Judge finds Iran responsible for Robert Levinson’s kidnapping in $1.5B lawsuit

Exactly 13 years after Robert Levinson was abducted in Iran, a federal judge found the Iranian government responsible for kidnapping and torturing the former FBI agent who, if he is still alive, is the longest-held American hostage. “This case, brought by Levinson’s family against the Islamic Republic of Iran for his hostage taking and torture under the terrorism exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, is largely about whether it was the Iranian regime that committed these barbarous acts,” U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Kelly ruled on Monday. “The Court finds, in no uncertain terms, that it was.”

Levinson’s family, including his wife, Christine, and their seven children, filed a lawsuit against Tehran in 2017 after the husband and father had been missing for a decade. They sought $150 million in compensation as well as another $150 million per family member in punitive damages from Iran’s government, for a total of $1.5 billion. “Thirteen years ago, our beloved husband and father, Robert Levinson, was detained by Iranian authorities while visiting Kish Island, Iran, beginning a nightmare for him and for our family that continues to this day,” the Levinson family said in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner. “On this anniversary, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia has found that the Iranian regime is responsible for what happened to him. … We will continue to do everything in our power to seek justice for our husband and father.” Levinson, who spent nearly three decades working for the U.S. government, including 22 years as an FBI special agent, vanished in an abduction by Iranian authorities from Kish Island. Levinson was originally believed to be in Iran as a private investigator, and the U.S. initially claimed Levinson wasn't working for the U.S. government at the time, though outlets in 2013 revealed Levinson was part of an off-the-books CIA mission when he was captured. No photos or videos have been released of Levinson since 2010 and 2011, and Iran has offered a series of conflicting narratives denying Levinson is in their custody.

“Iran must honor the commitment it has made to work with the United States for Mr. Levinson’s return,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday. “Returning all Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad is President Trump’s top priority. We will work until Bob Levinson and all U.S. hostages and wrongful detainees come home.” The Levinson family said it is obvious Iran grabbed their father years ago, pointing to a since-scrubbed April 2007 article from Press TV, an Iranian government-backed outlet in Tehran, stating Levinson “has been in the hands of Iranian security forces since the early hours of March 9” and that “the authorities are well on the way to finishing the procedural arrangements that could see him freed in a matter of days.” The judge agreed.

In December, the D.C. court held a two-day evidentiary hearing on the Levinson family’s motion for default judgment, hearing testimony from all eight family members as well as expert witnesses from the FBI and D.C. think tanks. “Levinson’s family long suspected that the Iranian regime was responsible for his kidnapping,” the judge said on Monday. “And despite Iran’s apparent denials of responsibility for Levinson’s abduction, there are no other plausible explanations in the record for what happened to him.”

The State Department announced in November a $20 million reward for information leading to the safe return of Levinson, in addition to a $5 million reward offered by the FBI. A few days later, Iran seemed to acknowledge Levinson was alive and in its custody in a short filing to the United Nation’s Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances where the Levinson family had filed a complaint three years ago. "According to the statement of Tehran’s Justice Department, Mr. Robert Alan Levinson has an ongoing case in the Public Prosecution and Revolutionary Court of Tehran," the U.N. stated.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/judge-finds-iran-responsible-for-robert-levinsons-kidnapping-in-1-5b-lawsuit

White House: Robert Levinson not a government employee

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-25373010

Missing American in Iran was on unapproved mission

https://web.archive.org/web/20131213040434/http://bigstory.ap.org/article/missing-american-iran-was-working-cia

Ex-FBI man in Iran not "missing" at all

https://web.archive.org/web/20131206225353/http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/4832.html

Key defense supplier hit by ransomware

A supplier to a number of major defense companies — including Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, and SpaceX — is the target of a ransomware attack. Documents purportedly stolen from Denver-based Visser Precision Manufacturing are already showing up online, according to Emsisoft, the cybersecurity company that made the attack public. It’s a textbook example of a type of cyber attack the Pentagon is trying to prevent: going after a defense supplier that holds sensitive data yet is small enough to lack sophisticated cyber defenses.

DoppelPaymer, the ransomware used in the alleged attack, typically steals data before encrypting it on the victim’s computer, said Brett Callow, a threat analyst for Emsisoft. In February, the group running the DoppelPaymer malware set up a website for exposing files belonging to its victims, Callow said. “The actor has been active since the middle of last year, but has only started publishing data [stolen in the attack] in the last few days,” Callow said in an email to Defense One.

Officials with Visser, whose website says it makes “precision parts for success in major industries, from the racetrack to outer space,” confirmed to TechCrunch that it was a victim of “criminal cybersecurity incident” and had data stolen, but now its “business is operating normally.” The group’s recent victims appear also to include Pemex, an oil company owned by the Mexican government; and Bretagne Télécom, a French telecom, via a flaw in the Citrix gear that the company was using, according to cybersecurity company FireEye. In the Bretagne Télécom hack, attackers used a vulnerability published to the National Vulnerabilities Database. But Callow said he didn’t know the attack vector in the attack on Visser. Among its customers is Lockheed Martin, for its missiles. In an emailed statement, Lockheed spokesman Dean Acosta said, “We are aware of the situation with Visser Precision and are following our standard response process for potential cyber incidents related to our supply chain.” Acosta added, “Lockheed Martin has made and continues to make significant investments in cybersecurity, and uses industry-leading information security practices to protect sensitive information. This includes providing guidance to our suppliers, when appropriate, to assist them in enhancing their cybersecurity posture.”

