Podcasts about national security branch

Alan Kohler spent 27 years at the FBI, where his priority for decades, was hunting down spies who were operating in the United States.  As Assistant Director of the Bureau's Counterintelligence Division, Kohler had a hand in nearly every espionage operation the Bureau conducted.  He also served as Acting Executive Assistant Director of the National Security Branch and was Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Field Office's Counterintelligence Division before he retired last year and joined The Cipher Brief's Expert Network.  He is also President of Pamir Consulting. State Secrets sat down with Kohler to uncover some of the highlights of the cases he was involved in that made national and global headlines.  In his first podcast interview, we also talked about why espionage and elections are still very top-of-mind for him – particularly when it comes to Russia and China.  

Philip Mudd is the former Deputy Director of the FBI's National Security Branch.

This week, host Jon Olson talks with Jill Sanborn, the former Executive Assistant Director leading the National Security Branch of the FBI. They discuss the ways the FBI investigates a wide variety of national security threats.

This week, host Jon Olson talks with Jill Sanborn, the former Executive Assistant Director leading the National Security Branch of the FBI. They discuss the ways the FBI investigates a wide variety of national security threats.

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Friday, October 21st, 2022. Happy Friday everyone… Since it’s Friday, I thought we’d go ahead and kick things off with a “On this day in history!” On this day in history, October 21st: 1918 In order to secure a WWI armistice, Germany agrees to further concessions 1921 Germany and Allies comes to an agreements over reparation payments in a meeting at Wiensbaden 1924 1st Negro League World Series: KC Monarchs shuts out Hilldales, 5-0 1930 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, premieres on NBC radio 1934 MLB All-Star team led by Connie Mack and including Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx and Lou Gehrig sails to Japan for 18-game series against Big-Six University League 1944 US forces under General Douglas MacArthur return to the Philippines with the landing of the US 6th army on Leyte (There’s even a statue of MacArthur and his troops commemorating MacArthur keeping that promise of a u.s. return.) 1954 Leigh, Charlap, Styne, Comden and Green's musical "Peter Pan", starring Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard, opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC; runs for 152 performances 1955 A historic Publication of "The Return of the King", the 3rd and final volume of "The Lord of the Rings" by J. R. R. Tolkien by George Allen and Unwin in London 1963 Jim Brown sets NFL single-season rushing record, 1,863 yds 1973 Queen Elizabeth II opens the Sydney Opera House 2019 1st New York to Sydney non-stop test flight by a commercial airline achieved by a Qantas Boeing 787 Dreamliner, takes 19 hours 42 minutes And that, was on this day in history for October 21st… Accountable2You Is your smartphone a tool in the service of Christ, or a minefield of distractions and temptations? With soul-killing seductions just a few taps away, our families and churches must embrace biblical accountability on our digital devices. Accountable2You makes transparency easy on all your family's devices, by sharing app usage and detailed browsing history—including "Incognito" mode—with your spouse, parent, or chosen accountability partner. Accountable2You helps your family to proactively guard against temptation, so you can live with integrity for God's glory! Learn more and try it for free at Accountable2You.com/FLF https://www.dailywire.com/news/hunter-bidens-laptop-documents-at-least-459-legal-violations-watchdog-group-says Hunter Biden’s Laptop Documents At Least 459 Legal Violations, Watchdog Group Says A year-long exploration of Hunter Biden’s laptop has yielded a 630-page report that its authors say document 459 violations of state and federal laws and regulations by President Joe Biden’s son and his business partners. Marco Polo, a nonprofit formed by a one-time aide to former President Trump to enable a team to take a deep dive into the laptop that the crack-addled Biden left at a Delaware repair store, claims the report is a road map for local, state, or federal prosecutors to pursue charges. The group also sent its report to each member of Congress. The timing of the report’s release, coming two weeks before the midterm elections, has a certain symmetry to the laptop’s initial introduction to the public. In 2020, days before the election, the New York Post published news of the laptop’s existence, as well as bombshells from it, but social media suppressed the story after the FBI had warned companies of so-called misinformation. This time around, the timing is similar, but other factors are reversed. Legacy outlets have acknowledged that the laptop’s files are authentic, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey admitted that censoring the laptop was a mistake, and the social media platform is being sold to free-speech advocate Elon Musk. The report, which reviewed the laptop’s emails, videos, calendar items, photographs, phone records, financial documents and more, but also provided context and explanation, serves as a “Rosetta Stone of white- and blue-collar crime under the patina of ‘the Delaware Way,’” the report says. “We were able to illuminate previously convoluted network webs of the people leading the charge for global governance,” cutting through shell companies and middlemen.” Crimes Hunter Biden allegedly committed include serving as an agent for foreign entities without disclosing it, tax fraud, and falsifying business documents. The alleged crimes also include prostitution, non-consensual pornography, and distribution of narcotics. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/washington-secrets/voters-agree-gop-to-take-house-senate Voters agree: GOP to take House and Senate Weeks of reporting that the Republicans are poised to take control of the House, and maybe the Senate, have sunk with voters who now mostly agree that the November elections should show Democrats the door. In the latest Rasmussen Reports survey, just shared with Secrets, likely voters expect the Republicans to win control of the House. And it’s not even close, with 67% agreeing to 17% who don’t. Even 56% of Democrats expect their party to lose control of the House. As for the Senate, it's closer, with 58% of likely voters believing it’s likely the Republicans will edge out the Democrats. Just 25% don’t agree. Among Democrats, the split is even, 42% agree and 42% don’t. Much of the media have recently raised expectations that the House will turn red by 10-40 seats. There has been some reporting of tightening Senate races that could give the Republicans a 1-2 seat edge after the elections are over on Nov. 8. The survey also quizzed likely voters on if they plan to cast ballots early or on Election Day. Most, by a 53%-44% margin, chose Election Day, though that was mostly a GOP preference as with past elections. https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2022/10/20/former-fbi-official-will-testify-about-white-house-pressure-to-inflate-domestic-extremism-numbers-n1638595 Former FBI Official Will Testify About White House Pressure to Inflate Domestic Extremism Numbers Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee announced on Thursday that they would be calling a former top FBI official to testify before Congress to address claims that the Biden administration pressured agents to label cases as domestic extremism or a white supremacist threat even if they did not meet that criteria in order to match Joe Biden’s rhetoric. Last month, current and former FBI agents came forward claiming the Biden administration has been deliberately exaggerating the danger posed by white supremacists. According to the whistleblowers, high-ranking FBI officials were pressuring field agents to fabricate domestic terrorism cases and label people as white supremacists in order to “meet internal metrics.” “The demand for white supremacy” coming from FBI brass “vastly outstrips the supply of white supremacy,” one agent told the Washington Times. “We have more people assigned to investigate white supremacists than we can actually find.” On December 2, members of the House Judiciary Committee will interview Jill Sanborn, a former assistant director of the FBI Counterterrorism Division and executive assistant director of its National Security Branch, who has been accused of pressuring agents to reclassify cases per the White House’s requests. The FBI claims it only investigates those “who commit or intend to commit violence and criminal activity that constitutes a federal crime or poses a threat to national security” and that it does not target individuals or organizations based on their political beliefs. Last year, the administration previously came under fire for using the resources of the Department of Justice to target angry parents at school board meetings and treat them like domestic terrorists. Merrick Garland authorized the FBI to investigate parents who protested school board meetings alleging a “disturbing trend” of teachers being threatened or harassed. However, PJ Media’s Megan Fox looked into those allegations and concluded that they’re mostly bunk. https://thepoliticalinsider.com/arizona-refuses-to-comply-with-biden-demand-to-remove-makeshift-border-wall/ Arizona Refuses to Comply With Biden Demand to Remove Makeshift Border Wall Arizona’s Department of Emergency and Military Affairs is refusing a demand by the Biden administration to remove the shipping containers they are using to close gaps in the wall at the southern border. A letter written to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and signed by Allen Clark, Director of Arizona’s DEMA, states “the containers will remain in place until specific details regarding construction are provided.” Clark goes on to argue that the residents of Arizona “cannot rely on the federal government to ensure its security.” “The myriad of federal agencies that claim jurisdiction on the southern border but do nothing to prevent the public nuisance caused by illegal immigration and criminal activity that exploits the open border is quite frustrating to those that live, work and recreate on that border and in our state,” he added. The letter comes in response to a demand by the Biden administration to remove the shipping containers that are predominantly being used to seal up gaps in the border wall near Yuma. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation penned its own letter last week claiming Arizona’s shipping containers are trespassing on its lands and those of the Cocopah Indian Tribe’s West Reservation. The Bureau indicates contracts have been awarded to close the gaps in question and they ‘anticipate’ awarding more. As such, they insisted the containers be removed so the project can continue “without unnecessary delay.” Arizona Republican Governor Doug Ducey issued an executive order to seal up gaps in the border wall in August. Meaning the White House had no less than 18 months to get those contracts awarded and pushed out to start construction. The shipping containers stand 22 feet high, are welded together, and feature an additional four feet of razor wiring added to the top. Ducey’s reasoning behind installing the containers includes the Biden administration’s “lack of urgency on border security,” which he labeled a “dereliction of duty.” Armored Republic The Mission of Armored Republic is to Honor Christ by equipping Free Men with Tools of Liberty necessary to preserve God-given rights. In the Armored Republic there is no King but Christ. We are Free Craftsmen. Body Armor is a Tool of Liberty. We create Tools of Liberty. Free men must remain ever vigilant against tyranny wherever it appears. God has given us the tools of liberty needed to defend the rights He bestowed to us. Armored Republic is honored to offer you those Tools. Visit them, at ar500armor.com Now it’s time for my favorite topic… sports! https://www.boundingintosports.com/2022/10/nascar-suspends-bubba-wallace-after-intentionally-wrecking-kyle-larson/ NASCAR Suspends Bubba Wallace After Intentionally Wrecking Kyle Larson NASCAR announced they suspended Bubba Wallace one race for his actions at Las Vegas Motor Speedway where he deliberately retaliated against Kyle Larson on the track. During the South Point 400, Larson had a strong run going into turn 3 and he dove to the inside of both Kevin Harvick and Bubba Wallace. Harvick got out of the gas and let Larson and Wallace race for the position. As they continued into turn four, Larson got loose and began to chase his car up the track inching ever close to Wallace. However, he never made contact with Wallace. Coming off the turn, Wallace slammed into the outside wall hard, bounced off it and down into Larson. Larson dove to the inside of the track to avoid Wallace. Wallace believing Larson had wronged him by chasing his car up the track chased him down the track and ran into his right rear quarter panel sending both cars spinning up the track. Larson would make contact with Christopher Bell before making contact with the wall. Wallace would smash nose first into the outside wall. NASCAR.com reports Wallace violated “Sections 4.3A and 4.4 C & E of the NASCAR Member Code of Conduct laid out in the NASCAR Rule Book. Rule 4.4.C lists “intentionally wrecking or spinning another vehicle, whether or not that vehicle is removed from Competition as a result’ as one of five member actions that could result in a penalty.” As noted above, NASCAR chose to suspend Wallace one race. NASCAR’s Chief Operating Officer Steve O’Donnell appeared on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio to explain the decision. https://twitter.com/i/status/1582488669625077762 - Play Video - 0:00-1:38 https://www.boundingintosports.com/2022/10/nhl-embraces-anti-white-racism-says-they-have-too-many-white-employees-aims-to-change-that/ NHL Embraces Anti-White Racism, Says They Have Too Many White Employees, Aims To Change That The National Hockey League (NHL) released a workforce demographic study as part of a report on “Accelerating Diversity & Inclusion” that claims the organization’s teams are too white and the league plans to make changes to reduce the percentage of white people that work for them. Introducing the report, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman made clear the organization’s goals saying, “Our belief is stronger than ever that hockey has a powerful platform to build character, teach life skills, and support our society and our communities.” As part of one of their initiatives to promote diversity and inclusion, the report notes, “The NHL developed a new, best-in-class Workforce Demographic Study to understand the diversity of full-time League and Club employees and accelerate inclusive hiring.” This Workforce Demographic Study was also highlighted as one of the NHL’s 7 Dimensions, specifically under their Employment section. This section specifically notes the NHL is engaging in racist activities, “Data from the survey will help guide future decision-making about our workforce. In late 2021, the NHL hired a full-time Director of Recruiting who is focused on attracting diverse talent to the organization. Additionally, the League engaged Jopwell with the intent of creating a more diverse and inclusive workplace by expanding our talent pool through Jopwell’s network of Black, Latinx, and Native American professionals.” The report further notes they will be excluding white people from a mentorship program, “Clubs are also taking action: 22 Clubs have launched or are about to launch a mentorship/fellowship/hiring program to develop BIPOC and female talent to work in the organization’s Hockey Operations or front office roles.”

