Ex-gov’t agent: Crisis worse than 9/11 could come out of AI arms race

The worst part of these dangers is that AI could make such attacks infinitely easier than with even advanced existing cyber hacking capabilities.

Winning the artificial intelligence arms (AI) race between the US and Israel and their adversaries may need to take precedent over balancing the tremendous risks at this stage, a former government agency chief technology officer has told the Jerusalem Post.

Those risks could include crises even worse than 9/11, said Amit Meltzer, now a top cyber security consultant.

Discussing the issue with The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday merely a day after US President Donald Trump issued a first-ever US executive order to bolster US efforts in the AI arms race, he said that winning such a competition often did not go well with careful oversight of negative consequences and potential abuses.

For example, while US Senate Vice Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) applauded aspects of the order, he criticized its lack of developing oversight for misuse of AI.

Warner supported the order’s provisions for opening US federal data-sets to non-federal entities to enhance cooperation, but he said Trump’s order “reflects a laissez-faire approach to AI development that I worry will have the US repeating the mistakes it has made in treating digital technologies as inherently positive forces, with insufficient consideration paid to their misapplication.”

Meltzer called Trump’s declaration more symbolic than concretely operational, but said that it still was crucial “to give strong backing to academic and government institutions…which suffer from a chronic lack of personnel” and resources.

He agreed with Warner’s criticism that Trump’s order did not address the downsides of AI and that it was overly general and would have been stronger if it had more specific plans, goals and allotted budgets.

Furthermore, the former government agent said that concerns that certain companies would quickly gain domination of the AI sector and abuse their standing economically and otherwise were real.

But he said that it was nearly impossible to square “the national necessity for the US” or Israel to “strengthen and maintain leadership in the industry” with policies that encouraged caution and only rolling out new technologies after all dangers were carefully thought through.

He analogized the need to act with large brush strokes in the field of AI in order to keep up, to the US’s sales of weapons to essentially any dictatorship that is not in a direct fight with it in order to make weapons’ development economically sustainable.

However, Meltzer said that neither Trump nor Warner honed-in on the true potential dangers of AI.

https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Ex-govt-agent-Crisis-worse-than-911-could-come-out-of-AI-arms-race-580459

‘It was definitely about the Benjamins’ — former campaign staffer details AIPAC’s far-reaching financial power

A thread on @IlhanMN, anti-semitism, and my personal experience with @AIPAC’s money.

In 2006, I was the first real staffer on a long-shot Democratic Congressional race in deep red Ohio. My boss was a hippie doctor with a lefty perspective on international affairs. . . .very skeptical of military force, opposed to the Israeli occupation of Palestine, etc.

A month after winning the Dem primary, we were struggling to gain attention or money. Nobody gave us a snowball’s chance to win. But one political action org proactively reached out to us.

It wasn’t Emily’s List, although we were fiercely prochoice. Wasn’t a doctor’s lobby or an enviro or labor org. It was AIPAC.

A local Dem volunteer leader of the Cincinnati AIPAC group came over and said they would like to donate the PAC max (I believe $5000) and would also like to see Vic take a public stance on two issues that, I thought, were relatively obscure: an Iran sanctions bill and something else I can’t recall, perhaps about continuing arms sales to Israel. Suffice to say, these were not hot button issues in the race.

Vic and I both thought of ourselves as pro-peace, not pro-Israel. (Note: I am an Israeli citizen, have many family there, have lived there & visited perhaps 20 times). We both felt a bit icky about doing it, because it was too hawkish and too quid pro quo but we were desperate for cash and so we put online a statement about how Vic supported a two-state peace agreement and AIPAC’s two pet issues of the cycle.

It was definitely about the Benjamins. Never would have done it otherwise. AIPAC’s power is also about great organizing (they sent a local Dem volunteer emissary) and about diligence (they paid attention to us before anyone else and were happy to donate to both us and the pro-Likud incumbent). But money is the lubricant that makes the whole machine run.

