Mikhail Kalugin

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Title

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The nature of kingship in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth follows the events that occur during Macbeth’s unlawful rise to the throne......The themes of greed, arrogance and excessive political ambition are still, very relevant to the world today. Shakespeare got it right - his story of Macbeth still applies to today's world....

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Trump-Russia dossier: One of Christopher Steele's key claims 'has been verified’……Mikhail Kalugin posed as a diplomat but was a spy, intelligence sources say.

Mikhail Kalugin, who was based in the US and has reportedly been confirmed as a Russian spy by US officials….A key detail of the infamous intelligence report on alleged Russian collusion with the Trump campaign to influence the US election has reportedly been verified…….US officials have apparently confirmed a Russian diplomat who was working in Washington was actually an intelligence agent……His name, Mikhail Kalugin, was misspelled in the report by former British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele, which collected damning information suggesting the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.

Sources told the BBC Mr Kalugin had been identified as a spy and was being monitored prior to his return to Russia in August 2016 – separately from Mr Steele’s report……Mr Kalugin allegedly posed as head of the Economics Section at the Russian embassy while in fact working for Russian intelligence……US publisher McClatchy reported similar allegations about Mr Kalugin earlier in March……Mr Steele's report said: "A leading Russian diplomat, Mikhail KULAGIN [sic], had been withdrawn from Washington at short notice because Moscow feared his heavy involvement-in the US presidential election operation ... would be exposed in the media there.”…..Mr Kalugin denied being a spy and complained to the press about “lies and fake news” told about him.

The BBC also reported Mr Steele had previously provided the US separate intelligence relating to Russia and Ukraine from 2013 - 2016……The former MI6 agent is held in high regard in the UK, this increasingly appears to be the case among his US colleagues as well. The FBI reportedly reimbursed Mr Steele for some of the expenses incurred by his work Mr Trump and Russia. …The Senate Intelligence Committee is now discussing the possibility of interviewing Mr Steele, NBC reported yesterday. ….The Independent first revealed that US politicians wanted to speak formally with Mr Steele, perhaps on neutral territory, earlier this month. …..The former spy is apparently reluctant to leave London for safety reasons and is wary of how President Trump would react to him visiting the US.

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Jared Kushner

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The nature of kingship in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth follows the events that occur during Macbeth’s unlawful rise to the throne......The themes of greed, arrogance and excessive political ambition are still, very relevant to the world today. Shakespeare got it right - his story of Macbeth still applies to today's world....

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“Jared Kushner, 36, is married to Mr Trump's daughter, Ivanka. In 2006, at just 25, the softly-spoken millionaire bought the once-venerable New York Observer newspaper……Although he shares with Mr Trump a complete lack of political experience, last year he exerted a powerful influence over the Trump campaign - including digital strategy and top-level hires - and carried that clout into the White House.”

"Your son-in-law Jared seems like a nice guy, but he is wrong about his friend Gary Cohn, the Goldman Sachs guy. I do not support Gary Cohn in any way, shape, or form. Nobody on either side of the aisle wants Gary Cohn to be your chief of staff.......Most people are intimidated by you and won’t tell you to downgrade Jared’s role or to end the honeymoon with Cohn, because one of those guys is your son-in-law and the other is your economic adviser. That’s all well and good, but at a certain point someone needs to appeal to you not as a political careerist, but as a plain old American: Jared is seizing a ton of power in the White House and I don’t think he cares about the populist issues that carried you to victory. Use him on China, use him on the Middle East, fine. But he doesn’t need to run everything, and he shouldn’t. He’s your son in law...."

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Jared Kushner & Russia

Russian officials started holding meetings with members of the Trump campaign.....Michael Flynn. Kushner. Now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. They all met with Russian officials at some point, and CNN and the New York Times, respectively, have reported that Sessions and Kushner did not disclose their meetings with Russians on their security-clearance forms. A security clearance is required before a person can be privy to the nation's top secrets. Other members of Trump's campaign already had deep ties to Russia, among them former campaign manager Paul Manafort and adviser Carter Page.

U.S. investigators would have been very intrigued to see then-candidate Trump's son-in-law, one of his closest advisers, receiving meetings with Russians. This is a member of Trump's inner circle, as close as you can get without meeting with the candidate himself. Not to mention that Kushner is family. Going back to April 2016, we know Kushner met at least twice with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, and a Moscow banker.

The FBI, we know now, took Brennan's concerns seriously. The agency is waist-deep in a months-long, mostly covert investigation of Russia meddling and whether the Trump campaign helped. And its investigation has led it to the highest ranks of the White House......Exactly what investigators want to know from Kushner (whose lawyer said he will cooperate) isn't clear. But why their investigation has led them to Kushner is clearer.

