Trump's spy chief just released 'Russian disinformation' against Hillary Clinton that he acknowledged may be fabricated

ssheth@businessinsider.com (Sonam Sheth)

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Business Insider•September 29, 2020

Rep. John Ratcliffe

Yuri Gripas/Reuters

• Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe declassified a dubious claim from Russian intelligence sources alleging that former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton "approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal" against then-Republican candidate Donald Trump and his ties to Russia.

• Ratcliffe said in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham that the US intelligence community "does not know the accuracy" of the allegation "or the extent to which the Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication."

• The DNI's move raised questions about why the nation's spy chief declassified information that had not been corroborated and which he himself admitted may be false or exaggerated.

• Ratcliffe's decision to release disparaging information about Clinton also mirrors Moscow's ongoing disinformation campaign against the former secretary of state.

John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence, declassified dubious information from a "Russian intelligence analysis" in 2016 alleging that then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton "approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal" against then-Republican candidate Donald Trump "by tying him to Putin and the Russians' hacking of the Democratic National Committee."

Ratcliffe divulged the information in a letter to Sen. Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and one of Trump's staunchest congressional allies.

However, the letter said the US intelligence community "does not know the accuracy of this allegation or the extent to which the Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication."

 

Ratcliffe's move raised immediate questions about why the country's top intelligence official declassified information that the US could not corroborate, and which Ratcliffe himself acknowledged could be false or exaggerated.

Moreover, as several observers pointed out, Ratcliffe's decision to release disparaging information about Clinton from Russian intelligence sources appears to mirror Moscow's ongoing disinformation campaign against the former secretary of state.

The president and his allies have also amplified the claim over the last several years, alleging without evidence that the Clinton campaign colluded with the Ukrainian government to cook up a Trump-Russia conspiracy and sabotage his campaign. US intelligence officials have seen no evidence supporting the claim, and a bipartisan report by the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee concluded the same.

The intelligence community also determined in early 2017 that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his government and intelligence agencies to wage an elaborate and extensive campaign to interfere in the 2016 general election. Putin's main goal was to damage Clinton and propel Trump to the Oval Office, according to the US's assessment.

Nick Merrill, a spokesperson for Clinton, described the allegations Ratcliffe's letter laid out as "baseless bullshit" in a text message to Politico.

Frank Montoya, a recently retired FBI special agent, told Business Insider in a text message that the allegation Ratcliffe publicized "sounds like more Russian disinformation" meant to protect the "Russian intel effort to undermine our sovereignty. This is how Russia (like the Soviet Union before it) does disinformation ops."

"What's more, this is old news, meaning the IC has had years to corroborate it and hasn't been able to do that," he added. Montoya said the DNI's decision was particularly striking given that when he served in Congress, he and other Republicans railed against the release of uncorroborated information connected to the so-called Steele dossier, an unverified collection of memos by a former British intelligence officer alleging collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

"Ratcliffe is serving up political chum to the President's allies on-demand, seeming to disregard whether it's A) accurate or B) in service of a foreign disinformation campaign," Ned Price, the former senior director of the National Security Council under President Barack Obama, wrote on Twitter.

"This is Russian disinformation," Rachel Cohen, spokesperson for Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, the vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, tweeted. "Laundered by the Director Of National Intelligence and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. This is extraordinary."

Ratcliffe's letter also said that John Brennan, the CIA director at the time of the July 2016 "Russian intelligence analysis," briefed Obama and other senior officials on the information.

In September 2016, the letter said, US intelligence officials "forwarded an investigative referral" to then-FBI Director James Comey and then-Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok. The referral was about Clinton's "approval of a plan concerning" Trump "and Russian hackers hampering US elections as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server."

Ratcliffe's letter said that Attorney General William Barr, who Trump tapped to run the Justice Department last year, "has advised that the disclosure of this information will not interfere with ongoing Department of Justice investigations."

Trump fired Comey in May 2017 after he confirmed the existence of the FBI's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election. And the bureau fired Strzok after it surfaced that he exchanged anti-Trump text messages with Lisa Page, who was an FBI lawyer at the time. Comey is set to testify before Graham's committee on Wednesday.

Ratcliffe was confirmed as DNI earlier this year after Trump ousted Joseph Maguire, the former acting DNI after he authorized an official to brief Congress on Russia's ongoing interference in the 2020 election.

Ratcliffe was previously a congressman from Texas and one of Trump's biggest attack dogs on Capitol Hill. He made headlines last year when he berated the former special counsel Robert Mueller during the latter's testimony to the House Judiciary Committee about the Russia probe.

Trump initially nominated Ratcliffe as DNI shortly after that hearing in July 2019, but Ratcliffe withdrew from consideration after it surfaced that he inflated his resume and misled the public about his role in overseeing anti-terrorism efforts at the US attorney's office for the Eastern District of Texas. Trump nominated him a second time earlier this year, and he was confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate in May.

