Category Samantha Power A Clear and Present Danger

Apr 14 2023

The Pentagon Leak and the Power of Social Media


Armstrong Economics Blog/Technology Re-Posted Apr 14, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

The Washington Post revealed that the person leaking information from the Pentagon is not a high-level official. There was no collective effort to access the classified information, and the motive of the leak may surprise you. The leak was first posted on a Discord channel called Thug Shaker Central, led by a man in his 20s who allegedly lives on a military base. A user called Wow_mao spoke with the Post through Discord to say he used his platform for humor and began creating videos as a teen. “I can sort of understand how sharing big private military secrets could be a funny thing to do among your internet friends, but come on. Take care of yourself and stay away from doing stuff like this,” the anonymous user posted on YouTube.

A group of teens and young adults were able to access sensitive information—for fun. They did not need skilled hackers or top intel to access military records, showing how inept our national security has become. Discord is a social media platform that is largely unregulated. It is one of the last platforms where users can speak freely without censorship.

The Post discussed how a few users on social media were able to make the files a global sensation and cause international turmoil. Snowden reached out to countless reporters to reveal his message. WikiLeaks also put forth a campaign to draw attention to thousands of classified documents relating to America’s involvement in Iraq. This time around it only took a few kids on a social platform that is not regulated by the government. I expect Congress to now go after Discord as they did with TikTok. “It’s just a bunch of guys from the internet. How would they know about understanding military war documents?” Wow_mao said. “Many people were like: ‘That’s hilarious. Why are they here?’ And then they moved on with their lives.”

Apr 14 2023

The Coming New York Exodus


Armstrong Economics Blog/USA Current Events Re-Posted Apr 14, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

A new study found that 27% of New Yorkers plan to relocate out of state within the next five years. New York once represented the symbol of American prosperity and growth. People dreamed of living life in the “Big Apple” and America’s international image was largely portrayed at the New York fairytale in films and books. Yet, New York no longer resembles what it once was.

The study said 70% of people are still happy to live there, but 30% wish they lived elsewhere. In addition to those who said they plan to leave within the next five years, 31% stated they plan to retire out of state. They did not poll respondents on taxes. Safety is one of the top concerns and the study shows that about half of respondents no longer feel safe in New York, with good cause. Two-thirds naturally said that the state is unaffordable.

“Democrats, those over 50, white residents and those 35-49 rate the state most highly while through the eyes of Republicans, independents, Blacks and those earning under $50K a year, the state receives the lowest grades,” a researcher said. It is hard to imagine someone earning under $50K could comfortably live in New York. The true problem is crime and the light on crime lawmakers who let violent criminals roam freely after repeated offenses.

Felonies in the city of NY rose 20.4% in 2022 compared to 2021. “Things in a large city aren’t supposed to grow that much or go down that much in one year,” said Former NYPD supervisor Chris Hermann, now an assistant professor at Manhattan’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “This is kind of like monumental kind of stuff,” he stated, “like once in a lifetime.” Rape cases increased by 17% in one year, grand theft rose by 25% (auto grand larceny by 32%), felony assaults increased by 15%, and burglary rose by 27%. NYC Mayor Eric Adams has failed at his job by emboldening criminals with relaxed laws.

Apr 14 2023

Credit Where Due, Glenn Greenwald Nails This Discussion of Media and the U.S. Intel Leaks


Posted originally on the CTH on April 14, 2023 | Sundance 

There are times when CTH and the perspective of Glenn Greenwald do not align. This is not one of those times. {Direct Rumble Link Here}

In this segment with Tucker Carlson, Glenn Greenwald nails the agenda, motives and outcomes of the U.S. media as they relate to the recent classified intelligence leaks. This is a solid three-minute encapsulation of the problem. WATCH:

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Apr 14 2023

Tucker Carlson Discusses U.S. Intel Leaks and Media Effort to Hide the U.S. Govt Lies


Posted originally on the CTH on April 13, 2023 | Sundance 

During his opening monologue tonight, Tucker Carlson outlined the latest developments on the U.S. classified information leaks and the media effort to avoid talking about the government lies within them.

It really is quite a remarkable development to witness in real time.  Corporate media, a completely collapsed fourth-estate, playing the distracting role on behalf of the intelligence apparatus they are supposed to keep in check.  WATCH:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=jzpCKjl8OxQ%3Ffeature%3Doembed

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Apr 14 2023

The Leak Was the Op – White House and Congress Demand New Powers, Think Restrict Act, in Aftermath of Classified Intel Leaks


Posted originally on the CTH on April 13, 2023 | Sundance 

Never letting a crisis go to waste is very useful tool, especially when the government creates the crisis.  As CTH has said from the first discussion of the classified intelligence leaks, the “leak is the op.”

