[To learn more about the Freedom Center's recent victory
over the Left's censorship attempt, and its call for a coalition across party
and ideological lines to defend free speech, click
here.]
A strategy memo compiled by George Soros-funded activist
groups as President Trump was being inaugurated last year foretold and seemed
to lay the groundwork for many of the political difficulties Trump now faces
and the politics-related strife now roiling the nation.
The memo takes on a heightened importance as the
politically-driven censorship of conservatives by the gigantic, unregulated
social media corporations controlled by the Left is moving
into high gear while the crucial midterm congressional
elections of Nov. 6 approach.
The intensely anti-conservative animus in the memo may have
inspired MasterCard and WorldPay’s attempt on Aug. 21 to
strangle the fundraising efforts of the David Horowitz Freedom
Center, publisher of FrontPage, by refusing to complete its
financial transactions. On that day MasterCard informed the Freedom Center that
it would no longer process its transactions because it had been labeled a “hate
group” by the radical leftist groups known as the Southern Poverty Law Center
and ColorOfChange.org. The Freedom Center stood falsely accused of being
“hateful in nature” and “advocating for violence.”
Only a massive outcry by conservative groups and prominent
conservatives like Rush Limbaugh forced MasterCard to back down days later and
restore the Freedom Center’s online fundraising facilities. But other
conservative websites haven’t been so lucky. Many have been shut down or seen
their traffic slashed as leftists have manipulated algorithms and limited the
reach of conservative content.
The David Horowitz Freedom Center has
since called for a coalition to be created across partisan and
ideological lines to defend free speech.
The memo itself, "Democracy Matters: Strategic Plan for
Action," marked an escalation in tactics by the Left. It was first
made public last year by Joe Schoffstall of the Washington
Free Beacon around the time Donald Trump took the oath of office to become the
nation’s 45th president. This smoking-gun planning document aimed at suppressing
conservative voices on social media was ignored by the mainstream media at the
time and in the more than a year-and-a-half since.
The document spelled out the Left’s plans for impeaching
President Trump, filing lawsuits against the fledgling administration, and
using social media to delegitimize Trump’s presidency and hurt Republicans.
“Right now, our institutions are among the critical few that stand between the
America we love and the abyss,” the memo stated. “We must protect and defend
our democratic values. We will not back down. We will only move forward.”
WND founder Joseph Farah referred last
week to the 49-page memo as a blueprint “revealing how George Soros operatives,
including David Brock, were there at the genesis, the planning stages, with
their hands on the ignition key, of the most concerted, well-funded, diabolical
attack on free speech in the history of America.”
The document “was nothing short of a plan to turn Google,
Facebook and other social media into hyper-partisan Democratic Party activists,
promoters, cheerleaders, and off-the-books donors in an effort to turn the
country into a one-party state.”
The memo outlined left-wing activist David Brock's four-year
plan to undermine the Trump administration and Republicans using Media Matters
for America (MMfA), American Bridge 21st Century, Citizens for Responsibility
and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and left-wing propaganda website Shareblue.
All four organizations were either founded by Brock or are now controlled by
him. Since 2008, leftist billionaire George Soros has given more than $1.5
million to MMfA and more than $1.1 million to CREW through his philanthropies.
Brock, who reportedly raised $65 million during the 2016
election cycle, began working on
his plan more or less immediately after Republican Donald
Trump unexpectedly trounced Democrat Hillary Clinton in the presidential
election in November 2016.
Brock and his comrades met in Palm Beach, Fla., as Trump
assumed the presidency and Trump-hating Antifa rioted in the streets of the
nation’s capital. “What better way to spend inaugural weekend than talking
about how to kick Donald Trump’s ass?” Brock said in an email to left-wing
mega-donors including Soros and Tom Steyer.
Whether Brock can take responsibility for all the
leftist-inspired turmoil in the country is debatable, but many of the goals
identified in the memo have already come to pass.
According to the memo, MMfA “will continue its core mission
of disarming right-wing information.” This is what “success will look like,”
the document states:
Serial misinformers and
right-wing propagandists inhabiting everything from social media to the highest
levels of government will be exposed, discredited.
