Saturday, March 18, 2017


News and Views


LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/03/17/house-democrat-says-trump-may-have-leaked-government-secrets.html
EXECUTIVE
House Democrat says Trump may have leaked government secrets
By Alex Diaz Published March 17, 2017 FoxNews.com

RELATED: TRUMP GIVES CIA POWER TO LAUNCH DRONE STRIKES
RELATED: WHITE HOUSE OFFICIALS STAND BY TRUMP WIRETAPPING CLAIM

A remark that President Trump made to Fox News on Wednesday isn’t sitting well with the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, who is now suggesting that the commander-in-chief’s comments, if true, could be compared to the actions of government leakers.

In an exclusive interview with Fox’s Tucker Carlson on Wednesday night, President Trump suggested "the CIA was hacked and a lot of things were taken." He added "that was during the Obama years. That was not during us."

The president may have been referring to the recent publishing of what are alleged to be CIA documents and hacking tools by the website WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claims that the leaks are real, and highlight what he calls the “devastating incompetence” of the agency’s cybersecurity. The CIA has yet to confirm whether the materials are, in fact, authentic.

On Thursday, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, took serious issue with the president’s suggestion that the agency was hacked. And Schiff says that, if true, the president’s comments are akin to the actions of those who leak government secrets.

"It would be one thing if the president’s statements were the product of intelligence community discussion and a purposeful decision to disclose information to the public, but that is unlikely to be the case," Schiff said in a statement.

He added that while he thinks "the president has the power to declassify whatever he wants... this should be done as the product of thoughtful consideration and with intense input from any agency affected. For anyone else to do what the president may have done, would constitute what he deplores as 'leaks.'"

A Fox News poll released Wednesday shows a record 73 percent of voters have confidence in the CIA, up from 67 percent in December.

In recent weeks, the president has made clear his distaste for leakers. On February 24, the president lamented on Twitter that "the FBI is totally unable to stop the national security 'leakers' that have permeated our government for a long time… Classified information is being given to media that could have a devastating effect."

Critics point to his support for WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign as evidence to the contrary. “I love WikiLeaks,” then-nominee Trump said during campaign remarks in October.

The investigation into possible CIA hacking isn't the only thing over which Schiff seems to be at odds with Trump. On Wednesday, Schiff and House Intel Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) repeated their assertions that they have yet to see any evidence that supports the president's claim that Trump Tower was the subject of wiretapping.

And on Thursday, the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee took that assertion one step further, suggesting in a statement that they have seen no evidence that Trump Tower was under surveillance “by any element of the United States government either before or after Election Day 2016.”

In a March 4 tweet, the president suggested that "Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory." When asked on Wednesday why he didn’t withhold comment until he had proof of his claim, President Trump told Tucker Carlson “don't forget, when I say wiretapped, those words were in quotes… [T]hat really covers surveillance and many other things. And nobody ever talks about the fact that was in quotes, but that's a very important thing.”

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Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!
7:02 AM - 4 Mar 2017
53,395 53,395 Retweets 164,675 164,675 likes

New Fox polling also suggests that 76 percent of voters think President Trump should produce documents to back his claim about the wiretaps. That includes 63 percent of Republicans and 70 percent of independents.

The Department of Justice has until Monday to comply with an order from the House Intelligence Committee to gather evidence related to President Trump's surveillance claim, though Rep. Nunes suggests he expects some of that evidence on Friday.

Monday is also when the committee expects to hold its first open hearing on Russia's interference in the 2016 race and possible contacts between Trump associates and Russia. FBI Director Comey is expected to face direct questioning at that hearing, and it isn’t just the House that’s looking for answers.

Senator Lindsay Graham suggested earlier this week that subpoenas aren’t out of the question if lawmakers don’t get the information they’re looking for.

"Congress,” Graham said, “is going to flex its muscles."



