Block, Siteadmin, SkipCaptcha, Upload, Automoderated users, delete, edit, move, nsTeam2RO, nsTeam2RW, nsTeam2_talkRO, nsTeam2_talkRW, protect, rollback, Administrators, template
293,720
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 555:
Line 555: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
→Flynn report
'''December 2012'''
'''December 2012'''
*'''6 December.''' <font color="brown">''New York Times'' confirms "Qataris provided weapons, money and training to various rebel groups in Libya [destined for Syria]. One militia that received aid was controlled by [Abdelhakim Belhadj], then leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, who was held by the C.I.A. in 2004..."</font><ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/world/africa/weapons-sent-to-libyan-rebels-with-us-approval-fell-into-islamist-hands.html </ref>
*'''6 December.''' <font color="brown">''New York Times'' confirms "Qataris provided weapons, money and training to various rebel groups in Libya [destined for Syria]. One militia that received aid was controlled by [Abdelhakim Belhadj], then leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, who was held by the C.I.A. in 2004..."</font><ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/world/africa/weapons-sent-to-libyan-rebels-with-us-approval-fell-into-islamist-hands.html </ref>
==2013==
===January 2013===
*'''3 January.''' <font color="brown">Arms flight reported from Qatar to Istanbul destined for Islamic State rebels.</font>
*'''21 January.''' Obama re-inaugurated for second term.
===February 2013===
*'''5 February.''' In Copenhagen Denmark cartoonist Lars Hedegaard narrowly escapes an assassination attempt in his home from a man who fires from a yard away. Danish Prime Minister condemns the attack, and says the case was even more severe if the motive was to prevent Hedegaard from exercising [[free speech]].<ref name=BBC>{{cite news | url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21341878 | title = Denmark shooting: Gunman targets Islam critic Hedegaard | publisher = BBC | date = 2013-02-05 | accessdate = }}</ref> In November 2016, the US State Department issued a note, designating three persons as terror-operatives: "Basil Hassan is an external operations plotter for ISIL. In 2013, Hassan was accused of shooting Lars Hedegaard, a 70-year old Danish author and journalist. After being arrested in Turkey in 2014, he was released as part of an alleged exchange for 49 hostages held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). <font color="brown">After his release, Hassan was believed to have travelled to Syria to join ISIL."</font><ref>http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2016/11/264498.htm#.WDU00aUkCWk.twitter</ref>
===March 2013===
*'''5 March.''' CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson reports some of the first revelations on "who changed the Benghazi talking points." One source who reviewed the documents said removal of the word "al Qaeda" from the talking points was initiated by one of the "press shops." The source said press officers from the Defense Intelligence Agency, the White House and the FBI were "looped in" from the start and that some of them expressed concerns in writing that the media would ask follow up questions if certain words or phrases were used. The source added that the [[Director of National Intelligence]] James Clapper and then-Deputy CIA Director Michael Morell were included in these emails. A DNI spokesman acknowledged that press officers from his agency and other agencies were looped in and took part in the talking points exchanges, but he said "no press officers suggested the edits of the specific words 'al Qaeda.'"
*'''7 March.''' Senate confirms [[John Brennan]] as CIA Director. Brennan is now in charge of writing the CIA's response to torture allegations in the Senate Intelligence Oversight Torture report which implicates Brennan.<ref>https://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324034804578346692855187354</ref>
*'''12 March.''' In public testimony before the Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee [[Democrat]]ic Sen. [[Ron Wyden]] asked Obama Director of National Intelligence ([[DNI]]) James Clapper, "Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions, or hundreds of millions, of Americans?" Clapper replied, “No sir. Not wittingly."<ref>https://youtu.be/nsmo0hUWJ08</ref>
*'''14 March.''' CBS News reports Libyan and US investigators have been questioning a suspect long affiliated with the [[Libyan Islamic Fighting Group]] (LIFG), and is believed to have connections to other [[Islamist]] [[radical]]s. LIGF is one of the main terror groups the Obama administration funded.
*'''March.''' CIA awards a $600 million contract to Amazon Web Services for a computing cloud system which would allow all 17 agencies of the US intelligence community to coordinate and share information.<ref>http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/the-details-about-the-cias-deal-with-amazon/374632/</ref> The General Accounting Office found the deal violated the open bidding process, but a federal court stood by CIA's action.