Internet and social media
platforms, like Google and Facebook, will no longer uncritically and without
consequence host and enrich fake news sites and propagandists.
Toxic alt-right social
media-fueled harassment campaigns that silence dissent and poison our national
discourse will be punished and halted.
CREW will become “the leading nonpartisan ethics watchdog
group in a period of crisis with a president and administration that present
possible conflicts of interest and ethical problems on an unprecedented scale,”
the memo states.
CREW “will demand ethical conduct from the administration
and all parts of government, expose improper influence from powerful interests,
and ensure accountability when the administration and others shirk ethical
standards, rules, and laws.”
Success will take this form, according to the document:
Trump will be afflicted by a
steady flow of damaging information, new revelations, and an inability to avoid
conflicts issues.
The Trump administration will be
forced to defend illegal conduct in court.
Powerful industries and interest
groups will see their influence wane.
Dark money will be a political
liability in key states.
The Shareblue website “will take back social media for
Democrats,” the memo states. The group will “delegitimize Donald Trump's
presidency by emboldening the opposition and empowering the majority of Americans
who oppose him.”
Success will be achieved when the following happens:
Shareblue will become the de
facto news outlet for opposition leaders and the grassroots.
Trump allies will be forced to
step down or change course due to news pushed by Shareblue.
Under pressure from Shareblue,
Democrats will take more aggressive positions against Trump.
Shareblue will achieve financial
sustainability while diversifying content offerings and platforms.
Top editorial and writing talent
will leave competitors to join Shareblue.
Meanwhile, President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office
on Tuesday that social media giants Google, Twitter, and Facebook “better be
careful” because they “are treading on very, very troubled territory” by
favoring left-wing viewpoints.
Earlier that day he tweeted, “This is a very serious
situation—will be addressed!”
“Google search results for ‘Trump News’ shows only the
viewing/reporting of Fake New Media. In other words, they have it RIGGED, for
me & others, so that almost all stories & news is BAD,” he wrote.
“Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out. Illegal.”
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has indicated he will not testify
at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Sept. 5. on social media and Russian
meddling in American elections. Unlike Pichai, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and
Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg are expected to testify.
Whether Dorsey and Sandberg will tell the truth is an open
question.
When you see the American Left deliver unproven propaganda
against President Trump or violent riots against a Conservative voice or fake
police accusations, more than likely there is some form of a Communist agenda
behind it.
America is at a dangerous crossroads, and all normal
Americans, who love God, their families and their unalienable rights and
Liberty, are necessarily going to have to eventually fight and decisively
defeat the American totalitarian Left, that seeks our silence, obeisance and
submission to their Marxist vision by any means necessary. The Left's recently
renewed ready use of violence to achieve their goals and their calls for the
violent overthrow of our republic, as they riot and throw bricks, glass bottles
containing M-80s and Molotov cocktails and attempt to burn our cities, leaves
little choice. Either our government stops them, or it will fall to millions of
armed American patriots defending their homes, their families and their lives,
because the Leftist ideology only ensures that freedom is replaced with
tyranny.
Although the Left constantly claims President Trump and his
administration and supporters are "fascists", Americans saw real live
fascists, every bit as despicable and violent as the Brown Shirts of Nazi
Germany, prior to Trump's nomination and after the election. Various groups
have gathered under the banner of Antifa, so-called "anti-fascists", and they have
prevented free speech on campuses and in cities across America, through riots
and organized and George Soros-funded acts of violence, often incited by
university professors who spread their hate for conservative America, from the
University of Washington and Sacramento State to Clemson, Cal State Fullerton,
UC Berkeley and points beyond.
The left-wing terrorist
organization Antifa explained: from the masks they wear, the belief systems
they follow, to the tactics they employ to enforce their agenda. Know their
plans and be prepared to defend yourself with the knowledge you gain in this video.
It was Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minister, who
noted: "History is made in the street."
Get enough Brown Shirts to silence your opponents, and you can seize power.
"Our side is growing and also prepared to be more
politically militant ...", Yvette Felarca, of the Antifa terrorist
organization By Any Means Necessary, told Al Jazeera, and she
added, "If the movement continues building as large and powerfully in
this direction, we can defeat Trump, his racist agenda, and get him out without
waiting for the next election.”
