At last, I am in a position to help the New York Times. It’s a good feeling. As anyone who has stumbled upon their website knows, our former paper of record, underscoring its insatiable appetite to provide the public with all the news that fits its agenda, prominently features a solicitation for hot tips: Got a confidential news tip? it asks. Click and amaze the world.
I have a tip, an important one, though I cannot in truth call it “confidential.” Over the last few days, in fact, it has been blazoned across the samizdat press, outlets that your typical Times reader may never have heard of, or, if he has, that he reflexively discounts.
What’s it all about, Alfie? Computer hacking. A senior political figure threatening law enforcement officials. Destruction of evidence. Collusion with foreign powers. Financial corruption. Incompetence. Maladministration. Hot stuff.
Russia? Trump, Sr., Jr., or both? Nope.
It’s U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), former head of the Democratic National Committee, Hillary Clinton groupie, and, right now, the Barbie Doll in the center of (at last!) a real scandal involving a Pakistani computer guru called Imran Awan, his wife Hina Alvi, various other family members, and the computer servers of various Democratic congressmen, including Schultz.
Last week, Awan was nabbed by the FBI at Dulles Airport trying to flee to Pakistan. His wife had already flown the coop for Lahore in March, taking $12,400 with her. (The poor thing forgot to read the fine print you see in all those travel advisories that it is a felony to transport more than $10,000 in currency without reporting it.)
Sunday is a big day of the week for The New York Times. Were you or (per impossible) I the editor of the Gray Lady, this story would have occupied a prominent place on the front page of Sunday’s edition. And sure enough, there it was, above the fold . . . Oh, wait, I was mistaken. It was not DWS after all. Silly mistake. It was actually an African herder surrounded by a bunch of goats. Also above the fold was a rare Times story lambasting Donald Trump. About Wasserman Schultz and the Iwan scandal there was precisely . . . nothing.
Not that the Times has totally ignored the story. On Thursday, the paper ran a deflationary column under the headline, “Trump Fuels Intrigue Surrounding a Former I.T. Worker’s Arrest.”
Isn’t English wonderful? “Trump fuels intrigue” is almost neutral-sounding (almost). But what does it mean to your average Times reader? “Trump fuels,” i.e., forget about it. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Savor the opener:
For months, conservative news outlets have built a case against Imran Awan, his wife, two brothers and a friend, piece by piece.
To hear some commentators tell it, with the help of his family and a cushy job on Capitol Hill, Mr. Awan, a Pakistani-American, had managed to steal computer hardware, congressional data and even—just maybe—a trove of internal Democratic National Committee emails that eventually surfaced last summer on WikiLeaks. It helped that the story seems to involve, if only tangentially, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Florida congresswoman who is the former chairwoman of the committee and an ally of Hillary Clinton’s.
I add the boldface to highlight the tilt. Further along in the story, the Times goes full bromide: “few if any of the fundamental facts of the case have come into focus. The criminal complaint against Mr. Awan filed on Monday alleges that he and his wife conspired to secure a fraudulent loan, not to commit espionage or political high jinks.”
“Political high jinks,” eh? Cute. I think that qualifies as an example of (wait for it) floccinaucinihilipilification, “the action or habit of estimating something as worthless.” Neither espionage nor high jinks. Really, nothing but the usual noxious pabulum served up by conservative news outlets trading in fuzzy “fundamental facts.”
Right.
Yesterday at National Review, Andrew C. McCarthy laid out the case with his usual thoroughness and precision. McCarthy is the former federal prosecutor who put the Blind Sheik, the chap responsible for the first World Trade Center bombing, behind bars, a fact a I mention lest you think he was just another knuckle-dragging right-wing neanderthal whom you can ignore with impunity.
Yes, when Awan was prevented from bolting, the charge levied against him was bank fraud. But as McCarthy points out, this case is not about bank fraud, any more than the case of Al Capone was about tax evasion. Bank fraud is merely the pretext, the tip of the iceberg, the McGuffin as Alfred Hitchcock might say.