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Friday, October 21st, 2022. Happy Friday everyone… Since it’s Friday, I thought we’d go ahead and kick things off with a “On this day in history!” On this day in history, October 21st: 1918 In order to secure a WWI armistice, Germany agrees to further concessions 1921 Germany and Allies comes to an agreements over reparation payments in a meeting at Wiensbaden 1924 1st Negro League World Series: KC Monarchs shuts out Hilldales, 5-0 1930 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, premieres on NBC radio 1934 MLB All-Star team led by Connie Mack and including Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx and Lou Gehrig sails to Japan for 18-game series against Big-Six University League 1944 US forces under General Douglas MacArthur return to the Philippines with the landing of the US 6th army on Leyte (There’s even a statue of MacArthur and his troops commemorating MacArthur keeping that promise of a u.s. return.) 1954 Leigh, Charlap, Styne, Comden and Green's musical "Peter Pan", starring Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard, opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC; runs for 152 performances 1955 A historic Publication of "The Return of the King", the 3rd and final volume of "The Lord of the Rings" by J. R. R. Tolkien by George Allen and Unwin in London 1963 Jim Brown sets NFL single-season rushing record, 1,863 yds 1973 Queen Elizabeth II opens the Sydney Opera House 2019 1st New York to Sydney non-stop test flight by a commercial airline achieved by a Qantas Boeing 787 Dreamliner, takes 19 hours 42 minutes And that, was on this day in history for October 21st… Accountable2You Is your smartphone a tool in the service of Christ, or a minefield of distractions and temptations? With soul-killing seductions just a few taps away, our families and churches must embrace biblical accountability on our digital devices. Accountable2You makes transparency easy on all your family's devices, by sharing app usage and detailed browsing history—including "Incognito" mode—with your spouse, parent, or chosen accountability partner. Accountable2You helps your family to proactively guard against temptation, so you can live with integrity for God's glory! Learn more and try it for free at Accountable2You.com/FLF https://www.dailywire.com/news/hunter-bidens-laptop-documents-at-least-459-legal-violations-watchdog-group-says Hunter Biden’s Laptop Documents At Least 459 Legal Violations, Watchdog Group Says A year-long exploration of Hunter Biden’s laptop has yielded a 630-page report that its authors say document 459 violations of state and federal laws and regulations by President Joe Biden’s son and his business partners. Marco Polo, a nonprofit formed by a one-time aide to former President Trump to enable a team to take a deep dive into the laptop that the crack-addled Biden left at a Delaware repair store, claims the report is a road map for local, state, or federal prosecutors to pursue charges. The group also sent its report to each member of Congress. The timing of the report’s release, coming two weeks before the midterm elections, has a certain symmetry to the laptop’s initial introduction to the public. In 2020, days before the election, the New York Post published news of the laptop’s existence, as well as bombshells from it, but social media suppressed the story after the FBI had warned companies of so-called misinformation. This time around, the timing is similar, but other factors are reversed. Legacy outlets have acknowledged that the laptop’s files are authentic, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey admitted that censoring the laptop was a mistake, and the social media platform is being sold to free-speech advocate Elon Musk. The report, which reviewed the laptop’s emails, videos, calendar items, photographs, phone records, financial documents and more, but also provided context and explanation, serves as a “Rosetta Stone of white- and blue-collar crime under the patina of ‘the Delaware Way,’” the report says. “We were able to illuminate previously convoluted network webs of the people leading the charge for global governance,” cutting through shell companies and middlemen.” Crimes Hunter Biden allegedly committed include serving as an agent for foreign entities without disclosing it, tax fraud, and falsifying business documents. The alleged crimes also include prostitution, non-consensual pornography, and distribution of narcotics. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/washington-secrets/voters-agree-gop-to-take-house-senate Voters agree: GOP to take House and Senate Weeks of reporting that the Republicans are poised to take control of the House, and maybe the Senate, have sunk with voters who now mostly agree that the November elections should show Democrats the door. In the latest Rasmussen Reports survey, just shared with Secrets, likely voters expect the Republicans to win control of the House. And it’s not even close, with 67% agreeing to 17% who don’t. Even 56% of Democrats expect their party to lose control of the House. As for the Senate, it's closer, with 58% of likely voters believing it’s likely the Republicans will edge out the Democrats. Just 25% don’t agree. Among Democrats, the split is even, 42% agree and 42% don’t. Much of the media have recently raised expectations that the House will turn red by 10-40 seats. There has been some reporting of tightening Senate races that could give the Republicans a 1-2 seat edge after the elections are over on Nov. 8. The survey also quizzed likely voters on if they plan to cast ballots early or on Election Day. Most, by a 53%-44% margin, chose Election Day, though that was mostly a GOP preference as with past elections. https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2022/10/20/former-fbi-official-will-testify-about-white-house-pressure-to-inflate-domestic-extremism-numbers-n1638595 Former FBI Official Will Testify About White House Pressure to Inflate Domestic Extremism Numbers Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee announced on Thursday that they would be calling a former top FBI official to testify before Congress to address claims that the Biden administration pressured agents to label cases as domestic extremism or a white supremacist threat even if they did not meet that criteria in order to match Joe Biden’s rhetoric. Last month, current and former FBI agents came forward claiming the Biden administration has been deliberately exaggerating the danger posed by white supremacists. According to the whistleblowers, high-ranking FBI officials were pressuring field agents to fabricate domestic terrorism cases and label people as white supremacists in order to “meet internal metrics.” “The demand for white supremacy” coming from FBI brass “vastly outstrips the supply of white supremacy,” one agent told the Washington Times. “We have more people assigned to investigate white supremacists than we can actually find.” On December 2, members of the House Judiciary Committee will interview Jill Sanborn, a former assistant director of the FBI Counterterrorism Division and executive assistant director of its National Security Branch, who has been accused of pressuring agents to reclassify cases per the White House’s requests. The FBI claims it only investigates those “who commit or intend to commit violence and criminal activity that constitutes a federal crime or poses a threat to national security” and that it does not target individuals or organizations based on their political beliefs. Last year, the administration previously came under fire for using the resources of the Department of Justice to target angry parents at school board meetings and treat them like domestic terrorists. Merrick Garland authorized the FBI to investigate parents who protested school board meetings alleging a “disturbing trend” of teachers being threatened or harassed. However, PJ Media’s Megan Fox looked into those allegations and concluded that they’re mostly bunk. https://thepoliticalinsider.com/arizona-refuses-to-comply-with-biden-demand-to-remove-makeshift-border-wall/ Arizona Refuses to Comply With Biden Demand to Remove Makeshift Border Wall Arizona’s Department of Emergency and Military Affairs is refusing a demand by the Biden administration to remove the shipping containers they are using to close gaps in the wall at the southern border. A letter written to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and signed by Allen Clark, Director of Arizona’s DEMA, states “the containers will remain in place until specific details regarding construction are provided.” Clark goes on to argue that the residents of Arizona “cannot rely on the federal government to ensure its security.” “The myriad of federal agencies that claim jurisdiction on the southern border but do nothing to prevent the public nuisance caused by illegal immigration and criminal activity that exploits the open border is quite frustrating to those that live, work and recreate on that border and in our state,” he added. The letter comes in response to a demand by the Biden administration to remove the shipping containers that are predominantly being used to seal up gaps in the border wall near Yuma. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation penned its own letter last week claiming Arizona’s shipping containers are trespassing on its lands and those of the Cocopah Indian Tribe’s West Reservation. The Bureau indicates contracts have been awarded to close the gaps in question and they ‘anticipate’ awarding more. As such, they insisted the containers be removed so the project can continue “without unnecessary delay.” Arizona Republican Governor Doug Ducey issued an executive order to seal up gaps in the border wall in August. Meaning the White House had no less than 18 months to get those contracts awarded and pushed out to start construction. The shipping containers stand 22 feet high, are welded together, and feature an additional four feet of razor wiring added to the top. Ducey’s reasoning behind installing the containers includes the Biden administration’s “lack of urgency on border security,” which he labeled a “dereliction of duty.” Armored Republic The Mission of Armored Republic is to Honor Christ by equipping Free Men with Tools of Liberty necessary to preserve God-given rights. In the Armored Republic there is no King but Christ. We are Free Craftsmen. Body Armor is a Tool of Liberty. We create Tools of Liberty. Free men must remain ever vigilant against tyranny wherever it appears. God has given us the tools of liberty needed to defend the rights He bestowed to us. Armored Republic is honored to offer you those Tools. Visit them, at ar500armor.com Now it’s time for my favorite topic… sports! https://www.boundingintosports.com/2022/10/nascar-suspends-bubba-wallace-after-intentionally-wrecking-kyle-larson/ NASCAR Suspends Bubba Wallace After Intentionally Wrecking Kyle Larson NASCAR announced they suspended Bubba Wallace one race for his actions at Las Vegas Motor Speedway where he deliberately retaliated against Kyle Larson on the track. During the South Point 400, Larson had a strong run going into turn 3 and he dove to the inside of both Kevin Harvick and Bubba Wallace. Harvick got out of the gas and let Larson and Wallace race for the position. As they continued into turn four, Larson got loose and began to chase his car up the track inching ever close to Wallace. However, he never made contact with Wallace. Coming off the turn, Wallace slammed into the outside wall hard, bounced off it and down into Larson. Larson dove to the inside of the track to avoid Wallace. Wallace believing Larson had wronged him by chasing his car up the track chased him down the track and ran into his right rear quarter panel sending both cars spinning up the track. Larson would make contact with Christopher Bell before making contact with the wall. Wallace would smash nose first into the outside wall. NASCAR.com reports Wallace violated “Sections 4.3A and 4.4 C & E of the NASCAR Member Code of Conduct laid out in the NASCAR Rule Book. Rule 4.4.C lists “intentionally wrecking or spinning another vehicle, whether or not that vehicle is removed from Competition as a result’ as one of five member actions that could result in a penalty.” As noted above, NASCAR chose to suspend Wallace one race. NASCAR’s Chief Operating Officer Steve O’Donnell appeared on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio to explain the decision. https://twitter.com/i/status/1582488669625077762 - Play Video - 0:00-1:38 https://www.boundingintosports.com/2022/10/nhl-embraces-anti-white-racism-says-they-have-too-many-white-employees-aims-to-change-that/ NHL Embraces Anti-White Racism, Says They Have Too Many White Employees, Aims To Change That The National Hockey League (NHL) released a workforce demographic study as part of a report on “Accelerating Diversity & Inclusion” that claims the organization’s teams are too white and the league plans to make changes to reduce the percentage of white people that work for them. Introducing the report, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman made clear the organization’s goals saying, “Our belief is stronger than ever that hockey has a powerful platform to build character, teach life skills, and support our society and our communities.” As part of one of their initiatives to promote diversity and inclusion, the report notes, “The NHL developed a new, best-in-class Workforce Demographic Study to understand the diversity of full-time League and Club employees and accelerate inclusive hiring.” This Workforce Demographic Study was also highlighted as one of the NHL’s 7 Dimensions, specifically under their Employment section. This section specifically notes the NHL is engaging in racist activities, “Data from the survey will help guide future decision-making about our workforce. In late 2021, the NHL hired a full-time Director of Recruiting who is focused on attracting diverse talent to the organization. Additionally, the League engaged Jopwell with the intent of creating a more diverse and inclusive workplace by expanding our talent pool through Jopwell’s network of Black, Latinx, and Native American professionals.” The report further notes they will be excluding white people from a mentorship program, “Clubs are also taking action: 22 Clubs have launched or are about to launch a mentorship/fellowship/hiring program to develop BIPOC and female talent to work in the organization’s Hockey Operations or front office roles.”

