In Saturday's piece I posed a thought; one that I suspect that some of us would categorise as a 'no brainer':
"...after all the drama of this week, I’d like to leave you with a thought…a disturbing thought perhaps…but one that needs to be entertained on an individual level, if it is to be entertained at all…because surely no-one in the mainstream media will go near this…
The NSA has a vast e-archive in Utah. Everything that went to Hillary’s server will have touched a tapped cable somewhere. And if the NSA didn't know there was a server in Hillary Clinton’s basement…well let’s just say that the chances of that are as likely as my dog not noticing me eating a piece of my dear wife’s special lemon drizzle cake…somewhere between zero and don’t make me laugh"
Turns out we're not going to be laughing, at least not on that score. How many of you remember a guy called William Binney I wonder? Mr. Binney was an NSA code-breaker, and an architect of their surveillance programme. He resigned from the NSA in October 2001 after more than 30 years with the agency. In 2012 he revealed details of the NSA's 'big brotherly' plans, describing details of a programme code-named 'Stellar Wind', which included details of the massive data centre in Utah that I referenced in Saturday's post.
In some ways you might describe Mr. Binney as the forerunner of Edward Snowden, although he has always managed to stay out of jail and avoid the need to flee the country. He's a 'whistleblower', or as I prefer to call them - someone who listens to his conscience more than his wallet.
I digress - on Sunday Mr. Binney appeared on New York AM 970 on a show called “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio”. He suggested that the hack of the DNC's emails may have been carried out not by the Russians, but by a US Intelligence operative alarmed by Hillary Clinton's compromise of national security through her use of a personal server whilst Secretary of State. During the course of the interview he referenced testimony given to the Senate in March 2011 by FBI Director Robert Mueller, who spoke about the FBI's ability to access a number of classified databases in order to track terrorists. Mr. Binney:
“Now what he (Mueller) is talking about is going into the NSA database, which is shown of course in the Snowden material released, which shows a direct access into the NSA database by the FBI and the CIA. Which there is no oversight of by the way. So that means that NSA and a number of agencies in the U.S. government also have those emails.”
When asked directly if he thought the NSA has copies of all of Mrs. Clinton's emails he replied:
“Yes, that would be my point. They have them all and the FBI can get them right there”
If Mr Binney is right, which I believe he is, a question starts to jump up and down in front of your face demanding some attention: is the US government willing to bury the truth about Hillary Clinton in order to put her into the White House. Readers can make up their own minds about that. I suspect you've already guessed my deeply cynical thoughts on the matter :-)
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Two leaks for the price of one! Though this next one is a bit of light relief by comparison. In yesterday's FT it was revealed that: "Ex-Goldman star threatens to quit over UK’s China policy"
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ee21d6be-572a-11e6-9f70-badea1b336d4.html#ixzz4G4rEXS3h
“Jim O’Neill, the British Treasury minister and former Goldman Sachs chief economist, could quit over new UK prime minister Theresa May’s approach to China exposed by her handling of plans for a new nuclear plant...Lord O’Neill was a star signing brought into the Treasury during George Osborne’s time as chancellor to build relations with China and oversee new infrastructure. He is best known outside the UK for having coined the phrase “Brics” in 2001 to describe the world’s leading emerging economies, Brazil, Russia, India and China...In a sign of the remaining tensions in Mrs May’s new ministerial team and concerns in Beijing that it may no longer be welcome to invest in British nuclear power plants, Lord O’Neill has told friends he will leave the government in September unless Mrs May can explain why she wants him to stay on”
Look at that last sentence again:
“Lord O’Neill has told friends he will leave the government in September unless Mrs. May can explain why she wants him to stay on”
It occurs to me that if these are 'real' friends of Lord O'Neill, maybe one of them will strap on the pair he apparently lacks and advise him to 'have it out' with her rather than whinging through the press. Just what we need for dealing with China - a man prepared to ‘leak sulk to power’...I'm sorry that should have said 'speak truth to power’.
Somehow I doubt Mrs. May will be up all night fretting about how to appease a wimp.
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Have a good week…best wishes…MarkGB