===April 2013===
*'''8 April''' <font color="brown">Islamic State of Iraq (aka AQI) proclaims itself the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.</font>
*'''12 April.''' The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court secretly approves the latest FBI request to continue obtaining daily telephone records of millions of Verizon customers.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/jun/06/verizon-telephone-data-court-order</ref> The judge orders Verizon to turn over the information to the National Security Agency (NSA). This directly contradicts Clapper’s March 12 testimony to Congress.
*'''17 April.''' CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson reports that the House Oversight Committee sent letters to the three federal agencies—the CIA, the Defense Department and the State Department—in response to new whistleblower revelations on the Benghazi attacks. The letters instruct how whistleblowers are to be able to share sensitive or classified information with their own attorneys, and ask for each agency's official description of the legal steps that process must follow. The letters also state that additional witnesses may be "compelled by subpoena to give testimony."
*'''22 April.''' EU lifts oil sanctions to make it legal for European entities to buy oil from al Nusra and Islamic State.<ref>http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-22254996</ref>
*'''23 April.''' Five House Committees issue interim report on Benghazi attacks naming Sec.of State Hillary Clinton and other Obama administration officials responsible for reducing security levels at the consulate, contradicting testimony Hillary Clinton gave under oath before Congress. The report issued by the Armed Services, Judiciary, Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight and Government Reform Committees reaches three major conclusions:
*First, Clinton approved security reductions at the consulate, pointing to an April 2012 State Dept. cable bearing her signature. The cable was a formal request from then-Amb.Cretz for more security. In her testimony before Congress in January, Clinton said, "With specific security requests they didn't come to me. I had no knowledge of them."
*The report charges that White House and senior State Dept. officials attempted to protect the State Dept. from criticism by altering accurate talking points drafted by Gen. Petraeus and the intelligence community. The report says that, after a Sept. 15, 2012 meeting, administration officials removed references to the likely participation of [[Islamic]] [[extremist]]s.
*The report contradicts Obama administration claims that the talking points were altered to protect classified information. None of the emails reviewed ever mentioned a concern about classified information.
*'''30 April.''' Attorney for a whistleblower on the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks on the US consulate in Benghazi says the Obama administration is impeding her clients and others' efforts to speak.<ref>http://www.cbsnews.com/news/benghazi-whistleblowers-still-waiting-to-tell-their-story/</ref>
*'''April.''' A secret memo later exposed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden discusses how the US, along with Brirish intelligence, is collecting information “directly from the servers of …Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.”<ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from-nine-us-internet-companies-in-broad-secret-program/2013/06/06/3a0c0da8-cebf-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html?hpid=z1&utm_term=.c188c8af0ba0</ref>
*Foundation for Open Society [[Macedonia]] (FOSM) is awarded 18 USAID grants by the US State Dept.;<ref>http://soros.org.mk/en/Home/NewsAndActivity?newsID=660&catID=7&pageIndex=1&month=10&year=0&additionalID=73</ref> FOSM is a Soros-run foundation. Recipients of grants in Macedonia are known as 'Soros army'. Soros is later accused of wanting to destroy Macedonia, its name, language, and identity."<ref>http://katehon.com/article/george-soros-wants-destroy-macedonia-its-name-language-and-identity</ref> Obama and Soros have been accused of interfering in Macedonia's [[democracy|democratic]] process.<ref>http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/macedonia-forms-anti-soros-movement-01-18-2017</ref><ref>http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2017/02/u-s-gives-soros-groups-millions-destabilize-macedonias-conservative-govt/</ref><ref><small>In Google translation the article reads (''boldening in original, excerpted''):"...Washington has operated continuously through USAID, the US government agency that works to "promote American interests" and whose goal is "to support US foreign policy (...) expand stable free societies, create markets and business partners for the United States".
For about 20 years the USAID action was altogether balanced, ruled by a sense of realism and limited to create spheres of influence in the country in line with the legitimate demands of geopolitical America. '''But after Obama entered the White House, things have changed.'''<br>
'''SOROS COMING!'''
On February 27, 2012, the Open Society of George Soros has entered into an agreement with the Government of the United States, more than 2.5 million dollars to make in Macedonia the Civil Society Project, the democratization floor of the small Balkan nation through a series of Macedonian NGOs and associations. In 2014, the agreement was expanded to four other civil organizations (all related to the Open Society or funded by it), for a total investment of '''5 million dollars from USAID and $500,000 in the same Soros Foundation.'''