Clearly, Trump and his “jokes,” are dangerous in these highly fraught times. They are also, so often, not so much funny as ridiculous, not to mention intensely vulgar. Referring to a woman’s menstrual periods and physically imitating and demeaning a man with a debilitating physical problem are appropriate only to 12-year-old boys, and even then, I would like to think that their parents would teach them to treat others with much more respect and gentleness.

If that kind of training began at home and at the age of two or three years, we would have a different society entirely. Unfortunately, respect and gentleness are in short supply here, now that competitiveness has become the primary American virtue. After all, parents have to have those in order to teach it. When I was young, 1950, those American values were being actively taught in school and in church, at least in our humble little gentle United Methodist Church. Those times are gone. We are clearly in the midst of another uprising of the traditional old social class wars nowadays.

I hope the Trump era will be short and well-restrained by the Supreme Court and the Legislature; and that the Progressives will elect Bernie Sanders or some one of equal intellectual and personal stature next time. In the meantime, I wish President Trump would make fewer off the cuff statements of all kinds. He wouldn’t drag the country into NEARLY as much trouble that way.

SEE THE ARTICLE BELOW, WHICH TELLS OF TRUMP’S ALLEGATION THAT OBAMA USED BRITISH INTELLIGENCE TO SPY ON TRUMP IN HIS PENTHOUSE. THEIR REACTION IS NOT TIMID, NOR PLEASED.



http://www.latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-essential-washington-updates-trump-s-unsubstantiated-claim-of-obama-1489764812-htmlstory.html
Trump's unsubstantiated claim that Obama spied on him has now entangled — and upset — Great Britain
Noah Bierman, WRITER
MARCH 17, 2017, 9:13 A.M.
REPORTING FROM WASHINGTON

White House officials scrambled to explain themselves Friday after an unusual press briefing a day earlier prompted a diplomatic flap with Britain, one of the United States' closest allies.

It began Thursday when Press Secretary Sean Spicer read a series of news stories from the White House briefing room in an attempt to defend President Trump's unsubstantiated claim that President Obama wiretapped him during the campaign. One was an allegation from a Fox News commentator, Andrew Napolitano, that Obama used British spies to snoop on Trump.

The British government was not happy.

The allegations are "nonsense" and "should be ignored," an official for the Britain's General Communications Headquarters, said in a statement Friday. The secretive signals intelligence agency is the British equivalent of the National Security Agency.

“Recent allegations made by media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct 'wiretapping' against the then-president-elect are nonsense. They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored,” the official said.

British media reported that Spicer and H.R. McMaster, the U.S. national security advisor, issued a formal apology. A White House official who declined to be named gave a slightly different version. The official conceded that British Ambassador to the U.S. Kim Darroch and Mark Lyall, the British national security advisor, "expressed their concerns to Sean Spicer and Gen. McMaster."

"Mr. Spicer and Gen. McMaster both explained that he was simply pointing to public reports and not endorsing any specific story," the White House official said.

The official also pointed to a tweet from a reporter from the Guardian newspaper, quoting the British Embassy saying that there was "no formal apology."

U.S. officials, including Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate Intelligence committees, have said that no evidence has emerged to back Trump's claim of wiretapping. But Spicer, under pressure from Trump, has not backed down.

One House Republican called on Trump to apologize to Obama, repeating Intelligence Committee leaders' assertions that no evidence has surfaced to support Trump's claim.

"Frankly, unless you can produce some pretty compelling proof, then ... President Obama is owed an apology in that regard," said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.). "Because if he didn't do it, we shouldn't be reckless in accusations that he did."