Brett McGurk

@brett_mcgurk

·

Sep 29, 2020

Wait? The DNI won’t release the US Intelligence Community’s global threat assessment to the American people (for the first time ever) but he’ll release RUSSIAN intel that US analysts say may be fabricated?

Andrew Desiderio

@AndrewDesiderio

To recap: The country’s top intelligence official just declassified a Russian intel assessment that he acknowledges might be exaggerated or fabricated by the Russians. https://twitter.com/AndrewDesiderio/status/1311014296961404928…

Brett McGurk

@brett_mcgurk

Put another way: the DNI thinks the American people should be aware of sketchy Russian intel chatter while keeping from the American people the considered USG intelligence assessment on current threats to our country—including from Russia.

2:33 PM · Sep 29, 2020

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VELIKOVSKY WAS RIGHT 

Venus might be habitable today, if not for Jupiter

Study shows destabilizing effect of the giant gas planet

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - RIVERSIDE

Research News

 

IMAGE: COMPOSITE OF IMAGES TAKEN BY JAPANESE SPACECRAFT AKATSUKI OF VENUS. view more 

CREDIT: JAXA / ISAS / DARTS / DAMIA BOUIC

Venus might not be a sweltering, waterless hellscape today, if Jupiter hadn't altered its orbit around the sun, according to new UC Riverside research.

Jupiter has a mass that is two-and-a-half times that of all other planets in our solar system -- combined. Because it is comparatively gigantic, it has the ability to disturb other planets' orbits.

Early in Jupiter's formation as a planet, it moved closer to and then away from the sun due to interactions with the disc from which planets form as well as the other giant planets. This movement in turn affected Venus.

Observations of other planetary systems have shown that similar giant planet migrations soon after formation may be a relatively common occurrence. These are among the findings of a new study published in the Planetary Science Journal.

Scientists consider planets lacking liquid water to be incapable of hosting life as we know it. Though Venus may have lost some water early on for other reasons, and may have continued to do so anyway, UCR astrobiologist Stephen Kane said that Jupiter's movement likely triggered Venus onto a path toward its current, inhospitable state.

"One of the interesting things about the Venus of today is that its orbit is almost perfectly circular," said Kane, who led the study. "With this project, I wanted to explore whether the orbit has always been circular and if not, what are the implications of that?"

To answer these questions, Kane created a model that simulated the solar system, calculating the location of all the planets at any one time and how they pull one another in different directions.

Scientists measure how noncircular a planet's orbit is between 0, which is completely circular, and 1, which is not circular at all. The number between 0 and 1 is called the eccentricity of the orbit. An orbit with an eccentricity of 1 would not even complete an orbit around a star; it would simply launch into space, Kane said.

Currently, the orbit of Venus is measured at 0.006, which is the most circular of any planet in our solar system. However, Kane's model shows that when Jupiter was likely closer to the sun about a billion years ago, Venus likely had an eccentricity of 0.3, and there is a much higher probability that it was habitable then.

"As Jupiter migrated, Venus would have gone through dramatic changes in climate, heating up then cooling off and increasingly losing its water into the atmosphere," Kane said.

Recently, scientists generated much excitement by discovering a gas in the clouds above Venus that may indicate the presence of life. The gas, phosphine, is typically produced by microbes, and Kane says it is possible that the gas represents "the last surviving species on a planet that went through a dramatic change in its environment."

For that to be the case, however, Kane notes the microbes would have had to sustain their presence in the sulfuric acid clouds above Venus for roughly a billion years since Venus last had surface liquid water -- a difficult to imagine though not impossible scenario.

"There are probably a lot of other processes that could produce the gas that haven't yet been explored," Kane said.

Ultimately, Kane says it is important to understand what happened to Venus, a planet that was once likely habitable and now has surface temperatures of up to 800 degrees Fahrenheit.

"I focus on the differences between Venus and Earth, and what went wrong for Venus, so we can gain insight into how the Earth is habitable, and what we can do to shepherd this planet as best we can," Kane said.

Mystery of Zimbabwe elephant deaths may be solved, as experts eye bacterial disease

34 elephants have died so far

By James Rogers | Fox News

Officials in Zimbabwe say that the recent spate of elephant deaths in the country is the result of bacterial infection.


Fulton Mangwanya, the director-general of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, told a parliamentary committee that 34 elephants have died so far and “many” more could still die “in the short term.”

“All results to date point to the cause of these elephant deaths being a disease known as hemorrhagic septicemia,” said Mangwanya, noting that the disease does not appear to have been previously recorded as causing deaths among Africa’s savannah elephants.