The data, figures, associations and activities, are published in [https://stopsoros.mk/detailed-overview-usaid-support-george-soros-led-groups-macedonia/ a very precise report drawn up by a group of Macedonian journalists gathered under the name "STOP SOROS"] report denouncing the collusion between the US government and the financier and shows the complexity of the connections and of the plots.
The report explains how the '''organizations that have received millions of dollars from the US government, through the Open Society, are all emanations of the Macedonian [[left-wing]] party SDSM''' (Social Democratic Union of Macedonia) derivation of the old [[Yugoslavia|Yugoslav]] [[Communist Party]] era; and it is no accident that from 2015 to 2016 '''these organizations coordinated by the SDSM, were the protagonists of the protests and riots of the "colored revolution"''' that shook Macedonia leading to the resignation of the Conservative government in office and to early elections; clashes led by leaders like [[LGBT]] activist Pavle Bogoevski and even today the parliamentary left, in the photo portrait with a t-shirt ironic that says, 'Soros-army'.
Now Macedonia is crossed by a serious political crisis without a government majority with ethnic tensions that begin to burst with the [[Albania]]n minority. In short, a perfect creative chaos similar to many other artificially created by Geroge Soros in Eastern Europe.
'''In Macedonia the scheme is very similar to the scheme in [[Ukraine]]''' (where among other things we remember, the role of Soros is well documented)
Even the characters are the same as Victoria Nuland, responsible for the Eurasian policies of Obama, who during the Revolution colored He traveled to Macedonia "to meet civil activists and encourage them to continue their work" exactly what he did during Maidan.
(For those who wish to learn who is Victoria Nuland, and what role did the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis, we refer to this video editorial two years ago, made for ''Il Giornale'')<br>
'''STOP SOROS'''
In a long and complex analysis of ''The [[American Spectator]]':, Victor Gaetan , explained how the attempts at destabilization of Macedonia by Soros has commenced, even in 1995, but are made only when '''the arrival of Obama to the White House given away for free (and American money) to infiltration strategy of the Open Society.'''
Cvetin Chilimanov, journalist MIA (Macedonian Information Agency) and Vice President of STOP SOROS, explained how the goal of the USA/Soros is not help the Macedonian nation but to seize power in the political forces of the left [[radical]]s.
And it is evident also in Macedonia (as in the rest of Europe) '''the left is perfectly functional [[globalist]] ideology that Soros wants to impose in the West: migration, dissolution of [[nation state]]s, disarticulation of the fabric of traditional values of the Royal Society (and not ideological).''' On the other hand, Macedonia remains a culturally and socially conservative country, whose population is strongly linked to the values of [[Orthodox Christianity]], with public opinion in a clear majority opposed to issues such as [[abortion]] and [[gay marriage]] (among the most expensive issues George Soros).<br>
'''SOMETHING IS CHANGING (?)'''
Financing Operations Use/Soros to the Macedonian NGOs have continued even in recent times, and many are still active.
Not only that, but according to Gaetan an additional funding of $9.5 million was awarded a year ago at the Open Society and entrusted to Macedonian organizations, if it were not blocked by the new Secretary of State [[Tillerson]], appointed by Trump.
'''But this is a sign that maybe something is changing.''' Strengthened by Trump victory, thousands of Macedonians took to the streets to ask the new US administration the end of the financial support of the Open Society and the American ambassador's removal as the very executor of the Soros project...</small>http://blog.ilgiornale.it/rossi/2017/04/04/macedonia-di-soros/?repeat=w3tc</ref>
===May 2013===
*'''5 May.''' Excerpts of an interview investigators conducted with Gregory Hicks, the no. 2 U.S. diplomat in Libya who was in Tripoli during the Benghazi attack are leaked to CBS News. The US diplomat contradicted the Obama White House version.
{{Quotebox|I never reported a demonstration; I reported an attack on the consulate. Chris [Stevens] last report, if you want to say his final report - is, 'Greg, we are under attack.'...I've never been as embarrassed in my life, in my career, as on that day" (that Susan Rice appeared on talk shows calling the attack the result of a demonstration,) The net impact of what has transpired is, [Rice,] the spokesperson of the most powerful country in the world, has basically said that the president of Libya is either a liar or doesn't know what he's talking about. ....My jaw hit the floor as I watched this."}}
*'''6 May.''' CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson reports more details from private testimony in which a team of Special Operation Forces prepared to fly from [[Tripoli]] to Benghazi during the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks was forbidden from doing so by US Special Operations Command Africa. Investigators heard that if the US had quickly sent military aircraft over Benghazi, it might have saved American lives. The US Souda Bay Naval Base is an hour's flight from Libya.