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Friday, October 21st, 2022. Happy Friday everyone… Since it’s Friday, I thought we’d go ahead and kick things off with a “On this day in history!” On this day in history, October 21st: 1918 In order to secure a WWI armistice, Germany agrees to further concessions 1921 Germany and Allies comes to an agreements over reparation payments in a meeting at Wiensbaden 1924 1st Negro League World Series: KC Monarchs shuts out Hilldales, 5-0 1930 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, premieres on NBC radio 1934 MLB All-Star team led by Connie Mack and including Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx and Lou Gehrig sails to Japan for 18-game series against Big-Six University League 1944 US forces under General Douglas MacArthur return to the Philippines with the landing of the US 6th army on Leyte (There’s even a statue of MacArthur and his troops commemorating MacArthur keeping that promise of a u.s. return.) 1954 Leigh, Charlap, Styne, Comden and Green's musical "Peter Pan", starring Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard, opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC; runs for 152 performances 1955 A historic Publication of "The Return of the King", the 3rd and final volume of "The Lord of the Rings" by J. R. R. Tolkien by George Allen and Unwin in London 1963 Jim Brown sets NFL single-season rushing record, 1,863 yds 1973 Queen Elizabeth II opens the Sydney Opera House 2019 1st New York to Sydney non-stop test flight by a commercial airline achieved by a Qantas Boeing 787 Dreamliner, takes 19 hours 42 minutes And that, was on this day in history for October 21st… Accountable2You Is your smartphone a tool in the service of Christ, or a minefield of distractions and temptations? With soul-killing seductions just a few taps away, our families and churches must embrace biblical accountability on our digital devices. Accountable2You makes transparency easy on all your family's devices, by sharing app usage and detailed browsing history—including "Incognito" mode—with your spouse, parent, or chosen accountability partner. Accountable2You helps your family to proactively guard against temptation, so you can live with integrity for God's glory! Learn more and try it for free at Accountable2You.com/FLF https://www.dailywire.com/news/hunter-bidens-laptop-documents-at-least-459-legal-violations-watchdog-group-says Hunter Biden’s Laptop Documents At Least 459 Legal Violations, Watchdog Group Says A year-long exploration of Hunter Biden’s laptop has yielded a 630-page report that its authors say document 459 violations of state and federal laws and regulations by President Joe Biden’s son and his business partners. Marco Polo, a nonprofit formed by a one-time aide to former President Trump to enable a team to take a deep dive into the laptop that the crack-addled Biden left at a Delaware repair store, claims the report is a road map for local, state, or federal prosecutors to pursue charges. The group also sent its report to each member of Congress. The timing of the report’s release, coming two weeks before the midterm elections, has a certain symmetry to the laptop’s initial introduction to the public. In 2020, days before the election, the New York Post published news of the laptop’s existence, as well as bombshells from it, but social media suppressed the story after the FBI had warned companies of so-called misinformation. This time around, the timing is similar, but other factors are reversed. Legacy outlets have acknowledged that the laptop’s files are authentic, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey admitted that censoring the laptop was a mistake, and the social media platform is being sold to free-speech advocate Elon Musk. The report, which reviewed the laptop’s emails, videos, calendar items, photographs, phone records, financial documents and more, but also provided context and explanation, serves as a “Rosetta Stone of white- and blue-collar crime under the patina of ‘the Delaware Way,’” the report says. “We were able to illuminate previously convoluted network webs of the people leading the charge for global governance,” cutting through shell companies and middlemen.” Crimes Hunter Biden allegedly committed include serving as an agent for foreign entities without disclosing it, tax fraud, and falsifying business documents. The alleged crimes also include prostitution, non-consensual pornography, and distribution of narcotics. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/washington-secrets/voters-agree-gop-to-take-house-senate Voters agree: GOP to take House and Senate Weeks of reporting that the Republicans are poised to take control of the House, and maybe the Senate, have sunk with voters who now mostly agree that the November elections should show Democrats the door. In the latest Rasmussen Reports survey, just shared with Secrets, likely voters expect the Republicans to win control of the House. And it’s not even close, with 67% agreeing to 17% who don’t. Even 56% of Democrats expect their party to lose control of the House. As for the Senate, it's closer, with 58% of likely voters believing it’s likely the Republicans will edge out the Democrats. Just 25% don’t agree. Among Democrats, the split is even, 42% agree and 42% don’t. Much of the media have recently raised expectations that the House will turn red by 10-40 seats. There has been some reporting of tightening Senate races that could give the Republicans a 1-2 seat edge after the elections are over on Nov. 8. The survey also quizzed likely voters on if they plan to cast ballots early or on Election Day. Most, by a 53%-44% margin, chose Election Day, though that was mostly a GOP preference as with past elections. https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2022/10/20/former-fbi-official-will-testify-about-white-house-pressure-to-inflate-domestic-extremism-numbers-n1638595 Former FBI Official Will Testify About White House Pressure to Inflate Domestic Extremism Numbers Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee announced on Thursday that they would be calling a former top FBI official to testify before Congress to address claims that the Biden administration pressured agents to label cases as domestic extremism or a white supremacist threat even if they did not meet that criteria in order to match Joe Biden’s rhetoric. Last month, current and former FBI agents came forward claiming the Biden administration has been deliberately exaggerating the danger posed by white supremacists. According to the whistleblowers, high-ranking FBI officials were pressuring field agents to fabricate domestic terrorism cases and label people as white supremacists in order to “meet internal metrics.” “The demand for white supremacy” coming from FBI brass “vastly outstrips the supply of white supremacy,” one agent told the Washington Times. “We have more people assigned to investigate white supremacists than we can actually find.” On December 2, members of the House Judiciary Committee will interview Jill Sanborn, a former assistant director of the FBI Counterterrorism Division and executive assistant director of its National Security Branch, who has been accused of pressuring agents to reclassify cases per the White House’s requests. The FBI claims it only investigates those “who commit or intend to commit violence and criminal activity that constitutes a federal crime or poses a threat to national security” and that it does not target individuals or organizations based on their political beliefs. Last year, the administration previously came under fire for using the resources of the Department of Justice to target angry parents at school board meetings and treat them like domestic terrorists. Merrick Garland authorized the FBI to investigate parents who protested school board meetings alleging a “disturbing trend” of teachers being threatened or harassed. However, PJ Media’s Megan Fox looked into those allegations and concluded that they’re mostly bunk. https://thepoliticalinsider.com/arizona-refuses-to-comply-with-biden-demand-to-remove-makeshift-border-wall/ Arizona Refuses to Comply With Biden Demand to Remove Makeshift Border Wall Arizona’s Department of Emergency and Military Affairs is refusing a demand by the Biden administration to remove the shipping containers they are using to close gaps in the wall at the southern border. A letter written to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and signed by Allen Clark, Director of Arizona’s DEMA, states “the containers will remain in place until specific details regarding construction are provided.” Clark goes on to argue that the residents of Arizona “cannot rely on the federal government to ensure its security.” “The myriad of federal agencies that claim jurisdiction on the southern border but do nothing to prevent the public nuisance caused by illegal immigration and criminal activity that exploits the open border is quite frustrating to those that live, work and recreate on that border and in our state,” he added. The letter comes in response to a demand by the Biden administration to remove the shipping containers that are predominantly being used to seal up gaps in the border wall near Yuma. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation penned its own letter last week claiming Arizona’s shipping containers are trespassing on its lands and those of the Cocopah Indian Tribe’s West Reservation. The Bureau indicates contracts have been awarded to close the gaps in question and they ‘anticipate’ awarding more. As such, they insisted the containers be removed so the project can continue “without unnecessary delay.” Arizona Republican Governor Doug Ducey issued an executive order to seal up gaps in the border wall in August. Meaning the White House had no less than 18 months to get those contracts awarded and pushed out to start construction. The shipping containers stand 22 feet high, are welded together, and feature an additional four feet of razor wiring added to the top. Ducey’s reasoning behind installing the containers includes the Biden administration’s “lack of urgency on border security,” which he labeled a “dereliction of duty.” Armored Republic The Mission of Armored Republic is to Honor Christ by equipping Free Men with Tools of Liberty necessary to preserve God-given rights. In the Armored Republic there is no King but Christ. We are Free Craftsmen. Body Armor is a Tool of Liberty. We create Tools of Liberty. Free men must remain ever vigilant against tyranny wherever it appears. God has given us the tools of liberty needed to defend the rights He bestowed to us. Armored Republic is honored to offer you those Tools. Visit them, at ar500armor.com Now it’s time for my favorite topic… sports! https://www.boundingintosports.com/2022/10/nascar-suspends-bubba-wallace-after-intentionally-wrecking-kyle-larson/ NASCAR Suspends Bubba Wallace After Intentionally Wrecking Kyle Larson NASCAR announced they suspended Bubba Wallace one race for his actions at Las Vegas Motor Speedway where he deliberately retaliated against Kyle Larson on the track. During the South Point 400, Larson had a strong run going into turn 3 and he dove to the inside of both Kevin Harvick and Bubba Wallace. Harvick got out of the gas and let Larson and Wallace race for the position. As they continued into turn four, Larson got loose and began to chase his car up the track inching ever close to Wallace. However, he never made contact with Wallace. Coming off the turn, Wallace slammed into the outside wall hard, bounced off it and down into Larson. Larson dove to the inside of the track to avoid Wallace. Wallace believing Larson had wronged him by chasing his car up the track chased him down the track and ran into his right rear quarter panel sending both cars spinning up the track. Larson would make contact with Christopher Bell before making contact with the wall. Wallace would smash nose first into the outside wall. NASCAR.com reports Wallace violated “Sections 4.3A and 4.4 C & E of the NASCAR Member Code of Conduct laid out in the NASCAR Rule Book. Rule 4.4.C lists “intentionally wrecking or spinning another vehicle, whether or not that vehicle is removed from Competition as a result’ as one of five member actions that could result in a penalty.” As noted above, NASCAR chose to suspend Wallace one race. NASCAR’s Chief Operating Officer Steve O’Donnell appeared on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio to explain the decision. https://twitter.com/i/status/1582488669625077762 - Play Video - 0:00-1:38 https://www.boundingintosports.com/2022/10/nhl-embraces-anti-white-racism-says-they-have-too-many-white-employees-aims-to-change-that/ NHL Embraces Anti-White Racism, Says They Have Too Many White Employees, Aims To Change That The National Hockey League (NHL) released a workforce demographic study as part of a report on “Accelerating Diversity & Inclusion” that claims the organization’s teams are too white and the league plans to make changes to reduce the percentage of white people that work for them. Introducing the report, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman made clear the organization’s goals saying, “Our belief is stronger than ever that hockey has a powerful platform to build character, teach life skills, and support our society and our communities.” As part of one of their initiatives to promote diversity and inclusion, the report notes, “The NHL developed a new, best-in-class Workforce Demographic Study to understand the diversity of full-time League and Club employees and accelerate inclusive hiring.” This Workforce Demographic Study was also highlighted as one of the NHL’s 7 Dimensions, specifically under their Employment section. This section specifically notes the NHL is engaging in racist activities, “Data from the survey will help guide future decision-making about our workforce. In late 2021, the NHL hired a full-time Director of Recruiting who is focused on attracting diverse talent to the organization. Additionally, the League engaged Jopwell with the intent of creating a more diverse and inclusive workplace by expanding our talent pool through Jopwell’s network of Black, Latinx, and Native American professionals.” The report further notes they will be excluding white people from a mentorship program, “Clubs are also taking action: 22 Clubs have launched or are about to launch a mentorship/fellowship/hiring program to develop BIPOC and female talent to work in the organization’s Hockey Operations or front office roles.”

The Supreme Court has rejected an emergency lawsuit to block the Biden administration's student loan forgiveness plan. Building Back Together, a lobbying group that promotes the agenda of Joe Biden will spend six figures on a midterm advertisement campaign highlighting the commander-in-chief's decision to nix student loan debt. An award-winning ABC News investigative reporter who was working on a book about Joe Biden's disastrous pullout from Afghanistan has not been seen in months after his apartment was raided by the FBI reportedly in connection with having classified material on his computer. I was joined by Tony Lyons, the president and publisher of Skyhorse Publishing, to discuss censorship and cancel culture. House Judiciary Committee Republicans sent a letter to Jill Sanborn, a former Assistant Director of the FBI Counterterrorism Division and Executive Assistant Director of the National Security Branch, who the whistleblower accused as one of the top officials exerting pressure on agents, with the intent to have her testify. I was joined by Janet Sanders, a successful retired American businesswoman who moved to Mexico in retirement, to discuss the safety of Americans in Mexico.Skyhorse Publishing:  https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/Beanstox: https://beanstox.com/Honey Fund: https://www.honeyfund.com/Join the Community on Locals: https://tappintothetruth.locals.com/ 

The Supreme Court has rejected an emergency lawsuit to block the Biden administration's student loan forgiveness plan. Building Back Together, a lobbying group that promotes the agenda of Joe Biden will spend six figures on a midterm advertisement campaign highlighting the commander-in-chief's decision to nix student loan debt. An award-winning ABC News investigative reporter who was working on a book about Joe Biden's disastrous pullout from Afghanistan has not been seen in months after his apartment was raided by the FBI reportedly in connection with having classified material on his computer. I was joined by Tony Lyons, the president and publisher of Skyhorse Publishing, to discuss censorship and cancel culture. House Judiciary Committee Republicans sent a letter to Jill Sanborn, a former Assistant Director of the FBI Counterterrorism Division and Executive Assistant Director of the National Security Branch, who the whistleblower accused as one of the top officials exerting pressure on agents, with the intent to have her testify. I was joined by Janet Sanders, a successful retired American businesswoman who moved to Mexico in retirement, to discuss the safety of Americans in Mexico. Skyhorse Publishing:  https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/ Beanstox: https://beanstox.com/ Honey Fund: https://www.honeyfund.com/ Join the Community on Locals: https://tappintothetruth.locals.com/ 

Hour 2 - Happy Wednesday! Here's what Nick Reed covers this hour: FBI agents scoured Melania Trump's wardrobe during the raid at the Trump Mar-a-Lago home. Trump's lawyers were forbidden by the feds to shelter inside the cool lobby, or to observe the search in any way, but were left outside in the baking sun near a parking lot. The feds instructed Trump's representatives to switch off the security cameras but they refused. Nick plays audio from Trump's lawyer, Christina Bobb. Former CIA official Philip Mudd downplayed FBI agents finding classified documents in former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida during a raid on Monday. "It's common for government officials to bring classified documents home with them accidentally because files are often “overclassified,” Mudd, a former deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center and the FBI's National Security Branch, said during a CNN appearance on Tuesday.