@IlhanMN is right to point this out. AIPAC is a central pillar of the occupation. Without Congressional support, the Likud/anti-Palestine/pro-occupation project would be radically undermined. AIPAC is the anchor of that support, and its money and Sheldon Adelson’s money are indispensable to the work.

https://mondoweiss.net/2019/02/definitely-benjamins-financial/

Democratic Party leadership, in bed with AIPAC, condemns Ilhan Omar for ‘anti-Semitic… accusations’

It did not take long for the other shoe to drop. The six official leaders of the Democratic House have condemned Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota for “anti-Semitism” and “hatred” because she tweeted last night that the Israel lobby group AIPAC has influence over the Congress “because of the Benjamins” — the money AIPAC helps funnel to Congress to support Israel.

The leaders issued a statement:

Congresswoman Omar’s use of anti-Semitic tropes and prejudicial accusations about Israel’s supporters is deeply offensive. We condemn these remarks and we call upon Congresswoman Omar to immediately apologize for these hurtful comments.

Nancy Pelosi said that Ilhan Omar agrees with the statement:

In our conversation today, Congresswoman Omar and I agreed that we must use this moment to move forward as we reject anti-Semitism in all forms.

Omar said this afternoon that she has “unequivocally apologized.” She said she is learning about “the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes. My intention is never to offend my constituents or Jewish Americans as a whole.”

The Democratic leaders are surely terrified that the Democratic Party is going to split over Israel and that it will endanger the party’s consensus and also alienate many of its biggest donors.

Almost all the six leaders who signed the statement (below) have spoken at American Israel Public Affairs Committee — AIPAC– events or been adoring of the Israeli government.

Here is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaking at AIPAC’s annual conference. She has called Israel’s creation “the most spectacular political achievement of the 20th century.”

Here is Majority Leader Steny Hoyer appearing at AIPAC.

Here is Hakeem Jeffries speaking at an AIPAC-sponsored event in 2015. He attended Netanyahu’s speech to Congress that the Congressional Black Caucus boycotted as an insult to Obama. The year before he declared at a pro-Israel event at the height of Israel’s massacre of Gaza in 2014: “Israel today, Israel tomorrow, Israel forever.”

Majority Whip James Clyburn has taken four trips to Israel. At least one of his staff has taken an AIPAC-sponsored trip– from the AIPAC wing the American Israel Educational Foundation.

Here is Katherine Clark meeting with Netanyahu and the rightwing settler-supporting ambassador, David Friedman, along with Nancy Pelosi and Hakeem Jeffries and other Democrats last year, even as Israel was shooting nonviolent demonstrators at the Gaza border. Pelosi said they had an “excellent meeting.”

https://mondoweiss.net/2019/02/democratic-leadership-accusations/

The Great Con of American Patriotism

American soldiers born decades apart in the state of New York, Ron Kovic and Maj. Danny Sjursen, are two crucial dissenting voices that have experienced firsthand the futility and brutality of America’s interventionist wars. Kovic, a Marine veteran who was paralyzed in the Vietnam War, has spent the rest of his life fighting against the U.S. war machine. The film “Born on the Fourth of July,” starring Tom Cruise, was based on his book, a work he hoped would combine with his activism to dissuade young people from buying into the toxic patriotism that leads Americans to fight destructive, ultimately pointless wars.

In the latest installment of “Scheer Intelligence,” Kovic tells Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer, “I couldn’t stop speaking against that war. I was arrested a dozen times. I—every single day was life and death. Every single day, I know that there could be another young man like Ron Kovic being paralyzed, another young man from a town or a farm somewhere in this country, being killed in that war that had to stop.”

Sadly, Sjursen, who says he watched the film based on Kovic’s life before he was even of age to join the military, explains that he wasn’t able to hear past what he calls the “faux patriotism” that pushed him to attend the U.S. Military Academy, as well as do tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I think the fact that I didn’t learn the lessons from Ron Kovic’s story,” Sjursen laments, “[is] proof of the power of the masculinity that is associated with military service, and this notion of nationalism and patriotism. It’s so prevalent that it’s, in some ways, if it’s not fought every day … it will continue despite the lessons before us.”