9:13 a.m.: This story was updated with comment from Britain's General Communications Headquarters.




https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/17/world/europe/trump-britain-obama-wiretap-gchq.html?mabReward=A3&recp=0&moduleDetail=recommendations-0&action=click&contentCollection=U.S.®ion=Footer&module=WhatsNext&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&src=recg&pgtype=article&_r=0

Trump Offers No Apology for Claim on British Spying
By PETER BAKER and STEVEN ERLANGER
MARCH 17, 2017

Video -- President Trump held his first meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany at the White House on Friday. At a subsequent press briefing, he was asked about recent wiretapping claims and made a joke that seemingly referred to reports that the United States had bugged Ms. Merkel's phone during the Obama administration. By REUTERS. Photo by Stephen Crowley/The New York Times. Watch in Times Video »

WASHINGTON — President Trump provoked a rare public dispute with America’s closest ally on Friday after his White House aired an explosive and unsubstantiated claim that Britain’s spy agency had secretly eavesdropped on him at the behest of President Barack Obama during last year’s campaign.

Livid British officials adamantly denied the allegation and secured promises from senior White House officials never to repeat it. But a defiant Mr. Trump refused to back down, making clear that the White House had nothing to retract or apologize for because his spokesman had simply repeated an assertion made by a Fox News commentator. Fox itself later disavowed the report.

The rupture with London was Mr. Trump’s latest quarrel with an ally or foreign power since taking office. Mexico’s president angrily canceled a White House visit in January over Mr. Trump’s proposed border wall. A telephone call with Australia’s prime minister ended abruptly amid a dispute over refugees. Sweden bristled over Mr. Trump’s criticism of its refugee policy. And China refused for weeks to engage with Mr. Trump because of his postelection call with Taiwan’s president.

Mr. Trump’s strained relations with Europe, which has viewed his ascension to power with trepidation, were fully on display on Friday, not just in the British spy flap but also in the venue in which it was addressed. The president was hosting for the first time Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who is seen by many Europeans as the most important champion of the liberal international order.

Though polite, the two leaders seemed stiff and distant during their public appearances. European news outlets and social media made much of the fact that she suggested a handshake for photographers in the Oval Office and he did not respond, although it appeared that he did not hear her. Either way, the two were clearly on separate pages on issues like immigration and trade.

The angry response from Britain stemmed from Mr. Trump’s persistence in accusing Mr. Obama of tapping his phones last year despite the lack of evidence and across-the-board denials. At a briefing on Thursday, Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, read from a sheaf of news clippings that he suggested bolstered the president’s claim.

***Among them was an assertion by Andrew Napolitano, a Fox News commentator, that Mr. Obama had used Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters, the agency known as the GCHQ, to spy on Mr. Trump. In response to Mr. Spicer, the agency quickly denied it as “nonsense” and “utterly ridiculous,” while British officials contacted American counterparts to complain.

TRUMP’S NEW GOVERNMENT By SHANE O’NEILL, QUYNHANH DO and MARK SCHEFFLER 2:29 Video -- A Timeline on Trump’s Wiretap Claims -- A look at the reactions, clarifications and explanations after President Trump, in a series of tweets, accused Barack Obama of tapping his phones last fall. By SHANE O’NEILL, QUYNHANH DO and MARK SCHEFFLER on Publish Date March 17, 2017. Photo by Stephen Crowley/The New York Times. Watch in Times Video »

“We said nothing,” Mr. Trump told a German reporter who asked about the matter at a news conference with Ms. Merkel. “All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television. I didn’t make an opinion on it.” He added: “You shouldn’t be talking to me. You should be talking to Fox.”

The president tried making a joke about it, turning to Ms. Merkel, who was angered during Mr. Obama’s administration by reports that the National Security Agency had tapped her cellphone and those of other leaders. “At least we have something in common, perhaps,” Mr. Trump said. She made a face that suggested she had no interest in getting involved.

After the news conference, Mr. Spicer echoed Mr. Trump’s unapologetic tone. “I don’t think we regret anything,” he told reporters. “As the president said, I was just reading off media reports.”

Shortly afterward, Fox backed off Mr. Napolitano’s claim. “Fox News cannot confirm Judge Napolitano’s commentary,” the anchor Shepard Smith said on air. “Fox News knows of no evidence of any kind that the now president of the United States was surveilled at any time, any way. Full stop.”