*'''8 May.''' Three US officials stationed in Libya the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack deliver accounts of the events and their aftermath. They renew criticism against the Obama administration for issuing stand-down orders to Special Operations Forces who were ready to assist.
*'''10 May.''' Brennan meets with Obama in the White House to discuss CIA's response to the Torture Report.<ref>
https://theintercept.com/2014/03/13/president-obama-covering-presidencys-role-torture-4-years/</ref>
*A senior administration official tells CBS News' that reports State Dept. officials helped make final edits to the false information supplied to Congress about the Benghazi attacks -- the same false information Susan Rice lied about in her television appearances on Sept. 16, 2012 were "just false."
*'''11 May.''' CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson reports details of approximately 100 interagency government emails, sent on Sept. 14 and Sept. 15, 2012 regarding the content of the talking points to be used by Susan Rice on the Sunday shows about the Benghazi attacks. The talking points were revised numerous times.
*'''13 May.''' The AP announced telephone records for 20 of their reporters had been subpoenaed by the Justice Department. News sources reported the US Attorney's office for the District of Columbia was conducting a criminal investigation into publication of a foiled May 2012 terrorist plot. While journalists are protected, leakers in the government are subject to prosecution. The Justice Dept. subpoenaed the phone records of AP from [[Verizon]] and other service providers.<ref name=verizonslate>{{cite web|last=Gallagher|first=Ryan|title=Verizon Wireless Secretly Passed AP Reporters' Phone Records to Feds|publisher=www.slate.com|date=May 16, 2013|url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/05/16/verizon_wireless_passed_ap_reporters_phone_records_to_the_feds.html|accessdate=}}</ref> The AP claimed these acts were a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into news-gathering.<ref name=TTSanchez>{{cite web|last=Sanchez|first=Raf|title=US Justice Department secretly seizes Associated Press phone records|publisher=The Telegraph|date=May 13, 2013|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-politics/10055318/US-Justice-Department-secretly-seizes-Associated-Press-phone-records.html|accessdate=}}</ref><ref name=TG130513>{{cite web|author=Washington (AP)|title=US government secretly obtained Associated Press phone records|publisher=The Guardian|date=May 13, 2013|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/13/america-government-associated-press-phone-records|accessdate=}}</ref> The "intrusion" is the frightening off of government sources, the bread and butter of the Washington news gathering industry. CEO Gary Pruitt of AP stated: "These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP's newsgathering operations and disclose information about AP's activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know;"<ref name=CNNJohns>{{cite web|author=Matt Smith and Joe Johns|title=AP blasts feds for phone records search|publisher=CNN|date=May 14, 2013|url=http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/13/us/justice-ap-phones/?hpt=hp_t2|accessdate=}}</ref><ref name=holder>{{cite web|author=Gary B. Pruitt|title=AP letter to Eric Holder on seizure of phone records|publisher=USA Today|date=May 13, 2013|url=http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/05/13/doj-seizes-ap-phone-records/2156819/|accessdate=June 1, 2013}}</ref> a "conceivable right to know" would be a hunt for leakers of FISA information within the administration.
*<font color="brown">Human Rights Watch releases video of an Obama administration "moderate rebel" group commander carving the heart and liver out of a dead Assad regime soldier and eating it.</font><ref>https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/13/syria-brigade-fighting-homs-implicated-atrocities</ref><ref>http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-23190533</ref><ref>http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3524976/CANNIBAL-moderate-Syrian-rebel-cut-ate-Assad-soldier-s-heart-liver-killed.html</ref>
*'''15 May.''' White House releases some 100 pages of internal emails showing how CIA talking points originally referenced al Qaeda's links to the Benghazi attack. After revisions the al Qaeda references were removed.