Sjursen also reflects on the shame he feels for having led soldiers to their deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan long after he “no longer had any faith in the wars.”

”What I really saw [in Iraq],” Sjursen recalls, “was the results of American messianism in the world, of American exceptionalism, the notion that we could remake societies in our own image. What it really meant was a whole lot of dead children, a whole lot of car bombs, a whole lot of teenagers shooting each other in the night. And then, of course, a whole lot of Americans getting killed as well, although less of us than the Iraqis.”

Listen to their brutally honest discussion about the vital need to reframe patriotism in the age of the “forever wars” and the current state of the military-industrial complex. You can also read a transcript of the interview below the media player.

Transcript in link

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-great-con-of-american-patriotism/

New legal bombshells explode on two Navy SEAL war crimes cases

Chief Special Warfare Operator Edward “Eddie” Gallagher not only stabbed to death a teenage wounded Islamic State prisoner of war during a 2017 deployment to Iraq, according to an officer in his chain of command, but the SEAL also called in “false target coordinates to engage a mosque," tried to push his platoon into pointless and potentially catastrophic firefights with insurgents and became so mentally unstable that he should’ve been relieved from duty but wasn’t.

Those allegations are contained in a proffer from the officer sent to military officials on Wednesday seeking immunity from prosecution in the sprawling war crimes case roiling California-based SEAL Team 7.

Proffers are legal documents that outline what potential witnesses will say on the stand in a court-martial trial in exchange for immunity from prosecution for crimes they also might’ve committed.

Military prosecutors have charged Gallagher with killing the Islamic State detainee on May 3, 2017, shooting at innocent civilians with his sniper rifle at other times and later attempting to coerce potential witnesses to conceal his alleged war crimes.

His commanding officer at SEAL Team 7′s Alpha Platoon outside Mosul in mid-2017, Lt. Jacob X. “Jake” Portier, also faces a raft of charges for allegedly trying to conceal his chief’s crimes.

According to copies of the documents obtained by Navy Times, Wednesday’s proffer and another drafted on Jan. 17 for a senior enlisted leader in SEAL Group 1 not only divulge new allegations against Gallagher and Portier, but they also question how eager several of their superiors at Navy Special Warfare were at probing the war crime accusations.

Copies of federal search warrants also obtained by Navy Times show investigators have been tracing electronic communications across the SEAL community and have seized cellphones of those involved.

The twin proffers and search warrants are the clearest indications yet that there are active probes into senior enlisted and commissioned SEALs, a potentially damning indictment of the culture of the usually tight-knit community of clandestine commandos.

Rest in link:

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/02/10/legal-bombshells-explode-on-two-seal-war-crimes-cases/

Pompeo Says U.S. To Be More Engaged In East Europe, Warns Russia Trying To Divide West

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the United States must be more engaged in Central and Eastern Europe as Russia tries to divide the West.

On the first day of a five-country European tour that will focus on opposition to the growing influence of Russia and China in Central Europe, Pompeo met with Hungary's right-wing populist prime minister, Viktor Orban, on February 11 to stress the importance of promoting democracy and the rule of law.

Washington sees those issues as key to countering Russian and Chinese moves to sow discord in the European Union and NATO.

"We must not let Putin drive wedges between friends in NATO," Pompeo told a joint news conference in Budapest with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.

Pompeo specifically pointed to Central Europe's reliance on Russian energy as well as the presence of the Chinese telecom firm Huawei, particularly in Hungary.

But Szijjarto parried any criticism of his country's energy policy, noting many European countries have deals with Moscow in the sector.

"There is an enormous hypocrisy and political correctness in the European political arena," he said.

U.S. officials are concerned by Huawei's expansion in Europe, especially in NATO member states where they believe the Chinese firm poses significant information-security threats.