Greg Bretzing grew up with the goal of working for the FBI, just like his Father. After serving a mission in Spain, he studied accounting at BYU, where he met his wife. He began his career as an FBI special agent in 1995 and reported to the Phoenix Field Office, where he investigated drug, corruption, and violent crime matters. He was the case agent of a large, multi-national organized crime and corruption case and received the Office of National Drug Control Policy National Task Force Investigation of the Year award, as well as the Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator's Award. In September 2000, Greg was promoted to supervisory special agent in the Criminal Investigative Division's Money Laundering Unit at FBI Headquarters. Following the September 11 attacks, he was instrumental in tracing funds used by the hijackers to carry out the attack. Greg was promoted in August 2002 to unit chief in the Terrorist Financing Operations Section. He was recognized for his work by the CIA and received the National Intelligence Certificate of Distinction for his contributions to the FBI's counterterrorism efforts. In January 2004, he transferred to the Salt Lake City Field Office, where he managed the Joint Terrorism Task Force. He was promoted to assistant special agent in charge in September 2007 and led the office's Criminal Branch. In August 2009, he was assigned as the FBI on-scene commander in Afghanistan, where he served for four months. In December 2009, Greg returned to Salt Lake City as the assistant special agent in charge and assumed responsibility for Salt Lake City's National Security Branch in July 2010. He was appointed as an inspector in August 2012. He was then selected to serve as special agent in charge of the FBI's Portland Division. There he was in charge of multiple high profile cases including the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Takeover. Greg is a true patriot, devoted husband, and proud father. His stories from the field are fascinating and give a rare glimpse into the life of a FBI agent.

The Biden administration's Department of Justice announced it would establish a specialized unit dedicated to domestic terrorism. Jill Sanborn, FBI Executive Assistant Director, National Security Branch, refused to answer on Tuesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing whether FBI agents or confidential informants actively participated in the events of January 6, 2021, and whether they committed any crimes of violence or actively encouraged crimes of violence. One of the nation's most widely circulated newspapers – USA Today - ran an article that presented pedophilia as “among the most misunderstood” conditions in American society, diminishing pedophilia as “inappropriate,” while it promoted “destigmatizing the attraction.” The Left wants you to believe it is racist to ask for photo identification to vote, but not discriminatory to ask for photo ID in order to enter restaurants, bars, movie theaters, or gyms in the name of COVID-19 safety. My Patriot Supply: https://mypatriotsupply.com/?rfsn=4146636.103ca0 Fine Tuxedos: https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=643568&u=2425692&m=30842&urllink=&afftrack= 

The Biden administration's Department of Justice announced it would establish a specialized unit dedicated to domestic terrorism. Jill Sanborn, FBI Executive Assistant Director, National Security Branch, refused to answer on Tuesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing whether FBI agents or confidential informants actively participated in the events of January 6, 2021, and whether they committed any crimes of violence or actively encouraged crimes of violence. One of the nation's most widely circulated newspapers – USA Today - ran an article that presented pedophilia as “among the most misunderstood” conditions in American society, diminishing pedophilia as “inappropriate,” while it promoted “destigmatizing the attraction.” The Left wants you to believe it is racist to ask for photo identification to vote, but not discriminatory to ask for photo ID in order to enter restaurants, bars, movie theaters, or gyms in the name of COVID-19 safety.  My Patriot Supply: https://mypatriotsupply.com/?rfsn=4146636.103ca0  Fine Tuxedos: https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=643568&u=2425692&m=30842&urllink=&afftrack= 

Two exchanges yesterday between United States Senators and representatives from powerful federal agencies highlight succinctly the distrust many Americans feel toward their government, especially over the past two years. First, Senator Ted Cruz from Texas questioned Jill Sanborn, Executive Assistant Director for the National Security Branch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Asked repeatedly whether plainclothes FBI agents in any way participated in instigating what happened at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021. And just as repeatedly, the FBI declined to answer whether in the negative or the affirmative. Second, Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky grilled Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on leaked emails exposing collusion on his part with efforts to discredit epidemiologists at Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford who had questioned or contradicted the official narrative regarding the government's characterization of and response to COVID. And just as adamantly, Dr. Fauci tried to flip the script on Rand Paul by making the whole business into a kind of dueling argumentum ad hominem game. "I know you are but what am I" hardly inspires confidence in 'The Science.' So also, "I can't answer that question" repeatedly from the pre-eminent national law enforcement agency with regards to the active role that agency may have played in an alleged instance of domestic terrorism for partisan political purposes cannot engender anything other than fear and distrust in the Department of Justice. But both of these exchanges really get to the crux of the problem with our government. When direct, specific, substantive, important, and relevant questions are asked by Senate committee members tasked with providing oversight of unelected government officials and their respective bureaucracies, the public and our elected representatives have a right to clear-cut answers which are simple, concise, and sensible. Script-flipping and unresponsiveness will not do. The "conspiracy theorists" can be forgiven then for having said for some time that something is rotten in the state of Denmark. And this really does get to the problem with supposing that anyone but God is basically good. If people were inherently good and could be relied upon to act in accordance with justice and science, what need would we have for these agencies in the first place? The darker and more unsettling answer is the one which those who are quick to dismiss all uncomfortable questions have chiefly in mind when they wave off attempts at connecting dots and calling spades by their names. Sometimes the greatest threat to justice and good science comes from those who are chiefly tasked with guaranteeing those things. Sometimes indeed the fox is assigned guard duty at the hen house. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/garrett-ashley-mullet/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/garrett-ashley-mullet/support

On Tuesday, January 11th, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the threat of domestic terrorism facing our nation, one year after the attack on the U.S. Capitol. The hearing included testimonies from Matthew Olsen, Assistant Attorney General in the National Security Division of the Department of Justice and Jill Sanborn, Executive Assistant Director of the National Security Branch of the FBI. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Change is taking place today as ordinary people talk to one another, questioning their legislator’s actions. Producer Steve brings to light three significant events that took place yesterday: 1) Rand Paul’s commanding dialogue with Fauci in a committee hearing, 2) Biden’s disastrous speech in Georgia, and 3) Ted Cruz’s specific questions in regards to January 6, 2021, of Jill Sanborn, Executive Assistant Director for the FBI’s National Security Branch, receiving the same mundane response, “Sir, I cannot answer that.” This includes, “Who is Ray Epps?” As we search for truth and clarity, the truth will eventually be revealed. Dr.James Lyons-Weiler talks with Kim and Dr. Vecchio on current COVID-19 falsehoods. Dr. Lyons-Weiler is the founder of the Institute for Pure and Applied Knowledge and author at Popular Rationalism. Dr. Jack begins the discussion detailing his interaction with a pediatrician’s testing for COVID-19 and why Dr. Jack recommended stopping testing, especially since 91% of the test results are false positives. Dr. Jill and Dr. Jack go into detail regarding the cycle threshold. There are four problems with the testing narrative: It makes the epidemic seem worse than it is. Many think they have had COVID-19 who do not. It manipulates how omicron is perceived. Makes many feel a person can get COVID-19 twice. Dr. Jack believes that we may have reached herd immunity, and if not, we are very close. There is lousy testing and gross misrepresentation regarding COVID-19 and the current variation, omicron. Dr. Jack advocates treating patients before s/he reach the point of needed hospitalization. He recommends Dr. David Brownstein’s baseline protocol adding that quercetin and zinc are two essential vitamins in defense of COVID-19; Dr. Jack’s study can be found here. However, the CDC and WHO want hospitalizations so that they can push their vaccinations, another public policy issue where we must “follow the money.” At the current rate, children will see 192 boosters in their lifetime if big PHARMA, CDC, and Fauci get their way. Kim, Dr. Jack, and Dr. Jill end with a detailed discussion on ADE, Antibody-dependent Enhancement. Lorne Levy, a sponsor of both of Kim’s shows and mortgage specialist with Polygon Financial, 303-880-8881, reports that interest rates have increased slightly and are now just above 3%. This was an expected increase based on previous

Doc clarifies the issues around threats toward school officials, discusses the National School Board Association's (NSBA) under-informed hyperbolic letter to president Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland's knee jerk memo directing the FBI to figure out strategies to address school threats within the next 30 days, reactions from state-level school board associations, and how your local school district board of education might implement changes including recording audiences attending board of education (BOE) meetings. Doc matches solutions to these issues and also refreshes our minds to how similar matters have been effectively addressed in the past, including FDR's 1930s letter writing campaign. NSBA LETTER TO BIDEN REGARD THREATS TO SCHOOLS. On September 29, 2021, the NSBA, an advocacy group, sent a letter to President Biden with the heading: Federal Assistance to Stop Threats and Acts of Violence Against Public Schoolchildren, Public School Board Members, and Other Public School District Officials and Educators. In the letter, NSBA rolled off this 97-word sentence in which it put some parents in the arena with domestic terrorists: “As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes. As such, NSBA requests a joint expedited review by the U.S. Departments of Justice, Education, and Homeland Security, along with the appropriate training, coordination, investigations, and enforcement mechanisms from the FBI, including any technical assistance necessary from, and state and local coordination with, its National Security Branch and Counterterrorism Division, as well as any other federal agency with relevant jurisdictional authority and oversight.” AG GARLAND MEMO TO FBI. On October 4, 2021, US Attorney General Merrick Garland send a memorandum to the Director of Federal Bureau of Investigation directing the FBI to convene meetings with federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial leaders in each federal judicial district within 30 days in order to facilitate strategies for addressing threats against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff, and will open dedicated lines of communication for threat reporting, assessment, and response. STATE SCHOOL BOARD CHAPTERS NOT ON BOARD. The organization Parents Defending Education is curating a running tally of state school boards that have withdrawn from NSBA over the Biden letter (18 state school board associations have bailed from NSBA) as well as state school board associations answers to the following three questions: (1) As the [state association] has not yet commented on the National School Board Association's September 29 letter to President Biden that requested federal intervention in local school board issues – which likened civic participation to “domestic terrorism and hate crimes” and cited the Patriot Act – Parents Defending Education (PDE) would like to know whether your organization was involved in the creation of this letter and whether you agree with its substance and tone. If not, have you contacted the NSBA to let them know? (2) Can you please tell us how, going forward, your organization defines “intimidation,” harassment,” and “threat”? (3) Finally, do you plan to report individuals in your state to the U.S. Department of Justice – or do you believe that concerns can be adequately managed by local and state law enforcement? STATE RESPONSES BURN NSBA. It's apparent that state's are displeased with NSBA and the Garland Memo. Here's the Delaware School Board Association response to PDE's questions: “The DSBA has seen school board meeting protests, some of which have become quite impassioned, however we have received NO reports of violence or threats of violence toward school staff or school board members.  The DSBA does NOT condone violence or threats of violence toward students, staff or board members.  After consultation with the Governor's office, the Public Health Department and the Delaware Department of Education the DSBA developed and issued guidance to school board presidents regarding how to best handle school board meeting protests, which included the ultimate use of LOCAL law enforcement if absolutely necessary.  This guidance was issued prior to the NSBA September 29 2021 letter.  The NSBA letter to President Biden was unnecessary and quite frankly not helpful.” ARE THERE OTHER OPTIONS? Doc believes threats of violence toward school officials is happening, but over-stated by NSBA and Garland. Also, the National Threat Assessment Center has been effective in mitigating school threats for 20 years. Reviewing school board meeting video footage is at the bottom of the FBI's prioritization list. FDR ASKED FOR LETTERS. When FDR was president, the country was hammered by the Great Depression and fears of war. In his fireside chats, he asked listeners to write letters to him describing their plights. More than 8,000 letters a day arrived at the White House - many accusatory and fiery. Doc described why this approach worked, and how it might be one of the strategies considered to make people feel that they are being heard. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show seeks to bring forward productive discourse on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 155 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 10-20-2021. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com.

Now the democrats are mad at the FBI as the country unifies in anger against the Intelligence Agency. News in the Jacob Chansley (Q-Anon Shaman) case shows he may be considering a plea deal and we review the government's latest discovery filings. Mississippi Attorney General files a brief with the Supreme Court of the United States fighting to uphold a state abortion restriction.​And more! Join criminal defense lawyer Robert F. Gruler in a discussion on the latest legal, criminal and political news, including:​

This episode features two interviews. The first focuses on extremism, law enforcement and social media monitoring, and the second on what news that an AI voice clone was used to generate segments of a new Anthony Bourdain documentary tells us about the future of synthetic media.  The January 6 insurrection was preceded by weeks of online promotion and planning- including from former President Donald Trump, who told his supporters the event would be wild. What should the FBI have known in advance, and how does social media monitoring play out in the FBI in practice?  First, to get an expert opinion on these issues and what they mean for the effort to curb domestic extremism, I spoke to Clint Watts, a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and Non-Resident Fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy. He is also a national security contributor for NBC News and MSNBC, and author of the book Messing With The Enemy: Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians and Fake News. Previously, Clint served as a U.S. Army infantry officer, a FBI Special Agent, as the Executive Officer of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point , as a consultant to the FBI's Counter Terrorism Division and National Security Branch, and as an analyst supporting the U.S. Intelligence Community and U.S. Special Operations Command. Second, to contemplate the future of synthetic media and the safeguards that need to be in place in a world of voice clones and deep fakes we speak with Sam Gregory, Program Director of WITNESS, a nonprofit that helps people use video and technology to protect human rights. Sam is an expert on synthetic media and ethics, and recently wrote a piece in Wired arguing the world needs more such experts to address the looming problems posed by these new technologies, which offer enormous creative potential along with frightening epistemic implications.