Mr. Trump’s unremorseful tenor further stunned British officials, who thought they had managed to contain the matter. Kim Darroch, the British ambassador to the United States, had raised the matter on Thursday night with Mr. Spicer at a St. Patrick’s Day reception in Washington. Mark Lyall Grant, the national security adviser to Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain, had contacted his American counterpart, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster.

On Friday morning, a spokesman for Mrs. May said the White House had backed off the allegation. “We’ve made clear to the administration that these claims are ridiculous and should be ignored,” the spokesman said, on the condition of anonymity in keeping with British protocol. “We’ve received assurances these allegations won’t be repeated.”

But White House officials, who also requested anonymity, said Mr. Spicer had offered no regret to the ambassador. “He didn’t apologize, no way, no how,” a senior West Wing official said. The officials said they did not know whether General McMaster had apologized.

The furor underscored the continuing troubles for the White House since Mr. Trump first accused Mr. Obama of tapping his phones, an allegation refuted by intelligence agencies as well as Republican and Democratic officials. Even as Mr. Trump refused to back down, fellow Republicans appeared increasingly irritated by what they see as a distraction from their policy goals.

Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma said on Friday that Mr. Trump had not proved his case and should apologize to Mr. Obama. “Frankly, unless you can produce some pretty compelling truth, I think President Obama is owed an apology,” Mr. Cole told reporters. “If he didn’t do it, we shouldn’t be reckless in accusations that he did.”

The conspiracy theorizing also tested what is often called the special relationship between the United States and Britain. American intelligence agencies enjoy a closer collaboration with their British counterparts than any other in the world. GCHQ was the first agency to warn the United States government that Russia was hacking Democratic Party emails during the presidential campaign.

Foreign policy analysts expressed astonishment that Mr. Trump would so cavalierly endanger that partnership. “It illustrates the extent to which the White House really doesn’t care what damage they do to crucial relationships in order to avoid admitting their dishonesty,” said Kori Schake, a former national security aide to President George W. Bush now at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. “America’s allies are having to protect themselves against being tarred with the White House’s mendacity.”

Eric S. Edelman, an under secretary of defense under Mr. Bush, has written about the stresses between the United States and Britain in recent years. “I hope that this latest episode doesn’t drive a stake through the heart of the strongest remaining element of Anglo-American partnership,” he said.

Julianne Smith, who was a deputy national security adviser to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., said Mr. Trump did not appear to realize how much American intelligence agencies depend on Britain in dealing with threats around the world. “He will probably live to see the day when he will regret firing off such an egregious insult to Britain and then failing to apologize for it,” she said.

The issue clearly touched a nerve at GCHQ, which usually refuses to comment on intelligence matters. Its vehement response surprised British officials and analysts. Dominic Grieve, the intelligence committee chairman in Parliament, pointed to elaborate safeguards that prevent spying on the United States and require “a valid national security purpose” for any monitoring. “It is inconceivable that those legal requirements could be met in the circumstances described,” he said.

Tim Farron, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the junior partner in the last British coalition government, described Mr. Spicer’s repetition of the claims as “shameful” and said Mr. Trump was “compromising the vital U.K.-U.S. security relationship to try to cover his own embarrassment.”

Downing Street evidently wanted to avoid adding to any embarrassment in Washington while making it clear that Britain had no part in any such wiretapping. But in rebuffing that effort, Mr. Trump showed that Mrs. May, who was the first foreign leader to visit the White House after his inauguration, may not have forged the bond she had hoped, analysts said.

“It’s very easy to have a good meeting with Trump,” said Jeremy Shapiro, a former State Department official who is the research director at the European Council on Foreign Relations in London. “He’s very pleasant in person. He’ll promise you the world. And 48 hours later, he’ll betray you without a thought. He won’t even know he’ll be betraying you.”

Correction: March 17, 2017
An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of Britain’s ambassador to the United States. It is Kim Darroch, not Derroch. An earlier version also gave the wrong first name for a Fox News commentator. He is Andrew Napolitano, not Anthony.

