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There is a tendency to exaggerate attacks, although genuine cyberwarfare attacks do exist starting from Stuxnet.

The term “war” could be applied to “cyber” activity only if there is a deliberate attempt to destroy some kind of infrastructure of foreign state like was the case of Stuxnet. 

(Re: It does not take a village — or a country; http://tinyurl.com/yguw93g  ).

If country A blocks country B’s intelligence from transmitting; if country B “blocks” country A’s battlefield communications capability during a military skirmish — that is  a clear “cyber warfare”.

Criminal hacking, Web site defacement, denial-of-service attacks — especially those directed against non-military and non-infrastructure targets — aren't “war” of any kind. It's more like (possibly a state-sponsored terrorism): attempt to get attention to specific group or goals. Not that different from, for example, support of jihadists bythe USA during Soviet Afgan war,  

Let’s be very clear; "real" war results in people being killed, in property being destroyed, in infrastructure and logistical capabilities being crippled. So for Internet attack to be called cyberwarfare it should meet at least one of this criteria; if not in effect, then in intention. And by “infrastructure” I mean real infrastructure— factories, hospitals, water treatment plants, power-generation facilities, roads and bridges. At least web sites that provide some kind of essential services like financial websites, not the Internet web site with general public information. 

Anything short of this is merely criminality, propaganda war, or "cold war" if you wish.

Hacking high officials email is more like a color revolution inspired trick, then anything else. 


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[Jul 23, 2021] Pennsylvania Decertifies County's Voting System, Cites Violation Of Election Code

So the voting system should be treated as a black box fully controlled by Dominion staff, right? That's an interesting turn of the events.
Jul 23, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
JUL 22, 2021

Authored by Mimi Nguyen Ly via The Epoch Times,

Pennsylvania 's top election official has decertified the voting system of rural Fulton County for future elections, saying that an election assessment by a third party had violated the Keystone State's election code, according to a release on Wednesday.

Acting Secretary of State Veronica Degraffenreid, an appointee of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, informed the Fulton County Board of Elections that she "did not arrive at this decision lightly."

Wake Technology Services Inc. (Wake TSI), a software company based in West Chester, Pennsylvania, had carried out an election assessment that involved its workers visiting Fulton County in December 2020 and in early February.

The company in May released a report that concluded the election was "well-run" and did not indicate any signs of fraud in Fulton County. However, five "issues of note" were uncovered , three of which are related to Dominion Voting Systems , whose electronic voting system was used in the county for the 2020 election.

"While these may seem minor, the impact on an election can be huge," Wake TSI said of the five issues. At the time, Dominion disputed the report's findings.

The Pennsylvania Department of State said in a statement on Wednesday that Wake TSI's access to the Fulton County's voting system "undermined the chain of custody requirements and strict access limitations necessary to prevent both intentional and inadvertent tampering with electronic voting systems."

It added that the "unauthorized access" prevents the vendor -- Dominion -- from "affirming that the system continues to meet state and federal certification standards."

Fulton county officials had allowed Wake TSI to "access certain key components of its certified system, including the county's election database, results files, and Windows systems logs," and to "use a system imaging tool to take complete hard drive images of these computers and other digital equipment," the department noted.

"These actions were taken in a manner that was not transparent," Degraffenreid said in her letter to Fulton County officials on Tuesday. She said the access given to Wake TSI has caused Fulton County's voting system to be "compromised," and that neither the county, state officials, nor Dominion could now "verify that the impacted components of Fulton County's leased voting system are safe to use in future elections."

"I have no other choice but to decertify the use of Fulton County's leased Dominion Democracy Suite 5.5A voting system last used in the November 2020 election," Degraffenreid wrote.

The Fulton County Board of Elections and Wake TSI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Pennsylvania Department of State previously said that a risk-limiting audit of the 2020 election has confirmed the state's election results.

The Pennsylvania Capital-Star reported that Fulton County needed to pay $25,000 to lease new equipment for its municipal elections in May, because Dominion refused to let the county use the voting machines that Wake TSI had accessed. According to the outlet, Dominion told the county that it violated its contract in letting a unaccredited and non-certified company inspect the machines.

Wake TSI's assessment in Fulton County was "set" by Pennsylvania Sen. Doug Mastriano, a Republican, according to a Dec. 31, 2020 document signed by the company that was obtained and published by the Arizona Mirror and The Washington Post. Wake TSI said in its report that Mastriano and Pennsylvania Sen. Judy Ward, also a Republican, "were aware of our efforts."

The document also said that Wake TSI was "contracted to Defending the Republic," a nonprofit founded by lawyer Sidney Powell, who has alleged that widespread fraud occurred in the 2020 election.

Mastriano earlier this month issued letters to York, Tioga, and Philadelphia counties requesting that they voluntarily submit information and materials by July 31, to enable what he calls a "forensic investigation" of the 2020 and 2021 elections. He told The Epoch Times that he seeks for an investigation that would be "a big deep dive, like we saw in Arizona, but even deeper."

Wake TSI was also involved in the election audit still underway in Arizona's Maricopa County up until its contract expired in May. The audit in Maricopa County was ordered by the Arizona state Senate's Republican majority. Dominion machines in Maricopa County will also be replaced .

Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, a Republican, said the machines were not tampered with during the audit and questioned the Board of Supervisors' decision to get new machines.

"If their experts can't prove the machines have not been tampered with, then how does the [Secretary of State's office] or County Elections certify the machines before every audit to make sure the machines haven't been tampered with?" she asked in June.

[May 24, 2021] Vulnerabilities in Billions of Wi-Fi Devices Let Hackers Bypass Firewalls by Dan Goodin

www.zerohedge.com
May 21, 2021

One of the things that makes Wi-Fi work is its ability to break big chunks of data into smaller chunks and combine smaller chunks into bigger chunks, depending on the needs of the network at any given moment. These mundane network plumbing features, it turns out, have been harboring vulnerabilities that can be exploited to send users to malicious websites or exploit or tamper with network-connected devices, newly published research shows.

In all, researcher Mathy Vanhoef found a dozen vulnerabilities, either in the Wi-Fi specification or in the way the specification has been implemented in huge numbers of devices. Vanhoef has dubbed the vulnerabilities FragAttacks , short for fragmentation and aggregation attacks, because they all involve frame fragmentation or frame aggregation. Broadly speaking, they allow people within radio range to inject frames of their choice into networks protected by WPA-based encryption.

Bad news FURTHER READING Serious flaw in WPA2 protocol lets attackers intercept passwords and much more Assessing the impact of the vulnerabilities isn't straightforward. FragAttacks allow data to be injected into Wi-Fi traffic, but they don't make it possible to exfiltrate anything out. That means FragAttacks can't be used to read passwords or other sensitive information the way a previous Wi-Fi attack of Vanhoef, called Krack , did. But it turns out that the vulnerabilities -- some that have been part of Wi-Fi since its release in 1997 -- can be exploited to inflict other kinds of damage, particularly if paired with other types of hacks.

"It's never good to have someone able to drop packets into your network or target your devices on the network," Mike Kershaw, a Wi-Fi security expert and developer of the open source Kismet wireless sniffer and IDS, wrote in an email. "In some regards, these are no worse than using an unencrypted access point at a coffee shop -- someone can do the same to you there, trivially -- but because they can happen on networks you'd otherwise think are secure and might have configured as a trusted network, it's certainly bad news."

He added: "Overall, I think they give someone who was already targeting an attack against an individual or company a foothold they wouldn't have had before, which is definitely impactful, but probably don't pose as huge a risk as drive-by attacks to the average person."

While the flaws were disclosed last week in an industry-wide effort nine months in the making, it remains unclear in many cases which devices were vulnerable to which vulnerabilities and which vulnerabilities, if any, have received security updates. It's almost a certainty that many Wi-Fi-enabled devices will never be fixed.

Rogue DNS injection

One of the most severe vulnerabilities in the FragAttacks suite resides in the Wi-Fi specification itself. Tracked as CVE-2020-24588, the flaw can be exploited in a way that forces Wi-Fi devices to use a rogue DNS server, which in turn can deliver users to malicious websites rather than the ones they intended. From there, hackers can read and modify any unencrypted traffic. Rogue DNS servers also allow hackers to perform DNS rebinding attacks , in which malicious websites manipulate a browser to attack other devices connected to the same network.

The rogue DNS server is introduced when an attacker injects an ICMPv6 Router Advertisement into Wi-Fi traffic. Routers typically issue these announcements so other devices on the network can locate them. The injected advertisement instructs all devices to use a DNS specified by the attacker for lookups of both IPv6 and IPv4 addresses.

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An exploit demoed in a video Vanhoef published shows the attacker luring the target to a website that stashes the router advertisement in an image.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/88YZ4061tYw?start=0&wmode=transparent

FragAttacks: Demonstration of Flaws in WPA2/3.

Here's a visual overview:

Enlarge Mathy Vanhoef

In an email, Vanhoef explained, saying, "The IPv6 router advertisement is put in the payload (i.e. data portion) of the TCP packet. This data is by default passed on to the application that created the TCP connection. In the demo, that would be the browser, which is expecting an image. This means that by default, the client won't process the IPv6 router advertisement but instead process the TCP payload as application data."

Vanhoef said that it's possible to perform the attack without user interaction when the target's access point is vulnerable to CVE-2021-26139 , one of the 12 vulnerabilities that make up the FragAttacks package. The security flaw stems from a kernel flaw in NetBSD 7.1 that causes Wi-Fi access points to forward Extensible Authentication Protocol (AP) over LAN frames to other devices even when the sender has not yet authenticated to the AP.

It's safe to skip ahead, but for those curious about the specific software bug and the reason the video demo uses a malicious image, Vanhoef explained:

To make the victim process the TCP payload (i.e. data portion) as a separate packet, the aggregation design flaw in Wi-Fi is abused. That is, the attacker intercepts the malicious TCP packet at the Wi-Fi layer and sets the "is aggregated" flag in the Wi-Fi header. As a result, the receiver will split the Wi-Fi frame into two network packets. The first network packet contains part of the original TCP header and is discarded. The second packet corresponds with the TCP payload, which we made sure will now correspond to the ICMPv6 packet, and as a result, the ICMPv6 router advertisement is now processed by the victim as a separate packet. So proximity to the victim is required to set the "is aggregated" Wi-Fi flag so that the malicious TCP packet will be split into two by the receiver.

The design flaw is that an adversary can change/set the "is aggregated" flag without the receiver noticing this. This flag should have been authenticated so that a receiver can detect if it has been modified.

It's possible to perform the attack without user interaction when the access point is vulnerable to CVE-2020-26139. Out of four tested home routers, two of them had this vulnerability. It seems that most Linux-based routers are affected by this vulnerability. The research paper discusses in more detail how this works -- essentially, instead of including the ICMPV6 router advertisement in a malicious TCP packet, it can then be included in an unencrypted handshake message (which the AP will then forward to the client after which the adversary can again set the "is aggregated" flag etc).

Punching a hole in the firewall

Four of the 12 vulnerabilities that make up the FragAttacks are implementation flaws, meaning they stem from bugs that software developers introduced when writing code based on the Wi-Fi specification. An attacker can exploit them against access points to bypass a key security benefit they provide.

Besides allowing multiple devices to share a single Internet connection, routers prevent incoming traffic from reaching connected devices unless the devices have requested it. This firewall works by using network address translation, or NAT, which maps private IP addresses that the AP assigns each device on the local network to a single IP address that the AP uses to send data over the Internet.

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The result is that routers forward data to connected devices only when they have previously requested it from a website, email server, or other machine on the Internet. When one of those machines tries to send unsolicited data to a device behind the router, the router automatically discards it. This arrangement isn't perfect , but it does provide a vital defense that protects billions of devices.

Vanhoef figured out how to exploit the four vulnerabilities in a way that allows an attacker to, as he put it, "punch a hole through a router's firewall." With the ability to connect directly to devices behind a firewall, an Internet attacker can then send them malicious code or commands.

In one demo in the video, Vanhoef exploits the vulnerabilities to control an Internet-of-things device, specifically to remotely turn on and off a smart power socket. Normally, NAT would prevent a device outside the network from interacting with the socket unless the socket had first initiated a connection. The implementation exploits remove this barrier.

FURTHER READING Microsoft practically begs Windows users to fix wormable BlueKeep flaw In a separate demo, Vanhoef shows how the vulnerabilities allow a device on the Internet to initiate a connection with a computer running Windows 7, an operating system that stopped receiving security updates years ago. The researcher used that ability to gain complete control over the PC by sending it malicious code that exploited a critical vulnerability called BlueKeep .

"That means that when an access point is vulnerable, it becomes easy to attack clients!" Vanhoef wrote. "So we're abusing the Wi-Fi implementation flaws in an access point as a first step in order to subsequently attack (outdated) clients ."

Getting your fix

Despite Vanhoef spending nine months coordinating patches with more than a dozen hardware and software makers, it's not easy to figure out which devices or software are vulnerable to which vulnerabilities, and of those vulnerable products, which ones have received fixes.

This page provides the status for products from several companies. A more comprehensive list of known advisories is here . Other advisories are available individually from their respective vendors. The vulnerabilities to look for are:

Design flaws:

CVE-2020-24588 : aggregation attack (accepting non-SPP A-MSDU frames) CVE-2020-24587 : mixed key attack (reassembling fragments encrypted under different keys) CVE-2020-24586 : fragment cache attack (not clearing fragments from memory when (re)connecting to a network)

Implementation vulnerabilities allowing the injection of plaintext frames:

CVE-2020-26145 : Accepting plaintext broadcast fragments as full frames (in an encrypted network) CVE-2020-26144 : Accepting plaintext A-MSDU frames that start with an RFC1042 header with EtherType EAPOL (in an encrypted network) CVE-2020-26140 : Accepting plaintext data frames in a protected network CVE-2020-26143 : Accepting fragmented plaintext data frames in a protected network

Other implementation flaws:

CVE-2020-26139 : Forwarding EAPOL frames even though the sender is not yet authenticated (should only affect APs) CVE-2020-26146 : Reassembling encrypted fragments with non-consecutive packet numbers CVE-2020-26147 : Reassembling mixed encrypted/plaintext fragments CVE-2020-26142 : Processing fragmented frames as full frames CVE-2020-26141 : Not verifying the TKIP MIC of fragmented frames

The most effective way to mitigate the threat posed by FragAttacks is to install all available updates that fix the vulnerabilities. Users will have to do this on each vulnerable computer, router, or other Internet-of-things device. It's likely that a huge number of affected devices will never receive a patch.

The next-best mitigation is to ensure that websites are always using HTTPS connections. That's because the encryption HTTPS provides greatly reduces the damage that can be done when a malicious DNS server directs a victim to a fake website.

Sites that use HTTP Strict Transport Security will always use this protection, but Vanhoef said that only about 20 percent of the web does this. Browser extensions like HTTPS everywhere were already a good idea, and the mitigation they provide against FragAttacks makes them even more worthwhile.

As noted earlier, FragAttacks aren't likely to be exploited against the vast majority of Wi-Fi users, since the exploits require a high degree of skill as well as proximity -- meaning within 100 feet to a half-mile, depending on the equipment used -- to the target. The vulnerabilities pose a higher threat to networks used by high-value targets such as retail chains, embassies, or corporate networks where security is key, and then most likely only in concert with other exploits.

When updates become available, by all means install them, but unless you're in this latter group, remember that drive-by downloads and other more mundane types of attacks will probably pose a bigger threat. Promoted Comments

Artem S. Tashkinov , As long as you're using DoT/DoH and HTTPS, you're safe.

When I'm networking I always assume the network I'm connected to is completely compromised, so all my devices use these things and are properly firewalled in which case these attacks are pretty much worthless.

While only new versions of Android support DoT out of the box on the system level, Google has recently added the support for DoH to Chrome, so in case your device is running an older version of Android you might want to enable DoH in Chrome to feel safe.

And as for Firefox it's had the support for DoH for years. I've gone as far as to set network.trr.mode to 2 in about:config to be extra safe. 3 is even better: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Trusted_Recursive_Resolver 178 posts | register

[May 14, 2021] Dominion, Maricopa County Rebuff Arizona Senate's Attempt To Get Election Machine Passwords - ZeroHedge

May 14, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Dominion Voting Systems and Maricopa County officials are refusing to hand over passwords for election machines to auditors in Arizona.

Contractors working for Cyber Ninjas, which was hired by the Arizona Senate, examine and recount ballots from the 2020 general election at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Ariz., on May 1, 2021. (Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images)

Dominion said in a statement to news outlets on Thursday that it would comply with the audit, but Cyber Ninjas, the firm hired by the Arizona Senate to conduct it along with three other companies, is not accredited by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

" Releasing Dominion's intellectual property to an unaccredited, biased, and plainly unreliable actor such as Cyber Ninjas would be reckless, causing irreparable damage to the commercial interests of the company and the election security interests of the country ," Dominion said. "No company should be compelled to participate in such an irresponsible act."

Cyber Ninjas did not respond to a request for comment.

Maricopa County officials previously said that they did not have passwords to access administrative functions on Dominion Voting Systems machines that were used to scan ballots during the election, according to the Senate's audit liaison, former Republican Secretary of State Ken Bennett.

"They've told us that they don't have that second password, or that they've given us all the passwords they have," Bennett told One America News at the site of the audit in Phoenix last week.

The county is also withholding routers from auditors , claiming security concerns.

Both routers or router images and access to election machines were part of the materials the state Senate subpoenaed late last year. A judge in February ruled that the subpoenas were valid and should be obeyed.

Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, a Republican, recently threatened to subpoena county officials if they didn't stop their noncompliance with the subpoenas, but backed off the threat in a letter on May 12.

Instead, she asked Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jack Sellers, also a Republican, to cooperate voluntarily by attending an upcoming meeting at the state Capitol to go over the audit issues.

Fann said auditors have found discrepancies in the ballot count, including one batch that was supposed to be 200 but only numbered 165. She also said the audit teams found an entire database directory from an election machine had been deleted, and that the main database for the election management system software was not located anywhere on the machine, suggesting that the main database for all data related to the 2020 election had been removed.

Sellers on Thursday indicated he would not attend the meeting and disputed the allegations.

Deleting files off the server "would be a crime -- and it is not true," he said.

"After reviewing the letter with County election and IT experts, I can say that the allegations are false and ill-informed. Moreover, the claim that our employees deleted election files and destroyed evidence is outrageous, completely baseless, and beneath the dignity of the Arizona Senate," he added, calling for an immediate retraction of statements senators and their liaison team made on social media and to the press.

The Board of Supervisors, which held a closed-door emergency meeting on Friday, plans on holding a public meeting on Monday to address the matter.

Fann, an Arizona Senate Republican Caucus spokeswoman, and the liaison team did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Maricopa County ballots cast in the 2020 general election are examined and recounted by contractors working for Florida-based company, Cyber Ninjas, at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Ariz., on May 6, 2021. (Matt York/Pool/AP Photo) Auditors Pack Up as Senate Signs Lease to Extend Audit

Auditors, meanwhile, began packing up on Thursday evening because the audit will take a break due to scheduling conflicts.

The audit has been taking place at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum on the state fairgrounds in Phoenix. High school graduations are scheduled to take place at the building beginning May 15.

Hand counting stopped at 7 p.m. on Thursday and workers began collapsing tables and preparing to move ballots to another location.

About 500,000 of the nearly 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County in the 2020 election have been counted in the audit, according to Bennett.

The Arizona Senate signed an extension to their original agreement that allows auditors to store materials in the Wesley Bolin Building, which is also on the state fairgrounds, from May 12 to May 23.

The approximately 19,000-square foot building has a large open floor plan and two large roll-up doors, according to the Arizona State Fair website.

"Due to temperatures during the summer months, this building is not recommended for use between May through September," the site states.

Bennett told The Epoch Times in a previous interview that the materials will be secure and that the site at which they'll be stored can be tracked online via 24-hour streaming, just like the audit itself.

" There's no deadline for the audit ," Bennett said. " The goal is not speed; the goal is accuracy and completeness. "

The audit teams can resume occupancy of the coliseum on May 23 and use it until June 30, according to a copy of the extended agreement obtained by The Epoch Times .

The original scope of work document from Cyber Ninjas said reviewing voter registration and votes case would take approximately 20 days and that work would be conducted remotely. The vote counting phase would take about 20 more days, it said, while the electronic voting system phase would take some 35 days.

But all three of those phases could be carried out simultaneously, according to the firm. An additional week was said to be required after completing everything else to finalize reporting.

The audit started on April 23.

Follow Zachary on Twitter: @zackstieber Follow Zachary on Parler: @zackstieber

[Apr 13, 2021] Fox News hires high-profile defense team in Dominion defamation lawsuit

High profile attorney means possible troubles for Dominion and its lobbyists. such layers ten not leave a single stone unturned, which is not in Dominion best interest. Emails will definitely be subpoenaed and judging from the behaviour of one Dominion executive they were not too careful.
I kel the joke "Are their lawyers also going to argue that no reasonable person would believe Fox news?"
Apr 13, 2021 | thehill.com

Fox News has hired two high-profile defense attorneys to combat a $1.6 billion lawsuit filed against it by voting technology company Dominion.

The media outlet disclosed in a court filing that it had Charles Babcock and Scott Keller for its defense. Fox News confirmed the hirings to The Hill.

... ... ...

Fox News Media told The Hill after Dominion filed its suit that it is "proud of our 2020 election coverage, which stands in the highest tradition of American journalism, and will vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit in court."


libsrnazi OhNo 12 minutes ago

And yet discovery will be very interesting, and Fox News is now pitted against Dominion, and their best way to defend themselves is to show that the criticisms were legitimate...

Fox can now subpoena anything relevant from Dominion, and Dominion has to comply or be criminally prosecuted...

Hillaryous

Bruce libsrnazi 8 minutes ago • edited

There is not much to discover with Dominion. It mainly functions like a windows 10 computer. so it is hackable. It is very easy to install fraudulent software on these machines

See Harryi Hursti KILL CHAIN: THE CYBERWAR ON AMERICA'S ELECTIONS and look at his affidavit See "Investigators for Attorney DePernoReportedly Discover Modem Chips Embedded in Michigan Voting System Computer Motherboards" via today on theGatewayPundit

When testifying before the MI legislature, the Dominion CEO recommended that a full forensic audit be ordered if voters suspect that these machines were connected to the internet.

On Dec 1 election officials deleted the electronic voting data in violation of state la

OhNo libsrnazi 11 minutes ago

If that is fox news's defense they are done 🤣

libsrnazi OhNo 8 minutes ago

Keep tellin' yourself that... Eventually, even YOU might come to believe it...

When they lose the fight against the subpoenas, Dominion will drop the lawsuit, and claim the subpoenas are moot...

The media would like to give the impression that "hands" were the most washed body part in 2020, when in actuality, it was the "brain"..

Sherman's Tiki Torch #PizzaGaetz 31 minutes ago

Turns out the Kraken was fakin' and now her bacon is about to expire in the fire.

Grundune Sherman's Tiki Torch 16 minutes ago • edited

Sidney Powell lit a fuse. She woke the Republicans and others who want election integrity, so the Democrats won't be able to steal any more. At least not with the same tactics

Bruce Man in the Moon!! 23 minutes ago • edited

Lou Dobbs might have gotten confused once. I believe he said that an affidavit that criticized Smartmatic had instead criticized Dominion. However, there are so many problems with Dominion, I would consider it to be an immaterial mistake. After all these machines appear to be unusable:

[Vote counting machines] "presents serious system security vulnerability and
operational issues that may place plaintiffs and other voters at risk of
deprivation of their fundamental right to cast an effective vote that is
accurately counted," U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg wrote in a Oct 2020

Electionic vote counting machines were banned in France, Ireland and the in
the Netherlands via Gateway Pundit because they were unreliable.

The Gateway pundit could be sued if they make false statements.

via Twitter:

Elections Canada @ElectionsCan_E

· Nov 16

Elections Canada does not use Dominion Voting Systems. We use paper ballots counted by hand in front of scrutineers and have never used voting machines or electronic tabulators to count votes in our

100-year history. #CdnPoli

It is very easy to install fraudulent software on these machines See Harryi Hursti on seeKILL CHAIN: THE CYBERWAR ON AMERICA'S
ELECTIONS and look at his affidavit

Dutchcourage 19 minutes ago • edited

The actual claim is here (400+ pages):
www DOT documentcloud DOT org/documents/20527880-dominion-v-fox-news-complaint

These lawyers have their work cut out for them. As explained in the claim, Dominion contacted Fox multiple times after the first accusations. They provided Fox with independent assessments and other evidence that their systems were sound. Fox ignored it, never mentioned this and continued presenting that Dominion systems were fraudulent (and stated that as a fact, not as an opinion).

This will go a long way to the "with malice" part

labman57 19 minutes ago

Once again, FOX News will likely claim that they are an entertainment network, not a news agency ... and therefore they should not be expected to propagate facts on their broadcasts.

Jrgolden Golden 14 minutes ago

Discovery should be fun. Don't settle with FOX, grind their assets into the ground

ballyb11 9 minutes ago

Re this "The election was stolen" conspiracy theory of Trump's.

How did the Democrats pull off this massive election fraud?

It had to be an insanely well coordinated effort.

And not one Republican infiltrator, not one Democratic operative flipped to expose the fraud.

Done with surgical precision.

An absolutely masterful effort.

Fred ballyb11 8 minutes ago

And headed up by a guy with dementia.
Astonishin

[Apr 13, 2021] Dominion v. MyPillow Guy poses a stark test for America's libel laws

Dominion fights as its image was damaged and it has deep pockets. But how valid are their claim is for the court to decide. In no way they are as clean as they pretend. Their connection Dem party operatives is probably provable beyond reasonable doubt. The whole story with Dominion replacing Diebold on this business is murky to the extreme.
Apr 13, 2021 | finance.yahoo.com
Roger Parloff · Contributor Tue, April 13, 2021, 5:06 AM · 22 min read

... "Instantly," said Steven Bellovin , a professor of computer science at Columbia University with almost 40 years of experience in computer networking and security. That's how long it took him to realize, he said in an interview, that a certain purported spreadsheet that I showed him was "not just fake, but a badly generated fake by someone who didn't know what they were doing."

The spreadsheet, together with an animated film that was said to illustrate its data, formed the crux of a nearly two-hour "docu-movie," called "Absolute Proof," which aired at least 13 times last February on the One America News Network. The movie, presented in a news magazine format, was hosted, co-produced, and relentlessly flacked by Mike Lindell, the irrepressible CEO of MyPillow, Inc. It purported to furnish absolute proof that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump in an international cyberattack exploiting vulnerabilities in voting-machine software that had been intentionally designed to rig elections.

Dominion Voting Systems, which makes voting technology, filed a $1.3 billion defamation suit against Lindell and his company in late February -- the third of four massive cases it has filed since the election -- in part because of "Absolute Proof," which referenced Dominion more than 40 times. (An in-depth analysis of Dominion's suits over bogus election-fraud claims, as well as one brought by a rival voting-device company, Smartmatic, is provided in an earlier story I wrote here .)

... ... ...

[Apr 12, 2021] Margaret Sullivan Gets it Wrong, Libel Law Is a Good Thing by Dean Baker

The column is extremely week and fragments are republished here for the sole purpose to critique/
I think Dean Baker is very superficial here. Dominion is a corporation business model of which is based on lobbying Congress and states. It is definitely closely connected to the Democratic Party apparatchiks. This is a very questionable model. So now it tried to present being White Knight defending itself again absurd claims like Hugo Chaves claim. This does not change the nature of their business. In reality this is two dirty persons struggling in a mud peat.
Also the key question remains unanswered: are Dominion machines do any good to the USA voting system? If yes, then defending itself makes some positive sense. If not, why bother?
Apr 12, 2021 | cepr.net

...Hugo Chavez, the former president of Venezuela who has been dead for eight years, figures prominently in many of the stories. Nonetheless, many Fox News viewers believe them.

For a voting machine manufacturer, the claim that your machines are rigged is pretty much a textbook definition of a damaging statement. Therefore, Dominion should have a pretty solid case.

Sullivan doesn't dispute any of this, instead, she points out that libel or defamation suits can also be used against news outlets doing serious reporting. She highlights the case of Reveal, a nonprofit news outfit that is dedicated to investigative reporting. Reveal was nearly forced out of business due to the cost of defending itself against a charity that it exposed as being run by a cult. Sullivan's takeaway is that defamation lawsuits can be used as a weapon against legitimate news organizations doing serious reporting.

Sullivan is right on this point, but wrong in understanding the implications. Every civil course of action can be abused by those with money to harm people without substantial resources. There are tens of thousands of frivolous tort cases filed every year, but would anyone argue that we should deny people the right to sue a contractor that mistakenly sets their customer's house on fire? The same applies to suits for breach of contract. If I pay someone $10,000 in advance to paint my house and they don't do it, should I not be able to sue to get my money back?

... ... ...

The reality is that our legal system can be abused by the powerful to harm those with less power. That is the result of the enormous disparities of income and power in this country, and the inadequate shields against abuse in the legal system...

... ... ...

[Mar 26, 2021] Coomer filed a defamation suit in Denver state court, seeking unspecified damages by Roger Parloff

Mar 26, 2021 | finance.yahoo.com

On Dec. 22, Coomer filed a defamation suit in Denver state court , seeking unspecified damages, against Oltmann and 14 others, including the Trump Campaign; Giuliani; Powell; the One America News Network (OAN); OAN chief White House correspondent Chanel Rion; Newsmax Media; Newsmax contributor Michelle Malkin; The Gateway Pundit website; and radio and podcast host Eric Metaxas.


[Jan 27, 2021] DuPage County Illinois Signed -Anti-Transparency Contract- with Dominion Voting Systems - Company Pushed County to Resist Rel

Jan 27, 2021 | www.thegatewaypundit.com

When people are denied public records they routinely reach out to us for assistance and more often than not, we are able to request the same records and we get them. When this happens it is an indicator of a problem because if we are able to get those records, so too should others.

The DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek and her Chief Deputy Scott Mackay signed a contract with Dominion Voting Systems Inc. on January 24, 2020. After a copy of that contract was requested by an individual and denied, we were asked to assist in getting the same records. Our Freedom of Information Act request was granted and we find the Dominion Voting Systems encouragements to avoid transparency very troubling.

00:39 01:34

https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.436.0_en.html#goog_1311268489

TRENDING: INSANE: Joe Biden Signs Executive Order Banning the Term "China Virus"

From the Contract:

  • 8. Customer shall take any and all action necessary or appropriate to assert all applicable or potentially applicable exemptions from disclosure under the FOIA Statute and take all other legally permissible steps to resist disclosure of the Information including, without limitation, commencement or defense of any legal actions related to such disclosure. In the event Customer receives a request for Information under the FOIA Statute, Customer shall inform Dominion of such request within ten (10) days of Customer's knowledge or such shorter period as necessary under the FOIA Statute to avoid prejudice to Dominion's ability to oppose disclosure , Dominion shall use its best efforts to assist and support Customer's exercise of any statutory exemption in denying a records request under the Freedom of Information Act (5 ILCS 140/1 et seq.). In the event that Customer becomes subject to fines, costs or fees pursuant to Section 11 of the Freedom of Information Act (5 ICLS 140/11) relying upon Dominion's claim that the information requested is exempt, Dominion shall indemnify Customer for those fines, fees and costs, notwithstanding any other provisions In this agreement. In the event Customer is required by court order to disclose any of the Information, Customer shall give written notice to Dominion at the earlier as soon as reasonably practical after tile imposition of such an order.

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There are exemptions under FOIA regarding trade secrets and we understand such exemptions and their applicability to certain information. However, the language in this contract focuses on encouraging, in fact, instructing the County that they " shall " take any and all action necessary or appropriate to assert " potentially applicable exemptions from disclosure " and to take all other legally permissible steps to resist disclosure of the information.

Read the rest here .

[Jan 26, 2021] Dominion sues Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani for $1.3 billion over election fraud claims

Looks like Dominion now can capitalize on Jan 6 events...
Notable quotes:
"... The lawsuit was filed in the Federal District Court in Washington, DC on Monday. The massive 107-page document lists over 50 statements from Giuliani which he made on Twitter, his podcast, in the media, and during legislative hearings about Dominion – one of the largest companies selling voting machines used in the US. ..."
"... To illustrate the damage presumably done by Giuliani, the lawsuit provides a long list of screenshots from assorted internet uses, primarily from Twitter, fuming at Dominion and accusing it of facilitating the election "steal." The voting machines and sharp spikes in vote counts in favor of Joe Biden, widely attributed to the system, have been among the centerpieces of conspiracy theories for the pro-Trump crowd in the aftermath of the turbulent election. ..."
"... The lawsuit also highlights Giuliani's role in the January 6 Capitol Hill riot, accusing him of stirring up the violence. The document quotes Giuliani's address at the pro-Trump rally shortly before the violence, when he urged supporters to engage in "trial by combat." ..."
Jan 25, 2021 | www.rt.com
Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani is being sued by Dominion Voting Systems over claims of fraud during the 2020 US presidential election. The company is seeking $1.3 billion in compensatory and punitive damages.

The lawsuit was filed in the Federal District Court in Washington, DC on Monday. The massive 107-page document lists over 50 statements from Giuliani which he made on Twitter, his podcast, in the media, and during legislative hearings about Dominion – one of the largest companies selling voting machines used in the US.

Giuliani, like many other prominent supporters of former President Donald Trump, has repeatedly pointed the finger at the company as one of the main culprits behind Trump's election loss. Dominion has been accused of being part of an alleged plot to fix the election in favor of the Democrats, which, alongside mass mail-in voting, allegedly facilitated the "steal" of Trump's presumed 'victory'.

Dominion has accused Giuliani of waging a "viral disinformation campaign" and repeatedly producing "defamatory falsehoods" about it. It also claimed the allegedly false statements from Trump's lawyer have stirred up a storm of death threats against its employees.

To illustrate the damage presumably done by Giuliani, the lawsuit provides a long list of screenshots from assorted internet uses, primarily from Twitter, fuming at Dominion and accusing it of facilitating the election "steal." The voting machines and sharp spikes in vote counts in favor of Joe Biden, widely attributed to the system, have been among the centerpieces of conspiracy theories for the pro-Trump crowd in the aftermath of the turbulent election.

The lawsuit also highlights Giuliani's role in the January 6 Capitol Hill riot, accusing him of stirring up the violence. The document quotes Giuliani's address at the pro-Trump rally shortly before the violence, when he urged supporters to engage in "trial by combat."

The company is seeking at least $1.3 billion in compensatory and punitive damages from Giuliani, demanding a trial by jury, according to the court documents.

The lawsuit against Giuliani largely resembles the one against another pro-Trump lawyer, Sidney Powell, filed by the company earlier this month. Powell has been accused of waging a "viral disinformation campaign" as well, with Dominion seeking the same eye-watering sum of 1.3 billion in damages from her.

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FelixTcat 8 hours ago 25 Jan, 2021 02:48 PM

"Election results in a county in Michigan had to be corrected to show that President Trump won by nearly 2,000 votes after voting software gave 6,000 of his votes to Biden ." Which probably never would have been check if Antrim County wasn't such a Red county. Hard to find fraud when you refuse to look for it.
LeRuscino2 Sue Brown 11 hours ago 25 Jan, 2021 11:08 AM
Exactly - Scream & shout 1st like MH-17 & when it's settled & Guiliani wins nobody will know or even remember.
Banalucki 3 hours ago 25 Jan, 2021 07:46 PM
so classic americana - the business that created an electronic voting "process" that eliminates chain of custody protection, signatures and voter ID is suing Rudy for "fraud"...
Thomas51 2 hours ago 25 Jan, 2021 08:26 PM
Political actions of any lawyer should bear consequences
VonnDuff1 2 hours ago 25 Jan, 2021 08:01 PM
SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Policy) and nothing more. Unless you throw in Kangaroo Courts with Monkey Judges.
Trekker 8 hours ago 25 Jan, 2021 02:36 PM
Good to put Giuliani away once and for all for all the damage he has caused.
GottaBeMe Skeptic076 7 hours ago 25 Jan, 2021 03:39 PM
They'll have to audit the computer code finally. And they'll have to do it using machines in swing states that haven't been touched since November. Otherwise it's them saying one thing, Giuliani saying something else.
Pete Wagner 7 hours ago 25 Jan, 2021 03:11 PM
I guess that means they've destroyed all the damning evidence and have their judge briefed, paid off, and ready to rule.
Sue Brown 12 hours ago 25 Jan, 2021 10:53 AM
Typical USA style, don't defend yourself . . . when wronged = SUE!!!!
Enki14 9 hours ago 25 Jan, 2021 01:54 PM
Methinks this is a publicity stunt as they would not want a jury of Powell's peers to see the evidence Patrick Byrne PH.D. has amassed and the hundreds of witnesses that would be called to testify on Powell's behalf. Methinks they managed to destroy the evidence on their hard drives and thus feel the evidence would be viewed as circumstantial. However the pathways are real, were tracked and saved.

[Jan 17, 2021] 'A grave error'- Dominion gets victory as American Thinker offers up retraction apology for election reporting

Sites and people who posted Hugo Chavez nonsense should pay the price. Which is good.
Also capabilities to produce weighted votes does not mean that it was deployed. But if it is present it serve as a Damocles sword over the integtiry of election, as you never can be sure whther is was somehow activated or not. And so far there is no convincing facts that it was deployed. Looks like most common method was staffing of mail-in ballots by corrupt staff.
But Dominion tabulators do create concentration of ballots in one place, which automatically, completely by the fact of creating the "critical mass" of ballots in one place facilitates larger scale fraud . From this point of view they can be regarded as catalysts. That' is undisputable.
The way sysadmin roles were assigned by Dominion, how such activity is controlled, and what people are selected is open to review as those people automatically become powerful players in the election process and are outside usual safeguards, which were developed for traditional systems. In no way they can be controlled by election observers. That's the fact.
In case the machines were internet connected all Dominion employees with access to them also become election players. As well as all interested intelligence agencies.
Jan 15, 2021 | www.rt.com
Conservative blog American Thinker has issued an apology in response to Dominion Voting Systems' lawyers accusing them and others of defamation for pushing claims their technology helped rig the presidential election.

In a Friday statement written by editor and publisher Thomas Lifson, American Thinker admitted their stories on conspiracy theories surrounding Dominion machines being rigged in Joe Biden's favor were based on "discredited sources who have peddled debunked theories about Dominion's supposed ties to Venezuela, fraud on Dominion's machines that resulted in massive vote switching or weighted votes, and other claims falsely stating that there is credible evidence that Dominion acted fraudulently."

Lifson called the statements "completely false" and added that "Industry experts and public officials alike have confirmed that Dominion conducted itself appropriately."

The company went on to apologize for any "harm" their stories caused the company and their employees.

ALSO ON RT.COM Twitter purges lawyer Sidney Powell, General Flynn & others amid post-Capitol crackdown on 'QAnon'

"We also apologize to our readers for abandoning 9 journalistic principles and misrepresenting Dominion's track record and its limited role in tabulating votes for the November 2020 election. We regret this grave error," they added.

The apology also names Andrea Widburg, R.D. Wedge, Brian Tomlinson, and Peggy Ryan as specific contributors who have covered conspiracy theories surrounding Dominion.

On the same day as the apology, the conservative blog also shut down its comment section, but provided no solid reason as to why.

Pieces published by American Thinker presented theories that the machines deleted pro-Trump votes and that it was tied to outside foreign and political groups, common theories that have been pushed by President Trump, his legal team, and supporters.

ALSO ON RT.COM Dominion Voting Systems suing pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell for $1.3 billion

Dominion has taken more aggressive action recently against accusations against them, even suing Trump lawyer Sidney Powell for defamation to the tune of $1.3 billion.

The company's legal team has also targeted other right-wing media, warning Fox News recently that action is "imminent" in response to numerous statements made on the network by anchors and guests like Trump counsel Rudy Giuliani. They also sent letters to individual anchors for Fox and Newsmax demanding they "cease and desist" making defamatory statements about the company and its alleged role in rigging the presidential election, an act they say has no proof to back it up.

In response to the threatened litigation, Fox News aired a segment multiple times shooting down voter fraud claims linked to Dominion.

Newsmax, meanwhile, released a statement clarifying many conspiracy theories linked to Dominion and Smartmatic, another vote counting system threatening legal action.

[Jan 15, 2021] Dominion machines depend of the level trustworthiness of their administrators. In hands of evil/corrupt administrators they automatically become a catalyst of election fraud

Jan 15, 2021 | www.unz.com

sayless , says: January 15, 2021 at 3:21 pm GMT • 2.7 hours ago

"I don't know or care anything about Dominion voting machines"

Why not? Take a look at Patrick Byrne's summary of evidence for massive election fraud involving the Dominion machines, on his blog over at DeepCapture.

It will explain how a man who sheltered in his house, did not campaign, drew no more than six or seven or twenty-five people to his events, got seven million more votes than a man who drew up to thirty thousand people at his rallies.

...An expert witness in Georgia was able to hack into Dominion in front of the legislative committee in less than a minute. "We're in." In Dominion, and on the internet.

Dominion machines can do anything! They can assign a weight of 1.5 per single vote to one candidate, and .75 per vote to the other, and can adjust as necessary. They can assign batches of "adjudicated" ballots to the candidate of your choice. They can just switch votes from one candidate to the other in increments of several thousand, let's subtract 29,000 votes from candidate a and add them to b's column. They can allow access by a third party to the administrator's identity and password so the third party can enter and participate directly in tabulation of the votes.

And more. If your disfavored candidate is winning by a landslide and your 1.5/.75 ratio isn't working, you can put in a USB card and adjust accordingly.

If you're desperate you can upload tens of thousands of votes in a single drop which all, every one, go to your preferred candidate. And you can do it in one hour on a machine which can only handle a few thousand votes per hour, fed in manually.

[Jan 11, 2021] Dominion sues Trump lawyer Sidney Powell for defamation

There is nothing special about Dominion. The key question is whether computer based voting machines have the right to exist or not. Do they do any good or they are just unnessery and ripe with potential of new forms of fraud overhead, driven by unscrupulous lobbists? That is the question.
The ides of using consumer (or small business office, if you wish) class software and hardware in those machines is also open to review. Military class Sever have special OS (Trusted Solaris, OpenBSD, etc), special mechanism to prevent manipulation of binaries (md5 checksums, mirroring on non violate media, etc), special means to prevent abuse by rogue sysadmins (dual sysadmin mode necessary to become root, special access rules excluding areas that should not be manipulated (AppArmor), etc. Windows based servers an, desktops and tables are consumer class devices that can't be secured on public network to say nothing about election network where multiple powerful actors (including intelligence agencies; both foreign and domestic ) have strong stimulus to interfere. This is a struggle for power and it is typically dirty.
Venezuela is a weak point for Powell. As for "there was no widespread fraud in the election" your mileage may vary. Mail-in fraud almost certainly was "widespread" as in practiced in many battleground states. Weakening mail-in voting laws was a part of the scheme. What role direct manipulation of votes by appointed administrators (several at each precept and counting center (centralize counting is ripe area for fraud, especially good, old injection of votes, just due to total amount of votes processed), If they can act along without and external control this created several interesting questions, which needs to be answered by relevant tech investigations. Ability to scan the same batch of ballots several times, as several election observers complained, also needs to be blocked, and this is not an easy thing to do.
I have impression that when invalid ballot is adjudicated by the administrator a new ballot is printed. It looks like adjudication does not leave any paper trial or set of images to compare. That means that recount will not detect any manipulation. If true, that opens a wide field for manipulation of votes by rogue administrators including setting scanner to jekect more votes then nessesary creaing a pool of votes to manipulate. .
Jan 11, 2021 | apnews.com

She has claimed that the company was created in Venezuela to rig elections for the late leader Hugo Chavez and that it has the ability to switch votes.

There was no widespread fraud in the election, which a range of election officials across the country including Trump's former attorney general, William Barr, have confirmed. Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia, key battleground states crucial to Biden's victory, also vouched for the integrity of the elections in their states. Nearly all the legal challenges from Trump and his allies have been dismissed by judges, including two tossed by the Supreme Court, which includes three Trump-nominated justices.

MORE STORIES:

The company said there "there are mountains of direct evidence that conclusively disprove Powell's vote manipulation claims against Dominion -- namely, the millions of paper ballots that were audited and recounted by bipartisan officials and volunteers in Georgia and other swing states, which confirmed that Dominion accurately counted votes on paper ballots."

Dominion said that when it formally told Powell her claims were false and asked her to retract them, she "doubled down," using her Twitter account with more than 1 million followers to amplify the claims.

[Jan 09, 2021] In the USA election fraud is more of a tradition than incident.

Jan 09, 2021 | off-guardian.org

Maarten "merethan" , Jan 8, 2021 11:43 AM Reply to Leo Washington

Election fraud is more of a tradition than incident. Remember how we used to joke about "This presidency is brought to you by Diebold"? That was around the 2000's referring to Bush Jr., and Diebold is the vote machine manufacturer. That's just 20 years ago mate.

Calling election fraud a hilarious idea shows a good lack of historical perspective.

Leo Washington , Jan 8, 2021 12:30 PM Reply to Maarten "merethan"

Yeah, fair enough. Can we see some proof of this election fraud, then? And by 'proof', I don't mean 'someone said'. Because I can't help thinking that if there had been any proof, then every single 'lawsuit' would not have been laughed out of court. Or are the judges involved in this massive left-wing conspiracy, too? Jan 8, 2021 7:27 PM Reply to Leo Washington

Proof is all the problem: There's no proof of a fair election either. The current system was, in the old days, the only way to ensure votes were anonymous which is a requirement for having everyone express their true beliefs and allegiances, absent of any group pressure.

I'm all for enhancing this with cryptographic signatures and a public ledger. Such that everyone can validate their own vote and totals but not the one made by their spouse or neighbor specifically.

That would bring us a lot closer to the proof you are asking for, because right now we got none in either direction. Other than the media saying so and twitter banning you for daring to post any questions.

Ken Garoo , Jan 8, 2021 8:38 PM Reply to Maarten "merethan"

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ErDmO4xVkAELk_u?format=jpg&amp ;

Two trailing democract candidates brought to the lead at the same time and in the same proprtion by mail-in votes that are 100% democrat – what are the odds? (~0% in a straight election, ~100% in a bent election).

I would have the same view if the R and D attributions were reversed. The election was fixed.

Wayne Vanderploeg , Jan 8, 2021 10:55 PM Reply to Maarten "merethan"

The main point is that the fraud is so evident. Multiple witnesses. Examination of two machines. Not just a smoking gun with no witnesses. The government is too afraid to confront it out of fear of backlash. The backlash from not doing anything will be worse. Democrats keep wanting to unify now that Trump is out. They have done nothing but hinder him and our country because of lies being levied against him. No doubt the man has flaws but that is not justification for what they did during his presidency. And now the evidence of the steal. Combine that with trying to remove him to keep him from running again The shit just keeps getting deeper and deeper while they beg for unity. All of the sudden mayors across the country are vowing to bring back law and order now that Trump is out. I could go on and on. I cannot express how deeply the anger goes and it is not getting any better as Democratic leaders continue with derogatory statements all of which are lies. This is classic bullying and kicking someone who is down. It is truly a recipe for disaster.

[Jan 09, 2021] Dominion Files $1.3 Billion Defamation Lawsuit Against Sidney Powell.. Considering Suing President Trump

Jan 09, 2021 | www.thegatewaypundit.com

A lawyer for Dominion held a press conference on Friday claiming that claims that the allegations against them are "false."

"These false allegations have caused catastrophic damage to this company. They have branded Dominion, a voting company, as perpetrating a massive fraud," Tom Clare, the attorney representing Dominion, said in a press conference over Zoom. "Those allegations triggered a media firestorm that promoted those same false claims to a global audience. They've made the company radioactive and destroyed the value of its once thriving business and has put Dominion's multiyear contracts in jeopardy."

Smartmatic has also said that they will be filing lawsuits against people who questioned their technology and the "media outlets that gave them a platform."

To win the lawsuit, Dominion must prove that Powell was acting in "actual malice," and not sincere belief that they helped to rig the election against the president.

[Jan 09, 2021] Dominion releases the Kraken

Jan 09, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

Christian J. Chuba , Jan 8 2021 21:44 utc | 62

Files $2B Lawsuit against Powell

I read the filing and THIS looks like read trouble for Powell. Unlike her incoherent filings, Dominion methodically rips apart Powell's false claims and more importantly establishes a timeline showing malicious intent which is the key in defamation. They show how she knowingly repeated falsehoods when it would benefit her financially.

[Jan 06, 2021] The Extremist at Dominion Voting Systems by Darryl Cooper

And Microsoft stooges claims 2020 was 'most secure election in American history' says DHS advisory council, claims NO EVIDENCE of lost or deleted votes
Notable quotes:
"... A Twitter user named Joe Oltmann had tweeted a few screenshots of a Facebook user posting Antifa manifestos and songs about killing police. The Facebook account belonged to Eric Coomer, and Oltmann claimed it was the same Eric Coomer who is the Director of Product Strategy and Security for Dominion Voting Systems. Within hours of Oltmann posting the information, however, the Facebook page of Eric Coomer was taken down, so I was unable to verify that Antifa Coomer and Dominion Coomer were the same person. By the end of the day, Joe Oltmann's Twitter account was suspended as well. I had followed his feed throughout the day. I can say with certainty that he posted nothing remotely offensive or provocative. I have no doubt whatsoever that Twitter suspended him for posting the screenshots of Coomer's Facebook page. Interesting. ..."
"... Of course none of this proves any fraud took place, but we deserve some answers ..."
"... Having potentially tens of millions of people doubting results in a half-dozen different states thanks to the same company running machines in all of them is an unprecedentedly serious problem, whether or not their doubts are well-founded. ..."
"... platforms like Twitter and WordPress would do well to consider that censorship of people discussing Dominion and its employees is likely to have the opposite effect that they think it will ..."
"... in Georgia the voter signature validation was usurped for mail in ballots, allowing anyone with a mail in ballot to vote. ..."
"... There are ample undercover videos of union postal workers selling mail in ballots. ..."
"... The secretary of state usurped the law in Georgia, telling polling places to ignore the requirement to verify signatures of mail in ballots. The signatures are compared to the drivers license database. The democrats (Stacey Abrams) worked with the secretary of state to have such voting controls removed so the system could be easily frauded. ..."
"... if you think the cost of recounts is high, wait till you get a load of the cost of the electorate's lack of confidence in the election process. That cost will be measured in human lives. ..."
"... But the Russians! Not my President. Resistance. Years of investigations into gossip columnist Steele's paid report to the Democrats. ..."
Jan 06, 2021 | www.theamericanconservative.com

Whether or not the company's machines were misused, it poses structural risks, and suppressing criticism will make Trump supporters even more dubious

t is unlikely that many of the 73 million people who cast ballots for Donald Trump in 2020 will ever accept the legitimacy of his loss. Who could convince them? If the media sources demanding Trump's concession held any sway with Trump's voters, they would not have been his voters. They do not know for sure that the election was stolen, but they do know with apodictic certainty that the media would lie to them if it was. So if Donald Trump says the election was stolen, that's good enough for the Deplorables.

Yet even the President's most faithful must have flinched at his recent tweet accusing a leading manufacturer of voting machines of committing election fraud on a mass scale.

It is hard to overstate the irresponsibility of broadcasting such a serious accusation without proof. It shocked me, and my startle response has become pretty desensitized over the last four years. Sure, it turned out Trump was right when he accused the Obama administration of spying on his 2016 campaign, but this is different. Dominion Voting Systems is not staffed with Obama appointees, after all. I decided to poke around a bit to see what, if anything, could possibly be behind Trump's wild accusation.

A Twitter user named Joe Oltmann had tweeted a few screenshots of a Facebook user posting Antifa manifestos and songs about killing police. The Facebook account belonged to Eric Coomer, and Oltmann claimed it was the same Eric Coomer who is the Director of Product Strategy and Security for Dominion Voting Systems. Within hours of Oltmann posting the information, however, the Facebook page of Eric Coomer was taken down, so I was unable to verify that Antifa Coomer and Dominion Coomer were the same person. By the end of the day, Joe Oltmann's Twitter account was suspended as well. I had followed his feed throughout the day. I can say with certainty that he posted nothing remotely offensive or provocative. I have no doubt whatsoever that Twitter suspended him for posting the screenshots of Coomer's Facebook page. Interesting.

Searching around some more, I found that Dominion Coomer is an avid climber who used to post frequently on climbing message boards under his own name. He confirmed it himself in a post where he mentioned getting his nuclear physics Ph.D from Berkeley in 1997. Dominion's Eric Coomer received his nuclear physics Ph.D from Berkeley in 1997. In another post on the same message board, Coomer gave out his email address. It was his old campus address from the Berkeley nuclear physics department. I plugged that email address into the Google machine, and things got weird.

I found Eric Coomer had a long history of posting on websites for skinheads. He was a heavy user of a Google Group for skinheads, and seems to have possibly been a content moderator for papaskin.com. Only these aren't the neo-Nazis our mothers warned us about. These skinheads call themselves SHARPs, or Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice. Think of them as a sort of punk rock Antifa. In 2012, roughly 18 SHARPs attacked a smaller group of suspected racists in a Chicago restaurant with bats and batons. That same year, three neo-Nazis were charged for the 1998 double murder of two SHARPs in Nevada.

Given that Dominion's Director of Security and Strategy, Eric Coomer, was an enthusiast of a street fighting anti-racist skinhead culture going back at least into the 1990s, it seems very likely that Joe Oltmann was correct in identifying him as the Facebook user recently endorsing Antifa and posting anti-police rhetoric. I shared this information on a few message boards to let other people run with it. Within hours, Papa Skin, a skinhead website which had been up for over 20 years, was taken offline. (Whoever took it down missed the FAQ page, you can find it here http://www.papaskin.com/faq/faqs.html ).

Of course none of this proves any fraud took place, but we deserve some answers. One need only imagine if it was Joe Biden contesting the election results, and the Director for Strategy & Security at a major voting machine provider turned out to be a Proud Boy with decades of involvement in extremist, even violent, right wing political groups. Democrats would rightly point out that this person endorses engaging in illegal behavior to achieve political goals. They would ask how such a person ended up in such an important position of public trust, and what it might say about the procedures in place to ensure Dominion's responsibilities are handled in good faith.

Another reality of the Dominion fiasco, whether or not there was any fraud using its machines, is the structural risk created by having the same company run machines in more than two dozen states. If there were glitchy machines causing a dispute in one state, like Democrats' claims about Diebold machines in Ohio in 2004, and even if that dispute led to competing slates of electors, that is something the American political system has seen and withstood before. Having potentially tens of millions of people doubting results in a half-dozen different states thanks to the same company running machines in all of them is an unprecedentedly serious problem, whether or not their doubts are well-founded.

Moreover, platforms like Twitter and WordPress would do well to consider that censorship of people discussing Dominion and its employees is likely to have the opposite effect that they think it will: Twitter bans, site removals, and wiping of bios from websites are only going to make Trump's hardcore supporters think Dominion has something to hide. You can't make disagreements go away by banning one side and pretending there is unanimity.

Darryl Cooper is the host of the MartyrMade podcast.


Kiyoshi01 8 days ago

This claim is fairly easy to check. The machine prints out a paper record that is viewable by the voter and saved for purposes of auditing.

JPH Kiyoshi01 8 days ago

Actually voting is not audited as any accountant will be able to confirm.

HistoryProf JPH 8 days ago

Every state that I am aware of conducts random spot audits of election results.

JPH HistoryProf 8 days ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
You may have to work on your awareness. And a full audit of the whole process is definitely a lot more than some random spot.

HistoryProf JPH 8 days ago

The list you just linked showed that most states conduct routine audits of races. The only states that don't seem to are deep red ones. Spot audits are a valid way of discovering errors. If every state had to do full recounts for every single race, the cost to taxpayers would be enormous and wasteful.

Herb Daniels HistoryProf 8 days ago

...Places like Georgia where Ds destroyed the system by actually eliminating audit... they just run exactly the same fake ballots through they ran the first time... & they had a 'signature verification' & they didn't even turn the machine on.

TJ Hessmon Kerr Avon 6 days ago • edited

There are three obvious methods of election fraud occurring in 2020

1) canvasing, where those canvasing voters holding mail in ballots are convincing them to change their vote from republican to democrat, then paying them with what amounts to trinkets. (flash light, pocket knife, tee shirt, those sorts of things)

2) Voting machine weighted votes, which occurs in republican heavy precincts using the Banzhaf Power Index. This system counts votes in decimals less than and greater than one for each vote. An example would be weighting republican votes where each republican vote would count 0.75, meaning 4 voters are necessary to achieve a vote of 3. (1.5 + 1.5 = 3), the weighted scale increases as the number of votes increase. This is known as vote redistribution. In essence a system such as this cold require(at 0.25) 200k republican votes to equal 50k democrat votes

3) Mail in ballots which are rife with fraud of many types

wernerpd Dan Penrod 3 days ago

That's not reality for SCOTUS. They don't make those kinds of rulings. What I would expect from a majority opinion if they believed there was substantive fraud that was sufficient to overturn the election results, would go like this: "Based upon the quantity and quality of indicia for illegal ballots being counted, it is the opinion of the court that states X,Y,Z, etc., cannot certify their election results based upon the election held on 3 NOV 20. Accordingly, this case is remanded to the respective state legislatures for cure."

So what can the state legislatures do in accordance with Article II and the 12th Amendment? They can try to do a revote, but that is nearly impossible given the time constraints required by law. They can in many of these states appoint electors independently of the vote held on 3 NOV 20. Keep in mind, not every state permits such a role for the legislature. I don't see that happening, since the **perception** will be that they disenfranchised all of the state's voters. The only logical outcome is all of those respective states will not be able to certify their elections. As such, the 12th Amendment is instructive here. At that point, Congress will decide who becomes president. This also happened in the 1801 and 1825. Each state delegation gets exactly **one** vote. Since republicans control 26 of the 50 state delegations, you can guess how that vote might tilt.

Food for thought.

409 Biscayne Sleeper Kerr Avon 2 days ago

Isn't that preciously what your radical Dem brothers and sisters are up to hoping to snag the Senate via Georgia on Jan 4th so that a one party America exists indefinitely? You are "projecting" what your ilk is actually hoping to accomplish. 'Jeepers', yeah jeepers is right. Nice try though.

