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Bombshell Report Catches Pentagon Falsifying Paperwork For Weapons Transfers To Syrian Rebels

Content originally published at ZeroHedge

A new bombshell joint report issued by two international weapons monitoring groups Tuesday confirms that the Pentagon continues to ship record breaking amounts of weaponry into Syria and that the Department of Defense is scrubbing its own paper trail. On Tuesday the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) produced conclusive evidence that not only is the Pentagon currently involved in shipping up to $2.2 billion worth of weapons from a shady network of private dealers to allied partners in Syria – mostly old Soviet weaponry – but is actually manipulating paperwork such as end-user certificates, presumably in order to hide US involvement.

The OCCRP and BIRN published internal US defense procurement files after an extensive investigation which found that the Pentagon is running a massive weapons trafficking pipeline which originates in the Balkans and Caucuses, and ends in Syria and Iraq. The program is ostensibly part of the US train, equip, and assist campaign for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF, a coalition of YPG/J and Arab FSA groups operating primarily in Syria’s east). The arms transfers are massive and the program looks to continue for years. According to Foreign Policy’s (FP) coverage of the report:

The Department of Defense has budgeted $584 million specifically for this Syrian operation for the financial years 2017 and 2018, and has earmarked another $900 million of spending on Soviet-style munitions between now and 2022. The total, $2.2 billion, likely understates the flow of weapons to Syrian rebels in the coming years.

But perhaps more shocking is the following admission that Pentagon suppliers have links with known criminal networks, also from FP:

 According to the report, many of the weapons suppliers — primarily in Eastern Europe but also in the former Soviet republics, including Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Ukraine — have both links to organized crime throughout Eastern Europe and spotty business records.

The sheer amount of material necessary for the Pentagon program — one ammunition factory announced it planned to hire 1,000 new employees in 2016 to help cope with the demand — has reportedly stretched suppliers to the limit, forcing the Defense Department to relax standards on the materials it’s willing to accept.

It is likely that the organized crime association is the reason why the Pentagon has sought to alter its records. In addition, the sheer volume of weaponry continuing to ship to the Syrian battlefield and other parts of the Middle East means inevitable proliferation among unsavory terror groups – a phenomenon which has already been exhaustively documented in connection with the now reportedly closed CIA program to topple the Syrian government. The associations and alliances among some of the Arab former FSA groups the DoD continues to support in the north and east remains fluid, which means means US-supplied weapons will continue to pass among groups with no accountability for where they end up.

One of the authors of the OCCRP/BIRN report, Ivan Angelovski, told Foreign Policy that, “The Pentagon is removing any evidence in their procurement records that weapons are actually going to the Syrian opposition.” The report is based on internal US government memos which reveal that weapons shipment destination locations have been scrubbed from original documents.

Falsified and altered Pentagon procurement documents (Click to enlarge):

 

Is an EUC (End User Certificate) still an EUC if it doesn’t include an end user?

Balkan Insight, which is hosting the original investigative report: “Seven US procurement documents were whitewashed to remove reference to ‘Syria’ after reporters contacted the Pentagon to enquire about whether the exporting countries – Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine and Georgia – had been informed of the destination.”

The fact that Foreign Policy, which is the foremost establishment national security publication in the world, would admit that the Pentagon’s Syria weapons procurement program is tied to East European organized crime is itself hugely significant. At this point the evidence is simply so overwhelming that even establishment sources like FP – which itself has generally been pro-interventionist on Syria – can’t deny it.

FP further reports that the Pentagon program “appears to be turbocharging a shadowy world of Eastern European arms dealers.” And adds further that, “the Pentagon is reportedly removing documentary evidence about just who will ultimately be using the weapons, potentially weakening one of the bulwarks of international protocols against illicit arms dealing.”

Map/Infographic produced as part of the OCCRP/BIRN report, itself confirmed by Foreign Policy magazine. Notice the map denotes that prior CIA weapons went directly to Idlib province (northwest, section in green) and the Golan border region (south). Both of these areas were and continue to be occupied by al-Qaeda (in Idlib, AQ’s Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham). In Idlib specifically, analysts have confirmed genocidal cleansing of religious minorities conducted by AQ “rebels” directly assisted by CIA weapons.