Follow Peter Baker at @peterbakernyt and Steven Erlanger at @stevenerlanger

Peter Baker reported from Washington, and Steven Erlanger from London. Reporting was contributed by Mark Landler, Eric Schmitt, Glenn Thrush, Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Robert Pear from Washington and Maggie Haberman and Michael M. Grynbaum from New York.



I REMEMBER NAPOLITANO WELL. I DON’T HAVE CABLE ANYMORE DUE TO THE SKYROCKETING COST OF SERVICE, SO I DON’T EVER SEE HIM ANYMORE, BUT I ALWAYS FELT THE HAIR RISE ON THE BACK OF MY NECK WHEN I SAW HIM OR HEARD HIM SPEAK. HE PRETENDS TO BE SO SOPHISTICATED AND INTERESTED IN JUSTICE, BUT IT’S ONLY RIGHTIST JUSTICE, AND HE (STILL, I SEE) CULTIVATES THE SOCIAL AIRS AND HAIR STYLE OF A MAFIA DON. WHY DOES ANYBODY LIKE OR TRUST HIM? SEE NYT ARTICLE BELOW. THIS ARTICLE EXPLAINS THE WHOLE STRANGE TALE OF THE BRITS VS DONALD TRUMP MORE FULLY THAN THE OTHER ARTICLES, BY GIVING THE BACK STORY.


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/17/business/media/fox-andrew-napolitano-trump.html?mabReward=A3&recp=0&moduleDetail=recommendations-0&action=click&contentCollection=Europe®ion=Footer&module=WhatsNext&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&src=recg&pgtype=article
Fox’s Andrew Napolitano Stirred the Pot for Trump’s British Tempest
By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
MARCH 17, 2017

Photograph -- Judge Andrew Napolitano, the senior judicial analyst for Fox News, at Trump Tower in December. Credit Jim Watson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Andrew Napolitano was a Superior Court judge in New Jersey until, frustrated by the constraints of his salary, he left the bench for more lucrative pastures: talk radio, a syndicated small-claims court TV series (“Power of Attorney”) and, eventually, Fox News, where he rose to become the network’s senior legal analyst.

It was in that basic-cable capacity this week that Mr. Napolitano managed to set off a cascading scandal, which by Friday had sparked a trans-Atlantic tiff between Britain and the United States while plunging President Trump’s close relationship with Fox News into new, murkier territory.

It was new ground for Mr. Napolitano, 66, who prefers being addressed as “The Judge” and once insisted that Fox News install bookshelves and wood-paneling in his newsroom office, the better to resemble a judge’s chambers.

But Mr. Napolitano’s unlikely leap into global politics can be explained by his friendship with Mr. Trump, whom he met with this year to discuss potential Supreme Court nominees. Mr. Napolitano also has a taste for conspiracy theories, which led him to Larry C. Johnson, a former intelligence officer best known for spreading a hoax about Michelle Obama.

Let’s back up. The saga began on Tuesday on “Fox & Friends,” the chummy morning show, where Mr. Napolitano made a bizarre and unsupported accusation: Citing three unnamed sources, he said that Britain’s top spy agency had wiretapped Mr. Trump on behalf of President Barack Obama during last year’s campaign.

Cable news blather, especially at that hour, usually vanishes at the commercial break. But on Thursday, Mr. Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, repeated the claim from the White House podium, infuriating British officials.

On Friday, Fox News was forced to disavow Mr. Napolitano’s remarks. “Fox News cannot confirm Judge Napolitano’s commentary,” the anchor Shepard Smith said on-air. “Fox News knows of no evidence of any kind that the now-president of the United States was surveilled at any time, any way. Full stop.”


