disclose

Zero Hedge – Jeff Sessions Recuses Himself From Russia Probe

Infowars (Jerome Corsi) – Exposed: Insider Coup to Sabotage Trump

Breitbart (March 3) – Mark Levin to Congress: Investigate Obama’s ‘Silent Coup’ vs. Trump

In summary: the Obama administration sought, and eventually obtained, authorization to eavesdrop on the Trump campaign; continued monitoring the Trump team even when no evidence of wrongdoing was found; then relaxed the NSA rules to allow evidence to be shared widely within the government, virtually ensuring that the information, including the conversations of private citizens, would be leaked to the media.

Trump evidently reads the article, then goes ballistic in the early morning of Saturday, March 4, from his Mar-A-Lago redoubt in Palm Beach. Writer Massimo Calabresi couldn’t have put it better in the opening of the following essay…

Time – Inside Donald Trump’s War Against the State

At 6:35 a.m. on March 4, President Donald Trump launched an attack against the government of the United States…

Where existential alarm over the fate of the U.S. is invoked, however, we see – with admitted wishful thinking – cause to hope for the restoration of the Constitutional Republic of the U.S., particularly where the Fourth Amendment is concerned…

@realDonaldTrump – Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my “wires tapped” in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!

– Is it legal for a sitting President to be “wire tapping” a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!

– I’d bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!

– How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!

Before heading to the “Winter White House” however, a heated discussion had taken place in the Oval Office – perhaps over the tactics to take in dealing with the above allegations…

Daily Mail – Donald’s eruption in the Oval Office: Video emerges of Trump’s ‘furious argument’ with top adviser Steven Bannon as Ivanka and Jared look on, hours before President made phone tapping claims

Denials and speculations ensue…

N.Y. Times (March 5) – Comey Asks Justice Dept. to Reject Trump’s Wiretapping Claim

Zero Hedge – Obama’s Surrogates Continue to Deny Trump Tower Surveillance, But Evidence Suggests Otherwise

Blacklisted News (citing Common Dreams, Guardian) – Obama’s wiretaps on Trump Tower were routed through and conducted by British Intelligence, in an effort to circumvent U.S. surveillance law.

The Hill – Grassley probes FBI’s ties to British spy who investigated Trump

Empty Wheel – The Feedback Loop in Christopher Steele’s Dossier

U.S. News and World Report – NSA Whistleblower Backs Trump Up on Wiretap Claims

Judicial Watch (March 6) – Judicial Watch Sues CIA, DOJ and Treasury for Records Related to Intelligence Leaks Regarding Investigation of General Flynn

Prison Planet (FOX News) – Catherine Herridge: Top Level Deep State Operatives Leaked Flynn Phone Call Transcripts

March 7, – NSA payback to CIA?…

WikiLeaks (also Zero Hedge) – Vault 7: CIA Hacking Tools Revealed

Download at link with the password, (a quote of JFK’s prescribed remedy): “SplinterItIntoAThousandPiecesAndScatterItIntoTheWinds”

Empty Wheel – Password: 0sbP@ss

Zero Hedge – Snowden: What The Wikileaks Revelations Show Is “Reckless Beyond Words”

– Hunt For Snowden 2 Begins: Feds Launch Criminal Probe Into Wikileaks’ CIA Source

– Counter-Coup Spookmaster Dr. Steve Pieczenik Discusses Destruction Of CIA And Game Changing Implications Of #Vault7

Canada Free Press – CIA DIRTY CYBER TRICKS?

Intercept – WikiLeaks Dump Shows CIA Could Turn Smart TVs into Listening Devices

Techdirt – CIA Leaks Unsurprisingly Show The Internet Of Broken Things Is A Spy’s Best Friend

Fortune – Sex Toy Maker Pays $3.75 Million to Settle ‘Smart’ Vibrator Lawsuit

Mirror – CIA planned to hack cars and trucks to carry out undetectable assassinations claims WikiLeaks

Vigilant Citizen – New Wikileaks Dump About CIA Hacking Sheds Light On the Mysterious Death of Michael Hastings

Mint Press News – Wikileaks Vault 7 Release Paints A Grim Picture For Journalism

Infowars (Jerome Corsi) – Vault 7: CIA Can Stage Fake Russian Hacking to Undermine Trump

Zero Hedge (March 15) – DOJ Charges Two Russian Spies In Massive Yahoo Hack

Blacklisted News (FOX) – Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich Warns Congress that CIA Wiretaps Are Real and It Happened to Him