A howling mob of Leftists stopped Breitbart editor Milo
Yiannopoulos from speaking at the University of Washington on Inauguration Day
2017, and later that month a Black Lives Matter "activist" spoke to
an anti-Trump protest in Seattle and advocated for "killing the White
House".
On February 1st 2017, Occupy Oakland organized
1500 protesters to stop Yiannopoulos from speaking at the University of
California at Berkeley, and even after they succeeded, they rioted. Black clad
domestic terrorists threw bricks, beat suspected conservatives and Trump
supporters, smashed windows and set fires.
Occupy Oakland later proclaimed: "We won this
night. We will control the streets. We will liberate the land. We will fight
fascists. We will dismantle the state. This is war."
Does anyone recognize the irony at this point? Occupy
Oakland stopped free speech where anti-war leader Mario Savo and his
followers started the Free Speech Movement in 1964. Savo wanted a ban on campus political
activities lifted, and he demanded freedom of speech and academic
freedom.
Next in Antifa's sights is Ann Coulter,
a highly acclaimed journalist and an American patriot. Ms. Coulter plans to
honor an invitation from the Young Americans Foundation to speak at UC Berkeley
on Thursday April 27th, despite the speech being canceled by UC Berkeley.
Antifa is threatening to do anything it can to prevent Ms. Coulter from
speaking.
It is worth noting that during the April 15th free speech
event at Berkeley, which was organized by independent journalist Lauren
Southern, Antifa's tactics didn't work so well. They were promptly whipped by some anti-communist Freedom Loving
Oath Keepers and bikers, honest-to God red-blooded Americans, who showed up
ready for the fight.
These throngs of criminals and domestic terrorists clad in
black use their signature chaos and havoc-laden paramilitary "Black Bloc" tactics
to give the appearance of solidarity for any cause they support, and while they
claim to be anarchists, they are not. Ideologically they are the descendants of
the New Left uprisings of the 1960s, the Weather Underground [Bill Ayers] and the Black Panthers. They love the authoritarian State, as long
as it is used to advance a Marxist agenda and browbeat the people into
submission to achieve their desired goals. They are Marxists.
This rabble in the streets function as the strong-arm wing
of the heavily left-leaning Progressive Democratic Party, whose own vitriol
gave rise to much of this violence. The Democratic Party and its apologists
aren't too bothered by the riots, just as long as it's only conservatives,
Christians and Republicans who are harmed. If violence is what it takes for
them to prevail, they have no problem resorting to it. This is their message to
conservative America on the price of dissent where Leftists hold sway.
Matthew Vadum, author of Subversion, Inc, stated: [Antifa] “are nihilistic
thugs who want to destroy everything that is good in America. They're a leftist
counterpart to skinheads and neo-Nazis. They call themselves anti-fascists but
they use fascistic tactics against their targets. Just as Hitler's
Sturmabteilung, or SA, beat up and terrorized political opponents ...".
After the Berkeley riots, Yiannopoulos lamented: "America,
of all places, now, is seeing political violence in response to ideas ... Is
this the new normal? Riots in the streets ...?"
The Left hates conservative America and the U.S.
Constitution, because we have prevented them from dictating every minute detail
of our personal lives. We prevented these anti-American communists and militant
leftists from fundamentally transforming this wonderful and exceptional America
of ours into the hellish utopian totalitarian order of their fevered
imaginings, and for our defiance we must be broken, beaten or even killed.
For those of us who oppose Leftist nihilism, it is
impossible to reconcile with those who seek control over each individual's life
completely. No argument they present justifies eradicating capitalism. Must we
accept their assertion that the greatest problems for black Americans are
caused by white racism and white privilege? We have nothing in common with
those who label us misogynistic and homophobic over our concerns for the
traditional American family, and we certainly will never accept the notion that
America is imperialistic and immoral simply due to Her defense of the country.
How can America avoid conflict, when the New Left -- the
real fascists -- view everyone to the right of Bernie Sanders as racists and
fascists? This is the Left's Bolshevik moment as they attempt to gain momentum
for a revolution.