VIDEO -- A Timeline on Trump’s Wiretap Claims By SHANE O’NEILL, QUYNHANH DO and MARK SCHEFFLER 2:29
Photograph -- By SHANE O’NEILL, QUYNHANH DO and MARK SCHEFFLER on Publish Date March 17, 2017. Photo by Stephen Crowley/The New York Times. Watch in Times Video »

The terse declaration [BY SHEPHERD SMITH] boosted the credibility of Fox News’s newsroom, which is often attacked as biased, but also put it in the awkward position of repudiating one of its featured contributors. And it could threaten the cozy dynamic between Mr. Trump, a frequent Fox viewer, and the network’s conservative hosts.

Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and the prankster Jesse Watters are among the few television personalities to be granted one-on-one interviews with the president. Programs like “Fox & Friends” often serve as cheerleaders for him, and the network is increasing its focus on hard-line conservatism: A new weekly series, hosted by a leader of the Brexit movement, Steve Hilton, will focus on right-wing populism.

Mr. Napolitano, who keeps a residence in Manhattan at Trump International Hotel & Tower on Central Park West, did not respond to inquiries on Friday.

But Mr. Johnson, who was himself once a Fox News contributor, said in a telephone interview that Mr. Napolitano called him on Friday and requested that he speak to The New York Times. Mr. Johnson said he was one of the sources for Mr. Napolitano’s claim about British intelligence.

Mr. Johnson became infamous in political circles after he spread false rumors in 2008 that Michelle Obama had been videotaped using a slur against Caucasians. In the interview on Friday, Mr. Johnson acknowledged his notoriety, but said that his knowledge of surveillance of Mr. Trump came from sources in the American intelligence community. Mr. Napolitano, he said, heard about his information through an intermediary.

“It sounds like a Frederick Forsythe novel,” Mr. Johnson said.

Mr. Trump refused to back down from the claims on Friday, and even praised Mr. Napolitano, telling reporters, “All we did was quote a very talented legal mind.”

The president’s next scheduled appearance on Fox News is Saturday night, when an interview will air between him and Mr. Watters, a host known for on-the-street interviews that have been denounced as offensive and, at times, racist.

In a clip released on Friday, Mr. Watters asks Mr. Trump which celebrity he would most like to fire: Alec Baldwin, Senator Chuck Schumer or CNN’s president, Jeff Zucker.
“I don’t want to say,” Mr. Trump replied. “But I will say I’m disappointed in all three.”

A version of this article appears in print on March 18, 2017, on Page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: Fox Analyst Stirs the Pot, and Trump Stirs a Storm. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe


TRUMP, NAPOLITANO AND JOHNSON HAVE ONE THING IN COMMON – THEY ARE ALL RAPSCALLIONS! SEE THE INFO ON ALL OF THEM BELOW.

ON LARRY C. JOHNSON – LIKE BREITBART AND SOME OTHERS, JOHNSON HAS BEEN NAMED IN AT LEAST THREE CONSPIRACY THEORY SCAMS, WHICH ARE TO ME THE ULTIMATE IN SHEER IDIOCY. THEY COME UP AS A PART OF A POLITICAL SMEAR ALL TOO OFTEN, THOUGH. SUCH “THEORIES” ARE THE ULTIMATE “FAKE NEWS,” ONLY THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN LOVES CONSPIRACY THEORIES, WHILE IT HATES OTHER KINDS OF BIASED INFO. IF IT COMES FROM A REPUTABLE SOURCE LIKE NEW YORK TIMES, CNN, NPR, CBS, ETC., AND THEY HAVEN’T BEEN “NICE TO HIM,” THEN IT IS “FAKE” IN HIS EYES. TRUMP ACTUALLY STATED IN THE LAST MONTH OR SO – THOUGH POSSIBLY AS A “JOKE” -- THAT THE THING WHICH MOST CLEARLY DEFINES NEWS AS BEING “FAKE” IS THAT IT CRITICIZES HIM!! HOW COULD A SANE PERSON SAY SUCH THINGS? HE SEEMS UNAWARE THAT PEOPLE WILL HEAR OF IT, AND THAT THEY WON’T FORGET. HIS PERSONAL REPUTATION IS RAPIDLY BECOMING WORTHLESS, AND IT’S HIS OWN FAULT. HE DENIES THE OBVIOUS! WHAT BOTHERS ME IS THAT HE IS ACTUALLY THE PRESIDENT OF THIS COUNTRY.