Newsmax (Larry Klayman) – Nunes Must Ask FBI’s Comey About Montgomery Mass Surveillance Case

WaPo (March 20) – FBI Director Comey confirms probe of possible coordination between Kremlin and Trump campaign

Raw Story (McClatchy) – Here’s what one top Democrat finds suspicious about Trump-Russia contacts

McClatchyDC – FBI’s Russian-influence probe includes a look at far-right news sites

One of which then proceeds to drop the bomb…

Infowars (Corsi) – NSA Documents Prove Surveillance of Donald Trump & His Family

Millennium Report – “THE HAMMER” — Ultra-secret Supercomputer System Used by CIA/NSA to Wiretap Trump

Politico (March 22) – Nunes: Trump transition members were under surveillance during Obama administration

FOX News (March 23) – Potential ‘smoking gun’ showing Obama administration spied on Trump team, source says

Zero Hedge (March 29) – SMOKING GUN? Obama Defense Deputy Slips Up On Live TV – Reveals Spying On Trump Team And Leaking Of Intel

NBC News – Obama Officials Made List of Russia Probe Documents to Keep Them Safe

N.Y. Times (March 30) – 2 White House Officials Helped Give Nunes Intelligence Reports

As Zero Hedge notes, one was a Flynn protégé whom McMaster had attempted to oust…

Politico (March 14) – Trump steps in to keep 30-year-old NSC aide

Bloomberg – White House Invites Lawmakers to View Surveillance Documents

Washington Free Beacon – NSA Set to Provide Classified Communications Intercepts to House Committee

The willingness of the White House to be forthcoming on details of the investigation may throw cold water on the following conjecture, or the NSA may confirm it, that indeed the surveillance had nothing to do with Russia, but instead was prompted by investigations concerning matters South of the border…

Wayne Madsen Report – March 23-24, 2017 — Nunes and Schiff unintentionally let the Trump cat out of the bag

Although journalists and those who believe in open government hate it, there is a reason why senior intelligence officials often reply “no comment” to questions surrounding intelligence matters. In the world of intelligence gathering, even the most innocuous comment can reveal information not intended for the ears of the general public. In the world of operational security, these minor tidbits of information are known as “essential elements of friendly information” or simply, EEFI.

In the partisan bickering that broke out on March 22 between House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) and the ranking member on the intelligence oversight committee, Adam Schiff (D-CA), both, likely unintentionally, revealed EEFI concerning the U.S. intelligence community’s “incidental surveillance” of Donald Trump and his transition team between Election Day, November 8, and the inauguration on January 20.

During a March 22 briefing for reporters outside the White House after a controversial briefing for Trump and his advisers, Nunes revealed that “dozens” of intelligence reports he was given about the Trump “incidental surveillance” made “no mention of Russia.” Nunes said the information was brought to him by “sources who thought we should know it.” Nunes said the interceptions of the Trump team were “legally collected” pursuant to a warrant issued by a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge and involved “foreign” surveillance not involving Russia.

Nunes elaborated further in stating that “normal, formal surveillance” provided to him yielded “significant information” about both Trump and his “team.” But Nunes provided a caveat to that particular revelation, stating that details about Trump and his team had “little or no apparent foreign intelligence value” and “were widely disseminated in intelligence community reporting” because their identities had been “unmasked” within the U.S. intelligence community during the transition phase. However, if the “formal” surveillance of Team Trump did not involve foreign intelligence, that means it must have involved a law enforcement matter and was authorized by a Title III “wiretap” order authorized by a normal federal court outside of the FISA aegis and carried out by the FBI and Justice Department’s Electronic Surveillance Unit.

Nunes’s EEFI offering provides the following points of interest:

– The incidental surveillance made no mention of Russia.
– The formal surveillance was of little or no intelligence value.
– The formal surveillance, while of no value to intelligence agencies, may have been of great interest to law enforcement, especially the FBI. Hence, FBI director James Comey’s reticence to provide details concerning its investigation of the Trump transition team during his recent testimony before the House Intelligence Committee.
– If some of the surveillance information made no mention of Russia, perhaps it did mention other countries.

The definition of “team” is important since if it extended beyond the transition team to the campaign team, it would include Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, national security adviser Michael Flynn, and foreign policy adviser Carter Page. It is now known that Manafort was contracted to the pro-Russian political party in Ukraine that was ousted in the 2014 U.S.-inspired coup while Page also had business dealings with the Russian government-owned energy firm Gazprom and Flynn’s consulting company had Russian business connections.

