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The former head of US intelligence slammed the celebrations surrounding the release of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange this week and called the Australian 'no hero.' Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today show, James Clapper, who served as head of the intelligence community under former President Barack Obama, called Assange's actions wrong and illegal. Clapper went on to say that US assets in Afghanistan were likely killed due to Wikileaks revealing their identities in government documents.

Julian Assange's 14-year saga as a fugitive and prisoner may be coming to an end. The Wikileaks founder has agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge with the U.S. Justice Department in exchange for no additional prison time. He has already served 5 years in a maximum security prison in England after spending 7 years hiding in an Ecuadorian Embassy. Assange would only agree to a hearing outside of U.S. soil. Last month he won his right to appeal an extradition order. High Court judges Victoria Sharp and Jeremy Johnson ruled for Assange after his lawyers argued that the...

Analysts have used other evidence to conclude that the transfers were most likely part of an effort to offer payments to Taliban-linked militants to kill American and coalition troops in Afghanistan. American officials intercepted electronic data showing large financial transfers from a bank account controlled by Russia’s military intelligence agency to a Taliban-linked account, evidence that supported their conclusion that Russia covertly offered bounties for killing U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan, according to three officials familiar with the intelligence. Though the United States has accused Russia of providing general support to the Taliban before, analysts concluded from other intelligence...

Washington — Two Russian nationals working for a news network controlled by Vladimir Putin's government funneled millions of dollars to an American media company that paid right-wing influencers for videos pushing narratives favorable to the Kremlin, U.S. prosecutors alleged on Wednesday.An indictment unsealed in the Southern District of New York charged Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, both based in Moscow, with conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The indictment came as the Justice Department unveiled sprawling allegations accusing the Russian government of meddling in the 2024 U.S. elections. (snip) Attorney General Merrick Garland...

After years of Russiagate conspiracy theories about how the Russians had somehow rigged the 2016 presidential election using Facebook ads, the Senate Intelligence report awkwardly revealed that the Russian operation had focused most of its attention on black nationalists. The Senate report revealed that "most of the videos" put out by the Russian IRA troll factory on YouTube "pertained to police brutality and the activist efforts of the Black Lives Matter organization" and found that "no single group of Americans was targeted... more than African-Americans" around "race and related issues". But that was an understatement. The Russians had created their...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Trial began Tuesday in Florida for four activists accused of illegally acting as Russian agents to help the Kremlin sow political discord and interfere in U.S. elections. All four are or were affiliated with the African People’s Socialist Party and Uhuru Movement, which has locations in St. Petersburg, Florida, and St. Louis... In his opening statement, Justice Department attorney Menno Goedman said the group’s members acted under Russian direction to stage protests in 2016 claiming Black people have been victims of genocide in the U.S. and took other actions for the following six years that would...

New FBI information about corruption in a Clinton-approved uranium deal with Russia raises questions about Clinton’s actions after the FBI broke up a deep-cover Russian spy ring in 2010. For a decade, the FBI ran an operation called Ghost Stories to monitor and rip apart a deep-cover Russian agent network. Ghost Stories tracked a ring Russian spies who lived between Boston and Washington, D.C., under false identities. It was one of the FBI’s most elaborate and successful counterintelligence operations in history.

President Joe Biden on Thursday hailed the complex prisoner-swap deal with Russia that freed unjustly imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, and two others in exchange for prisoners including Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov as a prodigious “feat of diplomacy.” Biden said all four of the recovered prisoners were “convicted in show trials” by Russia “for absolutely no legitimate reason whatsoever.” In addition to Gershkovich and Whelan, the freed detainees included Russian American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Muza, a U.S. green-card holder and Washington Post contributor who was sentenced to 25 years in prison...

@Tiffanyjones316 And lock up #RayEpps RE: @RepThomasMassie Every candidate for President should pledge to: Free Assange Pardon Snowden Release Ross

Israel launching strikes into Iran...Messaging in Mainstream Media is that Israel's attack on Iran was 'limited'. No comment from Israel.... Tonight some damage reported no casualties in southwestern Russia's Belgorod City and Region... Ratings agency S and P Global lowering Israel's long-term credit rating... At the United Nations Security Council the US vetoing a resolution calling for admission of the Palestinian Authority as a UN member nation... At a meeting of G7 foreign ministers US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying China is supporting Russia's ability to fight the War in Ukraine... Meanwhile Ukraine is doing more trade with China......