MYSTERY OF BOTSWANA'S MASS ELEPHANT DIE-OFF MAY BE SOLVED

“However, it has been reported to kill Asian elephants in India. It has also affected cattle, pigs, and chickens in southern Africa in which it can cause massive mortality. It has also been recognized in buffalo and some other wildlife species in this part of this world,” he said.

Nov. 10, 2019: Elephants make their way through the Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, in search of water. (AP Photo)

Two elephants were found dead in Victoria Falls last week, the Sunday Mail reports, citing the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority. Samples have been sent to the U.K. for tests, the Authority said.

Other samples will also be sent to the U.S. and neighboring South Africa, according to Mangwanya.

Additionally, a mass elephant die-off occurred earlier this year in neighboring Botswana. Officials in Botswana recently reported that the deaths of the more than 300 elephants may be the result of toxic algae in the water the animals were drinking.

Eyal Harel, CEO of Israeli firm BlueGreen Water Technologies told Fox News that toxic algal blooms have been growing annually in scale, severity, and frequency all over the world. "Poisoning by cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae toxins is something that animals, namely big mammals, cannot evolve to avoid or to be immune from," he explained, via email. "The phenomenon of large mammals falling victim to toxic water sources, what happened in the case of Botswana’s elephants, occurs when toxic algae species inundate already depleted or scarce water resources."

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

 

Cannabis use for menopause symptom management

29 Sep 2020

As legislation relaxes regarding cannabis, it is being used to manage numerous chronic health conditions and mood symptoms. A new study indicates that a growing number of women are either using cannabis or want to use it for the management of bothersome menopause symptoms. Study results will be presented during the 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS), which opens on September 28.

In a sample of 232 women (mean age, 55.95 y) in Northern California who participated in the Midlife Women Veterans Health Survey, more than half reported such bothersome symptoms as hot flashes and night sweats (54%), insomnia (27%), and genitourinary symptoms (69%). Roughly 27% of those sampled reported having used or were currently using cannabis to manage their symptoms. An additional 10% of participants expressed an interest in trying cannabis to manage menopause symptoms in the future. In contrast, only 19% reported using a more traditional type of menopause symptom management, such as hormone therapy.

Cannabis for menopause symptom management was most often used in women reporting hot flashes and night sweats. Such use did not differ by age, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or mental health conditions.

"These findings suggest that cannabis use to manage menopause symptoms may be relatively common. However, we do not know whether cannabis use is safe or effective for menopause symptom management or whether women are discussing these decisions with their healthcare providers--particularly in the VA, where cannabis is considered an illegal substance under federal guidelines. This information is important for healthcare providers, and more research in this area is needed," says Carolyn Gibson, PhD, MPH, a psychologist and health services researcher at San Francisco VA Health Care System and the lead author of the study.

The study, "Cannabis use for menopause symptom management among midlife women veterans," will be one of many presentations during the 2020 NAMS Virtual Annual Meeting focused on novel approaches for treating menopause symptoms.

"This study highlights a somewhat alarming trend and the need for more research relative to the potential risks and benefits of cannabis use for the management of bothersome menopause symptoms," says Dr Stephanie Faubion, NAMS medical director.

 

Native Americans Have Always Answered the Call to Serve: National VFW Day 2020

September 29th, 2020/ BY Dennis Zotigh

 

Native American veterans of the Vietnam War stand in honor as part of the color guard at the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial. November 11, 1990, Washington, D.C. (Photo by Mark Reinstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

National Veterans of Foreign Wars Day, September 29, acknowledges men and women who have served honorably in a foreign war or overseas operation recognized by a campaign medal, received hostile fire, or qualified for imminent danger pay. Active-duty servicemembers who meet the criteria are also welcome. Members today include veterans of World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, the Balkans, the Persian Gulf, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other expeditionary campaigns, as well as those who have served during occupations. Family members of eligible servicemen and women show their support through the VFW Auxiliary.

The organization’s history dates to 1899, when the American Veterans of Foreign Service and the National Society of the Army of the Philippines were organized to secure rights and benefits for veterans of the Spanish–American War (1898) and Philippine–American War (1899–1902). The two organizations merged in 1914, creating the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States. The VFW was chartered by Congress in 1936.

The VFW defines its role in its mission and vision statements:

To foster camaraderie among United States veterans of overseas conflicts. To serve our veterans, the military, and our communities. To advocate on behalf of all veterans.

To ensure that veterans are respected for their service, always receive their earned entitlements, and are recognized for the sacrifices they and their loved ones have made on behalf of this great country.

Today, more than 1.6 million people belong to the VFW and VFW Auxiliary. They take part in service and social programs at more than 6,000 posts, including posts on American Indian reservations and in Native communities.

In the early 1900s, the warrior tradition of American Indians seemed to face near extinction. The last of the major conflicts over Native American lands had ended a generation before, when the Agreement of 1877 annexed the Sioux homelands—including Pahá Sápa, the Black Hills—and permanently established Indian reservations. With a handful of exceptions, Native warriors no longer engaged in battle to protect their homes, families, and way of life.

