Last Call For The Mustache Gets Back To Work

Don't feel bad for now former National Security Adviser John Bolton, as always with the people Trump stabs in the front, there's plenty of wingnut welfare waiting for them upon their return to the private sector, and Bolton landed on his feet almost immediately.

John Bolton, ousted this week as White House national security adviser, wasted no time in resuming his political activity and opening up his checkbook to support Republican candidates.

Bolton, who has a regular political action committee and a super PAC, announced Friday that he was donating $10,000 each to the reelection campaigns of five lawmakers: Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.).

“The experience that these incumbent members of Congress have provides them with a remarkable understanding and knowledge of the threats we face from international terrorism and rogue regimes such as Iran and North Korea,” Bolton said in a statement.

Bolton, who is known to support military intervention, reportedly clashed with President Trump over how to deal with international conflicts, particularly with the Iranian and North Korean governments. He resigned from his White House post Monday.

During his nearly year and a half at the White House, Bolton’s political account was sitting on $2.4 million cash on hand, mostly raised from a handful of wealthy GOP mega-donors, such as Robert Mercer, who gave him six-figure checks in 2017 and 2018.

Not only is Bolton personally fine, he's back in charge of his own super PAC, giving out cash to Republican campaigns.  He's already been folded back into the right-wing noise machine in under a work week.

Say what you will about Trump and Bolton, but that permanent ATM for guys in the club like Bolton is open 24/7, and I'm convinced it's that efficiency that keeps Trump's former employees from going full whistleblower when they leave.

Hotel, Motel, Trumpaday Inn, Con't

So it turns out it wasn't just one US Air National Guard crew in Scotland that went to stay at Donald Trump's Turnberry resort on the taxpayer dime.  It was 40 separate times this happened since 2015, as somebody at WIN THE MORNING actually decided to do some investigative journalism.

The tally represents the preliminary results of an Air Force review launched after POLITICO reported last week that an Air National Guard crew stayed at Turnberry in March. Congressional Democrats have also been investigating military stays at the property, but have yet to receive any information from the Pentagon.

The figure does not indicate how many of the stays have occurred since Trump became president. But the Air Force has significantly ramped up its overnight stops in Scotland under Trump after signing a contract with the Prestwick Airport — situated 20-plus miles from Turnberry — in the waning months of the Obama administration. Since 2015, the service has lodged crews in the area 659 times, meaning up to 6 percent of those stays were at Turnberry.

The figure also does not account for the total number of people the Air Force has put up at Trump Turnberry during those roughly 40 stays. POLITICO previously reported that Air Force crews of five to nearly 40 people have lodged at Trump's waterside property over at least four stays since September 2018.

The Air Force has said the refueling stops at Prestwick — and all related overnight stays — are well within Pentagon guidelines. Prestwick frequently books the Air Force crews’ lodging at Turnberry, the airport acknowledged in a statement, and often arranges for their transportation to and from the resort. Officials have also said the Turnberry bookings fall within acceptable rates for military travel, as military members are charged a government rate as low as $130 per night.

But the Air Force did concede that the appearance of staying at the president’s posh property might create a negative perception, and it has launched an internal review that will assess the “guidance associated with the use of civil airports and lodging selection for aircrew at en route locations,” according to a memo issued Monday.

Still, the issue is the latest example of the intersection of Trump’s business interests and what used to be unremarkable government policies.

Air Force crews have been lodging at Turnberry because of the increasing importance of Prestwick Airport for refueling military aircraft. In 2015, the Air Force made 95 stops there, lodging in the area 40 times. But through August of this year, the Air Force had made 259 stops at Prestwick, staying overnight nearby 220 times.

The roughly 40 stays at Turnberry are likely to raise eyebrows among congressional Democrats, who have said the practice raises conflict-of-interest concerns and might violate the Constitution's domestic emoluments clause, which prohibits the president from receiving money from the federal government other than his salary.

So this was happening as candidate Donald Trump was running for office in 2015, GOP nominee Trump was on the campaign trail in 2016, and after he won and took office in 2017 and since.

It's amazing how nobody bothered to look into this until now.

Spies Like Us, Con't

Remember those mobile phone call-intercepting "Stingray" devices found around Washington DC near the White House just after Trump took office? We first heard about them in June of last year.

The Department of Homeland Security last year found evidence of devices that can secretly catch cell phone communications around the White House and other “potentially sensitive” areas of Washington, D.C., a letter made public Friday reveals.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said that the letter, written to him by Homeland Security official Christopher Krebs, is “more evidence” that Americans are “being spied on, tracked, or scammed,” possibly by foreign spy agencies in some cases.

Wyden said phone companies and the Federal Communications Commission should be taking action to strengthen cell phone security on the heels of the letter.

Homeland Security said sensors it deployed from January 2017 through November spotted activity that appeared consistent with the devices, which can monitor individual cellphone calls and texts. Known formally as International Mobile Security Identity devices, they are commonly known as StingRays.

Such devices are known to be used by foreign spies.

And then the mystery went away, disappeared into the memory hole.  Until now, it seems. Just a reminder this morning that Russia isn't the only intelligence friend or foe that the United States has, not by a long shot.  Our good friends in Tel Aviv are also very fond of the modern Reaganism, "Trust, but spy on them anyway."

The U.S. government concluded within the past two years that Israel was most likely behind the placement of cellphone surveillance devices that were found near the White House and other sensitive locations around Washington, according to three former senior U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter.