TJ Hessmon Charles 6 days ago

You may want to read the complaint and resulting law suit filed by Lin Wood related to Georgia mail in ballots. It eliminates your assumptions with fact. Yes, in Georgia the voter signature validation was usurped for mail in ballots, allowing anyone with a mail in ballot to vote. There are ample undercover videos of union postal workers selling mail in ballots. Further there are many cases where mail in ballots were requested then the voter showed up at the polls to physically vote. The voter indicating they had never requested a mail in ballot. Plenty of documented cases, all you need do is look past you keyboard and tater chip bag...

TJ Hessmon Herb Daniels 6 days ago

The secretary of state usurped the law in Georgia, telling polling places to ignore the requirement to verify signatures of mail in ballots. The signatures are compared to the drivers license database. The democrats (Stacey Abrams) worked with the secretary of state to have such voting controls removed so the system could be easily frauded.

TJ Hessmon tai 6 days ago

Audits will work if cross auditing is randomly performed and auditors have the authority to either close the polls or invalidate the poll count based upon their discoveries.

glasshalfful HistoryProf 8 days ago

Cmpared to the Muller investigation, you mean waste of money like that? :)

TJ Hessmon HistoryProf 6 days ago • edited

Austin Texas = Kelly Reagan Brunner who was working at a Supported Living Center for senior citizens has been arrested and charged with more than 100 counts of voter fraud. (She was canvassing and changing votes).

Wisconsin
3,170,206 votes counted
3,129,ooo Registered Voters.

Erie county elections, Poll worker posts on twitter about him throwing out Trump votes.

7 Wards in Milwaukee report more votes than actual registered voters

Republican poll watchers prevented from entering Detroit poll counting center. official states COVID 19 as their reason.

MIT scientists find objective evidence of vote tallies being forced negatively away for the statistical mean by vote software. This was discovered in several states.

And on and on and on .........a landslide of objective evidence.

Riccardo Palagi HistoryProf 6 days ago

I'll tell you what Prof., if you think the cost of recounts is high, wait till you get a load of the cost of the electorate's lack of confidence in the election process. That cost will be measured in human lives.

donthomson1 HistoryProf 4 days ago

But the Russians! Not my President. Resistance. Years of investigations into gossip columnist Steele's paid report to the Democrats.

How could anybody with a brain in their head have ever taken Steele seriously? OK, he did speak to a Yank who was once a Russian.

There was also a news aggregator run by Russians just as there are others run by other humans. Only racists think that free speech should be restricted to Yanks. [email protected]

Denace The Menace HistoryProf 8 days ago • edited

Have you not been paying attention? The Dems states threw all election safeguards/checks and balances in the garbage like the USPS workers did, and some claim poll workers did. Experts have done audits of the voting in swing states/counties and found highly improbable vote counts......So.......

UncleDirtNap Denace The Menace 8 days ago

You mean like:

Georgia

President US Senate Differential
Trump 2,457,880 Purdue 2,458,665 -785
Biden 2,472,002 Ossoff 2,372,086 +99,916

That's closer to impossible than improbable and a discrepancy only a leftist could accept as real.

RepublicanDon Kiyoshi01 8 days ago

They also export data in JSON to media outlets. The JSON files showed interesting anomalies.

[Jan 05, 2021] Lesson in integrity

Is Mitch McConnell a shadow lobbyist for Dominion?
Notable quotes:
"... In July, McConnell blocked two bills, one that would provide $775 million to "bolster election security," along with requiring a physical paper trail of every single ballot cast in the country, and a second that would mandate political candidates, their staff members, and their families, to notify the FBI if any foreign government offered to assist them. ..."
Dec 17, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com

BugMan

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) quashed two election integrity bills in July last year after receiving thousands in donations from Dominion lobbyists.

In July, McConnell blocked two bills, one that would provide $775 million to "bolster election security," along with requiring a physical paper trail of every single ballot cast in the country, and a second that would mandate political candidates, their staff members, and their families, to notify the FBI if any foreign government offered to assist them.

Dominion Lobbyists Paid McConnell Thousands Before He Crushed Election Integrity Bills, Ignored Election Contests - National File

[Jan 02, 2021] Orwell taught us how to understand double-speak "Most secure" translates to "rigged"

Notable quotes:
"... If this is the cleanest election ever, omg can you imagine what's went on in the past! ..."
Dec 30, 2020 | www.youtube.com

Trump Team Hacks Dominion Machine In Real Time During Senate Hearing! - YouTube

Violence is Life , 2 days ago

Orwell taught us how to understand double-speak "Most secure" translates to "rigged"

Jason Stewart , 2 days ago

If this is the cleanest election ever, omg can you imagine what's went on in the past!

Cameron Gunn , 2 days ago

Did you hear the Democrats screaming for him to shut up? This shit is hilarious

Phalanx443 , 1 day ago

It's like peeling an onion. Each layer reveals more corruption. I cannot wait to see how this movie ends!

[Jan 02, 2021] Trump Team Hacks Dominion Machine In Real Time During Senate Hearing!

So WiFi was on.
Dec 30, 2020 | www.youtube.com
On Wednesday during a hearing in front of Georgia State Senators, inventor Jovan Pulitzer testified that his team found a polling location in Fulton County, GA, that was connected to the internet so they were able to hack into the Dominion Voting machines system and take over the poll pad and establish a two way communication of sending and receiving data. All this was happening in real-time while Mr. Pulitzer was testifying.

Poll locations are not supposed to have internet access. The polling site in question is being used for the current Georgia Senate runoff elections so this confirms that the runoff is connected to the internet. It appears that the Georgia Senate runoff elections are rigged just like the 2020 election. Are you okay with this? Stay tuned!



David Mel
, 2 days ago

Remember these machines were created for elections in 3rd world countries.


Dr. Calvin
, 2 days ago

This means the whole election was a fraud. Throw the disputed ballots out, PERIOD!!!


Henry1965ism
, 2 days ago

MSM: "The Dominion voting machines were hacked in real time during a Senate hearing but Trump has not provided any evidence of election fraud."

Violence is Life , 2 days ago

Orwell taught us how to understand double-speak "Most secure" translates to "rigged"


Johnny Rotten
, 2 days ago

It's incredible that this isn't plastered alll over the news


Bruce McKnight
, 2 days ago

The problem with the indisputable evidence isn't that it's being disputed. It's being blatantly ignored. We are losing our country, our middle class and our freedom because truly evil people are not being forced to follow the laws.


J Ad
, 1 day ago

"Most secure election ever" unless there is a smart thermostat in the room... or any wireless device... oh and the USB slots on the side of the machines... and then there is the free downloadable version of the code we used to program the machines... and the instructions on how to hack our machines on numerous websites... But other than that this is the most secure election ever.


michelle kincaid
, 2 days ago (edited)

There was a guy that testified a while back about the claim that these machines are not connected to the internet. I don't remember his name, which state, or anything like that. Just that he was on via a zoom call. Anyhow, this guy said that on election night there was a machine that wasn't working properly because it was coded to the wrong location or precinct. The poll Supervisor called support which i believe he said was in Colorado. They were able to remote into the computer & fix it. An internet connection must be present for remote support. The guy even had a print out record of the call.

[Jan 01, 2021] Swiss bank majority-owned by communist China paid Dominion parent company $400 million

Jan 01, 2021 | noqreport.com

Less than a month before the election, a Swiss bank that is 75 percent owned by communist China forked over $400 million in cash to Staple Street Capital, the parent company of Dominion Voting Systems.

Article originally published at Natural News .

Dominion, which operates electronic voting machines in 28 states, has been the subject of election fraud inquiries and lawsuits alleging that the machines and their software switched, altered and deleted votes on behalf of Joe Biden.

As first reported by Infowars , an SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) filing from Oct. 8 shows that Staple Street Capital received $400 million "with the Sales Compensation Recipient identified as UBS Securities." Back in Dec. 2014, $200 million was received by Staple Street Capital from the same source.

... ... ...

In other words, UBS Securities is a 100 percent Chinese-owned corporation, and it gave nearly half a billion dollars to a company that runs most of America's elections, just days before the most contested and obviously fraudulent election in American history.

[Jan 01, 2021] Deliberatly misprinting special "scanner alignment" marks (aka the Registration Marks) on ballots in "undesirable" areas so that they were put is special folder by the scanner as a new election fraud method created by voting mashines

Jan 01, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

keeper20 11 hours ago (Edited)

"We're In" – Witness Testifies Dominion Voting Equipment, and Internal Data, Hacked Live During Georgia Senate Hearing

https: // theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/12/30/witness-testifies-dominion-voting-equipment-and-internal-data-hacked-live-during-georgia-senate-hearing/

Graphic designer's take on the ballot misprints

Her twitter thread on ballots in Georgia.

https: // twitter.com/sherrieengler/status/1344490971648716800?s=21

1. As a Graphic Designer with a degree, I didn't understand why so many ballots were spit out as unreadable by the voting machines on November 3rd. But after watching Jovan Pulitzers testimony today in Georgia I now completely understand. Let me explain..

2. As a graphic designer all elements/layers of my design must line up in order to print on the paper properly. Otherwise it can put out blurred images on the final product at the printing shop. The printing machines follow something put on my art/documents

3. called "Registration Marks". Every student in Graphic Designer in college is stressed that these are never to be off or you are wasting the printers time and the clients time. Which is very bad, graphic designers get fired for this.

4. Back in the old days when we did this work by hand it was easy to make these mistakes, before the computers I'm dating myself here because that's when I started before computers. Now I design everything on computers that go to a printer.

5. On computer software, say photoshop for example, we no longer make these mistakes because the software sets all registration marks electronically every time in every layer of our art/document. In Mr. Pulitzers testimony he points out that

6. the Registration Marks (he called bullseye/target) are not lined up in the predominantly Republican areas voters voting papers. And he shows you that the Democratic areas voters voting papers are perfectly accurate Registration Marks. See below

7. You can see the Republican areas voter documents were off on the Registration Marks. Very off. Because these are documents meant to be scanned by a counter, those bad Registration Marks will toss the document out as uncountable.

8. Why was this print run allowed to proceed? Any print manager would have seen this in the printers proof and rejected the print run. How did the Registration Marks get misaligned?

9. Who printed these ballots? I have more that a few questions for them, like who designed these Republican areas ballots? Why weren't they corrected? Why are the missing barcodes on the Democrat ballots? I can think of many more questions. I bet you can too.

10. I bet I'm not the only Graphic Designer out there today to make this connection finally to the tabulation machines rejection rates now.

11. Jovan Pulitzer's testimony today if you want to watch.

https: // youtu.be/_PpyoYlGqBg

[Dec 24, 2020] Dominion voting systems demand letter to Sidney Powell

[PDF] (scanned with errors)
Looks like Sidney Powell overplayed her hand with her Hugo Chavez claims and might pay the price... They also attack her penchant for self-promotion.
This is a solid legal document that attack exaggerations and false claims and as such it puts Sydney Power on the defensive. But at the same time it opens the possibility to analyze Dominion machines and see to what extent votes can be manipulated, for example by lowest sensitivity of the scanner for mail-in ballots and then manually assigning votes to desirable candidate. This avenue is not excluded.
It also does not address the claim of inherent vulnerabilities of any Windows based computer used in election, irrespective whether they were produced by Dominion or any other company due to the known vulnerability of windows OS especially to the intelligence agencies attacks. As well as the most fundamental question: whether the use of computers in election represents step forward or the step back in election security? Especially Internet connected voting machines and centralized tabulation centers deployed in 2020 elections.
So the success here depends whether they can narrow the scope tot ht claims made and avid discovery of the voting machines themselves.
The weak point is that the letter references the testimony of Chris Krebs, who is a former Microsoft employee and as such has a conflict of interests in accessing the security of Windows based election machines produced by Dominion and other companies. Moreover he is now a computer science processional but a lawyer, who does not has any independent opinion on the subject matter due to the absence of fundamental CS knowledge required.
Notable quotes:
"... For example, you falsely claimed that Dominion and its software were created in Venezuela for the purpose of rigging elections for the now-deceased Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, that Dominion paid kickbacks to Georgia officials in return for a "no-bid" contract to use Dominion systems in the 2020 election, and that Dominion rigged the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election by manipulating votes, shifting votes, installing and using an algorithm to modify or "weight" votes such that a vote for Biden counted more than a vote for Trump, trashing Trump votes, adding Biden votes, and training election workers to dispose of Trump votes and to add Biden votes. ..."
"... Fifth, you had a financial incentive in making the defamatory accusations. Your own conduct and statements at the press conference, media tour, and on your websites make it clear that you were publicizing your wild accusations as part of a fundraising scheme and in order to drum up additional business and notoriety for yourself. ..."
Dec 23, 2020 | assets.documentcloud.org

CLARE LOCKE THOMAS A. CLARE, P.C. L L P MEGAN L. MEIER

December 16, 2020 Via Email, Federal Express, & Hand Delivery

Sidney Powell, P.C.

2911 Turtle Creek Blvd, Suite 300 Dallas, Texas 75219

Email: [email protected]

Sidney Powell Defending the Republic 10130 Northlake Blvd. #214342 West Palm Beach, Florida 34412

Re: Defamatory Falsehoods About Dominion

Dear Ms. Powell:

We represent US Dominion Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiaries, Dominion Voting Systems, Inc. and Dominion Voting Systems Corporation (collectively, "Dominion"). We write regarding your wild, knowingly baseless, and false accusations about Dominion, which you made on behalf of the Trump Campaign as part of a coordinated media circus and fundraising scheme featuring your November 19 press conference in Washington, D.C. and including your "Stop the Steal" rally and numerous television and radio appearances on -- and statements to -- Fox News, Fox Business, Newsmax, and the Rush Limbaugh Radio Show, among others.

... ... ...

I. Your reckless disinformation campaign is predicated on lies that have endangered Dominion's business and the lives of its employees.

Given the sheer volume and ever-expanding set of lies that you have told and are continuing to tell about Dominion as part of your multi-media disinformation "Kraken" fundraising campaign, it would be impractical to address every one of your falsehoods in this letter. Without conceding the truth of any of your claims about Dominion, we write to demand that you retract your most serious false accusations, which have put Dominion's employees' lives at risk and caused enormous harm to the company.

For example, you falsely claimed that Dominion and its software were created in Venezuela for the purpose of rigging elections for the now-deceased Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, that Dominion paid kickbacks to Georgia officials in return for a "no-bid" contract to use Dominion systems in the 2020 election, and that Dominion rigged the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election by manipulating votes, shifting votes, installing and using an algorithm to modify or "weight" votes such that a vote for Biden counted more than a vote for Trump, trashing Trump votes, adding Biden votes, and training election workers to dispose of Trump votes and to add Biden votes.

By way of example only, just last week, you made the following false assertions about Dominion to Jan Jekielek at The Epoch Times:'

Effectively what they did with the machine fraud was to, they did everything from injecting massive quantities of votes into the system that they just made up, to running counterfeit ballots through multiple times in multiple batches to create the appearance of votes that weren't really there. They trashed votes.

These statements are just the tip of the iceberg, which includes similar and other false claims you made at your Washington, D.C. press conference and to other media outlets with global internet audiences. Your outlandish accusations are demonstrably fake. While soliciting people to send you "millions of dollars"2 and holding yourself out as a beacon of truth, you have purposefully avoided naming Dominion as a defendant in your sham litigations-effectively denying Dominion the opportunity to disprove your false accusations in court. Dominion values freedom of speech and respects the right of all Americans-of all political persuasions -- to exercise their First Amendment rights and to disagree with each other. But while you are entitled to your own opinions, Ms. Powell, you are not entitled to your own facts. Defamatory falsehoods are actionable in court and the U.S.

Supreme Court has made clear that "there is no constitutional value in false statements of fact." Gertz v. Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 340 (1974). Dominion welcomes transparency and a full investigation of the relevant facts in a court of law, where it is confident the truth will prevail. Here are the facts:

1. Dominion's vote counts have been repeatedly verified by paper ballot recounts and independent audits.

Dominion is a non-partisan company that has proudly partnered with public officials from both parties in accurately tabulating the votes of the American people in both "red" and "blue" states and counties. Far from being created to rig elections for a now-deceased Venezuelan dictator, Dominion's voting systems are certified under standards promulgated by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission ("EAC"), reviewed and tested by independent testing laboratories accredited by the EAC, and were designed to be auditable and include a paper ballot backup to verify results. Indeed, paper ballot recounts and independent audits have repeatedly and conclusively debunked your election-rigging claims, and on November 12, 2020, the Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council and the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Executive Committees released a joint statement confirming that there is "no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised" and that the 2020 election was the most secure in American history.3 The Joint Statement was signed and endorsed by, among others, the National Association of State Election Directors, National Association of Secretaries of State, and the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency ("CISA") -- then led by a Trump appointee, Chris Krebs.

In addition, your false accusation that Dominion rigged the 2020 election is based on a demonstrably false premise that wildly overstates Dominion's very limited role in elections. Dominion provides tools such as voting machines that accurately tabulate votes for the bipartisan poll workers, poll watchers, and local election officials who work tirelessly to run elections and ensure accurate results. Dominion's machines count votes from county-verified voters using a durable paper ballot. Those paper ballots are the hard evidence proving the accuracy of the vote counts from Dominion's machines. If Dominion had manipulated the votes, the paper ballots would not match the machine totals. In fact, they do match. Recounts and audits have proven that Dominion did what it was designed and hired to do: accurately tabulate votes.

2. Dominion has no connection to Hugo Chavez. Venezuela, or China.

As you are well aware from documents in the public domain and attached to your court filings, Hugo Chavez's elections were not handled by Dominion, but by an entirely different company -- Smartmatic. This is a critical fact because you have premised your defamatory falsehoods on your intentionally false claim that Dominion and Smartmatic are the same company even though you know that they are entirely separate companies who compete with each other. Dominion was not created in or for Venezuela, has never been located there, and is not owned by Smartmatic or Venezuelan or Chinese investors. Dominion has never provided machines or any of its software or technology to Venezuela, nor has it ever participated in any elections in Venezuela. It did not receive $400 million from the Chinese in the weeks before the 2020 election or otherwise. It has no ties to the Chinese government, the Venezuelan government, Hugo Chavez, Malloch Brown, George Soros, Bigfoot, or the Loch Ness Monster. Dominion does not use Smartmatic's software or machines, and there was no Smartmatic technology in any of Dominion's voting machines in the 2020 election.

3. You falsely claimed that Dominion's founder admitted he "can change a million votes, no problem at all" and that you would "tweet out the video later''-- but you never did so because no such video exists.

During at least one of your many media appearances, you promised to "tweet out [a] video" of Dominion's founder admitting that he "can change a million votes, no problem at all." Your assertion -- to a global internet audience -- that you had such damning video evidence bolstered your false accusations that Dominion had rigged the election. Yet you have never produced that video because, as you know, it does not exist. Dominion's founder never made such a claim because Dominion cannot change votes. Its machines simply tabulate the paper ballots that remain the custody of the local election officials -- nothing more, nothing less. 4. You falsely claimed that you have a Dominion employee "on tape" saving he "rigged the election for Biden''-- but you know that no such tape exists. In peddling your defamatory accusations, you also falsely told a national audience that you had a Dominion employee "on tape" saying that "he rigged the election for Biden." Your own court filings prove that no such tape exists. In them, you cited an interview of Joe Oltmann, a Twitter- banned "political activist" who -- far from claiming he had that shocking alleged confession "on tape"-claimed he took "notes" during a conference call he supposedly joined after "infiltrating Antifa." This is a facially ludicrous claim for a number of reasons, including the fact that he lives in Colorado, where it would have been perfectly legal to record such a call if it had actually happened. As a result of your false accusations, that Dominion employee received death threats.

II. Because there is no reliable evidence supporting your defamatory falsehoods, you actively manufactured and misrepresented evidence to support them.

Despite repeatedly touting the overwhelming "evidence" of your assertions during your media campaign, every court to which you submitted that socalled "evidence" has dismissed each of your sham litigations, and even Trump appointees and supporters have acknowledged -- including after you filed your "evidence" in court, posted it on your fundraising website, and touted it in the media -- that there is no evidence that actually supports your assertions about Dominion. Indeed:

... ... ...

Fifth, you had a financial incentive in making the defamatory accusations. Your own conduct and statements at the press conference, media tour, and on your websites make it clear that you were publicizing your wild accusations as part of a fundraising scheme and in order to drum up additional business and notoriety for yourself. Your financial incentive and motive to make the defamatory accusations is further evidence of actual malice. See Brown v. Petrolite Corp., 965 F.2d 38, 47 (5th Cir. 1992); Enigma Software Grp. USA, LLC v. Bleeping Computer LLC, 194 F. Supp. 3d 263, 288 (S.D.N.Y. 2016).

Sixth, you cannot simply claim ignorance of the facts. As a licensed attorney, you were obligated to investigate the factual basis for your claims before making them in court. 31 There is no factual basis for your defamatory accusations against Dominion and numerous reliable sources and documents in the public domain have repeatedly debunked your accusations. As such, you either conducted the inquiry required of you as a licensed attorney and violated your ethical obligations by knowingly making false assertions rebutted by the information you found, or you violated your ethical obligations by purposefully avoiding undertaking the reasonable inquiry required of you as a member of the bar. Either is additional evidence of actual malice.

Taken together, your deliberate misrepresentation and manufacturing of evidence, the inherent improbability of your accusations, your reliance on facially unreliable sources, your intentional disregard of reliable sources, your preconceived storyline, your financial incentive, and your ethical violations are clear and convincing evidence of actual malice. See Eramo v. Rolling Stone, 209 F. Supp. 3d 862,872 (W.D. Va. 2016) (denying defendant's motion for summary judgment and finding "[ajlthough failure to adequately investigate, a departure from journalistic standards, or ill

[Dec 24, 2020] Dominion Security Director Files Lawsuits Against Trump, Conservative Media - ZeroHedge

Dec 24, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com

Dominion Security Director Files Lawsuits Against Trump, Conservative Media BY TYLER DURDEN WEDNESDAY, DEC 23, 2020 - 10:15

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

A security director at Dominion Voting Systems , the company charged by many of playing a role in 'rigging' the US election via voting machines, is suing the Trump campaign and several conservative news outlets.

Eric Coomer has filed suit , claiming he has received death threats stemming from the accusations that Dominion helped sway the election in Joe Biden's favour.

The defamation suit identifies the Trump campaign, as well as Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and the conservative news organisations Gateway Pundit, Newsmax, and One America News Network (OANN).

The suit also personally targets conservative talking heads Michelle Malkin and Joseph Oltmann.

Mr Coomer has been identified as the individual referred to by Oltmann as "Eric from Dominion" in statements made to OAN and other conservative outlets regarding alleged bragging to Antifa activists about making sure Trump wasn't going to get re-elected:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/qZ_ks_sNITg

The lawsuit states that Mr Coomer has been made "the face of false claims" in relation to Dominion's alleged influence over the election.

The suit further states that photos of Coomer, as well as his home address and personal family details have been made public by some pro-Trump websites.

about:blank

about:blank

me title=

Mr Coomer has stated that "I've worked in international elections in all sorts of post-conflict countries where election violence is real and people are getting killed over it. And I feel that we're on the verge of that."

In an op-ed posted by the Denver Post , Coomer declared that he has "no connection to the Antifa movement" and "did not 'rig,' or influence the election."

The lawsuit comes on the heels of a similar threat of legal action by voting machine company Smartmatic, which has issued legal notices to Fox News, OAN and Newsmax, accusing the networks of a "campaign [that] was designed to defame Smartmatic and undermine a legitimately conducted elections."

The legal notice is also said to have specifically named Fox News hosts Lou Dobbs, Jesse Watters, and Maria Bartiromo, and indicates that Smartmatic could pursue legal action against them personally.

https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1338527461206876162&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fdominion-security-director-files-lawsuits-against-trump-conservative-media&siteScreenName=zerohedge&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550px

Both Fox News, via Lu Dobbs, and Newsmax have since aired segments that critics say constitute 'walk backs' on previous allegations:

https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-1&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1340093301731504130&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fdominion-security-director-files-lawsuits-against-trump-conservative-media&siteScreenName=zerohedge&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550px

https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-2&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1341078245878472706&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fdominion-security-director-files-lawsuits-against-trump-conservative-media&siteScreenName=zerohedge&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550px

Dominion itself has not yet issued any legal notices to media outlets. It has, however, sent a letter to Sidney Powell , demanding she retract some "wild and reckless" allegations she has made about them. 43,247 272 NEVER MISS


GoldHermit PREMIUM 9 hours ago

Can't wait for the discovery phase

BaNNeD oN THe RuN 8 hours ago

Exactly, it is very unlikely that the cheating occured at the machine stage since a manual recount would prove the machine's error.

Cheating was done at the ballot level. The data clearly suggests it happened.

Trump supposedly got 11 million more votes in 2020 than in 2016.

Clinton 2016 - 65,853,677
Biden 2020 - 81,284,778 (+15.4mm)

Trump 2016 - 62,985,153
Trump 2020 - 74,224,501 (+11.3mm)

Total Votes 2016 - 137,143,218
Total Votes 2020 - 158,537,765 (+21.4mm)

The data strongly suggests that both teams cheated and that the Democrats were simply the better cheaters this time.

That is a meritocracy of sorts, right?

Gerrilea 7 hours ago

NO, the ballots AND the machines. The "recounts" have not happened...not legitimately.

BaNNeD oN THe RuN 7 hours ago

A manual recount happened in Georgia and confirmed the machine result

All the reports of the cheating in Georgia involve mail in ballots or boxes of ballots counted after the R scrutineers had left.

WedgeMan 7 hours ago remove link

Liar. They did a count using a sample of the ballots and got different number from the two machines because the software had been replaced with the cheating software.

MoreFreedom 8 hours ago

That's why he'll drop the suit. Imagine if people filed lawsuits against Democrats because their affidavit of election fraud caused people to make death threats against them. They claim such suits are without merit.

Just read the Antrim Country Forensics Report on Dominion Voting System. It's just a computer with software, that can be changed during an election (and was in at least one documented case) over the internet by anyone in the world with administrative access to the machines or servers.

HowdyDoody 5 hours ago (Edited) remove link

2017 - Voting machines are easily hacked - CNN report

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA2DWMHgLnc

2020 - Voting machines are totally secure.

It should be interesting to see how the systems were secured during those 3 years.

Edit:

" The legal notice is also said to have specifically named Fox News hosts Lou Dobbs, Jesse Watters, and Maria Bartiromo, and indicates that Smartmatic could pursue legal action against them personally. "

This smacks of lawfare. Interestingly (((The Only Democracy In The Middle East))) excels at that (via Shurat HaDin) - partly in response to attempts to hold it to account. From wiki (yeah, I know)

"The NGO Forum of the 2001 Durban Conference (31 August 2001 - 8 September 2001) called for the "establishment of a war crimes tribunal" against Israel."

For some reason, that appears to have gone nowhere.

As for Croomer, there is very little background. He says "I've worked in international elections in all sorts of post-conflict countries where election violence is real and people are getting killed over it." - That sounds straight out of CIA/USAID organised US regime change ops.

MoreFreedom 8 hours ago (Edited) remove link

I agree, but it would be great if it does go to court.

Mr Coomer has stated that "I've worked in international elections in all sorts of post-conflict countries where election violence is real and people are getting killed over it. And I feel that we're on the verge of that."

Looks like Dominion is a favorite of "post-conflict countries were election violence is real and people are getting killed". Note the contradiction between "post-conflict" and "people are getting killed". Croomer wants to say his machines are the favorite of "post-conflict" law abiding countries but it seems his machines go to where political violence occurs as a result of crooked elections of despots, or leads to it. Quite an endorsement for election fraud IMHO.

Just read the Antrim County Forensics Report on Dominion Voting System. As an IT guy, my reading is that Croomer will lose his lawsuit, which is why he'll drop it later. You may not have even read in the MSM, that Antrim county did 3 counts of the electronic ballots on 3 different days, and got 3 different results. And no one may have made it clear to you, that 68% of these ballots filled out on electronic screens were flagged as needing to be adjudicated, and they were adjudicated and likely changed by someone with sufficient authority (an administrative user on the system) but the logs have been removed so we don't even know who did it. Did you hear the Dominion voting systems were connected to the internet? Did you know that some Dominion employee changed voting software via the internet during the elections? The MSM wants to keep it quiet. FEC guidelines are that no more than 0.008% (1 of 250,000) should require any adjudication. And did you read the Antrim county, a reliably GOP country, initially had Biden winning on the first count, but in actuality it went to Trump?

I'd like to see Dominion defending against Trump's lawyers and explain how their systems work (which they don't, claiming it's a closed system) and how fraud is prevented. The report states:

We conclude that the Dominion Voting System is intentionally and purposefully designed with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence election results.

Max21c 8 hours ago (Edited)

Vote out any voting machine company that is not open source and does not make it's code available well in advance of the election... and do it worldwide... (fawk the CIA and British Gestapo)... let the bums in the secret police pick better behaved puppets and make the CIA puppets better govern...

As long as the voting machines are not open source then they are an enigma machine and it's the jeopardy of Pandora's box being opened in numerous elections afterwards over charges and suspicions of election fraud...

Open source for the kernel... open source for all the kernel modules... open source for all the firmware on all the chips, ic's and boards... open source for the higher level applications... et cetera... all the board changes and firmware changes recorded and posted publicly per notice of the change and available for scrutiny and all the "software patches and upgrades" also recorded and posted publicly per notice of the change.. make the changelog available...

source code + the compiler and linker and all the compiled code and all the libraries, header files, and other files... turned over in advance... and any changes thereafter also turned over...the whole shabang... nothing concealed and nothing held back...

donkey_shot 8 hours ago (Edited)

eric "from dominion" coomer who bragged openly about "taking care of the elections" is suing fox, oan and newsmax?

these people know no shame...and are obviously as dumb as rocks, too.

can`t wait for sidney powell and/or lin wood to take up the case and rip this guy another.

NAV 8 hours ago remove link

To trust that justice will be done via America's stacked judicial system is like a Russian trusting in Stalin's judicial system. That is why Coomer is suing; he's been assured the DeepState has his back. All that stands now between American patriots and freedom is their guns.

Our Country Has Been Stolen and Republicans Did Not Prevent the Theft

By Paul Craig Robert . PaulCraigRoberts.org

December 22,2020

Other than President Trump, no one cares enough about America to protect it . So why are we spending $1,000 billion annually to defend ourselves from alleged foreign threats when there is no defense against our country's theft by the ruling Establishment and woke Democrat identity politics ideologues? Why vote Republican when the party does not defend us?

The journalist Katerina Blinova writing in Sputnik International captured the meaning of the stolen presidential election. Democrats are turning America into a " one-party system ".

If the Democrats succeed in stealing the Georgia senatorial seats as well, which is likely given the absence of protection against electoral fraud, they will rapidly move to consolidate one-party dictatorship.

... ... ...

Trident5000 5 hours ago remove link

Fact: Nobody has even audited Dominion code because they claim IP protection.

JosephJohnson 9 hours ago

It is very good that Dominion is suing! --For the legal "facts discovery" process and accompanying legal investigations involving such a lawsuit will be awesome to have revealed in court! The defense will surely bring out some very interesting facts concerning voter fraud with the Dominion machines. Let the lawsuits begin.

propaganda4u 9 hours ago

Not to mention all payments to and from politicians and Dominion.

Sinophile 9 hours ago remove link

" Mr Coomer has stated that "I've worked in international elections in all sorts of post-conflict countries where election violence is real and people are getting killed over it. And I feel that we're on the verge of that."

This guy is unbelievable.

skippy dinner 4 hours ago remove link

You have missed a step.

If A merely alleges that B cheats on his taxes, nothing happens.

But if B sues for defamation , then that puts the onus on B to prove he is squeaky clean. *Then* A gets the powers of discovery on B's tax filings.

Suing for defamation is a dangerous game. Rich and famous people have done time for perjury - e.g. famous novelist and politician Geoffrey Archer.

Hail Spode 8 hours ago

Notice that Dominion as a company did not file the suit, only an employee of the company. And not over the issue of whether their machines and software can, by design, be used to rig an election. Only over the issue of what he said on a particular occasion.

IOW Dominion is still acting guilty and this still would not open the door to discovery.

Freddie 7 hours ago remove link

The new thing I saw online was the Dominion machines have a wireless card built in that can connect to the Internet via wi fi to the thermostat in an office building. No need to have a Cat 5 cable plugged into a router. It goes Wi Fi to the building thermostat that is wi fi.

1984.is.Here 7 hours ago

They did this also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh5j7s1H7ek

Max21c 9 hours ago remove link

So Dominion is claiming that they have no relationship at any time and in any way what-so-ever with the CIA or any other intelligence agency or secret police agency of any country? And they have no ties to any political party and are so super squeaky clean they should be selling soap? Matter of fact they're so super squeaky clean Proctor & Gamble is afraid of them and may have to pay consideration to Dominion to keep them out of the consumer and industrial soap markets.

2banana 9 hours ago

They are trying to keep this lawsuit very narrow with the Antifa focus.

Lawsuits have wide discovery data requests with pretty severe consequences for not delivering the requested data.

NAV 9 hours ago

Dominion Engineer Told Antifa He'd "Made Sure" Trump Wouldn't Win, Report Says

Dominion's top engineer assured Antifa activists that he had "made f**king sure" that President Donald Trump wouldn't win the presidential race, according to reports.

Dominion Voting Systems' Vice President of U.S. Engineering Eric Coomer allegedly spoke with Antifa members on conference calls and reportedly assured the other participants by saying:

"Don't worry about the election, Trump's not gonna win. I made f**king sure of that!"

Dominion Voting Systems is one of the largest voting technology companies in the United States.

Eric Coomer's profile as director at Dominion Voting Systems was recently scrubbed from their website...

https://newsthud.com/dominion-engineer-told-antifa-hed-made-sure-trump-wouldnt-win-report-says/

Nature_Boy_Wooooo 9 hours ago

Hopefully for him he was honest with his attorneys so they could give him the best possible advice. It would be a shame for him to get blindsided in the discovery process.

snatchpounder PREMIUM 9 hours ago

Excellent, dominion just opened the door and the *** ******* they're going to get will be hilarious.

jayman21 PREMIUM 9 hours ago

Hope you are right. We need a functioning gov't more than ever. Doubt they will get what they deserved until the sheep start to wake up en mass ~40% would due the trick.

FakeScience PREMIUM 8 hours ago

In a fair justice system maybe. I'd bet money that it goes before a Soros funded judge who doesn't allow any discovery by the defendant and only accepts evidence by Dominion.

snatchpounder PREMIUM 8 hours ago

Yes the court system is thoroughly corrupt so it's going to be hard to find a judge who isn't a bought and paid for Soros hack.

Cactus52 9 hours ago

Time for Discovery. They do realize the defendant is allowed to do this

Jung 10 hours ago

So why can they do this, while the MSM is hardly ever sued for their malicious, defamatory fake news? Are they really afraid of the owners of the MSM? It would be one of the ways to get rid of the endless propaganda and censorship.

Paul Morphy 4 hours ago

Dominion are trying to play chicken now.

Cretins

Pdunne 2 hours ago

Dominions position is clear enough

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20431227/dominion-voting-systems-demand-letter-to-sidney-powell.pdf

ChesterView 4 hours ago

Here's what Coomer had to say to his "friends" on Facebook on July 21, 2016, who are Trump supporters (language editted):

Facebook friend land- open call-

If you are planning to vote for the autocratic, narcissistic, fascists, a$$-hat blowhard and his Christian jihadist VP pic, UNFRIEND ME NOW!

No, I'm not joking.

I'm all for reasoned political discourse and healthy debate- I'm looking at you ( 3 names of friends).

I disagree with you three on many philosophical grounds but respect your opinions.

Only and absolute F**KING IDIOT could ever vote for that wind-bag f**k-tard FASCIST RACIST F**K!

No bulls**t, I don't give a damn if you're friend, family, or random acquaintance, pull the lever, mark an oval, touch a screen for that carnival barker -- UNFRIEND ME NOW.

I have no desire whatsoever to ever interact with you.

You are beyond hope, beyond reason. you are controlled by fear, reaction, and bulls**t. Get your s**t together.

Oh, it that doesn't persuade you, F**K YOU! Seriously, this f**king a$$-clown stands against everything that makes this country awesome!

You want in on that? You deserve nothing but contempt.

ableman28 6 hours ago

Just because people who don't like trump have facts on their side, boo hoo. We have belief and that is much stronger than reality. Let those courts hear the suit and if Sydney loses big deal. What are they going to do, disbar her and seize her assets to pay the other sides legal fees and judgement.

"Yes, my son, that is exactly what is going to happen."`

naro 6 hours ago

Why doesn't the Trump reelection office announce a $10 million reward and a full pardon for any Dominion insider who can provide evidence of rigging of the machines to favor Democrats?

Decimus Lunius Luvenalis 10 hours ago

Personally, I thought the voting systems fraud were pretty big with little, if any, direct evidence. Powell claimed to know the algorithm but we never saw it. That said, truth is an affirmative defense to a defamation claim, and discovery goes both ways.

Itchy and Scratchy 10 hours ago remove link

The software is probably long since erased and the audit trails destroyed. They will find nothing.

[Dec 24, 2020] -Fascist- MI AG Dana Nessel Threatens Lawyer Who Released Results Of Forensic Exam of 16 Dominion Voting Machines In Antrim C

Dec 24, 2020 | www.thegatewaypundit.com

Constitutional Attorney Matthew DePerno is an American hero. Two weeks ago, Michigan 13th Circuit Court Judge Kevin A Elsenheimer agreed to allow Mr. DePerno's client, William Bailey, and a highly skilled team of IT experts to perform a forensic examination on 16 of the Dominion voting machines in Antrim County, MI. On Monday, Judge Elsenheimer agreed to allow the results of the forensic examination to be released to the public. The results were damning.

After the forensic examination of 16 Dominion Voting machines in Antrim, Co., MI, Allied Security Operations Group has concluded that the Dominion Voting machines were assigned a 68.05% error rate. DePerno explained that when ballots are put through the machine, a whopping 68.05% error rate means that 68.05% of the ballots are sent for bulk adjudication, which means they collect the ballots in a folder. "The ballots are sent somewhere where people in another location can change the vote," DePerno explained. The allowable election error rate established by the Federal Election Commission guidelines is 1 in 250,000 ballots or .0008%.

Advertisement - story continues below

https://lockerdome.com/lad/12740420732127078?pubid=ld-6456-8264&pubo=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com&rid=www.thegatewaypundit.com&width=728

Based on the Allied Security Operations report, Constitutional Attorney Matthew DePerno states: "we conclude that The Dominion Voting System should not be used in Michigan. We further conclude that the results of Antrim County should not have been certified.

The stunning report was widely criticized by the Democrat Party mainstream media and by the dishonest Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Attorney General Dana Nessel

https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.432.0_en.html#goog_266342045

TRENDING: JUST IN: President Trump Announces 26 New Christmas Pardons Including Paul Manafort and Roger Stone

Yesterday, The Detroit News announced that AG Nessel is planning to seek sanctions against lawyers "who pushed to overturn Michigan's election results."

Sanctions sought against lawyers who pushed to overturn Michigan's election
Attorney General Dana Nessel said she plans to seek sanctions against lawyers who filed lawsuits against the sta

"It is unfathomable that licensed attorneys would deliberately file false and misleading affidavits and pleadings with the Court in an effort to disenfranchise millions of Michigan residents," Davis said. "Not only should these individuals and their attorneys be assessed financial sanctions, but they also should be barred from practicing in the federal courts in the Eastern District of Michigan."

While Nessel didn't mention the names of lawyers she may pursue sanctions against, she indicated that those who filed later, after the initial allegations had been assessed and denied immediate relief, were more culpable.

She said she could file against a lawyer associated with a case challenging Antrim County results and false statements he made on Newsmax and OANN. Matthew DePerno filed the case in Antrim County on behalf of resident William Bailey.

"I think we need to go back to a time where you can trust an attorney is making an accurate and truthful representation to the court because if they don't, then they won't be able to practice law anymore," Nessel said.


DePerno responded to MSNBC's far-left producer Kyle Griffin who tweeted the article by the Detroit News, that DePerno refers to as a "hit piece." In his response to Griffin, DePerno wrote: "Thanks Kyle for showing us what fascism and state run media look like. #Fascism #totalitarianism

Earlier today, Mr. DePerno appeared on the popular Frank Beckmann radio show on WJR (760 AM) where he explained how his law license is now being threatened by Michigan's far-left AG Dana Nessel.

DePerno called on MI Democrat AG Dana Nessel to "resign," saying she violated her oath of office with these threats. He called her out for "thuggery" and told the WJR host that in "his opinion" she is "acting like a fascist." DePerno also calls out Nessel for threatening MI lawmakers with criminal prosecution who dared to challenge the validity of the election results in MI.

Nessel, who is anything but warm and fuzzy, shared a videotaped public service announcement in which she appears wearing an elf-like costume while wearing a witch-like hat on her head. For many in Michigan who are disgusted by her totalitarian tactics and threats against those with whom she disagrees, the witch hat is the perfect choice for their overreaching AG.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel @MIAttyGen · 13h As we wrap up our 20 Day of Scams, we want to be sure you know how to reach our Consumer Protection team to file a complaint online, by fax, or U.S. mail. For more information about our complaint process, visit http:// mi.gov/agcomplaints .

[Dec 23, 2020] Dominion Security Director Files Lawsuits Against Trump, Conservative Media

Dec 23, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com

DonGenaro 4 hours ago remove link

is he sure he has standing ? :-)

Fish Gone Bad 2 hours ago

Good one.

[Dec 22, 2020] Giuliani- Governors Won't Give Access to Voting Machines - Newsmax.com

Dec 22, 2020 | www.newsmax.com

President Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani tells Newsmax TV his team can prove their allegations of voter fraud, but the governors of the contested states won't allow access to their voting machines.

Appearing Monday on "Spicer & Co.," Giuliani, career prosecutor and onetime mayor of New York City, told host Sean Spicer that the Trump team needs to prove only 10,000 contested votes in Arizona.

"Don't you think it's going to be pretty easy to show 10,000 noncitizens voted in Arizona?" he said. "Give me the names of the people who voted and run them against a Lexis-Nexis" search, he said. "I'll come up with 40,000 noncitizens."

"Nor will they let us look at the machines," he said. "If they didn't cheat, Sean, why won't they let us examine the machines? Why does the governor of Georgia continue to hold onto the machine the city paid $110 million for, and he refuses to let us examine them?

If President-elect Joe Biden doesn't want a cloud on his presidency, he should encourage an examination of the machines, Giuliani said.

me title=

"There's no reason to go beyond anything that this election was a theft. It could be proven," Giuliani said. "I can tell you one simple thing that would prove it make the American people feel really good. Five or six of these crooked governors could let us have access to the machines. In fact, if they did, maybe I would have to apologize for saying they're crooked."

[Dec 18, 2020] Russia hasn't just hacked our computer systems. It's hacked our minds by Fareed Zakaria

Did this pressitute ever heard about Stixnet and Flame ? About Vault7 and who developed it? From Wikipedia "WikiLeaks said on 19 March 2017 on Twitter that the "CIA was secretly exploiting" a vulnerability in a huge range of Cisco router models discovered thanks to the Vault 7 documents.[93][94] The CIA had learned more than a year ago how to exploit flaws in Cisco's widely used internet switches, which direct electronic traffic, to enable eavesdropping. Cisco quickly reassigned staff from other projects to turn their focus solely on analyzing the attack and to figure out how the CIA hacking worked, so they could help customers patch their systems and prevent criminal hackers or spies from using similar methods.[95] On 20 March, Cisco researchers confirmed that their study of the Vault 7 documents showed the CIA had developed malware which could exploit a flaw found in 318 of Cisco's switch models and alter or take control of the network.[96] Cisco issued a warning on security risks, patches were not available, but Cisco provided mitigation advice.[94]
...On 8 April 2017, Cindy Cohn, executive director of the international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco Electronic Frontier Foundation, said: "If the C.I.A. was walking past your front door and saw that your lock was broken, they should at least tell you and maybe even help you get it fixed." "And worse, they then lost track of the information they had kept from you so that now criminals and hostile foreign governments know about your broken lock." [109] Furthermore, she stated that the CIA had "failed to accurately assess the risk of not disclosing vulnerabilities. Even spy agencies like the CIA have a responsibility to protect the security and privacy of Americans."[110] "The freedom to have a private conversation – free from the worry that a hostile government, a rogue government agent or a competitor or a criminal are listening – is central to a free society". While not as strict as privacy laws in Europe, the Fourth Amendment to the US constitution does guarantee the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.[111]
Dec 17, 2020 | www.washingtonpost.com

The more we learn about the recent hack into dozens of America's most critical computer networks -- widely attributed to Russia -- the more it becomes clear that it is massive, unprecedented and crippling. Tom Bossert, who served as homeland security adviser to President Trump, writes , "It will take years to know for certain which networks the Russians control and which ones they just occupy." (We do know they successfully penetrated the Department of Homeland Security's systems as well as those of Treasury, Commerce and others.) Stanford's Alex Stamos describes it as "one of the most important hacking campaigns in history."

The New York Times' David E. Sanger, who has written several books on cyberweapons, co-wrote an article calling the breach "among the greatest intelligence failures of modern times."

Vladimir Putin's Russia has significantly expanded its hybrid warfare, using new methods to spread chaos among its adversaries. The United States will have to fortify its digital infrastructure and respond more robustly to the Kremlin's mounting cyberattacks. But what about the perhaps more insidious Russian efforts at disinformation, which have helped to reshape the information environment worldwide?

[Dec 17, 2020] THERE IT IS- Fired Cyber -Expert- Chris Krebs Admits in Senate Hearing that Dominion Voting Machines Linked to the Internet

Gateway Pundit staff was first told by Michigan witness Senator Patrick Colbeck in early November that the routers and WiFi connectors were used throughout the TCF Center during the ballot counting on election night.
Dec 17, 2020 | www.thegatewaypundit.com
Crash GIVE THEM NOTHING @CrashPatriot · Dec 16, 2020 What a joke @BlessUSA45 "Most Secure Elections In US HISTORY" and then when pressed HE ADMITS - I was not referring to FRAUD !!!! Image Troy @LibertyTroy Dems said vote machines were never on the Internet. BOOM 👇 Senator Johnson: "...but those tabulators are connected on Election Day 'cause that's how they transmit the data to the counties and also into the official -- uhm --" Krebs: "In some cases, yes, sir."

[Dec 17, 2020] Dominion Voting Systems deleted SolarWinds reference from their website - ZeroHedge

Dec 17, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com

The Dominion Voting Systems website has removed the link and reference for SolarWinds from their platform . It seems that the Dominion Voting Machines are trying to hide their relationship with SolarWinds. SolarWinds has been the center of conspiracy since the past few days after the big hack. The Dominion Voting Systems are being criticized for using a technology firm that was hacked. These voting systems assist voting in 28 states, therefore being attached to a technology firm that was hacked is not good for its name.

Dominion Voting Systems website removes SolarWinds link

Previously, SolarWinds did not mention Dominion on its partial customer listing. However, SolarWinds maintained that their products and services are used all over the globe by approximately 300,000 customers. This customer base also includes all five arms of the United States Military. Reports also indicate that 425 of the customers happen to be United States Fortune 500 companies.

The loophole in the security system of SolarWinds software paved the way for hackers to gain access to the U.S. Commerce Department as well as the Treasury Department. The Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Agency (CISA) stated that the Orion products owned by SolarWinds were exploited by malicious hackers who managed to secure access. The method employed by hackers also allowed them to gain access to the network traffic management systems.

In the last few weeks, Dominion has attracted attention due to how widespread its systems and machines are in the United States. Dominion machines are used in major states of the United States. A number of witnesses have come forward to claim that Dominion products were connected to the Internet during the recent presidential election, raising doubts about security mechanisms.

The reason why Dominion Voting Systems removed the link and reference of SolarWinds from their website is unknown. However, if one connects the dot the reason is obvious. Dominion did not want to be associated with a technology firm that was hacked when it is already facing accusations regarding its security systems. Disclose.tv today tweeted , "NEW – Dominion Voting Systems deleted the link and reference to @solarwinds from its website."

Also Read : Outgoing SolarWinds CEO sold a huge amount of stock in Nov

Source: Insider Paper

[Dec 17, 2020] Crucial Logs Missing From Some Michigan Dominion Voting Machines- Forensics Report - ZeroHedge

Dec 17, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com

Crucial Logs Missing From Some Michigan Dominion Voting Machines: Forensics Report BY TYLER DURDEN MONDAY, DEC 14, 2020 - 12:44

Update (1225ET) : The Epoch Times' Ivan Pentchokov reports that crucial security and adjudication logs are missing from Dominion Voting Systems machines from Michigan's Antrim County, according to a forensics report ( pdf ) released on Dec. 14 in compliance with a court order.

"Significantly, the computer system shows vote adjudication logs for prior years; but all adjudication log entries for the 2020 election cycle are missing. The adjudication process is the simplest way to manually manipulate votes. The lack of records prevents any form of audit accountability, and their conspicuous absence is extremely suspicious since the files exist for previous years using the same software," the report, authored by Russell Ramsland, states.

"We must conclude that the 2020 election cycle records have been manually removed."

The absence of the adjudication logs is particularly alarming because the forensic exam found that the voting machines rejected an extraordinary number of ballots for adjudication, a manual process in which election workers determine the ultimate outcome for each ballot.

The office of Michigan's Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Dominion, and a spokesman for Antrim County didn't respond to requests for comment.

* * *

As Sara Carter of SaraACarter.com detailed earlier, a Michigan judge ordered the public release Monday of a report submitted by lawyers supporting President Donald Trump and the election fraud allegations they say will reveal serious concerns that the computer machines used in the voting in Antrim County were compromised. The forensic report allegedly contains data that will reveal that the computer systems used to vote in the county were not secure and had foreign components that made them susceptible to manipulation and or fraud , according to those directly familiar with the case.

Michigan's Assistant Attorney General Erik Grill, representing Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, immediately shot back against the release of the report, which President Donald Trump supporters say raises significant questions of voter fraud and implications to the U.S. national security.

He suggested that the report being released is "inaccurate, incomplete and misleading," according to the Detroit News.

"There's no reason to hide," said Grill, during a virtual court hearing Monday morning.

"There is nothing to hide."

However, lawyers and computer experts working to expose what they say is a serious threat to U.S. security and infrastructure say the report will reveal the irregularities in the data and external foreign interference in the system.

The legal team "submitted the forensics report to the Judge (Sunday) at 8:30 a.m. per the Judge's request," stated a source familiar with the report.

According to sources, who spoke to me this weekend the forensic report of the computer system reveals that there are serious national security implications to the evidence discovered because "the election system is categorized as critical infrastructure, this is a threat to, it is a national security concern."

The lawsuit was initiated by Antrim County resident William Bailey. Circuit Judge Kevin Elsenheimer, a former Republican lawmaker, allowed Allied Securities Operation Group and Bailey to take forensic images of the county's 22 tabulators and review other election-related material to ensure election integrity.

The forensic analysis has been under protective order. It could not be released prior to the Judge's decision Monday, when Elsenheimer ordered the release with some redactions.

Antrim County has roughly 23,000 residents and the discovery that roughly 6,000 votes cast using the Dominion Voting Systems that should have gone to President Donald Trump went to Joe Biden without explanation triggered the ongoing investigation by Trump supporters.

The bizarre explanation that a failure to update voting software led to Joe Biden initially receiving those thousands of votes ahead of Trump in the Republican-leaning county wasn't accepted by the majority of Trump supporters, nor many of the Michigan GOP>

If the forensic report is accurate on the irregularities, as well as other issues of alleged fraud regarding the Dominion Voting Systems used in XX states across the country, it may snowball to other state legislatures requesting audits of their systems as well.

[Dec 17, 2020] Update on the Dominion fraud job:

Dec 17, 2020 | www.thegatewaypundit.com

Update on the Dominion fraud job:

BREAKING: Antrim Co. Forensic Report BOMBSHELL Reveals Dominion Machines Were Set At 68.05% Error Rate Meaning 68.05% Of Ballots Could Be Sent Out For Mass Adjudication, Giving Individuals Or Machines Ability To Change 68.05% Of Votes

"when ballots are put through the machine, a whopping 68.05% error rate means that 68.05% of the ballots are sent for bulk adjudication,...the ballots are sent somewhere where people in another location can change the vote"

[Dec 10, 2020] Hackers break into voting machines 2017

Dec 10, 2020 | youtu.be

MSNBC A Call For Courage From Republicans CNN We watched hackers break into voting machines 2017
https://youtu.be/ueUjWBZ73l0

[Dec 10, 2020] BREAKING EXCLUSIVE- Michigan Attorney Gives Behind the Scenes Update on the IT Inspection of the Antrim County Dominion Machi

Dec 10, 2020 | www.thegatewaypundit.com

In his lawsuit, Matthew DePerno claims that based on the evidence they have provided to the court that Dominion Voting Systems "committed material fraud or error in this election so that the outcome of the election was affected."

At 5:30 PM on Friday, December 4, 13th Circuit Court Judge Kevin A. Elsenheimer granted permission to William Bailey and his team of IT experts to conduct a forensic study of the 16 Dominion voting machines, tabulators, thumb drives, related software, and the Clerk's "master tabulator." In his court order, Bailey was also granted the ability to conduct an independent investigation of the images they obtained in their examination. According to DePerno, it would take approximately 6 to 8 hours to obtain the forensic copies, and it made sense to do the work on the weekend when most government employees and residents would not be in the building.

Matthew DePerno was able to quickly assemble a team of seven highly trained forensic IT experts who agreed to arrive the next day (Saturday) to conduct the forensic examination.

Following Judge Elsenheimer's order for the forensic examination of the Dominion Voting machines, the unelected Township Administrator Peter Garwood informed Mr. Bailey that he would not allow the machines to be accessed until Monday at 11:00 am. DePerno explained that Garwood also contacted Dominion officials and suggested they come to the Antrim County building where the court-ordered examination was to take place. As a result, DePerno and his client, William Bailey, were tasked with ensuring that the Dominion equipment inside the Antrim County building wouldn't be tampered with before the team's arrival. According to DePerno, Garwood was told by several elected county commissioners to stand down and allow the examination to take place over the weekend. A group of patriots from northern Michigan answered Mr. Bailey's call for help. For two days and nights, in freezing cold weather, the group of brave, volunteer patriots stood ready and willing to protect the precious sanctity of our vote. On Sunday morning, the seven-people IT forensic team arrived; Mr. Bailey and his attorney Matt DePerno were given access to the county building and started gathering the forensic evidence. Shortly after the collection began, Antrim County Administrator Peter Garwood began to take photos of the seven IT experts. When one of the IT team members saw him taking photos of them, they demanded Garwood delete them from his phone. According to DePerno, Garwood reluctantly deleted them. While he couldn't say for certain, DePerno believes Garwood was attempting to dox the highly-skilled IT forensic experts. Several photos of Mr. DePerno's vehicle were taken by outside protesters as well.

[Dec 10, 2020] Here's the first fornesic proof of Dominion Voting algorythmic voter manipulation

Dec 10, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com

play_arrow


otschelnik 19 hours ago

Here's the first fornesic proof of Dominion Voting algorythmic voter manipulation. It doesn't look like much (37 vote switch in Georgia's smallest county) but since nobody is getting access to the machines or software, and state voting commissions are hurrying to erase existing data - it's the first proof the Powell/Wood allegations.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/12/06/georgia-yall-got-a-problem/

Loco Hum 19 hours ago

Well, election tampering is a felony. So why hasn't a SINGLE ONE of these criminals been put in handcuffs?

El Hosel 15 hours ago

It's not tampering when the deciders make important decisions on National Security Matters.

also see : Remove the Orange Risk at all cost

[Dec 02, 2020] Games with cure of damaged ballots: Trump Ballots Defaulted And Switched To Biden On Dominion System- Maricopa GOP Chairwoman -

Dec 02, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com

Maricopa County GOP chairwoman Linda Brickman on Nov. 30 testified before members of the Arizona State Legislature that she personally observed votes for President Donald Trump being tallied as votes for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden when input into Dominion machines.

Brickman, the GOP head of one of the country's largest counties and a veteran county elections worker, submitted her testimony in a sworn affidavit under penalty of perjury. She testified that she and her Democratic partner witnessed "more than once" Trump votes default and shift to Biden when they were entering votes into Dominion machines from ballots that couldn't be read by machines.

She alleged that she was later threatened by election supervisors at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center (MCTEC) for speaking out about what she had witnessed.

" I observed, with my Democratic partner, the preparation of a new ballot, since the original one was soiled, or wouldn't go through the tabulators. I read her a Trump Republican ballot, and as soon as she entered it into the system, the ballot defaulted on the screen to a Biden Democratic ballot, " Brickman told GOP Arizona State legislators on Monday.

She remarked that when she reported the issue to election supervisors, others in the room also commented that they had "witnessed the same manipulation."

"We were never told what, if any corrective action was taken," Brickman continued. " All I know is the next day, I was called outside the room that I was working in for signature verification by a supervisor who said, 'I understand you caused some problems this week and you thought our machines were not working correctly.'

"I was told at that point in time that I could not discuss anything or talk about what was going on.

" Many people were threatened ," Brickman told the hearing. "They were told that their voices would be suppressed, they would have to leave the room and not work there again. I'm here because I think this is our duty to speak the truth."

[Dec 01, 2020] Another day, another rumor

Dec 01, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com

2

fxrxexexdxoxmx2 43 minutes ago (Edited)

Dominions software took third party votes and gave them to Cheating Joe Biden.

it also took Trump votes gave them to third party candidates then moved once again to Cheating Joe Biden.

wow wow wow

[Nov 30, 2020] Former Overstock CEO Paying 'Team Of Hackers And Cybersleuths' To Prove Trump Won Election

This guy was involved in Butina case and played in it a very dirty role.
Nov 30, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com

That's accusations. where are the facts?

The 57-year-old multimillionaire also appeared on several podcasts, including a November 23 appearance in which he said: "I'm a free agent, and I'm self-funded, and I'm funding this army of various odd people," according to the Daily Beast .

"It's really going to make a great movie someday," he added.

Byrne claims he's funding teams of "hackers and crackers" who realized all the way back in August that Dominion voting machines could be used to steal the election from Trump . Since the election, those voting machines have figured prominently in Trump supporters' allegations of fraud, despite the company's repeated denials and any actual proof the voting tallies were changed. - Daily Beast

Byrne says he's been communicating with former Trump attorney Sidney Powell for weeks - who last week filed two lawsuits in Michigan and Georgia alleging massive schemes to rig the election for Joe Biden.