The Russian bank chairman who met with Jared Kushner in December isn't your ordinary banker.....His state-run bank has been under US sanctions for nearly three years......He was appointed to his job by Russian President Vladimir Putin after eight years at Russia's biggest state-owned commercial bank......And he graduated from the Russian academy of Federal Security Service, which trains people to work in Russia's intelligence and security forces.

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"Donald Trump’s chief strategist Stephen Bannon has called the president’s senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner a “cuck” and a “globalist” during a time of high tension between the two top aides, several Trump administration officials told The Daily Beast.....The fighting between Kushner and Bannon has been “nonstop” in recent weeks, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. It’s been an “open secret” that Bannon and Kushner often clash “face-to-face,” according to senior officials......“Cuckservative,” a portmanteau of “cuckold” and “conservative,” has become a favorite slur on the right, used like a sexually and racially charged version of “RINO,” a Republican In Name Only. “Globalist” is a term typically used by nationalist, pro-Trump right-wingers against political opponents; however, the term has also come under fire for at times carrying anti-Semitic tones. (Kushner is Jewish.).....Bannon is a self-described “nationalist” and long-time Republican, while Kushner was, until his father-in-law ran for president, a lifelong liberal and a Democratic donor."

One senior Trump aide said that Bannon was also frustrated with Kushner “continuing to bring in Zeke Emanuel to discuss health care options,” for instance. The aide said Emanuel has had three White House meetings, including one with Trump........In 2009, conservatives called Emanuel “Dr. Death” for advocating for end-of-life consultations during the crafting of the Affordable Care Act. (He is also the brother of Barack Obama’s former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.)

Bannon’s far-right media allies are ready to wage a sustained war on their new enemy, Kushner.....“Jared Kushner, perhaps the one presidential aide who cannot be fired, is now in regular text message communications with Joe Scarborough,” Roger Stone, a former longtime political adviser to Trump, claimed on Alex Jones’s show. “Many of the anti-Steve Bannon stories that you see, the themes that you see on [MSNBC’s] Morning Joe, are being dictated by Kushner. And while Mr. Kushner’s plate is very full with Middle Eastern peace and the China visit, and so on, in this case I think he is disserving the president.”.....“Jared Kushner, Gary Cohn, Dina Powell: the three big-government liberals tightening their hold on the White House,” influential right-wing radio host Mark Levin warned on Twitter on Wednesday night."

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“His father, Charles, founded Kushner Companies in 1985 and made his fortune as a New Jersey property mogul…..A controversial figure, Kushner senior received a prison sentence in 2005 for tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions and witness tampering……At the time, he admitted setting up his own brother-in-law with a prostitute, secretly filming the liaison, and sending the tape to his sister in an effort to dissuade them from testifying against him. …..The man who prosecuted Charles Kushner was the former US Attorney for New Jersey and 2016 Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie…..Jared Kushner is reported to have been involved in counseling Mr Trump to choose Mike Pence as his running mate, over Mr Christie.”

March 27…..”Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner to lead US federal overhaul….President Donald Trump is expected to unveil a new unit aimed at overhauling the US federal bureaucracy, and headed by his son-in-law Jared Kushner……The Washington Post, which has reported the move, describes the Office of Innovation as a "Swat team" of former private-sector executives……It will have sweeping powers to reform government procedures, the report says……Mr Kushner told the newspaper that the "government should be run like a great American company”……”Our hope is that we can achieve successes and efficiencies for our customers, who are the citizens," he added…….Technology and data are expected to be a key area, with Apple CEO Tim Cooke and Microsoft founder Bill Gates said to be working with the White House…..Top White House strategist Steve Bannon is expected to have no formal role within the new group……Mr Bannon's previous calls for the "deconstruction of the administrative state" drew considerable attention.”

March 27, 2017……”What do Kushner talks with China's Anbang mean for Trump?….A company part-owned by Donald Trump's son-in-law and now senior White House adviser, Jared Kushner, is reportedly negotiating a deal with a Chinese company to redevelop 666 Fifth Avenue in New York City……The 41-floor ageing property, which occupies a full block that fronts Fifth Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Street, was purchased by Kushner Companies in 2006 for $1.8bn (£1.5bn). At the time, it was the highest price paid for a single building in Manhattan…….But does Chinese interest in the building, just a few blocks south of Trump Tower, raise questions over a potential conflict of interest with someone so personally and professionally close to the US president? And would a possible sale to China's Anbang Insurance Group pose security risks?….Bloomberg reported that Anbang was planning a $4bn (£3.3bn) investment deal with the owners of 666 Fifth Avenue. The agreement, the news agency reported, would make Kushner Companies, owned by Jared Kushner and his father Charles, more than $400m (£327m)…The report says that some real estate experts consider the terms of such a transaction unusually favourable for the US company….….Anbang chairman Wu Xiaohui is considered one of the best politically-connected men in China, having married the grand-daughter of former leader, Deng Xiaopeng.”….