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) said that Nunes’s statement appeared to reveal “classified information.” It, at the very least, revealed EEFI from which more sensitive intelligence can be derived.

Trump’s problems may not be found with Russia but, ironically, south of the U.S. border, a border which the president is trying to seal with a great and “beautiful” wall.

The “incidental surveillance” of Trump and his associates, which was cited by Nunes and made no mention of Russia, may very well been a result of National Security Agency and its FIVE EYES partners’ surveillance of a major fraud case involving billionaire former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli, who escaped an arrest warrant in Panama and is now living in Miami. Last September, at the height of the U.S. presidential campaign, Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela requested the Obama administration’s State and Justice Departments to extradite Martinelli.

Martinelli is wanted by Panama for embezzlement of funds, wiretapping his political and business enemies, insider stock trading, money laundering, and other crimes. So far, the Trump administration has taken no action on the Panamanian extradition request. Perhaps that is because in Panama, Trump is known as the “American Martinelli.” Moreover, Martinelli is a close friend and business associate of Trump. Martinelli, exiled in Miami as a fugitive from justice and wanted by Panama, was invited to attend Trump’s inauguration in Washington. Before he deleted it, Martinelli posted a photograph of his Inaugural invitation on Twitter. As president, Martinelli was on hand for the 2011 opening of Trump’s first tower in Panama City, the Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower. During the ceremony, Trump referred to Martinelli as his “friend.”

The ties between Trump and Martinelli run even deeper. The bank in which Martinelli owns a significant stake, Global Bank Corporation, was a co-trustee of Trump’s Ocean Club. When the Trump property developer, Newland International Properties Corporation, defaulted on its Global Bank loan in 2013, the Martinelli bank was forced to bail out Newland. The real estate scams surrounding the Trump Panama Hotel Management LLC, Trump Panama Condominium Management LLC — both incorporated in Delaware — Newland Properties, Trump Ocean Club Unit 2710 Inc., K Group — which pays Trump Marks Panama $5 million per year for using the Trump brand name — the Trump Organization, the Trump Ocean Club, and Global Bank are merely the tip of the iceberg surrounding the overall criminal accusations surrounding Trump’s friend Martinelli…

Hundreds of thousands of documents were leaked from the Panama City law firm Mossack Fonseca, which incorporated thousands of offshore shell companies for the Central Intelligence Agency, narcotics syndicates, Arab oil sheikhs, and businessmen like Martinelli, Trump, and Trump’s Argentine friend, President Mauricio Macri. It is known that Latin America’s largest ever bribery scandal that involves the huge Brazilian building contractor Odebrecht SA, now laps at the shores of the Trump Organization via Martinelli.

In December 2016, during the presidential transition phase, the U.S. Justice Department announced a settlement with Odebrecht in which the firm and its affiliate Braskem agreed to pay a fine of $3.6 billion for violation of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Most of the fine collected by Justice was to be turned over to Brazil, which began the investigation of Odebrecht with its “Lava Jato” (Car Wash) probe.

As part of its deal with DOJ, what information did Odebrecht’s executives share with Justice Department prosecutors concerning its operations in Panama, especially those involving the Trump Tower and Martinelli? Any involvement of Trump with the Odebrecht and Mossack Fonseca criminal scandals would have prompted any U.S. judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court or on the bench of a regular U.S. court district to authorize electronic surveillance of the Trump Organization. When Nunes stated the “incidental surveillance” of Trump and his associates did not involve Russia, was he actually implying it involved another country, perhaps Panama?

The political fallout from Odebrecht is beginning to stick to Trump. Odebrecht paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to politicians in Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, Chile, Guatemala,the Dominican Republic, Antigua and Barbuda, Angola, Mozambique, and other countries and some of these politicians are linked to Trump business enterprises.

Argentina’s Macri has been linked to the Odebrecht bribery scandal mainly through the connections to the firm of his cousin Angelo Calcaterra, Macri’s Energy Minister Juan José Aranguren, and other officials of his government. With the help of business associates of Macri, a Trump Tower was built in Uruguay in 2012. Trump has been pressuring Macri and his friends to build the first Trump Tower in Buenos Aires and a Buenos Aires building permit for the deal was apparently the subject of a phone conversation between Trump and Macri after Trump’s election in November.