According to Powell's Georgia lawsuit: "Old-fashioned ballot-stuffing" has been " amplified and rendered virtually invisible by computer software created and run by domestic and foreign actors for that very purpose," adding that "Mathematical and statistical anomalies rising to the level of impossibilities, as shown by affidavits of multiple witnesses, documentation, and expert testimony evince this scheme across the state of Georgia."

In Michigan, Powell claims that "hundreds of thousands of illegal, ineligible, duplicate, or purely fictitious ballots" enabled by "massive election fraud" facilitated Biden's win in the state.

The suit claimed that election software and hardware from Dominion Voting Systems used by the Michigan Board of State Canvassers helped facilitate the fraud.

More via Natural News :

Speaking to Christopher McDonald of The McFiles in a recent interview, the former head of a $200 billion e-commerce company that has never once gotten hacked revealed that Dominion Voting Systems were used to perform a "Drop and Roll" technique of voter fraud that slyly padded the vote for Biden in at least five key swing areas of the country.

Atlanta, Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Maricopa County, Arizona (Phoenix) were all rigged prior to election day to strip President Trump of his rightful win in each of these states. Byrne also mentioned Clark County, Nevada (Las Vegas) as another election fraud locale, though this one was more secondary.

According to Byrne, who is not a supporter of President Trump but rather a "small l" libertarian, these five (or six if you include Clark County) areas are where a bulk of the election fraud took place. It did not have to be widespread because these were the key swing areas that Biden needed to "win" in order to steal the election.

" By cheating those five counties, you flip five key states, you flip the electoral college, " Byrne says. " In places where Trump lost by 10,000, there may be 300,000 fake, illegal votes for Biden. So this isn't even close. "

He further contends that the election systems that govern elections in America "are a joke," especially those run by Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic software.

* * *

Is Byrne's 'army' Sidney Powell's research team?

play_arrow

MadameDeficit , 4 hours ago

Do you really believe she was a Russian guns rights activist?

Doom Porn Star , 2 hours ago

Does it matter what I think about Butina? What matters is what I think about Byrne.

WHY did the FBI / DOJ need Byrne to spy for them?

What did Byrne get out of it? We may not know who Butina was working for; but, we sure do know who Byrne said he was working for.

Trump did NOT get money for speeches in Russia. -Bill Clinton did.

Trump did NOT get money from the wife of the Mayor of Moscow. -Hunter Biden did.

Trump did NOT sell off Uranium assets in the USA to Russian businessmen. -Hillary Clinton did.

Trump Jr. did NOT get a high paying no show gig @ Bursima. -Hunter Biden did.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/08/overstock-ceo-resigns-maria-butina

"In a strange, post-Mueller twist, the conviction of Maria Butina , the redheaded gun nerd and unregistered Russian agent , has led to the resignation of a prominent e-commerce executive. On Thursday, Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne announced that he would step down from the company he founded, days after releasing a bizarre statement describing his involvement with Butina, the "Deep State," "Men in Black," and Russian-linked "political espionage" campaigns against Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. In a letter to shareholders, Byrne lamented that his continued presence at the company "may affect and complicate all manner of business relationships."

"While I believe that I did what was necessary for the good of the country, for the good of the firm, I am in the sad position of having to sever ties with Overstock, both as CEO and board member," Byrne said in the statement. The company's stock price had plummeted more than 40% in the days after Byrne first revealed his participation, earlier this month, in what he called a "political espionage" case involving Russia. Following his resignation, the company's market capitalization soared more than 8% .

It was an ignominious end for Byrne, a celebrity in Libertarian circles, whose labyrinthine involvement in the Russia scandal is difficult to verify. In an interview with journalist and Fox News contributor Sara Carter published last month, Byrne said he had been approached by Butina at FreedomFest in 2015, and came to suspect that she might be a Russian agent. Byrne reached out to the FBI to share his concerns, but, he said, was told to carry on with the relationship and report back. Over the next three years, he and Butina had a sporadic intimate relationship.

The story gets weirder from there. Byrne said he came to have doubts about his "nonstandard" relationship with the FBI and the intelligence community. He told Carter that he believed he "was being used in some sort of soft coup" against Trump. (Butina's lawyer confirmed the two had a relationship, while the Department of Justice said it could not comment.)

It wasn't until Byrne appeared on Fox Business Network, about two weeks later, that investors got spooked. Byrne claimed to have turned over evidence of a conspiracy involving Clinton and Trump. "I think we're about to see the biggest scandal in American history," Byrne told host David Asman. "Everything you think you know about Russia and Clinton investigations is a lie.... it was all political espionage. I think [Attorney General William Barr ] has gotten to the bottom of it."

"

SO, Patrick Byrne the Deep State tool is back with another bombshell?

What happened to the last bombshell?

ALL Byrne has done so far is get in bed with the FBI / DOJ Russiagate team and get a Russian woman he was ckufing sent to prison and deported.

MadameDeficit , 2 hours ago

It's definitely a strange situation and relevant in terms of Byrne's potential motivation, but who she was working for is the most important question.

The whole thing reeks of Deep State entrapment so...I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now.

Misesmissesme , 7 hours ago

So sad, that with all this evidence, a private citizen has to go to these lengths because Barr and Wray are so far in the pockets of the deep state.

Edit: by pockets, I meant a$$

TruthDetector , 4 hours ago

https://ncrenegade.com/editorial/general-mcinerney-us-military-personnel-killed-in-frankfurt-cia-server-farm-raid/

"There are many questions that are currently unanswered but there is one fact:

IF military personnel were killed by the CIA,

THEN the civil war between the people, the Deep State (and by extension, Russia, China & Iran) has started."

Doom Porn Star , 7 hours ago

Patrick Byrne wasn't a free agent when he helped the FBI send Russian guns rights activist Maria Butina to prison as part of the RussiaGate hysteria that was initiated by Hillary Clinton to discredit and villainize Trump.

littlewing , 7 hours ago

Barr is a Bushie.

Go watch the Bush Sr. funeral again and the cards they got during.

https://gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/060/262/801/original/5e88d8021ea1bbbf.mp4

Watch Biden get a card too, because the Bush Dynasty was both parties.

Clinton, Obama were also part of it.

Carter wondering why he didn't get one, turns to his wife and she didn't get one.

Notice Pence gets a card too, he is part of it.

Notice **** Cheney very aware of what is happening.

Dave Janda who worked in GHW Bush admin said he was a really bad guy and was involved in human trafficking too.

Sick Monkey , 6 hours ago

The boards on these machines are quite simple like a phone. They were reset asap along with any server data.

Nothing to see here unless operators are complete idiots. You need one of the boards to check for wireless device maybe but I doubt it.

One of Gulliani's witnesses said he witnessed usb dives inserted 24 times without proper chain of custody.

That's about as close as anyone will get to anything useful on the hardware.

Son of Loki , 7 hours ago

Dominion execs testified in Congress twice their machines could easily be hacked. Given the data we have so far, there is zero probability that Biden won with legal votes.

Someone Else , 6 hours ago

This is all catching on like wild fire for many people. Sadly not for many others. If you watch MSM (if you must) they still preface everything with "without evidence" and "baseless". We know that simply isn't the case but a lot of people who hear this enough believe it.

This is sewing discord between us who know and those kept in the dark. And its going to get real ugly. It's a crime what the MSM is doing. Almost like programming mindless soldiers with the WRONG program.

Doom Porn Star , 7 hours ago

Patrick Byrne, former CEO of Overstock.com , is an FBI stooge. He set up Maria Butina as part of the RussiaGate disinfo campaign.

Leftsmasher , 6 hours ago

570,000 Pennsylvania votes For Biden in two hours in the early morning is not "slyly" when the machines count 3000 per hour.

Ceickets feom Barr, busy getting ready for his next gig.

ze_vodka , 4 hours ago

At this point, we all need to realize that the election was entirely fake... and that they are never going to let the fraud be pulled back.

There are two choices left:

1. Accept their dystopian future for us Deplorables (across the globe, not just the USA)

2. Start doing something about it... start small and locally.

Onthebeach6 , 7 hours ago

The IT evidence is now overwhelming and I imagine it will be explained in detail to each of the Legislatures.

If Biden stood down now it might save the Democrats but I doubt Xi would contemplate the suggestion.

johnny two shoes , 7 hours ago

Of course that daily beast article frames it differently-

Former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne left behind a cloud of confusion when he resigned in 2019 from the internet retailer he'd founded after panicking investors with his bizarre claims that he had romanced a Russian agent at the behest of "Men in Black" working for the United States government.

Now he's back...

but it's noteworthy that the narrative has been breached at the daily beast- that Trump might be able to prove fraud.

philipat , 6 hours ago

It's a bit late for hackers isn't it? The machines are already off-line and probably already wiped in most cases ('in compliance with standard operating procedures").

MAYBE, the CIA machines seized in the DOD raids in Frankfurt and Barcelona might confirm "intervention" but we're running out of time. We'll see. Very soon.

philipat , 6 hours ago

He's also dodgier than a 3 Dollar Bill and has a VERY chequered past with allegations of CIA involvement. It should be of concern that he is involved/

SurfingUSA , 7 hours ago

You know who could SERIOUSLY use a donation, since Matt Braynard also seems well-funded, as well as Sidney Powell. Is Right Side Broadcasting, the ONLY outfit that is covering the PA & AZ Legislative hearings.

SurfingUSA , 7 hours ago

https://rsbnetwork.com/support-rsbn/

JaxPavan , 7 hours ago

We need an accurate, trustworthy voting system, no matter whether both "major" parties are a fake uniparty and both candidates suck.

ReadyForHillary , 7 hours ago

And all results must be open to full audit by independent parties. Otherwise, no deal.

Machines, code, ballots, signatures, everything. Individuals should be able to go online and check that their vote (or lack thereof) is accurate.

B52Minot , 7 hours ago

I am surprised as others about the silence of Barr....and Durham....two folks who should be all over this sorted and corrupt elections in which the Dem-China folks STOLE the election....and the evidence is THERE yet the Feds are so SO silent......makes no sense...and even Trump is wonder where they are when these folks work for HIM. Either Trump is play acting and the Barr/Durham folks are presenting something HUGE or their sense of defending our Republic and Constitution from these thieves is beyond distorted...it would be so SO un-Patriotic and un-American......Either they are silent doing God's work to defend this Country(and will show it soon) or they truly have lost their faith in this Great Nation.

Doom Porn Star , 35 minutes ago

I'm quite familiar with DeepCapture.

Byrne has been kvetching about Overstock being being the target of naked short selling and such for years. Old news. He's supposed to have plenty of money. I guess they didn't short his stack or he figured out how to hedge his position.

IMO, the guy is limited hangout or diversion/disinfo.

He quarterbacks for the swamp. Then he doesn't?

Known for running a successful honeypot trap for the Deep State.

Walking around with almost as much money as Jeffery Epstein?

[Nov 30, 2020] Fired director of US cyber agency Chris Krebs explains why he says vote was -most secure in Ameri

Note how he bypassed the problem of local administrators ( according to some data 2-6 for each site ) manipulating votes. He also does not explain strange pause in countering of votes in major battleground states. And the fact of deploying Dominion and other voting machines was at attempt to control voters and voting.
Yes there are some heuristically arguments on the contrary. For example why Florida was unaffected. But that does not change the fact that voting machines are evil and that they was corruption during their acquisition.
It is unclear how with strait face he can claim that systems based on Microsoft windows and connected to Internet can be secure. Or systems with Dominion technician having administrative access and implementing patches on their own schedules.
Nov 30, 2020 | www.youtube.com

Chris Krebs, a lifelong Republican, was put in charge of the agency handling election security by President Trump two years ago. When Krebs said the 2020 election was the country's most secure ever, Mr. Trump fired him. Now, Krebs speaks to Scott Pelley. https://cbsn.ws/3o6JayT

the_dead_poet , 32 minutes ago

"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act". -- George Orwell

[Nov 30, 2020] http://www.softpanorama.org/Skeptics/Political_skeptic/Two_party_system_as_poliarchy/US_election_fraud/dominion.shtml

Nov 30, 2020 | www.softpanorama.org

https://www.michigan.gov/documents/sos/071B7700117_Dominion_555356_7.pdf

I actually do not know what actually happened, but your defense of Dominion is pure technical nonsense and/or incompetence. This is a small office class system with consumer hardware, consumer OS and consumer hardware (on top of which there is some proprietary software) which is a dream for any intelligence agency to work with.

Posted by: likbez | November 30, 2020 at 01:35

[Nov 30, 2020] Cyber-security expert testifies under oath for the Powell legal team in Georgia - ample evidence exists that election fraud took place:

Nov 30, 2020 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Deap , 28 November 2020 at 11:34 AM

Cyber-security expert testifies under oath for the Powell legal team in Georgia - ample evidence exists that election fraud took place:

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/11/the_smartest_man_in_the_room_has_joined_sidney_powells_team.html

Deap , 28 November 2020 at 11:36 AM

What did Stacy Abrams know and when did she know it, regarding Georgia election fraud?

BillWade , 28 November 2020 at 03:20 PM

Petrel, "Condolences to the families of 3 - letter contractors and DoD patriots who died in the Frankfurt confrontation. Congratulations to General Flynn retuned to the fight of suppressing enemies foreign & domestic."

Could you please provide a source for this information? Thanks.

NancyK, The 2020 election is not yet over. I remember when the 2016 election was over, there were no sour grapes from the Dems as I understand you have said. But what were those tens of thousands of women wearing some sort of genital hat the day after, what was that about? Why were they cheering a washed up entertainer named "Madonna" who was screaming and threatening to burn down the White House. Another women, a not so funny one, carrying around a severed Trump look alike head, did you laugh or just wish it were true? I distinctly remember antifa destroying cars, business windows, etc, just some kids having fun, no?

I learned of a Japanese Admiral who said, "I'm afraid we're about to waken a sleeping giant." I have to wonder if Biden isn't thinking the same thing.

It's a beautiful day in the Free State of Florida.


[Nov 30, 2020] I think we are all being spun by both sides so the truth is a little difficult. One has to follow the actual court filings.

Nov 30, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org

circumspect , Nov 30 2020 4:55 utc | 85

As Krebs discussed, on 60 Minutes: 92% of ballots were paper or backed by paper. All the machine and hand recounts of paper ballots validated previous results. The machines were accurate (enough) before, during and after the election and produced that same results.

I think we are all being spun by both sides so the truth is a little difficult. One has to follow the actual court filings.

Actually a full recount has not yet happened in Georgia. They went through a canvass and a post-election audit which all the news organizations are calling a full recount. A canvass is looking for missing ballots, memory sticks, and the like. A post election audit takes a small sample is not a full recount.

Monday, they will be wiping voting machines to actually scan all the ballots hence more lawsuits to stop them from wiping the machines data so it can be preserved for analysis.

Since the actual action is not being reported in the main we have to look for it and I am not 100% sure I am following it correctly myself. I am 100% sure not to believe much of anything the MSM puts out.

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/18694655/7/1/pearson-v-kemp/

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1ik3wu0xnzn1dkh/SECOND%20ORDER%20-%20PEARSON%20v.%20KEMP%2011.29.2020.pdf?dl=0

So the second order nullifies the first order to preserve data. The machines will be wiped 30 November 2020 and the ballots will be fed to perform a full recount. Naturally no human being wants to plow through his crap but as a former voter who gave up long ago I am collecting evidence and understanding for my county election board.

It is quite a stretch for Trump but it is interesting to see these allegations which have stretch back to at least 2006 in Congress.

What I remember happening is that at the end of the machine voting Trump had huge leads in the 5 swing states prior to the counting of the mail in ballots. Counting was allegedly stopped at around 11PM eastern time in the 5 swing states in question and then at 4am EST his lead evaporated. The MSM was telling us for weeks Trump would win the machine voting but lose the mail in. The pump was primed.

I think the fight is over were these votes injected from overseas through the Scytle server, were 100% of the mail in ballots legitimate, and was it fair to keep the observers from actually observing? They are also arguing the equal protection clause as used in 2001.

Granted Giuliani is a joke but Powell is no lightweight. Neither was Giuliani back in his pre-depends days. Hopefully we will obtain some sanity in our voting systems next go around. Somehow I doubt it.

[Nov 29, 2020] Sidney Powell to Newsmax TV- Dominion Contracts Warrant Criminal Probe

Notable quotes:
"... The $107 million contract awarded by Georgia for Dominion Voting Systems should be thoroughly investigated for potential "benefits being paid to family members of those who signed the contract," according to former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell on Newsmax TV. ..."
"... "I think there are multiple people in the Secretary of State's office and other that should be investigated in Georgia for what benefits they might have received for giving Dominion the $100-million, no-bid contract," Powell said. ..."
"... The Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported in 2019, however, Georgia did receive three bids for the new voting systems, with Dominion winning on being "the lowest-cost system among three companies that submitted bids." ..."
"... That contract was pursued by the state after Stacey Abrams never conceded to Gov. Brian Kemp in the 2018 midterm elections, claiming the Secretary of State and Kemp unlawfully ''suppressed'' votes by voiding registrations found to be illegitimate. ..."
Nov 29, 2020 | www.newsmax.com

The $107 million contract awarded by Georgia for Dominion Voting Systems should be thoroughly investigated for potential "benefits being paid to family members of those who signed the contract," according to former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell on Newsmax TV.

"There should be an investigation, a thorough criminal investigation, frankly, of everyone involved in acquiring the Dominion [Voting] System for the state of Georgia," Powell told Saturday's "The Count" hosted by Tom Basile and Mark Halperin.

"And frankly for every other state, giving how appalling the system is and the fact it was designed to manipulate the votes and destroy the real votes of American citizens who were casting legal votes."

Powell's investigation is turning up potential criminal allegations, including "money or benefits being paid to family members of those who signed the contract for Georgia."

"I think there are multiple people in the Secretary of State's office and other that should be investigated in Georgia for what benefits they might have received for giving Dominion the $100-million, no-bid contract," Powell said.

The Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported in 2019, however, Georgia did receive three bids for the new voting systems, with Dominion winning on being "the lowest-cost system among three companies that submitted bids."

That contract was pursued by the state after Stacey Abrams never conceded to Gov. Brian Kemp in the 2018 midterm elections, claiming the Secretary of State and Kemp unlawfully ''suppressed'' votes by voiding registrations found to be illegitimate.

[Nov 29, 2020] Powell wants impoundment of voting machines, suggesting overall strategy (see above) of gathering discovery globally.

Nov 26, 2020 | twitter.com
Derek (Lid on Likes) (#Kraken Emeritus) @PereGrimmer Nov 26
24/Let's start with the relief requested (inside out, this is the quick way to read motions since the relief requested dictates the relevance of everything else). They want impoundment of voting machines, suggesting overall strategy (see above) of gathering discovery globally.

[Nov 29, 2020] In early October, 2020, a federal district judge in this same district (Northern District of Georgia) ruled after several years of litigation that the Dominion software used to monitor this election has substantial issues and it will affect an election.

Nov 29, 2020 | voxday.blogspot.com

B November 26, 2020 7:39 AM

"In early October, 2020, a federal district judge in this same district (Northern District of Georgia) ruled after several years of litigation that the Dominion software used to monitor this election has substantial issues and it will affect an election.

The Plaintiffs were Democrats who filed suit in response to the 2016 election. They sought an order forcing Georgia to use different software.

They conducted discovery and hearings over years, including 3 days of expert testimony about how these very voting machines work. The court ultimately denied the request because it was simply too late to change the voting machines since the election at that time was roughly a month away."

So this judge ruled that the Dominion software could improperly affect an election but said it was OK to use it in the November 2020 Presidential election "because it was simply too late to change the voting machines since the election at that time was roughly a month away."

What's wrong with this picture?? This is nuts!

pyrrhus November 26, 2020 7:48 AM

I'm a former litigator in Illinois...Obama "won" his first election against a popular incumbent who was a civil rights pioneer by claiming fraud in her nominating petition signatures, which is seldom successful...But Obama had friends...

In general, I agree that courts are reluctant to overturn elections for vote fraud, despite the theoretically low standard of proof, but that is more for personal, political and societal reasons than legal reasons...

pyrrhus November 26, 2020 7:57 AM

Courage is not common anywhere in our society, and certainly not on the bench...

Unfortunately, that has protected the politically connected fraudsters to the extent that vote fraud has completely destroyed the two party system in Illinois, with Democrats running everything and the State being bankrupt....

The same would happen if Democrats prevail in this election.

[Nov 28, 2020] Looks like all Dominion voting machines were connected to Internet during 2020 elections

Notable quotes:
"... the new equipment enabled them to log in to the poll pads and fix problems remotely. ..."
Nov 20, 2020 | twitter.com
Looks like all Dominion voting m AllenCommodore

@tracybeanz

Smoking Gun: “Barron replied that using large amounts of technology lends itself to problems, but the new equipment enabled them to log in to the poll pads and fix problems remotely.” Remotely can only mean connected to Internet! A Major No No.

Are You Not Entertained?

@SheriHerman10,

Sidney Powell is so fierce she made Dominion shut down their offices, scrub their website, not show up for an important press conference in PA today, lawyer up and have employees all fly the coup. She has all the evidence she needs.

[Nov 28, 2020] Don't worry. Trump won't win the election, we fixed that

Nov 28, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com

tunEphsh , 14 hours ago

in 2010 Eric Coomer joined Dominion as Vice President of U.S. Engineering. According to his bio, Coomer graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics. Eric Coomer was later promoted to Voting Systems Officer of Strategy and Security although Coomer has since been removed from the Dominion page of directors. Dominion altered its website after

Colorado resident Joe Oltmann disclosed that as a reporter he infiltrated ANTIFA, a domestic terrorist organization where he recorded Eric Coomer representing: "Don't worry. Trump won't win the election, we fixed that." – as well as social media posts with violence threatened against President Trump.

[Nov 26, 2020] Dominion-izing the Vote by Chanel Rion

Pretty educational video that touches several aspect of Dominion. 2-6 people training in using Dominion are essentially administrators who have tremendous level of control over the system. Essentially election are decided by those 2-6 administrators. Those people need to be investigated in countries that experience anomalies.
Also tough anti-Trump sentiments within top executive on Dominions, especially Eric Coomer . In Coomer case he was in the position to materialize his threats. This looks like another Peter Strzok "he is not going to win" insurance.
Nov 22, 2020 | www.youtube.com

WATCH: Chanel Rion on "Dominion-izing the Vote" - YouTube


Errick Mackey , 1 day ago

Who is Eric Coomer?😳 For the answer..... Google "Dominion Eric Coomer " The FBI should arrest this guy for treason and voter's fraud.😡


MarvLS1
, 1 day ago

6,000 ballots "accidentally" counted for Biden? "Accidentally?" LOL

Jenny Smith , 1 day ago

Georgia said they had "no widespread fraud." Should not be ANY fraud. One "narrow" amount of fraud could produce overwhelming irregularity.


theshepherdsinn
, 1 day ago

This election should be completely redone demanding in person voting and showing ID. We must not let our presidents win be stolem!!!!!!

Miggity_ , 9 hours ago

"We have put together I think the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics. -Joe Biden 🙃


patrick hague
, 2 days ago

I am a Canadian, amazing job Chanel . Dominion is in Toronto Canada sharing office space with George S funded foundation , or at lest they were a week ago.. glad to see your on it .


Gregorio Juliano
, 1 day ago

Chenal Rion, is an amazing interviewer She rocks !!


Donny Hanson
, 4 hours ago

So this is the video that actually led to OAN's Youtube suspension.


Dominic Fong
, 2 days ago

As a Canadian, I am totally ashamed that our country is involved in such heinous crime.


Jules Rose
, 1 day ago

The Voter Fraud, and the Facts are all there making it a Crime scene. All Fake Ballots need to have a Forensic test of the PAPER used, to determine it's Source of where the Fake Ballots came from. It's obvious they're not legitimate.


Inverted Earth
, 4 days ago

Remember: The root word of Dominion is DOMINATION


Susan Ferraro
, 7 hours ago

The Democrats have been too damned sure of themselves !


Frank Fernandes
, 1 day ago

Although all we know is true: dominion fraud etc. Democrats have covered everything, will not be caught, and so results will not change. The world will have to live with the nonsense of Biden & his corrupt Democrats. I'm Indian, feel sad to see America suffer this.


Travishamochory
, 3 days ago (edited)

Hmm, computer and keys stolen a month before the election ? Isn't that about the same time Hillary told Biden not to concede ???

Tim Gomolka , 3 days ago

The issue with bleed-through causing ballots to be not read properly, is that why in Arizona Trump supporters were given Sharpies and Biden's weren't?

Denise MR , 3 days ago

Yes

wasantha Lakmal , 3 days ago

Let's do this https://youtu.be/u50LObfO0KM amen...


Michael Krutz
, 3 days ago

Here in my town in Michigan we were too.

Ron Rathbone , 3 days ago

@Michael Krutz Dam man. This thing is so disgusting. They really did commit massive amounts of fraud. In so many places and so many ways.


Michael Krutz
, 3 days ago

@Ron Rathbone You are absolutely right. The machine wouldn't take mine and three people in front of me. We had to leave them in a box in the back of the ballot machine.

kdrazalot G-USA , 1 day ago

Saw Biden trying to MUSCLE IN, WITH HIS "PICKED" Cabinet or whatever! It looked like a MILITARY TAKE OVER! Scary!! This is really freaky!!


george christopoulos
, 3 days ago

When can OAN do a story on why the FBI is not investigating the election fraud along with the long time Biden family corruption


Joe Valachi
, 3 days ago

This makes watergate look like a lemonade stand overcharge by comparison.


kwonbbl
, 11 hours ago (edited)

New DemoNKracy: People of the government, by the government, and for the government - Jot Kennedie - Don't think it will do any for the people, but the people should obey the new god - Government of George Orwell prophecy.


Richard L.
, 13 hours ago

If anyone believes that any software related voting machine cannot be altered I have a bridge for sale. We need to go back to paper ballots and USA citizenship I'd cards to get the ballot. Wake up people, the dems may have stole this one but don't forget Republicans can cheat also.


Ted Ross
, 3 hours ago

Eric coumer is best friends with Justin Castro-Trudeau, along with the ceo of dominion software company.


JEFFERY T. CARR Ph.D. on't
, 1 day ago

So who in the Hell gave the ok to use this machine? Any Governor that allowed this in their state should be removed from office as well as the Secretary of State.


Patricia Taylor
, 3 days ago

It wasn't an accident. That's how they programmed the software.


Inverted Reality
, 8 hours ago

What can be done in error can be done maliciously. The system is designed to allow it.


yankees29
, 1 day ago

Georgia was a huge fix. Big news coming. The Republican leadership took kickbacks to install Dominion in Georgia.


Spikey Badger
, 2 hours ago

There should an audit in all swing states, there needs to be sound respect, for the integrity of our elections. The election does have irregularities and fraud, over 13k sworn affidavits saying there was. This is 1 election, but if people don't have trust in the election, we will be divided and the stability of our nation is in doubt.

ThatHandsomeDevil08 , 3 days ago

Computers don't make mistakes, they do exactly what they are programmed to do.

MasterT91 , 2 days ago

I can follow him on the IT security. I and a couple of my friends with a couple flash drives and using googledocs could easily compromise the Dominion machines and rig the election results the way we want. Pretty damning report


Live Abundantly
, 3 days ago

Damn fantastic reporting! We can't let dominion and their masters get away with this corruption.

drfreedom11 , 17 hours ago

I fear we do not fully understand the future consequences of just accepting this stolen election. We will never have a say in who represents us if we allow this. The will of the people will mean nothing going forward. We are entering a technological enslavement from which there will be no way out. Speak now while other are around to speak up with you.


Tim
, 1 day ago

Tim, look at the Patrick Bryne story. He is the founder of Overstock.com . He claims, with Sydney Powell, that he has the evidence, See the interview with the BLACK CONSERVATIVE PATRIOT.


Thomas P
, 1 day ago

That's kind of funny that ANTIFA would be involved in this considering when you went to www ANTIFA com it took you directly to Biden's website! What a f'n crook!

My Ukulele Daily , 1 day ago

A guy who EVERYONE hates, can hardly talk, lives in his basement and can't draw flies on a campaign stop wins the presidency with the most votes ever. DIDN'T HAPPEN.


Eric Claey
, 15 hours ago

The Dominion machines and software should be enough to officially make the 2020 election illegitimate. Why is the Democratic Party the only party that is endorsing these voting machines?

howmonster , 2 days ago (edited)

I want to believe this theory, but the Georgia recount were fairly consistent with the initial count. Had absolutely no reason to think that Dominion switched the votes. Georgia is ALL Dominion!

j , 4 days ago (edited)

The Dominion + voting system was created to do what it was supposed to do==RIG AN ELECTION !!


Ted Ross
, 4 hours ago

Dominion software company shares a office with George soros and the ceo is best friends with Justin Castro-Trudeau. Trudeau also gave one hundred and twenty four million taxpayers dollars to the Clinton foundation to rigg the American election. The dominion of canada, dominion software company anyone see and realize that this company is keeping the plandemic reset going.

True Witness , 3 days ago (edited)

This is indeed the most inclusive voter fraud organised crime ever in the history of elections

[Nov 26, 2020] Fatal Vulnerabilities

Nov 26, 2020 | www.mintpressnews.com

Experts on both sides of the political divide concede that both voter fraud and election fraud occur with considerable frequency since the advent of electronic voting machines. In addition to Dominion and ES&S, only five other companies dominate this space: Tenex, SGO/Smartmatic, Hart InterCivic, Demtech, and Premier (formerly Diebold).

Virtually all have been accused of vote count manipulation or other irregularities associated with their systems. Hart, for instance, was accused of vote flipping (the practice of switching the votes from one candidate to their opponent) in Texas. Dominion also ran into issues in the Lone Star state when its systems failed certification over accessibility problems.

"Much of the equipment being used to record and count votes," explains Jonathan Simon, "is either modem-equipped, which leaves it highly vulnerable to remote interference, or programmed with the use of other computers than are internet-connected, allowing the alteration of memory cards and code running in either precinct-level machines (like BMDs, DREs, or Optical Scanners) or central tabulators."

Examples of these dangerous weaknesses were explored in a recent video published by a self-styled national security professional, L. Todd Wood , where conservative elections security expert, Russ Ramsland, breaks down his findings from a forensic analysis of a 1000+ page voter log taken out of Dallas County's central tabulation center in the aftermath of the 2018 midterm elections.

https://cdn.iframe.ly/M7DMJcB?v=1&app=1

Ramsland identified instances of votes being replaced in 96 precincts, an inordinate number of database "updates" and other serious irregularities that point to vote-count manipulation and amount to election fraud. His most explosive allegation centered around claims of real-time vote-swapping in the 2019 gubernatorial election in Kentucky, where Ramsland asserts that thousands of votes originally given for the Republican candidate were swapped live on a CNN broadcast and added to the tally of the Democratic candidate, Andy Beshear, who would end up winning the election.

Ramsland also alleged that the election data of that race was being stored in a server in Frankfurt, Germany before being cycled through the central tabulation database, which syncs automatically with the numbers shown to television viewers. This server has been pounced on by Trump supporters in recent days and repeated by Rudy Giuliani in his podcast on Friday when he also purported to have direct evidence of election fraud.

While it is practically impossible for the layman to unravel the complexities underlying the encryption and cloud technologies underlying the present-day election system in the United States, few can doubt that moving towards a digital voting system removes whatever last vestiges of control the regular American citizen had in a once participatory exercise of democracy.

Asked if democracy can even exist under such conditions, Simon refers to a prediction he made in "CODE RED," in which he augurs "an inexorable progression to where we are now: public trust eroded, the losers making wild allegations, no one able to prove anything, [and] everyone kind of waking up to the realization that our concealed computerized vote-counting process does not yield evidence-based results."

[Nov 26, 2020] It's critical that the legal team nail down the machine manipulation using SMOTE (Synthetic Minority Over-sampling Technique) written by Aleksandar Lazarevic.

Nov 26, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com

BulkBeing , 1 day ago

It's critical that the legal team nail down the machine manipulation using SMOTE (Synthetic Minority Over-sampling Technique) written by Aleksandar Lazarevic. Trail leads to Belgrade, Serbia and Dominion Voting Systems with chips made in China.

[Nov 25, 2020] Mark Steyn Interviews Sidney Powell on Rush Limbaugh Show - The Last Refuge

Nov 25, 2020 | theconservativetreehouse.com

David Vicknair , November 18, 2020 at 12:12 am

Unfortunately IMHO, the Kraken was either a careless misspeak or a bluff to shake the trees to see if a whistleblower would fall out. If the later, it failed. If the former, I am inclined to give Sidney a break. She has done yeoman's work for Flynn. And so the Kraken seems destined to remain a creature of Scandinavian lore and Hollywood movies. I wish it were not so. The Dominion software apparently is easily hacked and allows votes to be directly manipulated without a trace. Hard to make a case without an audit trail. I wonder whether the outcry from MAGA supporters will be sufficient to encourage states to choose a more secure vendor or will Dominion still be in widespread use during the midterms? Kemp, Raffensberger and company should be ridden out of GA on a rail after a good tar and feathering. Other states have their own corrupt actors who should receive the same consideration. They all have sold us out -- if the Dems take the Senate, even to slavery under socialism -- for 30 pieces of silver. As for Kemp and Raffensberger, in a different age I might have suggested an appointment with a high, sturdy branch in one of GA's many 100 plus years old live oaks.

Maximus-Cassius , November 18, 2020 at 9:50 am

"Releasing the Kraken" would be Trump invoking BOTH the Insurrection Act AND his 2018 EO protecting against foreign intervention in our elections.

Will it happe? Who knows, but if Trump is to survive, IMO, that is his ONLY card left to play.

President-Elect TwoLaine , November 17, 2020 at 9:33 pm

It's going to be a bloodbath, on all levels.

President-Elect TwoLaine , November 17, 2020 at 10:23 pm

As I listened to Lin's interview today I tho't that there must be something in the Southern water. Both he and Sidney have that Southern drawl. Very genteel, polished and extremely intelligent.

I am a very brave soul, but I don't think I would want to go up against either of them in a court of law. 🙂

JustDoItNow , November 17, 2020 at 9:28 pm

I forget who it was, either Lou or Tucker, that ended their interview telling Sidney half jokingly to remember to lock her doors at night.
Please remember to PRAY God's protection for this wonderful woman!

Liked by 27 people

GB Bari , November 18, 2020 at 12:03 am

I have no doubt the President has put a very capable guard team around Sidney & family.

Liked by 1 person

Pvt. Idaho , November 18, 2020 at 1:37 am

It was Mark Levin who told her.

UniPartySlayer , November 17, 2020 at 9:37 pm

When are they going to lay out the case? Lin Wood and Sidney have been making serious statements. They have reputations beyond reproach. I believe them when they say they have the goods. It's like they have to get the election called for Trump or they will surely be political prisoners.

President-Elect TwoLaine , November 17, 2020 at 10:04 pm

Count on it! And DEFINITELY 2018.

IF you watch the movie "Kill Chain: The Cyber War on America's Elections"* you will see that a steal was supposed to happen in Florida that day and it got thwarted, before it got started,

PLUS, they didn't have the mail in ballot scheme in place yet to back up their theft back then. China Virus was their plandemic to make that happen, and to get the cash from the Care$ Act to get machines for everyone.

*"(2020)From voter registration to counting ballots, data security expert Harri Hursti examines how hackers can influence and disrupt the U.S. election system."

President-Elect TwoLaine , November 17, 2020 at 10:49 pm

This is the video I took it from. This is the Eric Coomer Whistleblower.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/9tHeiYgErnw?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en&autohide=2&wmode=transparent

Liked by 1 person

jessetmims , November 17, 2020 at 10:33 pm

@ Right to reply In my opinion, the Democrats SUCCESSFULLY stole JFK's election, at least one of Bill Clinton's, and BOTH of Obama's.

James Urso , November 17, 2020 at 11:03 pm

Love Sidney Powell but that interview did not give me a lot of confidence. I sure hope she has some solid evidence. Doesn't sound like she has much though. Don't have much time left.

Biggest heist in the history of the US and nothing can be done about it is sickening. Barr and Wray should be ashamed of themselves for letting something like this happen on their watch. They did nothing. Thanks to them the constitution is now worth nothing. The rights are gone. Law and order is gone. We are on our own.

How do Barr and Wray even look at themselves in the mirror?

Ospreyzone , November 18, 2020 at 6:46 am

Finally, I found out from this interview where I could send money to support this legal effort. I'm tired of the RNC doing nothing. Sidney Powell will get my direct support now.
DefendingtheRepublic.org – is the right place.

[Nov 24, 2020] The Dominion Algorithm Used to Steal the Election by Larry C Johnson

This is still a hypothesis not a proven fact. Proven fact is that nobody investigates why votes counting was stopped and why unmarked vans arrives ar some station in the middle of the night with additional mail-in ballots.
Philadelphia used also other types of voting machines so this is not exclusively Dominion voting machines. . Philadelphia used also other types of voting machines so this is not exclusively Dominion voting machines. .
But as for Dominion an interesting question is: why over 100 employees of the controversial voting machine company Dominion have deleted their LinkedIn profiles. On November 6th, the LinkedIn page for Dominion showed 243 employees on the site and by November 16th, only 140 remained
Nov 24, 2020 | turcopolier.typepad.com

A fellow by the name of Edward Solomon has done yeoman's work in digging into the Pennsylvania voting data and showing conclusively, in my view, how the Democrats, with the help of Dominion, rigged the vote. What was done in Pennsylvania, specifically Philadelphia, reveals how the Dominion software magically created votes for Joe Biden to swamp the actual number of votes Donald Trump was ringing up.

I will embed the video below. It last about 40 minutes. It is worth your time. But let me give you the Reader's Digest version. When the early vote numbers rolled in, it was clear that Donald Trump was on his way to a major win. The task for Dominion was to manufacture votes for Biden without making it obvious. They tried, but failed.

Mr. Solomon takes the raw vote data that was being streamed by the NY Times and downloaded it into a spreadsheet. That data allows him to look at vote totals by precinct and how they changed over time. He found that a variety of ratios were used in different sets of precincts. For example, his Exhibit 1 shows a group of precincts where the votes were being recorded at the following ratio–1 vote for Trump and 48 for Biden.

The diabolical system employed by Dominion started with needing to generate a total vote total for Joe Biden. Rather than employ a single computer calculation, Dominion used a number of algorithm's. Mr. Solomon identifies at least 9 different calculations used to create these votes.

Exhibit 1 Ratio of 1 to 48

Exhibit 2 Ratio of 1 to 18

Exhibit 3 Ratio of 4 to 65

Exhibit 4 Ratio of 3 to 48

Exhibit 5 Ratio 4 to 63

Exhibit 6 Ratio of 5 to 31

Exhibit 7 Ratio of 1 to 5

Exhibit 8 Ratio of 1 to 4

Exhibit 9 Ration of 1 to 6

The data examined by Mr. Solomon is only one part of the proof of the voter fraud. Data from other parts of Pennsylvania will need to be examined to determine if there is a similar pattern or if the data from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are outliers.

The next evidentiary question to be asked, and answered, is whether there are actually ballots that back up the numbers reported on the computer. If there are ballots for Biden but no ballots for Trump, that is conclusive evidence of the fraud.

There are multiple sworn affidavits from witnesses of truck loads of ballots being off-loaded at the center in Philadelphia. Those ballots must be examined. If the ballots only show Joe Biden's name and there are no ballots matching the numbers reported for Trump, that means one thing. Fraud.


Deap , 23 November 2020 at 11:18 AM

Cloward-Pivens won the election.

Make voting so complicated and easily overwhelemed by processes and short timelines, it loses all ability to be fair and accurate. Then beat up anyone who protests these new layers of complexity as wanting to undermine the right to vote.

Voting is a right and a duty. People do have to sacrifice this one day out of 365 days and show up in person, ID in hand, and exercise their duty to be an informed voter, filling out a trackable paper ballot. Exceptions based on need are the exception; not common place.

Europe prohibits "electronic voting" for good reason. Democrats have slowly and systematically undermined out entire election process.

Just take a look at California. Networks did not wait even one second after the polls closed to "declare" Biden won in California, before a single vote was counted. They knew the obvious outcome of a state now long corrupted by a Democrat super-majority guaranteed election system. No other outcome was possible in this state.

Term limits was the final coffin nail in this state. Never think term limits will solve anything. Voters must dislodge the bums; not some arbitrary election rule. Nature abhors a vacuum. Term limits created a power vacuum.

The highly organized and disciplined public sector union swooped into this power vacuum and now cannot be dislodged. The spent the past 20 years rigging the system entirely in their favor. A big piece of this take-over was passed always as "election reform".

Deap , 23 November 2020 at 11:52 AM

Micael Levin weighs in on the proof of fraud, the quantity of fraud and the quality of fraud, Democrats have moved their argument away from no fraud, to not enough fraud to matter. Sure.

https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/lucy-collins/levin-quantity-fraud-not-test

exiled off mainstreet , 23 November 2020 at 12:46 PM


It is convincing. The fact the ratios were repeatedly exact copies is proof of the fix. This never happens in real life and it shows that this was probably a last minute fix to account for a bigger Trump lead than they expected, since with more time, they could probably develop an algorithm that varied the numbers more. Since these are civil actions, this should be enough right there if it were a fair system, but overwhelming political pressure from the permanent regime is, unfortunately, another factor to be considered.

LondonBob , 23 November 2020 at 01:19 PM


I believe the argument of machine fraud goes beyond just Dominion to others, so we can discount that Philadelphia used another system.

He has done a good job highlighting anomalies, I just think it lacks the context to judge, you can't look at it in isolation, you need to compare more to what looks clean.

I actually much prefer the analysis of Montgomery County, this is much better.
https://www.revolver.news/2020/11/explosive-new-data-from-rigorous-statistical-analysis-points-to-voter-fraud-in-montgomery-county-pa/

LondonBob , 23 November 2020 at 01:19 PM


I believe the argument of machine fraud goes beyond just Dominion to others, so we can discount that Philadelphia used another system.

He has done a good job highlighting anomalies, I just think it lacks the context to judge, you can't look at it in isolation, you need to compare more to what looks clean.

I actually much prefer the analysis of Montgomery County, this is much better.
https://www.revolver.news/2020/11/explosive-new-data-from-rigorous-statistical-analysis-points-to-voter-fraud-in-montgomery-county-pa/

[Nov 24, 2020] PBS Newshour did piece on Dominion voting system before the election and what they found was troubling

[VIDEO]
Nov 13, 2020 | therightscoop.com

PBS Newshour had a 'white hat hacker' named Harri Hursti inspect the system and he said "they have set up a complicated system which is centralized; it doesn't seem to have any safeguards."


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They described the system as having a lot of moving parts, saying "it's an assortment of laptops, iPads, magnetic cards, touch screens, printers and scanners."

PBS says the devices replaced touchscreens in 2019 which didn't created a paper ballot, but one of the women responsible for bringing about this change isn't terribly happy with the new system either. And election experts have found several troubling problems with the new system, especially the Q.R. codes it creates for tabulation:

Alex Halderman looked closely at the Q.R. codes where the votes are encoded for the scanner. "By analyzing the structure of the Q.R. codes, I have been able to learn that there's nothing that stops an attacker from just duplicating one, and the duplicate would count the same as the original barcode."

And in late September, another concern came to light. During testing, election workers found half the names of the 21 candidates for Senate intermittently disappeared from screens during the review phase. Dominion sent out a last-minute software patch.

Halderman caution: "I'm worried that the Georgia system is the technical equivalent to the 737 MAX. They have just made a last-minute software change that might well have unintended consequences and cause even more severe problems on Election Day."

Hirsti expressed concern that the system was being rushed out with the proper testing:

You never want to rush something which is mission-critical, and this is mission-critical, into production without proper time for testing.

That's really one of the ways bad actors are finding the vulnerabilities to exploit is looking for honest vulnerabilities and finding out if they can be weaponized, if they can be exploited.

The actual segment goes on for 7 minutes and you can watch it below:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/v62C-riEZ0I?enablejsapi=1&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=3&loop=0&modestbranding=1&rel=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&


IWannaBFree 9 days ago ,

Face it, politicians in general are lazy, incompetent, power-hungry, greedy and worthless. Very few actually care about the American people or want to work for us. They keep getting re-elected over and over because of promises made and NOT kept. They get in a back room and make deals to NOT do their jobs and draw straws on who will take the blame. When election time rolls around again, the people continue to believe their propaganda and vote them in again...and the cycle continues. Look at Biden, 47 years in public office. The man has NO skills...he can't do anything else. Same for most politicians. Never vote for someone that has not worked in the real world...and don't vote for lawyers (they always find the loophole in every law and use it to keep themselves living a lifestyle we only dream about).

Warlock 06 IWannaBFree 9 days ago ,

When you look at politicians, they are mostly made up of failed lawyers.


Ken Fowler
10 days ago
,

All of the Dominion Voting machines should be impounded; the States to be reimbursed and each machine checked by the Federal Government to see if software is corrupted or preprogramed to favor one party or the other. Then the Federal Government should order new unbiased machines-all should be checked and be calibrated in time for the next election. These should be stored under lock and key in a Federal Facility and guarded by Federal Marshals during the voting. It should be a Federal Crime to impede the will of the peoples vote. Next Subpoena Soros to testify in front of the Senate to explore his tactics and recommend Federal Prosecution for any violation of Federal or State Law in the United States.

Skiptomylou Ken Fowler 9 days ago ,

Everything connected to the internet is hackable. Why don't we just go back to paper ballots, photo ID and same day in person voting? I think it really is that simple.

Warlock 06 Christine Alford 9 days ago ,

I Georgia there are paper ballots, after choosing the candidates you want you review the screen then push print. A paper ballot with the selections are on the paper with the QR code. The ballot is then scanned into a machine where it is also collected in an internal box. Voters are encouraged to make sure their selections shown on the paper are correct before feeding the ballot into the machine. I voted in Georgia, but I did not know there were all of the problems with the security of the machines.

Derek Smalls Christine Alford 10 days ago ,

All those machines keep a digital photo of the ballet and election boards are required by federal law to keep those images for 22 months.

John E Turner Derek Smalls 10 days ago ,

Apparently Michigan turned off that option on their machines!

TXGRunner Fᵉᵈᵉʳᵃˡ ᶦˢᵗ ☑ 10 days ago • edited ,

The corrupt politician/attorney leading CISA (@CISAgov IT sec agency within DHS) is Christopher Krebs (@CISAKrebs). He only has 3 years experience in IT sec, much of that on non-IT related infrastructure security. He has no IT or IT sec background. His bachelor degree is "environmental sciences" and then he earned a JD. The schmuck is a lawyer who brownnosed his way into DHS 3 years ago and was handed IT/infrastructure security with zero experience.

Now, he says:
- 2020 was most secure election ever
>> bogus, unprovable claim: secure in what sense? Based on what, % of voter fraud, how would he know that for any previous, let alone current election.
- 2020 had highest voter turnout in since 1908, based on that alone, even if fraud % were steady with previous cycles, this election would have the most fraudulent votes cast ever, and as turnout goes up, fraud exploits do to.
- 2020 saw a huge % increase in mail-in and early votes, which are most subject to fraud; we would expect a higher % of fraudulent/illegal votes based on that alone - there is no metric upon which to base his claim
- he claimed there was no evidence of fraud
>> demonstrably untrue - the Texas SOS office recommended denial of Dominion software precisely because it lacked safeguards and was unsecure. As per reports above, Georgia had issues with software during primary. We also know of issue in Antrim County, Michigan. Krebs is lying.

- he told voters with questions about irregularities to "turn to your trusted election officials" - the same ones committing the irregularities...that's like asking the Nigerian Prince email scammer if he's real, do you expect them to be honest?

Krebs should not only be fired, he should be barred from working for the federal government ever again.

I've worked IT security for two decades. We wouldn't hire this joker to work frontline helpdesk.

WhiteBluecollarRedneck 10 days ago ,

Dominion voting systems got an "upgrade" before the election. But the powers that be don't care.
They won. They won because of it. Future historians will write about it, but by then, it won't matter.

mikwcas1 10 days ago ,

Paper ballots, in person voting, on voting day, across the country. 99% of the problem, solved.

nativeson mikwcas1 10 days ago ,

That's the way the GA runoffs should be handled. No absentee, mail-in or machine voting.


Recognizing_Truth
nc ✓s & balances 10 days ago
,

With a paper ballot, even if the machine screws up, and there is a recount, they recount the ORIGINAL PAPER BALLOT, and do so by hand.

With electronic votes, if they screw up vote assignment, you can't tell. If they lose votes, the counts don't match, but you've still lost the original vote. In both cases, it's IMPOSSIBLE to do a proper recount.

Rollercoaster on Fire 10 days ago • edited ,

Again, I believe this is where the focus should be. People need to know these systems worked properly.

Edit: GA republicans were so afraid of being called racist that they allowed this nonsense. Just shows how powerful such accusations can be.

[Nov 24, 2020] Report- Man gets death threats after exposing 'Dominion guy'- Internet profile is being 'scrubbed'

PBS Newshour had a 'white hat hacker' named Harri Hursti inspect the system and he said "they have set up a complicated system which is centralized; it doesn't seem to have any safeguards."
Alex Halderman looked closely at the Q.R. codes where the votes are encoded for the scanner. "By analyzing the structure of the Q.R. codes, I have been able to learn that there's nothing that stops an attacker from just duplicating one, and the duplicate would count the same as the original barcode."
Halderman caution: "I'm worried that the Georgia system is the technical equivalent to the 737 MAX. They have just made a last-minute software change that might well have unintended consequences and cause even more severe problems on Election Day."
Nov 16, 2020 | www.worldtribune.com

A Denver businessman said he has received death threats after exposing a Dominion Voting Systems employee who boasted about being able to rig the 2020 election against President Donald Trump, a report said.

In an interview with the Gateway Pundit's Jim Hoft on Sunday, Denver businessman Joe Oltmann said he was able to infiltrate Antifa and during a Sept. 27 conversation with Antifa members discovered "Eric from Dominion".

Oltmann told the Gateway Pundit that "Eric" was telling Antifa members they needed to "keep up the pressure." When one of the caller's on a September group call asked, "Who's Eric?" someone answered, "Eric, he's the Dominion guy."

As the conversation continued, Oltmann said someone asked: "What are we gonna do if F*cking Trump wins?" Oltmann paraphrased how Eric (the Dominion guy) responded, "Don't worry about the election, Trump's not gonna win. I made f*cking sure of that!"

Oltmann identified the "Dominion guy" as Eric Coomer. In 2010, Coomer joined Dominion as vice president of U.S. engineering, the report said. According to his biography, Coomer graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics.

Coomer was later promoted to voting systems officer of strategy and security at Dominion. He has since been removed from the Dominion page of directors.

Oltmann said he was banned from Twitter after exposing Coomer.

Oltmann also told the Gateway Pundit that Coomer's profile is in fact being completely "scrubbed from the Internet."

https://www.youtube.com/embed/IbqNLx1KXDw


[Nov 23, 2020] Turning constituents into voters

Nov 23, 2020 | defyccc.com

There are those who always vote, those who never vote and those who may or may not vote. Maximizing voter turnout in the third group is the holy grail of the electoral official."

It is a holy grail of a leftist agitator. The US law recognizes a citizen's freedom not to vote as equal to the voting for a candidate of his or her choosing. Some people do not vote because they do not care, some because they do not know which candidate to choose, and some because they are angry at the society. Abstractly speaking, reluctant voters are not helpful to democratic process, just like reluctant jurors are not helpful for court proceedings. Practically, voter mobilization (from the word 'mob' ) is a tactic of the Left. People who do not care, or lack knowledge, or are angry, can be easily convinced to vote for the Left. Continue reading Dominion Voting Systems Corp →

[Nov 23, 2020] Dominion Voting Systems is Caught

Nov 23, 2020 | defyccc.com

November 13, 2020 -d , Big Tech , cybersecurity , dems , Dominion - , extra , long

Dominion Voting Systems' Democracy Suite has features that allow for election results manipulation. The back-end software has an elections results editor, called Results Tally and Reporting ( RTR ). Its users are election officials. RTR is an equivalent of Microsoft Excel, but for election results. The software allows its users to enter "election results" from removable memory cards, local file system, and network. It allows you to merge multiple election results files. It allows the users to manually edit election result files. It allows users to reject election results files. In other words, it allows arbitrary change of results.

RTR runs not on a voting machine, but on an ordinary Windows laptop, which can be connected to the Internet, and even controlled remotely.

The Dominion's training video ( https://www.dominionvoting.com/training/rtr/index.html ) has a subsection Flexible management of results after the election occurred (starting at 4:20). Look at a few screenshots from it: Continue reading Dominion Voting Systems is Caught →

[Nov 23, 2020] Shocking History of Dominion Voting

Nov 23, 2020 | defyccc.com

Technical Vulnerabilities of EVS Systems

The voting software developers can easily insert code, changing numbers in favor of or against one candidate. No hacking is necessary. The malicious code can be designed to pass tests and to be triggered only at the time of a real election, automatically or manually. Both case are possible even the the machine is disconnected from the internet and has no ordinary I/O devices. The malicious code can be activated manually in real time by inserting a ballot or another paper with a pre-defined QR or image code. An audit of the source code is necessary, but not sufficient. Dominion software runs on Windows, and the malicious code can be hidden in any part of the operating system. Malicious code can be hidden in the firmware, too.

If a state wants to take risks and to rely on testing and the source code audit, they should be conducted with the participation of technically competent representatives of both parties. If the system passes testing and auditing, the machine image must be securely stored. All supplied machines must have exactly the same hardware and the software as the audited system.

As far as I know, thorough tests and source code audits are conducted very rarely, if at all. Further, the vendors are not required to use only the audited image, and are allowed to update the software almost at will. That means that election commissions are forced to blindly trust the vendors. Blind trust is always wrong and invites abuse. But even "trust but verify" is applicable only to trustworthy vendors. Dominion Voting is the opposite of trustworthy.

The only real solution to the vulnerability of EVS is not to use them at all. Manual ballot counting has no software vulnerabilities, and is much cheaper. Virginia appears to be the only state that decided to use only manual ballots.

... ... ...

In August 2009 (corrected), the rough breakdown of the EVS market in the US was (per Brad Friedman ):

40% ES&S

30% Diebold/Premier

20% Sequoia/Smartmatic

10% Hart Intercivic

 0% Dominion Voting

Less than a year later, after the "antitrust" actions of Obama's DOJ, it became:

50% Dominion

40% ES&S (restricted in competing against Dominion)

10% Hart Intercivic

Thus, the DOJ's actions did the exact opposite of its words.

An elections system vendor should be non-partisan, in a demonstrable way. Dominion is not just partisan, but hyper-partisan in favor of the Democrat party, or even its pocket vendor.

Dominion has many more ties to the Democrat party and its prominent supporters in the US and abroad, which are not covered in this article.

Software Development in Serbia

Dominion develops much of its software in Belgrade, Serbia. Russia is a close friend to Serbia, if not its only one. If anybody sincerely thought that Putin wanted to hack American elections, their first location of interest would be the offices of Dominion Voting in Belgrade, rather than the Trump Tower in New York.

By the way, Serbian and Russian languages use the Cyrillic alphabet. Most letters have the same Unicode encoding in Serbian and Russian (the Basic Multilingual Plane, range 0410-04FF ). If any election officials found Cyrillic text on a Dominion voting machine in 2016, it was probably left by its developers in Serbia.

Remarks

This is the Agreement between Michigan & Dominion , including specs of many Dominion products (PDF, 161 pages). Wi-Fi connection and even a dial up modem are offered as an option.

Some of the companies referenced here as foreign based or foreign originating re-registered in the US.

Dominion Voting Systems Series
Part I
Part II (this)
Part III

Pekařová November 22, 2020 at 4:10 am

Just few thougts
Dominion develops much of its software in Belgrade, Serbia. Russia is a close friend to Serbia
At the time when ten SW was developing, Serbia had long beenin the hands of Germany and the EU. Which is the same as writing in the hands of Soros and his NGO. Written Serbian is more similar to neighboring Greek than Russian, and this also applies to Cyrillic.

[Nov 23, 2020] Eric Coomer and Dominions

Nov 23, 2020 | turcopolier.typepad.com

eakens , 22 November 2020 at 11:40 AM

A previous head of Dominions software was one Eric Coomer. He is a member or avid supporter of Antifa, depending on how you view the group.

The same Eric Coomer was previously a skinhead when he was at Berkeley, based on ok'd message board posts.

Google Eric Coomer Skinhead and view some of what comes up online.

From skinhead to Antifa? He is now apparently nowhere to be found. Seems to me at least, that there may be a chance he may be CIA and that this may have been a domestic op to get rid of Trump.

eakens , 22 November 2020 at 12:00 PM

Here are some sources as well:

https://hereistheevidence.com/

[Nov 23, 2020] If we assume that Venezuela is somehow connected to Dominion,that makes deploying these machines in the US a electoral crime.

Nov 23, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org

Featherless , Nov 22 2020 18:18 utc | 26

An idea just occurred to me that might explain the "Dominion machines/Venezuela" connection :

If Venezuela is widely (bipartisanly) considered "electoral fraudsters", that taints these machines.

That makes IMPLEMENTING these machines a few years later in the US a WILLFUL electoral crime.


Featherless , Nov 22 2020 19:17 utc | 35

bevin, you're missing my point.

Here's an analogy : imagine the blues and reds both agree that I am a notorious thief, even if it's only a false narrative. Then they hire me as a security guard. That would be willfully, knowingly hiring a criminal, which would be criminal, not because of the facts, but because of the logic.

Stonebird , Nov 22 2020 19:37 utc | 38

A couple of thoughts about the Venzuela gambit. Evidently Tucker Carson wanted Sydney to tell him all about the "Dominion" vote flipping in a public interview. Which would have been tantamount to giving away all the potential Republican case, and given the Democrats prior knowledge of what to expect. A no-go. Mentioning "Venezuela-Cuba" could have the effect of heading off a direct civil war if the US Dems and Repubs have a" common enemy" to blame. (Too late for Russia, China too touchy, not many other major targets). Note that Venezuela has a paper trail created at the same time as the electronic vote...

