Criminal investigation

Bombshell: FBI’s ‘far more expansive’ Clinton investigations leading to ‘likely indictment’

Fox News’ Bret Baier dropped a bomb last night after confirming details of multiple FBI investigations into the various dealings of the Clinton Foundation as well as Hillary Clinton’s use of an unauthorized, non-secure, private email server for her official, government work as Secretary of State.

On Special Report, Baier reported that two separate sources “with intimate knowledge of the FBI investigations” had revealed details of the multiple investigations and the thumbnail of those revelations are pretty huge:

• Sources confirm that emails were discovered on Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin’s laptop that are believed to have originated from Hillary’s home-brew server.  The emails are not duplicates, which mean they had not been turned over during the original FBI investigation, and they may contain classified information.
• Additionally, sources confirmed that “it was a 99% accuracy” that Hillary’s server had been hacked by “at least five foreign intelligence agencies” and information had been retrieved by those foreign entities
• Baier learned from his sources that the investigation into the Clinton Foundation and “pay-for-play” allegations is much more expansive than previously revealed and has been active for over a year.
• Furthermore, an indictment is “likely” in the Foundation investigation, as long as the Obama Justice Department (or, potentially a Clinton Justice Department) doesn’t intervene.
• Contrary to the reported immunity deal with Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson that dictated their laptops were to be destroyed, the laptops are still intact and are currently being probed
• Many witnesses have already been interviewed twice and some will be interviewed a third time as the “avalanche” of evidence continues to pour in.

Follow the money

Assange: Clinton & ISIS funded by same money, Trump won’t be allowed to win (JOHN PILGER EXCLUSIVE)

In the second excerpt from the John Pilger Special, to be exclusively broadcast by RT on Saturday, courtesy of Dartmouth Films, Julian Assange accuses Hillary Clinton of misleading Americans about the true scope of Islamic State’s support from Washington’s Middle East allies.

In a 2014 email made public by Assange’s WikiLeaks last month, Hillary Clinton, who had served as secretary of state until the year before, urges John Podesta, then an advisor to Barack Obama, to “bring pressure” on Qatar and Saudi Arabia,“which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL [Islamic State, IS, ISIS] and other radical Sunni groups.”

National security

UMD Poll: US Voters Agree Crushing ISIS Is No. 1 National Security Priority

The American public is fiercely divided heading into the Nov. 8 election, but on the question of what the nation’s top national security priority should be, opinion is united, according to a new poll: Job one is defeating the Islamic State group.

In fact, the public is so unified that most voters in both parties want Washington and Moscow to put aside their differences and team up against the group. This is according to a national University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll of 1,528 registered voters, conducted by Nielsen-Scarborough and released Nov. 1.

Whether the Islamic State is an existential threat and therefore worth the effort is debatable. Robert McKenzie, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution specializing in US relations with the Islamic World, noted in a recent report that the FBI has labeled or charged only about 1,300 individuals as sympathizers with Islamic terrorist groups. For comparison, law enforcement officials estimate more than 1.4 million Americans are affiliated with criminal gangs. 

Energy security

The US keeps shutting down nuclear power plants and replacing them with coal or gas

America’s largest source of zero-carbon power is in serious trouble. And I’m not talking about wind or solar. They’re doing fine. The trouble is with nuclear power, which still provides about 19 percent of the nation’s electricity.

Since 2013, the United States has lost five nuclear power plants, retired before the end of their natural lifespan for economic reasons: Crystal River in Florida, Kewaunee in Wisconsin, San Onofre in California, Vermont Yankee, and, just at the end of October, Fort Calhoun in Nebraska. They’ve generally fallen victim to cheap natural gas, unfavorable market policies, and/or local opposition.

That’s a huge chunk of emissions-free power — gone. Those five plants alone produced nearly as much electricity as all of America’s solar panels last year. That’s not a knock on solar at all; it just shows the scale of what’s being lost here.

Biosecurity

Ebola adapted to easily infect people

Ebola dramatically adapted to infect human tissues with ease in the first few months of the 2014-15 outbreak, research suggests.