Albany Law School's Online Graduate Programs and Global Cybersecurity Solutions hosts a panel discussion and Q&A session with guests from the Albany Division of the FBI. Moderated by Deborah A. Snyder, New York State's Chief Information Security Officer (Retired). Panelists include: Philip Hale, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, National Security Branch; Samantha Baltzersen, Supervisory Special Agent, Cyber Task Force; and Roderick Link, Computer Scientist, Cyber Task Force. More about the Online Graduate Programs: https://graduate.albanylaw.edu/online-graduate-programs

In this episode of FBI Retired Case File Review, retired agent Frank Figliuzzi reviews the Bureau’s National Security Branch, its role in the U.S. intelligence community, and “The Seven C’s” of the FBI’s core values from his book, The FBI Way: Inside the Bureau’s Code of Excellence. Frank Figliuzzi served 25 years in the FBI and held senior FBI leadership positions in major American cities throughout the country. He headed an FBI internal disciplinary unit in the Office of Professional Responsibility and was the FBI’s Chief Inspector, overseeing sensitive internal inquiries, shooting reviews, and performance audits. Before his retirement, he served as the Assistant Director for Counterintelligence, directing all espionage investigations across the U.S. government.  Check out episode show notes, photos, and related articles. https://jerriwilliams.com/episode-228-frank-figliuzzi-national-security-the-fbi-way/  Join my Reader Team to get the FBI Reading Resource - Books about the FBI, written by FBI agents, the 20 clichés about the FBI Reality Checklist, and keep up to date on the FBI in books, TV, and movies via my monthly email. Join here. http://eepurl.com/dzCCmL  Jerri Williams, a retired FBI agent, author and podcaster, attempts to relive her glory days by writing and blogging about the FBI and hosting FBI Retired Case File Review, a true crime/history podcast. Visit her website to check out her books, available as audiobooks, ebooks and paperbacks wherever books are sold. https://jerriwilliams.com/books/

Philip Mudd, the ex-deputy director of the CIA's Counterterrorist Center and FBI's National Security Branch, appears regularly on Fox News, CNN, and NPR. He is the current director of enterprise risk at SouthernSun asset management in Memphis, Tennessee.Black Site: The CIA in the Post-9/11 World is a bold account of one of the most controversial and haunting initiatives in American history, Black Site tells the full story of the post-9/11 counterterrorism world at the CIA.When the towers fell on September 11, 2001, nowhere were the reverberations more powerfully felt than at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Almost overnight, the intelligence organization evolved into a warfighting intelligence service, constructing what was known internally as “the Program”: a web of top-secret detention facilities intended to help prevent future attacks on American soil and around the world. With Black Site, former deputy director of the CIA Counterterrorist Center Philip Mudd presents a full, never-before-told story of this now-controversial program, directly addressing how far America went to pursue al-Qa'ida and prevent another catastrophe.Heated debates about torture were later ignited in 2014 after the US Senate published a report of the Program, detailing the CIA's use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” to draw information from detainees. The report, Mudd posits, did not fully address key questions: How did the officials actually come to their decisions? What happened at the detention facilities―known as “Black Sites”―on a day-to-day basis? What did they look like? How were prisoners transported there? And how did the officers feel about what they were doing?Black Site seeks answers to these questions and more, first by examining pre-9/11 Langley, when the CIA was tasked with collecting, disseminating, and analyzing information related to overseas events. Mudd argues that September 12, 2001, marked an operational revolution, as officials suddenly felt the weight of protecting a nation from a second wave of attacks inside the United States. Re-creating the incredibly tense atmosphere of the time, Mudd reveals that many officials felt an unshakable personal responsibility to thwart another attack.Based on interviews from dozens of officials―many of whom have never spoken out before― Black Site illuminates how the Agency quickly stepped into the process of organizing a full-blown interrogation program. Mudd offers a deeper understanding of how the enhanced interrogation techniques were developed and how intelligence professionals prepared to talk to the world's most hardened terrorists. With careful detail, he takes us through the process of each legally approved technique, including waterboarding.As compelling as it is revelatory, Black Site shows us the tragedy and triumph of the CIA during its most difficult days.

Philip Mudd, the author of Takedown, a detailed account of intelligence gathering in the hunt for al-Qa'ida, is the ex–deputy director of the CIA's Counterterrorist Center and the FBI's National Security Branch. His writing has appeared in Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, and the Washington Post. Mudd's Black Site (Liveright) is an account of one of the most controversial initiatives in American history. After September 11, 2001, almost overnight, the CIA evolved into a warfighting intelligence service. In Black Site Mudd addresses how far America actually went to pursue al-Qa'ida and prevent another catastrophe. One tool was an interrogation program of suspected al-Qaida members and other terrorists, known internally as “The Program.” Because the methods might have been questionable by American legal, ethical and moral standards, the work was often done in a web of top-secret “black sites” in other countries outsourced to intelligence agents of other governments. Debates about torture ignited in 2014 after the US Senate published a report of the Program. But the report, Mudd argues, did not fully address questions such as: How did the officials actually come to their decisions? What happened at the detention facilities on a day-to-day basis? And how did the officers feel about what they were doing? Based on interviews from dozens of officials―many of whom have never spoken out before― Black Site seeks answers to these questions and more. It shows the tragedy and triumph of the CIA during its most difficult days. Kirkus Review called Black Site “a revealing and engaging account of life in the shadows.”

After a whistleblower exposes Trump's corrupt call with the president of Ukraine, Nancy Pelosi moves forward with an impeachment inquiry, and all hell breaks loose. Michael and Phil Mudd break it all down. Phillip Mudd is the ex–deputy director of the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center and the FBI’s National Security Branch, appears regularly as a CNN commentator, and he lectures around the world on national security methodologies for understanding difficult analytic problems. He is also the author of BLACK SITE: The CIA in the Post-9/11 World

Philip Mudd worked for the CIA for 20 years and the FBI for five. His last position a the CIA was a deputy director of the Counter Terrorism Center, in 2005 then FBI Director Robert Mueller appointed him the deputy director of the newly-established National Security Branch. He left government service in 2010, started a consulting company, began speaking in the media on security issues, and has written three books, Takedown: Inside the Search for Al Qaeda, The HEAD Game: High-Efficiency Analytic Decision Making and the Art of Solving Complex Problems Quickly, and today we will be talking about his latest, Black Site: The CIA in the Post-9/11 World, which is published by Liveright.

The Stuph File Program Featuring CNN Counterterrorism Analyst, Philip Mudd, author of Black Site: The CIA in the Post-9/11 World; & science fiction writer, Cadwell Turner, author of The Lesson Download Philip Mudd, former deputy director of the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center and FBI’s National Security Branch. He’s also a CNN analyst and the author of Black Site: The CIA in the Post-9/11 World. Science fiction writer Cadwell Turnbull, whose first book is called The Lesson, which deals with a race of super advanced killer aliens on a research mission in the US Virgin Islands.  This week’s opening slate is presented by podcaster Robbie Robertson, host of Out Of The Blank, which I was recently a guest on.

Clint Watts: The World of Advanced Persistent Manipulators     This $#!%’s chess! It ain’t checkers  -- Detective Alonzo Harris; 2001, Training Day     Want to have some fun with some numbers? As of May 2019, the total worldwide population identifying as human is 7.7 billion. Among those people, 4.4 billion of them use the internet. Not quite everyone is sharing their lives, but there are 3.499 billion active social media users.   Are they all real people? That’s a valid question… There are an estimated 270 million fake Facebook profiles. Oh… and… in 2018 Twitter deleted 70 Million accounts they determined were fake. So there’s that.   Clint Watts studies terrorists, terrorism, social media, external forces meddling with elections and a lot of other Orwellian things. Since publishing Messing with the Enemy: Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians, and Fake News last summer, he has looked deeper into other types of election hacking including Deepfakes. You may have seen his June testimony in front of the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on C-Span… if you’re a C-Span type of person.   In this week’s episode of InSecurity, Matt Stephenson welcomes Clint Watts back to InSecurity. This week, we dig into Advanced Persistent Manipulators. Like their technology cousin Advanced Persistent Threats, APMs are hard to quantify, harder to understand and ever more difficult to stop. With governments all over the world in a state of perpetual campaign mode and candidates running their own Troll farms, do we even know what to prepare for? Tune in and find out!   About Clint Watts Clint Watts (@selectedwisdom) is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, Non-Resident Fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy. His book best-selling Messing with the Enemy: Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians, and Fake News shined a light on what has, is and could happen with regard to social media manipulation and the ways foreign interests can hack the electoral process. It was recently released in paperback.   Clint is also a national security contributor for NBC News and MSNBC. His research and writing focuses on terrorism, counterterrorism, social media influence and Russian disinformation. Clint’s tracking of terrorist foreign fighters allowed him to predict the rise of the Islamic State over al Qaeda in 2014. From 2014 – 2016, he worked with Andrew Weisburd and J.M. Berger to track and model the rise of Russian influence operations via social media leading up to the U.S. Presidential election of 2016. This research led Clint to testify before four different Senate committees in 2017and 2018regarding Russia’s information warfare campaign against the U.S. and the West.   Before becoming a consultant, Clint served as a U.S. Army infantry officer, a FBI Special Agent, as the Executive Officer of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, as a consultant to the FBI’s Counter Terrorism Division and National Security Branch, and as an analyst supporting the U.S. Intelligence Community and U.S. Special Operations Command.   His supporters think he’s had an interesting career, his enemies think he can’t hold down a job… both would be correct.   Messing with the Enemy: Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians, and Fake News A former FBI Special Agent and leading cyber-security expert offers a devastating and essential look at the misinformation campaigns, fake news, and electronic espionage operations that have become the cutting edge of modern warfare—and how we can protect ourselves and our country against them. Clint Watts electrified the nation when he testified in front of the House Intelligence Committee regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election. In Messing with the Enemy, the cyber and homeland security expert introduces us to a frightening world in which terrorists and cyber criminals don’t hack your computer, they hack your mind. Watts reveals how these malefactors use your information and that of your friends and family to work for them through social media, which they use to map your social networks, scour your world affiliations, and master your fears and preferences. Thanks to the schemes engineered by social media manipulators using you and your information, business executives have coughed up millions in fraudulent wire transfers, seemingly good kids have joined the Islamic State, and staunch anti-communist Reagan Republicans have cheered the Russian government’s hacking of a Democratic presidential candidate’s e-mails. Watts knows how they do it because he’s mirrored their methods to understand their intentions, combat their actions, and coopt their efforts. Watts examines a particular social media platform—from Twitter to internet Forums to Facebook to LinkedIn—and a specific bad actor—from al Qaeda to the Islamic State to the Russian and Syrian governments—to illuminate exactly how social media tracking is used for nefarious purposes. He explains how he’s learned, through his successes and his failures, to engage with hackers, terrorists, and even the Russians—and how these interactions have generated methods of fighting back. Shocking, funny, and eye-opening, Messing with the Enemy is a deeply urgent guide for living safe and smart in a super-connected world.   About Matt Stephenson Insecurity Podcast host Matt Stephenson (@packmatt73) leads the Security Technology team at Cylance, which puts him in front of crowds, cameras, and microphones all over the world. He is the regular host of the InSecurity podcast and host of CylanceTV   Twenty years of work with the world’s largest security, storage, and recovery companies has introduced Matt to some of the most fascinating people in the industry. He wants to get those stories told so that others can learn from what has come   Every week on the InSecurity Podcast, Matt interviews leading authorities in the security industry to gain an expert perspective on topics including risk management, security control friction, compliance issues, and building a culture of security. Each episode provides relevant insights for security practitioners and business leaders working to improve their organization’s security posture and bottom line.   Can’t get enough of Insecurity? You can find us at ThreatVector InSecurity Podcasts, iTunes/Apple Podcasts and GooglePlayas well as Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, I Heart Radio and wherever you get your podcasts!   Make sure you Subscribe, Rate and Review!  