[Nov 23, 2020] Interesting interview with Sidney Powell on Newsmax where she discusses voter fraud committed with Dominion

Nov 23, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org

Down South , Nov 22 2020 17:58 utc | 22

Interesting interview with Sidney Powell on Newsmax where she discusses voter fraud committed with Dominion

https://youtu.be/Y68pEknYyCM

[Nov 22, 2020] Which counties in Michgan use Dominion voating systems

Nov 22, 2020 | www.unz.com

Reg Cæsar , says: Next New Comment November 19, 2020 at 1:38 am GMT • 3.7 days ago

@Robert Palmer

Also, some counties in Michigan use Dominion but most of them do not I believe.

Only about half the state. Of the top fifteen counties, Wayne, Kent, Ingham, Saginaw, St Clair, Jackson, and Berrien use Dominion. Oakland, Macomb, Genesee, Washtenaw, Ottawa, Livingston and Muskegon use Hart InterCivic, and Kalamazoo uses ES&S.


Voting Systems Map

[Nov 21, 2020] Sidney Powell Claims That Dominion Is 'Shredding Documents' by Cortney O'Brien

Nov 21, 2020 | townhall.com

O'Connor pushed her about her claims that computer software used in the election, particularly Dominion Voting Systems, has been tainted, and he wondered how she would prove it. For starters, Powell said that her legal team has pictures of votes being manipulated in real-time.

"It is terrifying, and it is a huge national security issue," Powell said. "Why the Department of Justice and FBI have not done something, Dominion is closing its offices and moving. No doubt they're shredding documents. God only knows what else. More than 100 Dominion people have wiped any connection with Dominion off the internet."

She also claims that they have testimony from witnesses opening military ballots and trashing them if they were for Trump, and substitute ballots were put in for Biden.

"I'm essentially staking my personal and professional reputation on these allegations, and I have no hesitation from what I've seen in doing so," she noted. "In fact, I think it would be irresponsible if not criminal of me not to come forward with it."

She also says she would LOVE for Dominion to sue her over her allegations so she can conduct civil discovery. Powell also reacted to Fox News host Tucker Carlson's criticism of her on his program on Thursday night.

You can listen to their full interview below.

[skipped]

[Nov 21, 2020] It Looks As Though Dominion, Smartmatic Played a Part in DHS' Election Defense

Nov 16, 2020 | townhall.com

The Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a statement last week defending the integrity of the 2020 election. The problem, however, is two of the main election software companies that have been called into question – Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic – sit on CISA. And that information was never disclosed, the Epoch Times reported.

Below is the the joint statement put out by the Executive Committee of the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council (GCC) and the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Council (SCC):

"The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. Right now, across the country, election officials are reviewing and double checking the entire election process prior to finalizing the result.

"When states have close elections, many will recount ballots. All of the states with close results in the 2020 presidential race have paper records of each vote, allowing the ability to go back and count each ballot if necessary. This is an added benefit for security and resilience. This process allows for the identification and correction of any mistakes or errors. There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.

"Other security measures like pre-election testing, state certification of voting equipment, and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission's (EAC) certification of voting equipment help to build additional confidence in the voting systems used in 2020.

"While we know there are many unfounded claims and opportunities for misinformation about the process of our elections, we can assure you we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections, and you should too. When you have questions, turn to elections officials as trusted voices as they administer elections."

The two election software companies are members of the GCC's Sector Coordinating Council:

  • Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  • Arrikan, Inc./Chaves Consulting, Inc.
  • Associated Press (AP) Elections
  • BPro, Inc.
  • Clear Ballot Group
  • Crosscheck
  • DemTech Voting Solutions
  • Democracy Live
  • Democracy Works
  • DMF Associates
  • Dominion Voting Systems
  • Election Systems & Software (ES&S)
  • Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC)
  • Freeman, Craft, McGregor Group
  • Hart InterCivic
  • KNOWInk
  • Microsoft
  • Microvote General Corp.
  • NTS Data Services
  • PCC Technology Inc.
  • Pro V&V
  • Runbeck Election Services
  • SCYTL
  • SLI Compliance
  • Smartmatic
  • Tenex Software Solutions
  • The Canton Group
  • Unisyn Voting Solutions
  • Voatz
  • VOTEC
  • Votem
  • Voting Works
  • VR Systems

According to the Election Infrastructure Subsector Coordinating Council Charter , the goal of the group is to "advance the physical security, cyber security, and emergency preparedness of the nation's election infrastructure, in accordance with existing U.S. law" and "serve as the primary liaison between the election subsector and federal, state, and local agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), concerning private election subsector security and emergency preparedness issues."

CISA's goal , on the other hand, is to work "collaboratively with those on the front lines of elections -- state and local governments, election officials, federal partners, and vendors -- to manage risks to the Nation's election infrastructure

State and local election officials decide what voting software and programs to use and CISA has no control over that.

Interestingly enough, I received an email tonight from Dominion about "setting the record straight." They cited the above statement as reason to trust them but failed to disclose their CISA connection.

Here's some of the bigger points made in their email:

Dominion Voting Systems categorically denies false assertions about vote switching and software issues with our voting systems.

According to a Joint Statement by the federal government agency that oversees U.S. election security, the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity, & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA): "There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised." The government & private sector councils that support this mission called the 2020 election " the most secure in American history ."

...

3) Dominion is a nonpartisan U.S. company

Dominion has no ownership relationships with the Pelosi family, Feinstein family, Clinton Global Initiative, Smartmatic, Scytl, or any ties to Venezuela. Dominion works with all U.S. political parties; our customer base and our government outreach practices reflect this nonpartisan approach.

  • As reported by the Associated Press , "Dominion made a one-time philanthropic commitment at a Clinton Global Initiative meeting in 2014, but the Clinton Foundation has no stake or involvement in Dominion's operations, the nonprofit has confirmed." The meeting included bipartisan attendees focused on international democracy-building.
  • There have been no "raids" of Dominion servers by the U.S. military or otherwise, and Dominion does not have servers in Germany.

...

7) Assertions of voter fraud conspiracies are 100% false

All U.S. voting systems must provide assurance that they work accurately and reliably as intended under federal U.S. EAC and state certification and testing requirements. Election safeguards -- from testing and certification of voting systems, to canvassing and auditing -- prevent malicious actors from tampering with vote counts and ensure that final vote tallies are accurate. Read more from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency .

This isn't the first time Dominion's software has been called into question. Democrats voiced concern over the software last December. The Denver Post warned about their election security earlier this year. The Michigan GOP said a software glitch caused 6,000 votes to flip from Trump to Biden, although the Michigan Secretary of State said that wasn't the case. It's one of the reasons Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said the legal process needs to play out in the courts.

[Nov 20, 2020] Will The Trump Team Prove A Global Conspiracy Or Will Dominion Sue For Defamation

The last thing Dominion probably wants is additional attention and deatiual do internals of voting machines discussed in public.
Nov 20, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com

Trump campaign counsel repeatedly accused Dominion and its officers of criminal conduct and business improprieties. Those are categories of "per se defamation" under the common law. No special damages must be shown in such per se cases. Individual officers could bring defamation claims and the company itself could bring a business disparagement action.

Businesses can be defamed like individuals if the false statement injures the business character of the corporation or its prestige and standing in the industry. In Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. v. Greenmoss Builders, Inc ., 472 U.S. 749 (1985) the Supreme Court allowed a business to sue a credit reporting agency for defamation where the agency mistakenly reported that the business had filed for bankruptcy.

Restatement Second § 561 Defamation of Corporations states:

"One who publishes defamatory matter concerning a corporation is subject to liability to it

(a) if the corporation is one for profit, and the matter tends to prejudice it in the conduct of its business or to deter others from dealing with it, or

(b) if, although not for profit, it depends upon financial support from the public, and the matter tends to interfere with its activities by prejudicing it in public estimation."

Dominion appears to be a company with a Colorado headquarters.

There could be lawsuits in Colorado or the place of the alleged defamation. The lawsuit would likely be filed under state law but moved to federal court under diversity jurisdiction arguments.

The press conference was an explosion of potentially defamatory claims by individuals or companies. The only clear defense is truth. The team insists that it can prove these allegations. It may have to do so. Not only can the individual lawyers face such lawsuits but the Trump campaign itself could be liable under the principle of respondeat superior, where an employer is liable for the conduct of his employees when they are acting within the scope of their employment. Ironically, the Latin term means "let the master speak." The President or his campaign could be forced to speak in a defamation case if they have not spoken in the promised court filings.

[Nov 18, 2020] The "Dominion" of Election Fraud- by Brett Redmayne

Nov 18, 2020 | www.unz.com

" The maintenance of Americans' constitutional rights should not depend on the good graces and sketchy ethics of a handful of well-connected corporations who have stonewalled Congress, lied to Congress, and have questionable judgment when it comes to security "

-Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore)

Barely two weeks ago allegations that the 2020 US Presidential election had been rigged on behalf of DNC presidential spawn Joe Biden were met with almost universal scepticism. This past week may have changed that.

In the article of Monday, Nov 9 the author examined the problems with the mail-in ballot totals in the five key swing states and the legal and legislative challenges to them including re-counts and the SCOTUS intervention of the PA Supreme Court.

The subject of alleged DNC election fraud has now shifted to an examination of the machines that count each ballot and render the results. The voter is supposed to believe that Joe Biden defeated Trump and at the same time lost seats in the US House and state legislatures. This is possible but highly improbable.

Today, Nov 17, in preparation for a multi-state legal challenge to results created by these voting machines, lead Trump attorney and former Assistant US Attorney Sidney Powell, said:

"They need to investigate the likelihood that 3% of the vote total was changed in the pre-election voting ballots that were collected digitally by using the Hammer program and the software program called Scorecard. That would have amounted to a massive change in the vote."

Here, begins that examination. As shown, there is reason for concern.

Numbers don't lie. Mounting evidence to date suggests that voting machines do, particularly the ones sold by Dominion Voting Systems Inc. As the third part of this chronology begins it has now become obvious that Trump's campaign operatives expected election fraud. They have since very quickly brought legal challenges to bear in AZ, GA, MI, PA, WI, and NV. However, most of this news first circled around only the mail-in ballots.

From Trump's perspective, as of this writing, 87,804 (WI-20,540; GA-14,045; PA- 53,219) are needed to flip the election. MI is the toughest and shows Biden up by a reported 146,123 votes.

Interestingly, regarding the numbers in each state- and AZ- the Dominion voting machine's results are in dispute in all. Whereas, the proceedings regarding the mail-in ballots may provide a switch of perhaps thousands of votes, issues with the Dominion machines, if proven, could be in the 100's of Thousands. Or More.

This past week, evidence is surfacing.

Before 2020: Warning Signs

Days before the 2020 election important news was buried. On September 30 a report in the Philadelphia Inquirer detailed that "a laptop and several memory sticks" used to program Dominion voting machines in Philadelphia had mysteriously vanished.

But concerns about Dominion had begun far earlier.

The U.S. Constitution leaves election management up to state and local officials, so voting systems and protocols vary across thousands of jurisdictions. Partly for this reason, a 2019 investigation was launched by senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and other Democratic lawmakers into the three largest suppliers of US digital voting machines, Dominion Voting Systems, Election Systems & Software, and Hart InterCivic. Together they hold over 92% of all US distribution of voting machines.

In review, the Senate committee wrote to all three firms saying in part,

"(W)e have concerns about the spread and effect of private equity investment including the election technology industry -- an integral part of our nation's democratic process These problems threaten the integrity of our elections and demonstrate the importance of election systems that are strong, durable, and not vulnerable to attack."

The Committee revealed that the Dominion machines were vulnerable to internal and internet hacking. Because all these machines interface their ballot totals via wireless digital modem external interference is all too possible. Further concerns were provided by NBC news in very early 2020.

In the State of Texas , well before the 2020 election Dominion Voting Systems and their proprietary "Dominion Democracy Suite 5.5 " was rejected three times. From the summary:

"The reports identified multiple hardware and software issues that preclude the Office of the Texas Secretary of State from determining that the Democracy Suite 5.5-A system satisfies each of the voting-system requirements Specifically, [if] the system is suitable for its intended purpose; operates efficiently and accurately; and is safe from fraudulent or unauthorized manipulation."

A 2019 report by the Brennan Center for Justice highlighted a lack of vendor oversight, raising this Congressional concern about voting machines in general, according to The Associated Press

Previously, Federal regulation attempts on voting machines in 2018 were fruitless since this was opposed by some state election officials and the White House on the grounds that it would impose on states' rights.

A prudent measure that had some bipartisan support ( S. 2593 in the 115th Congress ) ended up going nowhere. Introduced by Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) this bill would have required voting machines to produce a printout to let election officials confirm electronic votes. Lankford and Wyden had said that they intended to reintroduce paper-trail bills. They did not.

The Penn Wharton Public Policy Initiative published a report that explored their attempts to look into Dominion and other voting companies:

"Part of the challenge is that it is difficult to compile even basic facts about it. The industry earns an estimated $300 million in revenue annually is dominated by three firms [and is] limiting the amount of information available in the public domain about their operations and financial performance."

Nonetheless, Republicans and Democrats agreed in a 2018 omnibus bill ( Public Law 115-141 ) to divide among the states $380 million for voting system upgrades. Georgia's legislature also approved a plan to spend as much as $150 million on equipment that cybersecurity researchers say is still hackable . Most of that equipment was supplied by Dominion.

According to Business Insider , Georgia "became the only state in the country last year to overhaul its entire election system, paying Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems $106 million for new voting machines, printers and scanners."

The NY Times reported that some Democrats in the Georgia Legislature opposed purchasing the Dominion system and there is "some evidence that heavy lobbying and sales tactics have played a role in their adoption in Georgia and elsewhere."

In hotly contested Georgia, during 2019's test run a now-deleted Atlanta Journal Constitution article detailed "a glitch" that surfaced when six counties tested the Dominion system. The problem occurred in at least four of the six counties where the new voting system was being tested before being used statewide during the March 24 presidential primary. The problems weren't rectified by primary date, which was moved to June due to the coronavirus pandemic. According to the New York Times :

"Georgia's statewide primary elections on Tuesday were overwhelmed by a full-scale meltdown of new voting systems Scores of new state-ordered voting machines were reported to be missing or malfunctioning, and hours-long lines materialized at polling places across Georgia. Some people gave up and left before casting a ballot Predominantly black areas experienced some of the worst problems.

Who is Dominion?

Dominion Voting Systems is a company from Toronto, Canada , that has headquarters in Denver, Colorado, and is one of the three major firms providing voting machines in U.S. elections. The others are Election Systems & Software, and Hart InterCivic with ES&C in the top spot and Dominion at number two.

A 2014 form filed with the State of California says Dominion was founded in 2003 in Canada and in 2009 moved to the U.S. Its principal officers were listed as John Poulos, CEO; Ian MacVicar, CFO; and James Hoover, vice president of product line management. Dominion Voting Systems , claims to work with 1300 voting jurisdictions including nine of the 20 largest counties in the nation.

Dominion produced the software used in MI , GA and all the remaining states in question.

Like many corporations, Dominion purchased influence in congress. Bloomberg reported in April of last year that Dominion hired lobbying firm, Brownstein Farber Hyatt & Schreck. House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi's former chief of staff, Nadeam Elshami, is one of the lobbyists for that firm.

At the state level, Dominion employs eight registered lobbyists in GA alone. They include Lewis Abit Massey , a former Democratic Georgia Secretary of State, and Jared Thomas, former chief of staff for Republican Governor Brian Kemp.

ES&S also has its own lobbying effort recently adding Peck Madigan Jones to the lobbying firm Vectre Corp. ES&S paid Vectre $80,000 during the last three months of 2018 alone. According to the Washington Post, Dominion also reported donating in between $25,001-$50,000 to the Clinton Foundation. Why the Clinton Foundation?

Locations of US voting machines: Dominion is shown in Orange; ES&S in Blue. (Source: Penn Warton)

The news site, Truthout, reported that Dominion "was recently acquired by New York-based hedge fund Staple Street Capital." An executive board member of Staple Street Capital, William Earl Kennard , is a former ambassador to the EU who was appointed to that position by Barack Obama. In 2018, Dominion publicly announced it had been acquired by its management team and Staple Street Capital.

Interestingly, on November 6, Deadline reported that Kennard was named to the board of WarnerMedia parent company to AT&T, which owns CNN .

Long ago, Dominion earned $44 million in 2012. It listed its addresses for manufacturing and development as Toronto; Belgrade, Serbia; Denver; Plano, Texas; and Baldwin Park, California. A 2020 filing lists their registered agent as Cogency Global in Florida. Its directors were listed as Hootan Yaghoobzadeh of Staple Street Capital, Stephen Owens , also of Staple Street, and Benjamin Humphreys. Yaghoobzadeh and Owens both have past ties to the Carlyle Group investment firm. In 2015, Carlyle was the world's largest private equity firm.

" Glitches."

Beyond the reports of problems with the mail-in ballots, in the aftermath of the election two weeks ago, the independent reports of voting machine irregularities have in combination developed serious concerns about Dominion and their software that they feature as "Democracy Suite 5.5." All of these problems favored Biden, never Trump.

First, on Tuesday, in the wee hours of the morning Dominion machines erroneously gave Democratic candidate Joe Biden a 3,000 plus vote advantage in Antrim County, MI. After a manual recount of the votes, officials posted updated results showing President Trump won the county with 9,783 votes making up 56.46% of ballots cast. Joe Biden earned 7,289 votes or 42.07%. CNN "went blue" for Biden before the error was discovered.

With the machine results being utterly mathematically disconnected to the hand-count tally Antrim County officials have blamed the county's election software saying totals counted did not match tabulator tapes.

In Oakland County, Michigan, according to the Royal Oak Tribune another glitch in a completely different ballot counting system, Hart Intercivic, switched over 1,200 Republican votes to Democrat. The switch initially caused County Commissioner Adam Kochenderfer to lose. Once the glitch was found, and the votes were properly attributed, Kochenderfer went from losing by 100 votes to winning by over 1,100. Hart uses its proprietary system called Verity. Eleven Michigan counties use Hart's systems

Back in GA, voters were unable to cast machine ballots for a couple of hours in Morgan and Spalding counties after the electronic devices crashed, state officials said. In response to the delays, Superior Court Judge W. Fletcher Sams extended voting until 11 p.m.

The companies "uploaded something last night, which is not normal, and it caused a glitch," said Marcia Ridley, elections supervisor at Spalding County Board of Elections. Ridley said that a representative from Dominion called her after poll workers began having problems with the equipment Tuesday morning and said the problem was due to an upload to the machines by one of their technicians overnight. Said Ridley,

"That is something that they don't ever do. I've never seen them update anything the day before the election."

There is a reason for Ridley's observation. By GA law the machines are supposed to be certified for accurate use by the state before the election day. How was this possible with Dominion uploading data unknown during that night?

This matter may be far from over in GA. Trump has already filed for an injunction, per state statute, which cites, "These vote tabulator failures are a mechanical malfunction that, under MCL 168.831-168.839, requires a "special election" in the precincts affected." The keyword here is precincts. Plural.

In Oakland County Michigan, Dominion machine errors resulted in a Democrat being wrongly declared the winner of a commissioner's race by 104 votes – only to have their seat flip back to the rightful Republican candidate after the error was caught.

More importantly, Wisconsin reports came in that showed that the vote totals for Rock County appeared to be switched between President Trump and Joe Biden. 9,516 votes were eliminated from President Trump and moved to Joe Biden. If this one report is proved true, then the 19,032-vote shift would nearly wipe-out, of its own, Biden's reported 20,540 vote lead in Wisconsin and his electoral votes.

Pennsylvania and its twenty electoral votes are also hotly in contention. Dominion machines are being used in Armstrong, Carbon, Clarion, Crawford, Dauphin, Delaware, Erie, Fayette, Fulton, Luzerne, Montgomery, Pike, Warren, York counties.

State Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill, R-York, says she started getting calls shortly after the polls opened Tuesday morning that the machines were jamming and causing delays.

Phillips also highlighted another problem. "If that ballot is rejected, for example, if they over-voted for county commissioner, and that ballot is rejected, then that person has no way of knowing that their vote has been invalidated. That's not acceptable," she said.

Due to Dominion machine delays, PA election officials admitted that if ballots could not be immediately scanned by the machines, those ballots were instead stored so they could be counted later in "emergency holding boxes will be scanned at the polling places."

Those "stored" ballots were not always scanned. The Pennsylvania GOP had to bring a lawsuit to ensure that all York County ballots were counted. These had been placed in suitcases quickly purchased by Dominion and none were scanned.

AZ is also reporting problems. Boasts Dominion's website: "Arizona: "Serving 2.2 million Maricopa County voters with Democracy Suite 5.5 "

Yep. Maricopa County. The contested county where this week, Arizona GOP Chair Rae Chorenky was been forced to resign after failing to sign the required Certificate of Accuracy for the Dominion voting machines.

Concerns Mount.

The key difficulty in examining potential election fraud by Dominion and possibly their counterparts is in going beyond isolated incidents and establishing a systemic fraud. One safety mechanism Dominion and other providers tout is that while voters might make their choices on a touchscreen machine, a paper ballot with a bar code is printed out where the voter can confirm their choices before inputting the paper ballot into a machine. Here's the problem, according to a US News story :

"[The machines] register votes in bar codes that the human eye cannot decipher. That's a problem, researchers say: Voters could end up with printouts that accurately spell out the names of the candidates they picked, but, because of a hack, the bar codes do not reflect those choices. Because the bar codes are what's tabulated, voters would never know that their ballots benefited another candidate."

These bar codes are vitally important to the subject of election fraud. They are also of great interest to Ray Lutz of California based Citizen's Oversight.

For those unfamiliar with Lutz and Citizen's, his organization has garnered great respect across the state for, among other examples, championing the successful closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station (SONGS) and next the exposure of demonstrative election fraud in the 2016 California primary that tipped the scales for Hillary Clinton rather than Bernie Sanders. Lutz is no stranger to using the courts effectively for the public good.

To this end, Lutz just a month before the election announced the launch of Citizen's new ballot checking software called AuditEngine . In reply to an inquiry for data, Lutz said,

"We are still gathering information at this time. We may have a lawsuit in NC to get poll tapes data. Also, we will be seriously looking at PA."

In a press release this week Lutz forewarned:

"Ballot images can thwart changes to paper ballots, magically losing or finding new ballots in the recount. Citizens' Oversight today sent a request to keep the images By preserving the ballot images, we can make sure the paper ballots recounted in Georgia match ballot images that were made on election night, and are not modified by any unscrupulous campaign operatives."

As Citizen's takes a closer look at GA and possibly PA while others examine the swing states, the likely hood of this showing a massive shift towards Trump in every state is a difficult proposition. However, in the era of the citizen investigator, the work of one anonymous source is picking up traction, so much so that many alternative media sources are quoting it, as is the Trump campaign.

The methodology of this investigation is thorough but needs corroboration by experts. However, the person releasing this analysis obtained the same data as was captured by the New York Times on election night from Edison Research. It is the same data that was used for election coverage by ABC News, CBS News, CNN and NBC News. The report provides a careful and plausible methodology and a state-by-state list of votes switched from Trump to Biden and of votes simply erased by Dominion machines. His results show discrepancies- some very large- in every state and particularly in GA and PA where, if proven, those states would flip for Trump.

Following the Dots Down the Rabbit Hole?

For the reader who cares to look beyond "Plausible Deniability" and connect the dots of possibility, days before the election of Nov 3 Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney (Ret.) cast his own suspicions that were in keeping with the charges levelled today by Sidney Powell.

McInerney stated he was warned in 2018 by Admiral James Aloysius "Ace" Lyons Jr., just before his death, that a plot to fix the 2020 election was in the works. Lyons served as Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet from 1985 to 1987. He also wrote a column about Seth Rich being the one who leaked the 2016 DNC email tranche that blew HRC out of the water and which The Washington Times deleted.

McInerney, although previously discredited for his backing of the 2002 Iraq "weapons of mass destruction" claims, thus described the two US/ CIA covert operations called "Hammer" and "Scorecard." Both were designed for the CIA in the aftermath of 9/11.

The author has verified the existence of both programs.

" The Hammer" is a counter-intelligence surveillance program used to spy on activities carried out through protected networks (like voting machines) without detection. "Scorecard" is a vote-manipulation application that changes votes during data transfer.

Adding credence to the allegations of both men is a previous report by Alan Jones and Mary Fanning of the American Report that was published on March 17, 2017 . The claims in that report mirror those of Lyons and McInerney and refer to the information provided by the man who designed both Hammer and Scorecard, Dennis Montgomery, who has turned whistleblower.

Montgomery states that Hammer and Scorecard were designed by him under the supervision of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper and then CIA director John Brennan. In a subsequent article, The American Report connects the dots from Brennan and Clapper to Christopher Krebs, currently the head of the DHS's Cyber Security and Infrastructure Agency (CISA). It should be noticed that it is Krebs who has in recent days been the DHS point man for denying any and all allegations of election fraud as an MSM spokesperson on the matter.

[Breaking News: Moments ago, Trump fired Christopher Krebs effective immediately]

John Brennan, James Clapper and Krebs are all DNC disciples and have been vociferous in their public disdain for Trump over the past four years. With this and the week's aforementioned national news in mind, next came the news yesterday, that Sidney Powell considered the reports about Hammer and Scorecard credible, saying on Fox News, that,

" it explains a lot of what we're seeing All of those districts need to be checked for the software glitch that would change the vote for Michigan dramatically. The same thing is happening in other states. We've had hundreds of thousands of ballots appear for solely Mr Biden which is statistically impossible as a matter of mathematics. It can all be documented it is being put in files that we will file in federal court."

As if this all were not enough to create bi-partisan concern for the 2020 election, just moments ago it was revealed that a memory card was found during the audit in Fayette county GA with 2,755 votes, most of them for Trump. The news comes one day after 2,600 uncounted ballots were found on another memory card in Floyd County, GA – which were also mostly cast for President Trump.

The new margin total statewide in GA is now a 12,929 lead for Biden.

Observers might notice that there does not appear to be any sense of panic by the Trump campaign, nor their lawyers and that all have so far moved methodically via the courts and in announcing the steady stream of reported violations.

Certainly, Trump has lost in some court proceedings so far, but the big cases, such as the SCOTUS intervention with the rulings of the lower PA Supreme Court are still in play as are the states final vote certification, the results of which preclude further legal action.

[Breaking News: Officials in Wayne County, Michigan – home to the city of Detroit, have refused to certify the results of the Nov. 3 election.]

As suggested in the first article in this series, "Trump's (64Day) Election End Game" Trump continues to play the long game at least until the Jan 6 meeting of the Electoral College in Wash. DC. Since the time of that article, the subject of the Electoral College has been examined across the nation's news media and transformed from skepticism to probability.

What should become most important, if these many allegations come together as substantial truth, is that the issue of 2020 Election fraud must become a bi-partisan issue and quickly.

As was suggested in the previous article, "Of Color Revolutions, Foreign and Domestic," the advent of America's own color revolution may be at hand and become the most significant threat to America since the civil war. To view this only as an indictment of one party allows those loyal to that party to ignore consideration of facts. This will only split the country further.

To prevent a US color revolution, the one the Dems are already calling, "Purple," there must be a bi-partisan investigation by both sides of the aisle that transcends party loyalty to that of the priority of saving the country. Not Joe Biden. Not Donald Trump. Criminal charges and indictments must be brought against one and all proved to be involved in the attempt to circumvent the American election process.

That indictment: Treason.

About the Author: Brett Redmayne-Titley has authored and published over 180 in-depth articles over the past twelve years. Many have been translated and republished worldwide. He can be reached at: live-on-scene ((at)) gmx.com. Prior articles can be viewed at his archive: www.watchingromeburn.uk

[Nov 18, 2020] FEC Chairman- If Sidney Powell Says There Was Rampant Voter Fraud, 'I Believe Her'

Nov 18, 2020 | www.theepochtimes.com

... ... ...

Dominion Voting Systems has denied several times to media outlets that its software and devices are not secure or that they were used to switch votes.

"Dominion Voting Systems categorically denies false assertions about vote switching issues with our voting systems," the company said in a statement . "Vote deletion/switching assertions are completely false."

"No credible reports or evidence of any software issues exist," the company stated, adding, "Human errors related to reporting tabulated results have arisen in a few counties, including some using Dominion equipment, but appropriate procedural actions were made by the county to address these errors were made prior to the canvass process."

A national coalition that includes the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Association of State Election Directors said there is a lack of evidence supporting the claim that voting software deleted or switched votes in the election.

"There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised," a joint statement from the coalition said, and called the 2020 election "the most secure in American history."

Dominion Voting Systems is a member of CISA's Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Council, one of two entities that authored the statement put out by CISA.

Trainor, in earlier remarks to Newsmax, said he believes locations where poll watchers were not allowed "meaningful access" to observe vote tabulation could be involved in voter fraud.

"I do believe that there is voter fraud taking place in these places," Trainor told the outlet . "Otherwise they would allow the observers to go in."

The official referred to a case in Pennsylvania, where a court ordered them to allow the Trump campaign to have poll observers watch from six feet away, but the order was defied.

"They have not been allowed that meaningful access," Trainor said, adding that if the law was broken in this regard, the election was "illegitimate."

[Nov 17, 2020] Jeff Carlson on Twitter- -This election has ripped the band-aid off the ridiculous claims from the Left that voting fraud is non-existent.- - Twitter

Nov 17, 2020 | mobile.twitter.com

This election has ripped the band-aid off the ridiculous claims from the Left that voting fraud is non-existent. Quote Tweet Heather Mullins - Real America's Voice (RAV-TV) @TalkMullins · 4h BREAKING! Floyd County, GA: Nearly 2600 votes discovered in hand count that weren't counted on election night. Most for Trump.

Election officials are working with Dominion Voting Systems to determine what happened.

@GaSecofState is sending an investigator tomorrow.


@themarketswork 4h
It's being suppressed full-time by big tech, just like the hunter laptop stories. My skeptical self thinks this isn't going to mean a damn thing.

[Nov 17, 2020] Whistleblower Alleges Software Manipulated Votes to Change Venezuelan Election Results

Something fishy here. Usually voting machines are a CIA/NSA home playing field. Why Chavez wanted to play on other side field, wher he has huge disadvanrtage, in not very clear.
Another interesting question is why poor countries buy this expensive crap. Why they need voting machines at all?
Notable quotes:
"... "I was witness to the creation and operation of a sophisticated electronic voting system that permitted the leaders of the Venezuelan government to manipulate the tabulation of votes for national and local elections and select the winner of those elections in order to gain and maintain their power," the affidavit states. ..."
Nov 16, 2020 | www.theepochtimes.com
Print

WASHINGTON -- Trump campaign lawyer and former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell released an affidavit on Nov. 16, from an alleged whistleblower who claims to have witnessed how election software secretly manipulates votes without leaving a trace.

The whistleblower -- who says his or her background is with the Venezuelan military, including the national security guard detail of the Venezuelan president -- outlines an alleged conspiracy between Smartmatic software executives, former Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, and that country's election officials, to ensure Chavez won reelections and retained power for years. The whistleblower said he was present at multiple meetings.

The Epoch Times was not able to independently verify the claims.

"I was witness to the creation and operation of a sophisticated electronic voting system that permitted the leaders of the Venezuelan government to manipulate the tabulation of votes for national and local elections and select the winner of those elections in order to gain and maintain their power," the affidavit states.

"From that point on, Chavez never lost any election. In fact, he was able to ensure wins for himself, his party, Congress persons and mayors from townships."

The whistleblower claimed the "software and fundamental design of the electronic electoral system and software of Dominion and other election tabulating companies relies upon software that is a descendant of the Smartmatic Electoral Management System."

"In short, the Smartmatic software is in the DNA of every vote tabulating company's software and system, "the whistleblower said.

The affidavit alleges that Dominion is one of three major companies that tabulates votes in the United States. Powell said in a Nov. 15 interview, "We're getting ready to overturn election results in multiple states." She claimed that the U.S. election software switched "millions of votes" from Trump to Biden.

The whistleblower claims that Smartmatic created a system that anonymized the voters' choices inside the machine and then spat out the desired outcome by the end of the election day. No vote could be traced back to an individual voter.

In the April 2013 Venezuelan election, the affidavit states, the conspirators had to take the internet down for two hours to reset the machines, as Nicolás Maduro was losing by too many votes to Henrique Capriles Radonski.

The whistleblower alleged that Chavez eventually exported the software to Bolivia, Nicaragua, Argentina, Ecuador, and Chile.

A Dominion Voting Systems spokesperson said on Nov. 12 that the company "categorically denies any claims about any vote switching or alleged software issues with our voting systems."

"Our systems continue to reliably and accurately count ballots, and state and local election authorities have publicly confirmed the integrity of the process," the spokesperson said in a statement to the Denver Post .

This article and headline was revised at 10 p.m. on Nov. 16 to remove a section pending further verification.

Follow Charlotte on Twitter: @charlottecuthbo

[Nov 17, 2020] What CISA failed to disclose is that Dominion Voting Systems, along with Smartmatic, are members of CISA's Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Council - one of the two entities that authored the statement

Dominion cited the CISA statement as exoneration but failed to disclose that the statement was written by a Council of which it was part.
Nov 17, 2020 | mobile.twitter.com



Jeff Carlson @themarketswork
Jeff Carlson @themarketswork Replying to
@themarketswork
@themarketswork 3) What the agency failed to disclose, however, is that Dominion Voting Systems, along with Smartmatic, is a member of CISA's Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Council - one of the two entities that authored the statement put out by CISA.
eff Carlson @themarketswork 4h
Replying to
@themarketswork 4h
@themarketswork 4) The joint statement was issued through CISA by the Executive Committee of the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council (GCC) and the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Council (SCC) https:// cisa.gov/news/2020/11/1 2/joint-statement-elections-infrastructure-government-coordinating-council-election
Jeff Carlson @themarketswork 4h
8) On Nov. 13, Dominion sent us an email titled "SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT" which cited the joint statement published by GCC and SCC. Dominion cited the CISA statement as exoneration but failed to disclose that the statement was written by a Council of which it was part.
4h
18 630 1.4K
4h Jeff Carlson @themarketswork 4h
9) Additionally, while it remains unclear whether CISA and the GCC/SCC have evaluated concerns raised in the Georgia lawsuit, their public statements categorically deny any problems with the systems. 5 320 1K
4h Jeff Carlson @themarketswork 4h
10) On Oct 11, Judge Totenberg wrote that the case presented "serious system security vulnerability and operational issues that may place Plaintiffs and other voters at risk of deprivation of their fundamental right to cast an effective vote that is accurately counted." 11 493 1.3K
4h Jeff Carlson @themarketswork 4h
11) We've reached out to CISA for comment on these matters but have not received any replies as of this writing. /END 93 415 1.3K
4h baron von doosh (i) @BaronVonD 4h
Replying to
@themarketswork 4h
@themarketswork Don't forget about Scytl and ES&S... 1 12 85
4h ArmyVNvet1972 @nvet1972 3h
Replying to
@themarketswork 3h
@themarketswork That's having the fox guard the chicken coup from the inside!!!

[Nov 17, 2020] Pre-Election Concerns Over Dominion Voting Systems Highlighted in Georgia Lawsuit

Nov 17, 2020 | www.theepochtimes.com

Pre-Election Concerns Over Dominion Voting Systems Highlighted in Georgia Lawsuit Cyber security expert raised concerns over integrity of system, including external vulnerabilities, in sworn statement BY JEFF CARLSON November 12, 2020 Updated: November 12, 2020 Print

Software and equipment from Dominion Voting Systems, used in this month's presidential election, has been the source of ongoing controversy, with one legal declaration made by a poll observer of Georgia 's statewide primary earlier this year highlighting multiple problems.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced the state's purchase of a $106 million election system from Dominion Voting Systems in July 2019. In a lawsuit, which originated in 2017, critics contend that the new system was subject to many of the same security vulnerabilities as the one it was replacing.

In an Oct. 11 order , just weeks prior to the presidential election, U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg agreed with the concerns associated with the new Dominion voting system, writing that the case presented "serious system security vulnerability and operational issues that may place Plaintiffs and other voters at risk of deprivation of their fundamental right to cast an effective vote that is accurately counted."

"The Court's Order has delved deep into the true risks posed by the new BMD voting system as well as its manner of implementation. These risks are neither hypothetical nor remote under the current circumstances," Judge Totenberg wrote in her order.

Despite the court's misgivings, Totenberg ruled against replacing the Dominion system right before the presidential election, noting that "Implementation of such a sudden systemic change under these circumstances cannot but cause voter confusion and some real measure of electoral disruption."

Concerns Over Election Systems

In an Aug. 24 declaration from Harri Hursti, an acknowledged expert on electronic voting security , provided a first-hand description of problems he observed during the June 9 statewide primary election in Georgia and the runoff elections on Aug. 11.

me title=

Hursti had been "authorized as an expert inspecting and observing under the Coalition for Good Governance's Rule 34 Inspection request in certain polling places and the Fulton County Election Preparation Center."

Hursti summarized his findings as follows:

  1. "The scanner and tabulation software settings being employed to determine which votes to count on hand marked paper ballots are likely causing clearly intentioned votes not to be counted"
  2. "The voting system is being operated in Fulton County in a manner that escalates the security risk to an extreme level."
  3. "Voters are not reviewing their BMD [Ballot Marking Devices] printed ballots, which causes BMD generated results to be un-auditable due to the untrustworthy audit trail."

During observation at Peachtree Christian Church in Atlanta, Georgia, Hursti noted that the "scanner would vary in the amount of time that it took to accept or reject a ballot."

Hursti stated that a dedicated system should not experience variable delays and noted that "we are always suspicious about any unexpected variable delays, as those are common telltale signs of many issues, including a possibility of unauthorized code being executed."

Hursti observed varying processing times at different locations, further raising concerns as identical physical devices "should not behave differently while performing the identical task of scanning a ballot."

me title=

Hursti stated in his sworn statement that his presence was requested by two poll watchers at the Fanplex polling location who were observing certain unexplained anomalies. Upon arriving, Hursti observed that for "reasons unknown, on multiple machines, while voters were attempting to vote, the ballot marking devices sometimes printed 'test' ballots."

As Hursti noted, "during the election day, the ballot marking device should not be processing or printing any ballot other than the one the voter is voting." Hursti stated that this was indicative of a "wrong configuration" given to the Ballot Marking Device.

The issue also raised other questions in his mind:

  1. "Why didn't the device print only test ballots?"
  2. "How can the device change its behavior in the middle of the election day?"
  3. "Is the incorrect configuration originating from the Electronic Pollbook System?"
  4. "What are the implications for the reliability of the printed ballot and the QR code being counted?"
Wholesale Outsourcing of Operation

During the runoff elections, on the night of Aug. 11, 2020, Hursti was present at the Fulton County Election Preparation Center to observe the "upload of the memory devices coming in from the precincts to the Dominion Election Management System [EMS] server." During this observation, Hursti noted that "system problems were recurring and the Dominion technicians operating the system were struggling with the upload process."

Hursti also noted that it appeared that Dominion personnel were the only ones with knowledge of, and access to, the Dominion server. As Hursti stated in his declaration, "In my conversations with Derrick Gilstrap and other Fulton County Elections Department EPC personnel, they professed to have limited knowledge of or control over the EMS server and its operations."

me title=

Hursti noted that this wholesale outsourcing of the operation of voting equipment to the vendor's personnel was "highly unusual in my experience and of grave concern from a security and conflict of interest perspective." Hursti referred to Dominion's onsite operation and access as "an elevated risk factor."

Hursti also noted that the Dell computers running the Dominion server appeared not to have been "hardened" -- the process of "securing a system by reducing its surface of vulnerability." Hursti said that he found it "unacceptable for an EMS server not to have been hardened prior to installation."

A 'Major Deficiency'

In addition to the hardening problems, Hursti observed that computers used in Georgia's system for vote processing appeared to have "home/small business companion software packages" on them. This raised areas of significant concern for Hursti as he noted:

"[O]ne of the first procedures of hardening is removal of all unwanted software, and removal of those game icons and the associated games and installers alongside with all other software which is not absolutely needed in the computer for election processing purposes would be one of the first and most basic steps in the hardening process. In my professional opinion, independent inquiry should be promptly made of all 159 counties to determine if the Dominion systems statewide share this major deficiency."

In addition to the software packages noted above, Hursti discovered that one of the computers had an icon for a 2017 computer game called "Homescapes" which Hursti noted called into question whether "all Georgia Dominion system computers have the same operating system version, or how the game has come to be having a presence in Fulton's Dominion voting system."

me title=

Hursti also found a troubling blend of old and new equipment which carried additional security risks due to a lack of patch updates:

"Although this Dominion voting system is new to Georgia, the Windows 10 operating system of at least the 'main' computer in the rack has not been updated for 4 years and carries a wide range of well-known and publicly disclosed vulnerabilities."

Hursti noted that the lack of "hardening" created security risks even for computers that were not connected to the internet. He observed that when flash drives were connected to the server, the "media was automounted by the operating system. When the operating system is automounting a storage media, the operating system starts automatically to interact with the device."

Hursti noted that the management of Fulton County's EMS server appeared to be an "ad hoc operation with no formalized process." This seemed particularly apparent in relation to the process of storage media coming in from various precincts throughout the night:

"This kind of operation i[s] naturally prone to human errors. I observed personnel calling on the floor asking if all vote carrying compact flash cards had been delivered from the early voting machines for processing, followed by later finding additional cards which had been overlooked in apparent human error. Later, I heard again one technician calling on the floor asking if all vote carrying compact flashes had been delivered. This clearly demonstrates lack of inventory management which should be in place to ensure, among other things, that no rogue storage devices would be inserted into the computer. In response, 3 more compact flash cards were hand-delivered. Less than 5 minutes later, I heard one of the county workers say that additional card was found and was delivered for processing. All these devices were trusted by printed label only and no comparison to an inventory list of any kind was performed."

Hursti also observed that "operations were repeatedly performed directly on the operating system." The election software has no visibility into the operations of the operating system, which creates additional auditing problems, and as Hursti noted, "Unless the system is configured properly to collect file system auditing data is not complete. As the system appears not to be hardened, it is unlikely that the operating system has been configured to collect auditing data."

https://958a8ec926e8ab0f87c5dff365f8d0b7.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html 'Complete Access'

Raising even greater concerns was the apparent "complete access" that Dominion personnel appeared to have into the computer system. Hursti observed Dominion technicians troubleshooting error messages with a "trial-and-error" approach which included access into the "Computer Management" application, indicating complete access in Hursti's opinion.

As he stated in his declaration, "This means there are no meaningful access separation and privileges and roles controls protecting the county's primary election servers. This also greatly amplifies the risk of catastrophic human error and malicious program execution."

During these attempts to resolve the various issues that were occurring in real-time, Hursti noted that it appeared as though Dominion staff shifted from on-site attempts at remediation to off-site troubleshooting:

"The Dominion staff member walked behind the server rack and made manual manipulations which could not be observed from my vantage point. After that they moved with their personal laptops to a table physically farther away from the election system and stopped trying different ways to work around the issue in front of the server, and no longer talked continuously with their remote help over phone.

In the follow-up-calls I overheard them ask people on the other end of the call to check different things, and they only went to a computer and appeared to test something and subsequently take a picture of the computer screen with a mobile phone and apparently send it to a remote location."

me title=

Hursti stated that this "created a strong mental impression that the troubleshooting effort was being done remotely over remote access to key parts of the system."

Hursti also noted that a "new wireless access point with a hidden SSID access point name appeared in the active Wi-Fi stations list" that he was monitoring.

All of this raised material alarms for Hursti, who noted that "If in fact remote access was arranged and granted to the server, this has gravely serious implications for the security of the new Dominion system. Remote access, regardless how it is protected and organized is always a security risk, but furthermore it is transfer of control out of the physical perimeters and deny any ability to observe the activities."

Recount

On Nov. 11, 2020, Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced that there will be a full recount and audit of all ballots cast in the presidential election.

"With the margin being so close, it will require a full, by-hand recount in each county. This will help build confidence. It will be an audit, a recount and a recanvass all at once," Raffensperger said.

Dominion Voting Systems did not respond to a request for comment.

me title=

[Nov 17, 2020] More about Dominion, Smartronics, Sequoia, UCSB Technology Security

Nov 17, 2020 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Deap , 16 November 2020 at 12:28 AM

More about Dominion, Smartronics, Sequoia, UCSB Technology Security, state of California and Venezuala and a whole cast of other characters - foreign and domestic in this 2018 Jenny Cohn article: https://medium.com/@jennycohn1/updated-attachment-states-have-bought-voting-machines-from-vendors-controlled-and-funded-by-nation-6597e4dd3e70

Trust, but verify. I was just searching UCSB and Dominion, and this interesting article popped up.

[Nov 16, 2020] Trump Lawyer Sidney Powell- -We're Getting Ready To Overturn Election Results In Multiple States

The worst think about Dominion software is that the fraud might be bipartisan and preapproved. Implemented along with the introduction of voting machine for specific purpose of controlling the results of the elections.
Otherwise it is "highly unlikely" that this Window based machines would be allowed by intelligence agencies to tally votes in national elections. S voting machines are about the control of population, not about counting votes.
Nov 16, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

Former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell , a Trump campaign lawyer, suggested in a Sunday interview that there is still more evidence coming out in President Donald Trump's claims of voter fraud and irregularities.

"We're getting ready to overturn election results in multiple states," Powell said, saying that she has enough evidence of election fraud to launch a widespread criminal investigation.

"I don't make comments without having the evidence to back it up," she added, saying that elections software switched "millions of votes" from Trump to Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

Powell notably provided legal counsel to Gen. Michael Flynn in 2019. She was named to Trump's legal team in the past several days.

Powell said a whistleblower came forward and said the elections software was designed to "rig elections," saying that "he saw it happen in other countries," referring to voting systems Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic, or perhaps other software and machines.

"We have so much evidence, I feel like it's coming in through a fire hose," Powell said, while noting that she won't reveal the evidence that she has.

"They can stick a thumb drive in the [voting] machine, they can upload software to it even from the Internet from Germany or Venezuela even," she said, adding that operations "can watch votes in real-time" and "can shift votes in real-time," or alleged bad actors can "remote access anything."

"We've identified mathematically the exact algorithm they've used -- and planned to use from the beginning" that allegedly switched votes to Biden, Powell remarked.

Powell also made reference to a 2019 investigation from Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), as well as other Democratic lawmakers into Dominion Voting Systems, Election Systems & Software, and Hart InterCivic. The senators had expressed concerns about the security of the voting systems.

"(W)e have concerns about the spread and effect of private equity investment in many sectors of the economy, including the election technology industry -- an integral part of our nation's democratic process," wrote the lawmakers in their letters to the firms about a year ago.

"These problems threaten the integrity of our elections and demonstrate the importance of election systems that are strong, durable, and not vulnerable to attack."

Later in the Sunday morning interview, Powell said that her team has "detected voting irregularities that are inexplicable" in states where officials believe they have valid systems.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, left, and President Donald Trump in file photographs. (Getty Images; Reuters)

During the election, Republicans in the House were able to flip at least 11 seats while the GOP is poised to maintain control of the Senate. Some conservatives have questioned how such a voting pattern is possible for Biden to win the presidential election, let alone receive more votes than any other presidential candidate in American history, including President Barack Obama's victory in 2008.

Companies Respond

The Department of Homeland Security's cybersecurity agency issued a statement on Thursday calling the 2020 general election the "most secure in American history," despite multiple legal challenges alleging a variety of alleged voting irregularities across a number of battleground states.

"The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. Right now, across the country, election officials are reviewing and double-checking the entire election process prior to finalizing the result," read the statement released by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

Smartmatic, in a statement on Saturday, said that it has no ties with Dominion Voting Systems. Powell suggested that Smartmatic is operated by Dominion in the interview.

Dominion, over the past several weeks, has repeatedly denied its systems were compromised in some way.

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"In the aftermath of the 2020 general election, there has been a great deal of misinformation being circulated about Smartmatic and other companies that provide election technology to voting jurisdictions in the US. We would like to dispel these incorrect statements with facts," the firm wrote, adding that it "has never owned any shares or had any financial stake in Dominion Voting Systems."

Dominion also refuted allegations that its machines changed votes from Trump to Biden on Election Day and beyond.

"Dominion Voting Systems categorically denies any claims about any vote switching or alleged software issues with our voting systems," a company spokesperson said in a statement to The Denver Post. "Our systems continue to reliably and accurately count ballots, and state and local election authorities have publicly confirmed the integrity of the process."


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y_arrow 16 Billy the Poet , 3 hours ago

Sidney Powell Releases the Kraken on Sunday Morning Futures - She Has Proof of Fraud

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iINl15MPhuY

Sidney Powell with Eric Bolling on the accuracy of Dominion voting machines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNX1GpM8izs

Giuliani - Foreign Software That's Been Used To Steal Elections In Other Countries

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k-lTPFLcR0

nmewn , 3 hours ago

The algorithm is documented here, which is what I believe she is talking about...

https://joannenova.com.au/2020/11/electronic-vote-fraud-equation-revealed-in-michigan-in-4-counties-138000-fake-votes-for-biden/

...as an aside, I'm willing to bet this will be memory holed very soon by Gawgle...however, the presentation has been copied and preserved for posterity.

Any takers? ;-)

Colonel Lingus , 2 hours ago

Used to be Globalist BS with the Diebol equipment before Dominion (had a backdoor bigger and nastier than a Kartrashian). Here's how you fix voting. Take it away from the States. Capital punishment if one even thinks about having anything like the "hanging chad" nonsense ever. Publicize the quick and brutal speedy trial, and burning at the stake for the perps...(Lots of libturd Dem's wouldn't be home for Christmas too bad)

skizex , 23 minutes ago

at least 28-30 states use the software.

philipat , 2 hours ago

IF (and that's a big if) electronic systems are to be used for elections, the software should be open-source and the systems should not be open to the internet. Given the importance of elections to our "democracy", the Federal Government should be capable of developing and publishing such software. If not, BUY a Company and do the same.Personally, I still believe that paper ballots, which can be checked and recounted at will, remain the best and least suspect method.

nmewn , 2 hours ago

"Personally, I still believe that paper ballots, which can be checked and recounted at will, remain the best and least suspect method."

Correct and agreed.

Also, the great thing about paper ballots is we can "see" which ballots only have one mark on them...that being...for President (which is another statistical anomaly).

I mean, what "real live legal voter" only votes for a Presidential candidate and nothing else on the down ballot selections? Like, who do you prefer being your Senator, your Representative?

There is a historical representation from past elections to compare that to in this one ;-)

Ms. Erable , 1 hour ago

Dunno why fed.gov hasn't used The Big .Gov Stick via the Federal Elections Commision to dictate the standards required of states to paticipate in a federal election. Your state doesn't meet the standards? Your results for any and all federal offices are null and void - possibly resulting in your state having zero representation at the federal level.

teutonicate , 3 hours ago

Trump Lawyer Sidney Powell: "We're Getting Ready To Overturn Election Results In Multiple States"

Once it becomes apparent that this scandal is busting wide open, expect a lot more "evidence" from rats jumping the corrupt ship - rather than being caught when the music stops.

Powell already says that she has evidence coming at her "like a fire hose". I bet, there has to be a lot of rats out their looking for an exit!

www.germanica.org

Bernout Sanders , 2 hours ago

According to Gateway Pundit the head of security for Dominion posted a pro-antifa manifesto.

MadameDeficit , 1 hour ago

Yup, Eric Coomer.

Oltman alleged that "Eric" was telling the Antifa members they needed to "keep up the pressure." When Oltman asked, "Who's Eric?" someone answered, "Eric, he's the Dominion guy." Oltman said that as the conversation continued, someone asked, "What are we gonna do if F*cking Trump wins?" Oltman paraphrased how Eric (the Dominion guy) responded, "Don't worry about the election, Trump's not gonna win. I made f*cking sure of that!"

Dominion Voting Systems Security Chief Was Allegedly Anti-Trump Antifa Supporter Who Posted Antifa "Manifesto" Letter To Trump

Billy the Poet , 3 hours ago

Lots of evidence for those who are willing to see.

Whistleblower and Dominion Staffer Saw Detroit Voter Fraud

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF12gZ_mkHQ&feature=emb_title

debtserf , 3 hours ago

As part of our attempts to investigate Antifa in Colorado, I have been logging onto Antifa "conference calls" (for lack of a better word). A few weeks ago, I was on one of those calls and heard a man named Eric Coomer, an executive at Dominion Voting Systems, reassure other leftists on the call that Trump could not win because he 'made sure of it.' As we investigated Coomer further, we found that he was rabidly anti-Trump and emphatically pro-Antifa. Not only was he rooting for Trump to lose, but he also wanted it to be by a huge margin so there would be "no recounts."

https://conservative-daily.com/2020/11/10/unbelievable-glitches-in-election-systems-may-have-changed-results/

Release the Kraken

Yamaoka Tesshu , 3 hours ago

How do we fix these machines, Beavis?

https://youtu.be/XchwE9zVdnw

DarthVaderMentor , 3 hours ago

In the computer quality control business we used to have a term for the process (first used on the Space Shuttle Transportation System Computers). It's called the "Forklift Upgrade". When there is any doubt, replace and remove the whole damned machine. The military and law enforcement use this technique on life critical systems. You got a glitch, you replace the whole damn machine. That's why we have modularization.

No fixing, no sudden arrivals of repair people in the middle of the night. You only replace with another sealed certified machine. After replacement, you have the poll managers run THEIR audit and visible to all parties that want to see it, maybe even post the audit on the wall so all voters can see it.

Poll managers make decision and they can actually do it themselves. No techies allowed on site except to vote.

No techies, no fraud.

[Nov 16, 2020] The Extremist at Dominion Voting Systems by DARRYL COOPER

Those companies rely on lobbying and are in the pocket of politicians. They depend on contracts and they spent a lot of money on lobbying. 2020 Election Security - C-SPAN.org
Nov 16, 2020 | www.theamericanconservative.com

Whether or not the company's machines were misused, it poses structural risks, and suppressing criticism will make Trump supporters even more dubious WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 09: (L-R) President and CEO of Election Systems & Software Tom Burt, President and CEO of Dominion Voting Systems John Poulos, President and CEO of Hart InterCivic Julie Mathis testify during a hearing before the House Administration Committee January 9, 2020 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

It is unlikely that many of the 73 million people who cast ballots for Donald Trump in 2020 will ever accept the legitimacy of his loss. Who could convince them? If the media sources demanding Trump's concession held any sway with Trump's voters, they would not have been his voters. They do not know for sure that the election was stolen, but they do know with apodictic certainty that the media would lie to them if it was. So if Donald Trump says the election was stolen, that's good enough for the Deplorables.

Yet even the President's most faithful must have flinched at his recent tweet accusing a leading manufacturer of voting machines of committing election fraud on a mass scale.

It is hard to overstate the irresponsibility of broadcasting such a serious accusation without proof. It shocked me, and my startle response has become pretty desensitized over the last four years. Sure, it turned out Trump was right when he accused the Obama administration of spying on his 2016 campaign, but this is different. Dominion Voting Systems is not staffed with Obama appointees, after all. I decided to poke around a bit to see what, if anything, could possibly be behind Trump's wild accusation.

A Twitter user named Joe Oltmann had tweeted a few screenshots of a Facebook user posting Antifa manifestos and songs about killing police. The Facebook account belonged to Eric Coomer, and Oltmann claimed it was the same Eric Coomer who is the Director of Product Strategy and Security for Dominion Voting Systems. Within hours of Oltmann posting the information, however, the Facebook page of Eric Coomer was taken down, so I was unable to verify that Antifa Coomer and Dominion Coomer were the same person. By the end of the day, Joe Oltmann's Twitter account was suspended as well. I had followed his feed throughout the day. I can say with certainty that he posted nothing remotely offensive or provocative. I have no doubt whatsoever that Twitter suspended him for posting the screenshots of Coomer's Facebook page. Interesting.

Searching around some more, I found that Dominion Coomer is an avid climber who used to post frequently on climbing message boards under his own name. He confirmed it himself in a post where he mentioned getting his nuclear physics Ph.D from Berkeley in 1997. Dominion's Eric Coomer received his nuclear physics Ph.D from Berkeley in 1997. In another post on the same message board, Coomer gave out his email address. It was his old campus address from the Berkeley nuclear physics department. I plugged that email address into the Google machine, and things got weird.

I found Eric Coomer had a long history of posting on websites for skinheads. He was a heavy user of a Google Group for skinheads, and seems to have possibly been a content moderator for papaskin.com. Only these aren't the neo-Nazis our mothers warned us about. These skinheads call themselves SHARPs, or Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice. Think of them as a sort of punk rock Antifa. In 2012, roughly 18 SHARPs attacked a smaller group of suspected racists in a Chicago restaurant with bats and batons. That same year, three neo-Nazis were charged for the 1998 double murder of two SHARPs in Nevada.

Given that Dominion's Director of Security and Strategy, Eric Coomer, was an enthusiast of a street fighting anti-racist skinhead culture going back at least into the 1990s, it seems very likely that Joe Oltmann was correct in identifying him as the Facebook user recently endorsing Antifa and posting anti-police rhetoric. I shared this information on a few message boards to let other people run with it. Within hours, Papa Skin, a skinhead website which had been up for over 20 years, was taken offline. (Whoever took it down missed the FAQ page, you can find it here http://www.papaskin.com/faq/faqs.html ).

Of course none of this proves any fraud took place, but we deserve some answers. One need only imagine if it was Joe Biden contesting the election results, and the Director for Strategy & Security at a major voting machine provider turned out to be a Proud Boy with decades of involvement in extremist, even violent, right wing political groups. Democrats would rightly point out that this person endorses engaging in illegal behavior to achieve political goals. They would ask how such a person ended up in such an important position of public trust, and what it might say about the procedures in place to ensure Dominion's responsibilities are handled in good faith.

Another reality of the Dominion fiasco, whether or not there was any fraud using its machines, is the structural risk created by having the same company run machines in more than two dozen states. If there were glitchy machines causing a dispute in one state, like Democrats' claims about Diebold machines in Ohio in 2004, and even if that dispute led to competing slates of electors, that is something the American political system has seen and withstood before. Having potentially tens of millions of people doubting results in a half-dozen different states thanks to the same company running machines in all of them is an unprecedentedly serious problem, whether or not their doubts are well-founded.

Moreover, platforms like Twitter and WordPress would do well to consider that censorship of people discussing Dominion and its employees is likely to have the opposite effect that they think it will: Twitter bans, site removals, and wiping of bios from websites are only going to make Trump's hardcore supporters think Dominion has something to hide. You can't make disagreements go away by banning one side and pretending there is unanimity.