Two studies, in the journal Cell, found a mutation increased the virus' ability to infect human cells fourfold.

Scientists have argued the mutation may have been "pivotal" in the outbreak becoming the largest in recorded history.

There were 28,616 Ebola cases in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

And 11,310 people died during the outbreak.

Researchers at the University of Nottingham and the University of Massachusetts analysed the genetic code of nearly 2,000 Ebola virus samples.

Intel warning

Reports: US intelligence officials are warning of possible al Qaeda attacks in Virginia, Texas, New York

U.S. intelligence officials have warned local authorities in New York, Texas and Virginia about possible attacks by al Qaeda on Monday, a day before the U.S. presidential election, CBS News reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources.

No specific locations were mentioned, but U.S. intelligence officials alerted joint terrorism task forces about the possible threat, CBS reported.

“The FBI, working with our federal, state and local counterparts, shares and assesses intelligence on a daily basis and will continue to work closely with law enforcement and intelligence community partners to identify and disrupt any potential threat to public safety,” a senior FBI official told CBS.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report, and officials at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Corruption

Peter Kadzik: What More Will Wikileaks Reveal About the DOJ's Clinton Mole?

This week Wikileaks released a potential bombshell in the Podesta Emails when it revealed that a top Department of Justice Official, with a long and close personal history with John Podesta, the chairman of the Clinton Campaign, was providing the campaign with advance internal information about the series of investigations into Clinton.

Kadzik, who attended law school with Podesta at Georgetown, was also in the news this week as the FBI released its files on Mark Rich, a billionaire with close financial ties to the Clintons known for tax evasions and trading illegalities, who lobbied Podesta while Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff to obtain an infamous pardon. (Kadzik Biography at the Department of Justice)

Kadzik also appears to have been assigned a key role, given the FBI Director's re-initiating an investigation into the Clinton emails, at least in the DoJ involvement in the investigation as pertains to the Huma Abedin emails discovered on her husband's, former Congressman Anthony Weiner, computer.

Perhaps the email that stood out most to many was the one in which Podesta, referring back to the Monica Lewinski scandals of Bill Clinton, calls him a "fantastic lawyer" who helped keep him [Podesta] "out of jail."

Criminal investigation

FBI-Clinton Investigation Impacts Four Presidents

As the dam breaks on the latest Hillary Clinton scandals (emails & The Clinton Foundation), four U.S. presidents could get caught up in the deluge: Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and George H.W. Bush.

It appears that Obama lied when he said that he only learned about Hillary Clinton's secret server when the news broke to the general public. Apparently, Obama also sent and received Clinton unsecured emails himself, which was against the law. Perhaps that is why he is working so hard to get Hillary elected -- as protection from prosecution. Or perhaps after he leaves office, Obama wants to get in on the easy money that has so enriched previous presidents and prime ministers around the world, as they peddle their influence at the public's expense through organizations, such as the Bush family's Carlyle Group and the Clinton Foundation. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/31/september11.usa4

And that is why the Clinton-Bush connection (or cartel) screams out for attention now. In the wake of the ongoing FBI investigation, what has not been widely discussed in the corporate media is the decades-long relationship between the Clinton and the Bush families. It has a long and sordid history. Reports dating back to the Iran-Contra days in the 1980's, describe the corrupt relationship between the Clintons and then Vice-President George H.W. Bush (and former CIA Director), as drugs were being trafficked into the U.S. by the CIA through Mena, Arkansas. https://ajmacdonaldjr.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/george-h-w-bush-and-bill-clinton-corruption-cocaine-and-murder

Criminal investigation

Homeland Security Chairman: Clinton Could Be Impeached If Elected

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee warned Wednesday on Fox News that Hillary Clinton could be impeached if she were elected, essentially delegitimizing Clinton before Election Day.

Reacting to the FBI's announcement last week that it was reviewing a newly discovered batch of emails related to Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) was emphatic that impeachment would proceed if a criminal indictment of Clinton appeared imminent.