Late last month we featured the story of Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva, who was fired from her job after being interrogated by national intelligence officials for exposing the same Pentagon arms network which is the subject of the latest OCCRP/BIRN investigation. At the time, Al Jazeera was the only major international outlet which covered the story, which confirmed that Bulgarian agents interrogated Gaytandzhieva and “tried to find out her sources.” An anonymous source had leaked a large trove of internal government files connected to the arms trafficking to the East European-based Trud Newspaper journalist, which was the basis of her reporting. The newest investigation released Tuesday appears to include some of the same documents, also confirmed by Gayandzhieva.

Read the full OCCRP/BIRN investigation here.

Read Zero Hedge’s original coverage of the Pentagon’s Balkan arms pipeline here.

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Facebook To Demonetize ‘Objectionable Content’ While Mueller Turns ‘Red Hot’ Focus On Social Media

In an effort to censor the free flow of information – which cost Hillary Clinton the election, Facebook is following in Google’s footsteps with a new initiative to flag and demonetize videos deemed ‘objectionable’ or ‘fake news,’ as the social media giant begins to place ads inside of videos and articles vs. directly into news feeds.

Carolyn Everson, VP of Marketing Solutions, says the new policies are in reaction to advertiser concerns over being paired with content they disagree with.

“Facebook’s 5 million advertisers are increasingly sensitive to their product pitches showing up next to offensive content after a controversy at Google’s YouTube earlier this year. Facebook wants to avoid that so-called brand safety problem.” Bloomberg

Facebook plans to ensure ‘offensive’ material is enforced via a combination of human and automated review. Via Bloomberg: 

The new guidelines apply to publishers that want to run ads with their content and require an “authentic, established presence on Facebook,” proof that “they are who they represent themselves to be, and have had a profile or page on Facebook for at least one month,” the company said.

In order to put ad breaks in their videos, those publishers may need to have a follower base Facebook finds “sufficient,” and the company said that requirement could be applied to other ad features.
Meanwhile, Mueller’s going in hot and heavy on social media
Bloomberg also reports that Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller is “red-hot” focused on “Russia’s effort to influence U.S. voters through Facebook and other social media.”
Mueller’s team of prosecutors and FBI agents is zeroing in on how Russia spread fake and damaging information through social media and is seeking additional evidence from companies like Facebook and Twitter about what happened on their networks, said one of the officials, who asked not to be identified discussing the ongoing investigation.
Last week, Facebook said it had identified around $100,000 in ad spending by a Russian ‘troll farm’ using fake accounts. Nevermind the fact that most of the ads did not favor a specific candidate, and were mostly run in 2015.
Not one to let the Russia story die, of course – Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, says Russia is ramping up hacking operations ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
“Russia has clearly assumed an even more aggressive cyber posture by increasing cyber espionage operations and leaking data stolen from those operations,” Coats said Wednesday at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit in Washington.
Intel Committee Chairman Richard Burr, (R-NC) thinks Facebook’s ‘revelation’ regarding the $100K spent in 2015 is “the tip of the iceberg. I think there’s going to be much more,” adding “This is the wild, wild west.”
Remember: 
Hillary lost because James Comey undermined her credibility with the email investigation.
Hillary lost because Bernie talked too much shit during the primaries
Hillary lost because of sexism
Hillary lost because Russia
Hillary did not lose because she’s a deep-state war mongering neocon shill whose charity was exposed as a massive pay-for-play scheme, taking tens of millions of dollars from enemies of the United States.
And as long as Mueller’s witch hunt hangs over Trump’s head, nothing he says or does will be considered legitimate. This is an active campaign to discredit a sitting president, aided by the very social media platforms which facilitated his election.

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History of Syria’s War At Risk As YouTube Deletes Content

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s civil war has been one of the modern world’s most brutal conflicts and one of its most heavily filmed. Hundreds of thousands of amateur videos uploaded to YouTube document every heartbeat of the war over the past seven years, from momentous events like cities under bombardment to intimate scenes like a father cradling his dead children.

Syrian activists fear all that history could be erased as YouTube moves to rein in violent content. In the past few months, the tech giant has implemented new policies to remove material considered graphic or supporting terrorism, and hundreds of thousands of videos from the conflict suddenly disappeared without notice. Activists say crucial evidence of human rights violations risks being lost — as well as an outlet to the world that is crucial for them.

Activists are rushing to set up alternative archives, but they also recognize nothing can replace YouTube because of its technological infrastructure and global reach.