The intel leak is the operation created by the Intelligence Community to support new expanded powers for the Fourth Branch of Government.  It should not be a surprise to discover the institution now leading the charge to give more power for U.S. intel agencies, is…. wait for it….. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

The SSCI is the organizational institution that supports the Fourth Branch of Government, the intelligence branch.  The SSCI previously created a bipartisan Restrict Act, to deal with dangerous information on the internet.

According to SSCI Chairman Mark Warner, ‘The Restrict Act’ will give more power and authorities to the Executive Branch to deal with internet danger.  Now the SSCI sees the classified intel leaks as evidence for the importance of the Restrict Act.

Well, butter my buns and call me a biscuit, surprise-surprise!  Funny how that happens.

(Via NBC) – The Biden administration is looking at expanding how it monitors social media sites and chatrooms after U.S. intelligence agencies failed to spot classified Pentagon documents circulating online for weeks, according to a senior administration official and a congressional official briefed on the matter. 

The possible change in the intelligence-gathering process is just one potential shift as officials scramble to determine not only how the documents leaked but also how to prevent another damaging incident.

[…] The president and other officials were dismayed when they learned the documents had been online for at least a month.  “Nobody is happy about this,” said the senior administration official. 

The administration is now looking at expanding the universe of online sites that intelligence agencies and law enforcement authorities track, the official said.

[…]  If the administration tries to check online chatrooms more closely, it will have to navigate legal safeguards designed to protect Americans’ privacy and freedom of expression, former intelligence officials said.

Watching a public chatroom is fair game, but law enforcement agencies don’t have the legal authority to monitor a private online chatroom without probable cause, the former officials said.

“We do not have nor do we want a system where the United States government monitors private internet chats,” said Glenn Gerstell, former general counsel of the National Security Agency from 2015 to 2020. 

[…] Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said the leak raised yet more questions about how the government manages its secrets, only months after revelations that successive administrations appeared to have mishandled classified documents.  […] “I think it’s time that Congress plays a role here in setting some parameters,” Warner said.  (read more)

Just a few “parameters“…

Swear.

Promise.

Uh huh….

The Restrict Act, also known as Senate Bill 686 [SB686 HERE], also known as the bipartisan bill to empower the executive branch to shut down TikTok.  Also known as the ‘online Patriot Act’.

Apr 14 2023

The Full Surveillance Power of the U.S. Govt Could Not Find the Classified Intel Leaker, But the Media Did…


Posted originally on the CTH on April 13, 2023 | Sundance 

Sometimes the obvious answers are in the reality of the part that few pay attention to.

According to the original outline, as presented by the Washington Post last night [Original Story Here], the full surveillance and intelligence power of the United States government was unable to locate the source of the largest leak of U.S. classified intelligence in a decade, but some journalists found a teenager in his mom’s basement with all the answers.   This is the story, and they are sticking to it.

I’ve been in enough rabbit holes created by the silos of the intelligence community to know when not to enter one.   First things first, what silo uses the Washington Post?

We all should know by now the same three-letter operators in charge of the Amazon Cloud Service, are the same three-letter operators who use the PR firm known as the Washington Post.

Why the intelligence people from inside the CIA/NSA silo wanted to exploit the teenage gamer with a connection to an intelligence leaker, as the preferred narrative is unknown.  However, the DHS details provided in the intelligence community follow-up through the New York Times does provide some clues.

New York Times – The leader of a small online gaming chat group where a trove of classified U.S. intelligence documents leaked over the last few months is a 21-year-old member of the intelligence wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The New York Times.

The national guardsman, whose name is Jack Teixeira, oversaw a private online group named Thug Shaker Central, where about 20 to 30 people, mostly young men and teenagers, came together over a shared love of guns, racist online memes and video games.

Two U.S. officials confirmed that investigators want to talk to Airman Teixeira about the leak of the government documents to the private online group. One official said Airman Teixeira might have information relevant to the investigation.

Federal investigators have been searching for days for the person who leaked the top secret documents online but have not identified Airman Teixeira or anyone else as a suspect. The F.B.I. declined to comment. (read more)

There it is again….

The CIA, DoD, NSA, FBI, DHS and all of the combined systems of the United States intelligence apparatus, the kind that can isolate your location through the mirrored image on a WaWa CCTV camera in Podunk, Mississippi, could not find the 21-year-old originating leaker who was posting details, images and classified data for months in a chat room online.   But the Washington Post and New York Times can isolate, locate, interview, record, broadcast and then name the suspect within 12 hours….