In January, the Pentagon rolled out a plan for new cybersecurity standards for its suppliers. “Both our National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy rightly underscore the importance of defending against cyber attacks, which offer adversaries low-cost and deniable opportunities to seriously damage or disrupt critical infrastructure and capability,” Ellen Lord, defense undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment, told reporters on Jan. 31.

DoppelPaymer is a group of criminal hackers with no known connection to a specific state. The group apparently splintered from an older hacker group named INDRIK SPIDER, and uses a version of its Big Game Hunting malware, cybersecurity company CrowdStrike reported last July. CrowdStrike also noted that the ransomware has some overlap with software created by Evgeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev, an infamous, FBI-wanted Russian hacker with ties to the Russian government. Callow has not examined all of Visser’s files to see if they include classified or sensitive information. “The big question, though, is: What else did they get?” he said. “The [hacker group’s] website … indicates they have more data than has currently been posted and plan to publish it in installments.”

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2020/03/key-defense-supplier-hit-by-ransomware/

The 21 words uttered by FISA court that change the Russia collusion case forever

Judge rules for first time FBI misled, rejecting years of excuse making and suggesting process reforms won't be enough.

For much of the last three years, key law enforcement leaders have insisted they did nothing wrong in pursuing counterintelligence surveillance warrants targeting the Trump campaign starting during the 2016 election. And, they've added, if mistakes were made, they were unintentional process errors downstream from them and not an effort to deceive the judges. But in a little-noted passage in a recent order, U.S. District Judge James A. Boasberg, the new chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, took direct aim at the excuses and blame-shifting of these senior Obama administration FBI and DOJ officials. In just 21 words, Boasberg provided the first judicial declaration the FBI had misled the court, not just committed process errors. "There is thus little doubt that the government breached its duty of candor to the Court with respect to those applications," Boasberg wrote. The no-fault mantra has been spread by everyone from President Trump's former deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who insisted the DOJ took its responsibility to submit "admissible evidence, credible witnesses" very seriously, to the ex-FBI Director James Comey, who declared recently it was "nonsense" to suggest the bureau opened a probe without good cause.

Some of these defenses — including a focus on fixing process suggested by current FBI chief Christopher Wray — have persisted even after Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz issued a damning report in December finding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant applications targeting former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page were riddled with mistakes, including 17 examples of misconduct, misinformation or outright lies. Judge Boasberg drew headlines last week for an order suspending all FBI and DOJ lawyers involved in the Russia collusion case from appearing before his court until it is determined whether they engaged in misconduct. But of greater long-term significance was his language pinning responsibility for FISA abuses squarely on senior officials, not just lower-level line agents and lawyers who prepared the warrant applications. "The frequency and seriousness of these errors in a case that, given its sensitive nature, had an unusually high level of review at both DOJ and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have called into question the reliability of the information proffered in other FBI applications," Boasberg wrote. In another words, he is worried the bad conduct exhibited by the FBI may extend to more cases affecting others' civil liberties.

Finally, Boasberg put Wray on notice — even while praising the current director — that process fixes alone won't suffice. "The errors the OIG pointed out cannot be solved through procedures alone," he wrote. "DOJ and the FBI, including all personnel involved in the FISA process, must fully understand and embrace the heightened duties of probity and transparency that apply in ex parte proceedings." Boasberg's ruling was far more than a temporary suspension of FBI personnel's participation in the FISA court. It is the first and only judicial finding in the Russia case that the FBI vastly misled the nation's intelligence court and that blame must be shouldered by federal law enforcement's top leaders, many of whom have spent much of the last three years trying to escape such accountability. For those who have begged the FISA court for years to more aggressively rebuke the conduct in the Russia case, Boasberg's ruling was a welcome step in the right direction and a first effort to end the excuse-making. But those critics are holding out for more, including prosecutions or disciplinary action.

In the meantime, those who led the FBI and DOJ through that turbulent time — Comey and his deputy Andrew McCabe, as well as former acting Attorney General Sally Yates and Rosenstein — must come to grips with this new reality. A judge has formally concluded that his court was misled by the work product they oversaw and signed.

https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/21-words-uttered-fisa-court-change-russia-collusion-case#article

>>8365385

It should just be eliminated all together, no reason for it to exist it's an absolute overreach of power over all, with or without their knowledge, it doesn't matter. Keep this just keeps the door for moar spying on everyone they don't like.

>>8365425

Get your point…but it does become a slippery slope..where does it end at that point? Keeping the door open just a little, still allows the bugs to come in, maybe just a few less..but bugs just the same, at the end of it over time you have an infestation..moar difficult to control then.

>>8365453

>>8365453

>Fucking kikes hiding the news

>This is not Drudge Report.

Frendly Reminder:

Got at least 20 moar like this can post, them!

We are here for a reason!

>>8365544

In the words of POTUS…The most corrupt administration EVER!