“It is like we are writing our memories — not in our own book but in a third party’s book. We don’t have control of it,” said Hadi al-Khatib, co-founder of the Syrian Archive, a group founded in 2014 to preserve open source evidence of crimes committed by all sides of the Syrian conflict.

Based on his database and review of around 900 groups and individuals, al-Khatib said some 180 channels connected to Syria were shut since June, when YouTube began using machine learning protocols to sift through videos on the site for objectionable content.

Working with YouTube, al-Khatib’s group secured the return of about 20 channels, salvaging about 400,000 videos. But about 150,000 videos remain in jeopardy, pending a decision from YouTube, which is still reviewing whether to reinstate them, he said.

“Nothing is lost forever yet,” al-Khatib said, speaking from Berlin. “But this is very dangerous, because there is no alternative for YouTube.”

YouTube, which is owned by Google, says it will correct any videos improperly taken down and that it is in dialogue with the activists on a solution. But many activists fear a repeat or a permanent loss. The shutdowns were chilling for a community that had just celebrated a possible precedent for Syria when the International Criminal Court in August issued an arrest warrant based on video evidence for a Libyan military commander.

One prominent Syrian human rights group, the Video and Documentation Center in Syria, said it will stop using YouTube and will set up its own storage and platform. “The risk became very big now and we don’t trust this platform anymore for keeping violations evidence,” Husam AlKatlaby, VDC executive director, said in an email.

VDC, registered in Switzerland, has specialized in documenting rights violations since 2011. Its founders are prominent activists, including one still missing after being kidnapped by gunmen in Syria. The group limited access to its YouTube channel since 2014, after the company warned it over graphic content.

But not everyone can afford to go on their own. Also, YouTube provides activists with personal accounts for free and technological tools to edit, translate and upload anytime — vital for people out in the field in dangerous circumstances taking video of events.

Activists used YouTube first to report on the peaceful protests that erupted in 2011 against the rule of President Bashar Assad, using videos taken on mobile phones. As the conflict got bloody, so did the videos, catching the immediate aftermath of chemical attacks, spectacular aerial bombings, rescuers pulling children from rubble, and new strikes hitting rescuers and survivors. Militant groups uploaded videos of beheadings. Government supporters uploaded their own imagery and propaganda.

Often, the images were the only thing to grab the world’s attention in an intractable conflict. A video last year that was viewed more than 4.3 million times showed a child covered in blood and dust after surviving an airstrike in Aleppo, as government forces advanced to recapture the city from rebels.

YouTube previously relied in part on a system of community flagging of content deemed inappropriate.

In the Syrian context, that often turned political. Supporters and opponents of the Syrian government have waged digital wars reporting each other’s channels or videos, prompting YouTube to close some. Many videos were lost, including footage of a 2013 chemical attack in a Damascus suburb.

Under pressure in Europe and the West to do more to rein in extremist content, YouTube introduced a number of new measures, including machine learning, which trains itself to recognize patterns in enormous numbers of videos and police “objectionable” material, which then is reviewed by human experts to determine if it should be taken down.

A YouTube spokesperson said the machine learning can remove “a lot of content at a scale.”

“The vast majority of time our reviewers get it right. And when we make mistakes, we act quickly to correct them,” the spokesperson said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with company regulations.

The spokesperson said activists need to improve their data when uploading videos, properly identify them as documenting ights violations and provide context. Meanwhile, the machine learning is being tweaked.

But the closures’ suddenness and breadth stunned those documenting the conflict. Many opposition activists already feel the international political world is turning against them as the Syrian government and its allies make major battlefield gains. Some were convinced the YouTube shutdowns were because of political pressure.

“There are attempts to finish off the conflict in Syria by any means, including having no coverage or a total blackout on the media by the Syrian opposition,” said Tala Kharrat, spokesman for Qasioun News Agency, a news platform whose channel was among those shut down and subsequently reopened on appeal.

Another prominent news platform, the Shaam News Network, has nearly 400,000 videos on its YouTube channel, viewed some 90 million times. In July, its operators found a message saying their channel no longer exists.

Mizyan Altawil, spokesman for SNN, said his network is no stranger to scrutiny of its content, but this time the shutdown was different, with no prior warning. Even more confusing, the channel was reinstated, only to be closed again, then reopened. “We are constantly on the alert,” Altawil said.