*'''16 May.''' <font color="brown">''Financial Times'' reports Qatar has spent $3 billion over the past two years bankrolling the jihadi rebels in Syria.</font>
*'''22 May.''' Lee Rigby, a British soldier, beheaded on a [[London]] public street in daylight while hundreds of ordinary citizens stand about and watch.<ref>https://youtu.be/4q4hNOKOWRs</ref>
*'''23 May.''' <font color="brown">Open rift emerges between Ayman Zawahiri the leader of al Qaeda, and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi the leader of ISIS. Zawahiri headquartered in [[Pakistan]] forbid his group in Syria, the al-Nusra Front, from merging with the Islamic State of Iraq. Baghdadi was attempting to consolidate the two into the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Negotiations continue for months until February 2015 when a mediator sent by Zawahiri to resolve differences among local commanders is killed by ISIS suicide bombers.</font>
*<font color="brown">The policy dispute between ISIS and al Qaeda centers on ISIS wanting immediately to declare the Islamic State, whereas al-Nusra and its al Qaeda leadership wish to focus on overturning the local regimes in Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, recapturing [[Mecca]] and [[Medina]] before declaring a [[Caliphate]].</font>
*'''25 May.''' A French soldier is stabbed in the neck by a Muslim in a Paris shopping district.
===June 2013===
*'''6 June.''' Asked at a hearing if the Justice Dept. spies on members of Congress, Attn. Gen. Holder refuses to answer.<ref>http://www.mediaite.com/tv/asked-if-justice-department-is-spying-on-congress-holder-refuses-to-answer/</ref>
*The UK ''Guardian'' reveals NSA unlimited metadata collection under FISA protection. Data collection on 4 million of Verizon customers are collected daily.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/nsa-phone-records-verizon-court-order</ref>
*'''7 June.''' ''Guardian'' reveals NSA tapping through back doors into US internet companies such as Apple, Google and Facebook with a program called Prism [GCHQ counterpart = Tempora].<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data</ref>
*An 18-page memo shows Obama ordering intelligence officials to draw up a list of overseas targets for cyberattacks.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/jun/07/obama-cyber-directive-full-text</ref>
*Obama defends NSA wiretapping.<ref>https://usnews.newsvine.com/_news/2013/06/07/18824941-obama-nobody-is-listening-to-your-telephone-calls?lite</ref>
*The ''Guardian'' story, soon to be known as the ''Snowden leaks'', is more evidence Obama Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper misled Congress and public about the true nature and extent of domestic intelligence gathering in his 12 March sworn testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
*'''8 June.''' Documents reveal the NSA's Boundless Informant program, which gives the agency near real-time ability to understand how much intelligence coverage there is on certain areas through use of a "heat map."<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/08/nsa-boundless-informant-global-datamining</ref>
*'''9 June.''' [[Edward Snowden]] steps forward as source of NSA leaks published in ''The Guardian''.<ref name="theguardian.com">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/09/nsa-secret-surveillance-lawmakers-live</ref> Introducing himself Snowden says,<ref>https://youtu.be/9u5ecSR_rag</ref>
{{Quotebox|“'''I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone''', from you or your accountant, to a federal judge, to '''even the president''' if I had a personal e-mail.<br><br>
It’s getting to the point you don’t have to have done anything wrong. You simply have to eventually fall under suspicion from somebody, even by a wrong call, and then they can use the system to go back in time and scrutinize every decision you have ever made.”}}
:Training materials provided by Snowden for XKeyscore propgram detail how analysts can use it and other systems to mine enormous NSA databases by filling in a simple on-screen form giving only a broad justification for the search. The request is not reviewed by a court or any NSA personnel before it is processed. The program covers "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet", including the content of emails, websites visited and searches, as well as their metadata. Under US law, the NSA is required to obtain an individualized [[FISA]] warrant only if the target of their surveillance is a 'US person', though no such warrant is required for intercepting the communications of Americans with foreign targets. But '''XKeyscore provides''' the technological capability, if not '''the legal authority, to target even US persons''' for extensive electronic surveillance '''without a warrant provided''' that some identifying information, such as '''their email or IP address, is known.'''
*'''10 June.''' ''Wall Street Journal'' reports FISA Court has rejected only 11 of 33,900 warrant requests in the 33 years the law has been in existence.<ref>https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324904004578535670310514616</ref>
*'''16 June.''' Snowden reveals intelligence sharing on Britain's GCHQ (its intelligence agency) intercepting phone and internet communications of foreign politicians attending two G-20 meetings in London in 2009.
