| Republican apologizes for saying Democrats are 'in love with terrorists' Posted: 10 Jan 2020 10:30 AM PST  Rep. Doug Collins apologized Friday for saying that Democrats are "in love with terrorists" and mourn more for killed Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani than they "mourn for our Gold Star families."
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| An Iranian commander said 'I wish I could die' after Tehran accepted responsibility for shooting down Ukrainian Airlines flight 752 Posted: 11 Jan 2020 03:20 AM PST  "I wish I could die and not witness such an accident," Amirali Hajizadeh, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's head of aerospace, said on Saturday.
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| Harry Dunn crash: US calls UK extradition request for Anne Sacoolas ‘highly inappropriate’ Posted: 11 Jan 2020 01:54 AM PST  The US state department has labelled an extradition request for the American woman charged with causing the death of a teenage motorcyclist in Northamptonshire as "highly inappropriate".The Home Office sent an official demand on Friday that Anne Sacoolas be returned to the UK.
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| German Chancellor urges all parties to back Iran nuclear deal Posted: 11 Jan 2020 09:04 AM PST  German chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday repeated a call for all parties to respect the Iranian nuclear accord, despite Iran's decision to intensify its enrichment of uranium and moves by the United States to impose economic sanctions. Under a deal brokered in 2015, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran agreed with China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, to restrict its nuclear program.
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| Hanukkah stabbing suspect indicted on federal hate crimes Posted: 09 Jan 2020 12:39 PM PST |
| Thousands of Australians are calling for their prime minster's resignation. He's vowed to keep exporting coal, despite the link between fires and climate change. Posted: 10 Jan 2020 09:30 AM PST  Since September, 25 million acres of Australia have caught fire. The resulting smoke plume stretches 1.3 billion acres.
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| Nike Texts Said to Mock FBI Emerge in Avenatti Criminal Case Posted: 10 Jan 2020 12:40 PM PST |
| North Korea's Underground Bunkers And Bases Are A Nightmare For America Posted: 10 Jan 2020 03:31 AM PST  What lies within them?
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| Pelosi will send impeachment articles to Senate next week Posted: 10 Jan 2020 09:53 AM PST  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that the House will send articles of impeachment to the Senate next week, setting in motion a trial that is likely to run through the end of January.
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| India blows up luxury high-rises over environmental violations Posted: 11 Jan 2020 03:02 AM PST  Two luxury waterfront high-rises in southern India were reduced to rubble in controlled explosions Saturday in a rare example of authorities getting tough on builders who break environmental rules. The 19-floor H2O Holy Faith complex of 90 flats -- overlooking Kerala state's famous lush backwaters -- was the first to go down, collapsing in just a matter of few seconds. A thick grey cloud of dust and debris cascaded down after officials detonated explosives drilled into the walls of the building, which had been occupied for several years until the Supreme Court ruled last May that it was constructed in violation of coastal regulations.
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| Ocasio-Cortez Refuses to Pay DCCC Dues, Frustrating House Dems Posted: 10 Jan 2020 10:58 AM PST  Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has exasperated her fellow House Democrats by announcing that she will not pay dues to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which works to elect Democrats to the House."For me personally, I'm not paying D-trip dues" for a "myriad of reasons" the freshman progressive congresswoman from New York said, using a nickname for the DCCC.According to records, she has so far not paid her $250,000 in dues despite leveraging her massive social media following to raise millions for her own reelection, Fox News reported.Ocasio-Cortez said her gripe with the party's official House campaign organization relates to the DCCC's practice of not supporting newer progressive candidates in order to insulate incumbent Democrats."One, I don't agree with the policy around blacklisting groups that help progressive candidates," she said. "I think we need to evolve as a party and make room for that.""I want to help frontline members by putting that money straight into their pocket," Ocasio-Cortez explained.The progressive 30-year-old has made good on that promise, pulling in more than $300,000 last year for candidates of her choosing, including $18,000 for Marie Newman, who seeks to oust longtime Illinois congressman Dan Lipinski, a rare pro-life Democrat."To have people try to purify the caucus because they don't agree with them – 100 percent, I certainly don't agree with that," said Texas Representative Henry Cuellar, one of the Democrats Ocasio-Cortez is trying to replace with a more progressive candidate, in this case Jessica Cisneros, for whom she raised $35,000."Hopefully, we will start to get away from this circular firing squad," Cuellar said.Ocasio-Cortez complained earlier this week that the Congressional Progressive Caucus's standard for lawmakers is too low, saying, "They let anybody who the cat dragged in call themselves a progressive."DCCC Chairwoman Cheri Bustos highlighted the party campaign arm's strong fundraising numbers even without Ocasio-Cortez's contribution."That's always up to individual members so I guess I don't think about it one way or another," Bustos said of Ocasio-Cortez's decision to withhold dues. "We're raising record amounts of money from our members."