But unlike most other occasions when flagrant incidents of foreign spying have been discovered on American soil, the Trump administration did not rebuke the Israeli government, and there were no consequences for Israel’s behavior, one of the former officials said.

The miniature surveillance devices, colloquially known as “StingRays,” mimic regular cell towers to fool cellphones into giving them their locations and identity information. Formally called international mobile subscriber identity-catchers or IMSI-catchers, they also can capture the contents of calls and data use.

The devices were likely intended to spy on President Donald Trump, one of the former officials said, as well as his top aides and closest associates — though it’s not clear whether the Israeli efforts were successful.

Trump is reputed to be lax in observing White House security protocols. POLITICO reported in May 2018 that the president often used an insufficiently secured cellphone to communicate with friends and confidants. The New York Times subsequently reported in October 2018 that “Chinese spies are often listening” to Trump’s cellphone calls, prompting the president to slam the story as “so incorrect I do not have time here to correct it.” (A former official said Trump has had his cellphone hardened against intrusion.)

By then, as part of tests by the federal government, officials at the Department of Homeland Security had already discovered evidence of the surveillance devices around the nation’s capital, but weren’t able to attribute the devices to specific entities. The officials shared their findings with relevant federal agencies, according to a letter a top Department of Homeland Security official, Christopher Krebs, wrote in May 2018 to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

Based on a detailed forensic analysis, the FBI and other agencies working on the case felt confident that Israeli agents had placed the devices, according to the former officials, several of whom served in top intelligence and national security posts.
That analysis, one of the former officials said, is typically led by the FBI’s counterintelligence division and involves examining the devices so that they “tell you a little about their history, where the parts and pieces come from, how old are they, who had access to them, and that will help get you to what the origins are.” For these types of investigations, the bureau often leans on the National Security Agency and sometimes the CIA (DHS and the Secret Service played a supporting role in this specific investigation).

“It was pretty clear that the Israelis were responsible,” said a former senior intelligence official.

An Israeli Embassy spokesperson, Elad Strohmayer, denied that Israel placed the devices and said: “These allegations are absolute nonsense. Israel doesn’t conduct espionage operations in the United States, period.”

Sure.  And Israel doesn't have a nuclear weapons, either.

If any other country on Earth had been caught doing this, it would have been a massive international incident.  But the Israelis got busted and it didn't matter.  Now, I'm sure whatever intelligence Netanyahu wanted, he got by asking.  But at least in January 2017, the plan was tapping Trump's unsecured cell phone.

Here's the question though.  Why are we finding out about this now?  Maybe this has something to do with it.

ICE wants to hack more phones. A lot more.

The contentious immigration enforcement agency has expanded its work with Cellebrite, an Israeli data extraction company best known for offering to crack the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone at the behest of the FBI in 2016. Cellebrite reportedly broke into the device for the Bureau, though the FBI disputed that story. The company’s technology can bypass most smartphones’ locks and download data from all their apps for law enforcement.

According to a recent federal filing, ICE will pay Cellebrite between $30 and $35 million for “universal forensic extraction devices” (UFED) and “accessories licenses, training and support services.” The contract, worth more than ten times the value of the $2.2 million agreement between the two agencies signed in 2017, will last between one and five years. The request originated from ICE’s Dallas office, according to a notice of intent posted June 24th. The synopsis of the contract also states that Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and its Cyber Crimes Center (C3) plan to use Cellebrite’s technology. Within ICE, HSI leads investigations into child trafficking, drug smuggling, and fraud.

A single UFED retails for $5,000 to $15,000, according to Forbes, meaning ICE could be buying as many as 6,000 the devices from Cellebrite.
It’s unclear what use ICE will put Cellebrite’s technology to and where it will do so. When The Daily Beast contacted ICE Contracting Officer Tracy Riley for details, Riley said she would “absolutely” not provide more details about the contract. Cellebrite did not respond to a request for comment. ICE’s office of public affairs responded to The Daily Beast but did not yet provide a comment.

CBP officers searched the devices of more than 30,000 international travelers in 2017—10,000 more than the year prior, according to the most recently available data (ICE does not make such data available). In response to a lawsuit filed against the two agencies last year, CBP and ICE said their searches were “a crucial tool for detecting evidence relating to terrorism and other national security matters” and “can also reveal information about financial and commercial crimes.”

Privacy advocates have decried warrantless searches of electronic devices at the border for allegedly violating constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizures.

Trump looks the other way on the spying, and the US gets cellphone cracking tech from Israel in return...or maybe Israel threatened to kill the contract if the White House made a fuss.

But again, somebody leaked the Stingray story.  Three "former US officials".  Within 24 hours of news that Andrew McCabe is probably facing federal indictments.

This is far from over, folks.

StupidiNews!

• With a month left in the fiscal year, the federal deficit topped $1 trillion dollars on top of last year's $900 billion as the GOP tax cut continues to sink the economy.
• A new Moody's report finds Trump's China tariffs have already cost the country 300,000 jobs this year as White House officials are looking to delay additional tariffs set to go into effect in October.
• The Trump regime is set to revoke California's automotive emissions waiver under the Clean Air Act as the White House continues to roll back as many Obama-era environmental protections as it can.
• Donald Trump claims former National Security Adviser John Bolton, fired this week by tweet, was holding Trump back on dealing with additional measures against Venezuela and Cuba.
• Although distant planet K2-18b is a Neptune-like world without a solid surface, astronomers say the planet's atmosphere appears to have water vapor and even clouds.