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Attorneys call videos ‘sickening’ Lawyers for the man known as the "20th hijacker" of 9/11 are suing the U.S. government to release "sickening" videotapes they say show Guantanamo Bay interrogators torturing their client. The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Federal Court on Monday by the Center for Constitutional Rights, said Mohammed Al-Qahtani was a victim “of torture and other profoundly cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment." "The American public should now be permitted to see what occurred for itself," the lawsuit said. Between 2002 and 2003, Al-Qahtani suffered through marathon interrogation sessions and was subjected to severe temperatures, sleep deprivation and other...

Julian Assange tried to contact Hillary Clinton and the White House when he realized that unredacted U.S. diplomatic cables given to WikiLeaks were about to be dumped on the internet, his lawyer told his London extradition hearing on Tuesday. Assange is being sought by the United States on 18 counts of hacking U.S. government computers and an espionage offense, having allegedly conspired with Chelsea Manning, then a U.S. soldier known as Bradley Manning, to leak hundreds of thousands of secret documents by WikiLeaks almost a decade ago. On Monday, the lawyer representing the United States told the hearing that Assange,...

SAVANNAH, Ga. — A former government contractor serving time in federal prison for leaking a classified document to a news organization is making an appeal for early release to President Donald Trump, who once tweeted that he considered her crime to be “small potatoes.” Reality Winner, 28, is serving a sentence of five years and three months at a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, after she pleaded guilty in 2018 to a single count of transmitting national security information when she worked at a National Security Agency office in Georgia. Prosecutors called it the longest sentence ever imposed for...

A former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) employee has pleaded guilty to charges related to the leaking of classified information to two journalists, the Justice Department (DOJ) said. Henry Kyle Frese, 31, pleaded guilty on Thursday to the willful transmission of top-secret national defense information to journalists. He faces up to 10 years in prison. Frese was arrested when he arrived to work at a DIA facility in Virginia in October last year where he worked as a counterterrorism analyst. The 31-year-old—who held top-secret government security clearance—was accused of helping the journalists research information on a classified United States government computer...

WASHINGTON - When intelligence officials briefed President Donald Trump on the most worrisome terrorist threats during the first two years of his tenure, they regularly mentioned the names of the senior terror figures the CIA was working hardest to find and kill, including the leader of al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri. Trump would ultimately greenlight successful strikes on ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Yemeni al Qaeda chief Qasim al-Rimi - perhaps the most significant names on the CIA list of potential U.S. targets. But he was more interested in a young and less influential figure much farther down the list,...

For more than half a century, governments all over the world trusted a single company to keep the communications of their spies, soldiers and diplomats secret. The company, Crypto AG, got its first break with a contract to build code-making machines for U.S. troops during World War II. SNIP The Swiss firm made millions of dollars selling equipment to more than 120 countries well into the 21st century. Its clients included Iran, military juntas in Latin America, nuclear rivals India and Pakistan, and even the Vatican. But what none of its customers ever knew was that Crypto AG was secretly...

The White House is expected to pull the nomination of Elaine McCusker to be the Pentagon’s comptroller and chief financial officer in the latest staffing fallout from President Trump’s impeachment, The Post has learned. McCusker resisted the president’s directive to stall about $250 million in military aid to Ukraine and her emails protesting the delay were leaked in January to the blog Just Security ahead of Trump’s Senate trial. “This administration needs people who are committed to implementing the president’s agenda, specifically on foreign policy, and not trying to thwart it,” a White House official told The Post.

Joe DiGenova says senior White House official told him they have identified the anonymous writer of the New York Times article. The person will be removed from the White House pretty quickly. https://twitter.com/AKA_RealDirty/status/1226884466314039296

During the Senate impeachment trial Thursday, Chief Justice John Roberts declined to read a question submitted by Sen. Rand Paul which included the name of Eric Ciaramella, the man RealClear Investigations has identified as the whistleblower at the heart of the impeachment inquiry. The Kentucky Republican submitted the question card, and after reading it, Roberts replied, “The presiding officer declines to read the question as submitted.” Paul’s question did not use the term whistleblower or identify Ciaramella as the whistleblower. Senator @RandPaul sends question to the desk during Impeachment Trial.Chief Justice Roberts: "The presiding officer declines to read the question...

Federal prosecutors in Washington are investigating a years-old leak of classified information about a Russian intelligence document, and they appear to be focusing on whether the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey illegally provided details to reporters, according to people familiar with the inquiry. The case is the second time the Justice Department has investigated leaks potentially involving Mr. Comey, a frequent target of President Trump, who has repeatedly called him a “leaker.” Mr. Trump recently suggested without evidence that Mr. Comey should be prosecuted for “unlawful conduct” and spend years in prison. The timing of the investigation could raise...

Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue is a wanted man -- at least according to the liberal activist group that's put a de facto bounty on his head. A network of liberal groups known as Velvet Revolution started an ad campaign offering $200,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the man whose trade organization has become a thorn in the side of the Obama administration and congressional Democrats. The group is not leveling any specific charges of criminal behavior. Rather, it is casting a wide net, fishing for any whistleblowers from Donohue's past who might come forward...

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe apologized to an FBI investigator after changing his story regarding a leak to the media in October 2016, according to documents released Tuesday. McCabe was interviewed May 9, 2017, the same day James Comey was fired as FBI director, regarding two separate leaks to the media. During the interview, FBI agents also asked McCabe whether he knew how FBI information wound up in an Oct. 23, 2016, Wall Street Journal article about an investigation of the Clinton Foundation. McCabe said during that sit-down he did not know how the Journal story came about, but...

The Obama holdover heading the Pentagon office reportedly under investigation by the U.S. attorney who is conducting the criminal probe of the Trump–Russia investigation was accused of leaking a classified document, in a recent court filing for retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. The connection hasn’t been previously reported. According to a Nov. 21 report by independent journalist Sara Carter, U.S. Attorney John Durham is questioning personnel in the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment (ONA). ONA awarded about $1 million in contracts to FBI informant Stefan Halper, who appears to have played a key role in alleged U.S. intelligence agency spying...

The article written by Phillip Giraldi alleges “Jewish groups and deep pocket individual donors not only control the politicians, they own and run the media and entertainment industries”, and takes aim at several high-profile public figures, including Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and political adviser. Giraldi later urges “the media” to label any on-air guests “at the bottom of the television screen whenever they pop up, e.g. Bill Kristol is ‘Jewish and an outspoken supporter of the state of Israel.'” After her initial tweet went viral, Plame later told her followers “calm down” and asked them to “put aside...

The FBI last month requested an interview with the whistleblower whose complaint fueled the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump and Ukraine, a person familiar with the situation said Wednesday. An agent from the FBI’s Washington field office reached out to the whistleblower’s lawyers last month to seek an interview about the substance of the complaint, according to this person, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the request with The Associated Press. The person said it was clear from the FBI that the whistleblower was not regarded as the target of any investigation but rather a potential witness. It was...

Lawmakers may face ethics violations if they talk about the “whistleblower” whose complaint spurred the impeachment inquiry during the upcoming public hearings, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the head inquisitor seeking to impeach and remove President Donald Trump, warned in a memo Tuesday. the Washington Examiner’s Byron York noted in a tweet highlighting the November 12 memo authored by Schiff: Whistleblower started Trump-Ukraine matter, framed issue in way House Dems have adopted for impeachment. Now Chairman Schiff orders GOP: Do not talk about whistleblower in impeachment hearings. If you do, you’ll hear from Ethics Committee. (snip) According to the memo, the...

Mark Zaid, one of the lawyers representing CIA leaker Eric Ciaramella, previously bragged about getting security clearances for “guys who had child porn issues.”Mr. Zaid in 2018 was responding to a fellow lawyer on Twitter who had claimed they helped people with past domestic abuse issues get security clearances. “I’ve gotten clearances for guys who had child porn issues,” Zaid responded to an attorney who specializes in helping government employees get security clearances.“Why would the whistleblower’s lawyer brag about this?” GOP operative Arthur Schwartz tweeted over Zaid. Why would the whistleblower’s lawyer brag about this? https://t.co/R8Wz9s81FL— Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) November...

< SNIP> In April of this year, Senators Grassley and Johnson sent a letter to Attorney General Barr asking him for any information on the following (or perhaps this was their way of encouraging him to look into something). What they specifically asked about was related to some text messages from corrupt FBI Agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page referring to a “CI guy” in the White House – Next Grassley and Johnson provide the exact text messages they wanted Barr to look into. The text from Peter Strzok says “Do we want Joe to go with Evania instead of...

Are the ‘Whistleblower’ and the West Wing Spy the Same Person? When Paul Sperry put a name to the “whistleblower” last week, it was already quite well known in Washington circles who that person was. And a lot was known about his connections to the DNC, John Brennan, Joe Biden and the top tier of FBI officials who had targeted Trump and his campaign.Nevertheless, one of the attorneys for this person, Mark Zaid of Whistleblower Aid, put out a statement saying that the release of Eric Ciaramella’s name “is at the pinnacle of irresponsibility and is intentionally reckless.” That’s right,...

A few people have started looking at the connections behind Mark Zaid, the attorney for CIA “whistleblower” Eric Ciaramella. What is starting to emerge is evidence of what CTH outlined yesterday; the current impeachment process is part of a coup continuum, and everything around the whistleblower is part of a long-ago planned and pre-constructed operation. Two strong examples are very poignant: Mark S. Zaid @MarkSZaidEsq "It's very scary. We will get rid of him, and this country is strong enough to survive even him and his supporters. We have to" 9:45 PM · Jul 1, 2017 AND Mark S. Zaid...