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| Canada, under pressure at home over plane crash, warns Iran world is watching Posted: 10 Jan 2020 07:32 PM PST  OTTAWA/EDMONTON, Alberta (Reuters) - The Canadian government, under pressure at home to be tougher on Iran over intelligence reports it shot down a passenger jet, on Friday reiterated calls for a full probe into the disaster and warned Tehran that "the world is watching". Friends and families of some of the Canadians killed when a Ukrainian airliner crashed outside Tehran are demanding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau take a harder stance after accusing Iran of downing the plane, albeit probably by mistake. Iran denies the charge.
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| IS claims Pakistan mosque bombing as death toll rises to 15 Posted: 11 Jan 2020 01:41 AM PST  Pakistani officials raised the death toll from a mosque bombing in the country's southwest to 15 people on Saturday, as the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack. It killed a senior police officer and 13 others. Quetta police chief Abdur Razzaq Cheema said another victim of the mosque bombing died of serious wounds in the city hospital raising the death toll to 15.
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| A brokered convention is more likely than Elizabeth Warren winning the nomination, FiveThirtyEight forecasts Posted: 10 Jan 2020 09:41 AM PST  The Democratic nominee is starting to take shape in FiveThirtyEight's 2020 vision.The data-driven news site gives former Vice President Joe Biden the best chance of locking down the 2020 Democratic nomination in its primary forecast that debuted Thursday. But things get more complicated beyond the top two candidates, with FiveThirtyEight predicting the Democratic National Committee could arrive at its convention without a nominee.Democratic candidates need to win more than half of pledged delegates ahead of the convention to land the presidential nomination. Biden has a two in five chance of earning that majority, FiveThirtyEight says, while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) has a one in five chance.But the next most likely outcome isn't that prominent candidates Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) or former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg win the nomination. It's that no one gets a majority of delegates at all, FiveThirtyEight predicts. The chances of ending up with a contested convention are one in seven, FiveThirtyEight forecasts. Warren meanwhile gets a one in eight chance of locking up the nomination, Buttigieg gets 1 in 10, and all the other Democrats out there get a collective one in 40.Find more of FiveThirtyEight's primary predictions here.More stories from theweek.com Donald Trump is behaving like the guiltiest man alive Trump's birthday letter to Kim might not be enough to save North Korea talks Trump reportedly admitted impeachment played a big role in his Soleimani decision
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| George Conway's anti-Trump group releases new ad calling out evangelical Christians Posted: 10 Jan 2020 07:47 AM PST  A group of Republicans opposed to President Trump is calling out one of his most reliable voting blocs: evangelical Christians.
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| Northern Ireland May See Power Shared Again as Deal in Sight Posted: 10 Jan 2020 12:45 AM PST |
| A North Korean woman is under investigation after saving her 2 kids from a house fire — but not her portraits of the Kim family Posted: 09 Jan 2020 04:54 PM PST  Daily NK adds that the unnamed woman hasn't been able to care for her kids in the hospital because of the investigation.
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| All the Insane Surveillance Tools the Government (Maybe) Has Posted: 10 Jan 2020 11:44 AM PST |
| Mom says she was attacked by daughter’s bullies outside California high school Posted: 10 Jan 2020 10:33 AM PST  One student has been arrested for battery with serious bodily injury.
