90 Miles From Tyranny

Sunday, January 14, 2018

Convicted Classified Docs Leaker, Transgender Former Army Private Chelsea Manning Files for U.S. Senate Race

Chelsea Manning, formerly Bradley Manning who in 2013 was convicted of the biggest leak of classified documents in U.S. history, has filed to challenge Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) for his Senate seat, the Washington Post reported.

Manning, who became transgender during the six years he was incarcerated, had his 35-year prison sentence commuted by President Barack Obama before he left office.

Maryland radio station WBAL reported:

Manning, 30, settled in North Bethesda after she was granted clemency by then-President Barack Obama.

At an appearance in New York in October, Manning was asked whether she’d been afraid that her disclosures would hurt people by exposing the names of informants. She insisted the material included no such sensitive information.

“These aren’t intelligence documents,” Manning said. “It’s historical data.”

“There’s nothing sensitive in there, there’s no troop movements,” Manning said. “It was a historical record of everything that had happened in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

WBAL reported that Manning wanted to give the classified documents to the Washington Post or The New York Times, but the media outlets weren’t willing to establish encrypted channels, so he went to WikiLeaks.

Maryland’s primary election is set for June 26.

Last year, Breitbart News reported that Harvard University hired Manning as a visiting fellow at their Institute of Politics.

In the announcement of his hiring on the Harvard website, Manning is described as “a Washington D.C. based network security expert and former U.S. Army intelligence analyst.”

After Obama commuted his sentence, Manning shifted his focus to queer and transgender rights activism.

Last week on Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, Manning tweeted a vulgarity aimed at first responders:

You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?

It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,

from the beautiful to the repugnant,

from the mysterious to the familiar.

If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,

you could be inspired, you could be appalled.

This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.

You have been warned.

NBC 2016 Election Night - Highlights - A True Story With A Happy Ending!!

Girls With Guns

If we are to believe the transcript of Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in August, released unexpectedly by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the search for a smoking gun in the dossier scandal may lead us to a dead body, at least according to Simpson's lawyer:

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in August 2017, Glenn Simpson was questioned about whether he tried to "assess the credibility" of sources behind information uncovered by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence agent who compiled the dossier.

"Yes, but I'm not going to get into sourcing information," Simpson said.

Asked again what "steps he took to verify their credibility," Simpson declined to answer.

His lawyer, Joshua Levy, then intervened and said Simpson was just trying to protect his sources.

"Somebody's already been killed as a result of the publication of this dossier and no harm should come to anybody related to this honest work," Levy said.

The interview didn't pursue the line of questioning further.

Well, maybe somebody should pursue this hand grenade tossed in the middle of the room. Whoa! Somebody's already been killed as the result of the dossier put together by former British spy Christopher Steele from questionable Russian sources and paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC, and possibly used by the FBI to obtain FISA warrants to spy on the campaign of Hillary's opponent, Donald J. Trump?

As shocking as this revelation may be, it dovetails nicely with fear expressed for her safety by former DNC chair Donna Brazile. In a stunning interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos about her new book, Hacks, Brazile made cryptic references to murdered DNC I.T. staffer Seth Rich and revealed that afterward, she took the precautions one takes when one fears for his life.

So far, speculation about the unsolved murder of Seth Rich have been dismissed as right-wing conspiracy theories, but Brazile's references to him in the light of all that has come out about WikiLeaks, the Fusion GPS dossier, and Hillary's purchase of the DNC that rigged the primaries against Bernie Sanders may be a missing piece of...

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s plan to order markets to slash prices of food - an attempt to combat speculation and rampant inflation of the bolivar - has apparently backfired as mobs of hungry Venezuelans have started looting supermarkets and slaughtering cattle in the open to survive, Reuters reports.

Last week, we reported on near-riots that broke out in Caracas after the mandatory price cuts for food stoked widespread shortages as what little inventory that remained on market shelves quickly disappeared.

Venezuelans are suffering from a plethora of economic and social maladies.Four years of recession and an inflation rate approaching 4,000% by some measures have made the country’s currency practically worthless. Widespread shortages of food and medicine led to violent riots during the spring and early summer of 2017 that resulted in more than 100 deaths, including the burning alive of one suspected Maduro supporter by a crowd of citizens. Law enforcement in the capital and many of the country’s smaller cities has effectively disbanded, leading to a rise in lynchings and streets justice. Indeed, suspected thieves are sometimes killed.

Venezuela’s regime probably would’ve collapsed by now if it weren’t for the aide of Russia and China, which have lent the Maduro regime money in exchange for a discount on future oil deliveries. But now that the price of oil is finally climbing again, Maduro could find himself rescued by commodity markets. In apparent anticipation of higher oil prices, the administration announced late last year that it would finally introduce "the Petro” - a state-designed cryptocurrency that will help Venezuela’s customers pay for their goods while circumventing the petrodollar system.

In a shocking example of just how severe Venezuela’s food shortages have become, a video on social media showed roughly a dozen men running into a lush pasture, chasing a cow, and then apparently beating it to death for the meat.

"They're hunting. The people are hungry!" says the narrator of the video, who filmed the incident from his car. Lawmaker Paparoni said some 300 animals were believed to have been killed, though this hasn’t been independently confirmed.

Something strange is going on in the financial system. And according to The Wall Street Journal, it’s causing some investors to move massive amounts of money out of the banking system.

Violent lootings and hijackings - long a staple of life for Venezuela’s remaining merchants - are also growing increasingly common.

Zuley Urdaneta, a 50 year-old vet in Merida, witnessed the looting of a truck along the highway around 2 pm Thursday afternoon, she told Reuters. About two hours later, he said some 800 people converged on a food collection center and proceeded to plunder it.