*** “Mr. Napolitano also has a taste for conspiracy theories, which led him to Larry C. Johnson, a former intelligence officer best known for spreading a hoax about Michelle Obama.” JOHNSON’S COMPANY, BUSINESS EXPOSURE REDUCTION GROUP, IS INVOLVED IN RISK MANAGEMENT IN SITUATIONS WHEN A LOAN COULD BE SUBJECT TO DEFAULT. WHEN THE BUSINESS IS IN DANGER OF FINANCIAL LOSS IT IS SAID TO BE “EXPOSED.”

LARRY C. JOHNSON --

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_C._Johnson
Larry C. Johnson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Larry C. Johnson is a former analyst at the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. He currently is the co-owner and CEO of BERG Associates, LLC (Business Exposure Reduction Group).

According to The New York Times, Johnson is "best known for spreading a hoax... in 2008 that Michelle Obama had been videotaped using a slur against Caucasians".[1]

. . . .

Controversy[edit]
Michelle Obama hoax[edit]

According to The New York Times, Johnson is "best known for spreading a hoax... in 2008 that Michelle Obama had been videotaped using a slur against Caucasians".[1] In 2008, Johnson emerged as a strong critic of Barack Obama. His blog, NoQuarterUSA, often criticized Obama's qualifications to be president. On May 16, 2008, Johnson posted an item entitled, "Will Barack Throw Mama From the Train?" which alleged that a tape existed of Michelle Obama "railing against 'whitey' at Jeremiah Wright's church."[13][1] Johnson claimed that Republicans were in possession of the tape and it "is being held for the fall to drop at the appropriate time." In a subsequent post, Johnson claimed that Obama's appearance had occurred when she was on a panel with Louis Farrakhan. He also explained that he himself had not seen the tape, but had spoken with "five separate sources who have spoken directly with people who have seen the tape."[14] The Obama campaign's "Fight the Smears" website denied the rumor, saying, "No such tape exists. Michelle Obama has not spoken from the pulpit at Trinity and has not used that word."[15]

No tape was ever released, nor has any other evidence emerged of Obama using the word "whitey". On October 21, 2008, Johnson said that, according to one of his sources, the McCain campaign "intervened and requested the tape not be used."[16]

War crime accusations against John Kerry[edit]

In 2013, Johnson falsely accused John Kerry of war crimes in Vietnam, alleging that Kerry had "raped some poor Vietnamese woman."[17] To support his claim, Johnson used a YouTube video[18] that contained audio clips from a 1971 debate on The Dick Cavett Show between John Kerry and John O'Neill. The original interview[19] audio[20] was altered to piece together words that Kerry spoke at different times during the debate, falsely making it sound as if he said, "I personally raped for pleasure." When the falsehood was exposed by a reader of Johnson's blog, Johnson deleted the article without apology.[21]

Allegations that British intelligence wiretapped Donald Trump[edit]

In March 2017, Andrew Napolitano spread the unfounded conspiracy theory that Britain's top intelligence agency had wiretapped Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign on orders from President Obama.[1] Johnson was the source for Napolitano's claim.[1][22] The conspiracy theory was later asserted as fact by President Trump, with him citing Fox News and Napolitano.[1] The British intelligence agency in question, GCHQ, responded, stating that the claims were "nonsense, utterly ridiculous and should be ignored".[23] Fox News later disavowed the statement by Napolitano.[1]