Not that the McGuffin is without drama. We’re talking about a fraudulent loan of 165,000 smackeroos that Awan & Co. diddled out of the Congressional Federal Credit Union, and that, McCarthy points out, was part of a $283,000 transfer that the enterprising IT expert managed to get wired from Capitol Hill. Choice detail:
He pulled it off — hilariously, if infuriatingly — by pretending to be his wife in a phone call with the credit union. Told that his proffered reason for the transfer (“funeral arrangements”) wouldn’t fly, “Mrs.” Awan promptly repurposed: Now “she” was “buying property.” Asking no more questions, the credit union wired the money . . . to Pakistan.
Over the years, Awan and his sisters and his cousins and his aunts (apologies to Willie Gilbert) have also raked in some $5 million from the taxpayers for their expert IT services to various Democratic Congressmen. Most fired him back in February and March after those conservative news outlets started noting that the House security services reported that Awan & Co. were under criminal investigation. Debbie Wasserman Schultz finally fired Awan last Tuesday, the day after the FBI fingered him at Dulles Airport.
What took her so long? Well might you ask. McCarthy cuts to the chase: “This is not about bank fraud. The Awan family swindles are plentiful, but they are just window-dressing. This appears to be a real conspiracy, aimed at undermining American national security.”
Wait a minute while I get my plot thickener. In 2016, Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee wrote to the House appropriations subcommittee asking that their staffers obtain “Top Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information” clearances, spook-speak for the whole shebang. Guess who was working for many of the letter writers? Yep, Awan and his crew. Guess who the ranking member of the appropriations subcommittee was? Donald Duck? Close. Actually, it was Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Coincidence or “political high jinks”? Take your time.
It’s too early to be making a Christmas lists, I know, but here’s something I would really like: the stolen laptop that was found in the Rayburn House Office Building that apparently belongs to Wasserman Schultz but that Awan was using. The congresswoman really wants that back, and has even threatened the Capitol Police with “consequences” if it is not returned to her eftsoons and right speedily.
How do we explain all of this? How do we explain the smashed hard drives that were recovered from the Awans’ former home last week? I think Mark Steyn is right to invoke Occam’s Razor: entia non multiplicanda sunt praeter necessitatem. We can leave high jinks to one side. “Why,” Steyn asks, “did Debbie Wasserman Schultz not do as her fellow congressmen did and dump the Awan clan as no longer politically convenient” back in February? Answer: “Because she was head of the DNC and thus Awan knew too much for her to cut him loose.”
How much did he know? Steyn reports that Awan had the password to her iPad and other access codes. Some commentators have been going on for months about possible collusion between the Trump administration and the Russians. So far as I can see, that lengthy investigation has turned up nothing, but nothing of significance there. But how about the case of Awan? McCarthy ends his piece with some disquieting observations. They “had the opportunity to acquire communications and other information that could prove embarrassing, or worse, especially for the pols who hired them.” So:
Did the swindling staffers compromise members of Congress?
Does blackmail explain why were they able to go unscathed for so long?
And as for that sensitive information, did the Awans send American secrets, along with those hundreds of thousands of American dollars, to Pakistan?
That’s my hot tip for the New York Times. I wonder whether they will think it rises to the level of “political high jinks”? Anyone want to bet?
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Please tell me you submitted the tip! Enjoyed your article, the story didn’t get lost in the detail and clarity enhanced. Thanks very much.
3 years ago Michele Bachmann warned America about the muslim infiltration of our government and was ridiculed and threatened by speaker Boehner. She never spoke about it again and went home to her family .