"They knocked down the gates and looted flour, rice, cooking oil, cooking gas," said Urdaneta. "The police and the National Guard tried to control the situation by giving out what was left."

Despite the grinding poverty and widespread social unrest that has challenged the last vestiges of Chavismo, Maduro has effectively sidelined his opposition while brutally suppressing...

'Highly organized' criminal enterprise sold huge quantities of deadly drugs — most of these men had been deported previously

Six people — most of whom had been deported previously — have been charged with participating in a heroin ring in Colorado.

Jefferson County District Attorney Pete Weir announced the 61-count indictment on Thursday. Investigators seized or made undercover buys of 3,305 grams of heroin with a street value of $264,400. The district attorney’s office described a “highly organized” criminal enterprise in which members received shipments of heroin from out of state.

Fred Elbel, co-director of the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform, told LifeZette the bust highlights the need for a tougher approach to illegal immigration.

“It should come as no surprise that individuals apprehended in the heroin ring are predominantly illegal aliens,” Elbel said. “A reasonable response at this time would be to secure America’s border and to implement mandatory E-Verify so that illegal aliens will not be able to displace American workers.”

The drug ring stored the heroin in one or more “stash houses,” according to authorities. The indictment alleges that customers would call a “dispatcher,” who then would arrange a delivery. A “runner” would meet the buyer and...

We thought the Obama administration could stoop no lower when it was revealed that the administration transferred $1.7 billion in untraceable cash to the Islamic Republic as ransom for the release of four Americans hostages they were holding. We were wrong. In its twilight weeks, the administration gave its consent to allow the Iranians to receive 116 metric tons of natural uranium from Russia as compensation for its export of tons of reactor coolant. According to experts familiar with the transaction, the uranium could be enriched to weapons-grade sufficient for the production of at least 10 nuclear bombs.

If you thought that the administration’s betrayal of America’s security could go no further, you were wrong. Last month Politico, not known as a bastion of conservatism, published a bombshell 50-page exposé detailing the Obama administration’s efforts to delay, hinder and ultimately shut down a highly successful DEA operation – codenamed Project Cassandra – aimed at tracking and thwarting Hezbollah drug trafficking, arms trafficking and money laundering schemes. As a result, Hezbollah continued to import drugs into the United States, continued to provide anti-U.S. insurgents with deadly EFPs and continued to launder drug money to the tune of billions.

If you thought that was the end of the story, you were wrong. It seems that with each passing day, another layer of deceit and betrayal committed by the Obama administration is uncovered. The latest Obama scandal involves a reported effort by the administration to thwart an Israeli operation to liquidate Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani.

The Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida reported that three years ago, Israel was on the verge of liquidating Soleimani near Damascus but the Obama administration tipped off Teheran of Israel’s plans. Soleimani is no ordinary general. He is arguably the world’s premier terrorist and is commander of Iran’s Quds Force, a branch of...

In a news cycle full of poverty, war, political intrigue, and all the usual torment, America’s media have wasted valuable time this week debating the value of President Donald Trump’s use of a bad word.

Leftist journalists, politicians, and celebrities have scuttled out of the woodwork to decry that Trump allegedly branded some unspecified nations “shitholes.” The use of the term, they argue, proves the president is racist – and, as we all learned during the Obama era, all “racist” talk must be silenced.

The circumstances surrounding how we got to this point in the news cycle – where a nation is hanging on to every word of the president’s, and this word happens to be “shithole” – matter little in comparison to what this outbreak of decency among the elite liberal left exposes. It is a fact that those of us with family roots in oppressed nations know all too well: the left divides the world into “paradises” and “shitholes” all the time, depending on how much money there is to be had in duping apolitical Americans into buying their classifications.

It takes barely any time to find a handful of examples of profiteers selling naive thrill seekers the notion that any variety of impoverished, exploited underdeveloped country is a secret oasis full of exotic beauty and free of the “stain” of Western luxury.

“North Korea is probably one of the safest places on Earth to visit provided you follow the laws as provided by our documentation and pre-tour briefings,” Young Pioneer Tours, the company that swindled 22-year-old Otto Warmbier into an excruciating state murder, still boasts on its website today. “North Korean’s [sic] are friendly and accommodating, if you let them into your world and avoid insulting their beliefs or ideology.”

“Deeply embedded in the past, Belarus offers a rare insight into a bygone world,” the British travel website Wanderlust boasts of Europe’s last remaining communist nation, which remains heavily contaminated after Soviet negligence resulted in 2.2 million citizens being bombarded with radioactive waste in the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. “Located in the heart of Europe, Belarus is a living museum to Soviet Communism.”

“For 2,500 years, this powerful country has entranced, mystified and beguiled the world,” the New York Times boasts of the Islamic Republic of Iran (the Times offers its wealthiest subscribers tours to some of the world’s most repressive destinations through its “journeys” travel program). The tour includes a tour of the “family home of the religious leader who engineered Iran’s transition to an Islamic republic,” presumably former Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomenei.

“Though Iran often rejects Western ways and is frequently under fire for its positions on human rights, its nuclear program and Israel, its role as a birthplace of civilization cannot be denied,” the Times gushes.

“The Republic of Congo is on the cusp of becoming one of the finest ecotourism destinations in Africa,” the travel guide publisher Lonely Planet‘s website claims, listing “a pleasantly laid-back capital city in Brazzaville, some decent beaches on its Atlantic coastline and the warm and welcoming Congolese culture” as its evidence.

Amnesty International’s page on Congo lists repression of dissidents, lack of press freedom, “harsh and inhumane” prison conditions, and widespread discrimination against the Pigmy ethnic minority as human rights concerns in the country. The World Bank found in its 2017 assessment that two-thirds of students who graduate primary school lack basic literacy and mathematical skills and nearly half ...