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| After Trump claimed Iran was plotting to blow up the US embassy in Iraq, Mike Pompeo says the administration didn't know 'precisely when' or 'where' the attack would happen Posted: 10 Jan 2020 11:26 AM PST  Mike Pompeo conceded that the administration didn't know "precisely where" and "when" an allegedly "imminent" Iranian attack would occur.
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| Canada prosecutor says essence of Huawei CFO case is fraud Posted: 10 Jan 2020 04:17 PM PST  Canada's Department of Justice said Friday the allegation against a top Chinese executive arrested at the United States' request would be a crime in Canada and she should be extradited to the United States on fraud charges. Canada arrested Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei's founder, in Dec. 2018 in a case that sparked a diplomatic furor among the three countries and complicated high-stakes U.S.-China trade talks. China detained two Canadians in apparent retaliation for the arrest Meng.
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| Hundreds mourn reporters shot dead after covering Iraq protests Posted: 10 Jan 2020 04:50 PM PST  Hundreds of Iraqis on Saturday mourned two reporters shot dead the previous evening in the country's southern city of Basra, where they had been covering months of anti-government protests. Ahmad Abdessamad, a 37-year-old correspondent for local television station Al-Dijla, and his cameraman Safaa Ghali, 26, were killed late Friday, the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO) said.
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| Death From Above: The Air Force's Fearsome AC-130 Gunship Is Getting Upgrades Posted: 10 Jan 2020 01:00 AM PST  And America's enemies are running.
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| Putin Says He Hasn’t Sent Russian Mercenaries to Libya Posted: 11 Jan 2020 10:14 AM PST |
| Covington Catholic Student Nick Sandmann’s Lawyers Go After Rival Attorney Posted: 10 Jan 2020 03:33 PM PST  A rift between lawyers representing students at the center of the Covington Catholic video controversy broke into the open this week, with attorneys for high-schooler Nick Sandmann threatening legal action against a lawyer best known for representing conspiracy theory website InfoWars. Robert Barnes, who has become a personality on the right-wing internet thanks in large part to his legal work for InfoWars host Alex Jones, was quick to offer help to the Covington Catholic students after video of their interactions with a Native American drummer at the Lincoln Memorial went viral in January 2019. Barnes' legal predictions about the case garnered him further fame on the right, with Trump supporters eager to see the students win big legal victories against their critics. Since then, Barnes has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Covington students against various public figures.But Barnes, whose Covington plaintiffs are all anonymous in the lawsuit, doesn't represent Sandmann, the MAGA-hat-wearing student who had the central role in footage of the Lincoln Memorial incident. Now Sandmann's attorneys are threatening legal action against Barnes, saying that he's falsely implying to his Twitter followers that he represents their client. "We're taking issue with some of his statements that, in our view, suggest that he is involved in our lawsuits on behalf of Nick Sandmann," said Todd McMurtry, one of Sandmann's attorneys.The long-simmering tensions between Barnes and Sandmann's camp—led by attorneys McMurtry and Lin Wood, who once represented wrongfully accused Atlanta Olympics bombing suspect Richard Jewell—exploded two days after CNN settled a lawsuit with Sandmann for an undisclosed amount. Responding to a tweet noting that author and former CNN commentator Reza Aslan had deleted a tweet saying Sandmann had a "punchable face," Barnes tweeted that Aslan had likely just been served in a lawsuit on behalf of the 'CovingtonBoys." That irritated Sandmann's camp, who saw it as Barnes's latest attempt to suggest he's representing Sandmann, the most publicly visible of the Covington students. Sandmann himself shot back on Twitter, accusing Barnes of "lying to the public.""Would you like to explain why you're suing for me without my permission?" Sandmann tweeted. "You've blocked my lawyers on twitter and now claim you're suing over the Reza Aslan tweet? Retract and stop lying to the public." Wood followed up on Sandmann's tweet, noting that he would "prefer" to not take "legal action" against Barnes, who had blocked him on Twitter. "Please remind him that he cannot 'block' a formal demand letter, a civil complaint, or an ethics complaint," Wood tweeted. "I hope he finally gets the message."Wood's co-counsel, McMurtry, joined in, tweeting that the Sandmann team was "done putting up" with Barnes. Yet Barnes, who has