It all started as a simple kickback scheme for not-rich (nor personally successful) Congress-critters who needed some extra cash. Hire some “contractor” for your “office”, pay them with taxpayer money, over-pay them grotesquely for sub-par work, get half or whatever back but it has to be laundered somehow like in scheme to have cash rent paid to the contractor in their numerous “real estate” deals to co-mingle in a myriad of banks, credit unions, etc to go back through a campaign fund, foundation or speaking fees (or cold hard cash) to the congress-critter, It morphs into various other ridiculous crimes committed by morons or a really bad CIA ops, the congress-critter and contractor start black-mailing each other, if falls apart, one tries to leave and the other is a “wreck”. These are very stupid people who were counting on Hillary protecting them just like Obama did.
Perfect analysis Escoffier. Use a position of power to hire and overpay incompetent anti American Pakistani thieves with taxpayer dollars. In return, receive kickbacks in the form of political contributions. However the Democrats greed and non caring about the American people did not factor in the blackmailing exposure. “Oh what a tangled web we weave”. Thanks again for your analysis Escoffier, you’ve enlightened us all.
D.C. is full of career criminals, 98% liberal, lining their pockets with tax payer money! TERM LIMITS!
You’ve nailed it Eric…TERM LIMITS
term limits are only needed because of the incompetence of voters…..term limits have always existed its called vote them out but Americans are way too lazy to vote so we have to come up with ridiculous term limits
Brilliant!
Is that how We ended up with PRESIDENT TRUMP?
The Dems were lost in the desert long before Trump. How else does a party lose 1100 seats at the state and federal level since 2009?
I like the idea (don’t remember where I read it) of a “jury duty” type of Congressional term. Take the names from voter registers, and compel them to serve. These days it wouldn’t even require moving to DC. It could all be done online, or if that’s too sketchy, carrier pigeons. Yeah it’ll never happen but it’s nice to dream.
Term limits do have a very positive effect. Once in power, politicians rely on contributions from lobbyist and powerful donors to keep them in office. Why do you think most politician last a lifetime. The very beginning of your post even supports the term limits. If it’s the incompetence of the voters, term limits helps solve that problem.
Oh really so has that stopped California from being taken over by liberals ? Nope not even close! The only thing that works is an informed and engaged electorate most of which we still do not have!!!
I agree the more informed electorate is. the better for our country. However, California liberals were entrenched well before term limits were imposed. Also later, limits were extended from 8 to 12 years. Even now, the Democrat controlled state legislators are debating the elimination of the current term limit laws. It wasn’t until 1996 that State Assembly members had to live under the term limit law and not until 1998 for the State Senators. Review the voting data on how California has voted in the last 25 to 30 years. Unfortunately the US Senators and Congressmen are not subject to any limits. Kind of nice having that insurance policy isn’t it. You know, the power brokers and lobbyist puppeteers wouldn’t have it any other way. Again, a more informed electorate would be a good improvement however, that too, is subject to Main Stream Media fake news, and is a serious issue that also needs to be addressed.
And term limits for all agency and dept. heads.
They are all closet politicians at heart.
The two crooks who did felonious acts 1) of losing and not securing TOP SECRET material and 2) Faiure to keep a non Disclosure agreement are HRC and her favorite FBI Leaker Jim Corey. Both getting Big Bucks for book deals and nobody charging them. PLS tell me why or why not?
Jail time!
Thank you! Term limits? Give me a break. Prison with no term limits.
Term Limits? So the next new faces to arrive in Congress can speedily start defrauding the people and abusing their office?
How about some high profile people GOING TO PRISON for felonies?
Until someone in the federal bureaucracy seriously starts investigating this cr_p, all the fresh new faces on the planet isn’t going to change things. That means that the FBI and the DOJ gets filled with people of integrity who pursue wrong-doing regardless of who is in the White House. And if jobs are lost, then those people have every right to scream loud and long about “cover-ups” and collusion, and “coinspracies”.
Saving one’s a$$ has become the principle reason why very few people ever see consequences for their own lawlessness.
The crimes of Wasserman Schultz likely pale in comparison to what happened at Enron. Prosecutors need to take note and shape up and not give politicians blanket immunity.
