Russia probes kick into high gear

[Will Due]

15 minutes ago, RAyMO said:

That said i can't see either Hillary or Trump taking any real heat for whatever happened.

Lol

Pardon me for giggling, tsssssss.

You can't see Trump taking heat? The swamp criminals have been holding a blow torch to him for months! 

Result: unscathed, clean and exculpated.

 

Now for Hillary: 

Anyone for a BBQ?

 

 

[aztek]

2 hours ago, The Narcisse said:

And now we have an indictment...it very well may stop with Manafort...but to continue denying that the Russia connection is a TOTAL fabrication is lunacy.

Ukraine is not Russia.  it is not about Russia influencing election, indictment is not anywhere close about that,  still insisting on russia connection is a lunacy and idiocy. yes it is a TOTAL fabrication

Edited October 30, 2017 by aztek

[Space Commander Travis]

3 hours ago, aztek said:

Ukraine is not Russia.  it is not about Russia influencing election, indictment is not anywhere close about that,  still insisting on russia connection is a lunacy and idiocy. yes it is a TOTAL fabrication

In fact, since Ukraine and Russia have something of a beef currently, it might be said that doing something pro-Ukraine is actually anti-Russia. 

[BeastieRunner]

11 hours ago, Manfred von Dreidecker said:

well of course the "investigation" set up by the "Democrats" will come out with all the lies you'd expect them to. Do you still believe there's any mileage to be had from this ridiculous worn out old conspiracy then?

American conservatives have bad memories. Mueller a Republican, loved by Republicans, respected by Republicans, served under Republicans, appointed by Republicans, is part of a Democratic conspiracy? And Paul had little to no part in Trump getting elected?

[Space Commander Travis]

Dear me, you don't still believe that the "Democrats" and the "Republicans" hate each other and fight each other bitterly, do you? The entire election campaign was both sides conspiring to keep Trump out, and when they didn't, what we've seen ever since is both sides (or should I say both "sides") conspiring (or at any rate the "Democrats" conspiring with a large part of the "Republicans") to contrive some excuse to get him booted out. 

[Vorg]

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-has-trouble-staying-focused-was-indictments-n815711

 

We now know that the Trump campaign was aware that Russia had hacked Clinton campaign emails before it was public, that a top adviser to Trump tried to conspire with Russian agents to get those emails, and that the Trump campaign chair owed huge, shady sums to Russian allies," Klain said.

"On the eve of Halloween, any ongoing effort by Trump to claim that the Mueller investigation is just a 'witch hunt' has been blown to pieces," he added.

 

 

It is alleged that Russia hacked the DNC, but they never allowed any intelligence or law enforcement agencies to exam the servers. Even Wikileaks has claimed the emails did not come from Russia. And I would believe Assange over any Clinton campaign members.

[Space Commander Travis]

2 minutes ago, South Alabam said:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-has-trouble-staying-focused-was-indictments-n815711

 

We now know that the Trump campaign was aware that Russia had hacked Clinton campaign emails before it was public, that a top adviser to Trump tried to conspire with Russian agents to get those emails, and that the Trump campaign chair owed huge, shady sums to Russian allies," Klain said.

"On the eve of Halloween, any ongoing effort by Trump to claim that the Mueller investigation is just a 'witch hunt' has been blown to pieces," he added.

 

 

It is alleged that Russia hacked the DNC, but they never allowed any intelligence or law enforcement agencies to exam the servers. Even Wikileaks has claimed the emails did not come from Russia. And I would believe Assange over any Clinton campaign members.

"Tried to conspire", "Huge shady sums". Note the vagueness there. I wonder, did this "investigation" even consider the possibility that it might have been a "Democratic" Party insider, or was that not in their terms of reference at all and what they were instructed to do was prove that it was the Russians?

[Will Due]

Isn't it interesting?

The elite (those who think they're smarter than everybody) wants to eliminate Trump.

But the more they use deceit to do this, the more the ordinary people of America are able to recognize what's really happening. And support for Trump and his agenda just continues to grow.

However under their smart radar it is.

 

 

[Vorg]

17 minutes ago, Will Due said:

Isn't it interesting?