"This investigation will continue whether she wins or not, but assuming she wins and the investigation goes forward, and it looks like an indictment is pending, at that point of time in the Constitution, the House of Representatives would engage in an impeachment trial," McCaul said referring to a House investigation into Clinton's e-mails. "It would go to the Senate, and impeachment proceedings and removal would take place."

Criminal investigation

Task force working in shifts to handle new email cache in Clinton probe

A special team of analysts has been activated to sort and sift through the cache of newly discovered emails that kick-started the dormant Hillary Clinton email probe, two intelligence sources confirmed to Fox News.

The sources say the multi-agency task force was re-engaged over the weekend, with analysts working overlapping shifts covering 16 hours a day to identify new classified material.

The objective is to gain more clarity on the records recovered from ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner’s computer -- to assess if intelligence sources and methods were compromised and to inform FBI Director James Comey in case he faces more pressure for answers on the state of the investigation.

Comey’s announcement Friday that the bureau was reviewing newly discovered emails in the Clinton case – discovered during the separate sexting probe of the disgraced former congressman and estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin – drew criticism from Clinton allies who accused him of meddling in the election.

Public security

Chicago, Nearly a War Zone

Chicago is considered the most gang-infested city in the country, with an estimated gang population of over 100,000, representing nearly 60 different groups including the Vice Lords, the Black Disciples, the Four Corner Hustlers, the Black P. Stones, and the Latin Kings.

Part of the problem is the so called "Ferguson Effect," which has caused CPD officers to back off from enforcing all but the most heinous of crimes. Some officers reported anonymously to the Chicago Sun-Times that they have been afraid to make preemptive stops because the federal Justice Department and the American Civil Liberties Union are scrutinizing every move they make. This has resulted in the number of “street stops” dropping by 80 percent since the first of the year.

Criminals couldn't care less about gun restrictions placed on private citizens. Chicago’s Crime Lab interviewed Cook County Jail inmates last year and learned that they don’t obtain their guns from gun shows, Internet sales, or gun shops. As Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), explained: “More than two-thirds of these offenders got their guns from family, friends or fellow gang members. These people can’t obtain guns via legal means, and the existing restrictions don’t prevent them from being armed. Criminals can’t get a [FOID] card, and they darn sure can’t get a concealed carry permit.”

Corruption

Richard Bistrong: The dangerous charm of agents

That’s not something we often hear about. In most of my readings, agents are abstract concepts, part of an "issue" about potential ethical and legal hazards. But there's often something much deeper going on.

Most top agents are extremely kind, courteous and gracious people. Let me add overly polite. When their clients come to see them at far off locales, either for the first time or over the course of an engagement, the agents are wonderful hosts. From arrival at an airport until departure, the client is treated as an honored guest, often even invited for a meal or two at the agent's home.

I often found myself trying to politely refuse staying at the home of the agent but in some cases they would have none of it. I once ended up at the home of one of my intermediaries in South America, sprawled on the living room floor with him and his children, as he skillfully demonstrated how to field strip a very impressive hunting rifle. Even later, when I realized the agent was corrupt, I still liked the man.

Election security

“Stolen Elections”: How “Easy-to-Hack Voting Machines” Endanger Democracy

You might think the advent of computerized voting machines, starting around 2002, would have made it harder to corrupt vote counting. In fact, even the latest generation of such machines are much easier to hack without leaving a trace.

These machines are big money-makers for private corporations, which lobbied legislators about their supposed advantages. But they also pose a serious threat to the integrity of our elections.

DRE Direct-Recording Electronic or “touchscreen” voting machines that leave no paper trail will be mainly used by voters in 14 states, according to the Brennan Center,. Those states include Georgia, and Pennsylvania  —  which are in play this year. Even large regions of Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina and many other states still use them. Among the brand names are Shouptronic, AVC Advantage, AccuVote OS, Optech-III Eagle.

Most of these machines are over 10 years old, and the local authorities have no  manuals for maintenance and repair. Claiming a lack of funds, state legislatures have refused to replace them.