After years of Russiagate conspiracy theories about how the Russians had somehow rigged the 2016 presidential election using Facebook ads, the Senate Intelligence report awkwardly revealed that the Russian operation had focused most of its attention on black nationalists. The Senate report revealed that "most of the videos" put out by the Russian IRA troll factory on YouTube "pertained to police brutality and the activist efforts of the Black Lives Matter organization" and found that "no single group of Americans was targeted... more than African-Americans" around "race and related issues". But that was an understatement. The Russians had created their...

During the first Cold War, American and British spies would sometimes place coded messages in newspaper classified ads to communicate with each other. And according to new reports in the New York Times and The Intercept, the National Security Agency (NSA) has updated the tactic, using its public Twitter account to send secret messages to at least one Russian spy.... According to the reports, the unnamed Russian met with US spies in person in Germany, and the NSA sometimes communicated with the Russian spy by sending roughly a dozen coded messages from the NSA’s Twitter account. The one important question.......

The C.I.A.’s concerns were not unwarranted. In 2019, the Russians undertook an elaborate operation to find Mr. Poteyev, forcing a scientist from Oaxaca, Mexico, to help. The scientist, Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes, was an unlikely spy. He studied microbiology in Kazan, Russia, and later earned a doctorate in the subject from the University of Giessen in Germany. He was a source of pride for his family, with a history of charitable work and no criminal past. But the Russians used Mr. Fuentes’s partner as leverage. He had two wives: a Russian living in Germany and another in Mexico. In 2019,...

While Hillary Clinton loyal aide Huma Abedin was reportedly sidelined in the final stretch of the 2016 presidential campaign as a result of Abedin’s husband’s child-porn scandal, she was potentially an even greater liability than known. It turns out Anthony Weiner wasn’t the only family member under investigation. In fact, the U.S. Justice Department has been actively prosecuting two other Abedin family members – for conspiracy, wire fraud and securities fraud – and she along with the State Department, where she previously worked for Clinton, are mentioned in the federal case, court records show. Other documents reveal the same allegedly...

Disgraced politician Anthony Weiner's ex-wife Huma Abedin has seemingly revealed she is dating billionaire George Soros' son Alex - who is almost ten years her junior. The longtime aide to Hillary Clinton appeared to take her romance public on Wednesday when she shared a photo of herself and Alex enjoying a Valentine's Day date at a restaurant in Paris. In the image - which was posted on Instagram Stories by both Huma, 47, and Alex, 38 - shows the pair cuddling up in a corner booth behind a table strewn with red roses and gifts, with the billionaire playboy adding...

When the Trump-Russia operation began unraveling, it was clear that there was an international cast of characters involved in the frame-up. The operation to get Trump — in time to torpedo his election in 2016 and then subvert his presidency — involved the Hillary Clinton campaign, the CIA's John Brennan, who informed President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden of the operation, the FBI, which appeared to cover it up, a reputed Russian spy working for a Democrat think tank, a mysterious Maltese professor, an international honeypot, an Australian diplomat, and a British spy. It was the earthly equivalent of...

Drudge is giving this banner treatment but I’m not sure why. Of course Al Qaeda is on the brink of a dirty bomb. Their comrades-in-arms in the Taliban are the jihadist proxy of one of the world’s biggest nuclear proliferators, aren’t they? If the filthbags in Pakistani intelligence want Al Qaeda to have nuclear material, they’ll find a way to smuggle some out of the state supply, I’m sure. In fact, according to a new piece in the NYT, Pakistan’s practically swimming in fissile material these days. Never mind the dirty bombs; how long before AQ or Lashkar e-Taiba or...

It was 70 years ago that Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for espionage, accused of providing classified information about atomic bomb technology to the Soviet Union. What was the charge against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg? Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a New York couple, were charged with conspiracy to commit espionage, specifically for their alleged involvement in passing atomic bomb secrets to the Soviet Union. What evidence was presented against the Rosenbergs during their trial? The main evidence presented against the Rosenbergs was the testimonies of several witnesses, including Ethel Rosenberg's brother, David Greenglass. Greenglass, a former machinist at the...

Tara Reade, a former Senate aide who accused President Joe Biden of sexual assault, announced Tuesday she defected to Russia. The shocking confession was made during a Russian state press conference, where Reade was sitting next to alleged Kremlin spy—and pal—Maria Butina. Reade told the pro-Putin press the “very difficult” decision to move came after the realization that she no longer feels safe in Biden's America. “I'm still kind of in a daze a bit but I feel very good,” Reade told Sputnik. “I feel very surrounded by protection and safety. And I just really so appreciate Maria [Butina] and...

A massive spy balloon believed to be from China was seen above Montana on Thursday and is being tracked as it flies across the continental United States, with President Joe Biden ultimately deciding against "military options" because of the risk to civilians, U.S. officials said on Thursday.