The elite (those who think they're smarter than everybody) wants to eliminate Trump.

But the more they use deceit to do this, the more the ordinary people of America are able to recognize what's really happening. And support for Trump and his agenda just continues to grow.

However under their smart radar it is.

 

 

Exactly. Here is an example: http://www.newsweek.com/did-trump-campaign-collude-russia-follow-money-595661

That same summer, a Kremlin-linked hacking operation gained unauthorized access to Democratic Party email accounts, and distributed them to WikiLeaks.

 

It is alleged that Russia hacked the DNC, and it is alleged that Russia distributed them to Wikileaks, even though, once again, Assagne has stated they did not come from Russia.

So how could these be stated as facts in Newsweek, when neither server has been examined by intelligence or law enforcement agencies? Even the media (which we know) is biased towards their parties foe.

The media has become a tool of the rich and powerful, to pull the wool over the eyes of the unsuspecting, gullible, and down right uniformed. And those watching out for the rest of America, see this.

Edited October 30, 2017 by South Alabam

[Why not]

10 minutes ago, Will Due said:

Isn't it interesting?

The elite (those who think they're smarter than everybody) wants to eliminate Trump.

But the more they use deceit to do this, the more the ordinary people of America are able to recognize what's really happening. And support for Trump and his agenda just continues to grow.

However under their smart radar it is.

 

 

They are afraid their way of business as usual (both sides) is going to be exposed to us common folks.

I have always said if the DC swap is to be drained the first thing that must be done is to outlaw lobbying. That is the worst of the swamp.

BTW. I wonder if Frank Zappa was still alive if he would still be as liberal as he once was. 

[Will Due]

1 minute ago, Why not said:

They are afraid their way of business as usual (both sides) is going to be exposed to us common folks.

I have always said if the DC swap is to be drained the first thing that must be done is to outlaw lobbying. That is the worst of the swamp.

BTW. I wonder if Frank Zappa was still alive if he would still be as liberal as he once was. 

Rest assured, he would still know not to eat the yellow snow.

(now known as liberal dribble)

 

 

[Baz Dane]

1 hour ago, Manfred von Dreidecker said:

Dear me, you don't still believe that the "Democrats" and the "Republicans" hate each other and fight each other bitterly, do you? The entire election campaign was both sides conspiring to keep Trump out, and when they didn't, what we've seen ever since is both sides (or should I say both "sides") conspiring (or at any rate the "Democrats" conspiring with a large part of the "Republicans") to contrive some excuse to get him booted out. 

 

Ha!

You correctly answered, in just a couple of quick sentences, what Hillary took a whole book to rant/lie about... and STILL got it wrong

"What Happened" ... indeed

This is the book Hillary should have written...

[Baz Dane]

20 minutes ago, South Alabam said:

Exactly. Here is an example: http://www.newsweek.com/did-trump-campaign-collude-russia-follow-money-595661

That same summer, a Kremlin-linked hacking operation gained unauthorized access to Democratic Party email accounts, and distributed them to WikiLeaks.

 

It is alleged that Russia hacked the DNC, and it is alleged that Russia distributed them to Wikileaks, even though, once again, Assagne has stated they did not come from Russia.

So how could these be stated as facts in Newsweek, when neither server has been examined by intelligence or law enforcement agencies? Even the media (which we know) is biased towards their parties foe.

The media has become a tool of the rich and powerful, to pull the wool over the eyes of the unsuspecting, gullible, and down right uniformed. And those watching out for the rest of America, see this.

 

That's part of the plan... Now, the MSM floats as FACT, that Russia hacked the DNC

There still has been ZERO evidence brought out... in over a year now... that suggests this "fact" to be true.

Here's VOX just 4 hours ago...

- "Here is what we now know: The Trump campaign..." blah blah blah blah blah blah...

- "We also know the Russians really did hack into John Podesta’s and the DNC’s email accounts and found and released emails that damaged Clinton."

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/30/16571114/trump-russia-mueller-indictments-manafort-gates-papadopolous

 

It's all a crock

[Vorg]

9 minutes ago, Lemieux said:

 

That's part of the plan... Now, the MSM floats as FACT, that Russia hacked the DNC

There still has been ZERO evidence brought out... in over a year now... that suggests this "fact" to be true.

Here's VOX just 4 hours ago...

- "Here is what we now know: The Trump campaign..." blah blah blah blah blah blah...

- "We also know the Russians really did hack into John Podesta’s and the DNC’s email accounts and found and released emails that damaged Clinton."

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/30/16571114/trump-russia-mueller-indictments-manafort-gates-papadopolous

 

It's all a crock

Exactly. No forensic evidence from these servers, and touted as "fact" in MSM.

[ExpandMyMind]

6 hours ago, RoofGardener said:

OoooooKAY... an indictment for breaking the rules on political lobbying... for UKRAINE, not Russia... several years BEFORE Trump stood for election, and an associated charge of tax evasion arising from said lobbying.

Sooooooo......... the first indictment by the commission investigating Russian interference with the Presidential Election appears to have NOTHING to do with interference with the Presidential Election ? Or am I missing something ?

That's how these things work. They'll go at Manafort and try to squeeze him and the others for any information, then compare that with what they know, then fill in the holes, etc. Investigate, basically. You go at them with what you can 100% prove at that moment, so they have nowhere to turn. 

People here seem to be looking at this as though this announcement was the big, drum-roll preceded, be-all-and-end-all of the investigation. The reality is that it's essentially just one of the first steps in this type of investigation. 

Edited October 30, 2017 by ExpandMyMind

[ExpandMyMind]

21 minutes ago, Lemieux said:

 

That's part of the plan... Now, the MSM floats as FACT, that Russia hacked the DNC

There still has been ZERO evidence brought out... in over a year now... that suggests this "fact" to be true.

Here's VOX just 4 hours ago...

- "Here is what we now know: The Trump campaign..." blah blah blah blah blah blah...

- "We also know the Russians really did hack into John Podesta’s and the DNC’s email accounts and found and released emails that damaged Clinton."

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/30/16571114/trump-russia-mueller-indictments-manafort-gates-papadopolous

 

It's all a crock

It's about as close to fact as it gets. There are plenty of sources that show it was the Russians behind it.

Quote

Exhibit A in the case is this document created and later edited in the ubiquitous Microsoft Word format. Metadata left inside the file shows it was last edited by someone using the computer name "Феликс Эдмундович." That means the computer was configured to use the Russian language and that it was connected to a Russian-language keyboard. More intriguing still, "Феликс Эдмундович" is the colloquial name that translates to Felix Dzerzhinsky, the 20th Century Russian statesman who is best known for founding the Soviet secret police. (The metadata also shows that the purported DNC strategy memo was originally created by someone named Warren Flood, which happens to be the name of a LinkedIn userclaiming to provide strategy and data analytics services to Democratic candidates.)

Exhibit B is this opposition research document on Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Exhibit B is also written in Word. Several of the Web links in it are broken and contain the error message "Error! Hyperlink reference not valid." But in a PDF-formatted copy of the same document published by Gawker a few hours before Guccifer 2.0's post went live, the error messages with roughly the same meaning appear in Russian.

The most likely explanation is that the Russian error messages are an artifact left behind when the leaker converted the Word document into a PDF. That kind of conversion would be expected if the leaker's PC was set up to use Russian.

The other piece of evidence is more circumstantial, but it still strengthens the case that the person publishing the documents intentionally or unintentionally left Russian—or at least Eastern European—fingerprints on the leak. It's the use of ")))" in the accompanying blog post. That's a common way people in Eastern Europe and Russia denote a smiley in text. The grammar in the post strongly suggests that English is not the writer's native language, although in fairness, there's nothing indicating that the writer's mother tongue is Russian or even Eastern European.

All three pieces of evidence were teased out of the documents and noted on Twitter by an independent security researcher who goes by the handle PwnAllTheThings. The theory is also consistent with everything previously published by CrowdStrike, the security firm the DNC hired to investigate its suspicions that its servers had been breached. CrowdStrike researchers said they quickly determined that the servers had been infiltrated by two separate Russian hacking groups. In response to Wednesday's leak, CrowdStrike raised the possibility that the leak was part of a Russian Intelligence disinformation campaign. Company officials declined to comment on Thursday for this post.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/06/guccifer-leak-of-dnc-trump-research-has-a-russians-fingerprints-on-it/

Also see:

https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/26/russia-dnc-hack/

And the article that any who think there is no forensic evidence:

All Signs Point to Russia Being Behind the DNC Hack

Quote

So how good is the evidence? And what does all this mean?

The forensic evidence linking the DNC breach to known Russian operations is very strong. On June 20, two competing cybersecurity companies, Mandiant (part of FireEye) and Fidelis, confirmed CrowdStrike's initial findings that Russian intelligence indeed hacked the DNC. The forensic evidence that links network breaches to known groups is solid: used and reused tools, methods, infrastructure, even unique encryption keys. For example: in late March the attackers registered a domain with a typo—misdepatrment[.]com—to look suspiciously like the company hired by the DNC to manage its network, MIS Department. They then linked this deceptive domain to a long-known APT 28 so-called X-Tunnel command-and-control IP address, 45.32.129[.]185.

One of the strongest pieces of evidence linking GRU to the DNC hack is the equivalent of identical fingerprints found in two burglarized buildings: a reused command-and-control address—176.31.112[.]10—that was hard coded in a piece of malware found both in the German parliament as well as on the DNC's servers. Russian military intelligence was identified by the German domestic security agency BfV as the actor responsible for the Bundestag breach. The infrastructure behind the fake MIS Department domain was also linked to the Berlin intrusion through at least one other element, a shared SSL certificate.

 

The evidence linking the Guccifer 2.0 account to the same Russian operators is not as solid, yet a deception operation—a GRU false flag, in technical jargon—is still highly likely. Intelligence operatives and cybersecurity professionals long knew that such false flags were becoming more common. One noteworthy example was the sabotage of France's TV5 Monde station on 9/10 April 2015, initially claimed by the mysterious "CyberCaliphate," a group allegedly linked to ISIS. Then, in June, the French authorities suspected the same infamous APT 28 group behind the TV5 Monde breach, in preparation since January of that year. But the DNC deception is the most detailed and most significant case study so far. The technical details are as remarkable as its strategic context.

The metadata in the leaked documents are perhaps most revealing: one dumped document was modified using Russian language settings, by a user named "Феликс Эдмундович," a code name referring to the founder of the Soviet Secret Police, the Cheka, memorialised in a 15-ton iron statue in front of the old KGB headquarters during Soviet times. The original intruders made other errors: one leaked document included hyperlink error messages in Cyrillic, the result of editing the file on a computer with Russian language settings. After this mistake became public, the intruders removed the Cyrillic information from the metadata in the next dump and carefully used made-up user names from different world regions, thereby confirming they had made a mistake in the first round.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/4xa5g9/all-signs-point-to-russia-being-behind-the-dnc-hack

(And that previous link goes on).

The MSM speak about it as a fact because it's as close to being one that you can possibly get. It's common knowledge.

[ExpandMyMind]

Paul Manafort earned $600,000 a month from pro-Russia party, says Ukrainian report

Quote

Donald Trump’s former campaign chief, Paul Manafort, was indicted Monday on multiple charges in the United States’ ongoing special investigation into Russian interference. But the US is not the only nation investigating Manafort.

An internal investigation in Ukraine concluded that Manafort earned larger sums than he previously reported as a political consultant in the Eastern European country.

Manafort was paid at least $28.5 million, far more than the $12.5 million reported last year, from “black money” funds run by the Party of the Regions, according to a source with knowledge about the investigation. The Party of the Regions served as the pro-Kremlin political base for Ukraine's former President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia in 2014.

There are at least two other funds the Ukrainian investigation identified, and maybe more, each allegedly supported by oligarchs with ties to the Kremlin.

Ukraine’s domestic intelligence service, the SBU, infiltrated Manafort’s operation at the time he was working for Yanukovych. An internal report states that Manafort was paid $600,000 a month over four years, reaching the $28.5 million total, according to a source who has seen the report.

It wasn’t clear when Manafort’s relationship with Yanukovych's party ended, but the four years covered by the internal report ended in 2014.

Manafort ran Trump’s presidential campaign from May to August 2016, when he resigned amid reports about Manafort's past work for pro-Russian Ukrainian businessmen.

https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-10-30/paul-manafort-earned-600000-month-pro-russia-party-says-ukrainian-report

[ExpandMyMind]

 

Not sure if it's been mentioned but we have our first guilty plea, from George Papadopoulos. 

Mueller’s Collusion Pursuit Nets Ex-Trump Aide’s Guilty Plea

Quote

U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, tasked with pursuing collusion between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and foreign interests, just planted his first stake in the heart of the Russian matter.

Prosecutors on Mueller’s team revealed Monday that a foreign policy adviser on Trump’s campaign, George Papadopoulos, pursued Russia’s help in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign and sought to open communication lines to the Kremlin. 

Even more than the indictments of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, the case -- showing how Russians attempted to influence key Trump aides -- lays out a blueprint for Mueller’s work as his prosecutors circle other campaign officials.

The case against Papadopoulos details repeated contact between Trump’s campaign team and agents working on behalf of Russian interests during the 2016 election campaign. Emails and testimony show that two high-level supervisors and other campaign officials involved in national security and foreign policy were aware of these communications.

The campaign also received information that the Russians had thousands of emails containing “dirt” on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton months before hacked emails from the Democratic Party were made public.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-30/trump-foreign-policy-adviser-pleaded-guilty-in-mueller-probe

 

[Will Due]

Have you been watching the MSM report on the indictments today?

It's hilarious. CNN does not know they're the one who's on trial.

 

 

[Gromdor]

Reading about the charges and the 32 page indictment was pretty amusing.  Conspiracy against the United States  (Can't charge them with Treason, because we aren't at war with Russia.)

  They literally worked for Russian puppet president Viktor Yanukovych as strategists, lobbyists, and influence peddlers. You know, the guy that was semi violently tossed from power, fled to Russia and then the Russian "Militias" popped up and started the whole civil war thing in the Ukraine.

   The reason why they didn't report the hundreds of millions they were paid as "income as a foreign agent" was not because of ignorance but because they were off shoring it and then laundering it back to the US.

 

I can see how the interview for the job of Trump's strategist and campaign went. 

"What experience do you have?"

"Why, in our last job we helped support a Russian puppet president!"

"Really!?  We totally need that! "

[ExpandMyMind]

Russian content on Facebook, Google and Twitter reached far more users than companies first disclosed, congressional testimony says

Quote

Facebook plans to tell lawmakers on Tuesday that 126 million of its users may have seen content produced and circulated by Russian operatives, many times more than the company had previously disclosed about the reach of the online influence campaign targeting American voters.

The company previously reported that an estimated 10 million users had seen ads bought by Russian-controlled accounts and pages. But Facebook has been silent regarding the spread of free content despite independent researchers suggesting that it was seen by far more users than the ads were.

Tuesday’s planned disclosure, contained in draft company testimony obtained by The Washington Post ahead of three Capitol Hill hearings this week, comes as Facebook and other tech giants face mounting pressure to fully investigate the Russian campaign to influence American voters and reveal their findings to the public.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/2017/10/30/4509587e-bd84-11e7-97d9-bdab5a0ab381_story.html?utm_term=.b3f53de46300&tid=notifi_push_breaking-news&pushid=59f7a1634069751d0000002f

 

[Agent0range]

2 hours ago, Will Due said:

Have you been watching the MSM report on the indictments today?

It's hilarious. CNN does not know they're the one who's on trial.

 

 

Well, I turned on Foxnews after I heard about the indictments and was greeted with a story about burger emojis...and I am 100% serious.

[Will Due]

2 minutes ago, Agent0range said:

Well, I turned on Foxnews after I heard about the indictments and was greeted with a story about burger emojis...and I am 100% serious.

Good timing then.

Actually FoxNews is on trial too as far as I'm concerned. They're all in cahoots.

 

 

[Merc14]

6 minutes ago, Agent0range said:

Well, I turned on Foxnews after I heard about the indictments and was greeted with a story about burger emojis...and I am 100% serious.

Turn it on now NNs

[Gromdor]

Ten million to post bail, but home detention instead of jail?  Why even bother with bail then?