Chinese Hackers Back Beijing’s Authoritarian Pals

Cambodian dissidents come under cyberattack in run-up to sham election.

JULY 27, 2018, 11:16 AM

n June, Kem Monovithya, the daughter of jailed Cambodian opposition leader Kem Sokha, received an email. Purportedly from a senior investigator at the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, it requested her help in documenting her father’s ongoing trial in Phnom Penh, where he’s been charged with conspiring with the United States. The Washington-based Monovithya, who says she “can’t go back” to Cambodia, is an official in her father’s Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which was banned in November 2017.

After several follow-up emails asking her to complete a questionnaire, Monovithya noticed the email came from an address not linked to the human rights organization’s website. When the real investigator confirmed he knew nothing about it, she forwarded the email to a contact, who in turn brought it to global cybersecurity firm FireEye for analysis.

https:// foreignpolicy.com/2018/07/27/chinese-hackers-back-beijings-authoritarian-pals/

‘It Could Have Led to a Nuclear War in the Middle East’

On the podcast: When Israeli extremists plotted to blow up the Dome of the Rock.

JULY 27, 2018, 6:09 PM

In the early 1980s, a group of Israeli settlers plotted to blow up Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock—that iconic shrine with the golden dome that’s holy to Muslims everywhere. The people involved were religious Jews who felt that by getting rid of the shrine and rebuilding the ancient Jewish Temple in its place, they would hasten the coming of the Messiah.

The group plotted for years—and also staged bloody attacks on Palestinian civilians. But Israeli security officials arrested the perpetrators before they managed to destroy the shrine.

In a new documentary that has stirred controversy in Israel, filmmaker Shai Gal revisits the episode and describes how some of the plotters now hold positions of power in Israel. Gal is our guest on the podcast.

https:// foreignpolicy.com/2018/07/27/it-could-have-led-to-a-nuclear-war-in-the-middle-east-shai-gal-dome-of-the-rock/

Five Clues Don Jr.’s Trump Tower Meeting Was Set Up as Dem Dirty Trick

27 Jul 2018

NEW YORK — Amid renewed news media attention focusing on the infamous brief meeting at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016 between individuals tied to Russia, Donald Trump Jr. and other campaign officials, it is instructive to review the largely unreported details surrounding the get-together that point to the increasing likelihood of the confab being set up as a dirty trick against Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Below, in no particular order, are five key details drawn from Breitbart News investigative reporting that raise immediate questions about the possibility of anti-Trump shady business at play in arranging the infamous meeting.

1 – Rob Goldstone, the English publicist and music manager, admitted that when he wrote Donald Trump Jr. to set up the meeting with a Russian attorney at Trump Tower he used deliberately hyperbolic language to ensure that the meeting took place. In testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee reviewed in full by Breitbart News, Goldstone further said that he believes the meeting was a “bait and switch” by a Russian lobbyist seeking a meeting on another matter by misleadingly claiming to be bringing the Trump campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton.

Trump Jr. previously explained that he took the meeting thinking it was about “opposition research” on Hillary Clinton and was disappointed that it wasn’t.

The meeting was set up by Goldstone, who had contacted Trump Jr. on behalf of his client Emin Agalarov, a Russian singer and businessman who is the son of Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov. Aras Agalarov organized the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow when the pageant was partially owned by Donald Trump.

On behalf of Emin Agalarov, Goldstone had emailed Trump Jr. to set up a meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, a lobbyist acting to counter the Magnitsky Act.

On June 3, 2016, Goldstone sent the following email to Trump Jr.:

Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting.

The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your fat This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump – helped along by Aras and Emin.

What do you think is the best way to handle this information and would you be able to speak to Emin about it directly?

I can also send this info to your father via Rhona, but it is ultra sensitive so wanted to send to you first.

The email was widely cited by the news media, with many claiming the message represented some sort of collusion with Russia.

Russia does not have a “Crown prosecutor.” Rhona Graff served as President Donald Trump’s longtime secretary.

In recently released Senate Judiciary Committee testimony, Goldstone admitted to using deliberately hyperbolic language to ensure that the meeting took place.

Read More:

https:// www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/07/27/five-clues-don-jr-s-trump-tower-meeting-was-set-up-as-dem-dirty-trick/

Just something nice to start off the night