Okay. Gotcha!… and now the government will talk to young Mr. Jack Teixeira about his endeavors. Got it.

I have been in these intelligence creations, and we have traveled into the rabbit hole of their intelligence storylines long enough to spot one when it surfaces.

My gut hunch…  Two issues.  The first is the obvious; the USG was cool with the leaked information because it formed the baseline for a geopolitical change in direction, a pivot away from the quagmire they created in Ukraine.  This part is obvious, because if that wasn’t the case the leak cleanup operation would have been silent. The collective IC would have just traced the origin, destroyed the information, pulled in the participants and black-holed the entire mess.

The fact the IC engineered a media narrative for it, pushing the leak story into the mainstream cycle, says the IC had a motive to promote the leak narrative.

Second, the gaming “sector” has always been a thorn in the side of those who seek to control communication and conduct surveillance therein.   They are already in social media platforms, but the gaming platforms were not exploited to scale.  The USG has now established a baseline to enter that sphere of communication and networking and begin formal operations in the gaming platforms.

Still, anytime the U.S. Intelligence Community is involved, it is always best practice to watch and remain out of the hole.

The only question you really need to ask yourself is, what aspect of my liberty does this intelligence operation support the removal of?

After all…  if only we had the Restrict Act in place, then none of this classified information surfacing on social media would be such a concern, right?  Right?

Remember…. “Greasy Bear hackers and Macedonian Bot Farms might sound like a good justification for a prosecution when pitched to an incurious media. However, when Greasy Bear and the accused Macedonians show up in court, well, the prosecutors might just have a problem.  That is the backdrop for a series of bizarre requests from the Special Prosecutor to seal the evidence against the accused, Concord Management, and the defendant’s response.  (read more)

Apr 13 2023

Bragg Sued for Election Interference


Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption Re-Posted Apr 13, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

It is clear to everyone that Alvin Bragg is going after Donald Trump to prevent him from running in the 2024 Presidential Election. The Manhattan DA, who campaigned solely on a promise to take down Trump, but failed over 100 times, has made a mockery of the US legal system. Since no one is above the law, Bragg is being sued for tampering with the upcoming election.

A man by the name of Gabe Whitley (Honest Gabe) filed charges in the US Federal Court in Indiana’s Southern District against Bragg, who he claims violated 18 U.S.C. § 241:

“Section 241 makes it unlawful for two or more persons to agree to injure, threaten, or intimidate a person in the United States in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured by the Constitution or laws of the Unites States or because of his or her having exercised such a right.”

Campaigning on a promise to destroy an individual certainly seems like intimidation. Perhaps Bragg hopes Biden will appoint him to the Supreme Court one day if he succeeds in his mission. In this case, Bragg is violating the American public’s right to vote. Trump has amassed a large group of supporters, and like it or not, they have the right to vote in our elections as taxpaying citizens. The FBI and intelligence agencies did everything possible to hide the dirt on Biden prior to the elections. This time it is (D)ifferent as they are scraping the bottom of the barrel to find anything to use against Trump.

Whitley posted on Facebook:

“Today I filed a lawsuit in the US Federal Courthouse Southern District of Indiana suing Alvin Bragg for interfering in the 2024 Presidential Election. This political persecution of Former President Trump is illegal and we Hoosiers will not tolerate any election interference.

America’s Elections are under attack by the Radical Democrats destroying our country and our free fair elections.

For far too long Democrats have been screaming Election Interference about Russia, Russia, Russia which was later debunked. We Republicans will continue to fight for your right to vote in a secure elections.”

Similar to those who went after the Clintons, people are afraid to directly go after Bragg since he is backed by Soros and all the big money on the left. The timing of Trump’s arrest is no coincidence. The American people were deprived of a fair election in 2020, and look at the state of our nation today. If Biden was really the most popular president in US election history, there would be no need to destroy his opponents.

Apr 13 2023

Inflation Plateau Continues During March, Real Wages Shrink Again, Future Energy Costs Start to Rise Again with Oil


Posted originally on the CTH on April 12, 2023 | Sundance

In the latest round of statistics from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) the March inflation data has been released [DATA HERE]. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) climbed 0.1% in March after advancing 0.4% in February.  This puts the 12-month CPI outlook at 5% inflation. [See Modified Table A on Left]

A 4.6% decline in March gasoline prices was offset by higher rental and housing costs.  That was the primary driver of the lowered inflationary data as gasoline is weighted heavier in the impact.

However, that said, gasoline prices are already rising again after Saudi Arabia and other OPEC+ oil producers early this month announced further oil output cuts.  This puts the April CPI data (starting to be assembled this week) on track to increase over March.

