Just Security

>Remember: it's not just about Russians, but the original allegation was that the Trump campaign was involved. That has been very quietly walked back.

Well considering that Trump's attorney general William Barr shut down the investigation and is reversing Mueller's charges that is not surprising. So not only was there never a full investigation done but the mediocre investigation we had is being undone. We will never know the truth of Trump's and Putin's secret relationship until a proper investigation is done. Including Trump's finances.

https://www.justsecurity.org/69266/barr-is-dismantling-charges-filed-by-mueller/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/05/08/michael-flynn-doj-continues-dismantling-robert-mueller-investigation/3095300001/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/30/us/politics/trump-russia-justice-department.html

No one walked back on anything. It was simply not investigated since Republicans (especially people like Mitch McConnell) are putting party over country and not holding the president accountable.

DNC has many problems including mediocre security and treating candidates differently and picking favorites but that is not the topic of the discussion.

>Every single American should demand that evidence even if they despise Trump.

The problem with your entire premise of demanding evidence is that it's a red herring. This is not about producing evidence because any evidence produced you can label as fake or made up or false flag. Once evidence…

The Geneva Convention II hedges a lot wrt submarine warfare - few submarines have the capacity to take on many survivors .. they're already pressed for space.

You could ague they had an obligation to notify search and rescue ... at a time when the nearest search and rescue was already alerted and en route.

See: https://www.justsecurity.org/133397/sinking-iran-frigate-dena-law-naval-warfare/

and scroll down to Failure to Rescue IRIS Dena’s Shipwrecked Crew

> Exactly this was one of the charges against Admiral Doenitz at Nuremberg.

A charge that didn't stick, a practice engaged in by both the British and U.S. submarines

In the aftermath of World War II, the issue of rescuing survivors following submarine attacks took center stage during the trial of Admiral Karl Dönitz before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg.

After Allied attacks on a U-boat attempting to rescue survivors of an ocean liner, the RMS Laconia, Dönitz issued the Laconia Order, which instructed: “All attempts at rescuing members of ships that have been sunk, including attempts to pick up persons swimming, or to place them in lifeboats, or attempts to upright capsized boats, or to supply provisions or water are to cease.”

The court held that the order violated the 1936 London Protocol on submarine warfare, which required that the passengers and crew of merchant vessels be placed in safety before a warship could sink them.

Yet, because British and U.S. submarines engaged in the same…

> Biden asked for a prosecutor to be fired because he wasn't investigating the company his crackhead son received large payouts from enough huh?

Yes. But it was not only that company.
The corrupt prosecutor refused to investigate many corrupt companies and politicians.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/03/what-really-happened-when-biden-forced-out-ukraines-top-prosecutor/3785620002/

> "Shokin played the role of protecting the vested interest in the Ukrainian system," said Carpenter, who traveled with Biden to Ukraine in 2015. "He never went after any corrupt individuals at all, never prosecuted any high-profile cases of corruption."

>That demonstrated that Poroshenko's administration was not sincere about tackling corruption and building strong, independent law enforcement agencies, said Heather Conley, director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based foreign policy think tank.

> In July 2015, Shokin's office became mired in scandal after authorities raided homes belonging to two high-ranking prosecutors. Police seized millions of dollars worth of diamonds and cash, suggesting the pair had been taking bribes.

> It became known as the "diamond prosecutors" case. Deputy General Prosecutor Vitaliy Kasko, who said he tried to investigate it, resigned months later, calling the prosecutor's office a "hotbed of corruption" and an "instrument of political pressure."

> Shokin's office also stepped in…

As Wyden[1] points out, Congress has nearly no information on what impact the FISA program has. How many Americans are targeted already? The military refuses to answer Congress. How many emails & other collections are swept up? The military refuses to answer to Congress.

This bill explicitly allows it's use directly against Americans and declares which circumstances the FBI & other agencies need to use warrants and where these agencies will now be permitted warrantless access to FISA collections.

"Abouts" collection has a direct means to being permitted again. Ever use the word Benghazi in an email? Ok, all your communication might be wiretapped from now on. If the FBI ever wants to investigate you for something non terrorism related, something totally unrelated to Benghazi? No problem. Maybe- in some cases- they MIGHT need a warrant.

Just Security had a great writeup[2]. This bill is a travesty, especially given that Congress has again and again asked for some information to inform them about how FISA is being used already, and the military has stonewalled and stonewalled and stonewalled. That congress would radically expand these powers, let them now directly target Americans, and would allow the FBI & others access to this program, after being continually rebuffed, AND would make this program unable to be challenged in court- it's the pinnacle of madness. It's complete dereliction of duty by congress, and one of the saddest moments of cowardice in the US Governments…

Russian state makes publicly whatever statements they feel are judicious. Don't trust anything the Kremlin says.

Note they accepted Finlands entry to NATO alliance without so much as a whimper.

While complete calculus behind the reasons for the invasion may never surface, these offer excellent commentary why more countries joining NATO was not really the real reason for the war.

'Moreover, this is not even primarily about NATO.
...
The larger objective is to re-establish Russian political and cultural dominance over a nation that Putin sees as one with Russia, and then follow up by undoing the European rules-based order and security architecture established in the aftermath of World War II.
...
If Russia’s main concern had been NATO enlargement, it would have reacted with rhetoric and/or hostile actions in its neighborhood after each step in the NATO expansion process. The largest wave of NATO’s eastward expansion took place in March 2004, when seven Eastern European countries joined, including the formerly Soviet Baltic states. Russia “grumbled,” as the New York Times put it then, by adopting a Duma resolution criticizing the expansion, but no hostile and sustained rhetoric followed about NATO enlargement as a Western plot against Russian interests.'[0]

'Some claim Russia was goaded into acting by the threat of NATO expansion. But Putin himself said in 2004 that 'Russia has no concerns about the expansion of NATO from the standpoint of ensuring security'. Russia,…

This is a big deal. If you care about your privacy, its not enough to use good op-sec. You need to address the source of the problem: the governent is abusing its power, and it needs to stop doing that

This bill is an attempt to fix that. This bill is probably the best hope we currently have of enacting substantive reforms to Section 702, EO 12333, the data broker loophole, and a bevy of other surveillance issues. It even has a section on Cell Site simulators!

If you are curious about some of the details of the bill, you can read a one-page summary of the bill [here](https://www.wyden.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/government_surveillance_reform_act_one_page_summary.pdf)

Some highlights:

> The Act ends warrantless collection of business records, ensures that the government provides accurate information to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and requires meaningful accountability for violations of the law.*

> [The bill] requiring warrants for surveillance of Americans’ location data, web browsing and search records, and by prohibiting the government from purchasing Americans’ data from data brokers.

A section-by-section summary of the bill is [here](https://www.wyden.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/government_surveillance_reform_act_section_by_section.pdf)

Read the full bill [here](https://www.wyden.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/government_surveillance_reform_act_of_2023_bill_text.pdf)

Some more analysis/history…