tweeted that he doesn't represent Sandmann, insists there's "no issue" with the Sandmann team."My understanding is no issue exists with Sandmann's lawyers," Barnes told The Daily Beast. "I have always made clear my clients are anonymous to protect them from being double-doxxed, and I do not represent Sandmann, who has publicly identified himself. I am glad Aslan deleted the tweet, and the process server should be able to get him served soon."McMurtry, though, is not happy with Barnes' comments about the case. "By tying his views of the case and his ideas of the case to Sandmann, it interferes with our claims," McMurtry told The Daily Beast. This isn't the first time Barnes has exchanged Twitter barbs with Sandmann's legal team. While Wood and Barnes were initially friendly as the Covington controversy unfolded, within two months, Barnes was tweeting that Sandmann "needed new lawyers." An amused Aslan told The Daily Beast that no matter what Barnes said, he hasn't been served in any case filed by him. "Whatever fantasy this guy is living, it has nothing to do with me," Aslan said. "I've never heard of him, I've never been contacted by him, I've never been served by any lawsuit." Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Japan seeks Interpol wanted notice for wife of ex Nissan boss Posted: 10 Jan 2020 08:57 PM PST  Japanese authorities have requested the International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO) for an Interpol wanted notice for the wife of former Nissan Motor boss Carols Ghosn, local media reported on Saturday. If the notice is issued for his wife, Carole, the couple's travel chances outside of Lebanon may be restricted, Mainichi newspaper said. Interpol has already issued an arrest warrant for Ghosn.
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| Mexico: two killed after 11-year-old opens fire at school Posted: 10 Jan 2020 08:44 AM PST  * Five children and teacher also injured, police chief says * Torreón mayor: 'It is very serious, so, so sad'At least two people have been killed and six injured after an 11-year-old boy entered a school in northern Mexico with two handguns and opened fire.The shooting took place on Friday morning in the city of Torreón, in Coahuila state.One of the dead was reportedly a female teacher, with some reports suggesting she had been the shooter's target. The other was the shooter, who police said had killed himself.A graphic photograph published by Mexican news outlets showed what appeared to be the body of a young boy splayed out in a pool of blood, with a handgun lying on the ground.Police chief Maurilio Ochoa told reporters six people had been wounded – five schoolchildren and a teacher – with two in a "delicate" condition in hospital.Ochoa said the shooter was believed to have entered his school with two weapons: a small-calibre handgun and a high-calibre weapon. The boy's parents and grandmother, with whom he lived, had said they had no idea how he acquired the guns."This is really regrettable," Ochoa said, as anxious parents gathered outside the school's entrance. He suggested backpack searches might be needed to prevent future tragedies.Torreón's mayor, Jorge Zermeño, told reporters the causes of the attack were still unclear."They tell me he was a boy who had very good grades, who lives – lived – with his grandmother and who certainly suffered some kind of family problem." He added: "It is very serious, so, so sad, and lamentable to see a primary school student do something like this."In an interview with the Mexican news channel Milenio TV, Zermeño called the shooting an "atypical situation" that did not speak to the "peaceful society" that was Torreón. "This is a city that likes to work and likes to live in peace," he said.Coahuila state's governor, Miguel Ángel Riquelme, told reporters there were suspicions the shooter had been influenced by a video game called Natural Selection.Before carrying out the shooting the boy – who has not been identified – reputedly told classmates: "Today is the day."Despite suffering some of the world's highest murder rates, school shootings of the kind that blight the US remain relatively rare in Latin America.In March last year eight students were gunned down in the city of Suzano in Brazil's São Paulo state.In 2011 a similar attack at a school in Rio de Janeiro claimed 12 lives.One of the worst such attacks to take place in Mexico came in 2017 when a 15-year-old student killed himself after shooting four people at a school in the state of Nuevo León.Mexico's leftist president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, is battling a major drug-fuelled security crisis which saw more than 31,000 people murdered last year alone.This year looks like being no less bloody: 41 people were murdered in the city of Tijuana in the first eight days of 2020 and more than 100 have died in Guanajuato state, according to local media reports.