Special Agent in Charge Perrye K. Turner manages the FBI’s Houston Division.  Mr. Turner became a special agent with the FBI in 1991 and was assigned to the Birmingham Division, where he worked criminal investigative matters in the Huntsville Resident Agency. Four years later, he transferred to the New Orleans Division and investigated gang, drug, and public corruption matters in the Monroe Resident Agency. In 1999, Mr. Turner was promoted to supervisory special agent in the Criminal Investigation Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. While there, he worked in the Mexican/Criminal Syndicates Unit of the Drug Section. Mr. Turner transferred to the Jackson Division in 2001 to supervise the Criminal Enterprise Squad. In August 2004, he worked in the division’s Field Intelligence Group. A year later, he was promoted to assistant special agent in charge in the Memphis Division and managed the Criminal and Administrative Programs for three years and all programs in the National Security Branch for two years. In August 2010, Mr. Turner returned to FBI Headquarters as deputy assistant director of the Information Technology Engineering Division. He also served as special agent in charge of the Louisville Division. Mr. Turner earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and statistics from Louisiana Tech University and a Master of Business Administration from Belhaven University. In this episode we discuss: Making the pivot from a career in insurance to working with the FBI for 27 years. The methods the FBI uses to manage community outreach and social media. Properly leveraging data and technology to keep up with cyber threats to protect citizens. For more information visit https://www.cstem.org. Contact: Donate to CSTEM CSTEM.org Annual Report