The Syrian Archive reached out to activists and media groups affected by the removal and contacted YouTube to restore them. With a team of six and a budget of $96,000, the Archive is also downloading videos to its own server, an expensive and labor-intensive endeavor. The group is partially funded by Google through its Digital News Initiative.

Al-Khatib said the group knew the issue will come up one day, given the concerns over proliferation of violent content, and that it was always a “grey area” how long YouTube would handle graphic material. But, he said, the best evidence for war crimes can come from videos showing violence, even ones uploaded by the perpetrators with the intent to terrorize, like an execution video.

“If they take it down, there will be no graphic content but there will be no evidence.”

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FEMA: Irma Damaged Or Destroyed 90 Percent Of Homes In Florida Keys

As emergency workers scour the Florida keys for victims of Hurricane Irma in need of food, water and medical attention, FEMA administrator Brock Long estimates that 25 percent of homes in the Keys were destroyed, and another 65 percent damaged when the storm rolled through with 130 mph winds.

“Basically, every house in the Keys was impacted,” he said.

Via Fox:

Brock Long, a Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, said preliminary estimates suggested that 25 percent of the homes in the Keys were destroyed and 65 percent sustained major damage.

As road repairs progress, some residents were allowed to return to their properties for a first look after the devastation – while the lower keys, including Key West with its 27,000 residents, are still off limits.

“It’s going to be pretty hard for those coming home,” Petrona Hernandez told Fox News. Hernandez’s concrete home on Plantation Key with 35-foot walls was unscathed, unlike others a few blocks away. “It’s going to be devastating to them.”

Just south of the town of Islamorada on Matecumbe Key, 57-year-old Donald Garner checked on his houseboat, which sustained minor damage. Nearby, three other houseboats were partially sunk. Garner had tied his to mangroves.

“That’s the only way to make it,” said Garner, who works for a shrimp company.

 

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Massachusetts Kicks Off State Lawsuits Against Equifax Over Massive Data Breach $EFX

Consumer credit reporting agency Equifax has already been hit with over 30 lawsuits over what may be the largest breach of sensitive information in U.S. history – at least 23 of which are class-action filings, and all of them representing individuals.

On Tuesday, Massachusetts AG Maura Healey – a Democrat who in March led the state in suing the Trump administration over the travel ban – announced her intent to take Equifax to court, the first such lawsuit from a state prosecutor’s office over a data breach which has affected up to 143 million Americans. “In all of our years investigating data breaches, this may be the most brazen failure to protect consumer data we have ever seen,” said Healey.

In a press release, the Mass AG’s office is claiming that Equifax did not “maintain the appropriate safeguards to protect consumer data,” which is a violation of state consumer protection and privacy laws.

While Equifax offered people a free credit monitoring service which initially waived the right to sue the company, they later clarified that customers could sue if they sent Equifax written notice within 30 days. Yesterday, the company said that use of the free credit monitoring service does not waive the right to take legal action.

Via CNN

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said the clarification came as a result of conversations with his office.

“The victims of this breach shouldn’t also have to worry that they’ve waived their legal rights simply because they were trying to protect themselves. That’s why my office reached out to Equifax last week about the terms of use,” he said in a statement.

Schneiderman’s office is currently investigating the breach, as are attorneys general in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Illinois.

Regulators and investigators across the country have already begun to dig into the scope and disclosure of the hack – including safeguards and procedures Equifax had in place prior to the attack. The NY AG’s office begun an investigation into the breach last week, along with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the FBI.

Setting sale before the storm

Separate of the lawsuits, a bipartisan group of senators called upon federal prosecutors to investigate stock sales by three Equifax executives before the company publicly disclosed the hack, generating nearly $2 million in proceeds shortly after the breach was detected.

SEC filings show that Equifax CFO John Gamble sold $946,000 worth of shares on Aug 1, while two other executives sold shares and exercised options worth nearly $850,000.

The lawmakers, led by senators John Kennedy (R-LA) and Jack Reed (D-RI) is asking the SEC and the FTC to look into the sales.

“As part of your investigations, we request that you conduct a thorough examination of any unusual trading, including any atypical options trading, for violations of insider trading law,” the senators wrote. “We request that you spare no effort in your investigations and in enforcing the law to the fullest extent against anyone who is found to be at fault.”

 

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Former Citi CEO Pandit Says AI Will Replace 30 Percent Of Banking Jobs Within 5 Years

Former Citigroup Chief Vikram Pandit predicts that up to 30 percent of back-office banking jobs could disappear in the next five years due to developments in artificial intelligence and robotics.