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| A viral photo of a tiger and her 5 cubs shows how the species is bouncing back from extinction Posted: 10 Jan 2020 01:43 PM PST  India's wild tiger population is finally on the rise. An Indian Forest Service officer recently shared an inspiring photo of a tiger with five cubs.
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| Trump's European allies leave him alone on the world stage as they hold crisis talks to salvage the Iran nuclear deal he called 'foolish' Posted: 10 Jan 2020 02:17 AM PST  European leaders are trying to salvage the Iran nuclear deal, in defiance of Trump's calls to abandon the 2015 agreement.
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| MIT warns foreign students of possible visits from ICE Posted: 10 Jan 2020 10:17 AM PST |
| Teen gets 65 years for killing girl who was pregnant with his child Posted: 10 Jan 2020 04:35 AM PST  An 18-year-old former high school football player has been sentenced to 65 years in prison for killing a classmate who was six months pregnant with his child.
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| Iran Might Attack Its Very Own Fake U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier (Again) Posted: 10 Jan 2020 11:16 AM PST  It appears the Iranian military might stage another mock attack on its huge model of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier.
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| Gambia’s Jammeh Seeks Return to Nation He Ruled For 22 Years Posted: 11 Jan 2020 06:25 AM PST |
| The 7 Coolest Automotive Technologies Unveiled at CES Posted: 10 Jan 2020 09:01 AM PST |
| Mother charged with murder after 11-month-old son drowns in bathtub Posted: 10 Jan 2020 04:52 PM PST  The mother told authorities she left the baby unattended in a tub while she stepped out for a cigarette and "some me time," according to a warrant.
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| China's Communist Party expels ex-chairman of China Development Bank Posted: 10 Jan 2020 09:34 PM PST  A former chairman of the China Development Bank, Hu Huaibang, has been expelled from the country's ruling Communist Party for serious violations of discipline, the party's graft watchdog said on Saturday. An investigation found that Hu had "lost his ideals and convictions" and had committed violations such as using his post to illegally benefit others, abusing his power, and allowing his family members to "complain about property", said the statement by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI). The CCDI also said it would seize his illegal income and transfer his case to the judicial bodies.
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| Mexico Is Doing the U.S.'s 'Dirty Work,' Say Researchers as Border Apprehensions Decline for 7th Month in a Row Posted: 10 Jan 2020 05:03 PM PST  Apprehensions at the border have declined for the 7th month, according to CBP data released Thursday. The reasons why are complicated
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| Egyptian restores historic synagogue, but few Jews remain Posted: 10 Jan 2020 11:47 AM PST  Egypt reopened a historic synagogue on Friday in the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria after a yearslong government renovation. The country's Jews largely left more than 60 years ago amid the hostilities between Egypt and Israel. The two-story Eliyahu Hanavi synagogue in Alexandria partially collapsed in 2016.
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| Family members of Boeing 737 Max crash victims say they spent the night 'agonizing' over being the 'punchline' to internal messages about the plane's safety failings Posted: 10 Jan 2020 11:11 AM PST  Parents of Danielle Moore and Samya Rose Stumo, who died in a 737 Max crash in March, criticized Boeing's internal messages in statements to Insider.