McCabe started working at the FBI in 1996 and served in many capacities, from street agent on the Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force to leading the Counterterrorism Division, the National Security Branch, and the Washington Field Office as well as serving as the first director of the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group. Yet that estimable career came to a sudden end when Trump fired McCabe on March 16, 2018. In this book McCabe refutes Trump’s assertion that the firing was “A great day for Democracy.” In fact, as McCabe shows, Trump’s action was just the opposite. Giving a detailed insider’s view of the FBI, McCabe charts the Bureau’s last twenty years, during which time its most important task became protecting the country from terrorists—though now perhaps the major threat to Constitutional rights is the Trump administration itself.https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781250207579Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Internet plays an essential role in our modern society and yet the way the Internet will be governed is still unclear. In anticipation of an impending Federal Communications Commission vote to reverse the so called “net neutrality” regulation implemented during the Obama administration, we look at the law which the FCC is trying to enforce. We also examine our current lawmaker’s plans for Internet governance by listening to highlights of three hearings featuring testimony from lawyers from Facebook, Twitter, and Google. Please Support Congressional Dish Click here to contribute using credit card, debit card, PayPal, or Bitcoin Click here to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Mail Contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North #4576 Crestview, FL 32536 Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Bills H.R. 3989: Amend Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 S. 652 (104th): Telecommunications Acto of 1996 Additional Reading Article: House foreign surveillance turf war heats up as law sunset nears by Daniel R. Stoller, Bloomberg, December 1, 2017. Article: Colorado warns families to be prepared in case congress doesn't come through on CHIP funding by Kimberly Leonard, Washington Examiner, November 27, 2017 Article: Congress confronts jam-packed December with shutdown deadline looming by Mike Debonis and Ed O'Keefe, The Washington Post, November 26, 2017 Article: States prepare to shut down children's health programs if congress doesn't act by Colby Itkowitz and Sandhya Somashekhar, The Washington Post, November 23, 2017. Article: Here's how the end of net neutrality will change the internet by Klint Finley, Wired, November 22, 2017. Article: What is net neutrality? by Aaron Byrd and Natalia V. Osipova, NY Times, November 21, 2017. Article: Will the Telecommunications Act get a much-needed update as it turns 21? by Richard Adler, Recode, February 8, 2017. Article: Cable tv price increases have beaten inflation every single year for 20 years by Nathan McAlone, Business Insider, October 31, 2016 Article: 20 years after the Telecommunications Act of 1996, rekindling Congress's political will by Stuart N. Brotman, The Hill, February 8, 2016. Article: The city that was saved by the internet by Jason Koebler, Motherboard, October 27, 2016. Article: This was 1995: A pop culture snapshot by Patricia Garcia, Vogue, September 1, 2015. Article: Why your internet prices are bound to go up by Brian Fung, Washington Post, July 23, 2015. Report: In a nutshell: Net neutrality, CBS News, March 1, 2015. Report: AT&T buys DirectTV for $48.5 billion by Roger Yu, USA Today, May 18,2014. Article: Federal appeals court strikes down net neutrality rules by Brian Fung, Washington Post, January 14, 2014. Article: Legal gymnastics ensue in oral arguments for Verizon vs. FCC by Jennifer Yeh, Freepress, September 10, 2013. Report: Comcast completes NBC Universal merger, Reuters, January 29, 2011. References Bill Resources: H.R.1555 Communications Act of 1995 Bill Roll Call: H.R. 3989 Vote Roll Call FCC Resources: Telecommunications Act of 1996 Mission Statement: AIPAC - America's Pro-Israel Lobby Network Map: Community Networks Publication: Public Law 104 Telecommunications Act of 1996 Publication: The USA Liberty Act Report: Akamai's State of the Internet 2017 Report: FCC Fact Sheet Support Page: AT&T HBO Channels Visual References Cable Prices vs. Inflation, 1995-2015 Sound Clip Sources Senate Select Intelligence Committee: Facebook, Google and Twitter Executives on Russian Election Interference; November 1, 2017 (Senate Social Media) Witnesses: Colin Stretch - Facebook Vice President & General Counsel Sean Edgett - Twitter Acting General Counsel 1:49:24 Sen. Roy Blunt (MO): Mr. Stretch, how much money did the Russians spend on ads that we now look back as either disruptive or politically intended? It was at $100,000. Is that— Colin Stretch: It was approximately $100,000. Blunt: I meant from your company. Stretch: Yes, approximately $100,000. Blunt: How much of that did they pay before the election? Stretch: The— Blunt: I’ve seen the— Stretch: Yeah. Blunt: —number 44,000. Blunt: Is that right? Stretch: So— Blunt: 56 after, 44 before. Stretch: The ad impressions ran 46% before the election, the remainder after the election. Blunt: 46%. Well, if I had a consultant that was trying to impact an election and spent only 46% of the money before Election Day, I’d be pretty upset about that, I think. So, they spent $46,000. How much did the Clinton and Trump campaigns spend on Facebook? I assume before the election. Stretch: Yeah. Before the elec— Blunt: They were better organized than the other group. Stretch: Approximate—combined approximately $81 million. Blunt: 81 million, and before the election. Stretch: Yes. Blunt: So, 81 million. I’m not a great mathematician, but 46,000, 81 million, would that be, like, five one-thousandths of one percent? It’s something like that. Stretch: It’s a small number by comparison, sir. 2:19:55 Sen. Tom Cotton (AR): Do you see an equivalency between the Central Intelligence Agency and the Russian Intelligence Services? Sean Edgett: We’re not offering our service for surveillance to any government. Cotton: So you will apply the same policy to our Intelligence Community that you apply to an adversary’s intelligence services. Edgett: As a global company, we have to apply our policies consistently. Cotton: This reminds me of the old line from the Cold War, of one who did not see a distinction between the CIA and the KGB on the other hand, because the KGB officer pushed an old lady in front of an oncoming bus, and the CIA officer pushed the old lady out from the path of the oncoming bus, because they both go around pushing old ladies. I hope that Twitter will reconsider its policies when it’s dealing with friendly intelligence services in countries like the United States and the U.K. as opposed to adversarial countries like Russia and China. House Select Intelligence Committee: Facebook, Google and Twitter Executives on Russian Election Interference; November 1, 2017 (House Social Media) Witnesses: Kent Walker - Google Senior Vice President & General Counsel Colin Stretch - Facebook Vice President & General Counsel Sean Edgett - Twitter Acting General Counsel 39:05 Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ): Social-media platforms have the responsibility of striking a balance between removing false information and preserving freedom of speech. Can you give us some brief detail of how each of your companies plan to target perceived false news while protecting the robust political discourse? Kent Walker: Let me take that because that was the sort of next stage to my answer to Mr. Shift’s question. We are taking a number of different steps beyond advertising to focus on fake news. We are working to improve our algorithms, to provide additional guidance and training to the Raiders who provide quality feedback for us, and to look at a wider variety of signals to improve the ranking of authentic and genuine news on our sites and to demote sites that we feel are deceptive or misleading. We are also making broader use of fact-check labels, working with third parties, for both Google Search and Google News. And when it comes to advertising, we’ve taken steps to disallow advertising on sites that misrepresent their nature or purpose, and to add to our policies around or against hate speech, incitement of violence, and the like. Colin Stretch: I would group our efforts with respect to false news into three buckets. First, we find that most false news is financially motivated, and we’re making efforts to disrupt the financial incentives. That, we think, will make a big dent in it. Second, we’re looking to stop the spread of it. So when we have information that’s been disputed by independent fact-checkers, we limit the distribution and we alert users who are attempting to share it that it has been disputed. And third, we’re engaged in a number of user-education efforts to help, particularly around the world, users approach some of the content they see with a more discerning eye. Sean Edgett: We’re tackling this challenge in a few ways, and I think the way this was characterized is correct: it’s a balance between free speech and what’s real and what’s false. And we often see there’s a lot of activity on the platform to correct false narratives, and one of those things, for example, is the text-to-vote tweets that we turned over to you, which we took off our platform as illegal voter suppression. The number of tweets that were counteracting that as false and telling people not to believe that was, like, between eight and 10 times what we saw on the actual tweets. But we’re working on the behavior. That’s where we’re focused right now. We’ve had great strides in focusing on that for things like terrorism and child sexual exploitation. We’re trying to figure out how we can use those learnings to stop the amplification of false news or misinformation, and think we’re making great strides there, but it’s a definite balance. We also have work we’ve done, just like my peers, around ads transparency that, I think, is going to help educate the consumer about who’s paying for an ad, what else they’re running, what they’re targeting, what they’re after—especially around electioneering ads, who’s paying for it, how much they’re spending. We are also working with third parties. We have a Trust and Safety council of experts, academics, around the world who are helping us think through the things that we’re trying to employ to tackle these issues and how they will impact the debate and free speech on our platform. So we’re working hard on this, but it’s a challenge. 59:39 Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL): I submit to you that your efforts have to be more than just about finding malicious and deceptive activity, that you have a responsibility—all of you have a responsibility—to make sure that we are not adding to the problem by not being as rigorous and as aggressive as we can in terms of vetting the content and in terms of making sure that we are being really dynamic in doing that. And I also want to just say that I think it’s ridiculous that a foreign entity can buy a political ad with rubles but can’t give a political contribution to me—a Russian person can’t give me a political contribution. There seems to be some legislation that needs to be had here, is all I’m saying. 1:16:05 Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL): Let’s look at unpaid content for a second. Sometimes these fake accounts are pulled down, but the fake story takes the false claims of widespread voter fraud, for example, generated by these accounts have spread thousands of thousands of times, often picked up by legitimate news accounts. What do you do to flag that? What do you sense is your responsibility? And before any of you answer, let me just notice this, that if we’re asking is, are we still in this situation? As of just a short time ago—and I’m talking about when this meeting started—on Twitter, if you clicked on the hashtag “NYCTerroristAttack,” which is “trending,” marked with a red button saying “live,” the top tweet links to an Infowars story with the headline, “Imam: I Warned De Blasio About New York City Terror; He was Too Busy Bashing Trump.” This is a real-time example of when we talk about this information being weaponized. How quickly can you act, and what’s your responsibility to set the record straight so that the people who saw this know that it’s fake news and at least at some point in time it can’t keep spreading like some sort of virus through legitimate world? Sean Edgett: That’s something we’re thinking about all the time because it’s a bad user experience, and we don’t want to be known as a platform for that. In your example, in for instance, the system self-corrected. That’s not—that shouldn’t be the first tweet you see anymore. It should be a USA article, the last time I checked. Quigley: But you saw this. Edgett: USA Today. At lunch I did, yeah, and I also saw the system correct it. Quigley: Can you give me a really good guess on how long it was top? Edgett: We can follow up with you and your staff on that, and I don’t have the stat in front of me. Quigley: Yeah. Edgett: So I don’t know. But we are, like we said earlier, trying to balance free speech with making the information you see on the system—especially around trends that we direct you to, so if you’re clicking on a hashtag, we want to make sure you’re seeing verified accounts and accurate information and reporting. Sometimes it doesn’t work as we intended. We learn from those mistakes and tweak and modulate going forward. Quigley: Beyond the correction, do you have a responsibility to flag something as “this was fake news”? Edgett: We see our users do that a lot. We’re an open, public platform with respect to journalists and other organizations who point these things out. You may have seen that on this instance, for example. Quigley: Yeah, if someone’s breaking the law, you’ve got to feel like you have a responsibility to do something about that. It’s not—as you said, this is a—with this extraordinary gift, this platform of free expression, comes the responsibility you all talked about. So, if you know something’s illegal, you know you have the responsibility to do something. At what point does this become something where you can’t just correct it; you’ve got to say to the public, this isn’t true. Edgett: Right. And we take swift action on illegal content, illegal activity, on the platform. A good example of this is the text to vote, voter suppression tweets that we’ve turned over to this committee. We saw swift action of the Twitter community on disputing those claims; and Twitter actively tweeted, once it discovered these things were on the platform, to notify our users that this was fake information, that you could not, in fact, vote by tweet, and pointing people to a tool that would allow them to find their nearest polling place. That tweet— Quigley: Is this [unclear] because that was illegal activity, or is this—if something’s just fake, do you think you have an equal responsibility? Edgett: We took that down because it was illegal voter suppression. We are actively working on, how do we balance what is real and fake, and what do we do in the aftermath of something being tweeted and re-tweeted, like you said, and had people even seen it and how do we make sure that they’re seeing other view points and other facts and other news stories. Quigley: Do you have a policy right now where if you know something’s out there that’s not true, of saying so? Edgett: We do not. We have a policy that fosters the debate on the platform. We have a policy that takes down a lot of that content because it comes from automated malicious accounts or spammers. That stuff we’re removing and acting on as quickly as we can. Quigley: And I understand how you’re trying to distinguish that, but the fact is if something’s fake, it doesn’t matter if it’s from a fake account or some bot or something. If it’s just not true and it’s wildly obvious, before it goes viral and gets picked up legitimate, you must feel like you have some responsibility. Edgett: We are—we are deeply concerned about that and figuring out ways we can do it with the right balance. 1:57:39 Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA): RT, Russia Today, on your platform, has 2.2 million subscribers. Fox News, on your platform, has 740,000 subscribers. CNN has 2.3 million subscribers. The Intelligence Community assessment that was made public in January spoke about RT, and it said, “RT conducts strategic messaging for Russian government. It seeks to influence politics and fuel discontent in the United States.” So my question to you is, why have you not shut down RT on YouTube? Kent Walker: Thank you, Congresswoman. We’ve heard the concerns, and we spoke briefly about this previously. We recognize that there’re many concerned about RT’s slanted perspective. At the same time, this is an issue that goes beyond the Internet to cable, satellite television and beyond. We have carefully reviewed RT’s compliance with our policies. We’ve not found violations of our policies against hate speech and incitement to violence and the like. Speier: It’s a propaganda machine, Mr. Walker. The Intelligence Community—all 17 agencies—says it’s an arm of one of our adversaries. Walker: And we agree that— Speier: I would like for you to take that back to your executives and rethink continuing to have it on your platform. Walker: Yes. We agree that transparency’s important for all of these different sources of information. We are working on additional ways to provide that for all government-funded sources of information, including Al Jazeera and a range of government organizations. 2:05:27 Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC): Is it constitutionally protected to utter an intentionally false statement? Colin Stretch: So, it depends on the context, but there is recent Supreme Court precedent on that. On Facebook— Gowdy: On which side: that it is or is not? Stretch: That it is, in most cases, protected. However, on Facebook, our job is not to decide whether content is true or false. We do recognize that false news is a real challenge. The way in which we’re addressing it is by trying to disrupt the financial incentives of those who are profiting from it, which is where most of it comes from. Most of this, most of the fake-news problem is coming from low-quality websites that are trying to drive traffic on every side of every issue, and by disrupting the financial incentives, we’re able to limit the distribution. We’re also trying to make sure that users do know when a story has been disputed by a neutral third party and alerting users to that fact— I’ll stop. I’ll stop there. Gowdy: Well, I’m smiling only because on the last break a couple of my colleagues and I were wondering who those neutral fact-checkers are, and I really do appreciate your desire to want to have a neutral fact-checker. If you could let me know who those folks are, I’d be really grateful, because people in my line of work might take exception with the neutrality of some of the fact-checkers. So, if I understand you correctly, the authenticity of the speaker is very important; the accuracy of the content, less so. Stretch: That’s how we approach it. That’s exactly right. Gowdy: All right. For the life of me, I do not understand how a republic is served by demonstrably, provably, intentionally false information. And I get it, that you don’t want to be the arbiter of opinion—I don’t want you to be, either—but today’s not Thursday, so if I say it is, I swear I don’t understand how my fellow citizens benefit from me telling them something that is demonstrably false, and I am saying it with the intent to deceive. I just—for the life of me, I don’t get it, but I’m out of time. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism: Facebook, Google and Twitter Executives on Russian Disinformation; October 31, 2017 (Social Media) Witnesses: Colin Stretch - Facebook Vice President and General Counsel Sean Edgett - Twitter Acting General Counsel Richard Salgado - Google Law Enforcement & Information Security Director Clint Watts - Foreign Policy Research Institute, National Security Program Senior Fellow Michael Smith -New America, International Security Fellow 38:25 Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (RI): And I gather that all of your companies have moved beyond any notion that your job is only to provide a platform and whatever goes across it is not your affair. Colin Stretch: Senator, our commitment to addressing this problem is unwavering. We take this very seriously and are committed to investing as necessary to prevent this from happening again. Absolutely. Whitehouse: Mr. Edgett? Sean Edgett: Absolutely agree with Mr. Stretch, and this type of activity just creates not only a bad user experience but distrust for the platform, so we are committed to working every single day to get better at solving this problem. Whitehouse: Mr. Salgado? Richard Salgado: That’s the same for Google. We take this very seriously. We’ve made changes, and we will continue to get better. Whitehouse: And ultimately, you are American companies, and threats to American election security and threats to American peace and order are things that concern you greatly, correct? Stretch: That is certainly correct. Edgett: Agree. Salgado: That’s right. 52:15 Sen. Dianne Feinstein (CA): Mr. Salgado, why did Google get preferred status to Russia Today, a Russian propaganda arm, on YouTube? Richard Salgado: There was a period of time where Russia Today qualified really because of algorithms to participate in an advertising program that opened up some inventory for them, subjective standards around popularity and some other criteria to be able to participate in that program. Platforms or publishers like RT drop in and out of the program as things change, and that is the case with RT. They dropped out of the program. Feinstein: Well, why didn’t you revert RT’s preferred status after the ICA came out in January 2017? It took you to September of 2017 to do it. Salgado: The removal of RT from the program was actually a result of, as I understand it, is a result of some of the drop in viewership, not as a result of any action otherwise. So, there was nothing about RT or its content that meant that it stayed in or stayed out. 2:03:15 Sen. Mazie Hirono (HI): So, Mr. Stretch, you said that there are 150 people at Facebook just focused on the content of what’s on your platform. How many people do you have, Mr. Edgett, at Twitter to concentrate on the content and ferretting out the kind of content that would be deemed unacceptable, divisive? I realize there are a lot of First Amendment— Sean Edgett: Right. Hirono: —complicated issues, but how many people do you have? Edgett: Well, we harness the power of both technology, algorithms, machine learning to help us, and also a large team of people, that we call our Trust and Safety team and our User Services team, it’s hundreds of people. We’re at a different scale than Facebook and Google, obviously, but we’re dedicating a lot of resource to make sure that we’re looking at user reports about activity on the platform that they think is violent or activity on the platform they think is illegal, and prioritizing that accordingly. Hirono: So, you have fewer people than Facebook. Facebook has 150; you said you have hundreds. Edgett: Yeah, we have hundreds— Hirono: Hundreds. Edgett: —across User Services and Trust and Safety, looking at the issues of content on the platform. Hirono: What about you, Mr. Salgado? Richard Salgado: Google has thousands of people. There’s many different products, and different teams work on them, but internally we’ll have thousands of people working on them. We also get a good deal of leads on content that we need to review for whether it’s appropriate or not that come from outside the company as well. Hirono: You have thousands of people just focused on the content— Salgado: On various types of content. Hirono: —as Mr. Stretch indicated to us that he has at Facebook? You have thousands of people dedicated? Salgado: We have thousands of people dedicated to make sure the content across our—and remember, Google has many different properties within it—but, yes, the answer is we have thousands that look at content that has been reported to us as inappropriate. Hirono: So, in view of that, Mr. Stretch, do you think 150 people is enough people? Stretch: Senator, to be clear, the 150 people I mentioned earlier is people whose full-time job is focused on addressing terrorism content on Facebook. In terms of addressing content on the site generally, we have thousands. And indeed, we have a Community Operations team that we announced earlier this year that we were going to be adding additional thousands to the several thousands that are already working on this problem every day. Hirono: I think it’s pretty clear that this is a whole new sort of use, or misuse, of your platform, and you may have various ways to address terrorist content, but this is a whole other thing. 