There can only be one America, a country that respects
everyone's rights and individual liberty. There will be no truce with domestic
terrorists, who act violently towards innocent men, women and children, young
and old, for the sake of altering our government. They have not any right to
exist in a free society, and they must be dealt with accordingly, or matters
will only become worse. Normally peaceful Americans, millions who swore oaths
to protect and defend the Constitution and America, will not allow these
outrages to continue, and they will not see our God-given rights undone by
Leftist thugs and a failed communist vision.
By Justin O. Smith
________________
Edited by John R. Houk
All links, photos (placed) and text embraced
by brackets are by the Editor.
I saw on Fox News that Senator John McCain is
publicly telling President Trump to put-up or apologize to the treasonous
President Obama pertaining to the accusation of wiretapping during the
2016-election cycle. I don’t have the Fox News clip but here’s the CNN
clip that Fox was referring to:
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said that
President Trump should provide evidence for his unsubstantiated claim that
former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower or retract the accusation.
My God! McCain might as well stop being a RINO and out right
join the Deep State Democratic Party and become an overt Obama minion. No
wonder McCain lost to the Marxist oriented Obama in 2008.
McCain is making all kinds of noise that more news will come
out connecting President Trump yet keeping silent (copying MSM) on mounting
evidence of Russian links to Crooked Hillary and family marking political
favors for God only knows what nefarious purposes.
While the liberals are trying their
hardest to set up the Republicans in questionable ties with Russia, it seems as
though it is being used as a distraction to hide the Democrats’ own connection
with Russia.
Hillary Clinton’s election
campaign manager, John Podesta, was on the board of a small energy company,
Joule Unlimited, when it was given $35 million from a Russian government fund
which has ties to Putin. (via Breitbart)
This information was discovered in
a 56-page report titled, “From Russia with Money: Hillary Clinton, the Russian
Reset, and Cronyism.” Podesta did not disclose this, although he is required to
do so by law.
This was written by a non-partisan
government watchdog group, the Government Accountability Institute (GAI).
Stephen Bannon, the Executive Chairman of Breitbart and the
Chief Strategist in the Trump Administration, is also the Executive Chairman of
GAI.
During the “Russian reset,” then
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was the flag bearer of U.S. involvement in
Russia’s technology initiative, called Skolkovo, which is intended to be
the Slavic version of Silicon Valley.
This “innovation city” was to be
located outside of Moscow and employ 30,000 people. Their technologically
advanced facilities would be under the strict control of the Russian
government. In 2013, the building was described, by Slate, as
reminiscent of the Soviet “utopia” building projects.
The GAI report revealed that the
Department of State, under Hillary Clinton, recruited companies like Intel,
Cisco, and Google to participate in Russia’s project. Of the 28 companies that
participated in Skolkovo, 17 were donors to the Clinton Foundation or
had paid Bill Clinton to speak.
As Clinton’s involvement increased
in the project, so did the chance that this technological investment was
actually a way to spy on American military technology. In 2014, the FBI gave
out an “extraordinary warning” to the companies participating in Skolkovo.
Podesta failed to mention that he
had memberships to the board of this company, even while knowing that Russian
investment in it may have been an attempt to steal our military technology. It
all seems a bit suspicious. Why was Clinton, the U.S. State Department, and
John Podesta tied up in this affair?
I can understand the Leftist MSM not picking up connections
between Crooked Hillary and the Russians, but what Senator McCain goes after
Trump for proof NOW when even the MSM has suggested improper violations of
Obama Administration of wiretapping is just nuts. McCain would
serve American Patriotism and the GOP better if he called out Obama to prove
President Trump is incorrect.
Here are some news tidbits that implicate Obama wiretapping
much more than President Trump angrily tweeting villainous Obama wiretapped the
Trump campaign in a moment of emotional display.
A quick look at Obama’s
history reveals he has always had the inclination, motivation, and opportunity
to snoop on and disseminate information about his political opponents. It’s how
he made his political career: getting his opponents'private
divorce records unsealed and leaked with the help of the
Chicago Tribune.
He and his administration
continued this pattern and practice of skirting laws throughout his eight years
in office, As Matthew Vadum reminds readers:
“Obama
used the IRS to target conservative and Tea Party nonprofits, along with
Catholic, Jewish, and pro-Israel organizations. He brazenly lied about it, too.