Treason for profit.
I have no love for liberals but defense contractors have utterly taken the taxpayer for a ride. $12 billion carriers, $200million fighter jets, and waste everywhere.
How about prison?
I want to know why law enforcement let the entire family but Imran Awan flee the U.S. The wife was caught holding more than the allowed $10K in cash, but she was allowed to leave the U.S. anyway. Who would be surprised if Imran manages to sneak away too?
Good question and deserves an honest answer
Given the fact that Imran Awan may have a lot to say about some of what has been going on in the DNC and elsewhere in the Democratic Party, that Clinton, Wasserman-Schultz and others might find extremely discomforting, a way out of this country, could very well be in the works for Mr. Awan – in an effort to keep him from testifying. It wouldn’t, at all. surprise me if he conveniently turns up missing, in the not too distant future. And quite possibly forever.
My guess is they didn’t want to expose their investigation before they had enough to nail Imran. This only came out now because Imran tried to flee–they have had the evidence on the bank fraud since it occurred in February. IMO, the bank agent who let the transfer go through was part of a sting operation. the conversation is too ridiculous to believe otherwise (note no one is saying the bank agent was fired, or raising any questions about his allowing this patently ridiculous transfer). I suspect the Feds were concerned that Imran might flee and wanted to ensure they had something to nab him on if he did so before the other charges were ready. And indeed, they were on him as soon as he bought his ticket and nabbed him at the airport. Looks to me like that is exactly what happened.
I’m wondering now if they released him under basically house arrest as part of a plea deal for spilling what he knows on the IT scandal. I rather hope that’s the case.
And yet not a peep from CNN, MSNBC, WaPo and NYT. Amazing. Something that actually happened, with names, dates and detentions gets shoved aside, by innuendo and made up narratives.
Verification that the Main Stream Media is the Democrat Party. How can these fake news organizations spend so much time covering the Democrat Party’s #1 issue (transgender bathrooms) and ignore this issue. More proof the MSM doesn’t give a hoot about the safety and people of our country. It only cares about it’s own Party’s power and control.
Downright frightening…
The Demmunist Media is scared to death of this story.
Perhaps we know now how the Russians got those DNC e-mails?
Possible, but here’s my speculation: Seth Rich was the leaker (they weren’t hacked). When Wikileaks announced on June 12 that they were going to be publishing emails from the DNC, the DNC immediately jumped into damage control mode (to be followed later by find the leaker mode). Knowing what could be released (but not exactly what Wiki had) they needed to devise a scheme to deflect attention away from the content of the emails and, if possible, call into question the veracity of the emails themselves. They decided to blame the Russians (probably could have been any enemy) to change the conversation from thier dirty laundry to a larger threat of foreign countries hacking our systems. This is where i think Awan fits in. He injected code into the server to make it appear the Russians were there (Great article here:https://consortiumnews.com/2017/07/24/intel-vets-challenge-russia-hack-evidence/)
On June 15th, 3 days later and more than a month before Wiki published anything, the DNC came out and said they had hired CrowdStrike to anaylize their server and that the Russians had hacked them. They refused to let the FBI examine their server. Between the time Wiki announced they would be publishing and when the actually published (about a 5 week gap) the Dems put all their energy into moving the focus to “OMG!!!! The Russians hacked our democracy!!” Once they found out which emails were released, they tried to cast doubt on the email’s authenticity (Donna Brazille, for example, initially said emails from her were fakes). Then they continued to pump the Russian story, attempting to tie Trump into it as well. All a smokescreen.
Oh, and Seth Rich gets offed on July 10th. On August 9th on Dutch televison, Julian Assange strongly implies he was the leaker (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp7FkLBRpKg). And the guys from the article I linked above say there is evidence that the files were not electronically leaked, but physically copied to a thumb drive (or something like that) by someone in the Eastern time zone on July 5th.
It will be interesting to see where all this goes and what turns out to be true and what is not.