Darryl Cooper is the host of the MartyrMade podcast.


Kiyoshi01 11 hours ago

This claim is fairly easy to check. The machine prints out a paper record that is viewable by the voter and saved for purposes of auditing.
JPH Kiyoshi01 8 hours ago
Actually voting is not audited as any accountant will be able to confirm.
RepublicanDon Kiyoshi01 3 hours ago
They also export data in JSON to media outlets. The JSON files showed interesting anomalies.
HistoryProf JPH an hour ago

Good summary of one of the pools, run by the Associated Press.

"How do news organizations count the vote returns on election night?

Votes are tabulated county by county by the Associated Press, a non-profit news agency which uses its national network of more than 4,000 reporters on election night to record the vote tallies from county clerks and other local officials. The AP also gathers information from state websites that post election returns. Reporters feed that information back to AP's vote counting operation, where analysts make decisions about which races are ready to be called.

What do reporters do with the local tallies?

AP reporters across the country phone the results to data entry people in specially set up election centers where they are entered into an electronic system. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the election centers are virtual in 2020. All vote counts are subject to a series of checks and verifications, including computer programs that set off alerts if there are inconsistencies with the vote count because of previous voting history or other data."

https://www.voanews.com/202...

JPH HistoryProf an hour ago

Link provided is much appreciated. Gathering data from state websites is what I expected. Such website scraping is probably fully automated simply to be able to keep up. Keep in mind that State/county/precinct results in a truly enormous volumes of data. Of course AP is advertising its effort, but having that amount of data transferred through a human chain would result in far too many errors.

RepublicanDon HistoryProf 8 minutes ago

Nobody types data into JSON files. They are exported from databases.
If data was being corrupted by human error, the errors would be random and would benefit both sides.

HistoryProf 10 hours ago

So TAC is now reprinting stories from GatewayPundit? Infowars next?

bumbershoot HistoryProf 4 hours ago

Next stop, QAnon!

RepublicanDon HistoryProf 3 hours ago

The truth is where you find it. Since the legacy media has gone full propaganda mill, you have to start looking in new and exciting places.

stari_momak HistoryProf an hour ago

This story seems well researched. Perhaps show us where the writer is in error.

JPH =marco01= 8 hours ago

Yeah, Muller didn't even know who GPS was during his presentation.and his two year waste of money and 400 page report was a big dud. Didn't even interview Assange.
Recently the Director of National Intelligence revealed that mid 2016 Obama was briefed that Clinton instigated the Russiagate hoax. Still Obama not even let that run but requested Comey during the meeting 5th January 2017 to put the "right people" on it. Actually there is only Obamagate weaponizing of the intelligence services against the Trump campaign. Oh yeah do not overlook the kickback scheme with Ukraine and China of Biden so there is a Bidengate too.

JPH 8 hours ago

"It is hard to overstate the irresponsibility of broadcasting such a serious accusation without proof."

Actually this demonstrates the total lack intellectual curiosity and of really wanting to know what is going on.

You may note that the chairman of Smartmatic Peter Neffenger now has joined the Biden transition team. So he will be in charge of covering up this election fraud mess?

You know that Biden :

https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FWGRnhBmHYN0%3Ffeature%3Doembed&display_name=YouTube&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DWGRnhBmHYN0&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FWGRnhBmHYN0%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=21d07d84db7f4d66a55297735025d6d1&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube

disgustoo JPH 6 hours ago

yea, so it's not at all surprising that a high ranking military deep stater should be in a director's role at both warmonger Biden's transition team & a widely used automated voting system. Smartmatic's software was found to be faulty in elections in 2010 & 2013 in the Philippines & has been rejected three different times by the state of Texas for security problems. Smartmatic - which has had a working relationship with Dominion - also has been providing electoral services to Venezuela since 2004; & in 2017 was forced to admit that the results of the 2017 legislative election had been tampered with.Given that the Democratic(sic) Party here also aims for a socialist govt., that somehow seems alarmingly appropriate.

Woland JPH 2 hours ago

As another European, I have no problem believing that Dominion Voting Systems is attempting to steal the election for Biden. After all, DVS has acquired the voting machines division of Diebold, which we all know stole the 2000 and 2004 elections for W. Bush. The whole current mess just proves that DVS has been thoroughly infected by the Diebold virus, and cannot help but to tamper with election results. I believe that the software itself is designed to divine the political leanings of the company's executives, and alter the voting results accordingly.

This also explains the weird House and Senate results, as no matter how leftist the DVS bosses are, they like their Trump tax cuts too much to have them reversed by the unified legislative and executive branches the polls had predicted.

All this is so transparant even a bag of Deplorables can see it, and Trump, unlike those losers Gore and Kerry, is absolutely right to go golfing every day fight this electoral travesty in the most Rudyly way possible.

JPH Woland 2 hours ago

Somewhat ironic indeed that the color revolution is now coming home to the US. However given the amount of chaos the US is able to impose on the rest of the world I prefer Trump over a repeat of the Obama/Biden starting open and covert wars all over the globe. At least Trump never started any wars but only got tricked by the Pentagon/State Department in wrongful and misplaced "retaliations" which he then steadfastly refused to escalate into wars.

LgVt 7 hours ago

For those wondering what the actual source of this controversy is about--as opposed to the wild ad hominem tangent the author went on--sharp-eyed viewers on Election Night noted that literally between one minute and the next (from 10:07 to 10:08 PM CST) Trump's displayed vote total in Pennsylvania went from 1,690,589 to 1,670,631, while Biden's went from 1,252,537 to 1,272,495--a shift of exactly 19,958 votes in each direction.

From there, a blogger at Gateway Pundit (Yes. I said it. I'm also including the source they were using, so get over yourselves and do your own legwork--don't be a news snob, like the current top-rated comment on this post) analyzed what s/he claims is Dominion's Pennsylvania election data , from the New York Times (by way of Edison Research, which serves as a distributor for Dominion's election data to various media outlets). I have included the link here, for anyone who is interested in looking at the data for themselves.

S/he found the vote "switch" in question, and others besides--220,883 votes "switched" from Trump to Biden in Pennsylvania, as well as 941,248 "lost" votes--places where the total number of votes decreased during the counting. Analysis of other states using Dominion were claimed to have found similar results, though none so dramatic--the next-largest states with vote shifts were New Jersey (with 80,242) and Florida (21,422) neither of which were in doubt. The largest "lost vote" totals after PA were in Virginia (789,023) and Minnesota (195,650).

The total number of "lost votes" was roughly 2.7 million, which is where Trump gets his "deleted votes" claim from--the problem being that he erroneously assumes all the lost votes were for him, which I do not believe is backed up by the data.

The major problem with the story, assuming you accept the source, is that there is no analysis of whether votes were also shifted from Biden to Trump. It seems likely that there would be, which would make this merely an example of machine sloppiness rather than malicious vote-rigging.

However, even if the vote shifting did go both ways, you still have Dominion, for unknown reasons, shifting clumps of votes between the two candidates and deleting other clumps of votes altogether.

Even if there's a valid explanation for it--which there probably is--it's a very bad look. Dominion's people need to explain what their systems were doing, and why, ASAP.

disgustoo 6 hours ago

"Moreover, platforms like Twitter and WordPress would do well to consider that censorship of people discussing Dominion and its employees is likely to have the opposite effect that they think it will: Twitter bans, site removals, and wiping of bios from websites are only going to make Trump's hardcore supporters think Dominion has something to hide. You can't make disagreements go away by banning one side and pretending there is unanimity."

Word Press has now evicted ( https://theconservativetree... with short notice; who will be next?

JPH 6 hours ago • edited

Texas rejected Dominion because it was not secure:
https://www.sos.texas.gov/e...

So I guess that many states using Dominion have some explaining to do.

Sydney Powell has some explanation (and even RCP now covering this):
https://www.realclearpoliti...

Dominion was designed to manipulate elections.
https://www.clintonfoundati...

WilliamRD 4 hours ago • edited

This entire episode stinks to high heaven. In the early morning of November 4th Trump had a huge lead in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania. Michigan and Georgia. Instead of continuing to count votes Milwaukee, Detroit, Philly an Atlanta for some strange reason stopped counting. Atlanta told the media water pipe busted and flooded the counting area. Completely false. Republican poll watchers were kicked out and magically hundreds of thousands of votes were discovered for Biden

Of particular interest to me was something that Baris spotted as he compared former Vice President Joe Biden's performance with Hillary Clinton's in 2016. Baris noted that Clinton outperformed Biden in every U.S. city except for the following four: Milwaukee, Detroit, Atlanta and Philadelphia.

Baris wrote, "Trump won the largest non-white vote share for a Republican presidential candidate in 60 years. Biden underperformed Hillary Clinton in every major metro area around the country, save for Milwaukee, Detroit, Atlanta and Philadelphia."

https://bongino.com/pollste...

WilliamRD 4 hours ago

Democratic senators warned of potential 'vote switching' by Dominion voting machines prior to 2020 election

https://www.newsbreak.com/n...

HistoryProf WilliamRD 2 hours ago

If you dig into the actual source material for the article you posted, what you find is a rather unremarkable statement by Democratic senators that EVERY vendor of voting machines had potential risks that they should be aware of and guard against. The dishonest Washington Examiner, however, pulled out only Dominion.

WilliamRD HistoryProf an hour ago

That's strange. In Michigan for example a very red county that Trump carried big in 2016 strangely went Biden in 2020. Republican county officials investigated and found that over six thousand votes had been switched from Trump to Biden. They blamed it on a glitch with the software.

WilliamRD 3 hours ago

Republicans Have Good Reason Not To Trust The Election Results

https://thefederalist.com/2...

Nelson an hour ago

The only kind of machines that should be allowed are the "stupid" ones that can't do anything except count results from paper ballots. They're both cheaper and easier to audit.

Mario Diana an hour ago

It has to be almost 15 years now that computer security people have been crying for open-source software and hardware for electronic voting, and have been criticizing closed, proprietary systems as the greatest threat to our democracy. And, here we are. None of us can act surprised.

Lord Molloch an hour ago • edited

Preventing GOP observers which was done at the election count, and the recount, is alone enough, with a competent and fair judge, to win the election for Trump. Add to that the mail in fraud, 10's of thousands of people on the voter lists who have been verified as dead, off shore processing and data manipulation - its a shoe in. But lets not forget, even if all this fails, its GOP legislators who choose the electors, so Trump's return is practically certain. But lets assume a miracle happens and none of this take place, no results are returned, the EC is asked to vote, USC gives each state a vote, GOP controls most states - Trump is still returned. Its really is over, bar the shouting. Trump is just taunting his haters now, for fun, via tweets.

[Nov 16, 2020] Dominion also refuted allegations that its machines changed votes from Trump to Biden on Election Day and beyond

It is is in the intelligence agencies interest that voting infrastructure is electronic and vulnerable. There the source of their power.
Nov 16, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
1

CosmoJoe , 3 hours ago

"Dominion also refuted allegations that its machines changed votes from Trump to Biden on Election Day and beyond."

What in the serious f(ck WOULD they say? "Yes, absolutely our machines switched votes to Biden."

[Nov 16, 2020] Once it becomes apparent that this scandal is busting wide open, expect a lot more "evidence" from rats jumping the corrupt ship - rather than being caught when the music stops.

Nov 16, 2020 | www.germanica.org
lay_arrow teutonicate 3 hours ago (Edited) remove link

Trump Lawyer Sidney Powell: "We're Getting Ready To Overturn Election Results In Multiple States"

Once it becomes apparent that this scandal is busting wide open, expect a lot more "evidence" from rats jumping the corrupt ship - rather than being caught when the music stops.

Powell already says that she has evidence coming at her "like a fire hose". I bet, there has to be a lot of rats out their looking for an exit!

www.germanica.org

[Nov 16, 2020] Senior DHS cybersecurity official Bryan Ware to step down

Nov 16, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com

Ophiuchus , 2 hours ago

https://www.cisa.gov/bryan-s-ware

Bryan S. Ware serves as the Assistant Director for Cybersecurity for the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). In this role, Ware leads CISA's mission of protecting and strengthening the nation's critical infrastructure against cyber threats.

https://www.cyberscoop.com/bryan-ware-cisa-dhs-resignation/

Senior DHS cybersecurity official Bryan Ware to step down

crudflow , 44 minutes ago

I willing to bet Ware is up to his eyeballs in this fraud. He is trying to cover it up, and he is running for the hills. Sounds pretty suspicious to me.....

[Nov 16, 2020] Sidney Powell with Eric Bolling on the accuracy of Dominion voting machines

Nov 16, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com

Billy the Poet , 3 hours ago

Sidney Powell Releases the Kraken on Sunday Morning Futures - She Has Proof of Fraud

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iINl15MPhuY

Sidney Powell with Eric Bolling on the accuracy of Dominion voting machines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNX1GpM8izs

Giuliani - Foreign Software That's Been Used To Steal Elections In Other Countries

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k-lTPFLcR0

nmewn , 3 hours ago

The algorithm is documented here, which is what I believe she is talking about...

https://joannenova.com.au/2020/11/electronic-vote-fraud-equation-revealed-in-michigan-in-4-counties-138000-fake-votes-for-biden/

...as an aside, I'm willing to bet this will be memory holed very soon by Gawgle...however, the presentation has been copied and preserved for posterity.

Any takers? ;-)

SurfingUSA , 3 hours ago

If you haven't already read "Licensed to Lie" by Sidney Powell. She figured out all the wheels within wheels of both corporate fraud, those set up to take the fall for Enron / Andersen, and fed gov skullduggery starting with Andrew Weissmann, who connects dots between Enron & Mueller. This 2020 election is kind of cakewalk in comparison.

[Nov 14, 2020] Jared Thomas, a lobbyist for Dominion Voting Systems, was Georgia Governor Brian Kemp's chief of staff and press secretary from 2012 to 2015.

Nov 14, 2020 | twitter.com

Praying Medic @prayingmedic

Jared Thomas, a lobbyist for Dominion Voting Systems, was Georgia Governor Brian Kemp's chief of staff and press secretary from 2012 to 2015.

[Nov 14, 2020] This might mean the end of the company

Nov 14, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com

Teamtc321 , 53 minutes ago

Pennsylvania : Switched : 220,883 Lost Votes : 941,248

New Jersey : Switched : 80,242 Lost Votes : 20

Florida : Switched : 21,422 Lost Votes : 456

Michigan : Switched : 20,213 Lost Votes : 21,882

New York : Switched : 18,124 Lost Votes : 623,213

Georgia : Switched : 17,407 Lost Votes : 33,574

Ohio : Switched : 14,965 Lost Votes : 5,102

Virginia : Switched : 12,163 Lost Votes : 789,023

California : Switched : 7,701 Lost Votes : 10,989

Arizona : Switched : 4,492 Lost Votes : 0

Minnesota : Switched : 2,766 Lost Votes : 195,650

Tennessee : Switched : 2,330 Lost Votes : 0

Louisiana : Switched : 2,322 Lost Votes : 0

Illinois : Switched : 2,166 Lost Votes : 54,730

Wisconsin : Switched : 2,078 Lost Votes : 3,408

Colorado : Switched : 1,809 Lost Votes : 0

Utah : Switched : 1,627 Lost Votes : 0

New Hampshire : Switched : 973 Lost Votes : 116

Iowa : Switched : 938 Lost Votes : 477

New Mexico : Switched : 268 Lost Votes : 4,610

Missouri : Switched 0 : Lost Votes : 20,730

Nevada : Switched : 0 Lost Votes : 0

Alaska : Switched : 0 Lost Votes : 0

Washington : Switched : 0 Lost Votes : 0

Hawaii : Switched : 0 Lost Votes : 0

Kansas and Texas use Premier Election Solutions, owned by Dominion Voting Systems.

Texas : Switched : 14,954 Lost Votes : 30,557

Kansas : Switched : 1,674 Lost Votes : 2,154

Election Systems & Software :

Nebraska : Switched : 30,086 Lost Votes : 50

Kentucky : Switched : 8,129 Lost Votes : 23,849

Arkansas : Switched : 3,664 Lost Votes : 20,748

South Carolina : Switched : 2,779 Lost Votes : 2,119

Montana : Switched : 2,330 Lost Votes : 1,276

South Dakota : Switched : 1,347 Lost Votes : 1

North Dakota : Switched : 234 Lost Votes : 681

Maryland : Switched : 203 Lost Votes : 0

North Carolina : Switched : 0 Lost Votes : 15

District of Columbia : Switched : 0 Lost Votes : 0

DOMINION DELETED 2.7 MILLION TRUMP VOTES NATIONWIDE. DATA ANALYSIS FINDS 221,000 PENNSYLVANIA VOTES SWITCHED FROM PRESIDENT TRUMP TO BIDEN

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/boom-trump-tweets-report-dominion-deleted-2-7-million-trump-votes-nationwide-data-analysis-finds-221000-pennsylvania-votes-switched-president-trump-biden/

Joe Biden is a fraud and a liar.

[Nov 14, 2020] Trump is up to something: the Dominion machines used in Maricopa County never published technical reviews then they might have been BLACK BOX VOTING MACHINES!

Nov 14, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com

@realDonaldTrump

, you might want to look into this issue. If the Dominion machines used in Maricopa County never published technical reviews then they might have been BLACK BOX VOTING MACHINES! What are they hiding by not publishing? Is it legal to not publish?

Quote Tweet

Merissa Hamilton

@merissahamilton

· Nov 11

#THREAD CONCERNING Neither @SecretaryHobbs nor @maricopacounty published technical reviews of the Dominion Voting Systems software Vendor driven sales demos conducted Oct 29 '19 & Jan 28' 20 were considered sufficient for cert by Hobbs' Equipment Cert Advisory Committee #Sad twitter.com/brahmresnik/st

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X22 Report Retweeted

[Nov 14, 2020] GOP Rep. Gaetz- 'Those Dominion Software Systems -- They Changed More Votes than Vladimir Putin Ever Did'

Nov 14, 2020 | www.breitbart.com

Thursday on Fox News Channel's "Hannity," Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was critical of how votes were counted in last week's presidential election.

Gaetz pointed to the unlikely demographic of recently registered voters and potential flaws in voting systems manufactured by Dominion to bolster his claim.

"Here's what we know: The chairman of the Federal Election Commission said there was fraud in this election, and when you take the mail-in ballots and balance them against the registry of people who changed their addresses, you see there are tens of thousands of people, 17,000 alone in Georgia who actually moved and then voted in the state that that they moved from," he said. "You know, Reince mentioned these nursing home mystery votes coming in, and the state of Pennsylvania, more people over the age of 90, registered to vote in 2020 than in like the prior four years combined. I call it the Dorothy effect, this notion that there was an immediate interest and surge of voters over the age of 90 during a pandemic. We have yet to find one nursing home where these Democratic registrations were occurring in mass that seems to suggest that those ballots may have been turned in by someone other than the person they were addressed to."

"Now, this isn't impossible to fix. In Florida, we have a standard that requires a review of those mail-in ballots before Election Day. That way, you're able to give them greater scrutiny and ensure a proper scrutiny. But here's one thing I know, Sean, those Dominion software systems, they changed more votes than Vladimir Putin ever did, and we spent four years and tens of millions of dollars over this fiction of Russian collusion with a Trump campaign. I'd say a few more weeks ensuring we had a fair election in 2020 is worth this great nation's time."

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor

ThisReallySucks a day ago • edited

When you add up all the various methods of fraud used to sway this election towards Biden we are not talking just a few dead people voting, we are talking millions of votes either taken from Trump and given to Biden or just outright deleted from Trump.

There is no way Biden received enough legal votes to beat Trump. It's just not possible under the circumstances.

134 3 ReplyShare › Avatar Schrödinger's cat ThisReallySucks a day ago • edited

How a Stolen Election has been set aside inside just one week:
A Judge rules that PA Secretary of State, Kathy Bookvar, lacked statutory authority to issue the guidance she did on November 1, which resulted in all Republican observers being excluded from counts. This rules out hundreds of thousands of fake votes and the case moves to SCOTUS. TRUMP WINS.

The investigation of the Dominion foreign owned machines led by Pelosi former chief of staff, Nadeam Elshami continues. Smartmatic owns Dominion was number 2 or 33 in Soros's Change the World Fake Charity.
The servers for these machines are owned in Canada or Spain - they won't allow inspection. Thus it will end up with full audit of all these states, no matter how long that may take. Only then will the complete depth of this heist be realised. For now, it is enough to win the election for TRUMP but it cannot stop there. In Michigan, Philadelphia, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin... 30 states in all used this system. A complete audit is required (is already happening in Georgia). Eventually as many as 30 million votes may have been tampered with. As many as 10 million may have been destroyed for TRUMP alone !!! They didn't know that there were eyes watching this scam, all prepared. Millions of votes being driven in, from out of state, to shore up their losing counts ??? Never before in history have they sunk so low.
Even now another attempted cheat: the USPS has ordered that all TRUMP /Republican will be suppressed whilst all mailings will be delivered for Biden...
See Rudy here:
https://mobile.twitter.com/...

Biden will never be President - instead he will be an inmate !!! Lin Wood, lawyer
He may even share a cell with someone called Murdoch !!!

TRUMP WINS !!! see more

66 ReplyShare › Avatar Deplorable Texan Schrödinger's cat a day ago

Even the Chairman of the Fed Election Commission agrees!

19 ReplyShare › Avatar jedbutler Deplorable Texan a day ago

Looks like the Pretend PresElect and his blackmailing co-conspirators are making their pressure count: Porter Day pulls out of PA and now this:

Newsmax is reporting that Benjamin Hovland, who chairs the U.S. Election Assistance Commission,
and Bob Kolasky, the assistant director of the Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Security Agency, part of the Department of Homeland
Security along with 10 others are reporting that this election is "the most secure in US history".
WTF? Those threats about shunning apparently involve more than just cocktail parties.

13 ReplyShare › Avatar James Madison jedbutler a day ago

I read the Newsmax article and it's from Bloomberg -- you know, Mike Bloomberg's personal propaganda outlet.

12 ReplyShare › Avatar jpatriot18 James Madison a day ago

Bloomberg Media--an never ending globalist propaganda wellspring.

7 ReplyShare › Avatar jedbutler James Madison a day ago

thanks for the clarification .. I've only started reading there and didn't know they sourced from news groups like that. Much appreciated

3 ReplyShare › Avatar Chalo_lozano jedbutler a day ago

Seems like the swamp is bigger that anybody thought.....

6 ReplyShare › Avatar jedbutler Chalo_lozano a day ago

yep even Trump said it surprised him and that's hard to do

2 ReplyShare › Avatar jpatriot18 jedbutler a day ago

The swamp's Soviet style bureaucratic apparatus is every bit as toxic to those that fall out of line as found in every totalitarian state in the history of the planet.

3 ReplyShare › Avatar jedbutler jpatriot18 a day ago

I think they're more Maoist but maybe that really doesn't matter? For some reason the Chinese seem more brutal and single minded. They have definitely run God out of their culture in ways the Soviets never did

1 ReplyShare › Avatar GMBurns jedbutler a day ago

The Obammunists with the weight in the Dem Party are indeed Maoist or some close variation.

Valerie Jarrett was told that new-hire Van Jones was a 'former' communist. She only asked "What kind?"
When the answer was "Maoist", she replied with one word: "Good".

ReplyShare › Avatar Vandyman63 jedbutler a day ago

Any guess what Party they belong to?
Bingo!!

4 1 ReplyShare › Avatar John F. Deplorable Texan a day ago

Most of the members of the FEC disagree. You should find that story.

ReplyShare › Avatar Deplorable Texan John F. a day ago

Post it.

ReplyShare › Avatar John F. Deplorable Texan a day ago

https://disq.us/url?url=htt...

ReplyShare › Avatar Deplorable Texan John F. a day ago

LOL

ReplyShare › Avatar mutantbeast Schrödinger's cat a day ago

Ga has already found 98,000 "Xiden only" "votes" in just the first day of the recount. Those are likely to end up getting thrown out.

17 ReplyShare › Avatar tjsbudster77 mutantbeast a day ago

I looked for myself county by county. Repub. Votes for president, house and senate were about the same in almost every county. But biden got 100,000 more than his fellow dems. Not possible. Especially with 2 senate seats.

3 ReplyShare › Avatar James Madison mutantbeast a day ago

How do you know this? Can you link it?

1 ReplyShare › Avatar tom mutantbeast a day ago

Keep us posted on that , can't get real news any where.

1 ReplyShare › Avatar GMBurns tom a day ago

Local sources are often more complete, but national news is hiding a lot. And one-horse operations like BB don't have the posse needed to track everything down.

1 ReplyShare › Avatar tom GMBurns a day ago

Got ya thanks

1 ReplyShare › Avatar Fiodora Fyodora Schrödinger's cat a day ago

That's right!
Pedo-beijing-joe will never be a president.
AMERICA FIRST/TRUMP ELECT PRESIDENT OF THE GREAT U.S.A.

11 ReplyShare › Avatar liberal detestor Schrödinger's cat a day ago

Biden won't sit a day in prison. He'll keel over first. His son is another story. Anyone higher up the "food chain" (Obama -Hillary etc.) will never serve time either. They're "untouchable" because of the politicians in this country wouldn't want to start a trend.!

11 2 ReplyShare › Avatar Fiodora Fyodora liberal detestor a day ago

We caught them all!
AMERICA FIRST/TRUMP PRESIDENT ELECTED OF THE U.S.A.

6 ReplyShare › Avatar GMBurns liberal detestor a day ago

No. They have gone too far this time. They must and will be run to earth and then dug up.

ReplyShare › Avatar liberal detestor GMBurns a day ago

I'd like to see them hang.!

2 ReplyShare › Avatar GMBurns liberal detestor a day ago

Emotionally, sometimes I feel that way.

But if we manage to save law and Constitution, then let's follow them. Twenty years in prison would give us a chance to send them postcards from all the places they wish they were.
Of course, if we can't save the Constitution, then there are no rules at all, and all kinds of things would happen, for a state of "nature, red in tooth and claw" would prevail.

I don't think they will pull this off. The threats they are throwing around are a way of saying "Don't you dare check the vote!"

It shows they know the fraud is massive, and think it will be caught if our agents don't give up.

The course for us is to keep up the pressure on the people who do the checking, and soon enough, the prosecuting and judging.

And then get busy making sure they cannot try again.

1 ReplyShare › Avatar Aicha Wallaby Schrödinger's cat a day ago

"Biden will never be President - instead he will be an inmate"

Well, as long as he gets his jello, he'll be happy. His puppetmasters - not so much

4 ReplyShare › Avatar GMBurns Aicha Wallaby a day ago

He won't usually even know what basement he is in.

2 ReplyShare › Avatar Judith Kuhlman Schrödinger's cat 15 hours ago

thanks for sharing! You have reassured me. I'm not so depressed now. We all knew TRUMP WON. How do we get rid of the socialist, fascists?

1 ReplyShare › Avatar Schrödinger's cat Judith Kuhlman 11 hours ago

We still have to fight and not give an inch. You are right, though. We shall win. Even if you don't live in Georgia, you are perfectly entitled to write to the authorities in Georgia and insist they stop limiting Republican observers to one every 10 tables. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger awarded a $107m contract to them to provide their technology. Elections security is my top priority , he said at the time. My suspicion is that he took a commission from them (or their associates) as well so has a deep conflict of interest. He needs to be audited financially.

Fight for open access for observers !!!

3 ReplyShare › Avatar Balder The Brave Schrödinger's cat a day ago

Trump Wins! Trump Wins! Trump Wins!

1 ReplyShare › Avatar Tumbleweed7 Schrödinger's cat a day ago

IF President Trump wins, America wins. If joe biden is declared to have won, all of America looses.

1 ReplyShare › Avatar Squarepeg Roundhole Schrödinger's cat a day ago

😆 🤣 😂 keep telling yourself that 🤡. You're so delusional just like the rest of the beta cucks on breitbart. Can't wait to see you eat your asinine post come January when Biden is sworn in... you'll be crying the blues while the world moves on.

3 33 ReplyShare › Avatar yak_disqus Squarepeg Roundhole a day ago

Oh boy! freshly minted troll here: 6 comments and 4 upvotes (he has more than one account).

15 1 ReplyShare › Avatar Will Hunt yak_disqus a day ago

It upvotes itself. LOL.....

10 ReplyShare › Avatar Fiodora Fyodora Will Hunt a day ago

LOL

1 ReplyShare › Avatar Theo Cage yak_disqus a day ago

Everyone who adds a comment you don't like is a troll and everyone who agrees is your bunker buddy. What a tired old line.

1 ReplyShare › Avatar yak_disqus Theo Cage a day ago

Actually, that is not my criterion. I'm sure you could do an online search (for yourself) on how to "spot" a troll. Heck, there are even sometimes folks that look like conservative "trolls" of a sort, and there are also accounts that are used for other purposes -- like giving upvotes to others. Thing is, folks who come here to spew insults without giving anyone any thought-oriented viewpoints or reactions to articles are typically trolls.
Folks who get too emotionally charged in the insults -- much the same --
Screen names also have histories and are recognizable.
Here's one pattern:
New guy + insults + nonsense = troll
"nonsense" often indicates an automated mechanism is being employed for posts.

1 ReplyShare › Avatar GMBurns yak_disqus a day ago • edited

We need a new academic field: Troll Studies.
Some (not all) of those who pretend to be 'friendlies' can be called 'concern trolls'. That term has been around for a while. I contrast them with 'nuisance trolls'.

People who actually attempt to persuade the audience without dishonesty I don't classify as trolls at all.

1 ReplyShare › Avatar Fiodora Fyodora Squarepeg Roundhole a day ago

soy-boy your lack of mental agility is evident.
please wear your mask before toying with your biden doll.

5 ReplyShare › Avatar mutantbeast Fiodora Fyodora a day ago

or his Soros blow up toy.

4 ReplyShare › Avatar Fiodora Fyodora mutantbeast a day ago

LOL
I'm stealing that

2 ReplyShare › Avatar taxpayer Squarepeg Roundhole a day ago • edited

Either way I will be laughing because if Biden, whoops, Harris I mean, is elected you'll be crying yourself later on.

3 ReplyShare › Avatar nikondvr taxpayer a day ago

God help us all if that happens but at least we will get a smidgen of satisfaction watching them go "what? But we were on your side. Why do we have to eat dirt and lose freedom too?Waaaaa!!"

ReplyShare › Avatar tom taxpayer a day ago

Or getting ready to fix this corruption.

ReplyShare › Avatar ib4x4n Squarepeg Roundhole a day ago

Words of a puffy eyed "alpha"poll puffer, been crying for four ? or is it five years now.
LMFAO
What you gonna burn down if this attempted theft get righted?
Make sure it's not your two moms basement🤣

1 ReplyShare › Avatar Cheryl Danver Squarepeg Roundhole a day ago

"Beta cucks"

Honestly, can't you people even come up with your OWN insults? I'm sick to death even of CONSERVATIVES using "beta cuck", "snowflake", "soy boy" and "Mama's basement."

We need fresh material here!

[Nov 14, 2020] Top Democrats Raised Concerns About Dominion Voting Technology in 2019

Nov 14, 2020 | www.breitbart.com

Top Democrats Raised Concerns About Dominion Voting Technology in 2019 774

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks to the media outside her home Thursday, March 5, 2020, in Cambridge, Mass., after she dropped out of the Democratic presidential race. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Steven Senne/AP Photo
ASHLEY OLIVER 13 Nov 2020 450 4:00

Democrat leaders, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (MA), Amy Klobuchar (MN), and Ron Wyden (OR), wrote a letter in December 2019 to the private equity firms controlling the United States' three leading voting technology companies, expressing concern in the letter about the voting technology industry's "vulnerabilities" and "lack of transparency."

The letter was sent on December 6, 2019, to three private equity firms, taking issue with "vulnerabilities and a lack of transparency in the election technology industry and the poor condition of voting machines and other election technology equipment," Warren's office said of the letter. The letter sought information about what role the firms had in perpetuating the technology issues.

me title=

The letter was sent to the following:

H.I.G. Capital, investing in Hart InterCivic McCarthy Group, investing in Election Systems & Software Staple Street Capital, investing in Dominion Voting Systems

At the time, those three voting technology companies facilitated 90 percent of voters, the letter noted, citing the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Today, Election Systems & Software and Dominion Voting Systems facilitate more than three-quarters of voters, while Hart InterCivic was "quietly sold" by its owner, H.I.G. Capital, in April of this year, according to an October 28, 2020, report from the Wall Street Journal , which also cited Wharton School.

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Dominion entered the spotlight in the days following the election after unofficial results were reported erroneously in Antrim County, Michigan -- one of many locations that utilizes Dominion's software for its elections. The results attracted attention late on election night after showing presidential candidate Joe Biden (D) leading President Donald Trump in the heavily red county. A statement from Michigan's secretary of state explained the error was an "isolated user error" and not a software error.

Gwinnett County, Georgia, which also utilizes Dominion's software, experienced a delay in vote counting because of an unknown issue with the software. The county reported that Dominion technicians had resolved the issue by November 8 and that the county was able to count its remaining ballots that day.

Trump's campaign and many Republican pundits have sounded alarms over the voting technology, but the letter from leading Democrats in 2019 indicates concerns may be bipartisan.

The Democrats' letter identified a multitude of issues, at one point referencing a Vice report, saying, "In 2018 alone 'voters in South Carolina [were] reporting machines that switched their votes after they'd inputted them, scanners [were] rejecting paper ballots in Missouri, and busted machines [were] causing long lines in Indiana.'"

The letter also noted that around 20 election technology vendors had competed in that market in the early 2000s but that the vendors have since consolidated to where only a few control the "vast majority of the market."

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Warren told the Journal in an email, "Private-equity firms 'have taken over nearly all of the nation's election technology -- and how they do business is clouded in secrecy.'" Staple Street Capital, which purchased Dominion in 2018, reportedly partially responded to the Democrats' letter at the time, while the other two firms did not respond.

Dominion issued a vehement statement Friday fully rejecting various accusations that have been circulating about the company since the election. Dominion said that it "categorically denies false assertions about vote switching issues with our voting systems," that the company is nonpartisan, and that "assertions of voter fraud conspiracies are 100% false."

Write to Ashley Oliver at [email protected] .

[Nov 14, 2020] Sidney Powell says she has evidence of Dominion and that is was used on November third

Highly recommended!
Nov 14, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com

TommyLimey , 3 hours ago

Maxx99 , 1 hour ago

This just in. Sidney Powell says she has evidence of Dominion and that is was used on November third. She also says that she has evidence the governors were involved. Release the Kraken!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgW3XR7KLPs

[Nov 14, 2020] Sidney Powell says that they are also looking into which governors and Secretary of state's were INVESTED in Dominion. Apparently we have these idiots also caught trying to make money off of voter fraud

Nov 14, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com


play_arrow 2

chubbar , 1 hour ago

Here's some potentially interesting information.

https://youtu.be/qxGe3Nfnrgo

It's an interview of Sidney Powell by Lou Dobbs. At the 1:14 mark Sidney says that they are also looking into which governors and Secretary of state's were INVESTED in Dominion. Apparently we have these idiots also caught trying to make money off of voter fraud.

Wasn't Brian Kemp, the GOP governor of GA, the SOS of GA before becoming Governor? Isn't he the guy who won't call on the legislature to address these voting irregularities? Is he the guy in charge of this fake recount?

Is it possible this guy is also a Trojan horse, never Trumper? This recount is a sham, the Governor is GOP, looks like to me that another traitor has been uncovered!

[Nov 13, 2020] First Dominion Whistleblower Goes Public, Exposes Illegalities in Michigan

Nov 13, 2020 | welovetrump.com

daniel 12 hours ago 12 hours ago 41.5k views

It's happening!

We know that multiple Dominion whistleblowers are coming forward to the Trump campaign.

Dominion is the software used in Michigan and at least 33 other states.

Trending: Melania Wears "Blockchain" Dress on Election Day, Validating Watermarked Quantum Blockchain Ballot Theory?

about:blank

about:blank

The software is alleged to have changed Trump votes to Biden votes.

Rudy Giuliani has confirmed that multiple Dominion whistleblowers are helping with Trump's lawsuits.

Now

At least one whistleblower has gone public with her claims!

Her name is Ms. Mellissa Carone and she is a contractor for Dominion.

Carone was sent to Detroit, Michigan to provide technical support.

She has confirmed that ballots were re-scanned and re-counted at least 4 to 5 times before being discarded.

In this case, the "re-scans" are different from simply trying to get the machine to re-read the ballot.

She appears to allege that this was done purposefully to inflate Biden's vote count in Michigan!

She was reportedly scheduled to appear on Fox News as well.

However, it is rumored that Fox News CANCELED her appearance!

So instead, she made an appearance on a YouTube and podcast channel.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1326621044531204101

Of course, the mainstream media is working overtime to cover up this story.

However, even the New York Times has confirmed that Rudy Giuliani is saying that Dominion whistleblowers are coming forward:

Many of those people have said, contrary to evidence, that Dominion software was used to switch votes. Some people even suggested that the company was doing the bidding of the Clintons, a conspiracy theory that was shared on Twitter by President Trump. On Wednesday, Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president's lawyer, said he was in contact with "whistle-blowers" from Dominion, though he did not provide evidence.

Dominion, originally a Canadian company that now has its effective headquarters in Denver, makes machines for voters to cast ballots and for poll workers to count them, as well as software that helps government officials organize and keep track of election results.

Georgia spent $107 million on 30,000 of the company's machines last year. In some cases, they proved to be headaches in the state's primary elections in June, though officials largely attributed the problems to a lack of training for election workers.

Dominion did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In Antrim County, Mich., unofficial results initially showed President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. beating Mr. Trump by roughly 3,000 votes. But that didn't seem right in the Republican stronghold, so election workers checked again.

It turned out that they had configured the Dominion ballot scanners and reporting software with slightly different versions of the ballot, which meant that the votes were counted correctly but that they were reported incorrectly, state officials said. The correct tallies showed Mr. Trump beat Mr. Biden by roughly 2,500 votes in the county.

In Oakland County, Mich., election officials also spotted an error after they first reported the unofficial counts. They realized they had mistakenly counted votes from the city of Rochester Hills, Mich., twice, according to the Michigan Department of State.

The revised tallies showed that an incumbent Republican county commissioner had kept his seat, not lost it. Oakland County used software from a company called Hart InterCivic, not Dominion, though the software was not at fault.

Both errors, which appeared to go against Republicans, spurred conspiracy theories in conservative corners of the internet. That drew a response from Tina Barton, the Republican clerk in Rochester Hills, Mich., the city that had its votes briefly counted twice.

Democrats investigated Russia for four years.

Why won't they commit to a few weeks to verify the integrity of our election?

We need transparency in our election process!

But Democrats appears to be fighting against that transparency that voters desire!

Trump's latest lawsuit could potentially flip the battleground state of Michigan.

It is requesting that 1.2 million incorrectly filled out ballots be tossed.

If approved, this would be groundbreaking news.

Local Michigan Live news confirms:

Four voters filed a federal lawsuit seeking to exclude presidential election results from three Michigan counties due to allegations of fraud, echoing several other legal challenges brought forward since President Donald Trump refused to concede defeat.

Trump earned 147,000 fewer votes than Democrat Joe Biden in Michigan, according to unofficial election results that are being certified this month by county canvassing boards. The new lawsuit seeks to eliminate ballots cast in Wayne, Washtenaw and Ingham counties, which would amount to 1.2 million votes, giving Trump the lead in Michigan.

Birmingham attorney Maxwell Goss and Indiana attorney James Bopp Jr. are representing plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Bopp serves as a campaign adviser to Trump. He was an Indiana delegate for Trump in 2016 and served as a legal adviser for George W. Bush and Mitt Romney.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, cites an assortment of allegations made by the Trump campaign, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, right-wing media organizations and ongoing lawsuits filed since the election.

Plaintiffs also cite ongoing investigations launched by the Michigan Legislature and a variety of other claims that have been debunked. The allegations include charges of Republican ballot challengers being harassed and illegal tampering with ballots.

Plaintiffs conclude that "this evidence suffices to place in doubt the November 3 presidential election results in identified counties and/or the state as a whole." However, the group of voters also claims to have additional evidence of illegal ballots being included in unofficial results, based on "expert reports" and data analysis.

"Upon information and belief, the expert report will identify persons who cast votes illegally by casting multiple ballots, were deceased, had moved, or were otherwise not qualified to vote in the November 3 presidential election, along with evidence of illegal ballot stuffing, ballot harvesting, and other illegal voting," the lawsuit states.

At least one of several other Michigan lawsuits making similar allegations has been thrown out for lack of evidence and other flaws.

Oakland County residents Lena Bally and Gavriel Grossbard, Eaton County resident Carol Hatch and Jackson County resident Steven Butler are listed as plaintiffs in the new federal lawsuit. Grossbard was a Republican candidate for Michigan's 9th Congressional District, but lost in the August primary.

The lawsuit names as defendants Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and members of the Michigan State Board of Canvassers, Wayne County Board of Canvassers, Washtenaw County Board of Canvassers and Ingham County Board of Canvassers.

Plaintiffs are seeking to exclude votes from Wayne, Washtenaw and Ingham counties. They argue that including results from counties "where sufficient illegal ballots were included" would unconstitutionally cause legal votes to be "diluted."

SIGN THE PETITION: We Need National Voter ID!

Trump has proven that he will not give up the fight!

We must continue to fight for him like he has fought for us.

Remember, the election isn't over until votes are certified and the electors vote.

It's time to hold the line!

[Nov 12, 2020] Dominion Voting Systems denies financial relationship with Dianne Feinstein husband

Notable quotes:
"... It confirmed that Nadeam Elshami, Pelosi's former chief of staff, is a lobbyist for Dominion ..."
Nov 12, 2020 | www.msn.com

Dominion Voting Systems rebuked claims that the company has a financial relationship with the husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein and that the company manipulated the results of the 2020 election.

"The company has no financial relationship with Mr. Blum ," Kay Stimson, Dominion's vice president of government affairs, told the Dispatch . "This is a false claim spread on social media."

Trump legal adviser Sidney Powell said Democrats, including Feinstein's husband, Richard Blum, invested in the voting system company to "steal" elections not only from Republicans but from other Democrats.

Fox News's Maria Bartiromo said that she had seen reports that Blum was a "significant shareholder" in Dominion and that a former chief of staff for Nancy Pelosi is a "key executive."

"They have invested in it for their own reasons and are using it to commit this fraud to steal votes," Powell told Bartiromo during an interview. "I think they've even stolen them from other Democrats in their own party, who should be outraged about this also."

Powell said that Democrats "had this all planned" and that they inserted ballots filled out only for apparent President-elect Joe Biden when President Trump's vote tally went too high.

Apart from sworn affidavits, at least one of which has been recanted , no evidence of widespread voter fraud has yet been found.

Claims of Democrats being involved in Dominion are misleading, the Dispatch reported. It confirmed that Nadeam Elshami, Pelosi's former chief of staff, is a lobbyist for Dominion and reported that Bartiromo "fails to mention that a number of Republican staffers are as well."

There is also no evidence to suggest that Blum ever had a financial stake in Dominion. At one point, Blum Capital Partners, a firm chaired by Blum, held a 16.7% stake in Avid Technology, which viral posts alleged developed voting software that was used in Michigan.

Those claims are also false, according to a spokesman who told the Dispatch that Avid produces software "to produce music, movies, TV news, and shows," not voting software. The representative also said that Blum Capital Partners "has no holdings in Avid today."

Avid is also not connected to Dominion.

The Washington Examiner reached out to Dominion for further comment.

Tags: News , Voting , 2020 Elections , Dianne Feinstein , Election Lawsuits

[Jul 09, 2019] So what does a cybersecurity company that is hemorrhaging money and can't protect it's clients do? It does an IPO

Notable quotes:
"... So in the past three years Crowdstrike: ..."
"... a) detected the DNC server hack, but failed to stop it b) falsely accused the Russians of hacking Ukrainian artillery c) failed to prevent the NRCC from being hacked, even though that was why they were hired ..."
"... In other words, Crowdstrike is really bad at their job. In addition, Crowdstrike is really bad at business too. CrowdStrike recorded a net loss last year of $140 million on revenue of $249.8 million, and negative free cash flow of roughly $59 million. ..."
Jul 09, 2019 | caucus99percent.com

So in the past three years Crowdstrike:

a) detected the DNC server hack, but failed to stop it
b) falsely accused the Russians of hacking Ukrainian artillery
c) failed to prevent the NRCC from being hacked, even though that was why they were hired

In other words, Crowdstrike is really bad at their job. In addition, Crowdstrike is really bad at business too. CrowdStrike recorded a net loss last year of $140 million on revenue of $249.8 million, and negative free cash flow of roughly $59 million.

So what does a cybersecurity company that is hemorrhaging money and can't protect it's clients do? It does an IPO .

It just goes to show that "getting it right" is not the same thing as "doing a good job." If you tell the right people what they want to hear, the money will take care of itself.

[Jul 09, 2019] Crowdstrike mode of operation:

Jul 09, 2019 | caucus99percent.com

Whoops, you got hacked? Gee, nothing we could have done. More money please!

I think this is most of the IT biz right here

It just goes to show that "getting it right" is not the same thing as "doing a good job."

If you tell the right people what they want to hear, the money will take care of itself.

It's all about making the people at the top feel smart for having hired you and assuring them they don't need to waste their beautiful minds trying to understand what it is you do.

Whoops, you got hacked? Gee, nothing we could have done. More money please!

[Jun 20, 2019] Washington s Dr. Strangeloves: Is plunging Russia into darkness really a good idea?

Notable quotes:
"... ...What else did you expect other than the MIC/Intelligence Agencies/Pentagon/embedded war mongers handling this stuff? ..."
"... Gen. Buck Turgidson is most certainly going rogue. ..."
"... That's really the bigger story here. It has become a mainstream idea that it is a GOOD thing that an elected President is a figurehead with no real power. ..."
Jun 20, 2019 | www.zerohedge.com

Not if_ But When , 11 minutes ago link

...What else did you expect other than the MIC/Intelligence Agencies/Pentagon/embedded war mongers handling this stuff?

SurfingUSA , 2 minutes ago link

Gen. Buck Turgidson is most certainly going rogue.

joego1 , 11 minutes ago link

It's all about the bankers bitches.

LetThemEatRand , 17 minutes ago link

...That's really the bigger story here. It has become a mainstream idea that it is a GOOD thing that an elected President is a figurehead with no real power.

Of course it's been true for a long time, but it's a fairly recent phenomenon that a large number of Americans like it. Russiagate is another example.

Huge portions of America were cheering for the unseating of an elected President by unelected police state apparatus because they don't like him.

[Jun 19, 2019] Washington's Dr. Strangeloves by Stephen F. Cohen

Notable quotes:
"... What is the significance of this story, apart from what it tells us about the graver dangers of the new US-Russian Cold War, which now includes, we are informed, a uniquely fraught "digital Cold War"? Not so long ago, mainstream liberal Democrats, and the Times itself, would have been outraged by revelations that defense and intelligence officials were making such existential policy behind the back of a president. No longer, it seems. There have been no liberal, Democratic, or for the most part any other, mainstream protests, but instead a lawyerly apologia justifying the intelligence-defense operation without the president's knowledge. ..."
"... As I have often emphasized, the long historical struggle for American-Russian (Soviet and post-Soviet) détente, or broad cooperation, has featured many acts of attempted sabotage on both sides, though most often by US intelligence and defense agencies. ..."
"... Now the sabotaging of détente appears be happening again. As the Times article makes clear, Washington's war party, or perhaps zealous Cold War party, referred to euphemistically by Sanger and Perlroth as "advocates of the more aggressive strategy," is on the move. ..."
"... Détente with Russia has always been a fiercely opposed, crisis-ridden policy pursuit, but one manifestly in the interests of the United States and the world. No American president can achieve it without substantial bipartisan support at home, which Trump manifestly lacks. What kind of catastrophe will it take -- in Ukraine, the Baltic region, Syria, or somewhere on Russia's electric grid -- to shock US Democrats and others out of what has been called, not unreasonably, their Trump Derangement Syndrome, particularly in the realm of American national security? Meanwhile, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has recently reset its Doomsday Clock to two minutes before midnight. ..."
Jun 19, 2019 | www.thenation.com

Occasionally, a revelatory, and profoundly alarming, article passes almost unnoticed, even when published on the front page of The New York Times . Such was the case with reporting by David E. Sanger and Nicole Perlroth , bearing the Strangelovian title "U.S. Buries Digital Land Mines to Menace Russia's Power Grid," which appeared in the print edition on June 16. The article contained two revelations.

First, according to Sanger and Perlroth, with my ellipses duly noted, "The United States is stepping up digital incursions into Russia's electric power grid. Advocates of the more aggressive strategy said it was long overdue " The operation "carries significant risk of escalating the daily digital Cold War between Washington and Moscow." Though under way at least since 2012, "now the American strategy has shifted more toward offense with the placement of potentially crippling malware inside the Russian system at a depth and with an aggressiveness that had never been tried before." At this point, the Times reporters add an Orwellian touch. The head of the U.S. Cyber Command characterizes the assault on Russia's grid, which affects everything from the country's water supply, medical services, and transportation to control over its nuclear weapons, as "the need to 'defend forward,'" because "they don't fear us."

Nowhere do Sanger and Perlroth seem alarmed by the implicit risks of this "defend forward" attack on the infrastructure of the other nuclear superpower. Indeed, they wonder "whether it would be possible to plunge Russia into darkness." And toward the end, they quote an American lawyer and former Obama official, whose expertise on the matter is unclear, to assure readers sanguinely, "We might have to risk taking some broken bones of our own from a counter response. Sometimes you have to take a bloody nose to not take a bullet in the head down the road." The "broken bones," "bloody nose," and "bullet" are, of course, metaphorical references to the potential consequences of nuclear war.

The second revelation comes midway in the Times story: "[President] Trump had not been briefed in any detail about the steps to place 'implants' inside the Russian grid" because "he might countermand it or discuss it with foreign officials." (Indeed, Trump issued an angry tweet when he saw the Times report, though leaving unclear which part of it most aroused his anger.)

What is the significance of this story, apart from what it tells us about the graver dangers of the new US-Russian Cold War, which now includes, we are informed, a uniquely fraught "digital Cold War"? Not so long ago, mainstream liberal Democrats, and the Times itself, would have been outraged by revelations that defense and intelligence officials were making such existential policy behind the back of a president. No longer, it seems. There have been no liberal, Democratic, or for the most part any other, mainstream protests, but instead a lawyerly apologia justifying the intelligence-defense operation without the president's knowledge.

The political significance, however, seems clear enough. The leak to the Times and the paper's publication of the article come in the run-up to a scheduled meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 meeting in Japan on June 28–29. Both leaders had recently expressed hope for improved US-Russian relations. On May 4, Trump again tweeted his longstanding aspiration for a "good/great relationship with Russia"; and this month Putin lamented that relations " are getting worse and worse " but hoped that he and Trump could move their countries beyond "the games played by intelligence services."

As I have often emphasized, the long historical struggle for American-Russian (Soviet and post-Soviet) détente, or broad cooperation, has featured many acts of attempted sabotage on both sides, though most often by US intelligence and defense agencies. Readers may recall the Eisenhower-Khrushchev summit meeting that was to take place in Paris in 1960, but which was aborted by the Soviet shoot-down of a US spy plane over the Soviet Union, an intrusive flight apparently not authorized by President Eisenhower. And more recently, the 2016 plan by then-President Obama and Putin for US-Russian cooperation in Syria, which was aborted by a Department of Defense attack on Russian-backed Syrian troops.

Now the sabotaging of détente appears be happening again. As the Times article makes clear, Washington's war party, or perhaps zealous Cold War party, referred to euphemistically by Sanger and Perlroth as "advocates of the more aggressive strategy," is on the move. Certainly, Trump has been repeatedly thwarted in his previous détente attempts, primarily by discredited Russiagate allegations that continue to be promoted by the war party even though they still lack any evidential basis. (It may also be recalled that his previous summit meeting with Putin was widely and shamefully assailed as "treason" by influential segments of the US political-media establishment.)

Détente with Russia has always been a fiercely opposed, crisis-ridden policy pursuit, but one manifestly in the interests of the United States and the world. No American president can achieve it without substantial bipartisan support at home, which Trump manifestly lacks. What kind of catastrophe will it take -- in Ukraine, the Baltic region, Syria, or somewhere on Russia's electric grid -- to shock US Democrats and others out of what has been called, not unreasonably, their Trump Derangement Syndrome, particularly in the realm of American national security? Meanwhile, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has recently reset its Doomsday Clock to two minutes before midnight.

This commentary is based on Stephen F. Cohen's most recent weekly discussion with the host of The John Batchelor Show . Now in their sixth year, previous installments are at TheNation.com . Ad Policy Stephen F. Cohen is a professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at New York University and Princeton University. A Nation contributing editor, his new book War With Russia? From Putin & Ukraine to Trump & Russiagate is available in paperback and in an ebook edition.

[May 22, 2019] Israel hacking the world

May 22, 2019 | www.unz.com

Republic , says: Next New Comment May 22, 2019 at 3:40 pm GMT

@Sean McBride

https://www.youtube.com/embed/5VGpWl56ZF0?feature=oembed

Israel hacking the world

[Jan 29, 2019] US steps up offensive against China with more "hacking charges" by Mike Head

Notable quotes:
"... Washington Post ..."
"... Sections of the Chinese regime responded belligerently to the accusations. An editorial in the state-owned Global Times ..."
"... The editorial asked: "Assuming China is so powerful that it has stolen technological information for over a decade that is supposedly worth over a trillion in intellectual property, as the US has indicated, then how is it that China still lags behind the US in so many fields, from chips to electric vehicles, and even aviation engines?" ..."
Dec 21, 2018 | www.wsws.org

Further escalating its economic and strategic offensive to block China from ever challenging its post-World War II hegemony, the US government yesterday unveiled its fifth set of economic espionage charges against Chinese individuals since September.

As part of an internationally-coordinated operation, the US Justice Department on Thursday published indictments of two Chinese men who had allegedly accessed confidential commercial data from US government agencies and corporate computers in 12 countries for more than a decade.

The announcement represents a major intensification of the US ruling class's confrontation against China, amid a constant build-up of unsubstantiated allegations against Beijing by both the Republican and Democrat wings of Washington's political establishment.

Via salacious allegations of "hacking" on a "vast scale," every effort is being made by the ruling elite and its media mouthpieces to whip up anti-China hysteria.

The indictment's release was clearly politically timed. It was accompanied by a global campaign by the US and its allies, accusing the Chinese government of an illegal cyber theft operation to damage their economies and supplant the US as the world's "leading superpower."

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen immediately issued a statement accusing China of directing "a very real threat to the economic competitiveness of companies in the United States and around the globe."

Within hours, US allies around the world put out matching statements, joined by declarations of confected alarm by their own cyber-warfare and hacking agencies.

The Washington Post called it "an unprecedented mass effort to call out China for its alleged malign acts." The coordination "represents a growing consensus that Beijing is flouting international norms in its bid to become the world's predominant economic and technological power."

The Australian government, the closest ally of the US in the Indo-Pacific region, was in the forefront. Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton explicitly accused the Chinese government and its Ministry of State Security (MSS) of being responsible for "a global campaign of cyber-enabled commercial intellectual property theft."

Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, called the Chinese cyber campaign "shocking and outrageous." Such pronouncements, quickly emblazoned in media headlines around the world, destroy any possibility of anything resembling a fair trial if the two men, named as Zhu Hua and Zhang Shilong, are ever detained by US agencies and brought before a court.

The charges themselves are vaguely defined. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan accused the men of conspiracy to commit computer intrusions, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Zhu and Zhang acted "in association with" the MSS, as part of a hacking squad supposedly named "APT1o" or "Stone Panda," the indictment said.

FBI Director Christopher Wray called a news conference to issue another inflammatory statement against China. Pointing to the real motivations behind the indictments, he declared: "China's goal, simply put, is to replace the US as the world's leading superpower, and they're using illegal methods to get there."

Coming from the head of the US internal intelligence agency, this further indicates the kinds of discussions and planning underway within the highest echelons of the US political and military-intelligence apparatus to prepare the country, ideologically and militarily, for war against China.

Washington is determined to block President Xi Jinping's "Made in China 2025" program that aims to ensure China is globally competitive in hi-tech sectors such as robotics and chip manufacture, as well as Beijing's massive infrastructure plans, known as the Belt and Road Initiative, to link China with Europe across Eurasia.

The US ruling class regards these Chinese ambitions as existential threats because, if successful, they would undermine the strategic position of US imperialism globally, and the economic dominance of key American corporations.

Yesterday's announcement seemed timed to fuel tensions between Washington and Beijing, after the unprecedented December 1 arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, in Canada at the request of the US.

Last weekend, US Vice President Mike Pence again accused China of "intellectual property theft." These provocations came just weeks after the US and Chinese administrations agreed to talks aimed at resolving the tariff and trade war launched by US President Donald Trump.

The Trump administration is demanding structural changes to China's state-led economic model, greater Chinese purchases of American farm and industrial products and a halt to "coercive" joint-venture licensing terms. These demands would severely undermine the "Made in China 2025" program.

Since September, US authorities have brought forward five sets of espionage allegations. In late October, the Justice Department unsealed charges against 10 alleged Chinese spies accused of conspiring to steal sensitive commercial secrets from US and European companies.

Earlier in October, the US government disclosed another unprecedented operation, designed to produce a show trial in America. It revealed that a Chinese citizen, accused of being an intelligence official, had been arrested in Belgium and extradited on charges of conspiring to commit "economic espionage" and steal trade secrets.

The extradition was announced days after the Pentagon released a 146-page document, titled "Assessing and Strengthening the Manufacturing and Defense Industrial Base and Supply Chain Resiliency of the United States," which made clear Washington is preparing for a total war effort against both China and Russia.

Trump, Pence and Wray then all declared China to be the greatest threat to America's economic and military security. Trump accused China of interfering in the US mid-term elections in a bid to remove him from office. In a speech, Pence said Beijing was directing "its bureaucrats and businesses to obtain American intellectual property -- the foundation of our economic leadership -- by any means necessary."

Whatever the truth of the spying allegations against Chinese citizens -- and that cannot be assumed -- any such operations would hardly compare with the massive global intrigue, hacking, regime-change and military operations directed by the US agencies, including the National Security Agency (NSA) and its "Five Eyes" partners.