“Native Americans served in World War I even though they were not citizens of the United States.” —Kevin Gover (Pawnee), director of the National Museum of the American Indian

That changed in 1917, when the United States formally entered World War I. In need of a much larger military, the federal government began to promote enlistment, and shortly afterward, instituted the draft. It is estimated that more than 12,000 American Indians served in the U.S. military during the war. At a time when a third of Native Americans were not recognized as citizens of the United States, more than 17,000 Native American men registered with the Selective Service. An estimated 12,000 Native Americans joined the U.S. Armed Forces, according to the records of the U.S. Office of Indian Affairs. Between 3,000 and 6,000 Native Americans volunteeres.

The largest group of Native service members came from Oklahoma. Members of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma became the military’s first officially organized and trained group of American Indian code talkers. Students of the federal Indian boarding schools volunteered in large numbers—more than 200 from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School alone. Native Americans joined every branch of the military, including a number of Native women who volunteered for the Army Nurse Corps. Unlike African American servicemen and women, Native Americans were not segregated into special units, although there is evidence that they were often given unusually dangerous assignments: About 5 percent of Native combat soldiers were killed during World War I, compared to 1 percent of American soldiers overall.

Through the Citizenship Act of 1919, Congress granted U.S. citizenship to American Indians who had served, if they applied for it. Native Americans’ record of patriotism during the war became the catalyst for the broader Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, which recognized all Native Americans born in the United States as citizens.

The United States’ entry into World War II brought large numbers of American Indian warriors back to the battlefield in defense of their homeland. More than 44,000 American Indians, out of a total Native American population of less than 400,000, served with distinction between 1941 and 1945 in all theaters of the war. Servicemen from more than 30 Native nations used their tribal languages as unbreakable codes to transmit vital communications. Among many Native heroes of the war is Ira Hayes (Pima [Akimel O’odham]), who grew up on his parents’ farm in the Gila River Indian Community of Arizona, enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in 1942, and was one of six servicemen who raised the American flag over Iwo Jima, a moment immortalized at the Marine Corps Memorial.

“There is a camaraderie that transcends ethnicity when you serve your country overseas in wartime.”—Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (Northern Cheyenne), Korea veteran

During the Korean War (1950–1953), battle-hardened Native American troops from World War II were joined by American Indians newly recruited to fight on foreign soil. Approximately 10,000 Native Americans served in the U.S. military during this period. Seven American Indians and Native Hawaiians received Medals of Honor for their bravery and sacrifice in Korea. My uncle, William Hall-Zotigh (Kiowa), proudly served in a MASH unit near Inchon and Taegu. Before his death, he was heavily involved in the Veterans of Foreign Wars and presided over funerals for veterans on behalf of the VFW.

 

Native American veterans participate in opening ceremonies during the 7th Annual Indiana Traditional Powwow. April 7, 2018, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. (Jeremy Hogan)

Native Americans demonstrated their patriotism again during the Vietnam era. More than 42,000 Native Americans fought in Vietnam, more than 90 percent of them volunteers. Among the nearly 60 thousand names of individuals killed or missing in action on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall are 232 identified as Native Americans or Alaska Natives.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Natives in United States military took part in combat or other hostilities in Grenada, Panama, Somalia, Bosnia and Kosovo, the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Private First Class Lori Piestewa (Hopi) was the first woman killed in action during Operation Iraqi Freedom and the first Native American woman known to have died in combat overseas.

“I’m excited about the upcoming memorial. With the all-volunteer service, there are a lot of people who have not served or don’t understand what it means to serve. I guess I want people to recognize how often Native people have volunteered. From Alaska to the East Coast, through all the wars, Native people have always volunteered.” —Colonel Wayne Don (Cupig and Yupik), veteran of Bosnia and Afghanistan

According to the Department of Defense, more than 23,000 of the 1.2 million men and women on active duty in the U.S. military today are American Indians or Alaska Natives. With the completion of the National Native American Veterans Memorial on November 11, 2020, the museum will honor them and all Native veterans. The museum will announce the larger, ceremonial opening when it is possible for veterans and their families to take part.

The National Native American Veterans Memorial is currently under construction on the grounds of the National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Congress charged the museum with creating this memorial to give all Americans the opportunity “to learn of the proud and courageous tradition of service of Native Americans.” Their legacy deserves our recognition.

Join us in recognizing the members and mission of the VFW on social media using the hashtag #VFWDay.

Dennis W. Zotigh (Kiowa/San Juan Pueblo/Santee Dakota Indian) is a member of the Kiowa Gourd Clan and San Juan Pueblo Winter Clan and a descendant of Sitting Bear and No Retreat, both principal war chiefs of the Kiowas. Dennis works as a writer and cultural specialist at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

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