Why is it that NO ONE will tell us whether these IT people are US citizens and actually had a clearance to be able to access these computer/E-mails. I couldn’t even work independently under a contact with the DoE because they would not recognize my military top secret clearance; I had to be escorted for 10 months until the DoE investigated me from scratch to get a clearance.
And what is “funny” is the progressive media of CNN and MSNBC was ignoring this story.
Anwar had several DUIs. Clearance?
Security clearance needed; top secret and special access. Dems have said they were not authorized to access computers, but we know they did; violations of security regs. It was asked for them to be cleared, but DUIs in times past disqualified a person for such a clearance level. And were they even citizens? For some reason these points are not addressed in any story, including this one about these basic issues.
It was his 20 yr o ld brother who had the DUI and over a dozen driving citations. He began working as an IT specialist right after getting fired from McDonald’s- for a starting salary of $164,000 a year. You just can’t make this stuff up its so bizarre.
Did you expect it to be any different?
They aren’t U.S. citizens, otherwise the press would have rubbed our faces in it.
I’m with you amr—been wondering the same thing since February. The media–even right leaning sites–keeps referring to Awan as “of Pakistani decent”. Or in the Times piece, a Pakistani-American. But I see no evidence of the “American” part, except for residence.
We know Awan was born in Pakistan to Pakistani parents so we can safely assume he had Pakistani citizenship. Was he naturalized at some point? If so, did he renounce his Pakistani citizenship or did he retain duel citizenship? I feel certain that if he was an American citizen, the left leaning media would have been extremely eager to point this out in their sparse coverage, no doubt followed by accusations that he is being targeted because of his ethnicity. But nary a peep from them defending this “American”.
We also know that Irman was ready to jump on a plane for an extended stay in Pakistan the minute he found out the Feds were on to him. If he were not a Pakistani citizen, he would need a visa, which usually takes several weeks to acquire, not a couple of days. A similar argument can be made about his wife’s departure a few moths ago.
My educated guess is that he is a Pakistani national with a green card. And 20+ Democrat House members gave him and his crew full access to their computers. According to The Daily Caller Reporting, he could also remote in to their computers without them even knowing; had full control of their Blackberries; had all of their iPads linked to a single iTunes account that he controlled; and uploaded files without permission to an offsite server. For years.
I have Tweeted and E-mailed the WH, FNC commentators, and other people, but nothing back or by them during appearances or questioning of guests. Heck MSNBC and CNN for the longest time never even mentioned it.
Wouldn’t at all surprise me if the ISI was behind the DNC hack and the whole ‘Muh Russia!’ story is a smoke-screen. Wouldn’t even surprise me if they were behind the Podesta hack, given that the Awan’s had to have access to the Hillary 2016 e-mail address directory.
Pakistan is a backwards dump in most respects, but their intelligence/state security services are no joke.
Bonus point: Pakistan’s ISI as a proxy (cut-out? my Tom Clancy ‘Threat Vector’, is rusty) for China!
I keep hoping Giuliani is working on the Palindrome from Hungary. Yes, I dare not write his name.
http://www.americanthinker.com/images/bucket/2017-07/199514_5_.png
The idea of Debbie Wasserman-Schultz doing porn is too horrifying to contemplate.
A movie I would pay money NOT to see.
I can just see the byline; “Bend over and leave the driving to us”
And Debbie smells like she’s been cleaning goat stables all night.
Perhaps those are ‘regional pheromones’ that explain her popularity….
Only a Pakistani could love!
I love it.
Criminal and treasonous and maybe Debbie Wasserman Schultz is the tip of the malfeasance explaining the Democrat freak out over the election of Trump.
How about this to feed the conspiracy? What else to handler’s do to the politicians they control? The encourage them to seek higher office – like say the DNC Chairwoman? I’m also curious to see how many of her fellow Democrats who supported this charmless and obviously incompetent boob to lead the DNC also used Awan. Maybe this is why she lasted as long as she did. And where did DWS end up after being canned at DNC? Hillary’s campaign hired her to keep her happy and possibly quiet. I can’t even imagine the worse case scenario of all this.