In a Singapore interview with Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin, Pandit said “Everything that happens with artificial intelligence, robotics and natural language — all of that is going to make processes easier,” adding “It’s going to change the back office.”

Banks have already started to roll out automated systems

While Vikram Pandit’s prediction is bad news for back-office employees, banks have already begun to use AI and machine learning in a big way.

From stock picking quants such as those currently under development by iBankCoin (to be rolled out in Exodus), to “robo-advisors” which handle client portfolios deemed too small to justify a costly human broker, to high frequency trading (HFT) algos, to intelligent fraud detection systems which detect and adapt to fraudulent behavior – banks are becoming increasingly reliant on automated systems.

JPMorgan ($JPM) Chase invested $600 millio0n in 2016 for “emerging fintech solutions,” and have been integrating automation wherever possible. The bank is gunning for legal jobs with their “Contract Intelligence” platform (COiN) which “analyze(s) legal documents and extract important data points and clauses.” According to Techmergence.com, manually reviewing 12,000 annual credit agreements requires approximately 360,000 hours. With COiN, the same agreements are able to be reviewed in seconds. How is a recent law school grad with $150k in debt supposed to compete?

JPM is also using their “Emerging Opportunities Engine” introduced in 2015 to help identify clients “best positioned for follow-on equity offerings,” and the firm is also rolling out an internal virtual assistant using a ‘natural language interface’ to manage an initial 120,000 employee help-desk requests.

Wells Fargo ($WFC) announced their “Artificial Intelligence Enterprise Solutions” group in February, led by EVP and head of the bank’s Innovation Group, Steve Ellis. Their goals are to “…increase connectivity for the company’s payments efforts, accelerate opportunities with artificial intelligence, and advanced application programming interfaces to corporate banking customers.”

In other words; optimize banking operations currently handled by slow and inefficient humans.

In April, Wells Fargo tested an AI-driven chatbot via Facebook Messenger with several hundred employees. The virtual assistant is designed to provide basic tasks such as resetting passwords and accessing account information.

“AI technology allows us to take an experience that would have required our customers to navigate through several pages on our website, and turn it into a simple conversation in a chat environment. That’s a huge time-saving convenience for busy customers who are already frequent users of Messenger.” – Steve Ellis, head of Wells Fargo’s Innovation Group

Bank of America ($BAC) is jumping into AI with their “intelligent virtual assistant” named Erica – a chatbot which leverages “predictive analytics and cognative messaging” to give financial advice to the firm’s more than 45 million customers. Erica is also a 24/7 mobile banking assistant, available to perform “day-to-day transactions”

“We want to be there for customers in the moments that matter most. Incorporating artificial intelligence into our mobile banking offering will help customers manage their simple banking needs more efficiently and consistently, which then allows our specialists in our financial centers to spend more time with customers to understand their more complex needs and help them improve their financial lives.” -Thong Nguyen, president of Retail Banking, Bank of America

Citibank ($C)has invested heavily in startup Feedzai, a fraud detection company which uses AI and “machine based learning” to pour through vast amounts of data and conduct large-scale analyses of potentially fraudulent behavior.

While AI will help banks survive in a world of thinning margins and fierce competition, the back offices of a bank is where many debt-laden graduates grind out their start in the industry – working 14 hour days to claw their way up the ladder. With entry level banking jobs beginning to evaporate, living the dream in finance is about to become much more difficult.

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Gov Established Canadian Watchdog Says $15 Min Wage Could Cost 50,000 Jobs

Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne has committed to get to a $15 minimum wage on Jan. 1, 2019 – a 32 per cent increase in just 18 months.

Canada’s Financial Accountability Office of Ontario says a planned $15 / hr minimum wage hike by 2019 is a ‘weak weapon in the war on poverty,’ and could result in a net loss of 50,000 jobs.

The independent watchdog group, established by Ontario’s Financial Accountability Officer Act of 2013, gave the conservative estimate – adding that job losses could be “larger than the FAO’s estimate.”

[T]here is evidence to suggest that the job losses could be larger than the FAO’s estimate,” the FAO said. “Ontario’s proposed minimum wage increase is both larger and more rapid than past experience, providing businesses with a greater incentive to reduce costs more aggressively Financial Post

This stunning admission from a liberal government-mandated independent think tank validates the argument against the “fight for $15” minimum wage hike endorsed by Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election.