*Snowden leaks top-secret procedures steps the NSA must take to target and collect data from "non-US persons" and how it must minimize, or mask, data collected on US citizens.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/20/fisa-court-nsa-without-warrant</ref>
*'''21 June.''' Snowden leaks how Britain's GCHQ taps fiber-optic cables to collect and store global email messages, Facebook posts, internet histories, and calls, and then shares the data with the NSA.
*'''27 June.''' CIA responds to Torture Report, attacks Committee; Sen. Mark Udall issues a statement alleging intelligence officials leaked "inaccurate information" critical of the Committee report. Udall states that the CIA and the White House "repeatedly rejected requests to discuss the Committee's report."<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20140627161317/http://www.markudall.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=3536</ref>
*'''June.''' FBI secretly opens a case on Sharyl Attkisson’s computer intrusions under the auspices of 'national security.' FBI contacts CBS without Attkisson’s knowledge, but fails to contact or interview Attkisson. FBI later ignores multiple FOIA request and other documents.
*News of the FBI case involving Attkisson’s computer intrusions is circulated internally to the Justice Dept.’s national cyber security group, and grouped with a set of cases opened on 20 November, shortly after the president's re-election in 2012.<ref name="wyden.senate.gov">https://www.wyden.senate.gov/download/?id=285dc9e7-195a-4467-b0fe-caa857fc4e0d</ref>
===July 2013===
*'''31 July.''' NSA analysts, using the XKeyscore program, can search through enormous databases of emails, online chats, and browsing histories of targets.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-data</ref><ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/jul/31/nsa-xkeyscore-program-full-presentation</ref>
*'''July.''' In an undated letter from DNI Clapper posted on Sen. Wyden's website the final week of July, Clapper acknowledged that NSA analysts have exceeded even legal limits as interpreted by the NSA in domestic surveillance. Acknowledging what he called "a number of compliance problems", Clapper attributed them to "human error" or "highly sophisticated technology issues" rather than "bad faith".<ref name="wyden.senate.gov"/> Sen. Wyden responded on the Senate floor: "These violations are more serious than those stated by the intelligence community, and are troubling."
*Manning convicted.
===August 2013===
*'''1 August.''' The US government paid Britain's GCHQ roughly $155 million over three years to gain access and influence over its spying programs.
*'''2 August.''' Seven of the world's leading telecommunications companies provide GCHQ with secret, unlimited access to their network of undersea cables.
*'''5 August.''' ''[[Reuters]]'' runs an article on how the NSA shares information, collected under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with other agencies to frame criminal cases against American citizens using a process called "parallel construction" to manufacture [[probable cause]], violating a person's due process rights.<ref>http://www.reuters.com/article/us-dea-sod-idUSBRE97409R20130805 <</ref>
*'''6 August.''' <font color="brown">Menagh Air Base captured from the Syrian government by ISIS, celebrated as great victory by Western news media.</font><ref>https://levantreport.com/2014/09/13/isis-as-u-s-creation-the-clearest-authenticated-video-evidence-to-date/</ref>
*'''7 August.''' CBS News publicly announces confirmation of Attkisson’s computer intrusions. “Attkisson’s computer was accessed by an unauthorized, external, unknown party on multiple occasions late in 2012…This party also used sophisticated methods to remove all possible indications of unauthorized activity, and alter system times to cause further confusion."<ref>http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-confirms-sharyl-attkissons-computer-hacked/</ref>
*'''9 August.''' Internal NSA document reveals an agency "loophole" that allows a secret backdoor for the agency to search its databases for US citizens' emails and phone calls without a warrant.
*'''13 August.''' <font color="brown">'''Ghouta chemical attack.''' [[Islamic State|Islamic State of Iraq and Syria]] uses chemical weapons on civilians in a Damascus suburb. Obama blames Assad regime.</font><ref>https://consortiumnews.com/2017/04/06/nyt-retreats-on-2013-syriasarin-claims/</ref>
*'''23 August.''' 2011 NSA minimization procedures submitted to the FISA Court.<ref>https://www.lawfareblog.com/nsa-documents-part-vi-2011-minimization-procedures</ref>
*'''29 August.''' NSA found to be paying hundreds of millions of dollars each year to US companies for access to their networks.