Those brave Americans on Flight 93 did us no favors on 9/11…
Sorry, Ernie, can’t begin to agree with you.
I remember how the Kermit Gosnell story was buried, untill it was too big to hide. Keep telling us over and over about this, because the bigger it gets the more it can’t be ignored. The MSM is so corrupt!!
Ironically, it will tell us everything we need to know about the Congressional Republicans if they do not make this issue front and center. Sessions should already be moving on this with either a special prosecutor or subpoenas. If nothing happens (my fear) we will know just how deep the deep state goes…
This story is only getting bigger by the day. At this point, I don’t think that it is possible to cover it up – even if the Congressional Republicans are a bit slow in responding to it.
Great job, Roger, calling out the NYT: “our former paper of record, underscoring its insatiable appetite to provide the public with all the news that fits its agenda”. Justifiably skewered. Along with the samizdat reference and the “reflexive discounting”. Makes me feel as thought I am not losing my mind, in contrast with my blue state elitist daughter’s opinion.
Consistent with the New Yawk Times perennial film-flam; They will condemn your story as “fake news”, Mr. Kimball.
Actually, Awan is currently being held under house confinement, with an attached ankle monitor. And it wouldn’t surprise me a bit, if he were to receive a little bit of “inside help” to remove it – and then be assisted out of the country.
“NCIS” actually had that plot line, except the ankle monitor, severed leg, and smuggled Pakistani, were in three different episodes…
I’m afraid to ask:
Do the Clintons reap royalties from that scenario?
Doubt it. “NCIS” is shunned by Hollywood, despite being most popular network drama for years. Michelle had a cameo, at a WH ceremony, “Homefront”, May 3, 2016
The smuggled Pakistani story arc was over several episodes. The ankle monitor was former DC madam. The severed leg was an insurance scam in WVa.
NCIS reruns are my favorite ‘background noise’. I like to believe there are still Americans who tell the truth, and kill the bad guys.
Can’t remember watching that episode. Haven’t missed many. Have to look that one up.
Thanks!
I’m hoping they released him as part of a plea deal on the IT scandal, and that he’s going to squeel on DWS and the 20+ other Dems he no doubt has dirt on. Hopefully the Feds are keeping a close eye on him, lest he commit suicide with a couple of bullets to the back of the head.
democrat party women are so ugly
most of them have to
take up with foreign lover boys
how disgusting that a serving US Senator
is getting laid by a Pakistani
Debbie Wassermann Schultz
Great article Roger, many thanks. I wonder how long the msm can ignore this story? I’m sure sgt schultz is offering the usual excuses for the investigation, racism, imperialism, homophobia, blah/blah. But like her pathetic threats to the Capitol Police, she’s trying to hide something very big.
The current muttering quietly circulating beneath the vision of the mainstream press is that the Alan’s have some rather disturbing Muslim Brotherhood ties. Not to mention some degree of protection from the Pakistani Government. Let that sink in. The Democrat half of our House Leadership was fully compromised by Foreign Nationals with ties to both the questionable Pakistani Inteligence Service and the Muslim Brotherhood. We’re the Awan’s spies or foreign agents? Probably not. They look more like freelance grifters. Scamming and selling wherever would advance them or their friends and family. They remind me of the original WTC bomber that went back the next day to demand the return on his rental truck deposit. So yes the thought is there that our Government was breached by Al Queada or similar Islamist sympathizers. And those political members so breached are active participants in the shielding of the Awan’s and their crimes.
Your a rasist bigget!
The Awan arrest has the potential to turn many dems into “absolute wrecks.”
How convenient that the typical prosecutorial timeline will have a whole slew of dems either newly installed in prison or about to be sentenced sometime in 2020.