These have been exposed thoroughly by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Leaked documents published by WikiLeaks revealed that the CIA has developed "more than a thousand hacking systems, trojans, viruses and other 'weaponized' malware," allowing it to seize control of devices, including Apple iPhones, Google's Android operating system, devices running Microsoft Windows, smart TVs and possibly the control of cars and trucks.

In an attempt to broaden its offensive against China, the US government said that along with the US and its Five Eyes partners, such as Britain, Canada and Australia, the countries targeted by the alleged Chinese plot included France, Germany, Japan, Sweden and Switzerland.

Chinese hackers allegedly penetrated managed services providers (MSPs) that provide cybersecurity and information technology services to government agencies and major firms. Finance, telecommunications, consumer electronics and medical companies were among those said to be targeted, along with military and US National Aeronautics and Space Administration laboratories.

Sections of the Chinese regime responded belligerently to the accusations. An editorial in the state-owned Global Times branded them "hysterical" and a warning sign of a "comprehensive" US attack on China.

The editorial asked: "Assuming China is so powerful that it has stolen technological information for over a decade that is supposedly worth over a trillion in intellectual property, as the US has indicated, then how is it that China still lags behind the US in so many fields, from chips to electric vehicles, and even aviation engines?"

The Global Times declared that "instead of adhering to a low-profile strategy, China must face these provocations and do more to safeguard national interests."

The promotion of Chinese economic and militarist nationalism by a mouthpiece of the Beijing regime is just as reactionary as the nationalist xenophobia being stoked by the ruling elite of American imperialism and its allies. The answer to the evermore open danger of war is a unified struggle by the international working class to end the outmoded capitalist profit system and nation-state divisions and establish a socialist society.

Ron Ruggieri13 hours ago

ANY rational person would think : a nation like USA TODAY which can name a different ENEMY every other week is clearly SICK, led by sociopaths. China ? Russia, Iran, North Korea ? Venezuela ? ( all fail to live up to the high moral standards of " OUR democracy " ?)
How are any of these countries a greater threat to YOU than the local Democratic or Republican party hacks ?
If YOU think that so many people hate you , would it not make sense to ask if there is perhaps something wrong with YOU ?
Lidiya17 hours ago
Imperialism means wars, as usual, Lenin was right in his polemics against Kautsky.

[Feb 19, 2018] The FSB breaks up Russia's most notorious hacker group

Notable quotes:
"... Rosbalt said that when Anikeyev's business reached national levels, he started using new techniques. For example, Anikeyev would go to restaurants and cafes popular among officials, and with the help of sophisticated equipment he created fake Wi-Fi and mobile phone connections. ..."
"... Unsuspecting officials would connect to the network through the channel created by the hacker and he would have access to the information on their devices. ..."
"... Through the Looking Glass, ..."
"... The Anonymous International website was opened in 2013 and content stolen from the phones and emails of Russian politicians immediately started appearing on it. According to Life News , only the correspondence of the public officials and businessmen who refused to pay was published. At the same time members of Shaltai-Boltai positioned themselves as people with an active civil stance. ..."
"... Mikhailov tracked down Anonymous International at the beginning of 2016 and decided to take it under his control, as well as make some money from blackmail along the way. According to Life News , there is another theory - that Mikhailov had been managing the Shaltai-Boltai business from the start. ..."
"... Whatever the truth, Mikhailov and Dokuchayev have now been charged with treason. Anikeyev and Stoyanov will be prosecuted under a different charge - "unauthorized access to computer information." According to Rosbalt , the treason charges against Mikhailov and Dokuchayev are to do with Anonymous International's involvement in leaking to Ukraine the private correspondence of presidential aide Vladislav Surkov. ..."
"... Shaltai-Boltai's website has not been updated since Nov. 26 and its Twitter account since Dec. 12. The group's remaining members, who are believed to live in Thailand and the Baltic States, have been put on an FSB wanted list. ..."
Feb 19, 2018 | www.rbth.com

The alleged leader of the Anonymous International hacker group, also known as Shaltai-Boltai, has been arrested along with important officials in the security services who collaborated with the group. For several years Shaltai-Boltai terrorized state officials, businessmen and media figures by hacking their emails and telephones, and threatening to post their private information online unless blackmail payments were made. "The price tag for our work starts at several tens of thousands of dollars, and I am not going to talk about the upper limit," said a man who calls himself Lewis during an interview with the news website, Meduza , in January 2015.

Lewis, whose name pays hommage to the author Lewis Carroll, is the leader of Anonymous International, the hacker group specializing in hacking the accounts of officials and businessmen. Another name for Anonymous International is Shaltai-Boltai, Russian for "Humpty-Dumpty."

Several years ago Lewis and his colleagues prospered thanks to extortion. They offered their victims the chance to pay a handsome price to buy back their personal information that had been stolen. Otherwise their information would be sold to third persons and even posted online. In the end, Russian law-enforcement tracked down Lewis, and in November he was arrested and now awaits trial . His real name is Vladimir Anikeyev.

Shaltai-Boltai's founding father

"One's own success is good but other people's failure is not bad either," said the profile quote on Vladimir Anikeyev's page on VKontakte , Russia's most popular social network.

Vladimir Anikeyev / Photo: anikeevv/vk.com

Rosbalt news website said that in the 1990s Lewis worked as a journalist in St. Petersburg and specialized in collecting information through various methods, including dubious ones. "He could go for a drink with someone or have an affair with someone's secretary or bribe people," Rosbalt's source said.

In the 2000s Anikeyev switched to collecting kompromat (compromising material). Using his connections, he would find the personal email addresses of officials and entrepreneurs and break into them using hackers in St. Petersburg, and then blackmail the victims. They had to pay to prevent their personal information from ending up on the Internet.

Fake Wi-Fi

Rosbalt said that when Anikeyev's business reached national levels, he started using new techniques. For example, Anikeyev would go to restaurants and cafes popular among officials, and with the help of sophisticated equipment he created fake Wi-Fi and mobile phone connections.

Unsuspecting officials would connect to the network through the channel created by the hacker and he would have access to the information on their devices.

In the beginning Anikeyev was personally involved in the theft of information but later he created a network of agents.

The business grew quickly; enormous amounts of information were at Anikeyev's disposal that had to be sorted and selected for suitability as material for blackmail. In the end, according to Rosbalt, Anonymous International arose as a handy tool for downloading the obtained information.

Trying to change the world

The second name of the group refers to the works of Lewis Carroll, according to Shaltai-Boltai members. The crazy world of Through the Looking Glass, with its inverted logic, is the most apt metaphor for Russian political life. Apart from Lewis Anikeyev, the team has several other members: Alice; Shaltai, Boltai (these two acted as press secretaries, and as a result of a mix-up, the media started calling the whole project, Shaltai-Boltai); and several others, including "technicians," or specialist hackers.

The Anonymous International website was opened in 2013 and content stolen from the phones and emails of Russian politicians immediately started appearing on it. According to Life News , only the correspondence of the public officials and businessmen who refused to pay was published. At the same time members of Shaltai-Boltai positioned themselves as people with an active civil stance.

"We can be called campaigners. We are trying to change the world. To change it for the better," Shaltai told the Apparat website. In interviews members of the group repeatedly complained about Russian officials who restricted Internet freedom, the country's foreign policy and barriers to participation in elections.

Hacker exploits

Shaltai-Boltai's most notorious hack was of an explicitly political nature and not about making money. It hacked Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's Twitter account. On Aug. 14, 2014 tweets were posted on the account saying that Medvedev was resigning because he was ashamed of the government's actions. The `prime minister' also had time to write that Putin was wrong, that the government had problems with common sense, and that the authorities were taking the country back to the past.

The scourge of banks and politicians: 4 famous Russian hackers

On the same day Anonymous International posted part of the prime minister's stolen archive, admitting that, "there is nothing particularly interesting in it."

"The posted material was provided by a certain highly-placed reptilian of our acquaintance," the hackers joked .

Medvedev is far from being Shaltai-Boltai's only victim. The hackers published the private correspondence of officials in the presidential administration: Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman close to Vladimir Putin; Aram Gabrelyanov, head of the pro-Kremlin News Media holding company; and of Igor Strelkov, one of the leaders of the uprising in east Ukraine. Lewis, however, insisted that only material that had failed to sell ended up on the Internet.

Law-enforcement links

Anikeyev was detained in November, and the following month Sergei Mikhailov, head of the 2nd operations directorate of the FSB Information Security Center, was also arrested. According to Kommersant , Mikhailov was a major figure in the security services who, "was essentially overseeing the country's entire internet business."

Mikhailov's aide, FSB Major Dmitry Dokuchayev, and a former hacker known as Forb, was also arrested. Shortly after, Ruslan Stoyanov, head of the department for investigating cybercrime at the antivirus software company Kaspersky Lab, was also detained. Stoyanov also worked closely with the secret services.

According to Rosbalt , Anikeyev revealed information about the FSB officers and the Kaspersky Lab computer expert and their close involvement with Shaltai-Boltai.

Mikhailov tracked down Anonymous International at the beginning of 2016 and decided to take it under his control, as well as make some money from blackmail along the way. According to Life News , there is another theory - that Mikhailov had been managing the Shaltai-Boltai business from the start.

Shaltai-Boltai had a big fall

Whatever the truth, Mikhailov and Dokuchayev have now been charged with treason. Anikeyev and Stoyanov will be prosecuted under a different charge - "unauthorized access to computer information." According to Rosbalt , the treason charges against Mikhailov and Dokuchayev are to do with Anonymous International's involvement in leaking to Ukraine the private correspondence of presidential aide Vladislav Surkov.

Shaltai-Boltai's website has not been updated since Nov. 26 and its Twitter account since Dec. 12. The group's remaining members, who are believed to live in Thailand and the Baltic States, have been put on an FSB wanted list.

Anyway, Shaltai-Boltai anticipated this outcome. "What awaits us if we are uncovered? Criminal charges and most likely a prison sentence. Each member of the team is aware of the risks," they said dispassionately in the interview with Apparat in 2015.

[Feb 19, 2018] Shaltai-Boltai's leader arrested by the FSB Crime

Notable quotes:
"... Anikeev immediately began to cooperate with the investigation and provide detailed evidence, which repeatedly mentioned Mikhailov as being associated with the Shaltai-Boltai's team," said the source of Rosbalt. And in December 2016, Mikhailov and his "right hand," another official of the Information Security Center, Dmitry Dokuchaev, were arrested. The Court took a decision on their arrest. Another ISC official was also detained, but after questioning, no preventive measures involving deprivation of liberty were applied to him. ..."
"... After the summer, Shaltai-Boltai began to work exclusively with the content given to it by the curator. ..."
"... later it switched to civil servants' email that contained information that could bring serious trouble. When it became known that Surkov's correspondence "leaked" to Ukraine, it broke the camel's back. "Mikhailov's a magnificent expert. Best in his business. One can say that the ISC is Mikhailov.. But he crossed all possible borders," told a source of Rosbalt. ..."
Feb 19, 2018 | rusletter.com

RusLetter

The story around the arrest of a high-ranking ISC official, Sergey Mikhailov, is becoming an actual thriller.

The creator of Shaltai-Boltai (Humpty Dumpty) website, which containted the correspondence of officials, journalist Vladimir Anikeev, better known in some circles as Lewis, was arrested on arrival from Ukraine, where he is supposed to have been involved in the publishing on a local site of presidential aide Vladislav Surkov's correspondence. In his testimony, Lewis said about the employee of the Information Security Center, Mikhailov.

As a source familiar with the situation told Rosbalt, Vladimir Anikeev was detained by the FSB officers at the end of October 2016, when he arrived in St. Petersburg from Ukraine. "The operation was the result of a long work. There was a complicated operative combination with the aim to lure Lewis from Ukraine, which he didn't indend to leave," said the source to the news agency. Anikeev was taken to Moscow, where the Investigation department of the FSB charged him under Article 272 of the Criminal Code (Illegal access to computer information).

First and foremost the counterintelligence was interested in the situation with the "leakage" of Vladislav Surkov's correspondence: by the time it was known that it was in the hands of the Shaltai-Boltai's team. Since it was e-mail with from the .gov domain, the situation caused great concern in theFSO. As a result of this, the correspondence was published on the website of a Ukrainian association of hackers called Cyber-Junta. In reality, it is suspected that Anikeev was involved in that affair. He'd been constantly visiting this country, his girlfriend lived there, and, according to available data, he was not going to return to Russia. Lewis was also asked about other officials' correspondence, which already appeared on the Shaltai-Boltai website.

" Anikeev immediately began to cooperate with the investigation and provide detailed evidence, which repeatedly mentioned Mikhailov as being associated with the Shaltai-Boltai's team," said the source of Rosbalt. And in December 2016, Mikhailov and his "right hand," another official of the Information Security Center, Dmitry Dokuchaev, were arrested. The Court took a decision on their arrest. Another ISC official was also detained, but after questioning, no preventive measures involving deprivation of liberty were applied to him.

According to the version of the agency's source, the situation developed as follows. At the beginning of 2016, the department headed by Mikhailov received an order to "work" with Shaltai-Boltai's website, which published the correspondence of civil servants. The immediate executor was Dokuchaev. Officers of the ISC were able to find out the team of Shaltai-Boltai, which participants nicknamed themselves after Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland": Alice, the March Hare, etc. The website creator and organizer, Anikeev, was nicknamed Lewis. In the summer there were searching raids in St. Petersburg, although formally for other reasons.

According to the Rosbalt's source, just after the summer attack the team of Shaltai-Boltai appeared to have the owner, or, to be exact, the curator. According to the source, it could be Sergey Mikhailov. As the result, the working methods of the Lewis's team also changed, just as the objects whose correspondence was being published for public access. Previously, Lewis's people figured out objects in places where mobile phone was used. They were given access to the phone contents by means of a false cell (when it came to mobile internet) or using a false-Wi-FI (if the person was connected to Wi-FI). Then the downloaded content was sent to member of the Lewis's team, residing in Estonia. He analyzed to to select what's to be put in the open access and what's to be sold for Bitcoins. The whole financial part of the Shaltai-Boltai involved a few people living in Thailand. These Bitcoins were cashed in Ukraine. Occasionally the Lewis published emails previously stolen by other hackers.

After the summer, Shaltai-Boltai began to work exclusively with the content given to it by the curator. Earlier, it published correspondence of rather an "entertaining" character, as well as officials whose "secrets" would do no special harm; but later it switched to civil servants' email that contained information that could bring serious trouble. When it became known that Surkov's correspondence "leaked" to Ukraine, it broke the camel's back. "Mikhailov's a magnificent expert. Best in his business. One can say that the ISC is Mikhailov.. But he crossed all possible borders," told a source of Rosbalt.

[Feb 19, 2018] Russian Lawyer Says FSB Officers, Kaspersky Manager Charged With Treason

Feb 19, 2018 | www.rferl.org

At the time of their arrests in December, Sergei Mikhailov and Dmitry Dokuchayev were officers with the FSB's Center for Information Security, a leading unit within the FSB involved in cyberactivities.

Pavlov confirmed to RFE/RL the arrest of Mikhailov and Dokuchayev, along with Ruslan Stoyanov, a former employee of the Interior Ministry who had worked for Kaspersky Labs, a well-known private cyber-research company, which announced Stoyanov's arrest last month.

The newspaper Kommersant reported that Mikhailov was arrested at a meeting of FSB officers and was taken from the meeting after a sack was put on his head.

The independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, meanwhile, said that a total of six suspects -- including Mikhailov, Dokuchayev, and Stoyanov -- had been arrested. The state news agency TASS reported on February 1 that two men associated with a well-known hacking group had also been arrested in November, but it wasn't immediately clear if those arrests were related to the FSB case.

There has been no public detail as to the nature of the treason charges against Mikhailov, Dokuchayev, and Stoyanov. The Interfax news agency on January 31 quoted "sources familiar with the situation" as saying that Mikhailov and Dokuchayev were suspected of relaying confidential information to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Pavlov told RFE/RL the individuals were suspected of passing on classified information to U.S. intelligence, but not necessarily the CIA.

[Feb 18, 2018] The FSB breaks up Russia's most notorious hacker group - Russia Beyond

Notable quotes:
"... Through the Looking Glass, ..."
"... Mikhailov tracked down Anonymous International at the beginning of 2016 and decided to take it under his control, as well as make some money from blackmail along the way. According to Life News , there is another theory - that Mikhailov had been managing the Shaltai-Boltai business from the start. ..."
"... Whatever the truth, Mikhailov and Dokuchayev have now been charged with treason. Anikeyev and Stoyanov will be prosecuted under a different charge - "unauthorized access to computer information." According to Rosbalt , the treason charges against Mikhailov and Dokuchayev are to do with Anonymous International's involvement in leaking to Ukraine the private correspondence of presidential aide Vladislav Surkov. ..."
"... Shaltai-Boltai's website has not been updated since Nov. 26 and its Twitter account since Dec. 12. The group's remaining members, who are believed to live in Thailand and the Baltic States, have been put on an FSB wanted list. ..."
Feb 18, 2018 | www.rbth.com

The alleged leader of the Anonymous International hacker group, also known as Shaltai-Boltai, has been arrested along with important officials in the security services who collaborated with the group. For several years Shaltai-Boltai terrorized state officials, businessmen and media figures by hacking their emails and telephones, and threatening to post their private information online unless blackmail payments were made. "The price tag for our work starts at several tens of thousands of dollars, and I am not going to talk about the upper limit," said a man who calls himself Lewis during an interview with the news website, Meduza , in January 2015.

Lewis, whose name pays hommage to the author Lewis Carroll, is the leader of Anonymous International, the hacker group specializing in hacking the accounts of officials and businessmen. Another name for Anonymous International is Shaltai-Boltai, Russian for "Humpty-Dumpty."

Several years ago Lewis and his colleagues prospered thanks to extortion. They offered their victims the chance to pay a handsome price to buy back their personal information that had been stolen. Otherwise their information would be sold to third persons and even posted online. In the end, Russian law-enforcement tracked down Lewis, and in November he was arrested and now awaits trial . His real name is Vladimir Anikeyev.

Shaltai-Boltai's founding father

"One's own success is good but other people's failure is not bad either," said the profile quote on Vladimir Anikeyev's page on VKontakte , Russia's most popular social network.

Vladimir Anikeyev / Photo: anikeevv/vk.com Vladimir Anikeyev / Photo: anikeevv/vk.com

Rosbalt news website said that in the 1990s Lewis worked as a journalist in St. Petersburg and specialized in collecting information through various methods, including dubious ones. "He could go for a drink with someone or have an affair with someone's secretary or bribe people," Rosbalt's source said.

In the 2000s Anikeyev switched to collecting kompromat (compromising material). Using his connections, he would find the personal email addresses of officials and entrepreneurs and break into them using hackers in St. Petersburg, and then blackmail the victims. They had to pay to prevent their personal information from ending up on the Internet.

Fake Wi-Fi

Rosbalt said that when Anikeyev's business reached national levels, he started using new techniques. For example, Anikeyev would go to restaurants and cafes popular among officials, and with the help of sophisticated equipment he created fake Wi-Fi and mobile phone connections.

Unsuspecting officials would connect to the network through the channel created by the hacker and he would have access to the information on their devices.

In the beginning Anikeyev was personally involved in the theft of information but later he created a network of agents.

The business grew quickly; enormous amounts of information were at Anikeyev's disposal that had to be sorted and selected for suitability as material for blackmail. In the end, according to Rosbalt, Anonymous International arose as a handy tool for downloading the obtained information.

Trying to change the world

The second name of the group refers to the works of Lewis Carroll, according to Shaltai-Boltai members. The crazy world of Through the Looking Glass, with its inverted logic, is the most apt metaphor for Russian political life. Apart from Lewis Anikeyev, the team has several other members: Alice; Shaltai, Boltai (these two acted as press secretaries, and as a result of a mix-up, the media started calling the whole project, Shaltai-Boltai); and several others, including "technicians," or specialist hackers.

The Anonymous International website was opened in 2013 and content stolen from the phones and emails of Russian politicians immediately started appearing on it. According to Life News , only the correspondence of the public officials and businessmen who refused to pay was published. At the same time members of Shaltai-Boltai positioned themselves as people with an active civil stance.

"We can be called campaigners. We are trying to change the world. To change it for the better," Shaltai told the Apparat website. In interviews members of the group repeatedly complained about Russian officials who restricted Internet freedom, the country's foreign policy and barriers to participation in elections.

Hacker exploits

Shaltai-Boltai's most notorious hack was of an explicitly political nature and not about making money. It hacked Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's Twitter account. On Aug. 14, 2014 tweets were posted on the account saying that Medvedev was resigning because he was ashamed of the government's actions. The `prime minister' also had time to write that Putin was wrong, that the government had problems with common sense, and that the authorities were taking the country back to the past.

The scourge of banks and politicians: 4 famous Russian hackers The scourge of banks and politicians: 4 famous Russian hackers

On the same day Anonymous International posted part of the prime minister's stolen archive, admitting that, "there is nothing particularly interesting in it."

"The posted material was provided by a certain highly-placed reptilian of our acquaintance," the hackers joked .

Medvedev is far from being Shaltai-Boltai's only victim. The hackers published the private correspondence of officials in the presidential administration: Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman close to Vladimir Putin; Aram Gabrelyanov, head of the pro-Kremlin News Media holding company; and of Igor Strelkov, one of the leaders of the uprising in east Ukraine. Lewis, however, insisted that only material that had failed to sell ended up on the Internet.

Law-enforcement links

Anikeyev was detained in November, and the following month Sergei Mikhailov, head of the 2nd operations directorate of the FSB Information Security Center, was also arrested. According to Kommersant , Mikhailov was a major figure in the security services who, "was essentially overseeing the country's entire internet business."

Mikhailov's aide, FSB Major Dmitry Dokuchayev, and a former hacker known as Forb, was also arrested. Shortly after, Ruslan Stoyanov, head of the department for investigating cybercrime at the antivirus software company Kaspersky Lab, was also detained. Stoyanov also worked closely with the secret services.

According to Rosbalt , Anikeyev revealed information about the FSB officers and the Kaspersky Lab computer expert and their close involvement with Shaltai-Boltai.

Mikhailov tracked down Anonymous International at the beginning of 2016 and decided to take it under his control, as well as make some money from blackmail along the way. According to Life News , there is another theory - that Mikhailov had been managing the Shaltai-Boltai business from the start.

Shaltai-Boltai had a big fall

Whatever the truth, Mikhailov and Dokuchayev have now been charged with treason. Anikeyev and Stoyanov will be prosecuted under a different charge - "unauthorized access to computer information." According to Rosbalt , the treason charges against Mikhailov and Dokuchayev are to do with Anonymous International's involvement in leaking to Ukraine the private correspondence of presidential aide Vladislav Surkov.

Shaltai-Boltai's website has not been updated since Nov. 26 and its Twitter account since Dec. 12. The group's remaining members, who are believed to live in Thailand and the Baltic States, have been put on an FSB wanted list.

Anyway, Shaltai-Boltai anticipated this outcome. "What awaits us if we are uncovered? Criminal charges and most likely a prison sentence. Each member of the team is aware of the risks," they said dispassionately in the interview with Apparat in 2015.

[Feb 18, 2018] Moscow Court Sentences 'Shaltai-Boltai' Hackers To Prison

Notable quotes:
"... A Moscow court has sentenced two Russian hackers to three years in prison each for breaking into the e-mail accounts of top Russian officials and leaking them. ..."
"... The 2016 arrests of the Shaltai-Boltai hackers became known only after Russian media reported that two officials of the Federal Security Service's cybercrime unit had been arrested on treason charges. ..."
Feb 18, 2018 | www.rferl.org

A Moscow court has sentenced two Russian hackers to three years in prison each for breaking into the e-mail accounts of top Russian officials and leaking them.

Konstantin Teplyakov and Aleksandr Filinov were members of the Shaltai-Boltai (Humpty Dumpty in Russian) collective believed to be behind the hacking of high-profile accounts, including the Twitter account of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

The two were found guilty of illegally accessing computer data in collusion with a criminal group.

Earlier in July, Shaltai-Boltai leader Vladimir Anikeyev was handed a two-year sentence after striking a plea bargain and agreeing to cooperate with the authorities.

The 2016 arrests of the Shaltai-Boltai hackers became known only after Russian media reported that two officials of the Federal Security Service's cybercrime unit had been arrested on treason charges.

Russian media reports suggested the officials had connections to the hacker group or had tried to control it.

[Feb 18, 2018] Notorious Russian Hacker With Links To FSB Scandal Sentenced To Prison

Feb 18, 2018 | www.rferl.org

A notorious Russian hacker whose exploits and later arrest gave glimpses into the intersection of computer crime and Russian law enforcement has been sentenced to two years in prison.

The Moscow City Court issued its ruling July 6 against Vladimir Anikeyev in a decision made behind closed doors, one indication of the sensitivity of his case.

[Feb 18, 2018] Making Sense of Russia's Cyber Treason Scandal

Notable quotes:
"... The stories implicating Mikhailov gained credence when Russian businessman Pavel Vrublevsky made similar accusations. He asserted that Mikhailov leaked details of Russian hacking capabilities to U.S. intelligence agencies. ..."
Feb 18, 2018 | worldview.stratfor.com

In January, the Kremlin-linked media outlet Kommersant suggested that the heads of Russia's Information Security Center (TsIB) were under investigation and would soon leave their posts. The TsIB is a shadowy unit that manages computer security investigations for the Interior Ministry and the FSB. It is thought to be Russia's largest inspectorate when it comes to domestic and foreign cyber capabilities, including hacking. It oversees security matters related to credit theft, financial information, personal data, social networks and reportedly election data -- or as some have claimed in the Russian media, "election rigging." Beyond its investigative role, it is presumed that the TsIB is fully capable of planning and directing cyber operations. A week after the initial Kommersant report surfaced, Andrei Gerasimov, the longtime TsIB director, resigned. Not long after Gerasimov's resignation at the end of January, reports emerged from numerous Kremlin-linked media outlets in what appeared to be a coordinated flood of information and disinformation about the arrests of senior TsIB officers. One of the cyber unit's operational directors, Sergei Mikhailov, was arrested toward the end of last year along with his deputy, Dmitri Dokuchaev, and charged with treason. Also arrested around the same time was Ruslan Stoyanov, the chief investigator for Kaspersky Lab, which is the primary cybersecurity contractor for the TsIB. There is much conjecture, but Mikhailov was apparently forcibly removed from a meeting with fellow FSB officers -- escorted out with a bag over his head, so the story goes -- and arrested. This is thought to have taken place some time around Dec. 5. His deputy, a well-respected computer hacker recruited by the FSB, was reportedly last seen in November. Kaspersky Lab's Stoyanov was a career cybersecurity professional, previously working for the Indrik computer crime investigation firm and the Interior Ministry's computer crime unit. Novaya Gazeta, a Kremlin-linked media outlet, reported that two other unnamed FSB computer security officers were also detained. Theories, Accusations and Rumors

Since the initial reports surfaced, Russian media have been flooded with conflicting theories about the arrests; about Mikhailov, Dokuchaev and Stoyanov; and about the accusations levied against them. Because the charges are treason, the case is considered "classified" by the state, meaning no official explanation or evidence will be released. An ultranationalist news network called Tsargrad TV reported that Mikhailov had tipped U.S. intelligence to the King Servers firm, which the FBI has accused of being the nexus of FSB hacking and intelligence operations in the United States. (It should be noted that Tsargrad TV tends toward sensationalism and has been used as a conduit for propaganda in the past.) The media outlet also claimed that the Russian officer's cooperation is what enabled the United States to publicly accuse Moscow of sponsoring election-related hacking with "high confidence."

The stories implicating Mikhailov gained credence when Russian businessman Pavel Vrublevsky made similar accusations. He asserted that Mikhailov leaked details of Russian hacking capabilities to U.S. intelligence agencies. Vrublevsky, however, had previously been the target of hacking accusations leveled by Mikhailov and his team, so it is possible that he has a personal ax to grind. To further complicate matters, a business partner of Vrublevsky, Vladimir Fomenko, runs King Servers, which the United States shut down in the wake of the hacking scandal.

[Feb 18, 2018] The FBI just indicted a Russian official for hacking. But why did Russia charge him with treason?

This article is almost a year old but contains interesting information about possible involvement of Shaltai Boltai in framing Russia in interference in the USA elections.
Notable quotes:
"... Also called Anonymous International, Shaltai-Boltai was responsible for leaking early copies of Putin's New Year speech and for selling off "lots" of emails stolen from Russian officials such as Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ..."
"... Later media reports said that the group's leader, Vladimir Anikeyev, had recently been arrested by the FSB and had informed on Mikhailov, Dokuchaev and Stoyanov. ..."
Mar 17, 2017 | www.washingtonpost.com

The FBI just indicted a Russian official for hacking. But why did Russia charge him with treason? - The Washington Post But what is less clear is why one of the men has been arrested and charged with treason in Russia. Dmitry Dokuchaev, an agent for the cyberinvestigative arm of the FSB, was arrested in Moscow in December. He's accused by the FBI of "handling" the hackers, paying "bounties" for breaking into email accounts held by Russian officials, opposition politicians and journalists, as well as foreign officials and business executives. The Russian targets included an Interior Ministry officer and physical trainer in a regional Ministry of Sports. (The full text of the indictment, which has a full list of the targets and some curious typos, is here .)

Reading this hackers indictment. I'm pretty sure there is no such position as the "deputy chairman of the Russian Federation" pic.twitter.com/DOWXYNoWjZ

-- Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) March 15, 2017

Dokuchaev's case is part of a larger and mysterious spate of arrests of Russian cyber officials and experts. His superior, Sergei Mikhailov, deputy chief of the FSB's Center for Information Security, was also arrested in December and charged with treason. According to Russian reports, the arrest came during a plenum of FSB officers, where Mikhailov had a bag placed over his head and was taken in handcuffs from the room. Ruslan Stoyanov, a manager at the Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab, was also arrested that month. Stoyanov helped coordinate investigations between the company and law enforcement, a person who used to work at the company said.

Below are some of the theories behind the Russian arrests. Lawyers for some of the accused have told The Washington Post that they can't reveal details of the case and, because of the secrecy afforded to treason cases, they don't have access to all the documents.

None of the theories below has been confirmed, nor are they mutually exclusive.

1. Links to U.S. election hacking : With attention focused on the hacking attacks against the U.S. Democratic National Committee allegedly ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, some Russian and U.S. media suggested that Dokuchaev and Mikhailov leaked information implicating Russia in the hack to the United States. The Russian Interfax news agency, which regularly cites government officials as sources, reported that "Sergei Mikhailov and his deputy, Dmitry Dokuchaev, are accused of betraying their oath and working with the CIA." Novaya Gazeta, a liberal, respected Russian publication, citing sources, wrote that Mikhailov had tipped off U.S. intelligence about King Servers, the hosting service used to support hacking attacks on targeted voter registration systems in Illinois and Arizona in June. That had followed reports in the New York Times, citing one current and one former government official, that "human sources in Russia did play a crucial role in proving who was responsible for the hacking."

Nakashima wrote yesterday that "the [FBI] charges are unrelated to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the FBI's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. But the move reflects the U.S. government's increasing desire to hold foreign governments accountable for malicious acts in cyberspace."

2. A shadowy hacking collective called Shaltai-Boltai (Humpty-Dumpty) : Also called Anonymous International, Shaltai-Boltai was responsible for leaking early copies of Putin's New Year speech and for selling off "lots" of emails stolen from Russian officials such as Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. In a theory first reported by the pro-Kremlin, conservative Orthodox media company Tsargrad, Mikhailov had taken control of Shaltai-Boltai, "curating and supervising" the group in selecting hacking targets. Later media reports said that the group's leader, Vladimir Anikeyev, had recently been arrested by the FSB and had informed on Mikhailov, Dokuchaev and Stoyanov. A member of the group who fled to Estonia told the Russian media agency Fontanka that they had recently acquired an FSB "coordinator," although he could not say whether it was Mikhailov. None of the hacks mentioned in the FBI indictment could immediately be confirmed as those carried out by Shaltai-Boltai.

Lawyers contacted by The Post said that in documents they had seen, there was no link to Shaltai-Boltai in the case.

3. A grudge with a cybercriminal : A Russian businessman who had specialized in spam and malware had claimed for years that Mikhailov was trading information on cybercriminals with the West. Mikhailov had reportedly testified in the case of Pavel Vrublevsky, the former head of the payment services company Chronopay, who was imprisoned in 2013 for ordering a denial of service attack on the website of Aeroflot, the Russian national airline. Vrublevsky claimed then that Mikhailov began exchanging information about Russian cybercriminals with Western intelligence agencies, including documents about Chronopay. Brian Krebs, an American journalist who investigates cybercrime and received access to Vrublevsky's emails, wrote in January : "Based on how long Vrublevsky has been trying to sell this narrative , it seems he may have finally found a buyer ."

4. Infighting at the FSB: The Russian government is not monolithic, and infighting between and within the powerful law enforcement agencies is common. The Russian business publication RBC had written that Mikhailov and Dokuchaev's Center for Information Security had been in conflict with another department with similar responsibilities, the FSB's Center for Information Protection and Special Communications. The conflict may have led to the initiation of a criminal case, the paper's sources said.

[Feb 18, 2018] Yahoo hack and Russia's cyber hacking

Feb 18, 2018 | www.businessinsider.com

As Leonid Bershidsky, founding editor of the Russian business daily publication Vedomosti, wrote in January, the dramatic arrests of two high-level FSB officers -- Sergei Mikhailov , the deputy head of the FSB's Information Security Center, and Major Dmitry Dokuchaev , a highly skilled hacker who had been recruited by the FSB -- on treason charges in December offers a glimpse into "how security agencies generally operate in Putin's Russia."

At the time of their arrest, Dokuchaev (who was one of the Russian officials indicted for the Yahoo breach) and Mikhailov had been trying to cultivate a Russian hacking group known as "Shaltai Boltai" -- or "Humpty Dumpty" -- that had been publishing stolen emails from Russian officials' inboxes, according to Russian media reports.

"The FSB team reportedly uncovered the identities of the group's members -- but, instead of arresting and indicting them, Mikhailov's team tried to run the group, apparently for profit or political gain," Bershidsky wrote. Shaltai Boltai complied, Bershidsky wrote, because it wanted to stay afloat, and didn't mind taking orders from "government structures."

"We get orders from government structures and from private individuals," Shaltai Boltai's alleged leader said in a 2015 interview. "But we say we are an independent team. It's just that often it's impossible to tell who the client is. Sometimes we get information for intermediaries, without knowing who the end client is."

It appears that Dokuchaev and Mikhailov got caught running this side project with Shaltai Boltai -- which was still targeting high-level Russian officials -- when the FSB began surveilling Mikhailov. Officials targeted Mikhailov after receiving a tip that he might have been leaking information about Russian cyber activities to the FBI, according to the Novaya Gazeta.

Short of working against Russian interests, hackers "can pursue whatever projects they want, as long as their targets are outside of Russia and they follow orders from the top when needed," said Bremmer, of Eurasia Group. The same goes for FSB officers, who are tactically allowed to "run private security operations involving blackmail and protection," according to Bershidsky.

US intelligence agencies have concluded that the hack on the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 election was likely one such "order from the top" -- a directive issued by Russian President Vladimir Putin and carried out by hackers hired by the GRU and the FSB.

It is still unclear if the Yahoo breach was directed by FSB officials at the instruction of the Kremlin, like the DNC hack, or if it was one of those "private security operations" Bershidsky alluded to that some Russian intelligence officers do on the side.

Bremmer said that it's possible the Yahoo breach was not done for state ends, especially given the involvement of Dokuchaev, who was already caught up in Shaltai Baltai's operations to steal and sell information for personal financial gain.

[Feb 17, 2018] Empire actually don t know what Russia don t know or do know. It has to be noted that the Kremlin is very silent on this subject. May be becuase speaking of paranoiacs with mania of world domination is not such a good idea

Russia became a standard punch ball in the US political games. As in "Russia dog eat my homework."
Notable quotes:
"... This article is very important and outlines the destructive effort being done to Russia by the USA. It should be noted and clearly displayed by the psychopathic nature of USA meddling in Russian affairs. ..."
"... "With the current uproar about Russia interfering in the USA elections. It has to be noted that the Kremlin is very silent on this subject." ..."
"... It is extremely difficult and time consuming for an ordinary person to find the truth in the millions of pages on the Internet, the ordinary mushroom knowing that the MSM only serves you sh't and keeps you in the dark. ..."
"... Yea, just a common internet malpractice called spoofing, that any IT professional, especially one working in IT security, knows about. I suspected all along that most or all of this "Russian Hacking" and "Russians did it" was exactly that. ..."
Feb 17, 2018 | thesaker.is

Nick on October 16, 2017 , · at 1:06 am UTC

With the current uproar about Russia interfering in the USA elections. It has to be noted that the Kremlin is very silent on this subject. It is more important now than ever to bring forth information from Russia in exposing how serious the problem is from the USA interfering in not only Russian affairs but how the intelligence community continues unabated in interfering in most countries.

This article is very important and outlines the destructive effort being done to Russia by the USA. It should be noted and clearly displayed by the psychopathic nature of USA meddling in Russian affairs.

One has to wonder why people cannot see how the current government of the USA is totally out of control around the world.

Everything has its cycle of life and the USA is no exception to this theory. When humanity is controlled in such a fashion, by that I mean that the USA is supported by the four pillars consisting of GREED, CORRUPTION, POWER and CONTROL. They are sitting on the top of these structures and are desperately trying to maintain their grip over the world.

smr on October 16, 2017 , · at 3:01 am UTC
"With the current uproar about Russia interfering in the USA elections. It has to be noted that the Kremlin is very silent on this subject."

thank goodness! Trying to reason with drunken punks is hopeless and makes you look like a fool yourself.

Anonymous on October 16, 2017 , · at 11:02 am UTC
Perhaps the purpose is to "open Russia" to debunk those silly "Kremlin hacking" claims and give Empire more important information inside Russia. E.g how to go deep through military security defense line.

Empire actually don't know what Russia don't know or do know. Is this chess where you have to sacrifice pawn or two or even knight to secure queen and king? Or why to shoot fly with cannon?

Den Lille Abe on October 16, 2017 , · at 7:47 pm UTC
"One has to wonder why people cannot see how the current government of the USA is totally out of control around the world." end quote.

It is extremely difficult and time consuming for an ordinary person to find the truth in the millions of pages on the Internet, the ordinary mushroom knowing that the MSM only serves you sh't and keeps you in the dark. The most reliable method (not 100 % though) is the "Follow the money" method, who has to gain by this or that development, but even that can lead to false conclusions. Always count on that everyone has a hidden agenda, but watch out you are not gripped by paranoia.

MarkinPNW on October 16, 2017 , · at 2:27 am UTC
Yea, just a common internet malpractice called spoofing, that any IT professional, especially one working in IT security, knows about. I suspected all along that most or all of this "Russian Hacking" and "Russians did it" was exactly that.
Tom Welsh on October 16, 2017 , · at 4:55 am UTC
What a pathetic waste of time. American society and government are really getting very low.

And, of course, reality is actually defined as "what you cannot change by speaking about it". You can change reality, a very little bit at a time, by doing honest physical work.

[Feb 17, 2018] The only member of Shaltay-Boltay left on the loose reveals details on their work

Notable quotes:
"... Much later, in mid-2013, the idea of Shaltay-Boltay appeared. ..."
"... Anikeev had sources of information, the information itself, important and interesting one. Anikeev decided to leave the information and analytical structure for which he had been working, and start his own project. ..."
"... His role has been greatly exaggerated. He's just our mutual old friend. When we were getting significant numbers of files that had to be processed, we would ask Teplyakov to help, for a fee. We knew him and trusted him. ..."
"... Just then, I was beginning to get annoyed with the country, I decided to go to Thailand. When I started discussing this project with Anikeev, it seemed okay: you could engage in an interesting and promising business from home. What did I expect in financial terms? Definitely not the sale of arrays of information. I was rather thinking about advertising or administration fee. Lite-version. ..."
"... All the information came from Anikeev. I published the received information, perhaps, by illegal means, but I have nothing to do with how it was obtained. Yesterday, I sent a letter to the former President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves. I think by our actions, especially in 2014, when we were working on the idea, I deserved asylum in Estonia. So far no response was received. ..."
"... The Anonymous International published a lot of information from the correspondence of officials and businessmen between 2014 and 2016. Among the disclosed information was Dmitry Medvedev's hacked Twitter, and e-mail, Facebook, iPhone and iPad of owner of NewsMedia Holding Aram Gabrellyanov; e-mail and WhatsApp of TV host Dmitry Kiselev, official correspondence between the employees of "Prosecutor's Office" and the "Ministry of State Security" of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, and a lot of other, equally interesting information. ..."
"... Before Anikeev's detention, Shaltay-Boltay also obtained the correspondence of the presidential assistant Vladislav Surkov. ..."
Feb 17, 2018 | en.crimerussia.com

St. Petersburg programmer Alexander Glazastikov, who was hiding under the mask of Shaltay-Boltay (Humpty Dumpty), hoping for a political asylum reached out to the former President of Estonia. He is the only member of Anonymous International who remains at large.

Fontanka has been chasing the last Shaltay-Boltay member for a week. One member of the mysterious hacker group, which has been leaking e-mails of businessmen and officials for three years was found in Estonia, but shied away from a direct talk.

After the news came that Anonymous International members Vladimir Anikeev, Konstantin Teplyakov, and Filinov were arrested, it was not difficult to single out their colleague Alexander Glazastikov. The 'scary hackers' themselves, as it turned out, were quite unrestrained on social networks and left striking marks on the Internet.

Five days ago, Alexander Glazastikov gave an evasive answer to the straight question sent by Fontanka via e-mail. Three days ago, he admitted to being one of the Anonymous International on condition of anonymity. Then, he agreed to an interview saying "Come to Estonia".

When, on the arranged day, a Fontanka reporter arrived to Tartu, Alexander dropped a bombshell: "I'm on my way to Tallinn: already twenty kilometers away from Tartu." He suggested: "I can wait at the gas station Valmaotsa. Drive up, let's go together." It was the offer, from which one cannot refuse. A taxi was found quickly.

When the meeting took place, the Shaltay-Boltay member, who was easily recognizable due to the photos from the web, surprised the journalist once again: he silently passed him the ignition keys from the SUV. After a question, he explained: "You will have to drive, I was drinking beer while waiting." There wasn't much of a choice, and the correspondent of Fontanka drove the hackers group member to Tallinn to meet with the crew of Dozhd TV-channel and Ksenia Sobchak. 180 kilometers and two hours of time was enough to have a decent conversation.

- Alexander, you are probably the only member of the Anonymous International who managed to remain at large. You're in Estonia, the Russian justice is far away, can I call you by your name and surname?

- Perhaps, you can. Anyway, tomorrow or the day after, I will officially reach out to the authorities for a political asylum. The FSB already knows my name.

- They know the surname. And who are you in the Anonymous International: Shaltay or Boltay?

- Shaltay, Boltay ... what a mess. Initially, when starting this project, Shaltay-Boltay was supposed to be a spokesman for the Anonymous International. Mainly, I was doing this job. Then, Anikeev started introducing himself to the reporters as Lewis and got everyone confused.

- How many people initiated the Anonymous International?

- Me, Anikeev. Teplyakov helped with some things, but purely technical aspects.

- Who is Filinov, whose arrest was reported in connection with Shaltay-Boltay?

- I don't know the man. He was not involved in the creation of the Anonymous International. I think this is Anikeev's acquaintance, who accidentally got under the press. I've heard his name for the first time, when the media wrote about his arrest.

- Have you known Anikeev and Teplyakov for a long time?

- For a long time... There was a resource called Damochka.ru. When basically no social networks existed, and VKontakte only began to emerge, everyone was on this website, it was one of the most fun projects. In the real world, meetings of the website users were held, some users just organized those parties – Dima Gryzlov, Nikolai Bondarik, and Anikeev. That's how we met. Much later, in mid-2013, the idea of Shaltay-Boltay appeared.

- How? Did you just decide that you would steal e-mails of bad people?

- Anikeev had sources of information, the information itself, important and interesting one. Anikeev decided to leave the information and analytical structure for which he had been working, and start his own project.

- Could this project be called a business?

- It depends It was assumed that the project will bring substantial financial result, but initially it was made partly out of ideological considerations.

- But Anikeev is not a hacker at all, judging by the stories of his former colleagues.

- True. If he needed to install any software on the computer, he would usually ask me to do it.

- But Teplyakov is a programmer.

- His role has been greatly exaggerated. He's just our mutual old friend. When we were getting significant numbers of files that had to be processed, we would ask Teplyakov to help, for a fee. We knew him and trusted him.

- And why did you join this project?

- Just then, I was beginning to get annoyed with the country, I decided to go to Thailand. When I started discussing this project with Anikeev, it seemed okay: you could engage in an interesting and promising business from home. What did I expect in financial terms? Definitely not the sale of arrays of information. I was rather thinking about advertising or administration fee. Lite-version.

- With a reference to the investigation, there was information that Shaltay-Boltay has a whole network of agents with special equipment, who, at places popular among local officials, steal information by creating fake Wi-Fi connections. Do you have a network?

- Complete nonsense. There were discussions about getting to know technical possibilities like this. As far as I know, and I know a lot, in fact, we didn't have it.

- Where did you get the information from, then?

- From specialized hacking sites, one can order hacking someone else's e-mail box for a few thousand rubles.

- It worked successfully. If you remember 2014 was the most fruitful year. Serious stories, serious figures, and no commerce. Strelkov, Prigozhin...

- Out of the three years that the project existed, 2014 was the most significant. I am proud of that year.

- But, from 2015, the Anonymous International has become almost a purely commercial project. How much money did you manage to earn?

- Only one or two million dollars.

- So, you are now a rich man?

- No. Most of the money was spent on operating expenses, so to speak. There were about fifty boxes in the work. Plus, there were variants in which a transaction was made not via bitcoins, but with the help of Anikeev's friends; these intermediaries could ask for two thirds of the whole amount.

- Was there anyone above you and Anikeev? For several years, people have been wondering who Shaltay-Boltay works for?

- Funny. Everyone is looking for conspiracy, but, in fact, it was a 'quick and dirty' project made by me and Anikeev. However, at some point, in the summer or in the spring of 2016, Anikeev said that some person from the FSB found us, he knew our names. Allegedly, military counterintelligence was looking for us, but the FSB found our meadow attractive and decided to take control of our petty pranks. They, supposedly, were uninterested in the commercial part of the project: the scale was much bigger, but they wanted to supervise the project and to have the veto right. Mikhailov's name was not voiced, in fact, no one's was. Nothing, actually, happened: no one used the veto right and no one leaked any information. If these mysterious people existed at all. And who turned whom in: they – Anikeev or Anikeev – them, or even third force got them all, I do not know.

- How quickly did you find out about Anikeev's arrest?

- The next morning. He sent me a selfie from Pulkovo Airport, wrote that he checked in and flies to Minsk. The next morning, it was reported that he was arrested and transported to Moscow. Given the subsequent events, it could be the game of the FSB. Then, he contacted me, convinced that he solved all the issues and now works under the control of the FSB, called in me to Russia, but I didn't believe him for some reason.

- Did Teplyakov believe?

- Teplyakov, in the summer of 2016, moved from Thailand to Kiev. He had no permanent earnings, he depended on Anikeev. When the game was on, and it was claimed that the project would continue, but he needs to come to Russia and work there under supervision, for safety reasons, as well, Teplyakov didn't have much of a choice. He went to Russia.

- Is there somewhere a chest with Shaltay-Boltay's information?

- Good question. I need to think how to respond. Well no, not really. What was sold and purchased by the clients was deleted. What was sold was fairly deleted and this information doesn't exist anymore. Perhaps, some of our customers are now concerned about this question, but what was declared, was implemented. Some operative material that we had been working on, I also deleted. Maybe a couple of screenshots were left in the trash bin, but nothing more.

- Alexander, you're going to submit a request for a political asylum. Aren't you afraid that Estonians will simply put you in a cell? In this country, they are very sensitive to computer security, and the specificity of computer crimes lies in the fact that, for committing them, one can be prosecuted in almost any country?

- My position is that I was not personally involved in the cracking of passwords and sending malicious links. To me all that information was already delivered in an open form. Yes, it was, probably, stolen...

- So were you ordering its thefts or not?

- No.

- Who did, then?

- All the information came from Anikeev. I published the received information, perhaps, by illegal means, but I have nothing to do with how it was obtained. Yesterday, I sent a letter to the former President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves. I think by our actions, especially in 2014, when we were working on the idea, I deserved asylum in Estonia. So far no response was received.

We drove to Tallinn. More and more texts came to Alexander's telephone from Dozhd TV journalists, who were preparing to shoot with Ksenia Sobchak. After leaving the car in the parking lot, we said goodbye. Alexander Glazastikov promised to inform when he receives a reply from the Estonian government.

It is to be recalled that Glazastikov's colleagues from the Anonymous International are awaiting trial in a predetention center. The law enforcement agencies arrested Vladimir Anikeev and his two probable accomplices: Konstantin Teplyakov and Alexander Filinov. The latter two were arrested as early as November 2016, and, on February 1, the judge of the Lefortovo District Court of Moscow extended their detention until April. The alleged leader of the Anonymous International, who was acting under the nickname Lewis, was arrested on January 28 after a short time spent in the company of police officers; he confessed.

All three are charged with the crimes stipulated under part 3 of Art. 272 of the Russian Criminal Code (Illegal access to legally-protected computer information, which caused a major damage or has been committed because of vested interest or committed by a group of persons by previous concert through his/her official position).

Initially, the media associated their criminal case with the investigation on the FSB staff and the manager of the Kaspersky Lab, who were accused of treason, but later, the lawyer of one of the defendants denied this information.

The Anonymous International published a lot of information from the correspondence of officials and businessmen between 2014 and 2016. Among the disclosed information was Dmitry Medvedev's hacked Twitter, and e-mail, Facebook, iPhone and iPad of owner of NewsMedia Holding Aram Gabrellyanov; e-mail and WhatsApp of TV host Dmitry Kiselev, official correspondence between the employees of "Prosecutor's Office" and the "Ministry of State Security" of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, and a lot of other, equally interesting information.

Before Anikeev's detention, Shaltay-Boltay also obtained the correspondence of the presidential assistant Vladislav Surkov.

[Feb 16, 2018] Moscow charges ex-FSB Kaspersky staff with treason 'in interests of US' lawyer

Notable quotes:
"... "treason in favor of the US," ..."
"... "There is no mention of the CIA at all. [The entity] in question is the US, not the CIA," ..."
"... 'Shaltai Boltai' ..."
"... "no personnel changes" ..."
Feb 01, 2017 | www.rt.com

Two senior FSB officers and a high-level manager of Russia's leading cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab are facing official charges of treason in the interests of the US, a lawyer representing one of the defendants has confirmed to Interfax. Ruslan Stoyanov, head of Kaspersky Lab's computer incidents investigations unit, Sergey Mikhailov, a senior Russian FSB officer, and his deputy Dmitry Dokuchayev are accused of "treason in favor of the US," lawyer Ivan Pavlov said on Wednesday, as cited by Interfax. Read more © Michael Weber / Global Look Press 70mn cyberattacks, mostly foreign, targeted Russia's critical infrastructure in 2016 – FSB

Pavlov chose not to disclose which of the defendants he represents, adding, however, that his client denies all charges.

The charges against the defendants do not imply they were cooperating with the CIA, Pavlov added. "There is no mention of the CIA at all. [The entity] in question is the US, not the CIA," he stressed, according to TASS.

The lawyer maintained the court files included no mention of Vladimir Anikeev, an alleged leader of 'Shaltai Boltai', a hacking group that previously leaked emails from top Russian officials, including Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

The hacking group's name was in the news earlier in January, when Russian media reports linked Mikhailov and Dokuchayev to 'Shaltai Boltai' . In an unsourced article last Wednesday, Rosbalt newspaper claimed Mikhailov's unit was ordered in 2016 to work with the group.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti on Wednesday the treason charges do not relate to the US suspicions of Russia being behind the alleged cyberattacks on the 2016 presidential elections. He added that President Vladimir Putin is receiving regular updates on the current investigation.

Russian media reports said Mikhailov was arrested during a conference of top FSB leadership. He was reportedly escorted out of the room with a bag placed over his head. His deputy, Dokuchayev, is said to be a well-known hacker who allegedly began cooperating with the FSB several years ago. Kaspersky Lab manager Stoyanov was also placed under arrest several weeks ago.

Stoyanov is still employed by Kaspersky Lab, the company told RIA Novosti later on Wednesday, adding there were "no personnel changes" at this point.

Treason charges mean that the defendants could be handed a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. The treason charges also mean any trial will not be public due to its sensitive nature.

[Dec 28, 2017] How CrowdStrike placed malware in DNC hacked servers by Alex Christoforou

Highly recommended!
If this is true, then this is definitely a sophisticated false flag operation. Was malware Alperovich people injected specifically designed to implicate Russians? In other words Crowdstrike=Fancy Bear
Images removed. For full content please thee the original source
One interesting corollary of this analysis is that installing Crowdstrike software is like inviting a wolf to guard your chicken. If they are so dishonest you take enormous risks. That might be true for some other heavily advertized "intrusion prevention" toolkits. So those criminals who use mistyped popular addresses or buy Google searches to drive lemmings to their site and then flash the screen that they detected a virus on your computer a, please call provided number and for a small amount of money your virus will be removed get a new more sinister life.
I suspected many of such firms (for example ISS which was bought by IBM in 2006) to be scams long ago.
Notable quotes:
"... Disobedient Media outlines the DNC server cover-up evidenced in CrowdStrike malware infusion ..."
"... In the article, they claim to have just been working on eliminating the last of the hackers from the DNC's network during the past weekend (conveniently coinciding with Assange's statement and being an indirect admission that their Falcon software had failed to achieve it's stated capabilities at that time , assuming their statements were accurate) . ..."
"... To date, CrowdStrike has not been able to show how the malware had relayed any emails or accessed any mailboxes. They have also not responded to inquiries specifically asking for details about this. In fact, things have now been discovered that bring some of their malware discoveries into question. ..."
"... there is a reason to think Fancy Bear didn't start some of its activity until CrowdStrike had arrived at the DNC. CrowdStrike, in the indiciators of compromise they reported, identified three pieces of malware relating to Fancy Bear: ..."
"... They found that generally, in a lot of cases, malware developers didn't care to hide the compile times and that while implausible timestamps are used, it's rare that these use dates in the future. It's possible, but unlikely that one sample would have a postdated timestamp to coincide with their visit by mere chance but seems extremely unlikely to happen with two or more samples. Considering the dates of CrowdStrike's activities at the DNC coincide with the compile dates of two out of the three pieces of malware discovered and attributed to APT-28 (the other compiled approximately 2 weeks prior to their visit), the big question is: Did CrowdStrike plant some (or all) of the APT-28 malware? ..."
"... The IP address, according to those articles, was disabled in June 2015, eleven months before the DNC emails were acquired – meaning those IP addresses, in reality, had no involvement in the alleged hacking of the DNC. ..."
"... The fact that two out of three of the Fancy Bear malware samples identified were compiled on dates within the apparent five day period CrowdStrike were apparently at the DNC seems incredibly unlikely to have occurred by mere chance. ..."
"... That all three malware samples were compiled within ten days either side of their visit – makes it clear just how questionable the Fancy Bear malware discoveries were. ..."
Dec 28, 2017 | theduran.com

Of course the DNC did not want to the FBI to investigate its "hacked servers". The plan was well underway to excuse Hillary's pathetic election defeat to Trump, and CrowdStrike would help out by planting evidence to pin on those evil "Russian hackers." Some would call this entire DNC server hack an "insurance policy."

... ... ...

[Jul 04, 2017] Foisting Blame for Cyber-Hacking on Russia by Gareth Porter

Notable quotes:
"... Recent hearings by the Senate and House Intelligence Committees reflected the rising tide of Russian-election-hacking hysteria and contributed further to it. Both Democrats and Republicans on the two committees appeared to share the alarmist assumptions about Russian hacking, and the officials who testified did nothing to discourage the politicians. ..."
"... The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has a record of spreading false stories about alleged Russian hacking into US infrastructure , such as the tale of a Russian intrusion into the Burlington, Vermont electrical utility in December 2016 that DHS later admitted was untrue. There was another bogus DHS story about Russia hacking into a Springfield, Illinois water pump in November 2011. ..."
"... So, there's a pattern here. Plus, investigators, assessing the notion that Russia hacked into state electoral databases, rejected that suspicion as false months ago. Last September, Assistant Secretary of DHS for Cybersecurity Andy Ozment and state officials explained that the intrusions were not carried out by Russian intelligence but by criminal hackers seeking personal information to sell on the Internet. ..."
"... Illinois is the one state where hackers succeeded in breaking into a voter registration database last summer. The crucial fact about the Illinois hacking, however, was that the hackers extracted personal information on roughly 90,000 registered voters, and that none of the information was expunged or altered. ..."
"... "Any time you more carefully monitor a system you're going to see more bad guys poking and prodding at it," he observed, " because they're always poking and prodding." [Emphasis added] ..."
"... Reagan further revealed that she had learned from the FBI that hackers had gotten a user name and password for their electoral database, and that it was being sold on the "dark web" – an encrypted network used by cyber criminals to buy and sell their wares. In fact, she said, the FBI told her that the probe of Arizona's database was the work of a "known hacker" who had been closely monitored "frequently." ..."
"... The sequence of events indicates that the main person behind the narrative of Russian hacking state election databases from the beginning was former FBI Director James Comey. In testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on Sept. 28, Comey suggested that the Russian government was behind efforts to penetrate voter databases, but never said so directly. ..."
"... The media then suddenly found unnamed sources ready to accuse Russia of hacking election data even while admitting that they lacked evidence. The day after Comey's testimony ABC headlined , "Russia Hacking Targeted Nearly Half of States' Voter Registration Systems, Successfully Infiltrating 4." The story itself revealed, however, that it was merely a suspicion held by "knowledgeable" sources. ..."
"... But that claim of a "likely" link between the hackers and Russia was not only speculative but highly suspect. The authors of the DHS-ODNI report claimed the link was "supported by technical indicators from the US intelligence community, DHS, FBI, the private sector and other entities." They cited a list of hundreds of I.P. addresses and other such "indicators" used by hackers they called "Grizzly Steppe" who were supposedly linked to Russian intelligence. ..."
"... But the highly classified NSA report made no reference to any evidence supporting such an attribution. The absence of any hint of signals intelligence supporting its conclusion makes it clear that the NSA report was based on nothing more than the same kind of inconclusive "indicators" that had been used to establish the original narrative of Russians hacking electoral databases. ..."
"... Russian intelligence certainly has an interest in acquiring intelligence related to the likely outcome of American elections, but it would make no sense for Russia's spies to acquire personal voting information about 90,000 registered voters in Illinois. ..."
Jul 04, 2017 | original.antiwar.com
Cyber-criminal efforts to hack into U.S. government databases are epidemic, but this ugly reality is now being exploited to foist blame on Russia and fuel the New Cold War hysteria

Recent hearings by the Senate and House Intelligence Committees reflected the rising tide of Russian-election-hacking hysteria and contributed further to it. Both Democrats and Republicans on the two committees appeared to share the alarmist assumptions about Russian hacking, and the officials who testified did nothing to discourage the politicians.