“Mr Trump's overseas business interests invite questions of whether his foreign policy decisions are directed by US interests or by his own - or his family's - business interests……A section of the US Constitution known as the Emoluments Clause restricts what US presidents can accept from foreign governments. …..America's founding fathers included this to prevent US leaders from being beholden to foreign governments…….After Mr Trump was elected in early November he spoke over the phone with Argentine President Mauricio Macri. After that call, the Trump Organization issued a press release indicating that Trump Tower Buenos Aires - which had been waiting permit approval to be built - was a done deal……Meetings with Indian business partners and current projects in places like the Philippines and Brazil are also raising questions about what the power of the presidency could do for the Trump brand's international negotiating power.”

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Putin and the Russian Opposition

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The nature of kingship in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth follows the events that occur during Macbeth’s unlawful rise to the throne......The themes of greed, arrogance and excessive political ambition are still, very relevant to the world today. Shakespeare got it right - his story of Macbeth still applies to today's world....

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March 25, 2017…..Russia's main opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, has been arrested at an anti-corruption protest he organized in the capital, Moscow…..Thousands of people have joined rallies nationwide, calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev over corruption allegations……Most of the marches were organised without official permission….Police have been deployed in large numbers, and dozens of other protesters have been detained across the country……TV pictures showed demonstrators chanting "Down with Putin!", "Russia without Putin!" and "Putin is a thief!".

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March 24, 2017......The brazen daytime slaying of a Russian politician outside a Ukrainian hotel this week brings to eight the number of high-profile Russians who have died over the past five months since the US presidential election on November 8. Among the recent deaths were five Russian diplomats. Some of the deaths appeared natural and governments have ruled out foul play.

Russian politician who fled to Ukaine shot dead..... Denis Voronenkov, 45, was gunned down Thursday outside a hotel in Kiev. Voronenkov and his wife both spoke out against Putin after they left Russia for Ukraine in October. Voronenkov also helped Ukraine in its ongoing fight against Russian influence, testifying in a treason trial against ex-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was perceived as a puppet politician for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ukraine's president called the shooting a "Russian state terrorist act." Russian authorities denied the accusation.

Russian ambassador to the UN suddenly dies... Vitaly Churkin, 64, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, died on February 20 of an apparent heart attack. He was "in his office fulfilling his duties" when he died, according to a statement from the Russian mission at the UN.

Russian ambassador to India dies after brief illness..... Alexander Kadakin, 67, the Russian ambassador to India, died on January 26. A spokeswoman for the Russian embassy in New Delhi said that Kadakin died after a short illness and that there was nothing "special or extraordinary" about the circumstances that led to his death. Kadakin had worked in India since 2009. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi described him as "a great friend of India" who worked hard to strengthen relations between the two countries.

Russian diplomat found dead in Athens...... Andrey Malanin, a senior diplomat at the Russian embassy in Greece, was found dead in early January. Malanin, 54, was the head of the Russian embassy's consular section in Athens. Police sources told CNN that worried colleagues called authorities after Malanin didn't show up to work for a few days. Police entered his apartment on January 9th and found him dead on his bedroom floor. Initial reports from Greek police suggested Malanin died suddenly from natural causes. Two Greek police officials said foul play was not suspected. An investigation remains underway.

Former intelligence official found dead in his car...... Oleg Erovinkin, who had close ties to Russian intelligence, was found dead on December 26 sitting in his car on the streets of Moscow. Russian news outlets reported that he was 61 years old. Russian government agencies have not released an official cause of death. He was a former general in the Russian law enforcement and intelligence agency known as the FSB. He also served as chief-of-staff to Igor Sechin, the president of state-owned oil giant Rosneft. Sechin enjoys a close relationship with Putin that dates back to the 1990s. Because of Erovinkin's background, conspiracy theorists and Russia watchers have speculated that he might have been a source of information in the 35-page dossier that detailed alleged links between the Trump campaign and Russia. No evidence has emerged to firmly substantiate those claims.

Diplomat fatally shot in back..... Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, 62, was assassinated in Ankara on December 20. He was shot at point-blank range by a gunman while speaking at an art exhibition. The shooter, who was a Turkish police officer, shouted "do not forget Syria" during the assassination.