However, not all has been well between the Trump and Macri families over the years. Franco Macri, the father of the Argentine president, believed the mastermind behind the kidnapping for ransom of Mauricio Macri in 1991 was none other than Donald Trump, who the elder Macri described as the “true intellectual author” of the crime. Perhaps that is why the right-wing Mauricio Macri openly endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in 2016.

In Peru, an arrest warrant has been issued for former President Alejandro Toledo who stands accused of receiving a $10 million bribe from Odebrecht for a highway contract. Toledo was on his way to Israel but is now in the United States. The current President of Peru, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, was Toledo’s finance minister. The Trump administration has not responded to Peruvian requests for Toledo’s extradition from the U.S. and Kuczynski has been mired in allegations concerning his own connections with Odebrecht. Perhaps that was the reason why Kuczynski followed up a phone call with Trump with a personal visit to the White House in February. All Trump and Kuczynski spoke about during their joint remarks was Kuczynski receiving an award from Princeton University, Kuczynski’s two daughters attending Princeton and Columbia, and Peru’s decision to buy some U.S. military vehicles. If Kuczynski and Trump are subject to FISA and Title III wiretaps concerning Odebrecht, they may have found more than family to chat about. Kuczynski previously asked Trump to extradite his former boss Toledo to Peru. But with Kucynski now a target of the Odebrecht probe, he may have asked Trump to keep Toledo under wraps in the U.S. and not singing to a Peruvian court.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office most likely to have been assigned the investigation of the Martinelli extradition request is the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida in Miami. This office has historically been occupied by right-wing prosecutors linked to Latin American right-wing leaders, many of which, like Martinelli, maintain residences in the Miami area. If Trump is looking at protecting those who could spill the beans on his and his Trump Organization’s own ties to Odebrecht, what better way than to nominate a former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida to his cabinet. Trump nominated such a former U.S. Attorney, Alexander Acosta, to be his Secretary of Labor. Acosta was involved in negotiating as U.S. Attorney the sweetheart plea deal with convicted child molester and Trump billionaire friend Jeffrey Epstein. The deal immunized from future prosecution Epstein’s VIP friends who were involved in his underage sex operations.

As a former U.S. Attorney in Miami and former dean of Florida International University law school, Acosta has enough clout to help ward off any federal investigations emanating from the Miami U.S. Attorney’s Office, which would include advocating for the extraditions of Martinelli and Toledo back to their home countries where they might start naming names, including that of Trump and his associates. Odebrecht, the company that built Miami International Airport, may also have dirt on southern Florida politicians, including members of the Republican Cuban-American political “mafia,” which also includes Acosta. Odebrecht maintained a Division of Structured Operations, which was dubbed the “Department of Bribery” by U.S. Justice Department investigators. Were Trump and members of his business empire caught up in a legitimate DOJ investigation of Odebrecht, with ancillary intelligence being provided by the NSA and its Canadian counterpart, Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC), which conducts full-time surveillance of Latin American communications? If the answer is yes, and it appears to be so, that would explain Nunes and Schiff talking around the issue, which involves the collection of raw signals intelligence data on a massive number of foreign businesses and “U.S. persons.”

teleSUR – Argentina Set to Drop $2 Billion for Largest Weapons Acquisition Since Malvinas War

From Manafort to Deripaska to Brassington, Daniel Hopsicker uncovers a tie in to the South of the border networks that he has been exposing for years…

Mad Cow News – Russian Oligarch in Election Probe Linked to Drug Cartel

– Russian in hacking probe linked to alt-right stock fraud

WhoWhatWhy – Why FBI Can’t Tell All on Trump, Russia

Daily Kos (wnemirow) – Trump’s Russian/Kremlin Connections (with Citations & Links & Updates)

New Yorker – Donald Trump’s Worst Deal

Various theories as to the ringleader of the stay-behind “deep throats”…

Lame Cherry – The Ringleader of the Trump Coup was Sec. of State John Kerry

Infowars (RT) – Former CIA Analyst: Obama Gave “Green Light” For NSA, CIA to Sabotage Trump

Citing a Jan. 12 BBC story linking the origins of the Russia-Trump allegations to an April 2016 report from a Baltic intelligence agency shown to DCI Brennan, this being the basis of the FISA applications…

American Spectator – All Roads Lead Back to Brennan

Also alleged to be the basis of the October FISA application; a “secret server” in Trump Tower communicating with Alfa Bank. This story broke on the momentous day of Hallowe’en at Slate, by-lined Franklin Foer. The Intercept however quickly disputed the allegation.