Won’t help low income families

The FAO also said that “higher minimum wages are not an effective way to alleviate poverty,” as a paltry 27 percent would reach low income households. Instead, most of the benefits would flow to those above the low-income cutoff.

“As a result, the income gains from Ontario’s proposed minimum wage increase would be relatively broadly distributed across all households and not concentrated on low-income families,” the FAO said. “Since minimum wages target low-wage workers, but not necessarily low-income families, raising the minimum wage would be an inefficient policy tool for reducing overall poverty.”

Ontario government defends the hike

Ontario’s very liberal government claims the province’s strong economy allows them to increase the minimum wage, along with a host of new labor and employment reforms, such as mandated sick days for workers.

“We don’t believe that anyone in Ontario who works full time should be struggling to pay their rent, put food on their tables or care for their families — especially when the provincial economy is doing so well,” provincial Labour Minister Kevin Flynn said, adding “The moral and economic evidence supporting this fundamental belief is without question. We will not back down from this commitment.

Canadian conservatives warn of catastrophe

While liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government says the bump in Ontario’s minimum wage will help low income workers, conservative leader Patrick Brown said “When it comes to the increasing minimum wage, they’re giving Ontario businesses two options: lay off staff or raise prices. Some businesses will have no choice but to do both.”

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Congressman Predicts Immunity For Awans Over “Significant, Disturbing Story” About DWS

Last week it was reported that Hina Alvi, the wife of indicted Pakistani DNC IT staffer Imran Awan, had struck a deal with federal prosecutors to return to the U.S. from Pakistan during the “last week of 2017” to face conspiracy and bank fraud charges.

Alvi and her children fled to the safety of Pakistan in early 2017, so her voluntary return, which was structured with an arrest to be made “not in front of her children” seems a bit odd.

Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ) says that Alvi’s return may be part of a broader immunity deal with prosecutors in return for a “significant” and “pretty disturbing” story about Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the FL congresswoman and possible concubine of Satan.

“I don’t want to talk out of school here but I think you’re going to see some revelations that are going to be pretty profound.  The fact that this wife is coming back from Pakistan and is willing to face charges, as it were, I think there is a good chance she is going to reach some type of immunity to tell a larger story here that is going to be pretty disturbing to the American people.”

“I would just predict that this is going to be a very significant story and people should fasten their seat belts on this one.”

More via ZeroHedge: 

Of course, this follows speculation that surfaced last week suggesting that even if the Awans were originally acting to protect/extort Debbie Wasserman Schultz, that may have all changed on April 6, 2017 when Imran seemingly led U.S. Capitol Police directly to her laptop.  Per The Daily Caller:

A laptop that Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz has frantically fought to keep prosecutors from examining may have been planted for police to find by her since-indicted staffer, Imran Awan, along with a letter to the U.S. Attorney.

U.S. Capitol Police found the laptop after midnight April 6, 2017, in a tiny room that formerly served as a phone booth in the Rayburn House Office Building, according to a Capitol Police report reviewed by The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group. Alongside the laptop were a Pakistani ID card, copies of Awan’s driver’s license and congressional ID badge, and letters to the U.S. attorney. Police also found notes in a composition notebook marked “attorney-client privilege.”

The laptop had the username “RepDWS,” even though the Florida Democrat and former Democratic National Committee chairman previously said it was Awan’s computer and that she had never even seen it.

The laptop was found on the second floor of the Rayburn building — a place Awan would have had no reason to go because Wasserman Schultz’s office is in the Longworth building and the other members who employed him had fired him.

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Shocking Satellite Photos Show Caribbean Islands Stripped Of Vegetation By Hurricane Irma

Shocking satellite imagery from NASA satellites taken before and after Hurricane Irma reveal several Caribbean islands left devastated by the Category 5 storm, which saw sustained winds up to 185 MPH:

NASA: download large image (6 MB, JPEG, 11117×7664) /  download large image (5 MB, JPEG, 11117×7664)

Via NASA: 

These natural-color images, captured by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite, show some of Irma’s effect on the British and U.S. Virgin Islands. The views were acquired on August 25 and September 10, 2017, before and after the storm passed. They are among the few relatively cloud-free satellite images of the area so far.

The most obvious change is the widespread browning of the landscape. There are a number of possible reasons for this. Lush green tropical vegetation can be ripped away by a storm’s strong winds, leaving the satellite with a view of more bare ground. Also, salt spray whipped up by the hurricane can coat and desiccate leaves while they are still on the trees.