2:32:10 Clint Watts: Account anonymity in public provides some benefits to society, but social-media companies must work to immediately confirm real humans operate accounts. The negative effects of social bots far outweigh any benefits that come from the anonymous replication of accounts that broadcast high volumes of misinformation. Reasonable limits on the number of posts any account can make during an hour, day, or week should be developed and human-verification systems should be employed by all social-media companies to reduce automated broadcasting. 2:33:07 Clint Watts: Lastly, I admire those social-media companies that have begun working to fact-check news articles in the wake of last year’s elections. These efforts should continue but will be completely inadequate. Stopping false information—the artillery barrage landing on social-media users comes only when those outlets distributing bogus stories are silenced. Silence the guns, and the barrage will end. I propose the equivalent of nutrition labels for information outlets, a rating icon for news-producing outlets displayed next to their news links and social-media feeds and search engines. The icon provides users an assessment of the news outlet’s ratio of fact versus fiction and opinion versus reporting. The rating system would be opt-in. It would not infringe on freedom of speech or freedom of the press. Should not be part of the U.S. government, should sit separate from the social-media companies but be utilized by them. Users wanting to consume information from outlets with a poor rating wouldn’t be prohibited. If they are misled about the truth, they have only themselves to blame. 2:44:20 Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (RI): Mr. Watts, you’ve been a U.S. Army infantry officer, you’ve been an FBI special agent on the Joint Terrorism Task Force, you’ve been executive officer of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, and you’ve been a consultant to the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division and National Security Branch, so you clearly take American national security very seriously. It is, and has been, your life’s work. So, when you say, ”The Kremlin disinformation playbook,” which we’re talking about here, “will also be adopted by authoritarians, dark political campaigns, and unregulated global corporations who will use this type of social-media manipulation to influence weaker countries; harm less-educated, vulnerable populations; and mire business challengers,” you’re not just talking about the Russian election-manipulation operation getting worse and having to be contained. You’re talking about it as if it’s a technology that other bad actors can adopt and have it metastasized entirely into new fields of dissimulation, propaganda, and so forth. Clint Watts: Yes. Whitehouse: Correct? Watts: Everybody will duplicate this if they don’t believe in the rule of law, if they want to destroy democracies from the inside out. Anyone with enough resources and time and effort, if they put it against us, they can duplicate this. I could duplicate it if I chose to. Whitehouse: So, if we don’t stop it now, it’s going to get exponentially worse. Watts: Yes. And I think the one thing that we should recognize is even in the U.S. political context, if we don’t put some sort of regulation around it, if bodies like this don’t decide how we want American politics to work, everybody will be incentivized to use this same system against their political opponents, and if you don’t, you will lose. 2:51:35 Sen. John Kennedy (LA): The First Amendment implications of all of this concern me as well. I mean, what’s fake news? What do you think fake news is? Clint Watts: Fake news, over the years since I’ve been involved and talking about this, is any news the other side doesn’t like, doesn’t matter what side it is. Kennedy: That’s right. Michael Smith: Senator, if I may. I’m teaching undergrads a course at Georgia State University this semester titled Media, Culture, and Society; and we’re about to start classes focused on fake news later this week. I would submit that fake news might best be defined as deliberate mis- or disinformation, which is tailored or engineered to achieve a particular outcome in the way of behaviors, to persuade perceptions in a manner that lead to behaviors such as perhaps a vote for or against somebody. Kennedy: Well, that’s a good definition, but I’ll end on this: in whose opinion? Watts: But I think there are parameters that we could come around. I mean, reporting versus opinion is a key point of it. I think also in terms of fact versus fiction, I’ve actually set up rating systems on foreign media outlets before the U.S. Government’s paid me to do that, you know, in the Iraq/Afghanistan campaigns. House Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee: FCC Oversight; October 25, 2017 Witnesses: Ajit Pai: FCC Chairman 14:00 Rep. Greg Walden: Ultimately, Congress is the appropriate forum to settle the net neutrality debate. I think you hear a little of that passion here on both sides. And I’ve been continuing my efforts to negotiate a compromise. Although my staff continues to engage in the various affected parties in productive discussions toward that end, my colleagues in the minority have, unfortunately, seemed largely uninterested at this point. Love to see that change, by the way. Door remains open. We’re willing and able to codify net neutrality protections and establish a federal framework in statute for providing certainty to all participants in the Internet ecosystem. I don’t think we need Title II to do that. 1:31:45 Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH): Voice-activated virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant are becoming an increasingly popular consumer gateway to the Internet. Some day soon they might even become consumer-preferred interface with the Internet, leaving the age of the desktop Google Search behind. You get Yelp results in Siri, OpenTable in Google, TuneIn radio from Alexa. These interactions are occurring through private partnerships among these companies to have their apps interact. However, it creates a situation where, by definition, the consumers’ access to other Internet content is limited or completely blocked. It’s the question of, who answers Siri’s question when you ask Siri something? Chairman Pai, can the FCC do anything about this? Ajit Pai: Congressman, under our current Internet regulations, we cannot. Those do not apply to edge providers. 1:36:12 Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA): Will you commit to us that you’ll apply or consider applying broadcast-transparency requirements to state-sponsored media outlets like RT? And if not, why not? Ajit Pai: Congresswoman, thank you for the question. As I under— Eshoo: Uh-huh, you’re welcome. Pai: As I understand the law— Eshoo: Uh-huh, mm-hmm. Pai: —there is no jurisdictional hook at this point, no transfer of a license, for example, that allows the FCC to a certain jurisdiction. Eshoo: But what about those that have a license and carry them? Do you have—doesn’t the FCC have any say so in that, or is this, as the Intelligence Community said, that they are a principle international propaganda outlet? So are they just going to operate in the United States no matter what? Pai: Congresswoman, again, under the Communications Act and the Constitution, the First Amendment, we do not have currently a jurisdictional hook for taking and doing an investigation of that kind. If you’re privy to, obviously, classified or unclassified information that suggests that there might be another agency that has, obviously, a direct interest in the issue—and we’re, obviously, happy to work with them—but at the current time, as I’ve been advised, neither under the First Amendment nor under the Communications Act do we have the ability to— Eshoo: Well, First Amendment applies to free speech in our country. It doesn’t mean that the Kremlin can distribute propaganda in our country through our airwaves. I just—I don’t know if you’re looking hard enough. 1:40:05 Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY): In 2013, and I was one of the households affected by this, there was a carriage dispute between CBS and Time Warner Cable. And CBS blocked Time Warner Cable Internet customers from viewing its shows online through a CBS.com website. So I couldn’t get any of CBS or SHOWTIME or any of that on TV. If you went to the website, because Time Warner Cable was our cable provider and Internet service provider, you couldn’t go to CBS.com—it was blocked. Or SHOWTIME to watch any of the shows that was coming out. And that was when some new ones were coming out that August, so we were trying to find that. But some members of Congress said, bring this up, and I think Chairwoman Clyburn was acting chairwoman at the time and said that she didn’t believe the agency had the jurisdiction to intervene in this situation. And Chairman Pai, do you think if it happened now, do you think the FCC would have the opportunity to intervene in a similar case? Ajit Pai: Congressman, I think the legal authorities have not changed to the extent that the FCC gets a complaint that a party is acting in bad faith in the context of retransmission dispute, then we would be able to adjudicate it. But absence to such a complaint or additional authority from Congress, we couldn’t take further action. Guthrie: But currently the Title II, open Internet, is still in effect. Is that—how would that affect it? Pai: Oh, currently, yes. Just to be clear, I should have added was well then, our Internet regulations would not apply to that kind of content to the extent you’re talking about, the blocking of online distribution of [unclear]. Guthrie: Because it only applies to the service provider, not to the content provider? Pai: That is correct, sir. Federal Communications Commission: Open Internet Rules; February 26, 2015 (Open Internet Rules) Witnesses: Agit Pai: FCC Commissioner 38:05 Ajit Pai: For 20 years, there has been a bipartisan consensus in favor of a free and open Internet. A Democratic president and Republican Congress enshrined in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 the principle that the Internet should be a vibrant and competitive free market “unfettered by federal and state regulation.” And dating back to the Clinton administration, every FCC chairman—Republican and Democrat—has let the Internet grow free from utility-style regulation. The results speak for themselves. But today the FCC abandons those policies. It reclassifies broadband Internet access service as a Title II telecommunications service. It seizes unilateral authority to regulate Internet conduct to direct where Internet service providers, or ISPs, make their investments and to determine what service plans will be available to the American public. This is not only a radical departure from the bipartisan market-oriented policies that have serviced so well over the past two decades, it is also an about-face from the proposals the FCC itself made just last May. So why is the FCC turning its back on Internet freedom? Is it because we now have evidence that the Internet is broken? No. We are flip-flopping for one reason and one reason only: President Obama told us to do so. Barack Obama: I’m asking the FCC to reclassify Internet service under Title II of a law known as the Telecommunications Act. Pai: On November 10, President Obama asked the FCC to implement his plan for regulating the Internet, one that favors government regulation over marketplace competition. As has been widely reported in the press, the FCC has been scrambling ever since to figure out a way to do just that. The courts will ultimately decide this order’s fate. Litigants are already lawyering up to seek a judicial review of these new rules. And given this order’s many glaring legal flaws, they’ll have plenty of fodder. 40:46 Ajit Pai: This order imposes intrusive government regulations that won’t work, to solve a problem that doesn’t exist, using legal authority the FCC doesn’t have. Accordingly, I dissent. 1:03:15 Ajit Pai: And I’m optimistic that we will look back on today’s vote as an aberration, a temporary deviation from the bipartisan consensus that has served us so well. I don’t know whether this plan will be vacated by a court, reversed by Congress, or overturned by a future commission, but I do believe its days are numbered. Telecommunications Bill Signing: February 8, 1996 (Bill Signing) 4:59 Vice President Al Gore: I firmly believe that the proper role of government in the development of the information superhighway is to promote and achieve at every stage of growth, at every level of operation, at every scale, the public interest values of democracy, education, and economic and social well-being for all of our citizens. If we do not see to it that every project, every network, every system addresses the public interest at the beginning, then when will it be addressed? How can we expect the final organism to express these values if they are not included in its DNA, so to speak, at the beginning? For that reason, in 1993, on behalf of the president, I presented five principles that the Clinton administration would seek in any telecommunication reform legislation: private investment, competition, universal service, open access, and flexible regulations. Telecommunications Act Conference: December 12, 1995 (Conference) 22:15 Rep. Rick Boucher: In the very near future, most homes are going to have two broadband wires that will offer the combination of telephone service and cable TV service. One of those will have started as a telephone wire; the other will have started as a cable television wire. The programming that is affiliated with the owners of those wires obviously is going to be available to consumers in the homes, but other programmers may very well be denied access. And if access to other programming is denied, consumers will be deprived of video offerings to which they should be entitled. Telecommunications Act Conference: December 6, 1995 (Conference) 27:14 Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL): No one has a right to give pornography to children. While we have not previously criminalized this area on the federal level, it’s necessary to do so now. This is because of the advent of the Internet, which enables someone in one location to instantly send or make available pornography to children in every city in America. Children don’t have the right to buy pornography in any store in America, yet some would argue there’s a right to give it to them free, delivered to their home by computer. Telecommunications Act Conference: Telecommunications Reform Act of 1995; October 25, 1995 8:58 Sen. John McCain: I believe the Senate bill in its present form is far too regulatory. Any bill that gives 80 new tasks to the Federal Communications Commission, in my view, does not meet the standard that we have set for ourselves of trying to allow everyone to compete in a deregulated—in an environment that is changing so quickly that none of us predicted five years ago that it would look like it is today. And today we have no idea what the industry will look like in five years. 32:00 Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN): One thing that does please me is when I think about one of the last renaissance of electricity, electricity goes to the big cities and leaves out the rural areas, and then we have to come up with the REMCs. When we move America to the World Wide Web, though, we’re not allowing cherry-picking and to move to the great resources in the big cities, but the rural areas will be included in the World Wide Web. And so I congratulate both of you to making sure that that happens, that some of the strength of this country lies in the heart of America, and I think that’s pretty exciting. House Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance: Telecommunications Act Part 1; May 11, 1995 1:25:36 Rep. Dan Schaefer (R-CO): Unlike the case for telephone service, every American household has access to at least one, and soon many more, competitive video providers today. The case simply has not yet been made that the federal government has a duty to do anything other than provide for access to alternative in the case of a purely entertainment service like the upper tier of cable. We have provided that access. We will expand that access in this bill. It is time we focus on the real issues addressed by 1555, the building of advanced broadband networks and the benefits that it will bring to all Americans. House Energy & Commerce Committee: Cable Television Deregulation; February 2, 1994 Witnesses: Bill Reddersen - Bell South Corporation Senior Vice President Jeffery Chester - Center for Media Education Executive Director Edward Reilly - President of McGraw-HIll Broadcasting 7:27 Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA): As telephone companies are able to offer cable TV service inside their telephone-service areas, they’ll have the financial incentive to deploy the broadband technology that will facilitate the simultaneous transport of voice and cable TV service and data messages, building out the infrastructure, creating the last mile of the information highway, that distance from the telephone company’s central office into the premises of the user homes and businesses throughout the nation. 24:36 Bill Reddersen: It is our goal to have you pass legislation this year that enables us to deploy a second broadband network that will compete effectively with cable and bring consumers new and innovative educational healthcare information and entertainment services. 25:12 Bill Reddersen: However, unless you eliminate the competitive advantages this bill confers upon cable companies, our industry will not be able to compete effectively against companies that already have a dominant, if not monopoly, position in programming markets, nor will the bill encourage telephone companies to make or continue the substantial investments required for widespread development of broadband networks. Cable companies are formidable competitors and do not need protection. Cable is a 21-billion-dollar-a-year-gross business, passing over 90% of U.S. homes. According to a recent survey, only 53 out of over 10,000 cable systems compete against a second cable operator. Cable has vertically integrated and diversified into multi-billion-dollar programming and communications businesses. Cable companies and the emerging cable telco alliances clearly do not need protection from telephone companies that currently have no video programming market share, virtually no broadband facilities to the home, and little or no operational experience in the video marketplace. 37:55 Jeffrey Chester: While we share the goal of this committee that every community be served by at least two wires, there are no guarantees that this will be achieved in the near future, even with the proposed legislation. We are also troubled by the unprecedented wave of mergers and acquisitions taking place in the media industries. Serious concerns are raised by the emergence of new media giants controlling regional Bell operating companies, cable systems, TV and film studios, newspapers, broadcasting properties, and information service providers. Without federal intervention, control of the nation’s media system will be in the hands of fewer and less-accountable companies, possessing even more concentrated power. 40:45 Bill Reddersen: Just as we have established private librar—public libraries—and public highways, we need to create public arenas in the electronic commons in the media landscape. A vibrant telecommunication civic sector will be an essential counterbalance to the commercial forces that will dominate the information superhighway. 2:24:38 Bill Reddersen: The common carrier requirements of this legislation are essentially, if executed the way they have in the telephone industry, the second model that you articulated, and that is that if additional capacity was required and someone shows up, we build. Okay? That is the fundamental premise underlying common carrier regulation. 2:30:04 Rep. Michael Oxley (R-OH): Does it really matter if BellSouth builds the wire, the limitless wire, or the cable industry builds the limitless wire if indeed it is essentially a limitless technology that is open to everyone who wants to sell his or her product, including Mr. Reilly, on that particular technology? If you have the common carrier status and you have the ability to deliver your programming, is it really relevant whether BellSouth owns the wire or Mr. Angstrom owns the wire, and if it is indeed relevant, why is it relevant, Mr. Reilly? Edward Reilly: Well, it’s relevant in any instance where the company that owns the wire is also engaged in the programming business at all. If someone is prepared to build a wire and agree that they would never want to be in the programming business, and that we were given very strong safeguards— Oxley: Why is that a problem? Reilly: Well, because we end up inevitably competing with our programming— Oxley: Of course you do. Reilly: —against someone who owns both the wire and the programming content that goes on that wire. Reilly: Why is it relevant, though, if BellSouth owns the wire and you’ve got limitless access and limitless capacity, why does it make any difference that the people who supposedly own the wire are competing against you? They’re competing head to head. You are simply paying the same shelf space for your product as the owner of the product that’s providing that kind of service. Oxley: Well, we have—we believe that there is ample opportunity in that type of environment for a number of anti-competitive activities that would certainly damage our ability to try and be an equal player. Where we get positioned on the wire, what comes up when the menu first comes up, how the billing is organized—there’s a whole host of issues that go along with owning the wire and setting up the infrastructure that can create a significant competitive advantage to someone who chooses to use that for their own program service. 2:38:47 Rep. Billy Tauzin (D-LA): I think the key for us here is to guarantee that there are comparable providers of services and how they get it to us, as long as it’s comparable and we have choice and all people have access to it. If we guarantee that kind of policy for America, we don’t much have to worry about the risk. Consumers take over from there as long as we guarantee, if we do have common carriage on a line, that the owner of the line can’t discriminate; can’t play games with the competitors who own that line; that you can’t play bottleneck games, as publishers are complaining about in the other bill we’re going to debate pretty soon on MMJ; that, in fact, there’s fairness on the playing field. Here’s a question for you in regard to that fairness: If the telephone companies or the utility companies can in fact do what you can’t do—produce their own programs and send them over those lines, even if we restrict them in the number of channels they can use, which I really have a problem with, as Mr. Boucher does—are we going to make sure that the same provisions of program access apply to those producers of programs that we’ve applied to the cable producers? You raised the issue in your testimony. You talked about the problems we had in cable where they own both the software and the hardware—in essence, the content and the conduit—and the problems consumers had as a result of that. Are we going to require the cable companies make 75% of their channels available to competitors? Are we going to require that the utility companies, when they build lines, fiber optic lines, are going to be similarly required to make access available to their competitors? If we’re talking about a real competitive world here, are we going to build a world where some have obligations others don’t have? Some must carry and some don’t? Some must give access to their programs to competitors, as cable is now required to do because of the bill we successfully passed over the president’s veto last year, and over cable’s objection? Are we going to make that same requirement now available—enforced upon other competitors who build wires, or who build some other systems, who decide to deliver it under some particle-beam technology we haven’t dreamed of yet, or the satellite delivery systems that are coming into play? Are we going to create some real equality in this competition, that’s going to give consumers comparable choices? That’s the key word to me—comparable choices. Are we going to do that? Or are we going to dictate the technology, confine you to so many channels, not require you to carry what others have to carry, put requirements on one competitor—the cable company can get on the telephone company’s lines, but the telephone company can’t get on the cable system’s line? Come on. It seems to me if we’re going to build policy that gets consumers real, comparable choices out there, we have to answer all those questions. Video: What the world looks like without net neutrality Video: Net Neutrality II: Last Week Tongight with John Oliver Special Thanks! To Adam Hettler for performing The Most Dangerous time of the Year! See more of Adam here! Background music for The Most Dangerous Time of the Year. Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations Music Presented in This Episode Intro & Exit: Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio)