https://amzn.to/2uusbzXFierce ops tempo results in the News Roundup running commentary-free this week. Plus, Labor Day is the worst news weekend of the year.—BK
We live in a lawless banana republic:
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her staffers employed an informal and sometimes haphazard system for exchanging and storing sensitive information and were at times either unaware or unconcerned with State Department policy, documents from an FBI investigation into her private email server system show.
The documents reveal a myriad of new details about the email set-up and show that investigators found multiple attempts by hackers to access Clinton’s system — a series of personal devices and servers that the Democratic presidential candidate told investigators she used as a matter of convenience while she was secretary of state…
…Trump said in a statement: “Hillary Clinton’s answers to the FBI about her private email server defy belief. I was absolutely shocked to see that her answers to the FBI stood in direct contradiction to what she told the American people. After reading these documents, I really don’t understand how she was able to get away from prosecution.”
…The bureau wrote in its report that it was unable to track down all of Clinton’s electronic equipment because it had been destroyed or lost. One staffer told investigators he destroyed two mobile devices “by breaking them in half or hitting them with a hammer.” The FBI said it requested 13 devices from the law firm representing Clinton, and the firm said it could not produce any.
The FBI’s report traced the history of Clinton’s private server use, detailing ad hoc efforts to backup data and respond to requests for records. In one instance, after Clinton left office, someone created a personal Gmail account to move an archive of Clinton’s email on a laptop to a server run by Platte River Networks, a company Clinton had hired. The person then attempted to ship the laptop back to another person connected to Clinton.
According the FBI report, the laptop, which had not been wiped, got lost in transit. And the FBI would come to find on the Gmail account dozens of classified emails.
Someone, apparently at Platte River, did delete Clinton emails in late March 2015 in what the person described as an “oh s—” moment, having been instructed months earlier to permanently destroy the emails of two Clinton aides and change how long emails were retained.
That person, whose name is redacted, had received a request from the House Committee on Benghazi to preserve emails on March 9.
Clinton told FBI agents that she did not know much about how the government classified information. For instance, she said she did not pay attention to the difference between levels of classification, like “top secret” and “secret,” indicating she took “all classified information seriously.” When shown an email she received in which a paragraph had been marked with a “C,” a standard way of indicating it included “confidential” information, Clinton at first speculated to agents that the marking was indicating that email contained bullet points in alphabetical order.
Much of Clinton’s interview, which is described in an 11-page summary, appears to have consisted of FBI agents showing Clinton specific email exchanges that they determined included classified content and asking her to comment.
Repeatedly, Clinton said she could not remember the specific exchange but had trusted at the time that her staff at the State Department knew how to handle classified material and would not email her material they should not. The exact nature of those classified emails are redacted in the version of the summary released by the FBI but it is clear they included deliberations on drone targets…
…Comey has indicated the FBI discovered thousands of work related emails that Clinton had not turned over but said the agency found no effort to purposely delete or conceal emails.
Follow me on Twitter as I keep tabs on celebrity cases and the lawyers:
https://twitter.com/BKactual/status/771037870286970880
As the Army continues to integrate women into combat arms jobs, the 75th Ranger Regiment has seen its first female soldier attempt to join its ranks.
The staff sergeant attended the 75th Ranger Regiment’s Ranger Assessment and Selection Program 2 in June, officials said.
RASP 2 is designed for soldiers in the rank of staff sergeant and above and all officers volunteering for assignment to the elite regiment.
“The female soldier did not meet performance objectives required for assignment to the 75th Ranger Regiment,” said Lt. Col. Robert Bockholt, a spokesman for U.S. Army Special Operations Command. “The female soldier has been afforded the opportunity to reapply for RASP 2 beginning December 2016.”
Bockholt, who declined to provide the soldier’s name or military occupational specialty, said the NCO attended the RASP 2 course that began June 16. She has not attended or attempted the Army’s Ranger School at Fort Benning, Georgia, Bockholt said.
ABOARD A U.S. NAVY SHIP — A Marine walks up to a pullup bar. She takes a deep breath; leaps up and grabs hold … one, two, three, four. She cranks out pullup after pullup … 18, 19, 20 … and when she can’t do any more, she drops down and smoke seems to puff up from her Marine Corps-issued boots.
With 26 pullups, Marine Corps Cpl. Tori C. Best, a combat engineer with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, secured her place as the female record-holder aboard the USS Boxer.
Her record is only seven behind the male record-holder aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer during Western Pacific Deployment 16-1.
Best said her upbringing in Anchorage, Alaska, gave her the tools to excel and overcome any challenge, whether physical or mental.
WANTING to find something different when it comes to sex is nothing new, but apparently the craze for sex robots could be risky.
We’ve already reported on claims that teenagers could soon be losing their virginity to the mechanical love machines, with scientists also said to be working on robot sex brothel to cut the risk of STIs.
But now comes the warning – according to an expert in the field, we’ll need to be careful we don’t get addicted to artificial intelligence love making.
Joel Snell is an American Research Fellow from Kirkwood College, and he’s told the Daily Star there’s a real risk linked to the robots.
That’s because they’ll offer great sex at any time of the day and night.
There’ll be no need to for a bond with the robot, plus it’ll never be able to turn you down.
“People may become obsessed by their ever faithful, ever pleasing sex robot lovers,” he warned.
“People will rearrange their lives to accommodate their addictions.”
CNN) Less than two days after the US Navy revealed a third mechanical breakdown in a year of one of its $360 million littoral combat ships, the service has announced a fourth.
The USS Coronado was on its way back to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, after suffering an “engineering casualty,” a Navy statement said. It said it expected to reveal more about what happened after an inspection once the ship returned to port. The ship was heading to an independent deployment in the western Pacific when the mishap occurred. It had departed Hawaii on Friday.
The Coronado was under its own power but traveling with the escort of the tanker USNS Henry J. Kaiser on the trip back to Hawaii, the statement said…
But the Coronado’s incident means four of the six littoral combat ships in service have suffered mechanical failures in the past nine months.
Nearly forty-eight years after braving enemy fire to save his fellow soldiers, Edward Dvorak received the military’s third-highest award for valor Wednesday from the Department of the Army’s second-highest ranking civilian.
Army Undersecretary Patrick Murphy presented Dvorak with the honor at the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Veterans of Foreign Wars post, near Dvorak’s home of Lakebay, Washington. Dvorak’s delayed path to the award began in 2004, according to the Tacoma News Tribune, when he and fellow Vietnam vet Col. Myron Anderson began checking into whether some fellow soldiers may merit unawarded medals from their time in combat.
Anderson found just such a case: While a member of F Company, 51st Infantry Regiment, then-Sgt. Dvorak’s long range patrol team had been hit by two rocket-propelled grenades during a Nov. 29, 1968, mission near the military base at Bien Hoa. Wounded in the attack, the 19-year-old Dvorak grabbed an M60 and “provided immediate effective and suppressive machine gun fire to protect the seriously wounded LRPs while still exposing himself to automatic weapons fire,” according to his Silver Star citation.
It took two years to make this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5f2hRGUbv8
An Islamic State-style propaganda video, released under the supervision of the Iranian regime last month, portrays a group of Iranian men destroying an American Navy fleet.
According to MEMRI-TV, the film titled “‘Steadfastness 2’ was produced by the Organization of Islamic Information, an office under the supervision of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.” It reportedly “shows the Iranian response to a U.S. attack in the Persian Gulf.”
As the fleet of U.S. naval ships approach the shore, they start firing at a group of Iranian men who are each holding a flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran while singing in Persian, “If you step over me, I will break your legs into pieces!”
With one blast of a cannon from a U.S. warship, the Iranian men charge will fervor into the ocean, Iranian flags in hand, and unscathed into the ocean waters. A huge tidal wave then manifests and wipes out all the U.S. ships and aircraft.
In other words, it’s just easier to end a man’s career:
Last fall, the Navy Department had a controversial disciplinary case before it: Maj. Jason C. Brezler had been asked by Marine colleagues to submit all the information he had about an influential Afghan police chief suspected of abusing children. Brezler sent a classified document in response over an unclassified Yahoo email server, and he self-reported the mistake soon after. But the Marine Corps recommended that he be discharged for mishandling classified material.
The Navy Department, which oversees the Marine Corps, had the ability to uphold or overturn the decision. However, rather than just looking at the merits of the case, Navy officials also assessed that holding new hearings on the case would renew attention on the scandal surrounding child sex abuse in Afghanistan, according to military documents newly disclosed in federal court.
The documents, filed Tuesday in a lawsuit by Brezler against the Navy Department and Marine Corps, also show that Marine and Navy officials in Afghanistan were aware in 2012 of allegations of abuse against children by the Afghan police chief but that the chief was allowed to keep his position in Helmand province anyway. This became a major issue after a teenage boy who worked for the chief — and allegedly was abused by him — opened fire on a U.S. base Aug. 10, 2012, killing three Marines and badly wounding a fourth.
Washington (CNN) A year after finding that military personnel were using government credit cards at places such as Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club, the Pentagon’s inspector general said this week that safeguards still haven’t been put in place to protect taxpayer dollars from being used for unauthorized expenses.
The IG office found last year that from July 2013 to June 2014, Pentagon personnel spent an unauthorized $952,258 at casinos. They dropped another $96,576 at places like Sapphire Gentleman’s Club, which advertises itself as the world’s largest strip club, “featuring 70,000 square feet of topless entertainment.”
At the time, the IG warned that beyond the abuse of taxpayer dollars, the use of the travel credit cards for personal expenses in gambling houses and strip bars created potential national security vulnerabilities — blackmail is a risk if military personnel take part in sexual impropriety or incur major debt…
…The IG report reveals some frustration with senior Pentagon officials, too, noting that one of them had seemingly dismissed the IG’s concerns by arguing that misuse in the 2015 report represented only .04% of total travel card spending.
Hi, it’s BK. I know I said this was commentary-free, but can I jump in here a sec? I can’t freaking stand this argument. You know, the whole, “But the problem is only (insert tiny percentage here) of the total (whatever issue we’re talking about). If it’s not supposed to exist, then EVEN ONE DOLLAR is too many. So shut the hell up, senior Pentagon official jerks.
Northern Ireland is still a thing, apparently:
A serving Royal Marine has been charged with bomb-making and building secret caches for arms and explosives in England and Northern Ireland.
Ciaran Maxwell, serving with Taunton-based 40 Commando, faces charges under the 2006 Terrorism Act for intending to help another commit acts of terrorism.
The 30-year-old from Exminster in Devon was arrested last week by counter terrorism police who have since spent days searching sites nearby and in Larne, Co Antrim.
The Met police allege he had created hides “to store explosive substances, explosive devices, components for explosive devices, ammunition, weapons, tools and resources used during the construction of explosive devices and assorted other items linked to the preparation of an act of terrorism”.
Maxwell is also charged with getting an image of an adapted Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) pass card and items of PSNI uniform.
(CNN) An Oregon teen thought the picturesque Willamette River would be the perfect backdrop for her senior photos. What the soon-to-be South Eugene High School senior didn’t count on? A naked photo bomber.
Jillian Henry, 17, said when she and her friend, Elena Nesbit, realized they had company (sans clothes), “we both just started laughing.”
Did the background skinny dipper realize he was interrupting a photo session? Jillian said she’s not sure.
“We weren’t the only people there and I feel like he had to have seen us in the water with a camera, but he didn’t leave or anything,” she said.
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