Orban, a vocal admirer of U.S. President Donald Trump, is an outspoken critic of mass immigration to Europe from areas such as the Middle East.

On February 10, Orban launched a program to encourage women to have more children and reverse Hungary's population decline. He said the initiative was meant to "ensure the survival of the Hungarian nation."

"This is the Hungarians' answer, not immigration," he said.

His stance against migrants and refusal to join a new European Union public prosecutor's office focusing on fraud and corruption have also raised concerns.

https://www.rferl.org/a/pompeo-begins-central-europe-trip-with-focus-on-russia-china/29762993.html

Netanyahu’s Likud applies race-baiting ads against Palestinian citizens (again) and imitates Trump

On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party issued a campaign ad that chides the ‘left’ for siding with ‘Arabs,’ by which it means Palestinian citizens as well as Palestinians in general. The ad suggests that Netanyahu’s chief rival, Benny Gantz, is depending on the support of the left and Palestinian political parties.

The video features Palestinian lawmaker Ahmed Tibi saying that in the 1990’s there was a “blocking bloc” against the right. The text then goes:

It happened already twice in the past – the Oslo agreement passed because of the Arab voices – the former Chief of Staff Barak won the support of the Arabs and Raed Salah [leader of the Islamic Movement] – the former Chief of Staff Gantz will do it again.

The heading at the top is:

You voted Gantz – you got Tibi.

This is a reminder of the “Arabs are coming to vote in droves” claim that Netanyahu made at the eve of the 2015 election. It is also a reminder of the “us-or-them” race-bating Likud ads in the recent municipal elections, inciting against both Palestinians as well as African refugees.

Let us first do the reality check on Gantz, and recall his own murderous election campaign, where he has boasted of killing Palestinians (while inflating the number of “terrorists” killed in the Gaza 2014 onslaught) when he was Chief of Staff, with the slogans “Only the Strong Wins” and “Israeli Before Everything”. This is an Israeli version of “America first” in Hebrew, really.

While Gantz has arduously portrayed himself as “neither right nor left”, the Likud has tried to portray him not only as a leftist, but as a weak leftist. To bolster this claim, they cite him saying that he wouldn’t rule out a meeting with the Arab parties.

It’s necessary to pause once again, in order to internalize the ease in which this blatant racism is mainstreamed: Palestinian citizens must be kept outside of the political spectrum at all costs, and any indication of willingness to engage with them is a weakness.

The new leader of Labour, Avi Gabbay, has attempted to curb such ‘weakness’, and made clear last year when he was elected to lead the party, that he “couldn’t cooperate with this composition” (of Arab parties). He then chided the left for “forgetting what it means to be Jewish” – parroting Netanyahu.

Anyway, the Israeli Labor Party appears to be on the verge of disappearing and is now hovering only a few seats above the Blocking Line of winning four Knesset seats in the upcoming election. The real challenge to Netanyahu appears to be from this new center represented by Gantz, who is seen as matching Netanyahu in being suitable for Prime Minister among the Israeli public.

It’s hard to see any hope in such a scenario, where the competition is really about who is the most anti-Arab and where both Netanyahu and Gantz fight over the mantle of “Israel first”.

This racism against Palestinians is very reminiscent of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign for president, and that’s not an accident.

Last week Likud launched a campaign with huge billboards featuring Netanyahu and Trump side by side, with the slogan “Netanyahu – in another league – the Likud”.

https://mondoweiss.net/2019/02/netanyahus-palestinian-citizens-imitates/

Making Globalism Great Again - Did Trump Fold To The Deep State?

Maybe Donald Trump isn’t as stupid as I thought. I’d hate to have to admit that publicly, but it does kind of seem like he has put one over on the liberal corporate media this time. Scanning the recent Trump-related news, I couldn’t help but notice a significant decline in the number of references to Weimar, Germany, Adolf Hitler, and “the brink of fascism” that America has supposedly been teetering on since Hillary Clinton lost the election. I googled around pretty well, I think, but I couldn’t find a single editorial warning that Trump is about to summarily cancel the U.S. Constitution, dissolve Congress, and proclaim himself Führer. Nor did I see any mention of Auschwitz, or any other Nazi stuff … which is weird, considering that the Hitler hysteria has been a standard feature of the official narrative we’ve been subjected to for the last two years.