His Justice Department surreptitiously obtained telephone records for more than
100 reporters."
Wikileaks revealed that under
Obama, the NSA intercepted conversations of numerous foreign officials,
including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Angela Merkel, Benjamin Netanyahu,
Silvio Berlusconi, and Nicolas Sarkozy.
So it is rather astonishing
that so many disregard Trump’s claim that Obama and his aides spied upon
him and his staff. There were several means at his disposal for him to do so,
and it is increasingly likely that they did so. He apparently sought
-- twice -- to get the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court
to approve tapping Trump communications, and was turned down once, in June of
last year -- a rare occurrence as in 10,000 applications in a six-year period
only two were rejected. Reportedly the Obama administration tried again, using
a slightly modified request and received permission. Heat Street reported this on
November 7.
"What
we don't know is who was connected to that FISA," Carter said on Sean
Hannity's show Wednesday night. "What was that FISA looking at? That is
very highly classified. Nobody wants to talk about that particular FISA, right
now. They said it did have to do with the Russian hacking on a very broad
level, but it didn't hone in directly on Trump is what I was told," she
said.
In
addition to the FISA warrant in October, the FBI obtained a separate warrant
that same month to look into a computer server tied to then-candidate Donald
Trump's businesses in Trump Towers (but not located in Trump Towers). According
to the report, the feds used traditional investigative techniques
to examine allegations of computer activity tied to two Russian banks
and there had been no intercepts of Trump’s phone or emails.
The
FBI quickly concluded, "the computer activity in question involved no
nefarious contacts, bank transactions or encrypted communications with the
Russians."
The
months-long FBI counterintelligence investigation into Russian efforts to
influence the 2016 presidential campaign briefly investigated a computer server
tied to Donald Trump's businesses near the end of the election but has not
gathered evidence of election tampering to date that would warrant criminal
charges against any of the president’s associates, Circa has learned.
But a FISA warrant is not the
only way to surveil communications. Under Chapter 36 of Title 50 of the US
Code, and pursuant to Executive Order 12333, the president can authorize electronic
surveillance without a court order, and we don’t know if Obama utilized one of
these means as well. Nor can we ascertain who’s leaking, as on his way out of
office –-17 days before his term was up -- Obama allowed the National Security
Agency to circulate such intercepted messages among 16 other intelligence
agencies without following longstanding protocols designed to insure privacy of
those involved in the communications, in effect inviting selective leaking by
partisans in those agencies.
This week former NSA official
Bill Binney confirmed
the veracityof Trump’s claim that his conversations had been
tapped and monitored and claimed it was done outside the courts.
Binney
told Fox the laws that fall under the FISA court's jurisdiction are
"simply out there for show" and "trying to show that the
government is following the law, and being looked at and overseen by the Senate
and House intelligence committees and the courts."
"That's
not the main collection program for NSA," Binney said.
In any event, both the former
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and the head of the FBI James
Comey have stated without equivocation that there was no evidence found of
coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.
On the other hand, there is
increasing evidence of Russian ties to Hillary Clinton and those closely
connected to her.
Jerome Corsi connects a Russian billionaire to
Putin with close ties. He provides documentary “evidence of the
circuitous path the Russian government has been using since Hillary Clinton was
secretary of state to make large financial payments to John Podesta and to the
Clinton Foundation.”
These transfers were made at
the same time Hillary Clinton was transferring “U.S. advanced technology to
Russia.”
John Podesta is not the only
family member enriched by the Russians. His brother Tony also rode the Russian gravy train.
Russia's
largest bank, Sberbank, has confirmed that it hired the consultancy of Tony
Podesta, the elder brother of John Podesta who chaired Hillary Clinton's
presidential campaign, for lobbying its interests in the United States and
proactively seeking the removal of various Obama-era sanctions, the press
service of the Russian institution told TASS on Thursday.
[snip]
Previously,
The Daily Caller reported that Tony Podesta was proactively lobbying for
cancellation of a range of anti-Russian sanctions against the banking sector.