Overall, in the big picture the data shows the plateau of sorts as we described for this spring.  This plateau will be followed by another bump as a result of current input costs and prior energy costs traveling through the supply chain.

Energy services, electricity and natural gas, are stable but higher than last year.  The crop cycles carry those increased costs from field to fork.  Consumers cannot avoid those food prices increasing.  The more processing involved in the food sector, the higher the price increase.

Housing increases are another unavoidable cost and generally cycle with a lag within them.  As leases expire, the new lease rates increase accordingly.  The same is true for insurance rates.  Both unavoidable sectors have a rolling lag that hits the consumer upon renewal.

On the wage side [DATA HERE] wages went up .03% but the work week declined 0.3%.  Essentially nullifying earnings growth with fewer worked hours.  With inflation at 0.1%, real wages declined .01%.

For the total 12-month cycle noted by the BLS data, “real average hourly earnings decreased 0.7 percent, seasonally adjusted, from March 2022 to March 2023. The change in real average hourly earnings combined with a decrease of 0.9 percent in the average workweek resulted in a 1.6-percent decrease in real average weekly earnings over this period.” For the year, wages continue to fall far short of inflation; meaning real wages are negative.  Actual real wage growth has been negative for 24 consecutive months.

The main street economy is feeling all of these impacts.  The paper economy (Wall St) is not feeling these impacts at the same level.  The chasm between the haves and have-nots is widening.

Apr 12 2023

Pentagon’s Leaked Documents Anger South Korea


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Apr 12, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

South Korea’s diplomatic policy dictates that it will not send ammunition to countries at war. The recently leaked documents from the Pentagon reveal that the US is bullying South Korea into breaking its policy to arm Ukraine. Worse, the documents reveal that US intelligence agencies have been spying on South Korea. This is an unfortunate start to President Yoon Suk Yeol’s meeting with President Joe Biden scheduled for April 26.

CIA personnel has been warning Washington not to speak to Seoul over the phone until they agreed to arm Ukraine. Former presidential secretary for foreign affairs Lee Moon-hee, named Yi Mun-hui in the documents, told former Director of National Security Kim Sung-han that South Korea would have two options. The first would be for the nation to change its stance. The second would be for South Korea to send weapons to Poland, using Poland as the middleman to avoid breaking policy as “getting the ammunition to Ukraine quickly was the ultimate goal of the United States.” The documents also reveal potential wiretapping against South Korea who is supposed to be an ally.

Yoon is under pressure from both the US and his own policymakers. Opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) floor leader Park Hong-keun is urging Yoon to demand an apology from Biden. “If confirmed, it is an unacceptable practice that cannot be tolerated in the 70-year alliance and a clear infringement of South Korea’s sovereignty that shatters bilateral trust … The U.S. government should be faithful to its ally and apologize to the South Korean public and the government, if those reports are true,” Park stated.

Why is the US risking its international alliances to fight a foreign war? The Biden Administration has completely abandoned domestic policy in favor of fighting a war on behalf of Ukraine. Countries previously yielded to the demands of the US as its military and economic power made it the key ally. Things have changed. Nations are increasingly distancing themselves from the US as the country spirals down a dark path that has already shaken its superpower status.

Apr 12 2023

Pentagon Confirms Document Leak


Armstrong Economics Blog/War Re-Posted Apr 12, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

There is a mole within the Pentagon and officials are eagerly seeking to find the source. Someone has been leaking classified documents to the public that include plans to involve the international community in the Ukrainian conflict. Someone in the intelligence community wants the public to know about America’s increasing involvement in the Russia-Ukraine proxy war.

A source close to Zelensky has said that Ukraine has scrapped previous war strategies due to the leaked information. The documents actually mention that the US has been spying on Zelensky himself, which comes as no surprise. Chris Meagher, the assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, said the leak is under investigation and that they do not know how much information has been leaked. Meagher claims some of the documents have been altered in an attempt to cover up the truth. He is reassuring allies “of our commitment to safeguarding intelligence and fidelity to our security partnerships.”

The documents were highly classified and contained information on how the US spies on its allies and enemies alike. The documents began appearing on Discord servers, 4Chan, and other platforms about a month ago, with over 50 sensitive documents now revealed to the public. The Five Eyes intelligence alliance, which includes Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, are now urging the US to rectify the situation immediately. Time will only tell what secrets these documents reveal.

They could not deny that the papers were real. We have seen how the intelligence community treats those who expose the truth like Edward Snowden who must live out his existence in fear. The source knows the risks and will likely risk their life to expose the truth.

United States Code at 18 U.S.C. § 2381

Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and …