On June 21, Samuel Liles, acting director of the Intelligence and Analysis Office's Cyber Division at the Department of Homeland Security, and Jeanette Manfra, acting deputy under secretary for cyber-security and communications, provided the main story line for the day in testimony before the Senate committee - that efforts to hack into election databases had been found in 21 states.

Former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson and FBI counterintelligence chief Bill Priestap also endorsed the narrative of Russian government responsibility for the intrusions on voter registration databases.

But none of those who testified offered any evidence to support this suspicion nor were they pushed to do so. And beneath the seemingly unanimous embrace of that narrative lies a very different story.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has a record of spreading false stories about alleged Russian hacking into US infrastructure , such as the tale of a Russian intrusion into the Burlington, Vermont electrical utility in December 2016 that DHS later admitted was untrue. There was another bogus DHS story about Russia hacking into a Springfield, Illinois water pump in November 2011.

So, there's a pattern here. Plus, investigators, assessing the notion that Russia hacked into state electoral databases, rejected that suspicion as false months ago. Last September, Assistant Secretary of DHS for Cybersecurity Andy Ozment and state officials explained that the intrusions were not carried out by Russian intelligence but by criminal hackers seeking personal information to sell on the Internet.

Both Ozment and state officials responsible for the state databases revealed that those databases have been the object of attempted intrusions for years. The FBI provided information to at least one state official indicating that the culprits in the hacking of the state's voter registration database were cyber-criminals.

Illinois is the one state where hackers succeeded in breaking into a voter registration database last summer. The crucial fact about the Illinois hacking, however, was that the hackers extracted personal information on roughly 90,000 registered voters, and that none of the information was expunged or altered.

The Actions of Cybercriminals

That was an obvious clue to the motive behind the hack. Assistant DHS Secretary Ozment testified before the House Subcommittee on Information Technology on Sept. 28 ( at 01:02.30 of the video ) that the apparent interest of the hackers in copying the data suggested that the hacking was "possibly for the purpose of selling personal information."

Ozment 's testimony provides the only credible motive for the large number of states found to have experienced what the intelligence community has called "scanning and probing" of computers to gain access to their electoral databases: the personal information involved – even e-mail addresses – is commercially valuable to the cybercriminal underworld.

That same testimony also explains why so many more states reported evidence of attempts to hack their electoral databases last summer and fall. After hackers had gone after the Illinois and Arizona databases, Ozment said, DHS had provided assistance to many states in detecting attempts to hack their voter registration and other databases.

"Any time you more carefully monitor a system you're going to see more bad guys poking and prodding at it," he observed, " because they're always poking and prodding." [Emphasis added]

State election officials have confirmed Ozment's observation. Ken Menzel, the general counsel for the Illinois Secretary of State, told this writer, "What's new about what happened last year is not that someone tried to get into our system but that they finally succeeded in getting in." Menzel said hackers "have been trying constantly to get into it since 2006."

And it's not just state voter registration databases that cybercriminals are after, according to Menzel. "Every governmental data base – driver's licenses, health care, you name it – has people trying to get into it," he said.

Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan told Mother Jones that her I.T. specialists had detected 193,000 distinct attempts to get into the state's website in September 2016 alone and 11,000 appeared to be trying to "do harm."

Reagan further revealed that she had learned from the FBI that hackers had gotten a user name and password for their electoral database, and that it was being sold on the "dark web" – an encrypted network used by cyber criminals to buy and sell their wares. In fact, she said, the FBI told her that the probe of Arizona's database was the work of a "known hacker" who had been closely monitored "frequently."

James Comey's Role

The sequence of events indicates that the main person behind the narrative of Russian hacking state election databases from the beginning was former FBI Director James Comey. In testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on Sept. 28, Comey suggested that the Russian government was behind efforts to penetrate voter databases, but never said so directly.

Comey told the committee that FBI Counterintelligence was working to "understand just what mischief Russia is up to with regard to our elections." Then he referred to "a variety of scanning activities" and "attempted intrusions" into election-related computers "beyond what we knew about in July and August," encouraging the inference that it had been done by Russian agents.

The media then suddenly found unnamed sources ready to accuse Russia of hacking election data even while admitting that they lacked evidence. The day after Comey's testimony ABC headlined , "Russia Hacking Targeted Nearly Half of States' Voter Registration Systems, Successfully Infiltrating 4." The story itself revealed, however, that it was merely a suspicion held by "knowledgeable" sources.

Similarly, NBC News headline announced, "Russians Hacked Two US Voter Databases, Officials Say." But those who actually read the story closely learned that in fact none of the unnamed sources it cited were actually attributing the hacking to the Russians.

It didn't take long for Democrats to turn the Comey teaser - and these anonymously sourced stories with misleading headlines about Russian database hacking - into an established fact. A few days later, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff declared that there was "no doubt" Russia was behind the hacks on state electoral databases.

On Oct. 7, DHS and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a joint statement that they were "not in a position to attribute this activity to the Russian government." But only a few weeks later, DHS participated with FBI in issuing a "Joint Analysis Report" on "Russian malicious cyber activity" that did not refer directly to scanning and spearphishing aimed of state electoral databases but attributed all hacks related to the election to "actors likely associated with RIS [Russian Intelligence Services]."

Suspect Claims

But that claim of a "likely" link between the hackers and Russia was not only speculative but highly suspect. The authors of the DHS-ODNI report claimed the link was "supported by technical indicators from the US intelligence community, DHS, FBI, the private sector and other entities." They cited a list of hundreds of I.P. addresses and other such "indicators" used by hackers they called "Grizzly Steppe" who were supposedly linked to Russian intelligence.

But as I reported last January, the staff of Dragos Security, whose CEO Rob Lee, had been the architect of a US government system for defense against cyber attack, pointed out that the vast majority of those indicators would certainly have produced "false positives."

Then, on Jan. 6 came the "intelligence community assessment" – produced by selected analysts from CIA, FBI and National Security Agency and devoted almost entirely to the hacking of e-mail of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta. But it included a statement that "Russian intelligence obtained and maintained access to elements of multiple state or local election boards." Still, no evidence was evinced on this alleged link between the hackers and Russian intelligence.

Over the following months, the narrative of hacked voter registration databases receded into the background as the drumbeat of media accounts about contacts between figures associated with the Trump campaign and Russians built to a crescendo, albeit without any actual evidence of collusion regarding the e-mail disclosures.

But a June 5 story brought the voter-data story back into the headlines. The story, published by The Intercept, accepted at face value an NSA report dated May 5, 2017 , that asserted Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU, had carried out a spear-phishing attack on a US company providing election-related software and had sent e-mails with a malware-carrying word document to 122 addresses believed to be local government organizations.

But the highly classified NSA report made no reference to any evidence supporting such an attribution. The absence of any hint of signals intelligence supporting its conclusion makes it clear that the NSA report was based on nothing more than the same kind of inconclusive "indicators" that had been used to establish the original narrative of Russians hacking electoral databases.

A Checkered History

So, the history of the US government's claim that Russian intelligence hacked into election databases reveals it to be a clear case of politically motivated analysis by the DHS and the Intelligence Community. Not only was the claim based on nothing more than inherently inconclusive technical indicators but no credible motive for Russian intelligence wanting personal information on registered voters was ever suggested.

Russian intelligence certainly has an interest in acquiring intelligence related to the likely outcome of American elections, but it would make no sense for Russia's spies to acquire personal voting information about 90,000 registered voters in Illinois.

When FBI Counterintelligence chief Priestap was asked at the June 21 hearing how Moscow might use such personal data, his tortured effort at an explanation clearly indicated that he was totally unprepared to answer the question.

"They took the data to understand what it consisted of," said Priestap, "so they can affect better understanding and plan accordingly in regards to possibly impacting future election by knowing what is there and studying it."

In contrast to that befuddled non-explanation, there is highly credible evidence that the FBI was well aware that the actual hackers in the cases of both Illinois and Arizona were motivated by the hope of personal gain.

Gareth Porter, an investigative historian and journalist specializing in US national security policy, received the UK-based Gellhorn Prize for journalism for 2011 for articles on the U.S. war in Afghanistan. His new book is Manufactured Crisis: the Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare . He can be contacted at [email protected] . Reprinted from Consortium News with the author's permission.

Read more by Gareth Porter Why Afghanistan? Fighting a War for the War System Itself – June 13th, 2017 The Kissinger Backchannel to Moscow – June 4th, 2017 Will Trump Agree to the Pentagon's Permanent War in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria? – May 14th, 2017 US 'Deep State' Sold Out Counter-Terrorism To Keep Itself in Business – April 23rd, 2017 New Revelations Belie Trump Claims on Syria Chemical Attack – April 14th, 2017

View all posts by Gareth Porter

[Jun 24, 2017] Obama Ordered Cyberweapons Implanted Into Russias Infrastructure by Jason Ditz

Jun 23, 2017 | news.antiwar.com

Former Official: Implants Designed to 'Cause Them Pain and Discomfort'

A new report from the Washington Post today quoted a series of Obama Administration officials reiterating their official narrative on Russia's accused hacking of the 2016 election. While most of the article is simply rehashes and calls for sanctions, they also revealed a secret order by President Obama in the course of "retaliation" for the alleged hacking.

This previously secret order involved having US intelligence design and implant a series of cyberweapons into Russia's infrastructure systems, with officials saying they are meant to be activated remotely to hit the most important networks in Russia and are designed to " cause them pain and discomfort ."

The US has, of course, repeatedly threatened "retaliatory" cyberattacks against Russia, and promised to knock out broad parts of their economy in doing so. These appear to be the first specific plans to have actually infiltrate Russian networks and plant such weapons to do so.

Despite the long-standing nature of the threats, by the end of Obama's last term in office this was all still in the "planning" phases. It's not totally clear where this effort has gone from there, but officials say that the intelligence community, once given Obama's permission, did not need further approval from Trump to continue on with it, and he'd have actually had to issue a countermanding order, something they say he hasn't.

The details are actually pretty scant on how far along the effort is, but the goal is said to be for the US to have the ability to retaliate at a moment's notice the next time they have a cyberattack they intend to blame on Russia.

Unspoken in this lengthy report, which quotes unnamed former Obama Administration officials substantially, advocating the effort, is that in having reported that such a program exists, they've tipped off Russia about the threat.

This is, however, reflective of the priority of the former administration, which is to continuing hyping allegations that Russia got President Trump elected, a priority that's high enough to sacrifice what was supposed to be a highly secretive cyberattack operation.

[Jan 16, 2017] Mainstream Medias Russian Bogeymen by Gareth Porter

DHS security honchos want to justify their existence. There is not greater danger to national security then careerists in position of security professionals. Lying and exaggerating the treats to get this dollars is is what many security professionals do for living. They are essentially charlatans.
Notable quotes:
"... In the middle of a major domestic crisis over the U.S. charge that Russia had interfered with the US election, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) triggered a brief national media hysteria by creating and spreading a bogus story of Russian hacking into US power infrastructure. ..."
"... Even more shocking, however, DHS had previously circulated a similar bogus story of Russian hacking of a Springfield, Illinois water pump in November 2011. ..."
"... Beginning in late March 2016, DHS and FBI conducted a series of 12 unclassified briefings for electric power infrastructure companies in eight cities titled, "Ukraine Cyber Attack: implications for US stakeholders." The DHS declared publicly, "These events represent one of the first known physical impacts to critical infrastructure which resulted from cyber-attack." ..."
"... That statement conveniently avoided mentioning that the first cases of such destruction of national infrastructure from cyber-attacks were not against the United States, but were inflicted on Iran by the Obama administration and Israel in 2009 and 2012. ..."
"... Beginning in October 2016, the DHS emerged as one of the two most important players – along with the CIA-in the political drama over the alleged Russian effort to tilt the 2016 election toward Donald Trump. Then on Dec. 29, DHS and FBI distributed a "Joint Analysis Report" to US power utilities across the country with what it claimed were "indicators" of a Russian intelligence effort to penetrate and compromise US computer networks, including networks related to the presidential election, that it called "GRIZZLY STEPPE." ..."
"... according to Robert M. Lee, the founder and CEO of the cyber-security company Dragos, who had developed one of the earliest US government programs for defense against cyber-attacks on US infrastructure systems, the report was certain to mislead the recipients. ..."
"... "Anyone who uses it would think they were being impacted by Russian operations," said Lee. "We ran through the indicators in the report and found that a high percentage were false positives." ..."
"... The Intercept discovered, in fact, that 42 percent of the 876 IP addresses listed in the report as having been used by Russian hackers were exit nodes for the Tor Project, a system that allows bloggers, journalists and others – including some military entities – to keep their Internet communications private. ..."
"... Instead, a DHS official called The Washington Post and passed on word that one of the indicators of Russian hacking of the DNC had been found on the Burlington utility's computer network. The Post failed to follow the most basic rule of journalism, relying on its DHS source instead of checking with the Burlington Electric Department first. The result was the Post's sensational Dec. 30 story under the headline "Russian hackers penetrated US electricity grid through a utility in Vermont, US officials say." ..."
"... DHS official evidently had allowed the Post to infer that the Russians hack had penetrated the grid without actually saying so. The Post story said the Russians "had not actively used the code to disrupt operations of the utility, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss a security matter," but then added, and that "the penetration of the nation's electrical grid is significant because it represents a potentially serious vulnerability." ..."
"... The electric company quickly issued a firm denial that the computer in question was connected to the power grid. The Post was forced to retract, in effect, its claim that the electricity grid had been hacked by the Russians. But it stuck by its story that the utility had been the victim of a Russian hack for another three days before admitting that no such evidence of a hack existed. ..."
"... Only days later did the DHS reveal those crucial facts to the Post. And the DHS was still defending its joint report to the Post, according to Lee, who got part of the story from Post sources. The DHS official was arguing that it had "led to a discovery," he said. "The second is, 'See, this is encouraging people to run indicators.'" ..."
"... The false Burlington Electric hack scare is reminiscent of an earlier story of Russian hacking of a utility for which the DHS was responsible as well. In November 2011, it reported an "intrusion" into a Springfield, Illinois water district computer that similarly turned out to be a fabrication. ..."
"... The contractor whose name was on the log next to the IP address later told Wired magazine that one phone call to him would have laid the matter to rest. But the DHS, which was the lead in putting the report out, had not bothered to make even that one obvious phone call before opining that it must have been a Russian hack. ..."
Jan 16, 2017 | original.antiwar.com

The mainstream hysteria over Russia has led to dubious or downright false stories that have deepened the New Cold War

In the middle of a major domestic crisis over the U.S. charge that Russia had interfered with the US election, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) triggered a brief national media hysteria by creating and spreading a bogus story of Russian hacking into US power infrastructure.

DHS had initiated the now-discredited tale of a hacked computer at the Burlington, Vermont Electricity Department by sending the utility's managers misleading and alarming information, then leaked a story they certainly knew to be false and continued to put out a misleading line to the media.

Even more shocking, however, DHS had previously circulated a similar bogus story of Russian hacking of a Springfield, Illinois water pump in November 2011.

The story of how DHS twice circulated false stories of Russian efforts to sabotage US "critical infrastructure" is a cautionary tale of how senior leaders in a bureaucracy-on-the-make take advantage of every major political development to advance its own interests, with scant regard for the truth.

The DHS had carried out a major public campaign to focus on an alleged Russian threat to US power infrastructure in early 2016. The campaign took advantage of a US accusation of a Russian cyber-attack against the Ukrainian power infrastructure in December 2015 to promote one of the agency's major functions - guarding against cyber-attacks on America's infrastructure.

Beginning in late March 2016, DHS and FBI conducted a series of 12 unclassified briefings for electric power infrastructure companies in eight cities titled, "Ukraine Cyber Attack: implications for US stakeholders." The DHS declared publicly, "These events represent one of the first known physical impacts to critical infrastructure which resulted from cyber-attack."

That statement conveniently avoided mentioning that the first cases of such destruction of national infrastructure from cyber-attacks were not against the United States, but were inflicted on Iran by the Obama administration and Israel in 2009 and 2012.

Beginning in October 2016, the DHS emerged as one of the two most important players – along with the CIA-in the political drama over the alleged Russian effort to tilt the 2016 election toward Donald Trump. Then on Dec. 29, DHS and FBI distributed a "Joint Analysis Report" to US power utilities across the country with what it claimed were "indicators" of a Russian intelligence effort to penetrate and compromise US computer networks, including networks related to the presidential election, that it called "GRIZZLY STEPPE."

The report clearly conveyed to the utilities that the "tools and infrastructure" it said had been used by Russian intelligence agencies to affect the election were a direct threat to them as well. However, according to Robert M. Lee, the founder and CEO of the cyber-security company Dragos, who had developed one of the earliest US government programs for defense against cyber-attacks on US infrastructure systems, the report was certain to mislead the recipients.

"Anyone who uses it would think they were being impacted by Russian operations," said Lee. "We ran through the indicators in the report and found that a high percentage were false positives."

Lee and his staff found only two of a long list of malware files that could be linked to Russian hackers without more specific data about timing. Similarly a large proportion of IP addresses listed could be linked to "GRIZZLY STEPPE" only for certain specific dates, which were not provided.

The Intercept discovered, in fact, that 42 percent of the 876 IP addresses listed in the report as having been used by Russian hackers were exit nodes for the Tor Project, a system that allows bloggers, journalists and others – including some military entities – to keep their Internet communications private.

Lee said the DHS staff that worked on the technical information in the report is highly competent, but the document was rendered useless when officials classified and deleted some key parts of the report and added other material that shouldn't have been in it. He believes the DHS issued the report "for a political purpose," which was to "show that the DHS is protecting you."

Planting the Story, Keeping it Alive

Upon receiving the DHS-FBI report the Burlington Electric Company network security team immediately ran searches of its computer logs using the lists of IP addresses it had been provided. When one of IP addresses cited in the report as an indicator of Russian hacking was found on the logs, the utility immediately called DHS to inform it as it had been instructed to do by DHS.

In fact, the IP address on the Burlington Electric Company's computer was simply the Yahoo e-mail server, according to Lee, so it could not have been a legitimate indicator of an attempted cyber-intrusion. That should have been the end of the story. But the utility did not track down the IP address before reporting it to DHS. It did, however, expect DHS to treat the matter confidentially until it had thoroughly investigated and resolved the issue.

"DHS wasn't supposed to release the details," said Lee. "Everybody was supposed to keep their mouth shut."

Instead, a DHS official called The Washington Post and passed on word that one of the indicators of Russian hacking of the DNC had been found on the Burlington utility's computer network. The Post failed to follow the most basic rule of journalism, relying on its DHS source instead of checking with the Burlington Electric Department first. The result was the Post's sensational Dec. 30 story under the headline "Russian hackers penetrated US electricity grid through a utility in Vermont, US officials say."

DHS official evidently had allowed the Post to infer that the Russians hack had penetrated the grid without actually saying so. The Post story said the Russians "had not actively used the code to disrupt operations of the utility, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss a security matter," but then added, and that "the penetration of the nation's electrical grid is significant because it represents a potentially serious vulnerability."

The electric company quickly issued a firm denial that the computer in question was connected to the power grid. The Post was forced to retract, in effect, its claim that the electricity grid had been hacked by the Russians. But it stuck by its story that the utility had been the victim of a Russian hack for another three days before admitting that no such evidence of a hack existed.

The day after the story was published, the DHS leadership continued to imply, without saying so explicitly, that the Burlington utility had been hacked by Russians. Assistant Secretary for Pubic Affairs J. Todd Breasseale gave CNN a statement that the "indicators" from the malicious software found on the computer at Burlington Electric were a "match" for those on the DNC computers.

As soon as DHS checked the IP address, however, it knew that it was a Yahoo cloud server and therefore not an indicator that the same team that allegedly hacked the DNC had gotten into the Burlington utility's laptop. DHS also learned from the utility that the laptop in question had been infected by malware called "neutrino," which had never been used in "GRIZZLY STEPPE."

Only days later did the DHS reveal those crucial facts to the Post. And the DHS was still defending its joint report to the Post, according to Lee, who got part of the story from Post sources. The DHS official was arguing that it had "led to a discovery," he said. "The second is, 'See, this is encouraging people to run indicators.'"

Original DHS False Hacking Story

The false Burlington Electric hack scare is reminiscent of an earlier story of Russian hacking of a utility for which the DHS was responsible as well. In November 2011, it reported an "intrusion" into a Springfield, Illinois water district computer that similarly turned out to be a fabrication.

Like the Burlington fiasco, the false report was preceded by a DHS claim that US infrastructure systems were already under attack. In October 2011, acting DHS deputy undersecretary Greg Schaffer was quoted by The Washington Post as warning that "our adversaries" are "knocking on the doors of these systems." And Schaffer added, "In some cases, there have been intrusions." He did not specify when, where or by whom, and no such prior intrusions have ever been documented.

On Nov. 8, 2011, a water pump belonging to the Curran-Gardner township water district near Springfield, Illinois, burned out after sputtering several times in previous months. The repair team brought in to fix it found a Russian IP address on its log from five months earlier. That IP address was actually from a cell phone call from the contractor who had set up the control system for the pump and who was vacationing in Russia with his family, so his name was in the log by the address.

Without investigating the IP address itself, the utility reported the IP address and the breakdown of the water pump to the Environmental Protection Agency, which in turn passed it on to the Illinois Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center, also called a fusion center composed of Illinois State Police and representatives from the FBI, DHS and other government agencies.

On Nov. 10 – just two days after the initial report to EPA – the fusion center produced a report titled "Public Water District Cyber Intrusion" suggesting a Russian hacker had stolen the identity of someone authorized to use the computer and had hacked into the control system causing the water pump to fail.

The contractor whose name was on the log next to the IP address later told Wired magazine that one phone call to him would have laid the matter to rest. But the DHS, which was the lead in putting the report out, had not bothered to make even that one obvious phone call before opining that it must have been a Russian hack.

The fusion center "intelligence report," circulated by DHS Office of Intelligence and Research, was picked up by a cyber-security blogger, who called The Washington Post and read the item to a reporter. Thus the Post published the first sensational story of a Russian hack into a US infrastructure on Nov. 18, 2011.

After the real story came out, DHS disclaimed responsibility for the report, saying that it was the fusion center's responsibility. But a Senate subcommittee investigation revealed in a report a year later that even after the initial report had been discredited, DHS had not issued any retraction or correction to the report, nor had it notified the recipients about the truth.

DHS officials responsible for the false report told Senate investigators such reports weren't intended to be "finished intelligence," implying that the bar for accuracy of the information didn't have to be very high. They even claimed that report was a "success" because it had done what "what it's supposed to do – generate interest."

Both the Burlington and Curran-Gardner episodes underline a central reality of the political game of national security in the New Cold War era: major bureaucratic players like DHS have a huge political stake in public perceptions of a Russian threat, and whenever the opportunity arises to do so, they will exploit it.

Gareth Porter, an investigative historian and journalist specializing in US national security policy, received the UK-based Gellhorn Prize for journalism for 2011 for articles on the U.S. war in Afghanistan. His new book is Manufactured Crisis: the Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare . He can be contacted at [email protected] .

Reprinted from Consortium News with the author's permission.

[Jan 13, 2017] Mystery Hackers Blow Up Secret NSA Hacking Tools in 'Final F--k You'

Notable quotes:
"... The message was accompanied by a parting gift...an apparently complete NSA backdoor kit targeting the Windows operating system. The kit is comprised of 61 malicious Windows executables, only one of which was previously known to antivirus vendors... ..."
Jan 13, 2017 | www.thedailybeast.com
by Kevin Poulsen

"A mysterious hacking group has been bedeviling the U.S. intelligence community for months, releasing a tranche of secret National Security Agency hacking tools to the public while offering to sell even more for the right price. Now with barely a week to go before Donald Trump's inauguration, the self-styled "Shadow Brokers" on Thursday announced that they were packing it in.

"So long, farewell peoples. TheShadowBrokers is going dark, making exit," the group wrote on its darknet site... The message was accompanied by a parting gift...an apparently complete NSA backdoor kit targeting the Windows operating system. The kit is comprised of 61 malicious Windows executables, only one of which was previously known to antivirus vendors...

... ... ...

The Shadow Brokers emerged in August with the announcement that they'd stolen the hacking tools used by a sophisticated computer-intrusion operation known as the Equation Group, and were putting them up for sale to the highest bidder. It was a remarkable claim, because the Equation Group is generally understood to be part of the NSA's elite Tailored Access Operations program and is virtually never detected, much less penetrated.

... ... ...

Released along with the announcement was a huge cache of specialized malware, including dozens of backdoor programs and 10 exploits, two of them targeting previously unknown security holes in Cisco routers-a basic building block of the internet. While Cisco and other companies scrambled for a fix, security experts pored over the Shadow Brokers tranche like it was the Rosetta Stone. "It was the first time, as threat-intelligence professionals, that we've had access to what appears to be a relatively complete toolkit of a nation-state attacker," says Jake Williams, founder of Rendition Infosec. "It was excitement in some circles, dismay in other circles, and panic and a rush to patch if you're running vulnerable hardware."

[Dec 15, 2016] Georgia asks Trump to investigate DHS cyberattacks

Dec 15, 2016 | marknesop.wordpress.com
Pavlo Svolochenko , December 14, 2016 at 2:43 pm
Georgia asks Trump to investigate DHS 'cyberattacks'

If you want to know what Washington is doing at any given time, just look at what they're accusing the competition of.

yalensis , December 14, 2016 at 5:05 pm
As the Worm Turns!
For all those Amurican rubes out there who beleived that Homeland Security was protecting them against foreign terrorists – ha hahahahahaha!

[Nov 06, 2016] The Podesta Emails - Undeniable proof that the lobbyists wanted to put Bernie out

Notable quotes:
"... WikiLeaks series on deals involving Hillary Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta. Mr Podesta is a long-term associate of the Clintons and was President Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff from 1998 until 2001. Mr Podesta also owns the Podesta Group with his brother Tony, a major lobbying firm and is the Chair of the Center for American Progress (CAP), a Washington DC-based think tank. ..."
"... if President Obama signs this terrible legislation that blatantly validates Bernie's entire campaign message about Wall Street running our government, this will give Bernie a huge boost and 10,000 -20,000 outraged citizens (who WILL turn up because they will be so angry at the President for preemption vt) will be marching on the Mall with Bernie as their keynote speaker. " ..."
"... But Hirshberg does not stop here. In order to persuade Podesta about the seriousness of the matter, he claims that " It will be terrible to hand Sanders this advantage at such a fragile time when we really need to save our $$$ for the Trump fight. " ..."
Nov 06, 2016 | failedevolution.blogspot.gr
WikiLeaks series on deals involving Hillary Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta. Mr Podesta is a long-term associate of the Clintons and was President Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff from 1998 until 2001. Mr Podesta also owns the Podesta Group with his brother Tony, a major lobbying firm and is the Chair of the Center for American Progress (CAP), a Washington DC-based think tank.

An email from Gary Hirshberg, chairman and former president and CEO of Stonyfield Farm , to John Podesta on March 13, 2016, confirms why the lobbyists strongly opposed Bernie Sanders.

Hirshberg writes to a familiar person, as he was mentioned at the time as a possible 2008 Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, requesting Obama should not pass the Roberts bill because " if President Obama signs this terrible legislation that blatantly validates Bernie's entire campaign message about Wall Street running our government, this will give Bernie a huge boost and 10,000 -20,000 outraged citizens (who WILL turn up because they will be so angry at the President for preemption vt) will be marching on the Mall with Bernie as their keynote speaker. "

But Hirshberg does not stop here. In order to persuade Podesta about the seriousness of the matter, he claims that " It will be terrible to hand Sanders this advantage at such a fragile time when we really need to save our $$$ for the Trump fight. "

[Nov 04, 2016] the Podesta emails show compete corruption of democratic party

Notable quotes:
"... The emails currently roiling the US presidential campaign are part of some unknown digital collection amassed by the troublesome Anthony Weiner, but if your purpose is to understand the clique of people who dominate Washington today, the emails that really matter are the ones being slowly released by WikiLeaks from the hacked account of Hillary Clinton's campaign chair John Podesta. ..."
Nov 04, 2016 | www.theguardian.com

The emails currently roiling the US presidential campaign are part of some unknown digital collection amassed by the troublesome Anthony Weiner, but if your purpose is to understand the clique of people who dominate Washington today, the emails that really matter are the ones being slowly released by WikiLeaks from the hacked account of Hillary Clinton's campaign chair John Podesta. They are last week's scandal in a year running over with scandals, but in truth their significance goes far beyond mere scandal: they are a window into the soul of the Democratic party and into the dreams and thoughts of the class to whom the party answers.

The class to which I refer is not rising in angry protest; they are by and large pretty satisfied, pretty contented. Nobody takes road trips to exotic West Virginia to see what the members of this class looks like or how they live; on the contrary, they are the ones for whom such stories are written. This bunch doesn't have to make do with a comb-over TV mountebank for a leader; for this class, the choices are always pretty good, and this year they happen to be excellent.

They are the comfortable and well-educated mainstay of our modern Democratic party. They are also the grandees of our national media; the architects of our software; the designers of our streets; the high officials of our banking system; the authors of just about every plan to fix social security or fine-tune the Middle East with precision droning. They are, they think, not a class at all but rather the enlightened ones, the people who must be answered to but who need never explain themselves.

[Nov 03, 2016] John Podesta and Mook conspiring to commit money laundering

Nov 03, 2016 | www.nakedcapitalism.com

oho November 3, 2016 at 3:03 pm

John Podesta + Mook conspiring to commit money laundering. Not hyperbole.

https://mobile.twitter.com/wikileaks/status/794236216681992192/photo/1

Portia November 3, 2016 at 3:06 pm

3k/mo ok for you?

why yes

[Nov 03, 2016] Off The Record dinner at Podestas with reporters covering Clinton

Notable quotes:
"... Hillary wouldn't even be close if the press weren't in the tank for her ..."
Nov 03, 2016 | www.zerohedge.com

JackMeOff Nov 3, 2016 9:37 AM

Off The Record dinner at Podesta's with reporters covering Clinton:

https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/43604

The goals of the dinner include:

(1) Getting to know the reporters most closely c overing HRC and getting them comfortable with team HRC

(2) Setting expectations for the announcement and launch period

(3) Framing the HRC message and framing the race

(4) Demystifying key players on HRC's campaign team

(5) Having fun and enjoying good cooking

I am a Man I am... JackMeOff Nov 3, 2016 10:01 AM ,
REPORTERS RSVP (28) 1. ABC – Liz Kreutz 2. AP – Julie Pace 3. AP - Ken Thomas 4. AP - Lisa Lerer 5. Bloomberg - Jennifer Epstein 6. Buzzfeed - Ruby Cramer 7. CBS – Steve Chagaris 8. CNBC - John Harwood 9. CNN - Dan Merica 10. Huffington Post - Amanda Terkel 11. LAT - Evan Handler 12. McClatchy - Anita Kumar 13. MSNBC - Alex Seitz-Wald 14. National Journal - Emily Schultheis 15. NBC – Mark Murray 16. NPR - Mara Liassion 17. NPR – Tamara Keith 18. NYT - Amy Chozik 19. NYT - Maggie Haberman 20. Politico - Annie Karni 21. Politico - Gabe Debenedetti 22. Politico - Glenn Thrush 23. Reuters - Amanda Becker 24. Washington Post - Anne Gearan 25. Washington Post – Phil Rucker 26. WSJ - Colleen McCain Nelson 27. WSJ - Laura Meckler 28. WSJ - Peter Nicholas

Pigeon •Nov 3, 2016 9:49 AM

It bothers me these stories are constantly prefaced with the idea that Wikileaks is saving Trump's bacon. Hillary wouldn't even be close if the press weren't in the tank for her. How about Wikileaks evening the playing field with REAL STORIES AND FACTS?

[Oct 30, 2016] Speaking also of Pedesta email it is interesting that it was Podesta who make mistake of assessing phishing email link, probably accidentally

turcopolier.typepad.com

mistah charley, ph.d. said... 30 October 2016 at 09:13 AM

Speaking also of Podesta's email, not Huma's, the following is interesting:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/28/politics/phishing-email-hack-john-podesta-hillary-clinton-wikileaks/index.html

Briefly, it seems Podesta received an email "You need to change your password", asked for professional advice from his staff if it was legit, was told "Yes, you DO need to change your password", but then clicked on the link in the original email, which was sent him with malicious intent, as he suspected at first and then was inappropriately reassured about - rather than on the link sent him by the IT staffer.

Result - the "phishing" email got his password info, and the world now gets to see all his emails.

Personally, my hope is that Huma and HRC will be pardoned for all their crimes, by Obama, before he leaves office.

Then I hope that Huma's divorce will go through, and that once Hillary is sworn in she will at last be courageous enough to divorce Bill (who actually performed the Huma-Anthony Weiner nuptials - you don't have to make these things up).

Then it could happen that the first same-sex marriage will be performed in the White House, probably by the minister of DC's Foundry United Methodist Church, which has a policy of LBGQT equality. Or maybe Hillary, cautious and middle-of-the-road as usual, will go to Foundry UMC sanctuary for the ceremony, recognizing that some Americans' sensibilities would be offended by having the rite in the White House.

As Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan wrote, "Love is all there is, it makes the world go round, love and only love, it can't be denied. No matter what you think about it, you just can't live without it, take a tip from one who's tried."

[Oct 30, 2016] Speaking also of Pedesta email it is interesting that it was Podesta who make mistake of assessing phishing email link, probably accidentally

turcopolier.typepad.com

mistah charley, ph.d. said... 30 October 2016 at 09:13 AM

Speaking also of Podesta's email, not Huma's, the following is interesting:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/28/politics/phishing-email-hack-john-podesta-hillary-clinton-wikileaks/index.html

Briefly, it seems Podesta received an email "You need to change your password", asked for professional advice from his staff if it was legit, was told "Yes, you DO need to change your password", but then clicked on the link in the original email, which was sent him with malicious intent, as he suspected at first and then was inappropriately reassured about - rather than on the link sent him by the IT staffer.

Result - the "phishing" email got his password info, and the world now gets to see all his emails.

Personally, my hope is that Huma and HRC will be pardoned for all their crimes, by Obama, before he leaves office.

Then I hope that Huma's divorce will go through, and that once Hillary is sworn in she will at last be courageous enough to divorce Bill (who actually performed the Huma-Anthony Weiner nuptials - you don't have to make these things up).

Then it could happen that the first same-sex marriage will be performed in the White House, probably by the minister of DC's Foundry United Methodist Church, which has a policy of LBGQT equality. Or maybe Hillary, cautious and middle-of-the-road as usual, will go to Foundry UMC sanctuary for the ceremony, recognizing that some Americans' sensibilities would be offended by having the rite in the White House.

As Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan wrote, "Love is all there is, it makes the world go round, love and only love, it can't be denied. No matter what you think about it, you just can't live without it, take a tip from one who's tried."

[Oct 29, 2016] Sometimes Bill And Hillary Have The Worst Judgment Wikileaks Releases Part 22 Of Podesta File

Notable quotes:
"... and concludes by saying that " Sometimes HRC/WJC have the worst judgement ." In retrospect, she is right. ..."
Oct 29, 2016 | www.zerohedge.com
In the aftermath of one of the most memorable (c)october shocks in presidential campaign history, Wikileaks continues its ongoing broadside attack against the Clinton campaign with the relentless Podesta dump, by unveiling another 596 emails in the latest Part 22 of its Podesta release, bringing the total emails released so far to exactly 36,190, leaving less than 30% of the total dump left to go.

RELEASE: The Podesta Emails Part 22 #PodestaEmails #PodestaEmails22 #HillaryClinton https://t.co/wzxeh70oUm pic.twitter.com/QnWewcpPbf

- WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 29, 2016

As usual we will go parse through the disclosure and bring you some of the more notable ones.

* * *

In a February 2012 email from Chelsea Clinton's NYU alias, [email protected] , to Podesta and Mills, Bill and Hillary's frustrated daughter once again points out the "frustration and confusion" among Clinton Foundation clients in the aftermath of the previously noted scandals plaguing the Clinton consultancy, Teneo:

Over the past few days a few people from the Foundation have reached out to me frustrated or upset about _____ (fill in the blank largely derived meetings Friday or Monday). I've responded to all w/ essentially the following (ie disintermediating myself, again, emphatically) below. I also called my Dad last night to tell him of my explicit non-involvement and pushing all back to you both and to him as I think that is indeed the right answer. Thanks

Sample: Please share any and all concerns, with examples, without pulling punches, with John and Cheryl as appropriate and also if you feel very strongly with my Dad directly. Transitions are always challenging and to get to the right answer its critical that voices are heard and understood, and in the most direct way - ie to them without intermediation. Particularly in an effort to move more toward a professionalism and efficiency at the Foundation and for my father - and they're the decision-makers, my Dad most of all

* * *

A February 2015 email from Neera Tanden lashes out at David Brock of the Bonner Group, profiled in this post: " Money Laundering Scheme Exposed: 14 Pro-Clinton Super PACs & Non-Profits Implicated ." As a reminder, the Bonner Group, as we showed last month, may be a money laundering front involving various SuperPACs and non-profit institutions:

In the email Tanden says that:

"Brock/Bonner are a nightmare: Really, Suzie Buell isn't giving to the superpac? I wonder how that got in this story " Big donors holding off making pledges to pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC ",

and concludes by saying that " Sometimes HRC/WJC have the worst judgement ." In retrospect, she is right.

* * *

Speaking of "donor advisor" Mary Pat Bonner , the following email from March 2009 hints at potential impropriety in shifting money from one democratic donor group to another, the Center for American Progress :

I have moved all the sussman money from unity '09 to cap and am reviewing the others . I will assess it and keep you informed

Something else for the DOJ to look into after the elections, perhaps?

* * *

And then there is this email from August 2015 in which German politician Michael Werz advises John Podesta that Turkish president Erdogan "is making substantial investments in U.S. to counter opposition (CHP, Kurds, Gulenists etc.) outreach to policymakers" and the US Government.

John, heard this second hand but more than once. Seems Erdogan faction is making substantial investments in U.S. to counter opposition (CHP, Kurds, Gulenists etc.) outreach to policymakers and USG. Am told that the Erdogan crew also tries to make inroads via donations to Democratic candidates, including yours. Two names that you should be aware of are *Mehmet Celebi* and *Ali Cinar*. Happy to elaborate on the phone, provided you are not shopping at the liquor store.

The email :

This should perhaps explain why the US has so far done absolutely nothing to halt Erdogan's unprecedented crackdown on "coup plotters" which has seen as many as 100,000 workers lose their jobs, be arrested, or otherwise removed from Erdogan's political opposition.

Expanding Combat Zone The Dangerous New Rules of Cyberwar

NATO hot-heads are playing with fire. What if other nations attack members for Stuxnet and Flame ?..."James Lewis of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), one of the country's top cyberwar experts, is somewhat skeptical about the new manual. He sees it as "a push to lower the threshold for military action." For Lewis, responding to a "denial of service" attack with military means is "really crazy." He says the Tallinn manual "shows is that you should never let lawyers go off by themselves."
SPIEGEL ONLINE

Arming for Virtual Battle: The Dangerous New Rules of Cyberwar

By Thomas Darnstaedt, Marcel Rosenbach and Gregor Peter Schmitz

Capt. Carrie Kessler/ U.S. Air Force

Now that wars are also being fought on digital battlefields, experts in international law have established rules for cyberwar. But many questions remain unanswered. Will it be appropriate to respond to a cyber attack with military means in the future?

The attack came via ordinary email, when selected South Korean companies received messages supposedly containing credit card information in the middle of the week before last.

Recipients who opened the emails also opened the door to the enemy, because it was in fact an attack from the Internet. Instead of the expected credit card information, the recipients actually downloaded a time bomb onto their computers, which was programmed to ignite on Wednesday at 2 p.m. Korean time.

At that moment, chaos erupted on more than 30,000 computers in South Korean television stations and banks. The message "Please install an operating system on your hard disk" appeared on the screens of affected computers, and cash machines ceased to operate. The malware, which experts have now dubbed "DarkSeoul," deleted data from the hard disks, making it impossible to reboot the infected computers.

DarkSeoul was one of the most serious digital attacks in the world this year, but cyber defense centers in Western capitals receive alerts almost weekly. The most serious attack to date originated in the United States. In 2010, high-tech warriors, acting on orders from the US president, smuggled the destructive "Stuxnet" computer worm into Iranian nuclear facilities.

The volume of cyber attacks is only likely to grow. Military leaders in the US and its European NATO partners are outfitting new battalions for the impending data war. Meanwhile, international law experts worldwide are arguing with politicians over the nature of the new threat. Is this already war? Or are the attacks acts of sabotage and terrorism? And if a new type of war is indeed brewing, can military means be used to respond to cyber attacks?

The War of the Future

A few days before the computer disaster in Seoul, a group led by NATO published a thin, blue booklet. It provides dangerous responses to all of these questions. The "Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare" is probably no thicker than the American president's thumb. It is not an official NATO document, and yet in the hands of President Barack Obama it has the potential to change the world.

The rules that influential international law experts have compiled in the handbook could blur the lines between war and peace and allow a serious data attack to rapidly escalate into a real war with bombs and missiles. Military leaders could also interpret it as an invitation to launch a preventive first strike in a cyberwar.

At the invitation of a NATO think tank in the Estonian capital Tallinn, and at a meeting presided over by a US military lawyer with ties to the Pentagon, leading international law experts had discussed the rules of the war of the future. International law is, for the most part, customary law. Experts determine what is and can be considered customary law.

The resulting document, the "Tallinn Manual," is the first informal rulebook for the war of the future. But it has no reassuring effect. On the contrary, it permits nations to respond to data attacks with the weapons of real war.

Two years ago, the Pentagon clarified where this could lead, when it stated that anyone who attempted to shut down the electric grid in the world's most powerful nation with a computer worm could expect to see a missile in response.

A Private Digital Infrastructure

The risks of a cyberwar were invoked more clearly than ever in Washington in recent weeks. In mid-March, Obama assembled 13 top US business leaders in the Situation Room in the White House basement, the most secret of all secret conference rooms. The group included the heads of UPS, JPMorgan Chase and ExxonMobil. There was only one topic: How can America win the war on the Internet?

The day before, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had characterized the cyber threat as the "biggest peril currently facing the United States."

The White House was unwilling to reveal what exactly the business leaders and the president discussed in the Situation Room. But it was mostly about making it clear to the companies how threatened they are and strengthening their willingness to cooperate, says Rice University IT expert Christopher Bronk.

The president urgently needs their cooperation, because the US has allowed the laws of the market to govern its digital infrastructure. All networks are operated by private companies. If there is a war on the Internet, both the battlefields and the weapons will be in private hands.

This is why the White House is spending so much time and effort to prepare for possible counterattacks. The aim is to scare the country's enemies, says retired General James Cartwright, author of the Pentagon's current cyber strategy.

Responsible for that strategy is the 900-employee Cyber Command at the Pentagon, established three years ago and located in Fort Meade near the National Security Agency, the country's largest intelligence agency. General Keith Alexander heads both organizations. The Cyber Command, which is expected to have about 4,900 employees within a few years, will be divided into various defensive and offensive "Cyber Mission Forces" in the future.

Wild West Online

It's probably no coincidence that the Tallinn manual is being published now. Developed under the leadership of US military lawyer Michael Schmitt, NATO representatives describe the manual as the "most important legal document of the cyber era."

In the past, Schmitt has examined the legality of the use of top-secret nuclear weapons systems and the pros and cons of US drone attacks. Visitors to his office at the Naval War College in Rhode Island, the world's oldest naval academy, must first pass through several security checkpoints.

"Let's be honest," says Schmitt. "Everyone has treated the Internet as a sort of Wild West, a lawless zone. But international law has to be just as applicable to online weapons as conventional weapons."

It's easier said than done, though. When does malware become a weapon? When does a hacker become a warrior, and when does horseplay or espionage qualify as an "armed attack," as defined under international law? The answers to such detailed questions can spell the difference between war and peace.

James Lewis of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), one of the country's top cyberwar experts, is somewhat skeptical about the new manual. He sees it as "a push to lower the threshold for military action." For Lewis, responding to a "denial of service" attack with military means is "really crazy." He says the Tallinn manual "shows is that you should never let lawyers go off by themselves."

Claus Kress, an international law expert and the director of the Institute for International Peace and Security Law at the University of Cologne, sees the manual as "setting the course," with "consequences for the entire law of the use of force." Important "legal thresholds," which in the past were intended to protect the world against the military escalation of political conflicts or acts of terror, are becoming "subject to renegotiation," he says.

According to Kress, the most critical issue is the "recognition of a national right of self-defense against certain cyber attacks." This corresponds to a state of defense, as defined under Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, which grants any nation that becomes the victim of an "armed attack" the right to defend itself by force of arms. The article gained new importance after Sept. 11, 2001, when the US declared the invasion of Afghanistan an act of self-defense against al-Qaida and NATO proclaimed the application of its mutual defense clause to come to the aid of the superpower.

The question of how malicious malware must be to justify a counterattack can be critical when it comes to preserving peace. Under the new doctrine, only those attacks that cause physical or personal damage, but not virtual damage, are relevant in terms of international law. The malfunction of a computer or the loss of data alone is not sufficient justification for an "armed attack."

But what if, as is often the case, computer breakdowns do not result in physical damage but lead to substantial financial losses? A cyber attack on Wall Street, shutting down the market for several days, was the casus belli among the experts in Tallinn. The US representatives wanted to recognize it as a state of defense, while the Europeans preferred not to do so. But the US military lawyers were adamant, arguing that economic damage establishes the right to launch a counterattack if it is deemed "catastrophic."

Ultimately, it is left to each country to decide what amount of economic damage it considers sufficient to venture into war. German expert Kress fears that such an approach could lead to a "dam failure" for the prohibition of the use of force under international law.

So was it an armed attack that struck South Korea on March 20? The financial losses caused by the failure of bank computers haven't been fully calculated yet. It will be up to politicians, not lawyers, to decide whether they are "catastrophic."

Just how quickly the Internet can become a scene of massive conflicts became evident this month, when suddenly two large providers came under constant digital attack that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

The main target of the attack was the website Spamhaus.org, a project that has been hunting down the largest distributors of spam on the Web since 1998. Its blacklists of known spammers enable other providers to filter out junk email. By providing this service, the organization has made powerful enemies and has been targeted in attacks several times. But the current wave of attacks overshadows everything else. In addition to shutting down Spamhaus, it even temporarily affected the US company CloudFlare, which was helping fend off the attack. Analysts estimate the strength of the attack at 300 gigabits per second, which is several times as high as the level at which the Estonian authorities were "fired upon" in 2007. The attack even affected data traffic in the entire Internet. A group called "Stophaus" claimed responsibility and justified its actions as retribution for the fact that Spamhaus had meddled in the affairs of powerful Russian and Chinese Internet companies.

Civilian forces, motivated by economic interests, are playing cyberwar, and in doing so they are upending all previous war logic.

A Question of When, Not If

A field experiment in the US shows how real the threat is. To flush out potential attackers, IT firm Trend Micro built a virtual pumping station in a small American city, or at least it was supposed to look like one to "visitors" from the Internet. They called it a "honeypot," designed to attract potential attackers on the Web.

The trappers installed servers and industrial control systems used by public utilities of that size. To make the experiment setup seem realistic, they even placed deceptively real-looking city administration documents on the computers.

After only 18 hours, the analysts registered the first attempted attack. In the next four weeks, there were 38 attacks from 14 countries. Most came from computers in China (35 percent), followed by the US (19 percent) and Laos (12 percent).

Many attackers tried to insert espionage tools into the supposed water pumping station to probe the facility for weaknesses. International law does not prohibit espionage. But some hackers went further than that, trying to manipulate or even destroy the control devices.

"Some tried to increase the rotation speed of the water pumps to such a degree that they wouldn't have survived in the real world," says Trend Micro employee Udo Schneider, who categorizes these cases as "classic espionage."

"There is no question as to whether there will be a catastrophic cyber attack against America. The only question is when," says Terry Benzel, the woman who is supposed to protect the country from such an attack and make its computer networks safer. The computer specialist is the head of DeterLab in California, a project that was established in 2003, partly with funding from the US Department of Homeland Security, and offers a simulation platform for reactions to cyber attacks.

Benzel's voice doesn't falter when she describes a war scenario she calls "Cyber Pearl Harbor." This is what it could look like: "Prolonged power outages, a collapse of the power grid and irreparable disruptions in the Internet." Suddenly, food would not reach stores in time and cash machines would stop dispensing money. "Everything depends on computers nowadays, even the delivery of rolls to the baker around the corner," she says.

Benzel also describes other crisis scenarios. For example, she says, there are programs that open and close gates on American dams that are potentially vulnerable. Benzel is worried that a clever hacker could open America's dams at will.

Should Preemptive Strikes Be Allowed?

These and other cases are currently being tested in Cyber City, a virtual city US experts have built on their computers in New Jersey to simulate the consequences of data attacks. Cyber City has a water tower, a train station and 15,000 residents. Everything is connected in realistic ways, enabling the experts to study the potentially devastating effects cyber attacks could have on residents.

In Europe, it is primarily intelligence agencies that are simulating digital war games. Germany's foreign intelligence service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), also has a unit that studies the details of future wars. It is telling that the BND team doesn't just simulate defensive situations but increasingly looks at offensive scenarios, as well, so as to be prepared for a sort of digital second strike.

"Offensive Cyber Operations," or OCOs, are part of the strategy for future cyberwars in several NATO countries. The Tallinn manual now establishes the legal basis for possible preemptive strikes, which have been an issue in international law since former US President George W. Bush launched a preemptive strike against Iraq in March 2003.

The most contentious issue during the meetings in Tallinn was the question of when an offensive strike is permissible as an act of preventive self-defense against cyber attacks. According to the current doctrine, an attack must be imminent to trigger the right to preventive self-defense. The Tallinn manual is more generous in this respect, stating that even if a digital weapon is only likely to unfold its sinister effects at a later date, a first strike can already be justified if it is the last window of opportunity to meet the threat.

The danger inherent in the application of that standard becomes clear in the way that the international law experts at Tallinn treated Stuxnet, the most devastating malware to date, which was apparently smuggled into Iranian nuclear facilities on Obama's command. The data attack destroyed large numbers of centrifuges used for uranium enrichment in the Natanz reprocessing plant. Under the criteria of the Tallinn manual, this would be an act of war.

Could the US be the perpetrator in a war of aggression in violation of international law? Cologne international law expert Kress believes that what the Tallinn manual says parenthetically about the Stuxnet case amounts to a "handout for the Pentagon," namely that Obama's digital attack might be seen as an "act of preventive self-defense" against the nuclear program of Iran's ayatollahs.

The Fog of Cyber War

According to the Tallinn interpretation, countless virtual espionage incidents of the sort that affect all industrialized nations almost daily could act as accelerants. Pure cyber espionage, which American politicians also define as an attack, is not seen an act of war, according to the Tallinn rules. Nevertheless, the international law experts argue that such espionage attacks can be seen as preparations for destructive attacks, so that it can be legitimate to launch a preventive attack against the spy as a means of self-defense.

Some are especially concerned that the Tallinn proposals could also make it possible to expand the rules of the "war on terror." The authors have incorporated the call of US geostrategic expert Joseph Nye to take precautions against a "cyber 9/11" into their manual. This would mean that the superpower could even declare war on organized hacker groups. Combat drones against hackers? Cologne expert Kress cautions that the expansion of the combat zone to the laptops of an only loosely organized group of individuals would constitute a "threat to human rights."

Germany's military, the Bundeswehr, is also voicing concerns over the expansion of digital warfare. Karl Schreiner, a brigadier general with the Bundeswehr's leadership academy in Hamburg, is among those who see the need for "ethical rules" for the Internet battlefield and believe that an international canon for the use of digital weapons is required.

Military leaders must rethink the most important question relating to defense in cyberspace: Who is the attacker? "In most cases," the Tallinn manual reads optimistically, it is possible to identify the source of data attacks. But that doesn't coincide with the experiences of many IT security experts.

The typical fog of cyberwar was evident most recently in the example of South Korea. At first, officials said that DarkSeoul was clearly an attack from the north, but then it was allegedly traced to China, Europe and the United States. Some analysts now suspect patriotically motivated hackers in North Korea, because of the relatively uncomplicated malware. That leaves the question of just who South Korea should launch a counterattack against.

The South Korean case prompts Cologne international law expert Kress to conclude that lawyers will soon have a "new unsolved problem" on their hands -- a "war on the basis of suspicion."

[Oct 26, 2016] Over-sampling issue in Podesta emails

Notable quotes:
"... The simplest explanation is usually best. All the indicators, especially the support of the donor class, elites of all kinds etc. points towards a Democratic victory, perhaps a very strong victory if the poll numbers last weekend translate into electoral college numbers. ..."
crookedtimber.org

kidneystones 10.25.16 at 11:07 am ( 55 )

I stopped by to check if my comment had cleared moderation. What follows is a more thorough examination (not my own, entirely) on Corey's point 1, and some data that may point towards a much narrower race than we're led to believe.

The leaked emails from one Democratic super-pac, the over-sampling I cited at zerohedge (@13o) is part of a two-step process involving over-sampling of Democrats in polls combined with high frequency polling. The point being to encourage media to promote the idea that the race is already over. We saw quite a bit of this last weekend. Let's say the leaked emails are reliable.

This suggests to me two things: first – the obvious, the race is much closer than the polls indicated, certainly the poll cited by Corey in the OP. Corey questioned the validity of this poll, at least obliquely. Second, at least one super-pac working with the campaign sees the need to depress Trump turn-out. The first point is the clearest and the most important – the polls, some at least, are intentionally tilted to support a 'Hillary wins easily' narrative. The second allows for some possibly useful speculation regarding the Clinton campaigns confidence in their own GOTV success.

The simplest explanation is usually best. All the indicators, especially the support of the donor class, elites of all kinds etc. points towards a Democratic victory, perhaps a very strong victory if the poll numbers last weekend translate into electoral college numbers.

That's a big if. I suggest Hillary continues to lead but by much smaller margins in key states. It's also useful to point out that Trump's support in traditionally GOP states may well be equally shaky.

And that really is it from me on this topic barring a double digit swing to Hillary in the LA Times poll that has the race at dead even.

Layman 10.25.16 at 11:31 am

kidneystones:

"The leaked emails from one Democratic super-pac, the over-sampling I cited at zerohedge (@13o) is part of a two-step process involving over-sampling of Democrats in polls combined with high frequency polling."

Excellent analysis, only the email in question is eight years old. And it refers to a request for internal polling done by the campaign. And it suggests over-sampling of particular demographics so the campaign could better assess attitudes among those demographics.

And this is a completely normal practice which has nothing to do with the polling carried out by independent third parties (e.g. Gallup, Ipsos, etc) for the purposes of gauging and reporting to the public the state of the race.

And when pollsters to over-sample, the over-sampling is used for analysis but is not reflected in the top-line poll results.

[Oct 19, 2016] Wikileaks Releases Another 1803 Podesta Emails In Part 12 Of Data Dump; Total Is Now 18953

Notable quotes:
"... Among the initial emails to stand out is this extensive exchange showing just how intimiately the narrative of Hillary's server had been coached. The following September 2015 email exchange between Podesta and Nick Merrill, framed the "core language" to be used in response to questions Clinton could be asked about her email server, and the decision to "bleach" emails from it. The emails contain long and short versions of responses for Clinton. ..."
Oct 19, 2016 | www.zerohedge.com
The daily dump continues. In the now traditional daily routine, one which forces the Clinton campaign to resort to ever more stark sexual scandals involving Trump to provide a media distraction, moments ago Wikileaks released yet another 1,803 emails in Part 12 of its ongoing Podesta Email dump, which brings the total number of released emails to 18,953.

RELEASE: The Podesta Emails Part 12 https://t.co/wzxeh70oUm #HillaryClinton #imWithHer #PodestaEmails #PodestaEmails12 pic.twitter.com/druf7WQXD5

- WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 19, 2016

As a reminder among the most recent revelations we got further insights into Hillary's desire to see Obamacare " unravel" , her contempt for "doofus" Bernie Sanders, staff exchanges on handling media queries about Clinton "flip-flopping" on gay marriage, galvanizing Latino support and locking down Clinton's healthcare policy. Just as notable has been the ongoing revelation of just how "captured" the so-called independent press has been in its "off the record" discussions with John Podesta which got the head Politico correspondent, Glenn Thrush, to admit he is a "hack" for allowing Podesta to dictate the content of his article.

The release comes on the day of the third and final presidential campaign between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and as a result we are confident it will be scrutinized especially carefully for any last minute clues that would allow Trump to lob a much needed Hail Mary to boost his standing in the polls.

As there is a total of 50,000 emails, Wikileaks will keep the media busy over the next three weeks until the elections with another 30,000 emails still expected to be released.

* * *

Among the initial emails to stand out is this extensive exchange showing just how intimiately the narrative of Hillary's server had been coached. The following September 2015 email exchange between Podesta and Nick Merrill, framed the "core language" to be used in response to questions Clinton could be asked about her email server, and the decision to "bleach" emails from it. The emails contain long and short versions of responses for Clinton.

"Because the government already had everything that was work-related, and my personal emails were just that – personal – I didn't see a reason to keep them so I asked that they be deleted, and that's what the company that managed my server did. And we notified Congress of that back in March"

She was then presented with the following hypothetical scenario:

* "Why won't you say whether you wiped it?"

"After we went through the process to determine what was work related and what was not and provided the work related emails to State, I decided not to keep the personal ones."

"We saved the work-related ones on a thumb drive that is now with the Department of Justice. And as I said in March, I chose not to keep the personal ones. I asked that they be deleted, how that happened was up to the company that managed the server. And they are cooperating fully with anyone that has questions."

* * *

Another notable email reveals the close relationship between the Clinton Foundation and Ukraine billionaire Victor Pinchuk, a prominent donor to the Clinton Foundation , in which we see the latter's attempt to get a meeting with Bill Clinton to show support for Ukraine:

From: Tina Flournoy < [email protected] >
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2015 9:58:55 AM
To: Amitabh Desai
Cc: Jon Davidson; Margaret Steenburg; Jake Sullivan; Dan Schwerin; Huma Abedin; John Podesta
Subject: Re: Victor Pinchuk

Team HRC - we'll get back to you on this

> On Mar 30, 2015, at 9:53 AM, Amitabh Desai < [email protected] > wrote:
>
> Victor Pinchuk is relentlessly following up (including this morning) about a meeting with WJC in London or anywhere in Europe. Ideally he wants to bring together a few western leaders to show support for Ukraine, with WJC probably their most important participant. If that's not palatable for us, then he'd like a bilat with WJC.
>
> If it's not next week, that's fine, but he wants a date. I keep saying we have no Europe plans, although we do have those events in London in June. Are folks comfortable offering Victor a private meeting on one of those dates? At this point I get the impression that although I keep saying WJC cares about Ukraine, Pinchuk feels like WJC hasn't taken enough action to demonstrate that, particularly during this existential moment for the county and for him.
>
> I sense this is so important because Pinchuk is under Putin's heel right now, feeling a great degree of pressure and pain for his many years of nurturing stronger ties with the West.
>
> I get all the downsides and share the concerns. I am happy to go back and say no. It would just be good to know what WJC (and HRC and you all) would like to do, because this will likely impact the future of this relationship, and slow walking our reply will only reinforce his growing angst.
>
> Thanks, and sorry for the glum note on a Monday morning...

* * *

We find more evidence of media coordination with Politico's Glenn Thrush who has an off the record question to make sure he is not "fucking anything up":

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Date: 2015-04-30 17:06
Subject: Re: sorry to bother...

Sure. Sorry for the delay I was on a plane.
On Apr 30, 2015 9:44 AM, "Glenn Thrush" < [email protected] > wrote:

> Can I send u a couple of grafs, OTR, to make sure I'm not fucking
> anything up?

* * *

Another notable moment emerges in the emails, involving Hillary Clinton's selective memory. Clinton's description of herself as a moderate Democrat at a September 2015 event in Ohio caused an uproar amongst her team. In a mail from Clinton advisor Neera Tanden to Podesta in the days following the comment she asks why she said this.

"I pushed her on this on Sunday night. She claims she didn't remember saying it. Not sure I believe her," Podesta replies. Tanden insists that the comment has made her job more difficult after "telling every reporter I know she's actually progressive". " It worries me more that she doesn't seem to know what planet we are all living in at the moment ," she adds.

* * *

We also get additional insight into Clinton courting the Latino minority. A November 2008 email from Federico Peña , who was on the Obama-Biden transition team, called for a "Latino media person" to be added to the list of staff to appeal to Latino voters. Federico de Jesus or Vince Casillas are seen as ideal candidates, both of whom were working in the Chicago operations.

"More importantly, it would helpful (sic) to Barack to do pro-active outreach to Latino media across the country to get our positive message out before people start spreading negative rumors," Peña writes.

* * *

Another email between Clinton's foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan and Tanden from March 2016 discussed how it was "REALLY dicey territory" for Clinton to comment on strengthening "bribery laws to ensure that politicians don't change legislation for political donations." Tanden agrees with Sullivan:

" She may be so tainted she's really vulnerable - if so, maybe a message of I've seen how this sausage is made, it needs to stop, I'm going to stop it will actually work."

* * *

One email suggested, sarcastically, to kneecap bernie Sanders : Clinton's team issued advise regarding her tactics for the "make or break" Democratic presidential debate with Sanders in Milwaukee on February 11, 2016. The mail to Podesta came from Philip Munger, a Democratic Party donor. He sent the mail using an encrypted anonymous email service.

"She's going to have to kneecap him. She is going to have to take him down from his morally superior perch. She has done so tentatively. She must go further," he says.

Clearly, the desire to get Sanders' supporters was a key imperative for the Clinton campaign. In a September 2015 email to Podesta , Hill columnist Brent Budowsky criticized the campaign for allegedly giving Clinton surrogates talking points to attack Bernie Sanders. "I cannot think of anything more stupid and self-destructive for a campaign to do," he says. "Especially for a candidate who has dangerously low levels of public trust," and in light of Sanders' campaign being based on "cleaning up politics."

Budowsky warns voters would be "disgusted" by attacks against Sanders and says he wouldn't discourage Podesta from sharing the note with Clinton because "if she wants to become president she needs to understand the point I am making with crystal clarity."

"Make love to Bernie and his idealistic supporters, and co-opt as many of his progressive issues as possible."

Budowsky then adds that he was at a Washington university where " not one student gave enough of a damn for Hillary to open a booth, or even wear a Hillary button. "

* * *

One email focused on how to address with the topic of the TPP. National Policy Director for Hillary for America Amanda Renteria explains, "The goal here was to minimize our vulnerability to the authenticity attack and not piss off the WH any more than necessary."

Democratic pollster Joel Benenson says, "the reality is HRC is more pro trade than anti and trying to turn her into something she is not could reinforce our negative [sic] around authenticity. This is an agreement that she pushed for and largely advocated for."

* * *

While claiming she is part of the people, an email exposes Hillary as being " part of the system ." Clinton's team acknowledges she is "part of the system" in an email regarding her strategies. As Stan Greenberg told Podesta:

" We are also going to test some messages that include acknowledgement of being part of the system, and know how much has to change ,"

* * *

Some more on the topic of Hillary being extensively coached and all her words rehearsed, we find an email which reveals that Clinton's words have to be tightly managed by her team who are wary of what she might say. After the Iowa Democratic Party's presidential debate in November 2015 adviser Ron Klain mails Podesta to say, "If she says something three times as an aside during practice (Wall Street supports me due to 9/11), we need to assume she will say it in the debate, and tell her not to do so." Klain's mail reveals Sanders was their biggest fear in the debate. "The only thing that would have been awful – a Sanders break out – didn't happen. So all in all, we were fine," he says.

The mail also reveals Klain's role in securing his daughter Hannah a position on Clinton's team. "I'm not asking anyone to make a job, or put her in some place where she isn't wanted – it just needs a nudge over the finish line," Klain says. Hannah Klain worked on Clinton's Surrogates team for nine months commencing in the month after her father's mail to Podesta, according to her Linkedin.

CuttingEdge X_in_Sweden Oct 19, 2016 9:18 AM

Is Podesta authorised to be privy to confidential information?

Only Hillary sends him a 9-point assessment of the ME with this at the top:

Note: Sources include Western intelligence, US intelligence and sources in the region.

I would assume Intelligence Services intel based assessments would be a bit confidential, Mr Comey? Given their source? Nothing to see here, you say?

Fuck Me.

https://www.wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/18917

Bubba Rum Das samjam7 Oct 19, 2016 9:02 AM

I love this...Assange is incommunicado, yet the data dumps keep coming!
Horse face looks like such a fool to the world as a result; & due to John Kerry's stupidity which is drawing major attention to the whole matter; Americans are finally beginning to wake up & pay attention to this shit!

Looks like the Hitlery for Prez ship is starting to take on MASSIVE amounts of water!

I believe they are beyond the point where any more news of 'pussy grabbing' will save them from themselves (and Mr. Assange)!

Oh, yeah...-And THANK YOU, MR. O'KEEFE!

css1971 Oct 19, 2016 9:04 AM

Dems!! Dems!! Where are you. You need 2 more bimbos to accuse Trump of looking at them!!

DEMS you need to get that nose to the grindstone!!

Hobbleknee GunnerySgtHartman Oct 19, 2016 8:48 AM

Fox is controlled opposition. They dropped the interview with O'Keefe after he released the latest undercover report on Democrat voter fraud.

JackMeOff Oct 19, 2016 10:16 AM

Wonder what "docs" they are referring?

https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/17978

monad Oct 19, 2016 1:14 PM The FBI had no difficulty convicting Obugger's crony Rod Blagegovitch.

The new lowered expectations federal government just expects to get lucre + bennies for sitting on their asses and holding the door for gangsters. Traitors. Spies. Enemies foreign and domestic. Amphisbaegenic pot boiling.

california chrome Oct 19, 2016 11:03 AM

With Creamer's tricks effective in Obama's re-election, it now makes sense why Obama was so confident when he said Trump would never be president.

Trump is still ahead in the only poll I track. But i conduct my own personal poll on a daily basis and loads of Trump supporters are in the closet and won't come out until they pull the lever for Trump on election day.

http://graphics.latimes.com/usc-presidential-poll-dashboard/

whatamaroon Oct 19, 2016 1:04 PM https://pageshot.net/qLjtSLje2gBJ1Mlp/twitter.com ,

This supposedly directly implicates Podesta and voter fraud. If it will open here

[Jun 23, 2013] Meet The Man In Charge Of America's Secret Cyber Army (In Which Bonesaw Makes A Mockery Of PRISM)

06/22/2013 | Zero Hedge

With his revelations exposing the extent of potential, and actual, pervasive NSA surveillance over the American population, Edward Snowden has done a great service for the public by finally forcing it to answer the question: is having Big Brother peek at every private communication and electronic information, a fair exchange for the alleged benefit of the state's security. Alas, without further action form a population that appears largely numb and apathetic to disclosures that until recently would have sparked mass protests and toppled presidents, the best we can hope for within a political regime that has hijacked the democratic process, is some intense introspection as to what the concept of "America" truly means.

However, and more importantly, what Snowden's revelations have confirmed, is that behind the scenes, America is now actively engaged in a new kind of war: an unprecedented cyber war, where collecting, deciphering, intercepting, and abusing information is the only thing that matters and leads to unprecedented power, and where enemies both foreign and domestic may be targeted without due process based on a lowly analyst's "whim."

It has also put spotlight on the man, who until recently deep in the shadows, has been responsible for building America's secret, absolutely massive cyber army, and which according to a just released Wired profile is "capable of launching devastating cyberattacks. Now it's ready to unleash hell."

Meet General Keith Alexander, "a man few even in Washington would likely recognize", which is troubling because Alexander is now quite possibly the most powerful person in the world, that nobody talks about. Which is just the way he likes it.

This is the partial and incomplete story of the man who may now be empowered with more unchecked power than any person in the history of the US, or for that matter, the world. It comes once again, courtesy of the man who over a year before the Guardian's Snowden bombshell broke the story about the NSA's secret Utah data storage facility, James Bamford, and whose intimate knowledge of the NSA's secrets comes by way of being a consultant for the defense team of one Thomas Drake, one of the original NSA whistleblowers (as we learn from the full Wired article).

But first, by way of background, here is a glimpse of Alexander's ultra-secretive kingdom. From Wired:

Inside Fort Meade, Maryland, a top-secret city bustles. Tens of thousands of people move through more than 50 buildings-the city has its own post office, fire department, and police force. But as if designed by Kafka, it sits among a forest of trees, surrounded by electrified fences and heavily armed guards, protected by antitank barriers, monitored by sensitive motion detectors, and watched by rotating cameras. To block any telltale electromagnetic signals from escaping, the inner walls of the buildings are wrapped in protective copper shielding and the one-way windows are embedded with a fine copper mesh.

This is the undisputed domain of General Keith Alexander, a man few even in Washington would likely recognize. Never before has anyone in America's intelligence sphere come close to his degree of power, the number of people under his command, the expanse of his rule, the length of his reign, or the depth of his secrecy. A four-star Army general, his authority extends across three domains: He is director of the world's largest intelligence service, the National Security Agency; chief of the Central Security Service; and commander of the US Cyber Command. As such, he has his own secret military, presiding over the Navy's 10th Fleet, the 24th Air Force, and the Second Army.

Schematically, Alexander's empire consists of the following: virtually every piece in America's information intelligence arsenal.

As the Snowden scandal has unfurled, some glimpses into the "introspective" capabilities of the NSA, and its sister organizations, have demonstrated just how powerful the full "intelligence" arsenal of the US can be.

However, it is when it is facing outward - as it normally does - that things get really scary. Because contrary to prevailing conventional wisdom, Alexander's intelligence and information-derived power is far from simply defensive. In fact, it is when its offensive potential is exposed that the full destructive power in Alexander's grasp is revealed:

In its tightly controlled public relations, the NSA has focused attention on the threat of cyberattack against the US-the vulnerability of critical infrastructure like power plants and water systems, the susceptibility of the military's command and control structure, the dependence of the economy on the Internet's smooth functioning. Defense against these threats was the paramount mission trumpeted by NSA brass at congressional hearings and hashed over at security conferences.

But there is a flip side to this equation that is rarely mentioned: The military has for years been developing offensive capabilities, giving it the power not just to defend the US but to assail its foes. Using so-called cyber-kinetic attacks, Alexander and his forces now have the capability to physically destroy an adversary's equipment and infrastructure, and potentially even to kill. Alexander-who declined to be interviewed for this article-has concluded that such cyberweapons are as crucial to 21st-century warfare as nuclear arms were in the 20th.

And he and his cyberwarriors have already launched their first attack. The cyberweapon that came to be known as Stuxnet was created and built by the NSA in partnership with the CIA and Israeli intelligence in the mid-2000s. The first known piece of malware designed to destroy physical equipment, Stuxnet was aimed at Iran's nuclear facility in Natanz. By surreptitiously taking control of an industrial control link known as a Scada (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system, the sophisticated worm was able to damage about a thousand centrifuges used to enrich nuclear material.

The success of this sabotage came to light only in June 2010, when the malware spread to outside computers. It was spotted by independent security researchers, who identified telltale signs that the worm was the work of thousands of hours of professional development. Despite headlines around the globe, officials in Washington have never openly acknowledged that the US was behind the attack. It wasn't until 2012 that anonymous sources within the Obama administration took credit for it in interviews with The New York Times.

But Stuxnet is only the beginning. Alexander's agency has recruited thousands of computer experts, hackers, and engineering PhDs to expand US offensive capabilities in the digital realm. The Pentagon has requested $4.7 billion for "cyberspace operations," even as the budget of the CIA and other intelligence agencies could fall by $4.4 billion. It is pouring millions into cyberdefense contractors. And more attacks may be planned.

Alexander's background is equally impressive: a classmate of Petraeus and Dempsey, a favorite of Rumsfeld, the General had supreme power written all over his career progression. If reaching the top at all costs meant crushing the fourth amendment and lying to Congress in the process, so be it:

Born in 1951, the third of five children, Alexander was raised in the small upstate New York hamlet of Onondaga Hill, a suburb of Syracuse. He tossed papers for the Syracuse Post-Standard and ran track at Westhill High School while his father, a former Marine private, was involved in local Republican politics. It was 1970, Richard Nixon was president, and most of the country had by then begun to see the war in Vietnam as a disaster. But Alexander had been accepted at West Point, joining a class that included two other future four-star generals, David Petraeus and Martin Dempsey. Alexander would never get the chance to serve in Vietnam. Just as he stepped off the bus at West Point, the ground war finally began winding down.

In April 1974, just before graduation, he married his high school classmate Deborah Lynn Douglas, who grew up two doors away in Onondaga Hill. The fighting in Vietnam was over, but the Cold War was still bubbling, and Alexander focused his career on the solitary, rarefied world of signals intelligence, bouncing from secret NSA base to secret NSA base, mostly in the US and Germany. He proved a competent administrator, carrying out assignments and adapting to the rapidly changing high tech environment. Along the way he picked up masters degrees in electronic warfare, physics, national security strategy, and business administration. As a result, he quickly rose up the military intelligence ranks, where expertise in advanced technology was at a premium.

In 2001, Alexander was a one-star general in charge of the Army Intelligence and Security Command, the military's worldwide network of 10,700 spies and eavesdroppers. In March of that year he told his hometown Syracuse newspaper that his job was to discover threats to the country. "We have to stay out in front of our adversary," Alexander said. "It's a chess game, and you don't want to lose this one." But just six months later, Alexander and the rest of the American intelligence community suffered a devastating defeat when they were surprised by the attacks on 9/11. Following the assault, he ordered his Army intercept operators to begin illegally monitoring the phone calls and email of American citizens who had nothing to do with terrorism, including intimate calls between journalists and their spouses. Congress later gave retroactive immunity to the telecoms that assisted the government.

In 2003, Alexander, a favorite of defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, was named the Army's deputy chief of staff for intelligence, the service's most senior intelligence position. Among the units under his command were the military intelligence teams involved in the human rights abuses at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. Two years later, Rumsfeld appointed Alexander-now a three-star general-director of the NSA, where he oversaw the illegal, warrantless wiretapping program while deceiving members of the House Intelligence Committee. In a publicly released letter to Alexander shortly after The New York Times exposed the program, US representative Rush Holt, a member of the committee, angrily took him to task for not being forthcoming about the wiretapping: "Your responses make a mockery of congressional oversight."

In short: Emperor Alexander.

Inside the government, the general is regarded with a mixture of respect and fear, not unlike J. Edgar Hoover, another security figure whose tenure spanned multiple presidencies. "We jokingly referred to him as Emperor Alexander-with good cause, because whatever Keith wants, Keith gets," says one former senior CIA official who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity. "We would sit back literally in awe of what he was able to get from Congress, from the White House, and at the expense of everybody else."

What happened next in Alexander's career some time in the mid 2000's, was Stuxnet: the story of the crushing virus that nearly destroyed the Iranian nuclear program has been widely documented on these pages and elsewhere, so we won't recount the Wired article's details. However, what was very odd about the Stuxnet attack is that such a brilliantly conceived and delivered virus could ultimately be uncovered and traced back to the NSA and Israel. It was almost too good. Still, what happened after the revelation that Stuxnet could be traced to Fort Meade, is that the middle-east, supposedly, promptly retaliated:

Sure enough, in August 2012 a devastating virus was unleashed on Saudi Aramco, the giant Saudi state-owned energy company. The malware infected 30,000 computers, erasing three-quarters of the company's stored data, destroying everything from documents to email to spreadsheets and leaving in their place an image of a burning American flag, according to The New York Times. Just days later, another large cyberattack hit RasGas, the giant Qatari natural gas company. Then a series of denial-of-service attacks took America's largest financial institutions offline. Experts blamed all of this activity on Iran, which had created its own cyber command in the wake of the US-led attacks. James Clapper, US director of national intelligence, for the first time declared cyberthreats the greatest danger facing the nation, bumping terrorism down to second place. In May, the Department of Homeland Security's Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team issued a vague warning that US energy and infrastructure companies should be on the alert for cyberattacks. It was widely reported that this warning came in response to Iranian cyberprobes of industrial control systems. An Iranian diplomat denied any involvement.

The cat-and-mouse game could escalate. "It's a trajectory," says James Lewis, a cyber­security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The general consensus is that a cyber response alone is pretty worthless. And nobody wants a real war." Under international law, Iran may have the right to self-defense when hit with destructive cyberattacks. William Lynn, deputy secretary of defense, laid claim to the prerogative of self-defense when he outlined the Pentagon's cyber operations strategy. "The United States reserves the right," he said, "under the laws of armed conflict, to respond to serious cyberattacks with a proportional and justified military response at the time and place of our choosing." Leon Panetta, the former CIA chief who had helped launch the Stuxnet offensive, would later point to Iran's retaliation as a troubling harbinger. "The collective result of these kinds of attacks could be a cyber Pearl Harbor," he warned in October 2012, toward the end of his tenure as defense secretary, "an attack that would cause physical destruction and the loss of life."

Almost too good... Because what the so-called hacker "retaliations" originating from Iran, China, Russia, etc, led to such laughable outcomes as DDOS attacks against - to unprecedented media fanfare - the portals of such firms as JPMorgan and Wells Fargo, and as Wired adds, "if Stuxnet was the proof of concept, it also proved that one successful cyberattack begets another. For Alexander, this offered the perfect justification for expanding his empire."

The expansion that took place next for Alexander and his men, all of it under the Obama regime, was simply unprecedented (and that it steamrolled right through the "sequester" was perfectly expected):

[D]ominance has long been their watchword. Alexander's Navy calls itself the Information Dominance Corps. In 2007, the then secretary of the Air Force pledged to "dominate cyberspace" just as "today, we dominate air and space." And Alexander's Army warned, "It is in cyberspace that we must use our strategic vision to dominate the information environment." The Army is reportedly treating digital weapons as another form of offensive capability, providing frontline troops with the option of requesting "cyber fire support" from Cyber Command in the same way they request air and artillery support.

All these capabilities require a giant expansion of secret facilities. Thousands of hard-hatted construction workers will soon begin erecting cranes, driving backhoes, and emptying cement trucks as they expand the boundaries of NSA's secret city eastward, increasing its already enormous size by a third. "You could tell that some of the seniors at NSA were truly concerned that cyber was going to engulf them," says a former senior Cyber Command official, "and I think rightfully so."

In May, work began on a $3.2 billion facility housed at Fort Meade in Maryland. Known as Site M, the 227-acre complex includes its own 150-megawatt power substation, 14 administrative buildings, 10 parking garages, and chiller and boiler plants. The server building will have 90,000 square feet of raised floor-handy for supercomputers-yet hold only 50 people. Meanwhile, the 531,000-square-foot operations center will house more than 1,300 people. In all, the buildings will have a footprint of 1.8 million square feet. Even more ambitious plans, known as Phase II and III, are on the drawing board. Stretching over the next 16 years, they would quadruple the footprint to 5.8 million square feet, enough for nearly 60 buildings and 40 parking garages, costing $5.2 billion and accommodating 11,000 more cyberwarriors.

In short, despite the sequestration, layoffs, and furloughs in the federal government, it's a boom time for Alexander. In April, as part of its 2014 budget request, the Pentagon asked Congress for $4.7 billion for increased "cyberspace operations," nearly $1 billion more than the 2013 allocation. At the same time, budgets for the CIA and other intelligence agencies were cut by almost the same amount, $4.4 billion. A portion of the money going to Alexander will be used to create 13 cyberattack teams.

In the New Normal, the CIA is no longer relevant: all that matters are Alexanders' armies of hackers and computer geeks.

But not only has the public espionage sector been unleashed: the private sector is poised to reap a killing (pardon the pun) too...

What's good for Alexander is good for the fortunes of the cyber-industrial complex, a burgeoning sector made up of many of the same defense contractors who grew rich supplying the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. With those conflicts now mostly in the rearview mirror, they are looking to Alexander as a kind of savior. After all, the US spends about $30 billion annually on cybersecurity goods and services.

In the past few years, the contractors have embarked on their own cyber building binge parallel to the construction boom at Fort Meade: General Dynamics opened a 28,000-square-foot facility near the NSA; SAIC cut the ribbon on its new seven-story Cyber Innovation Center; the giant CSC unveiled its Virtual Cyber Security Center. And at consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, where former NSA director Mike McConnell was hired to lead the cyber effort, the company announced a "cyber-solutions network" that linked together nine cyber-focused facilities. Not to be outdone, Boeing built a new Cyber Engagement Center. Leaving nothing to chance, it also hired retired Army major general Barbara Fast, an old friend of Alexander's, to run the operation. (She has since moved on.)

Defense contractors have been eager to prove that they understand Alexander's worldview. "Our Raytheon cyberwarriors play offense and defense," says one help-wanted site. Consulting and engineering firms such as Invertix and Parsons are among dozens posting online want ads for "computer network exploitation specialists." And many other companies, some unidentified, are seeking computer and network attackers. "Firm is seeking computer network attack specialists for long-term government contract in King George County, VA," one recent ad read. Another, from Sunera, a Tampa, Florida, company, said it was hunting for "attack and penetration consultants."

It gets better: all those anti-virus programs you have on computer to "make it safe" from backdoors and trojans? Guess what - they are the backdoors and trojans!

One of the most secretive of these contractors is Endgame Systems, a startup backed by VCs including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Paladin Capital Group. Established in Atlanta in 2008, Endgame is transparently antitransparent. "We've been very careful not to have a public face on our company," former vice president John M. Farrell wrote to a business associate in an email that appeared in a WikiLeaks dump. "We don't ever want to see our name in a press release," added founder Christopher Rouland. True to form, the company declined Wired's interview requests.

Perhaps for good reason: According to news reports, Endgame is developing ways to break into Internet-connected devices through chinks in their antivirus armor. Like safecrackers listening to the click of tumblers through a stethoscope, the "vulnerability researchers" use an extensive array of digital tools to search for hidden weaknesses in commonly used programs and systems, such as Windows and Internet Explorer. And since no one else has ever discovered these unseen cracks, the manufacturers have never developed patches for them.

Thus, in the parlance of the trade, these vulnerabilities are known as "zero-day exploits," because it has been zero days since they have been uncovered and fixed. They are the Achilles' heel of the security business, says a former senior intelligence official involved with cyberwarfare. Those seeking to break into networks and computers are willing to pay millions of dollars to obtain them.

Such as the US government. But if you thought PRISM was bad you ain't seen nuthin' yet. Because tying it all together is Endgame's appropriately named "Bonesaw" - what it is is practically The Matrix transplanted into the real cyber world.

According to Defense News' C4ISR Journal and Bloomberg Businessweek, Endgame also offers its intelligence clients-agencies like Cyber Command, the NSA, the CIA, and British intelligence-a unique map showing them exactly where their targets are located. Dubbed Bonesaw, the map displays the geolocation and digital address of basically every device connected to the Internet around the world, providing what's called network situational awareness. The client locates a region on the password-protected web-based map, then picks a country and city- say, Beijing, China. Next the client types in the name of the target organization, such as the Ministry of Public Security's No. 3 Research Institute, which is responsible for computer security-or simply enters its address, 6 Zhengyi Road. The map will then display what software is running on the computers inside the facility, what types of malware some may contain, and a menu of custom-designed exploits that can be used to secretly gain entry. It can also pinpoint those devices infected with malware, such as the Conficker worm, as well as networks turned into botnets and zombies- the equivalent of a back door left open.

Bonesaw also contains targeting data on US allies, and it is soon to be upgraded with a new version codenamed Velocity, according to C4ISR Journal. It will allow Endgame's clients to observe in real time as hardware and software connected to the Internet around the world is added, removed, or changed.

More on Bonesaw:

Marketing documents say "the Bonesaw platform provides a complete environment for intelligence analysts and mission planners to take a holistic approach to target discovery, reducing the time to create actionable intelligence and operational plans from days to minutes."

"Bonesaw is the ability to map, basically every device connected to the Internet and what hardware and software it is," says a company official who requested anonymity. The official points out that the firm doesn't launch offensive cyber ops, it just helps.

Back to Wired:

[S]uch access doesn't come cheap. One leaked report indicated that annual subscriptions could run as high as $2.5 million for 25 zero-day exploits.

That's ok though, the US government is happy to collect taxpayer money so it can pay these venture capital-backed private firms for the best in espionage technology, allowing it to reach, hack and manipulate every computer system foreign. And domestic.

How ironic: US citizens are funding Big Brother's own unprecedented spying program against themselves!

Not only that, but by allowing the NSA to develop and utilize technology that is leaps ahead of everyone else - utilize it against the US citizens themselves - America is now effectively war against itself... Not to mention every other foreign country that is a intelligence interest:

The buying and using of such a subscription by nation-states could be seen as an act of war. "If you are engaged in reconnaissance on an adversary's systems, you are laying the electronic battlefield and preparing to use it," wrote Mike Jacobs, a former NSA director for information assurance, in a McAfee report on cyberwarfare. "In my opinion, these activities constitute acts of war, or at least a prelude to future acts of war." The question is, who else is on the secretive company's client list? Because there is as of yet no oversight or regulation of the cyberweapons trade, companies in the cyber-industrial complex are free to sell to whomever they wish. "It should be illegal," says the former senior intelligence official involved in cyber­warfare. "I knew about Endgame when I was in intelligence. The intelligence community didn't like it, but they're the largest consumer of that business."

And there you have it: US corporations happily cooperating with the US government's own espionage services, however since the only thing that matters in the private sector is the bottom line, the Endgames of the world will gladly sell the same ultra-secret services to everyone else who is willing to pay top dollar: China, Russia, Iran...

in their willingness to pay top dollar for more and better zero-day exploits, the spy agencies are helping drive a lucrative, dangerous, and unregulated cyber arms race, one that has developed its own gray and black markets. The companies trading in this arena can sell their wares to the highest bidder-be they frontmen for criminal hacking groups or terrorist organizations or countries that bankroll terrorists, such as Iran. Ironically, having helped create the market in zero-day exploits and then having launched the world into the era of cyberwar, Alexander now says the possibility of zero-day exploits falling into the wrong hands is his "greatest worry."

Does Alexander have reason to be worried? Oh yes.

In May, Alexander discovered that four months earlier someone, or some group or nation, had secretly hacked into a restricted US government database known as the National Inventory of Dams. Maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers, it lists the vulnerabilities for the nation's dams, including an estimate of the number of people who might be killed should one of them fail. Meanwhile, the 2013 "Report Card for America's Infrastructure" gave the US a D on its maintenance of dams. There are 13,991 dams in the US that are classified as high-hazard, the report said. A high-hazard dam is defined as one whose failure would cause loss of life. "That's our concern about what's coming in cyberspace-a destructive element. It is a question of time," Alexander said in a talk to a group involved in information operations and cyberwarfare, noting that estimates put the time frame of an attack within two to five years. He made his comments in September 2011.

In other words, this massive cyberattack against the US predicted by "Emperor" Alexander, an attack in which as Alexander himself has said cyberweapons represent the 21st century equivalent of nuclear arms (and require in kind retaliation) whether false flag or real, is due... some time right around now.

[Mar 22, 2013] Decade-old espionage malware found targeting government computers

Mar 20 2013 | Ars Technica

"TeamSpy" used digitally signed TeamViewer remote access tool to spy on victims.

Researchers have unearthed a decade-long espionage operation that used the popular TeamViewer remote-access program and proprietary malware to target high-level political and industrial figures in Eastern Europe.

TeamSpy, as the shadow group has been dubbed, collected encryption keys and documents marked as "secret" from a variety of high-level targets, according to a report published Wednesday by Hungary-based CrySyS Lab.

Targets included a Russia-based Embassy for an undisclosed country belonging to both NATO and the European Union, an industrial manufacturer also located in Russia, multiple research and educational organizations in France and Belgium, and an electronics company located in Iran. CrySyS learned of the attacks after Hungary's National Security Authority disclosed intelligence that TeamSpy had hit an unnamed "Hungarian high-profile governmental victim."

Malware used in the attacks indicates that those responsible may have operated for years and may have also targeted figures in a variety of countries throughout the world. Adding intrigue to the discovery, techniques used in the attacks bear a striking resemblance to an online banking fraud ring known as Sheldon, and a separate analysis from researchers at Kaspersky Lab found similarities to the Red October espionage campaign that the Russia-based security firm discovered earlier this year.

"Most likely the same attackers are behind the attacks that span for the last 10 years, as there are clear connections between samples used in different years and campaigns," CrySyS researchers wrote in their report. "Interestingly, the attacks began to gain new momentum in the second half of 2012."

They added: "The attackers surely aim for important targets. This conclusion comes from a number of different facts, including victim IPs, known activities on some targets, traceroute for probably high-profile targets, file names used in information stealing activities, strange paramilitary language of some structures, etc."

The attackers relied on a variety of methods, including the use of a digitally signed version of TeamViewer that has been modified through a technique known as "DLL hijacking" to spy on targets in real-time. Installation of the compromised program also provides attackers with a backdoor to install updates and additional malware. Both the TeamViewer technique and command servers used in the attack harken back to Sheldon. The TeamSpy operation also relies on more traditional malware tools that were custom-built for the purpose of espionage or bank fraud.

According to Kaspersky, the operators infected their victims through a series of "watering hole" attacks that plant malware on websites frequented by the intended victims. When the targets visit the booby-trapped sites, they also become infected. The attackers also injected malware into advertising networks to blanket entire regions. In many cases, much of that attack code used to infect victims was spawned from the Eleonore exploit kit. Domains used to host command and control servers that communicated with infected machines included politnews.org, bannetwork.org, planetanews.org, bulbanews.org, and r2bnetwork.org.

The discovery of TeamSpy is only the latest to reveal an international operation that uses malware to siphon sensitive data from high-profile targets. The most well-known campaign was dubbed Flame. Other surveillance campaigns include Gauss and Duqu, all three of which are believed to have been supported by a well-resourced nation-state. Last year, researchers also uncovered an espionage campaign dubbed Mahdi.

Decade-Old Espionage Malware Found Targeting Government Computers

Slashdot

Researchers have unearthed a decade-long espionage operation that used the popular TeamViewer remote-access program and proprietary malware to target high-level political and industrial figures in Eastern Europe. TeamSpy, as the shadow group has been dubbed, collected encryption keys and documents marked as 'secret' from a variety of high-level targets, according to a report published Wednesday by Hungary-based CrySyS Lab. Targets included a Russia-based Embassy for an undisclosed country belonging to both NATO and the European Union, an industrial manufacturer also located in Russia, multiple research and educational organizations in France and Belgium, and an electronics company located in Iran. CrySyS learned of the attacks after Hungary's National Security Authority disclosed intelligence that TeamSpy had hit an unnamed 'Hungarian high-profile governmental victim.'

erroneus

Suspiscious based on what criteria?

  1. We aren't allowed to use open source and so we have to "trust" every 'signed binary' which executives and leaders want to use. If we could use open source, we could at least read the source and even compile it to ensure the source we read was the binary which was compiled.

  2. When the malware doesn't do "harm" to anything, the sympoms of malware are non-existant. No pop-up ads, no unusual crashing (see note about being unable to use open source... the 'other' operaitng system crashes often enough for inexplicable reasons that no one suspects malware as the cause any longer) and when a commonly used utility program which performs remote access is used, how can it be detected as malware?

Arguably, that it was proprietary and commercial software which was exploited is pretty disturbing. But at the same time, that software makers (and other device and product makers, and service providers too) frequently enter into deals with government to spy on people is unfortunately very common. That the "white-hat" (heh, I accidentally typed "white-hate"... apropos?) nation called the USA has compromised global communications with Echelon and more recently with the much celebrated NSA wiretapping, does not help matters.

I think no one appreciates the value of trust. Once it's lost, it's lost. What amount of trust in government... any government... may have existed, it is gone for most of us.

The unenlightened? Well... they still watch MSM (mainstream media, I have come to know these initials). What hope have they against that?

Anonymous Coward

Re:A strong push for open source in government (Score:1)

I suspect that as more malware and backdoors are discovered in systems used by government, the penny will begin to drop more frequently. Closed source is incompatible with security, by definition, since you cannot validly trust what you cannot see

Bullshit. Open or closed source has no direct bearing on the ability of an attacker to infect a binary. Open source provides more eyes on a given bug or problem, but once compiled and running its the exact same problem.

The article mentions use of a modified signed binary. So tell me how open source is going to remedy that? Unless you're recompiling from scratch (your entire tool chain, plus dependencies) on each launch, you're just as fucked as the next guy. Are you going to checksum the binary in memory each time a method is called? Are you going to encrypt/decrypt on each call? What's to stop an attacker from modifying your checksum code in the same manner as CD checks on games are trivially broken?

The only thing open source is really going to do for you is ensure that if you compile from source, the attack didn't originate from that source. So what?

Anonymous Coward

The fact it's open source IS (or can be) the pathway. If it's a small piece of software that does a specific function that's not of use to many people, your million eyeballs shrink rapidly. And what you're left with (IMO) is a handful of eyeballs thinking "I don't have the time/skills for this, it's open source, I'm sure someone will have looked over it" while no one actually does.

Or someone auditing the code but not the stuff around it, or maybe the code as distributed is clean and will compile into a clean and functioning binary, but the scripts around it actually add some malicious steps if certain criteria are met.

Open source isn't a magic bullet.

[Feb 13, 2013] Welcome to the Malware-Industrial Complex By Tom Simonite

February 13, 2013 | MIT Technology Review

The U.S. government is developing new computer weapons and driving a black market in "zero-day" bugs. The result could be a more dangerous Web for everyone.

Every summer, computer security experts get together in Las Vegas for Black Hat and DEFCON, conferences that have earned notoriety for presentations demonstrating critical security holes discovered in widely used software. But while the conferences continue to draw big crowds, regular attendees say the bugs unveiled haven't been quite so dramatic in recent years.

One reason is that a freshly discovered weakness in a popular piece of software, known in the trade as a "zero-day" vulnerability, can be cashed in for much more than a reputation boost and some free drinks at the bar. Information about such flaws can command prices in the hundreds of thousands of dollars from defense contractors, security agencies and governments.

This trade in zero-day exploits is poorly documented, but it is perhaps the most visible part of a new industry that in the years to come is likely to swallow growing portions of the U.S. national defense budget, reshape international relations, and perhaps make the Web less safe for everyone.

Zero-day exploits are valuable because they can be used to sneak software onto a computer system without detection by conventional computer security measures, such as antivirus packages or firewalls. Criminals might do that to intercept credit card numbers. An intelligence agency or military force might steal diplomatic communications or even shut down a power plant.

It became clear that this type of assault would define a new era in warfare in 2010, when security researchers discovered a piece of malicious software, or malware, known as Stuxnet. Now widely believed to have been a project of U.S. and Israeli intelligence (U.S. officials have yet to publicly acknowledge a role but have done so anonymously to the New York Times and NPR), Stuxnet was carefully designed to infect multiple systems needed to access and control industrial equipment used in Iran's nuclear program. The payload was clearly the work of a group with access to government-scale resources and intelligence, but it was made possible by four zero-day exploits for Windows that allowed it to silently infect target computers. That so many precious zero-days were used at once was just one of Stuxnet's many striking features.

Since then, more Stuxnet-like malware has been uncovered, and it's involved even more complex techniques (see "The Antivirus Era Is Over"). It is likely that even more have been deployed but escaped public notice. Meanwhile, governments and companies in the United States and around the world have begun paying more and more for the exploits needed to make such weapons work, says Christopher Soghoian, a principal technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union.

"On the one hand the government is freaking out about cyber-security, and on the other the U.S. is participating in a global market in vulnerabilities and pushing up the prices," says Soghoian, who says he has spoken with people involved in the trade and that prices range from the thousands to the hundreds of thousands. Even civilian law-enforcement agencies pay for zero-days, Soghoian says, in order to sneak spy software onto suspects' computers or mobile phones.

Exploits for mobile operating systems are particularly valued, says Soghoian, because unlike desktop computers, mobile systems are rarely updated. Apple sends updates to iPhone software a few times a year, meaning that a given flaw could be exploited for a long time. Sometimes the discoverer of a zero day vulnerability receives a monthly payment as long as a flaw remains undiscovered. "As long as Apple or Microsoft has not fixed it you get paid," says Soghioan.

No law directly regulates the sale of zero-days in the United States or elsewhere, so some traders pursue it quite openly. A Bangkok-based security researcher who goes by the name The Grugq tweets about acting as a middleman and has spoken to the press about negotiating deals worth hundreds of thousands of dollars with government buyers from the United States and western Europe. In an argument on Twitter last month, he denied that his business is equivalent to arms dealing, as critics within and outside the computer security community have charged. "An exploit is a component of a toolchain," he tweeted. "The team that produces & maintains the toolchain is the weapon."

Some small companies are similarly up-front about their involvement in the trade. The French security company VUPEN states on its website that it

"provides government-grade exploits specifically designed for the Intelligence community and national security agencies to help them achieve their offensive cyber security and lawful intercept missions."

Last year, employees of the company publicly demonstrated a zero-day flaw that compromised Google's Chrome browser, but they turned down Google's offer of a $60,000 reward if they would share how it worked. What happened to the exploit is unknown.

No U.S. government agency has gone on the record as saying that it buys zero-days. But U.S. defense agencies and companies have begun to publicly acknowledge that they intend to launch as well as defend against cyberattacks, a stance that will require new ways to penetrate enemy computers.

General Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency and commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, told a symposium in Washington last October that the United States is prepared to do more than just block computer attacks. "Part of our defense has to consider offensive measures," he said, making him one of the most senior officials to admit that the government will make use of malware. Earlier in 2012 the U.S. Air Force invited proposals for developing "Cyberspace Warfare Attack capabilities" that could "destroy, deny, degrade, disrupt, deceive, corrupt, or usurp the adversaries [sic] ability to use the cyberspace domain for his advantage." And in November, Regina Dugan, the head of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, delivered another clear signal about the direction U.S. defense technology is heading. "In the coming years we will focus an increasing portion of our cyber research on the investigation of offensive capabilities to address military-specific needs," she said, announcing that the agency expected to expand cyber-security research from 8 percent of its budget to 12 percent.

Defense analysts say one reason for the shift is that talking about offense introduces an element of deterrence, an established strategy for nuclear and conventional conflicts. Up to now, U.S. politicians and defense chiefs have talked mostly about the country's vulnerability to digital attacks. Last fall, for example, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned frankly that U.S. infrastructure was being targeted by overseas attackers and that a "digital Pearl Harbor" could result (see "U.S. Power Grids, Water Plants a Hacking Target").

Major defense contractors are less forthcoming about their role in making software to attack enemies of the U.S. government, but they are evidently rushing to embrace the opportunity. "It's a growing area of the defense business at the same time that the rest of the defense business is shrinking," says Peter Singer, director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "They've identified two growth areas: drones and cyber."

Large contractors are hiring many people with computer security skills, and some job openings make it clear there are opportunities to play more than just defense. Last year, Northrop Grumman posted ads seeking people to "plan, execute and assess an Offensive Cyberspace Operation (OCO) mission," and many current positions at Northrop ask for "hands-on experience of offensive cyber operations." Raytheon prefaces its ads for security-related jobs with language designed to appeal to stereotypical computer hackers: "Surfboards, pirate flags, and DEFCON black badges decorate our offices, and our Nerf collection dwarfs that of most toy stores. Our research and development projects cover the spectrum of offensive and defensive security technologies."

The new focus of America's military and defense contractors may concern some taxpayers. As more public dollars are spent researching new ways to attack computer systems, some of that money will go to people like The Grugq to discover fresh zero-day vulnerabilities. And an escalating cycle of competition between U.S and overseas government agencies and contractors could make the world more dangerous for computer users everywhere.

"Every country makes weapons: unfortunately, cyberspace is like that too," says Sujeet Shenoi, who leads the U.S.-government-sponsored Cyber Corps Program at the University of Tulsa. His program trains students for government jobs defending against attacks, but he fears that defense contractors, also eager to recruit these students, are pushing the idea of offense too hard. Developing powerful malware introduces the dangerous temptation to use it, says Shenoi, who fears the consequences of active strikes against infrastructure. "I think maybe the civilian courts ought to get together and bar these kinds of attacks," he says.

The ease with which perpetrators of a computer attack can hide their tracks also raises the risk that such weapons will be used, Shenoi points out. Worse, even if an attack using malware is unsuccessful, there's a strong chance that a copy will remain somewhere on the victim's system-by accident or design-or accidentally find its way onto computer systems not targeted at all, as Stuxnet did. Some security firms have already identified criminal malware that uses methods first seen in Stuxnet (see "Stuxnet Tricks Copied by Criminals").

"The parallel is dropping the atomic bomb but also leaflets with the design of it," says Singer. He estimates that around 100 countries already have cyber-war units of some kind, and around 20 have formidable capabilities: "There's a lot of people playing this game."

[Nov 12, 2012] After Stuxnet The new rules of cyberwar

Stuxnet is definitely a source of a large blowback. It also make the US or Israle or both the first nations which deployed cyber weapon against other nation, without any declaration of war. "In taking this step, the perpetrator not only demonstrated that control systems are vulnerable, but also legitimized this kind of activity by a nation-state, he says."
Computerworld

Three years ago, when electric grid operators were starting to talk about the need to protect critical infrastructure from cyberattacks, few utilities had even hired a chief information security officer.

Then came Stuxnet.

In 2010, that malware, widely reported to have been created by the U.S. and Israel, reportedly destroyed 1,000 centrifuges that Iran was using to enrich uranium after taking over the computerized systems that operated the centrifuges.

Gen. Michael Hayden, principal at security consultancy The Chertoff Group, was director of the National Security Agency, and then the CIA, during the years leading up to the event. "I have to be careful about this," he says,

"but in a time of peace, someone deployed a cyberweapon to destroy what another nation would describe as its critical infrastructure."

In taking this step, the perpetrator not only demonstrated that control systems are vulnerable, but also legitimized this kind of activity by a nation-state, he says.

The attack rattled the industry. "Stuxnet was a game-changer because it opened people's eyes to the fact that a cyber event can actually result in physical damage," says Mark Weatherford, deputy undersecretary for cybersecurity in the National Protection Programs Directorate at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

In another development that raised awareness of the threat of cyberwar, the U.S. government in October accused Iran of launching distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against U.S. financial institutions. In a speech intended to build support for stalled legislation known as the Cybersecurity Act that would enable greater information sharing and improved cybersecurity standards, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned that the nation faced the possibility of a "cyber Pearl Harbor" unless action was taken to better protect critical infrastructure.

"Awareness of the problem has been the biggest change" since the release of Stuxnet, says Tim Roxey, chief cybersecurity officer for the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC), a trade group serving electrical grid operators. He noted that job titles such as CISO and cybersecurity officer are much more common than they once were, new cybersecurity standards are now under development, and there's a greater emphasis on information sharing, both within the industry and with the DHS through sector-specific Information Sharing and Analysis Centers. (Read our timeline of critical infrastructure attacks over the years.)

On the other hand, cybersecurity is still not among the top five reliability concerns for most utilities, according to John Pescatore, an analyst at Gartner. Says Roxey: "It's clearly in the top 10." But then, so is vegetation management.

Compounding the challenge is the fact that regulated utilities tend to have tight budgets. That's a big problem, says Paul Kurtz, managing director of international practice at security engineering company CyberPoint International and former senior director for critical infrastructure protection at the White House's Homeland Security Council. "We're not offering cost-effective, measurable solutions," he says. "How do you do this without hemorrhaging cash?"

Should the U.S. Strike Back?

Most best practices on dealing with cyberattacks on critical infrastructure focus on defense: patching vulnerabilities and managing risk. But should the U.S. conduct preemptive strikes against suspected attackers -- or at least hit back?

Gen. Michael Hayden, principal at security consultancy The Chertoff Group, and former director of the NSA and the CIA, says the cybersecurity problem can be understood through the classic risk equation: Risk (R) = threat (T) x vulnerability (V) x consequences (C). "If I can drive any factor down to zero, the risk goes down to zero," he says. So far, most efforts have focused on reducing V, and there's been a shift toward C, with the goal of determining how to rapidly detect an attack, contain the damage and stay online. "But we are only now beginning to wonder, how do I push T down? How do I reduce the threat?" Hayden says. "Do I shoot back?"

The DOD is contemplating the merits of "cross-domain" responses, says James Lewis, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "We might respond with a missile. That increases the uncertainty for opponents."

Ultimately, countries that launch such attacks will pay a price, says Howard Schmidt, former cybersecurity coordinator and special assistant to the president. --[Does this possibility includes the USA and Israel? -- NNB] The U.S. response could involve economic sanctions -- or it could involve the use of military power.

- Robert L. Mitchell

Falling Behind

Most experts agree that critical infrastructure providers have a long way to go. Melissa Hathaway, president of Hathaway Global Strategies, was the Obama administration's acting senior director for cyberspace in 2009. That year, she issued a Cyberspace Policy Review report that included recommendations for better protecting critical infrastructure, but there hasn't been much movement toward implementing those recommendations, she says. A draft National Cyber Incident Response plan has been published, but a national-level exercise, conducted in June, showed that the plan was insufficient to protect critical infrastructure.

"A lot of critical infrastructure is not even protected from basic hacking. I don't think the industry has done enough to address the risk, and they're looking for the government to somehow offset their costs," Hathaway says. There is, however, a broad recognition that critical infrastructure is vulnerable and that something needs to be done about it.

The Department of Defense has a direct stake in the security of the country's critical infrastructure because the military depends on it. "The Defense Science Board Task Force did a review of DOD reliance on critical infrastructure and found that an astute opponent could attack and harm the DOD's capabilities," says James Lewis, a senior fellow specializing in cybersecurity at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

At a forum in July, NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander was asked to rate the state of U.S. preparedness for an attack on critical infrastructure on a scale of 1 to 10. He responded, "I would say around a 3." The reasons include the inability to rapidly detect and respond to attacks, a lack of cybersecurity standards and a general unwillingness by both private companies and government agencies to share detailed information about threats and attacks. The DOD and intelligence agencies don't share information because they tend to overclassify it, says Hayden. And critical infrastructure providers prefer to keep things to themselves because they don't want to expose customer data and they're concerned about the liability issues that could arise and the damage their reputations could suffer if news of an attack were widely reported.

"The rules of the game are a little fuzzy on what you can and cannot share," says Edward Amoroso, chief security officer and a senior vice president at AT&T, noting that his biggest concern is the threat of a large-scale DDoS attack that could take down the Internet's backbone. "I need attorneys, and I need to exercise real care when interacting with the government," he says.

In some cases, critical infrastructure providers are damned if they do share information and damned if they don't. "If the government provides a signature to us, some policy observers would say that we're operating on behalf of that government agency," he says. All parties agree that, in a crisis, everyone should be able to share information in real time. "But talk to five different people and you'll get five different opinions about what is OK," says Amoroso. Unfortunately, government policy initiatives intended to resolve the issue, such as the Cybersecurity Act, have failed to move forward.

"It was disappointing for us that this nonpartisan issue became so contentious," says Weatherford. The lack of progress by policymakers is a problem for the DHS and the effectiveness of its National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC). The center, which is open around the clock, was designed to be the nexus for information sharing between private-sector critical infrastructure providers -- and the one place to call when there's a problem. "I want NCCIC to be the '911' of cybersecurity," he says. "We may not have all the answers or all the right people, but we know where they are."

Meanwhile, both the number of attacks and their level of sophistication have been on the rise. Richard Bejtlich, chief security officer at security consultancy Mandiant, says electric utilities and other businesses are under constant assault by foreign governments. "We estimate that 30% to 40% of the Fortune 500 have an active Chinese or Russian intrusion problem right now," he says. However, he adds, "I think the threat in that area is exaggerated," because the goal of such attacks is to steal intellectual property, not destroy infrastructure. (Read our timeline of critical infrastructure attacks over the years.)

Others disagree. "We've seen a new expertise developing around industrial control systems. We're seeing a ton of people and groups committed to the very technical aspects of these systems," says Howard Schmidt, who served as cybersecurity coordinator and special assistant to the president until last May and is now an independent consultant.

"People are too quick to dismiss the link between intellectual property loss through cyber intrusions and attacks against infrastructure," says Kurtz. "Spear phishing events can lead to the exfiltration of intellectual property, and that can have a spillover effect into critical infrastructure control system environments."

Hacking on the Rise

Cyberattackers fall into three primary categories: criminal organizations interested in stealing for monetary gain, hacktivists bent on furthering their own agendas, and foreign governments, or their agents, aiming to steal information or lay the groundwork for later attacks.

The Chinese are the most persistent, with several tiers of groups participating, says Richard Bejtlich, chief security officer at security consultancy Mandiant. Below official state-sponsored attacks are breaches by state militias, quasi-military and quasi-government organizations, and what he calls "patriotic hackers."

"It's almost a career path," says Bejtlich.

There's disagreement on which groups are the most sophisticated or dangerous, but that's not what matters. What matters is that the universe of attackers is expanding and they have ready access to an ever-growing wealth of knowledge about hacking, along with black hat tools helpful in launching attacks. "Over the next five years, low-level actors will get more sophisticated and the Internet [will expand] into areas of the Third World where the rule of law is weaker," says Gen. Michael Hayden, principal at security consultancy The Chertoff Group. "The part of the world responsible for criminal groups such as the Somali pirates is going to get wired."

- Robert L. Mitchell

Spear phishing attacks, sometimes called advanced targeted threats or advanced persistent threats, are efforts to break into an organization's systems by targeting specific people and trying, for example, to get them to open infected email messages that look like they were sent by friends. Such attacks have been particularly difficult to defend against.

Then there's the issue of zero-day attacks. While software and systems vendors have released thousands of vulnerability patches over the past 10 years, Amoroso says, "I wouldn't be surprised if there are thousands of zero-day vulnerabilities that go unreported." And while hacktivists may brag about uncovering vulnerabilities, criminal organizations and foreign governments prefer to keep that information to themselves. "The nation-state-sponsored attack includes not only the intellectual property piece but the ability to pre-position something when you want to be disruptive during a conflict," Schmidt says.

Usually in espionage it's much easier to steal intelligence than it is to do physical harm. That's not true in the cyber domain, says Hayden. "If you penetrate a network for espionage purposes, you've already got everything you'll want for destruction," he says.

On the other hand, while it's impossible for a private company to defend itself from physical warfare, that's not true when it comes to cyberattacks. Every attack exploits a weakness. "By closing that vulnerability, you stop the teenage kid, the criminal and the cyberwarrior," says Pescatore.

Control Anxiety

Computerized control systems are a potential problem area because the same systems are in use across many different types of critical infrastructure. "Where you used to turn dials or throw a switch, all of that is done electronically now," Schmidt says.

In addition, many industrial control systems that used to be "air-gapped" from the Internet are now connected to corporate networks for business reasons. "We've seen spreadsheets with thousands of control system components that are directly connected to the Internet. Some of those components contain known vulnerabilities that are readily exploitable without much sophistication," says Marty Edwards, director of control systems security at the Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) at the DHS. The organization, with a staff that's grown tenfold to 400 in the past four years, offers control system security standards, shares threat data with critical infrastructure providers and has a rapid response team of "cyberninjas," high-level control systems engineers and cybersecurity analysts who can be deployed at a moment's notice.

Last year, ICS-CERT issued 5,200 alerts and advisories to private industry and government. "[Edwards] had teams fly out seven times last year to help businesses respond to events that either took them offline or severely impacted operations," says Weatherford, who declined to provide details on the nature of those events.

Control systems also suffer from another major weakness: They're usually relatively old and can't easily be patched. "A lot of them were never designed to operate in a network environment, and they aren't designed to take upgrades," Schmidt says. "Its firmware is soldered onto the device, and the only way to fix it is to replace it." Since the systems were designed to last 10 to 20 years, organizations need to build protections around them until they can be replaced. In other cases, updates can be made, but operators have to wait for the service providers who maintain the equipment to do the patching.

So where should the industry go from here?

The place to start is with better standards and best practices, real-time detection and containment, and faster and more detailed information sharing both among critical infrastructure providers and with all branches of government.

Telecoms Deal With Escalating DDoS Threat

Electric grid operators worry about compromised computerized industrial control systems taking them offline. Telecommunications companies worry that a large-scale distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack will take out another type of critical infrastructure: the Internet.

Until 2009 or so, AT&T might have seen one major DDoS attack a year, says Edward Amoroso, chief security officer and a senior vice president at the telecommunications giant. Today, Tier 1 Internet service providers find themselves fending off a few dozen attacks at any given moment. "It used to be two guys bailing out the ship. Now we have 40, 50 or 60 people dumping the water out all the time," he says. In fact, attacks have been scaling up to the point where Amoroso says he worries they could potentially flood backbone networks, taking portions of the Internet offline.

It would take just 64,000 PCs infected with a virus similar to Conficker to spew out about 10Gbps of traffic, he says. "Multiply that by four, and you've got 40Gbps, which is the size of most backbones," says Amoroso.

AT&T hasn't yet seen an attack generate enough traffic to flood a backbone, but it may just be a matter of time. "So far no one has pushed that button," he says. "But we need to be prepared."

Telecommunications providers must constantly scramble and innovate to keep ahead. They devise new defense techniques, then those techniques become popular and adversaries figure out new ways to defeat them. "We're going to have to change the mechanisms we now use to stop DDoS [attacks]," he says.

While some progress has been made with standards at both the DHS and industry groups such as the NERC, some argue that government procurement policy could be used to drive higher security standards from manufacturers of hardware and software used to operate critical infrastructure. Today, no such policy exists across all government agencies.

"Government would be better off using its buying power to drive higher levels of security than trying to legislate higher levels of security," argues Pescatore. But the federal government doesn't require suppliers to meet a consistent set of security standards across all agencies.

Even basic changes in contract terms would help, says Schmidt. "There's a belief held by me and others in the West Wing that there's nothing to preclude one from writing a contract today that says if you are providing IT services to the government you must have state-of-the-art cybersecurity protections in place. You must have mechanisms in place to notify the government of any intrusions, and you must have the ability to disconnect networks," he says.

But government procurement policy's influence on standards can go only so far. "The government isn't buying turbines" and control systems for critical infrastructure, says Lewis.

When it comes to shutting down attacks, faster reaction times are key, says Bejtlich. "Attackers are always going to find a way in, so you need to have skilled people who can conduct rapid and accurate detection and containment," he says. For high-end threats, he adds, that's the only effective countermeasure. Analysts need high visibility into the host systems, Bejtlich says, and the network and containment should be achieved within one hour of intrusion.

Opening the Kimono

Perhaps the toughest challenge will be creating the policies and fostering the trust required to encourage government and private industry to share what they know more openly. The government not only needs to pass legislation that provides the incentives and protections that critical infrastructure businesses need to share information on cyberthreats, but it also needs to push the law enforcement, military and intelligence communities to open up. For example, if the DOD is planning a cyberattack abroad against a type of critical infrastructure that's also used in the U.S., should information on the weakness being exploited be shared with U.S. companies so they can defend against counterattacks?

"There is a need for American industry to be plugged into some of the most secretive elements of the U.S. government -- people who can advise them in a realistic way of what it is that they need to be concerned about," says Hayden. Risks must be taken on both sides so everyone has a consistent view of the threats and what's going on out there.

One way to do that is to share some classified information with selected representatives from private industry. The House of Representatives recently passed an intelligence bill, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, which would give security clearance to officials of critical industry operators. But the bill has been widely criticized by privacy groups, which say it's too broad. Given the current political climate, Hayden says he expects the bill to die in the Senate.

Information sharing helps, and standards form a baseline for protection, but ultimately, every critical infrastructure provider must customize and differentiate its security strategy, Amoroso says. "Right now, every business has exactly the same cybersecurity defense, usually dictated by some auditor," he says. But as in football, you can't win using just the standard defense. A good offense will find a way around it. "You've got to mix it up," Amoroso says. "You don't tell the other guys what you're doing."

Next: Timeline: Critical infrastructure under attack

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