In particular, he represented interests of Sberbank and was paid $170,000 for
his efforts over a six-month period last year to seek to end one of the Obama
administration’s economic sanctions against that country. Podesta, founder
and chairman of the Podesta Group, is listed as a key lobbyist on behalf of
Sberbank, according to Senate lobbying disclosure forms. His firm received more
than $24 million in fees in 2016, much of it coming from foreign governments,
according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
Former
President Barack Obama imposed the Russian sanctions following the break out in
violence in east Ukraine in 2014.
Podesta’s
efforts were a key part of under-the-radar lobbying during the 2016 U.S.
presidential campaign led mainly by veteran Democratic strategists to remove
sanctions against Sberbank and VTB Capital, Russia’s second largest bank.
[snip]
The
lobbying campaign targeted Congress and the executive branch, with Podesta and
other lobbyists arranging at least two meetings between Sberbank officers and
Department of State officials, according to Elena Teplitskaya, Sberbank’s board
chairman, who spoke to House aides in August.
[snip]
The
Podesta Group represented Sberbank and its subsidiaries, Troika Dialog Group in
the Cayman Islands, SBGB Cyprus Ltd in Nicosia, Cyprus, and SB International in
Luxembourg. Troika Dialog also was related to Klein, Ltd., a Cayman Island
organization that once funneled tens of millions of dollars to environmental
groups to oppose low-cost fracking in the U.S., which was hurting the Russian
oil industry.
[snip]
Sberbank
was the lead financial institution in the Russian deal to purchase Uranium One,
owned by one of Bill Clinton’s closest friends, Frank Giustra. Giustra and Bill
Clinton lead the Clinton-Giustra Enterprise Partnership, an integral part of
the Clinton Foundation. Giustra has additionally donated $25 million to the
Clinton Foundation.
Giustra
sought to sell his stake in uranium reserves that included ore deposits in the
Western United States, and Hillary Clinton, who as secretary of state, approved
the sale. And in one felled swoop, 20 percent of America’s uranium ore was sold
to the Russian state atomic agency.
During
the pending sale, the Podesta Group represented Giustra’s company and tried to
advance the transaction.
So there probably was
surveillance on Trump and his associates, although no connection with
Russia was established with them. Instead, all the connections to Russia were
with Clinton and her closest associates.
What we also know was that,
like Hillary Clinton, the Congressional Democrats repeatedly demonstrate a
shocking disregard for national security. The Daily Caller has
documented what the mainstream media is largely ignoring: the fact that dozens
of Democratic congressmen, including the former head of the DNC, engaged three
brothers from Pakistan and two of their wives at salaries multiple times over
those similarly situated (over $4 million), gave them passwords, and allowed
them access to sensitive computer files, even though it is impossible to fathom
how people with their record of financial troubles got security clearances.
These brothers are presently under criminal investigation accused of stealing
House computer equipment and transferring information from Congressional files
to a personal server. They owe $100,000 to an Iraqi businessman believed to
have with ties to Hezb’allah who is a fugitive from U.S. authorities.
This week, to cap it off, the brothers are under investigation for kidnapping
and holding prisoner their
stepmotherto prevent her from seeing her dying husband in
Pakistan.
Politicoreports that Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the former
head of the DNC, refuses to fire one of the brothers even though he is banned
from the House network. She’s keeping him on as an “adviser.”
Really, it’s impossible to
parody Democrats these days. It would be too unbelievable.
+++
SUPERSTAR REPORTER GOES
PUBLIC WITH OBAMA'S CREEPY SPYING ON HER
Shares bizarre details
about hacked computer as she investigated scandals
“It
was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about
when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran.” –
George Orwell, “1984”
WASHINGTON – The woman who is
perhaps the nation’s top investigative journalist is fighting back against Big
Brother.
Sharyl Attkisson shared with
WND a detailed and harrowing description of what it was like to experience a
reality straight out of Orwell: The reporter claims she was spied on by the
Obama administration while investigating its scandals.
What tipped her off?
Imagine what it must be like
to watch your computer turn itself on and off.
“That’s one visible sign I
noticed over many months,” Attkisson told WND in an email interview.
“At the time, I suspected it
was some sort of phishing program seeking my passwords and contacts, and was
confident my computer had sufficient protections. I never suspected it was
connected to an intrusion of my systems until sources and forensics told me
that it was.”
She also watched a different
computer that she used delete files by itself.
After Attkisson released a
video showing that as it was happening, Vox’s Max Fisher claimed it was more
likely that she had a stuck backspace key.
WND asked, as an Emmy-award
winning investigative journalist and now the anchor of her own Sunday morning
national TV news program, “Full Measure,” did she find
Fisher’s claim that she was confused by a keyboard plausible?
“It was just a silly attempt
by a noted propagandist blog that had no firsthand information to deflect from
the surveillance,” she replied dismissively.
“The ‘expert’ didn’t even
know enough to understand there is no ‘backspace’ key on the computer shown,
and — in any event — that holding down such a key cannot duplicate the super
fast deletions demonstrated at the beginning of that particular video clip.”
The five-time Emmy Award
winner and recipient of the Edward R. Murrow award for investigative reporting
announced in January she is suing the Justice Department and seeking $35
million in damages for illegally hacking her computers and monitoring her work
between 2011 and 2013.
Three separate computer
forensic exams of her computers revealed what appears to be stunning evidence
pointing straight to the Obama administration.
“The most important and
irrefutable finding is: forensic evidence of a government-owned I.P. (internet
protocol) address accessing my computer,” Attkisson told WND.
She said she was told that
was “better evidence than the U.S. had when it accused China of various acts of
hacking into our government, which the government accepts as proven.”
Her computers were examined
by three independent forensics examiners including: a confidential source, an
examiner hired by CBS News, and an examiner hired by her attorney.
What they found is just
stunning.
Attkisson provided an
itemized overview of some of their findings, and described what
a confidential source and examiner hired by her attorney found:
§“A government-owned I.P. address
was used to access my computer.”
§“We are able to see
instances of exact date and time that the intruders entered my computers, and
the methods they used to do so.”
§“They used commercial,
non-attributable software proprietary to the CIA, FBI, NSA or DIA.”
§“The malware was constantly
running on my computers. It included a feature that logged my keystrokes,
accessed all my emails and collected my passwords.”
§“Skype was surreptitiously
used to listen in on audio.”
§“My smartphone was also
infected.”
§“Three classified documents
had been put on my computer.”
§“Once sources notified me
that I was likely being surveilled, and I discussed this in emails, the
intruders took steps to erase evidence of their presence. However, the
deletions themselves create a record of evidence.”
§“Attkisson’s computer was
accessed by an unauthorized, external, unknown party on multiple occasions in
late 2012.”
§“Evidence suggests this
party performed all access remotely using Attkisson’s accounts.”
§“An intruder had executed
commands that appeared to involve search and exfiltration of data.”
§“This party also used
sophisticated methods to remove all possible indications of unauthorized
activity, and alter system times to cause further confusion.”
§“[Attkisson’s] systems were
indeed subject to non-standard interactions between June 2012 and January
2013.”
§“Definitive evidence that
shows commands were run from Sharyl’s user account that she did not personally
authorize.”
§“This history has been
deliberately removed from Sharyl’s hard drive.”
§The intruders conducted an
inordinate number of internal computer clock “time stamp” changes, likely to
try to confuse any forensics that might be conducted.
Why her?
WND asked the former CBS Washington bureau investigative
correspondent, did she think the administration considered her a foe? And acted
to stop her out of purely political concerns?
“I have no idea, the perpetrators would have to answer that
question and they certainly aren’t stepping forward,” she replied.
“But,” she continued, “my computer intrusions occurred in
context of the Obama administration’s crackdown on whistleblowers and a lot of
my work deals with whistleblowers.”
“Additionally, we know the administration was aggressively
trying to control the narrative on a number of stories it saw as damaging,
especially as the re-election year of 2012 shaped up.”
Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, records previously
obtained by the government watchdog group Judicial Watch indicate
Attkisson was targeted by the Obama administration because of critical
reporting.
In 2014, Judicial Watch said it “obtained an October 4,
2011, email to White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz, Attorney
General Eric Holder’s top press aide, (in which) Tracy Schmaler, described
Attkisson as ‘out of control.’