From reading this article, one could only conclude that Debbie was indebted to this family, but the NYT and it’s accomplices i.e. the Democrap party has no interest in pursuing what’s really is going on here, nothing to see here folks, just move along.
The Paki and Debbie Wasserman-Shultz have started the avalanche that brings down the Democratic Party. That’s why the msm is ignoring it. It is big. And this one looks easy to prosecute. If it is, Debbie will be given a chance to plea-bargain down from dying in prison to something less miserable and if she sings, oh what a song it will be.
Debbie’s testimony can open the floodgates, meaning more Democrat prosecutions and more plea bargains. The entire Democrat-owned part of the swamp will be drained of life, including and especially the Clintons and Obama.
(How many little fish co-conspirators will soon have to commit suicide while this plays out is anybody’s guess.)
Along with this latest scandal lets not forget GPS Fusion and the Trump Dossier and who paid them for it. Truth is stranger than fiction. Once the truth comes out there will be hell to pay and heads will roll. The liberal media is distancing themselves from both stories because I suspect they are afraid it will reflect poorly on the democrats who we all know they are in bed with. So much for investigating reporting unless it’s about your adversary.
Wow. Just Wow. Where to even start. Such selective use of Occam’s Razor! . Not that DWS didn’t do something wrong, or that these IT guys aren’t career criminals, we just don’t know that yet.
But Kimball is happy to pronounce it a scandal, and National Review even invokes national security, which may, possibly, be involved.
The blindingly dazzling hypocrisy is that all these writers have stated over and over that there’s no there there when it comes to Trump’s Russia connections. When in fact, we have more evidence of that than there is in this story. Example: Don Jr was eager to collude with Russia according to his emails, and all of Trumps actions, save 14 missiles, are exactly what one would expect if collusion happened. Why not apply Occam’s Razor to THAT?
Will you please post a link to a source that supports your ” too many secret meetings with Russians to even count” claim? While you’re at it, look up ‘magical thinking’ in the DSM. You are afflicted.
All you’ll get are things like where Sessions said “hello” to the Russian ambassador at an official Senate event with dozens of people around.
Rumour has it that Putin has links to RUSSIA!
Democrats are the only people I know who need a thermonuclear exchange as a catharsis to feel better about their loss in November.
Too much Rachel Maddow on your plate.
There actually is quite a bit of evidence regarding the Awans–this article is just a high-level overview. They have been under investigation on suspicion of stealing equipment form house members, over billing in the extreme, and illegally transferring data to an off-site server.. The best reporting has been by The Daily Caller, who have been covering this story since February.
Yeah, I read that Times article also. In it, they explicitly state that Awan had no security clearance. This is the second mention I have seen that there was an ‘application’ for TS/SCI. Actually, that level requires a Special Security Background Investigation and it is quite in depth. So, for our intrepid conservative reporters, I would like to know if this Pakistani crew were properly investigated and was the clearance actually granted? These are key questions that an organization like the Times, if they were so inclined, would already know.
Ok, so this makes the American political system looks bad if but if moronic clingers hadn’t elected elected Trump forcing the Democrats to go on an impeachment rampage, none of this would have come out and the system would have remained protected by Dem secrecy. It’s all Trump’s fault
I see that you realized that their neat little rhetorical trick has a script.
Anyone who believes that there aren’t a few dozen demmerhoids in congress being blackmailed by this muslim cabal really should check into a psychiatrist.
Mr. Kimball, since the Times has been dwindling away, it truly needs a fearless, inquiring reporter—You!— to make up for all its unfortunate losses. Seize the time! Go for the gusto! What’s a blog or two compared with THE NEW YORK TIMES? If you can make it there…
how long before DWS is being fitted for an orange jump suit? Or will she squeal to save her own skin (of course she will)? So…unless DWS mysteriously turns up dead after a “botched robbery attempt,” Hillary needs to start getting fitted..
There is no there there.