So how did Trump finally get the liberal corporate media to stop calling him a fascist? He did that by acting like a fascist (i.e., like a “normal” president). Which is to say he did the bidding of the deep state goons and corporate mandarins that manage the global capitalist empire … the smiley, happy, democracy-spreading, post-fascist version of fascism we live under.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-11/making-globalism-great-again-did-trump-fold-deep-state

CIA 2018 DECLASSIFIED DOCS - ISRAEL EXPOSED

Trudeau in ethics probe over handling of Libyan contract fraud

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau is being investigated for illegally attempting to shield engineering firm SNC-Lavalin from criminal fraud and corruption charges involving millions of dollars in bribes to the Libyan government.

Trudeau claims he “welcomes” the probe, launched by the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on Monday after requests from two New Democrat MPs followed on the heels of an incendiary report published last week in the Globe and Mail that placed him at the center of what the Conservative opposition has termed an “unprecedented” effort to illegally influence a criminal proceeding.

The PM allegedly pressured former justice minister and attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to curtail the criminal prosecution of a multi-million-dollar corruption and fraud case against SNC-Lavalin, redirecting the matter out of the courts and into a “remediation agreement,” which would have spared the company the negative financial and reputational consequences of a criminal trial – the most devastating of which would include a 10-year ban from accepting government contracts, a stipulation which would economically cripple the Montreal engineering firm.

When Wilson-Raybould refused to ask federal prosecutors to make the non-prosecution deal with SNC-Lavalin in December, according to the Globe and Mail, Trudeau essentially fired her, leaving her to wash up at Veterans Affairs, a significant demotion.

Trudeau denies the allegations, claiming “Neither the current nor the previous attorney general was ever directed by me or anyone in my office to take a decision in this matter.”

Conservative Leader Albert Scheer has led the charge to haul Trudeau’s aides and top members of his party in front of an emergency meeting of the justice committee for what he calls “unprecedented” attempts at influencing a criminal proceeding.

“Obviously Justin Trudeau’s trying to hide something,” Scheer said. “All we have to go on is his word.”

For the details of Trudeau’s involvement in tampering with the SNC-Lavalin case, however, all Scheer has to go on is an anonymously-sourced report in the Globe and Mail.

SNC-Lavalin was charged with paying out $48 million in bribes to Libyan officials in the decade leading up to the NATO-led overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi's government in 2011, payments intended to influence government decision-making, though the company was also charged with defrauding Libyan companies of about $130 million.

https://www.rt.com/news/451244-trudeau-ethics-snc-lavalin-libya/

Trump plots Independence Day parade

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President Trump said Tuesday he’s thinking about putting on a Fourth of July parade or other gathering in Washington, D.C., suggesting it could “become a tradition," even though a similar event already exists.

Trump suggested during a Cabinet meeting that his proposed event could take place at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall.

“It could be an exciting day,” Trump said, calling it a "salute to America."

"It'll be a, really a gathering as opposed to a parade I guess you'd have to say," he continued. "Perhaps at the Lincoln Memorial, we're looking at sites. But we're thinking about doing something which would become perhaps become a tradition, Salute to America, on July 4th or July 4th weekend somewhere around that area."

Washington, D.C., already has established Fourth of July celebrations that include fireworks along the National Mall, a free concert and a parade down Constitution Avenue.

The official tourism site of Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump's idea, nor did the mayor's office.

The president last year expressed a desire for a military parade to be held in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 10, one day before the 100 year anniversary of the end of World War I.

The concept was divisive, with some lawmakers and officials welcoming it as a show of appreciation for the armed forces, and critics likening it to events held by authoritarian regimes.

Trump ultimately canceled the parade in August, blaming local officials for the high cost of the event. Reports emerged that the parade would have come with a $92 million price tag, though the Pentagon said planning had not reached its final stages and it could not confirm the final cost.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/429608-trump-plots-independence-day-parade

Mid-level trafficker El Chapo found guilty on all counts – his bosses – including Salinas – remain free

A Brooklyn jury today found Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, 61, guilty on all counts.

They deliberated for more than five days before convicting him on charges of operating a continuing criminal enterprise, use of firearms and various charges of conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine, heroin and marijuana. He faces up to life in prison.

The trial lasted 11-weeks. There were 50 plus prosecution witnesses — including 14 former associates who took the stand against him. The defense took only 30-minutes and there was one witness for the defense.

El Chapo, much like our own celebrated Vanguard, rose and fell and spent some time hiding out in between.

The New York Post describes his lavish lifestyle in the 1990s and his hiding out in the mountains on the run from authorities in the 2000s.

According to the Post, “Testimony from those closest to Guzman ranged from comical to chilling, including a naked escape from law enforcement through a tunnel network he’d built under his bathtub — and the cold-blooded murders he himself committed.

“The accounts painted Guzman as a ruthless and calculating drug lord, who was paranoid to the point of obsession, going so far as to install spyware on the devices used by his associates, wife and mistresses.”

Thanks to El Chapo’s spying, the FBI nailed him after they flipped his IT guy. and got access to spy communications as well as Guzman’s encrypted servers.

This might be an intriguing notion for Nixvm hackers, Ben Myers and Steve Ose, to contemplate.

His conviction means El Chapo will probably be leaving the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn where he earned glory by residing there at the same time as the Vanguard himself.

He will be sentenced and likely placed in a super max facility to spend what is likely the rest of his life there. I can’t help but think that this is a portend of things to come from his mate in residence Keith Alan Raniere.

For the record, let me state that, at best, El Chapo was a mid-level provider of cocaine to the USA. It is not known if his boss of bosses, Carlos Salinas will ever be prosecuted.

And it bears investigation at some point as to how much if any was the role of Nxivm in trafficking drugs, on any level – as well as smuggling cash across the border.

https://frankreport.com/2019/02/12/mid-level-trafficker-el-chapo-found-guilty-on-all-counts-his-bosses-including-salinas-remain-free/

Guaido Was Recruited by the US a Decade Ago - Venezuelan Envoy to Russia

Last month, US media reported that the Venezuelan opposition leader declared himself interim president immediately following a phone call with US Vice President Mike Pence.

National Assembly leader and self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido was recruited by the US a decade ago and is little more than Washington's "puppet," Carlos Rafael Faria Tortosa, Venezuela's ambassador to Russia, has said.

"Guaido was recruited, according to our information, some 10 years ago. He was sent to Serbia to study. You probably know about it. And it all started with this," Tortosa said, addressing lawmakers at Russia's Federation Council about the political crisis unravelling in his country.

"The time came…they said he was prepared, but he is totally unprepared for this task. He is just a puppet, and is placed where he is so that the US could stand behind him and speak," the diplomat added.

https://sputniknews.com/latam/201902121072348940-guaido-envoy-us/

>>5143762

It's ok to put Genuine digs and news about Israel in notes baker

>>5143413 Democratic Party leadership, in bed with AIPAC

>>5143377 Mossad agent projection? Crisis worse than 9/11 could come out of AI arms race

>>5143445, >>5143458 One Nation Under Israel By Andrew Hurley

>>5143575 Netanyahu’s Likud applies race-baiting ads against Palestinian citizens

>>5143634 CIA 2018 DECLASSIFIED DOCS - ISRAEL EXPOSED

We cannot protect the Hive!

>>5143855

Pea heart and balls McConnell

>>5143876

>>5143840

>>5143770

>>5143896

Expose the Zionists/Marxists something no government or media dare to do