*'''August.''' <font color="blue">Ukraine submits an application for observer status to in the Eurasian Economic Union.</font><ref>[http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/182869.html Ukraine seeking observer status in Eurasian Economic Union - Yanukovych], Interfax-Ukraine (19 December 2013)</ref>
===September 2013===
*'''5 September.''' Joint investigation by ProPublica, ''The New York Times'', and ''The Guardian'' finds the NSA is winning its war against internet encryption with supercomputers, technical know-how, and court orders.
*'''7 September.''' NSA has the ability to access user data for most major smartphones on the market, including Apple iPhones, BlackBerrys, and Google Android phones.
*'''9 September.''' <font color="brown">''Daily Caller'' publishes article detailing how the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), a supposed independent [[lobby]]ing group asking Congress for money to support anti-[[Bashar Assad|Assad]] forces was receiving funding from the State Department. Elizabeth O'Bagy is SETF political director.</font><ref>http://dailycaller.com/2013/09/09/who-funds-syrian-rebel-advocate-obagy-and-the-syrian-emergency-task-force-you-do/</ref>
*'''27 September.''' <font color="brown">[[UN]] declares Assad regime has surrendered all it chemical weapons.</font>
===October 2013===
*'''7 October.''' <font color="brown">Reports indicate, "Top US and Saudi Officials responsible for Chemical Weapons in Syria." "Evidence leads directly to the White House, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, CIA Director John Brennan, Saudi Intelligence Chief Prince Bandar, and Saudi Arabia´s Interior Ministry. The Strategic Situation, leading up to the Use of Chemical Substances in the Eastern Ghouta Suburb of [[Damascus]] on 21 August 2013."<ref>
https://nsnbc.me/2013/10/07/top-us-and-saudi-officials-responsible-for-chemical-weapons-in-syria/</ref> [[Seymour Hersh]] later reports Hillary Clinton approved sending captured Libyan stocks of [[sarin]] gas to Syrian rebels and jihadis.</font><ref>http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/04/28/seymour-hersh-hillary-approved-sending-libya-sarin-syrian-rebels.html</ref>
*'''12 October.''' In [[Scotland]] a Muslim burns his 'too Westernized' wife to death after asserting that Islam teaches a man's superiority over women.
*'''23 October.''' NSA tapped the mobile phone of German Chancellor [[Angela Merkel]].
*'''27 October.''' ''Der Spiegel'' reports Obama personally approved wiretapping German Chancellor [[Angela Merkel]]'s cell phone conversations.<ref>http://dailycaller.com/2017/03/17/flashback-barack-obama-wiretapped-german-chancellor-angela-merkel-in-2010/ <</ref>
*'''October.''' Jeff Bezos, founder of [[Amazon.com]] purchases the ''[[Washington Post]]'' for less than half of his ongoing contract for cloud service with the CIA.<ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/washington-post-closes-sale-to-amazon-founder-jeff-bezos/2013/10/01/fca3b16a-2acf-11e3-97a3-ff2758228523_story.html?utm_term=.8fea51fb3097</ref> The Institute for Public Accuracy releases a statement condemning the move.<ref>https://medium.com/@SarahRRunge/amazon-the-washington-post-and-the-cia-d68a4ee802e#.406uub5gw</ref> ''Washington Post'' begins promoting [[Hillary Clinton]] as their preferred candidate for President in 2016.<ref>http://www.mockingbirdpaper.com/content/leaked-dnc-emails-prove-washington-post-both-fundraiser-and-attack-dog-clinton-and-national</ref>
===November 2013===
The NATO organization was founded on the solitary premise of collective security to [[Containment|contain Soviet expansion in Europe]]. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992, many questioned the need for it's continued existence against an enemy that no longer existed. Several former Soviet satalite states (East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Romania, the Czech and Slovak Republics) as well as newly independent former Soviet Republics (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Georgia and Ukraine) wanted EU membership, which of coarse would ultimately mean NATO membership, as well (military alliances exist to protect economic alliances). Russia under [[Boris Yeltsin]] wanted EU and NATO membership. The NATO powers that be made clear they had no interest in going out of business, and Russia argued how unfair it was that they should dissolve their defense alliance (the [[Warsaw Pact]]) and be thrust into another arms race against a growing NATO, which was swallowing up many of Russia's former military allies.
