Jul 28 2019 18:53:47 (EST)

The SWAMP runs deep.

DNC server(s) hold many answers.

SCARAMUCCI MODEL.

DNI & NSA

[AWAN]

[DWS]

[D_Congress]

House of Cards.

You didn't think the plea deal was the end did you?

Q3532

LILY HAY NEWMANSECURITY01.07.2021 08:14 PM

Post-Riot, the Capitol Hill IT Staff Faces a Security Mess

Wednesday's insurrection could have exposed congressional data and devices in ways that have yet to be appreciated.

https://www.wired.com/story/capitol-riot-security-congress-trump-mob-clean-up/

https://sofrep.com/news/breaking-computers-with-access-to-classified-material-stolen-from-capitol/

EXPERT ANALYSIS

BREAKING: COMPUTERS WITH ACCESS TO CLASSIFIED MATERIAL STOLEN FROM CAPITOL

by SOFREP

18 hours ago

A SOFREP source inside the Pentagon has confirmed that several classified SECRET laptops were stolen from the Capitol Building during Wednesday’s chaotic events. According to the source, who spoke to SOFREP under the condition of anonymity, some of the computers were left open and logged into the government’s classified network known as the SIPRNet.

SIPRNet, or the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, is, simply put, the Department of Defense’s classified version of the civilian internet. It is a network of secure computers and servers that allows users from the Department of Defense, the Department of State, and other government bodies to transmit classified information.

On Thursday, following the breach of the Capitol building, the SIPRNet was shut down for a portion of the day before an update was pushed out, according to several SOFREP sources.

On Friday morning, according to sources inside, the operations center of the United States Army Special Operation Command, USASOC, sent out an email to all personnel saying that any SIPRNet computers not accounted for by the end of the day would be dropped from the network. A USASOC spokesperson confirmed the email but said it was “part of an ongoing administrative effort” which was “in no way related” to the events in Washington DC.

The Department of Justice has expressed concern over the theft of computers from the Capitol and has warned that some secret information may now be in play. On Wednesday, following the breach of the Capitol and the subsequent securing of the building, Senator Jeff Merkley posted on Twitter a video of the damage to his office which is located on a lower level of the building. In the video, he reports that his laptop was stolen.

Awan Real Estate Group is a Saudi company established in 1429H corresponding to 2008, based on a strategy for integrated work which includes real estate investment for residential, commercial, industrial, health and recreational projects, operation and maintenance, and providing comprehensive, basic, recreational and …

https://wisconsinmuslimjournal.org/congress-pays-850000-to-muslim-aides-targeted-in-inquiry-stoked-by-trump/

CONGRESS PAYS $850,000 TO MUSLIM AIDES TARGETED IN INQUIRY STOKED BY TRUMP

Posted by Wisconsin Muslim Journal | Dec 18, 2020 | Syndicated

The House resolved wrongful termination claims by five Pakistani-American technology workers whose case was twisted into a right-wing conspiracy theory pushed by President Trump.

The House of Representatives quietly paid $850,000 this year to settle wrongful termination claims by five Pakistani-American technology specialists, after a set of routine workplace allegations against them morphed into fodder for right-wing conspiracy theories amplified by President Trump.

Together, the payments represent one of the largest known awards by the House to resolve discrimination or harassment claims, and are designed to shield Congress from potentially costly legal action.

But aides involved in the settlement, which has not previously been reported, said it was also an attempt to bring a close to a convoluted saga that led to one of the most durable — and misleading — story lines of the Trump era. The aides said its size reflected a bid to do right by a group of former employees who lost their jobs and endured harassment in part because of their Muslim faith and South Asian origins.

What started as a relatively ordinary House inquiry into procurement irregularities by Imran Awan, three members of his family and a friend, who had a bustling practice providing members of Congress with technology support, was twisted into lurid accusations of hacking government information.

In 2018, Mr. Trump stood next to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia at a now-infamous news conference in Helsinki, and implied that one of the employees involved in the House case — a “Pakistani gentleman,” he said — could have been responsible for stealing emails of Democratic officials leaked during the 2016 campaign. His own intelligence agencies had concluded that the stolen emails were part of an election interference campaign ordered by Moscow.

“It is tragic and outrageous the way right-wing media and Republicans all the way up to President Trump attempted to destroy the lives of an immigrant Muslim-American family based on scurrilous allegations,” said Representative Ted Deutch, Democrat of Florida, who had employed Mr. Awan and is chairman of the Ethics Committee.

“Their names were smeared on cable TV, their children were harassed at school, and they genuinely feared for their lives,” Mr. Deutch added. “The settlement is an acknowledgment of the wrong done to this family.”

The case originated in 2016, when officials in the House, then controlled by Republicans, began investigating claims that the specialists had improperly accounted for purchases of equipment and bent employment rules as they worked part-time for the offices of dozens of Democratic lawmakers.

In the hands of the chamber’s inspector general and later the Capitol Police, the investigation slowly expanded to include concerns that the workers had illicitly gained access to, transferred or removed government data and stolen equipment.

In early 2017, the House stripped their access to congressional servers, making it impossible for them to continue their work. One by one, the lawmakers terminated them.

But as the inspector general’s findings were shared with Republican lawmakers and trickled into conservative media in early 2017, they began to take on a life of their own. The Daily Caller, which led the way, published allegations that the workers had hacked into congressional computer networks, and other right-wing pundits speculated that the group were Pakistani spies.

Mr. Trump, in addition to his comments in Helsinki, repeatedly amplified conspiracy theories about the investigation on Twitter, where he referred to a “Pakistani mystery man.” At one point, he publicly urged the Justice Department not to let one of the workers “off the hook.”

But in the summer of 2018, the department did just that, taking the unusual step of publicly exonerating Mr. Awan. The department concluded in a court filing that after interviewing dozens of witnesses, and reviewing a Democratic server and other electronic records, it had found “no evidence” that Mr. Awan illegally removed data, stole or destroyed House equipment, or improperly gained access to sensitive information.

The statement came during a sentencing hearing for an unrelated offense — that Mr. Awan had lied about his primary residence on an application for a home-equity loan, for which he was sentenced by judge to one day of time served and a three-month supervised release.