Images taken before and after from the ground reveal the extent of the devastation: 

Virgin Gorda

Barbuda and Antigua

Via NASA:

The destruction is also clearly visible on Barbuda. This small island in the eastern Caribbean was directly hit by the category-5 storm early on September 6. These images were acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites. The left image shows Barbuda on August 21, 2017. The right image shows the ravaged landscape on September 8.

In contrast, vegetation on Antigua appears relatively healthy and intact. With the storm’s center passing to the north, the island sustained less damage. Ground reports noted that by September 7, electricity had been restored to most of the island, and the international airport reopened.

After wreaking havoc on the Bahamas, the 650 mile wide hurricane bled off much of its energy after scraping across Cuba – slowing it down to a Category 4 by the time it swept across the Florida Keys, and reaching Category 3 by the time it struck Marco island just south of Naples, FL.

Irma rolled past Tampa as a Category 1 early Monday, having caused widespread flooding, power outages, and structural damage affecting at least nine states from eastern Mississippi to the Carolinas.

The combined damage from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma could top $290 billion according to AccuWeather President Joel Meyers. “We believe the damage estimate from Irma to be about $100 billion — among the costliest hurricanes of all time. This amounts to 0.5 of a percentage point of the GDP of $19 trillion,” Myers said. “We estimated that Hurricane Harvey is to be the costliest weather disaster in U.S. history, at $190 billion, or 1 full percentage point of the GDP.”

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Upcoming NTSB Ruling In Tesla Autopilot Death To Set Precedent For Self-Driving Cars

Federal investigators with the National Transportation Safetty Board are reportedly set to find that Tesla, Inc.’s ($TSLA) self-driving system should share the blame in a fatal 2016 crash in which a Model S sedan collided with the side of a truck, killing former Navy Seal Joshua Brown.

The NTSB meets Tuesday to submit its findings, which will be subject to revision by board members. A preliminary report, however, concluded that Tesla’s automated system allowed Brown to effectively let the car drive itself for ‘long periods without steering or apparently even looking at the road,’despite warnings from Tesla that customers should maintain awareness over driving conditions and keep their hands on the wheel.

Brown, 40, was driving near Williston, FL on May 7, 2016 when his Tesla struck the side of a truck trailer that was making a left turn in front of him. There is no evidence that the car attempted to slow down or make evasive maneuvers, according to the NTSB.

Via Bloomberg

Brown, who “loved technology,” believed the Tesla automation has saved lives, according to a statement released by his family on Monday through their attorneys. “We heard numerous times that the car killed our son,” said the statement issued by the law firm Landskroner Grieco Merriman LLC. “That is simply not the case.”

The statement also praised Tesla for improving its Autopilot software after the accident, changes it said were a direct result of the crash.

Tesla didn’t provide an immediate comment on the draft conclusions. The company said in a statement last year that customers had to acknowledge Autopilot’s limitations before it would allow the systems to operate. Every time the system is engaged, it reminds drivers: “Always keep your hands on the wheel. Be prepared to take over at any time.”

Following the accident, Tesla released an upgrade to its autopilot program which makes it more difficult for drivers to ignore warnings to put their hands on the steering wheel – stopping the car if the warnings are ignored and only resuming function after the car has been parked.

Tesla also modified how the auto-pilot system detects potential obstructions, such as the ability to identify the white side of a tractor trailer vs. a bright sky. The upgraded system emphasizes the use of radar over cameras, according to a company statement.

Broad implications

Bloomberg also reports that the safety board’s findings and recommendations could have broad implications for how self-driving technology is phased in on vehicles and trucks, and it comes as Congress is debating legislation to spur autonomous vehicle systems. Tech and auto companies are pouring billions of dollars into a race to develop self-driving vehicles, which carmakers from Tesla to Volvo Cars say could be deployed in less than 10 years.

Class action

A class-action lawsuit was filed in a California court in April against the automaker, alleging that the Tesla autopilot system is “dangerously defective” when engaged – with cars sometimes veering out of lanes, braking for no reason, or failing to stop when approaching other vehicles.

In response, Tesla said that they never claimed the vehicles have “full self-driving capability,” adding that the suit misrepresented the facts and is nothing more than a “disingenuous attempt to secure attorney’s fees.”

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