But the case of Ukraine was unique. Ethnic Ukrainians wanted out of the Russian orbit. But the territory of Ukraine is inhabitted by nearly 50% ethnic Russians, too, who wanted to maintain close ties to Russia.{{fact}} The official US State Department's position under President [[George Herbert Walker Bush]] at the time was that the Ukraine should remain a sovereign republic within the Russian Federation. Bush argued as much in a speech written by [[Condoleezza Rice]] to the Ukrainian parliament. But the Clinton's took over in early 1993, and caved in to Ukrainian [[nationalist]]s. In exchange for US recognition of a Ukraine independent of the Russian Federation, Ukraine would give up its nuclear stockpile from the Soviet era, and the US would guarantee Ukraine's security, should the Russians ever invade. The agreement reeked a lot like the assurances Great Britain and France gave Poland at the [[Treaty of Versailles]] in 1919 that bound them to war with [[Hitler]] in 1939 when Hitler invaded Poland.
Like the Treaty of Versailles, the [[American_foreign_policy#1994_Budapest_Memorandum_on_Security_Assurances|1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances]] negotiated by [[Bill Clinton]] lasted exactly 20 years. Unlike Great Britain and France who went to war with [[Nazi Germany]] when the agreement was violated, Barack Obama broke the pledge that Clinton had committed the United States to. US/Russian relations have deteriorated ever since. And converting NATO from a purely defensive alliance based on the idea of collective security to a military machine waging aggressive wars - as it had done in Libya - fulfilled many people's worst nightmare. No longer can negotiation and diplomacy be used to keep the peace, as the Obama administration had thrown American promises on the dunghill. Gaddafi ceased terrorism, gave up his WMD, and became an ally, all predicated on accepting American promises, only to be brutally murdered at the hands of Hillary Rodham Clinton and NATO. Ukraine had given up its Soviet-era nuclear stockpile based on assurancess given by Bill Clinton, ignored by Barack Obama. Military force now is the only option remaining to remove nuclear weapons from the hands of Kim Jong-il.
Since the [[Battle of Stalingrad]] in 1942 it should be clear to anyone,<ref>https://youtu.be/RC4fE6sm4r8 </ref> Russia will never allow an aggressive and hostile military force, such as NATO transformed itself into in the Obama era, to ally itself or encamp within the Ukraine.
*'''1 November.''' Snowden leaks reveal Britain's GCHQ and other European spy agencies work together to conduct mass surveillance. The files also make clear that GCHQ played a leading role in advising its European counterparts how to work around laws intended to restrict the surveillance power of intelligence agencies. ''The Guardian'' article reports,<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/01/gchq-europe-spy-agencies-mass-surveillance-snowden</ref>[[File:450px-Edward Snowden 2013-10-9 (1) (cropped).jpg|right|225px|thumb|[[Edward Snowden]] warned of such abuse played out in 2016 and 2017: an [[Executive branch]] with unlimited. unrestrained power to spy on investigative Committees of Congress, political opponents, and even the Supreme Court.]]
{{Quotebox|It is clear from the Snowden documents that GCHQ has become Europe's intelligence hub in the internet age, and not just because of its success in creating a legally permissive environment for its operations. Britain's location as the European gateway for many transatlantic cables, and its privileged relationship with the NSA has made GCHQ an essential partner for European agencies. The documents show British officials frequently lobbying the NSA on sharing of data with the Europeans and haggling over its security classification so it can be more widely disseminated. In the intelligence world, far more than it managed in diplomacy, Britain has made itself an indispensable bridge between America and Europe's spies.}}
*'''20 November.''' UK government struck a secret deal with the NSA to share phone, internet, and email records of UK citizens.
*[[ABC News]] reports on terror suspects arrested in Bowling Green, KY.<ref>http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/al-qaeda-kentucky-us-dozens-terrorists-country-refugees/story?id=20931131</ref>
*'''21 November.''' <font color="blue">Democratically elected government of the Ukraine rejects European Union association agreement in favor of maintaining relations with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). The path to securing a NATO naval base in Sevastopol on the [[Black Sea]] is effectively cut off. Soros-sponsored{{fact}} Euromaiden riots erupt.</font>
*'''22 November.''' NSA strategy document reveals the agency's goal to acquire data from "anyone, anytime, anywhere" and expand its already broad legal powers.<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/23/us/politics/nsa-report-outlined-goals-for-more-power.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1402013607-O4V0y2ArhGWsYy8IcbXOpQ</ref>
==Yemen==
==Yemen==