Washington Free Beacon (OAN) – DOJ Found Malware in Trump Tower Servers ‘Mimicking’ Contacts to Russian Entities

So much for the alleged Russian DNC hackers and their “Fancy Bear”. What is quite odd in the following story however is that the discrediting of these allegations is coming from what has long been recognized as a U.S. propaganda tool – the VOA historically being to the Soviets much as RT is now to America…

Voice of America – Think Tank: Cyber Firm at Center of Russian Hacking Charges Misread Data

– Cyber Firm Rewrites Part of Disputed Russian Hacking Report

Liberty Blitzkrieg – What is CrowdStrike? Firm Hired by DNC has Ties to Hillary Clinton, a Ukrainian Billionaire and Google

WikiLeaks Vault 7 continues March 23 with Dark Matter and March 31 with Marble Framework, revealing the tools by which the source of viruses, trojans, and hacking attacks can be falsely attributed.

Russia Insider – CIA’s Frankfurt Spy HQ Could Be Source of ‘Ties’ Between Putin and Trump

Reuters – CIA contractors likely source of latest WikiLeaks release: U.S. officials

“Likely,” but with spook matters, always look for the ‘volatile smiles’ in the probability margins for the actual; for instance…

WMR – March 9-10, 2017 — CIA SIGINT disclosure appears to be retaliation for Langley’s involvement with Snowden leak

When this editor worked in the National Security Agency’s “S Group” in the mid-1980s, our center chief, an Army colonel, once cautioned us not to say anything about our White House-directed mission to the “opposition.” The comment was bizarre, since everyone in our group was cleared for Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI), polygraphed, and even voice stress analyzed. When the colonel asked us if there were any questions, I asked why he would caution us against saying anything to the Soviets because we all knew very well what the law was and the severe ramifications for breaking it. The colonel replied, “I’m not talking about the Russians, I’m referring to the CIA!”….

WMR previously reported that the massive leak of NSA documents by CIA officer-turned-NSA contractor Edward Snowden may have been part of an operation by Langley to expose the massive surveillance capabilities of NSA. The exposure of these NSA operations may have been predicated by the compromise to NSA of extremely sensitive and potentially illegal operations by the CIA in areas of banking, finance, sexual blackmail, and human trafficking.

Now, with a massive unauthorized disclosure of CIA SIGINT and offensive information warfare capabilities to WikiLeaks, the NSA may have engineered its revenge against Langley for the Snowden operation. The CIA document disclosures provides evidence of massive redundancy of SIGINT and offensive cyber-warfare operations between the CIA and the joint activities of NSA and U.S. Cyber Command, the headquarters of both located at Fort Meade and led by NSA director Admiral Mike Rogers. On November 17, 2016, Rogers had an unauthorized meeting with president-elect Trump at the Trump Tower. Rogers’s actions resulted in demands by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, and, according to WMR’s sources, CIA director John Brennan, for President Obama to fire Rogers. Rogers continues to serve Trump as NSA director and U.S. Cyber Command chief.

On February 14, 2014, WMR reported the following:

“Sources within the U.S. intelligence community have told WMR, on the condition of anonymity, that National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden gained access to and released tens of thousands of classified NSA documents because a faction within the Central Intelligence Agency was growing increasingly alarmed over the massive surveillance system controlled by NSA. In many cases, highly compartmented CIA covert operations abroad were made known to NSA because of the ability of the signals intelligence and cyber warfare agency to monitor full spectrum digital communications worldwide, including those of the CIA.

A group of active and retired CIA officers, in addition to CIA contractors, set out to expose the NSA’s massive surveillance operations, as well as those of its foreign partners. Snowden, a former CIA employee who worked for the joint NSA-CIA Special Collection Service in Geneva, Switzerland as an official cover CIA employee attached to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations and in Misawa, Japan under non-official cover with Dell Computer and Booz Allen Hamilton, was chosen by the CIA faction as the person best positioned to collect NSA documents and leak them to the media

NSA recently fired a U.S. government civilian who worked at the NSA Regional Security Operations Center in Kunia, Hawaii. The unnamed male civilian, who was not charged with any crime, is said to have shared his “Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Certificate” with Snowden, allowing access to the NSANet. NSA claims that Snowden did not have access to NSANet. NSA’s claims of collusion between Snowden and the civilian employee are contained in an UNCLASSIFIED/FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY memo for the House Judiciary Committee dated February 10, 2014. The memo also states that Snowden was assisted by two other personnel in Kunia, an active duty military member and a contractor, in collecting the NSA documents. Although the FBI investigated all three unidentified employees at the Kunia facility, no criminal charges against them were filed by Justice Department prosecutors. The memo states that the civilian government employee “remained in an uncleared employee status pending an appeal of the revocation [of his security clearance], and he resigned on 10 January 2014.”