“Schmaler added ominously, ‘I’m also calling Sharryl’s [sic]
editor and reaching out to Scheiffer’ (an apparent reference to CBS’ Chief
Washington Correspondent and Face the Nation moderator Bob Scheiffer). Schultz
responded, ‘Good. Her piece was really bad for the AG’ (attorney general.)”
Given that Obama’s Justice Department had labeled her as
“out of control” and tried to get the reporter’s employer to rein her in, WND
asked Attkisson: What did she make of an administration that seeks to
control reporters?
“I expect it,” was the sober response. “But it’s our job to
resist it and we aren’t doing a very good job of that as an industry.”
“Yes. I was informed about my case prior to us knowing about
any of the other cases, just before the Snowden revelations, and prior to
former DNI (Director of National Intelligence James) Clapper falsely telling
Congress that the government was not collecting data of millions of Americans…but all of these events
occurred in the same general time frame.”
So, was it the administration that was “out of control?”
“You decide!” she replied, echoing a famous news slogan.
Investigating the truth about her own story, the
award-winning reporter has faced what she called a Catch-22 dilemma.
“To find out who accessed my computer, we need the
government’s cooperation, but the government isn’t cooperating.”
“In my lawsuit, we seek to learn who had access to the I.P.
address that was used to infiltrate my computer,” she continued. “To date, the
Department of Justice has taken multiple steps to block us from finding this answer.”
However, her persistence has revealed some compelling
results.
“Finally, at my request, the DOJ (Department of Justice)
Inspector General’s office sent investigators to look at a separate computer,
my personal home computer.”
Attkisson said that although the Justice Department’s
inspector general’s office will not release their notes and records, “and have
improperly failed to respond to my Freedom of Information Act request for the
information,” their forensics investigators reported to her that they found the
following on her personal computer:
§“Evidence of suspicious
deletions of files that could not have been done by me.
§“Use of my computer in
‘advanced mode’ (which was not done by me).”
§“‘Someone’ installed
software onto my desktop and executed it and overwrote some important logs
effectively covering their tracks and erasing much evidence of their actions.”
§“As with my CBS computer,
they found a lot of unusual time and date setting changes on my personal
computer as well (15 times in four days).”
§“They executed data
recovery, recovering previously deleted logs.”
Attkisson said the forensics examiners working for the
Justice Department’s inspector general “told me they believed the intruder(s)
were actually working in my house at the computer conducting these acts, rather
than conducting them remotely, but, in fact, the acts were conducted remotely,
as with the work computers referenced above.”
“Furthermore,” she continued, “the examiners indicated that
prior to their supervisors signing off on their findings, ‘somebody’ narrowed
their mission to only reporting on any ‘remote’ intrusions (i.e. not addressing
the suspicious forensics they found by someone they believed was actually in my
house working at the computer.)”
And that’s when the investigation hit a wall.
“At this point, as their report was sent to higher-ups for
approval, they dialed back their communications with me and would not deliver
the promised final report or the notes that went with it.”
Attkisson said she filed a FOIA to obtain them but it was
ignored. Many months went by.
“When Congress pressed the issue, the DOJ IG issued only a
summary and emphasized there was no evidence of ‘remote’ intrusion in that
computer and left out the suspicious forensics they discovered,” explained the
investigative super-sleuth. “To this day, the DOJ IG has failed to properly
respond to my FOIA requests seeking the full information and report.”
As a result, “Many in the media misreported that this DOJ IG
report was somehow conclusive evidence that my computers had not been
infiltrated.”
“In fact,” she clarified, “the DOJ IG didn’t even examine
the primary computers in question — referenced in the other exams above—
because CBS would not allow them to look at the computers.”
Did she think the problem was specific to the previous
administration, or was it due the growth of the surveillance community, its
powers and lack of oversight?
“I think this is an outgrowth of technology that makes such
surveillance possible, politicians and corporate interests who are willing to
use it for improper purposes, and a weak and conflicted news media that has
done little to stop it.”
Finally, WND said it would be remiss if it did not ask the
ace reporter if her experience had given her any insight into President Trump’s
accusations that his campaign had been spied on by the Obama administration.
However, Attkisson said she has not looked at, or reported,
on those allegations.
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SUPERSTAR REPORTER GOES
PUBLIC WITH OBAMA'S CREEPY SPYING ON HER