I know more than a little about this subject and the only serious hackers left are nation states. The US, Russia, China, NK, Britain etc. In comparison everyone else is just a rank amateur.
These staffers didn’t have to hack a thing. They were given access to dozens of high ranking congressmen’s computers, even members of homeland security and other intelligence committees.
I do not disagree. I was critiquing the use of hackers in this article’s title.
Got it. Thanks.
Is the Pope Catholic?
Well, actually, it seems that he’s more of a marxist first. Catholic might be in the top three, though.
Did everybody miss the fact that Schultz’s “part time staffer” (as she calls him) is being represented by the Clinton’s one time very high powered lawyer, Mr Gowen? Or is it Cowen?
This issue begs the question as to what, if any, IT security protocols are in place. Either the security of the Congressional computer operations is extremely lax, or someone has seriously violated the rules. In either case, McConnell and Ryan need to get their arms around this situation ASAP.
You are kidding, right? Turkey-neck McConnell and Lyin’ Ryan? Not a chance.
Roger Kimball; If you have not seen the You Tube Channel George Webb, post haste head to it. Daily Short videos of pertinent connecting the dot of all activities of the Awan brothers and the 2 wives working in Congress for well over 150 days.. The Congress activity is merely the TIP of the ICEBERG, Looking forward to more great articles on the Awans from you.
BTW, George Webb is the individual who visited the 12 houses owned by the Awans and discovered the Blackberrys, laptops and hard drives were left at the Hawkshead Drive, Lorton, VA home owned by Imran Awan.
The end of the Democratic Party, AS WE KNOW IT, may be well within in sight.
Term limits? That’s it? No, Prison! These criminals have to pay for all the “playing” they have been doing.
Let’s get it over with, and just start executing the upper echelons of the DNC for their treason.
It appears that the Labradoodle’s brother is the U.S Attorney for this next scam so we, the people will see no justice. He will shut this down as quickly as he shut down the Seth Rich investigation.
bullseye!
why do the democrats suck at IT so bad?
there is obviously something going on here. I hope the FBI is investigating. However, it seems that the only real investigators in DC is Judicial Watch
This is a real and serious crime. Why would the FBI be interested?
I’m not a lifelong cynic: I remember when the FBI was top drawer in law enforcement. But that’s been a while now, and the crew that’s in charge now seems to be mostly political hacks and time servers. Like so much else, we have a major housecleaning to do and it’s likely not going to be cheap.
Get JW on this job.
Russia…. Schmusha…. this is a national security scandal that should be top headlines. These foreign nationals were playing these Congressional member for rubes for years. I expect the fraud was just a minor sideline to what they might be selling via the IT feed.
This is a shameful breach of national security and goes far and deep and shows just how far Democrats will stretch a “PC” excuse to cover their own gross negligence and incompetence.
Where is the DOJ when you need it? Enough talk. File some paper on these people.
Hacker?
I don’t think so – there is no evidence that their skills rose above that of the wintel reboot/reload cycle sysadmin style.
Sorry: crooks, probably – hackers? nope.
Is it possible that this is just about a simple money kickback scam – not espionage or hacking or blackmail? if the Pakastani’s were foreign agents and/or crooks getting rich off of IT services, then it makes no sense that they would be borrying money from the House bank prior to skipping town, probably desperate for escape money. It makes no sense that one of them would be working at McDonalds.
Was this Pakastani dude the ringleader or was it Miss Debbie? Here’s how it would work: DNC paid Pakastani inc an exorbidant amount for IT services. Pakastani IT serves was officially listed on their bid as having 4-5 employees, but really only had one. Pakakastani IT kept part of the pay and kicked back the rest to Miss Debbie. Other congressmen were brought into it but got cold feet when things started to unravel, or maybe they were just legitimate cover.
The Miss Debbie laptop may have just contained billing records and records of payments. I don’t buy the espionage angle. That’s way too complicated for folks who worked at McDonalds, etc (as we are told that some of the family did).