Electronic surveillance

Security Vs. Privacy – Standards for Surveillance Cameras in Public Places

Surveillance cameras guidelines were issued in the UK in order to assure that the public is protected, but not spied on. Surveillance Camera Commissioner Tony Porter recently launched a consultation on a draft national surveillance camera strategy for England and Wales.

This strategy aims to provide direction and leadership in the surveillance camera community to enable system operators to understand best practice and their legal obligations (such as those contained within the Data Protection Act and the Private Security Industry Act), according to the UK governmet website. It also aims to enable the surveillance camera community to demonstrate compliance with the principles of the surveillance camera code of practice and other guidance.

Porter explained to the register.co.uk what “surveillance by consent” meant: “For me, it means that this public space surveillance – which doesn’t sit under a specific legislative framework – is trusted by the public to be there for its needs,” Porter said. It means that the community knows that “surveillance is there to protect them, and not spy on them.”

Forensics

The London Police’s Secret Weapon

The Central Image Team of the London Metropolitan Police has been involved in testing a technology to speed up the processing of data and video footage in criminal investigations.

The key element of the system is the processing capacity of a supercomputer. It is combined with intelligent software and graphics processors to analyse video footage. The company behind the development, SeeQuestor, claims it makes it possible to index 24 hours of video footage in as little as 15 minutes.

The company said the Met Police and British Transport Police have been among those providing input to the design and running test cases. Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville, head of the Met’s Image Team, suggested the system could make a significant difference in searching through heavy volumes of video footage.

Nuclear security

The NUMEC Affair: Did Highly Enriched Uranium from the U.S. Aid Israel's Nuclear Weapons Program?

Beginning more than 50 years ago, and extending over the period from 1957 to 1978, according to official U.S. government records and studies, more than 300 kilograms of uranium 235 (U-235) in the form of highly enriched uranium (HEU) went missing from a nuclear fuel manufacturing plant in the small town of Apollo, Pennsylvania. The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) concluded in 1966 that there was about a 200-kilogram deficit between the U-235 in the form of HEU supplied to the plant and the amount returned in products to customers. After the AEC and its Oak Ridge office calculated the processing losses based on NUMEC’s records, they determined that the fate of about 100 kilograms of U-235 in the form of HEU remained unexplained. NUMEC paid for the missing material, but later disputed the AEC calculations, maintaining that the unexplained 100 kgs could be attributed to other processing losses. After decommissioning of the Apollo plant, more than 330 kgs of U-235 in the form of HEU were unaccounted for, with most of that deficit occurring while NUMEC ran the plant.

Criminal investigation

Influence peddling, acting for Putin's ally, hiding classified secrets and sexting - how FIVE separate FBI cases are probing virtually every one of Clinton's inner circle and their families

The extent to which Hillary Clinton's key advisers are now the focus of major FBI investigations is becoming clear.

The Clintons' long-term inner-circle - some of whom stretch back in service to the very first days of Bill's White House - are being examined in at least five separate investigations. 

The scale of the FBI's interest in some of America's most powerful political fixers - one of them a sitting governor - underlines just how difficult it will be for Clinton to shake off the taint of scandal if she enters the White House.

There are, in fact, not one but five separate FBI investigations which involve members of Clinton's inner circle or their closest relatives - the people at the center of what has come to be known as Clintonworld.

Forensics

New Hand Held Radiation Detector For First Responders

Security professionals seeking reliable radiation detection and identification for remote locations can now use a pocket-size search-and-find detector that is designed for high-sensitivity and accuracy. Because the new detector combines gamma and neutron detection, first responders and strike teams can now quickly locate a wide range of radioactive materials with a single device.

The Thermo Scientific RadEye SPRD-GN (spectroscopic personal radiation detector – gamma neutron) builds upon the family of RadEye personal radiation detectors. It is designed for use in both dynamic monitoring and isolated settings, including rural borders, on boats and on foot, that are not conducive to larger, fixed detection systems. The RadEye SPRD-GN incorporates a highly sensitive, dual sensing gamma and neutron detector. The advanced natural background rejection (NBR) technology continuously analyzes the radiation field and easily differentiates between artificial or natural radiation.

The RadEye SPRD-GN is the first handheld PRD to incorporate pulse shape discrimination (PSD), which separates real neutrons from high energy particles in the background. PSD allows the RadEye SPRD-GN to meet the strict ANSI N42.32-2006 standard for time to alarm, alarming within two seconds. Additionally, it is the first radiation detector to integrate a spectroscopic-capable CLYC (cesium lithium yttrium chloride) crystal. This technology allows for more reliable detection by measuring both neutron pulse height and shape.

Biosecurity

Cape Cod Ticks Present a New Health Concern

A recent study showed that some deer ticks on Cape Cod are carrying thePowassan virus, which can be transmitted to humans. While a Powassan infection is potentially serious, in most cases people with infected with Powassan never show any symptoms, according to an expert in infectious diseases.

“It’s not a reason for people to be extremely worried,” said Patrick J. Cahill, MD, a physician in the infectious disease clinical service departments at Cape Cod Hospital and Falmouth Hospital. “It’s like the other viral encephalidities in that in the vast majority of cases, it’s sub-clinical. Most people are not even going to know that they have been exposed to it. It may play a role in some of the longer-term neurologic symptoms that have been traditionally blamed on Lyme.”

Larry Dapsis, entomologist and deer tick project coordinator with Barnstable County, collaborated with the Laboratory of Medical Zoology at UMass-Amherst this spring to look for the Powassan virus in deer ticks in six Cape Cod locations. Infected ticks were found in Falmouth, Brewster, Orleans and Truro. The percentage of ticks infected with the virus ranged from 2.5 to 10.5 percent, he said.

Biosecurity

Vaccinating against dengue may increase Zika outbreaks

The research identifies a potentially serious public health concern. More than a third of the world's population lives in areas where dengue is endemic and cases of co-infection with Zika have already been reported.

Conducted at York University's Laboratory for Industrial and Applied Mathematics using mathematical modelling, the research was led by Biao Tang, an exchange PhD student from Xi'an Jiaotong University, in collaboration with York Professor Jianhong Wu and Tang's supervisor, Professor Yanni Xiao at Xi'an Jiaotong University. As dengue and Zika are both part of the Flaviviridae family transmitted through a common mosquito host, the researchers wanted to know how vaccinating for one would affect the incidence of the other.

"Vaccinating against one virus could not only affect the control of another virus, it could in fact make it easier for the other to spread," says Wu. "Recent evidence suggests that dengue virus antibodies can enhance the Zika virus infection. For that reason, we developed a new math model to investigate the effect of dengue vaccination on Zika outbreaks."

Electoral battles

Post-ABC Tracking Poll: Trump 46, Clinton 45, as Democratic enthusiasm dips

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are all but tied in the latest Washington Post-ABC News Tracking Poll, which finds Clinton backers slipping behind in enthusiasm even as the Democrat has an edge in early voting.

The tracking poll finds little shift in Clinton's overall support following news of the FBI's renewed look at Clinton emails, but strong enthusiasm among her supporters fell behind Trump in combined Saturday and Sunday interviews. By 53 to 43 percent, more Trump supporters say they are "very enthusiastic" about him, compared with Thursday and Friday when Trump's edge was negligible (53 percent vs. 51 percent).

Forensics

Thermo Scientific’s TruNarc Handheld Analyzer Gives LE Important Capabilities

Thermo Scientific’s TruNarc handheld analyzer has been given an expanded TruNarc v1.6 software update library to give law enforcement rapid field detection capability for many new narcotics and synthetic opioids 

for use by law enforcement agents, narcotics officers and customs personnel.

Users can now quickly and safely detect street drug W-18 and other lethal drugs with the newest library update for the Thermo Scientific TruNarc handheld narcotics analyzer.

“The TruNarc handheld analyzer is currently used by law enforcement agencies around the country to keep communities safe from the spread of emerging drug threats and to lead drug users toward treatment,” a spokesman told Homeland Security Today.

Nuclear security

Russia-US plutonium deal no longer in force after Putin signs bill

President Vladimir Putin has signed an act suspending a 2000 agreement between the US and Russia on reprocessing weapons-grade plutonium extracted from decommissioned warheads.

The bill has already been published on Russia's official legal information website, meaning it's now in force.

It mentions that a decision to restore the agreement can only be made by Russia's president.The deal between Moscow and Washington was ratified in 2000. As a means to safely utilize weapons-grade plutonium, it suggested a specific procedure to turn it into nuclear plant fuel. Starting from 2018, it was planned to reprocess 34 tons (68,000 pounds) of plutonium, which would have been enough to produce thousands of nuclear weapons, RIA Novosti reported.

Yet, while Russia has prepared the infrastructure necessary for the process, the US said it found the procedure too costly and instead opted for mixing plutonium with special dilutants to store it indefinitely.

Russia suspended the deal "due to drastic changes of circumstances, the rise of threat to strategic stability as a result of hostile actions of the US towards the Russian Federation and the inability of the US to provide for the accepted obligations to utilize the excess weapons-grade plutonium in accordance with the agreement," the new bill read.

Arms smuggling

Drug Smuggling Routes Between Israel and Lebanon Used for Hezbollah Weapons

The arrests of half a dozen residents of an Arab village in Israel’s far north accused of smuggling collaboration with Hezbollah has drawn fresh attention to the Lebanese terrorist group’s efforts to work with Arab citizens of its reviled enemy.

The six men, all hailing from Ghajar, an Israeli town straddling the Lebanese border, allegedly ran a cross-border drug and weapons smuggling network with operatives of the Shi’ite group.

A joint operation between the Israeli military, the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency and national police saw them arrested throughout September, suspected of smuggling explosive devices and drugs, conspiring with and gathering intelligence for Hezbollah, and planning attacks on Israeli civilians.

Arms smuggling

UK border security gaps could let terrorists bring in weapons, says report

In his report, released on Friday, Lord Harris, a Labour peer and former chair of the body that oversaw the Metropolitan police, says more can be done to make it harder for terrorists.

Firearms laws are tight in Britain, but there has been mounting concern among counter-terrorism officials about increased smuggling of weapons. Harris says: “In July and August the Metropolitan police recorded 202 firearms discharges, compared with 87 in the same months last year.

“In 2015, the National Crime Agency intercepted a boat travelling from France containing firearms obtained by a UK-based organised crime group. Our borders are not as secure as they should be and much greater efforts should be made to prevent the illegal transportation of weapons and people into the country.

Nuclear forensics

Nuclear CSI: Noninvasive procedure could identify criminal nuclear activity

Determining if an individual has handled nuclear materials, such as uranium or plutonium, is a challenge national defense agencies currently face. The standard protocol to detect uranium exposure is through a urine sample; however, urine is able to only identify those who have been exposed recently. Now, scientists at the University of Missouri have developed procedures that will better identify individuals exposed to uranium within one year. Scientists and homeland security experts believe this noninvasive procedure could identify individuals who may be smuggling nuclear materials for criminal purposes.

"We are working to develop a tool that law enforcement agencies in nuclear proliferation or smuggling investigations can use to identify individuals who have handled special nuclear material," said John Brockman, associate professor of research in the MU Research Reactor Center. "The goal of our research was to determine if hair, fingernail clippings and toenail clippings could be used to better detect uranium exposure."

Brockman collected hair, fingernail and toenail clippings from workers in nuclear research facilities from around the country. Testing procedures developed by Brockman and his team were able to identify exposure to both natural and manmade sources of uranium.

Nuclear smuggling

Guarding the U.S. Against Nuclear Smuggling Threats

Duncan heard testimony from Todd Owen, Executive Assistant Commissioner with the Office of Field Operations at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Department of Homeland Security. Owen highlighted that as the lead Department of Homeland Security agency for border security, CBP’s approach incorporates three layered elements to improve supply chain integrity, promote economic viability and increase resilience across the entire global supply chain system:

•    Advance Information and Targeting. Obtaining information about cargo, vessels and persons involved early in the shipment process and using advanced targeting techniques to increase domain awareness and assess the risk of all components and factors in the supply chain;
•    Government and Private Sector Collaboration. Enhancing federal and private sector partnerships and collaborating with foreign governments to extend enforcement efforts outward to points earlier in the supply chain; and
•    Advanced Detection Equipment and Technology. Maintaining robust inspection regimes at points of entry including the use of non-intrusive inspection equipment and radiation detection technologies.

Nuclear trafficking

NNSA, Bulgaria complete implementation of nuclear detection systems

Representatives with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DoE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria and the Bulgarian government recently completed Bulgaria’s new nuclear detection architecture.

The representatives said that the new architecture will enhance efforts to prevent the smuggling of dangerous radioactive materials across Bulgaria’s borders.

“Working together with our partners from the Ministry of Interior/Chief Directorate of Border Police (MOI/CDBP), we have successfully implemented a multilayered nuclear detection architecture in Bulgaria,” Anne Harrington, deputy administrator for defense nuclear non-proliferation for the NNSA, said. “With this architecture, MOI/CDBP can deter, detect and investigate the illicit trafficking of nuclear and radioactive materials at all of Bulgaria’s major points-of-entry. This represents a significant step in our governments’ joint efforts to keep dangerous materials out of the hands of smugglers and terrorists.”

Nuclear security

Pasadena company snags contract to expand nuclear monitoring

It has become increasingly difficult to stop the smuggling of nuclear material around the world. In a strange way, that may be good news for a Pasadena company, which recently snagged a $400 million federal contract to install its nuclear monitoring equipment in this country and around the world.

At U.S. border crossings, in every big U.S. seaport and at border sites around the globe, there’s a security device that scans for nuclear material. That’s the work of Tetra Tech in Pasadena.

The scanners are designed to catch people smuggling uranium and other radioactive substances. And that threat is real, said Christine Bent. She’s deputy director at NSDD, the Nuclear Smuggling Detection and Deterrence agency, which is part of the National Nuclear Security Administration.

“Radiological materials are pretty ubiquitous around the world because they’re used for a lot of good purposes,” Bent said, “like medical research.”

Spy story

BILL AND MONICA, THE MOSSAD AND GLOBAL–AS WELL AS U.S. NATIONAL –”SECURITY”

“Then, in April 1997, Rafi Eitan’s name began to surface in connection with a Mossad spy in Washington whom the FBI identified as code-named “Mega.”

His own well-placed source within Mossad had told Rafi Eitan that the FBI had begun to explore the role Mega could have had in the way Jonathan Pollard had been run. The FBI had recently interviewed Pollard in prison and he had admitted that even his high security clearance had not been enough to obtain some of the documents his handler, the funereal Yagur, had requested. The FBI knew such documents had a special code word through which they had to be accessed, which changed frequently, sometimes even on a daily basis. Yet Yagur had seemed to know the code within a matter of hours to give to Pollard. Had Mega provided it? Was Mega the second Israeli spy in Washington the FBI had long suspected? How close had he [or she?] been to Rafi Eitan?

These were the dangerous questions now being asked in Washington that could shatter the relationship between Washington and TEl Aviv.

Law & order

FBI drops more bombs on Clinton campaign, releases 15yo pardon docs

Days after the groundbreaking news that the FBI would be reopening an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of private email servers, they have followed up with a release of a trove of documents regarding Bill Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich in 2001.

The FBI released 129 pages of documents Monday that relate to former President Bill Clinton’s pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich over 15 years ago. Rich’s marriage to a Democratic donor launched an FBI investigation into the pardon, but it was closed without charges in 2005.

The FBI announced the release on its FBI Records Vault on Tuesday morning. The vault is where all Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests are released, but the timing is still questionable to many bipartisan lawmakers, such as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who wrote a letter to FBI Director James Comey, questioning the need to notify Congress about the newly discovered emails.

Election security

BERKLEY AND STANFORD STUDIES CONCLUDE THAT, WITHOUT VOTER FRAUD, THE ODDS HRC WON THE PRIMARIES IS 1 IN 77,000,000,000! “Clinton’s win was only possible through widespread vote fraud”

Widespread allegations of election fraud and voter suppression across the United States during the 2016 Democratic Primary has sparked the interest of several academic researchers and what they discovered in their research is disturbing.

The researchers each performed independent studies in which a few different statistical was applied to analyze various subsets of vote data and of the studies came to the same conclusion.

Namely that Hillary’s win was could have only been possible a result of widespread election fraud.

In fact, one of the statistical models applied by Stanford University researcher Rodolfo Cortes Barragan to a subset of the data found that the probability of the “huge discrepancies”  of which “nearly all are in favor of Hillary Clinton by a huge margin” was “statistically impossible” and that “the probability of this this happening was is 1 in 77 billion”.

Furthermore, the researchers found that the election fraud only occurred in places where the voting machines were hackable and that did not keep an paper trail of the ballots.

In these locations Hillary won by massive margins.

Aerospace

China unveils advanced J-20 stealth fighter in fly over at air show (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)

China has showcased its new J-20 stealth fighter in southern Guangdong Province’s city of Zhuhai in a spectacular fly over at Air Show China, the country’s biggest meeting of aircraft makers and buyers.

READ MORE: Beijing holds surprise South China Sea drills in response to US patrol

Two J-20s, China’s fifth-generation jets, swept over hundreds of spectators at the show’s opening ceremony in a 60-second flyby on Tuesday. The J-20 is a long-range radar-evading fighter jet equipped with air-to-air missiles. China has reportedly already produced six prototypes of the new stealth fighter, which is expected to add greatly to China’s offensive and defensive capabilities. 

Election security

Robert Steele: Final Memorandum on 2016 Election

The Russians are not hacking our emails or our electronic voting devices. Both the TIME cover story and the official press release are full of factual errors. The emails are being hacked by patriotic citizens, and the electronic fraud is all on the Clinton campaign. Stanford University has documented  the theft of the nomination from Bernie Sanders using electoral fraud, all this stuff about the Russians is a false flag cover story from an Establishment terrified that I might actually win and carry both the Senate and the House to victory as well. Reference:Robert Steele: DHS and DNI Statement on Russia and Electronic Electoral Machine Hacking Has Errors of Fact — Did White House Write This to Help Hillary Clinton?

Pay to Play. The real reason Hillary Clinton had a private server was to cover up the quid pro quocorruption in which she took tens of millions of dollars now hidden in offshore accounts from the Saudis and others – including the Russians – and then turned around and used her power as Secretary of State to sell Libya to the French, Syria and Yemen to the Saudis, and 25% of our uranium to the Russians. The emails being released on 1 November by Wikileaks should help the public to understand that Hillary and Bill Clinton are criminals who should be indicted for billions of dollars of theft from charitable donations, and hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of influence peddling – the selling of American blood, treasure, and spirit for personal profit. Reference: Wayne Madsen: Hillary Clinton’s Private Email Was Front End for a Private Foreign Policy/Intelligence Operation.

International security

Speech at the Valdai International Discussion Club, October 27, 2016

The tensions engendered by shifts in distribution of economic and political influence continue to grow. Mutual distrust creates a burden that narrows our possibilities for finding effective responses to the real threats and challenges facing the world today. Essentially, the entire globalisation project is in crisis today and in Europe, as we know well, we hear voices now saying that multiculturalism has failed.

I think this situation is in many respects the result of mistaken, hasty and to some extent over-confident choices made by some countries’ elites a quarter-of-a-century ago. Back then, in the late 1980s-early 1990s, there was a chance not just to accelerate the globalisation process but also to give it a different quality and make it more harmonious and sustainable in nature.

But some countries that saw themselves as victors in the Cold War, not just saw themselves this way but said it openly, took the course of simply reshaping the global political and economic order to fit their own interests.