Our report continued:

“Elements within the CIA have also informed the Obama White House, particularly John Podesta, the counselor to the president for all matters dealing with the NSA leaks, that if the White House or Justice Department moves against the CIA for the Snowden leaks, the CIA will release highly embarrassing personal information on the president.

The CIA faction helped arrange, through its own back channels, safe passage for Snowden from Hong Kong to Moscow. Attempts to kidnap or assassinate Snowden in Moscow have been stymied by close cooperation between the CIA faction and the Russian domestic security service, the Federal Security Bureau (FSB), and the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki or SVR).

The involvement of Booz Allen Hamilton, which is owned by the CIA- and Bush family-linked Carlyle Group, has put the Obama White House on notice that the operation to expose NSA involves powerful political forces. Suggestions by some within the Justice Department, including Attorney General Eric Holder, and Rick Ledgett, the NSA official in charge of the Snowden leak damage assessment, that some sort of clemency deal might be worked out between the U.S. government and Snowden that would allow him to return to the United States from Russia is a realization that the operation to expose NSA involves major elements of the U.S. Intelligence Community. Russia has granted Snowden permanent political asylum.

WMR has learned that NSA’s communications surveillance net compromised sensitive CIA operations for which NSA has no certified need-to-know or special compartmented access. The exposure of these CIA operations, including a weapons transfer operation that saw Libyan caches once in the hands of Muammar Qaddafi being transferred from Benghazi to jihadist forces in Syria. This intelligence became known to NSA’s FIVE EYES signals intelligence partners in Canada, Britain, and Australia. The compromise of such information to NSA resulted in CIA programs in Latin America, Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East being placed in jeopardy. Some of the more sensitive aspects of the CIA operations, including drone operations, were passed on to Israeli, Indian, French, and German intelligence by the Communications Security Establishment Canada, Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), and the Australian Signals Directorate.”

In February of this year, former NSA contractor and Reserve U.S. Naval officer Harold T. Martin III of Glen Burnie, Maryland, was indicted for illegally possessing at his home 50 terabytes of highly-classified electronic files, mostly from the NSA, with others originating from the CIA, U.S. Cyber Command at Fort Meade, and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Most of the documents were from NSA. Martin worked as a contractor from December 1993 to August 2016. One of the firms he worked for was Booz Allen Hamilton, the same firm that employed Snowden in Japan and Hawaii. The indictment of Martin was generated by the U.S. Attorney for Maryland, Rod Rosenstein, nominated by President Trump to be the deputy Attorney General under Jeff Sessions.

The FBI is now investigating CIA contractors for the leak of the so-called “Vault 7” document tranche to WikiLeaks. Two companies reportedly involved in the CIA’s cyber-warfare operations are Booz Allen Hamilton and Palantir, the latter owned by Trump friend and adviser Peter Thiel.

CBC – Families who sheltered Edward Snowden in Hong Kong ask Canada for asylum

USA Today – WikiLeaks will give tech firms access to CIA hacking tools: Assange

Business Insider – Leaked emails reveal Nigel Farage’s long-standing links to Julian Assange

Prison Planet – Trump Forced To Issue Apology To Britain Over Obama Wiretapping Claims

Intelligence Online – Five Eyes search for intranet contractor

Telegraph – The spy base where real-life British ‘Qs’ collaborated with CIA to hack TVs and phones

DW – Frankfurt used as remote hacking base for the CIA: WikiLeaks

TechDirt – Germany’s Spy Agency Walks Away From Three-Year Investigation With Expanded Spy Powers

Gateway Pundit – Russia Threatens To Leak Things Obama Asked Moscow To “Keep Secret”

ThereAreNoSunglasses – The Vampiric Cheney Rises From the Dead, Croaking Russian “Act of War”

Counterpunch (William Binney and Ray McGovern) – The Surveillance State Behind Russia-gate: Will Trump Take on the Spooks?

Regrettably the answer appears to be no…