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| Iran Says Missile Strike on Iraqi Bases Housing U.S. Troops Was Not Intended to Kill Americans Posted: 10 Jan 2020 06:32 AM PST  Iran said Thursday that the missile strike on Iraqi military bases housing U.S. troops was not intended to killed Americans."We did not intend to kill," said Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Revolutionary Guard's Aerospace Force. "We intended to hit the enemy's military machinery."The Iranian commander nevertheless claimed that "tens of people were killed or wounded," conflicting the Trump administration's statement that the missile strike caused no casualties.Tehran on Tuesday launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles aimed at two Iraqi bases in Ain al-Asad and Irbil in Kurdistan. The act of aggression was a response to the assassination of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force, who was killed Friday in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad.The U.S. airstrike was launched in retaliation for the attacks by Iran-backed militiamen on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad last week, which Soleimani signed off on.Iran's ambassador to the United Nations Majid Takht Ravanchi echoed the Iranian commander's insistence that Iran was "not looking after killing Americans within this operation" but added that he is "not a military man" and "cannot tell you exactly what was going on.""But what I can tell you is that the target was chosen in order to show that we are capable of hitting the target where the plan to kill Soleimani was organized," the ambassador said. "As I said, we are not interested in — we are not looking after killing Americans within this operation."Vice President Mike Pence contradicted the Iranian ambassador on Thursday, saying the missiles "were intended to kill Americans" and that the U.S. had intelligence "to support that that was the intention of the Iranians."Iran's supreme leader warned Wednesday that the missile attack was "not enough" retaliation against America."They were slapped last night, but such military actions are not enough," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said.
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| Footage shows horrific crash as motorcyclist is hit by car Posted: 11 Jan 2020 09:36 AM PST  Shocking dashcam footage shows the moment a motorbike rider was thrown into the air after being hit by a car driving on the wrong side of the road in the United Kingdom.
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| World War III: This Is What Would Happen If North Korea Nuked Tokyo Posted: 10 Jan 2020 04:13 AM PST  Tokyo is the largest urban area on the planet.
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| Venezuela’s Maduro Starts Year With a 67% Minimum Wage Hike Posted: 10 Jan 2020 06:15 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- President Nicolas Maduro ordered a 67% increase in Venezuela's monthly minimum wage, the first this year and the eleventh in the past 24 months.The presidential decree, announced by pro-government lawmaker Francisco Torrealba on Twitter, boosts the minimum wage to 250,000 bolivars ($3.61 at the official exchange rate), up from 150,000 bolivars. In addition, workers will receive a food bonus of 200,000 bolivars, for a total minimum income of 450,000 bolivars, according to Torrealba's publication of an image from an extraordinary edition of the Official Gazette dated Jan. 9.The new hike, which applies retroactively as of Jan. 1, threatens to refuel hyperinflation after restrictive monetary policies helped slow the pace of price increases in 2019. Still, the increase is well below the 275% hike of Oct. 2019, which lifted the minimum wage enough to buy about 4 kilograms of beef. The new salary, however, is not enough to buy one kilogram at current prices.The country's historic economic crisis has seen the annual rate of consumer price increases surge to at least quadruple digits. According to data from the National Assembly, the annual inflation rate was 13,476% in November 2019. Bloomberg's Café con Leche Index estimates annual inflation at 9,900% as of Jan. 8.Price increases quickly destroyed the value of the previous minimum wage increase in Oct. The government has directed its efforts to controlling the price of the dollar by reducing liquidity in the financial system and restricting bank loans. Maduro earlier this month vowed to lower inflation in 2020 to a single digit.The broad dollarization of the Venezuelan economy has also contributed to making salaries in bolivars worthless. A dollar costs around 81,000 bolivars at the black market rate. According to local research firm Ecoanalitica, $2.7 billion in physical dollars are circulating in the country, three times the value of bolivars in both cash and deposits. Ecoanalitica director Asdrubal Oliveros expects greenbacks to make up 70% of commercial transactions in 2020.To contact the reporter on this story: Nicolle Yapur in Caracas Office at nyapur1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Patricia Laya at playa2@bloomberg.net, Robert Jameson, Jose OrozcoFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Dubai airport flights delayed, canceled due to heavy rain Posted: 11 Jan 2020 02:16 AM PST  Dubai International, one of the world's busiest airports, canceled, diverted and delayed flights on Saturday due to heavy rain and flooding, Dubai Airports said. Flights are likely to be delayed throughout the day and some have been canceled or diverted to nearby Al Maktoum airport, state-owned Dubai Airports said on Twitter. Video footage and images posted on social media showed part of the airport's runway area submerged under water.