*** TRUMP’S BUDDY, JESSE WATTERS – I HAVE TO ADMIT THE DUDE IS REALLY FUNNY, AND NOT TRULY ABUSIVE, WITHIN THIS 5 MINUTES MAN ON THE STREET IN CHINATOWN FOOTAGE, AT ANY RATE. OF COURSE, WHO KNOWS WHAT ELSE HE HAS DONE. WHAT IT DOES REMIND ME OF IS THE HILARIOUS FILM BORAT, IN WHICH A SERIES OF NORMAL NICE PEOPLE ARE SPOOFED IN A SIMILAR WAY, THOUGH BORAT WAS MORE RUTHLESS. THAT DIRECTOR WAS SASHA BARON COHEN. BOTH ARE EXCRUCIATINGLY FUNNY – I LAUGHED SO HARD I WAS IN PAIN! BARON COHEN WAS SUED SEVERAL TIMES OVER THAT FILM, OF COURSE, BUT HE WON A GOLDEN GLOBE AS BEST ACTOR. HE ALSO HAS LOTS OF OTHER CREDITS IN THE WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacha_Baron_Cohen.

TO SEE JESSE WATTERS IN ACTION, GO TO YOUTUBE -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX8jZTN0CdU, WATTERS WORLD IN CHINATOWN.

AFTER THIS ONE, WATCH AN EVEN FUNNIER, AND SALTIER, CLIP:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX8jZTN0CdU , "The O'Reilly Factor" Gets Racist in Chinatown: The Daily Show. THE WATTERS SHOW, HOWEVER IS ALMOST EQUALLY FUNNY: I’LL SAY ONE THING ABOUT CHINESE PEOPLE. THEY ARE QUITE CAPABLE OF DEFENDING THEMSELVES.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Watters#Early_life
Jesse Watters
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jesse Watters (born July 9, 1978)[1] is an American critic on the Fox News Channel. He frequently appears on the O'Reilly Factor and is known for his on-the-street interviews, featured in his segment of the show, "Watters' World".

Early life[edit]

Watters was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, growing up in the Germantown and later East Falls neighborhoods.[2] He attended the William Penn Charter School through junior year, then moved with his family to Long Island in New York.[2] In 2001, he graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.[3]
Career[edit]

On June 11, 2014, Watters debuted on the Fox News show, Outnumbered. He occasionally appears as a guest co-host.

On November 20, 2015, Watters debuted his own monthly Fox News program, Watters' World.[4] He is characterized as an "ambush journalist",[5][6][7] Watters has said, "I try to make it enjoyable for the person I'm interviewing. We always come away from the interview all smiles, for the most part. And it's always fun to come back and look at the footage and say, 'Oh my gosh, what just happened?'"[2]

Watters is also a guest on The Spin Stops Here Tour 2017 with Bill O'Reilly and Dennis Miller.[8]

Controversy[edit]

In October 2016, Watters was criticized for a segment of "Watters' World" that was widely considered racist against Asian Americans.[9][10][11] In New York City's Chinatown, Watters asked Chinese Americans if they knew karate, if he should bow before he greets them, or if their watches were stolen.[10][12] Throughout the segment, the 1974 song "Kung Fu Fighting" plays in the background, and the interviews are interspersed with references to martial arts and clips of Watters getting a foot massage and playing with nunchucks.[11][12] New York City mayor Bill de Blasio denounced Watters' segment as "vile, racist behavior" that "has no place in our city".[13][14] Numerous other lawmakers and journalists, including Asian Americans Mazie Hirono and Judy Chu, also condemned Watters.[15] The segment was also criticized by the Asian American Journalists Association, which issued a statement saying: "We should be far beyond tired, racist stereotypes and targeting an ethnic group for humiliation and objectification on the basis of their race."[16]

On October 5, Watters tweeted what Variety's Will Thorne called a "non-apology" about the segment. In the two tweets, Watters stated: "My man-on-the-street interviews are meant to be taken as tongue-in-cheek and I regret if anyone found offense. ... As a political humorist, the Chinatown segment was intended to be a light piece, as all Watters World segments are."[17][18][19]

Personal life[edit]

Watters is married to Noelle Inguagiato Watters.[1]


THIS IS ENOUGH NEWS AND TALK FOR NOW, AND BESIDES, IT’S PAST MY BEDTIME. GOODNIGHT.