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| FBI Apologizes to Court for Botching Surveillance of Trump Adviser, and Pledges Fixes Posted: 11 Jan 2020 06:49 AM PST  WASHINGTON -- A chastened FBI told a secretive court Friday that it was increasing training and oversight for officials who work on national security wiretap applications in response to problems uncovered by a scathing inspector general report last month about botched surveillance targeting a former Trump campaign adviser.In a rare unclassified and public filing before the court that oversees wiretapping under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, the FBI also said it would extend its overhaul to requests for orders permitting it to collect logs of its targets' communications and other business records -- not just wiretaps of the contents of phone calls and emails."The FBI has the utmost respect for this court and deeply regrets the errors and omission identified by" the inspector general, wrote FBI Director Christopher A. Wray in a statement included with the filing. He called the conduct described by the report "unacceptable and unrepresentative of the FBI as an institution."Under FISA -- a law for surveillance aimed at monitoring suspected spies and terrorists, as opposed to ordinary criminals -- the government must convince a judge that an American is probably an agent of a foreign power. Because the FISA court hears only from the government, and what it says is never shown to defense lawyers, the Justice Department says it has a duty to be candid and tell judges every relevant fact in its possession.But the Justice Department's inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, uncovered that the FBI had cherry-picked and misstated evidence about the Trump adviser, Carter Page, when seeking permission to wiretap him in October 2016 and in 2017 renewal applications. At the same time, Horowitz determined that the opening of the Russia investigation was legal and found no politicized conspiracy against President Donald Trump by high-level FBI officials.The problems included omitting details that made Page look less suspicious. For example, the court was not told that Page had said to a confidential informant in August 2016 that he had no interactions with Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign manager, even though the FBI suspected Page might be a conduit between Russia and Manafort.The court was also not told that Page had told the CIA about his contacts with Russians over the years, a fact that made that pattern of contacts look less suspicious. The Justice Department, passing on the factual portrait it received from the FBI, had pointed the judges to that pattern as a reason to think that he might be a Russian agent.Horowitz said he did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that FBI officials responsible for compiling the relevant evidence about Page for the court were politically biased against Trump. But he rejected as unsatisfactory their explanations that they were busy on other aspects of the Russia investigation.In a response appended to the inspector general report last month, Wray had already announced that he would make changes aimed at ensuring that the bureau put forward a more comprehensive portrait of the facts about targets when preparing wiretap applications.The new filing, which detailed 12 steps, like enhancing checklists for preparing filings, added granular detail. It came in response to an unusual public order last month. Rosemary M. Collyer, then the presiding judge on FISA court, ordered the FBI to propose fixes to its process by Jan. 10 to ensure the problems would not recur."The frequency with which representations made by FBI personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession, and with which they withheld information detrimental to their case, calls into question whether information contained in other FBI applications is reliable," Collyer wrote.On Jan. 1, Judge James E. Boasberg took over Collyer's role on the FISA court. He will now have to evaluate whether the proposed changes are sufficient to restore the judges' confidence in the factual affidavits FBI officials submit or if more is necessary.It is not clear whether Boasberg will take such potential steps as appointing a "friend of the court" to critique the FBI's proposal before he issues any order.The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has said he wants to impose new checks and balances on the FBI's national security surveillance powers, at least when investigations touch on political campaigns, in legislation his panel may take up after Trump's impeachment trial.In his statement with the court filing Friday, Wray called FISA an "indispensable tool for national security investigations" and pledged to work to ensure the accuracy and completeness of FISA applications "in recognition of our duty of candor to the court and our responsibilities to the American people."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Gun case delayed for man cleared of San Francisco pier death Posted: 10 Jan 2020 02:32 PM PST  A federal judge on Friday delayed a gun possession trial against a Mexican man who was acquitted of killing a woman on a San Francisco pier in a case that became a national flashpoint, saying he has questions about the man's mental competency. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria postponed a trial expected to start next week until a psychiatrist evaluates Jose Inez Garcia-Zarate. "It appears that Garcia-Zarate may not understand the charges against him, and it's possible that he's not currently taking any medication for his apparent mental illness," Chhabria wrote in his ruling.
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