Russian diplomat shot to death in Moscow......... The same day as Karlov's killing, Petr Polshikov, 56, a senior Russian diplomat, was shot to death in his Moscow home, according to Moscow newspaper Moskovskij Komsomolets. The paper said Polshikov's wife found him in their bedroom with a pillow over his head. Underneath the pillow, police found Polshikov with a head wound. A spokesman from the Russian Foreign Ministry said Polshikov's death was likely an accident and had nothing to do with his official government duties, according to Russian news outlet REN-TV.

Russian official in NYC dies on Election Day....... On the morning of the U.S. election, November 8, about an hour after the first polls opened in New York City, police received a 911 call about an unconscious man inside the Russian consulate. When they arrived, they found Sergei Krivov, 63, unresponsive. Emergency responders declared him dead at the scene. Krivov, who was born in Russia, had served in the consulate as duty commander involved with security affairs, according to Russian news reports. Russian consular officials first said Krivov fell from the roof. Then, they said he died of a heart attack. The initial police report filed on the day of the incident said Krivov was found "with an unknown trauma to the head," according to a New York Police Department spokesman. However, after conducting an autopsy and finishing its investigation, the New York City Medical Examiner ruled that Krivov died from bleeding in the chest area, likely due to a tumor. Police sources said foul play wasn't suspected and that Krivov had been in poor health.

Russian lawyer for whistleblower is nearly killed.......... Earlier this week, a private Russian lawyer on an anti-corruption crusade reportedly fell from the fourth floor of his Moscow apartment. Nikolai Gorokhov, 53, was near death with "severe head injuries" and remains in a hospital's intensive care unit, according to his friend, investor Bill Browder. Gorokhov represented Sergei Magnitsky, a fellow Russian lawyer who exposed Russia's largest ever tax fraud -- and was later jailed and beaten to death in a Moscow detention center. Gorokhov continued his client's fight.

CNN's Medhavi Arora, and Elinda Labropoulou, and Simon Ostrovsky contributed to this report.

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Ivanka Trump

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The nature of kingship in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth follows the events that occur during Macbeth’s unlawful rise to the throne......The themes of greed, arrogance and excessive political ambition are still, very relevant to the world today. Shakespeare got it right - his story of Macbeth still applies to today's world....

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March 20, 2017.....Ivanka Trump's family skiing 'funded by the taxpayer'.....'Taxpayers can't afford Meals on Wheels anymore, but they can afford to pay for Trump's kids to vacation,' ....President Donald Trump’s daughter, her husband Jared Kushner, their children and the President’s other son Eric reportedly required 100 Secret Service agents to travel with the group for the trip.....The US Secret Service, funded by the US taxpayer, is reported to have spent $12,208 on rental ski equipment and clothing at the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club.....Trump was furious that senior adviser Jared Kushner and Ivanka chose to go on a luxury ski vacation trip in Aspen while the GOP health care bill imploded'.

Daughter Ivanka Trump vacationed with Rupert Murdoch’s ex-wife, Wendi Deng Murdoch, who is rumored to be dating Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump posted a photo of the two in Croatia on Sunday....Deng Murdoch introduced Trump to her eventual husband, Jared Kushner.....Rumors swirled in March that Deng Murdoch was linked to the Russian president.....On February 5, 2014, The Daily Telegraph published a report claiming Deng had a crush on Tony Blair, leading to her divorce from Murdoch......As a result of Murdoch's suspicion that Blair had an affair with Deng, he ended his long-standing association with Blair in 2014....In March 2016, Us Weekly a US based celebrity tabloid reported that she was in a relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin."

Son-In-Law Jared Kushner CEO of Kushner Properties from 2008. Owner of New York Observer weekly newspaper, purchased in 2006. J.D. and M.B.A. from New York University, 2007. B.A. in sociology from Harvard College, 2003. Son of real estate developer Charles Kushner; married Ivanka Trump in 2009….Jared Kushner……..Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser,…… Michael T. Flynn, then Donald J. Trump’s incoming national security adviser, had a previously undisclosed meeting with the Russian ambassador in December to “establish a line of communication” between the new administration and the Russian government, the White House said on Thursday…….Jared Kushner also participated in the meeting at Trump Tower with Mr. Flynn and Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador. But among Mr. Trump’s inner circle, it is Mr. Flynn who appears to have been the main interlocutor with the Russian envoy — the two were in contact during the campaign and the transition, Mr. Kislyak and current and former American officials have said….The Trump Tower meeting lasted 20 minutes, and Mr. Kushner has not met since with Mr. Kislyak, Ms. Hicks said.”

China looks to Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner as White House bridge to President Trump....After President Donald Trump broke with standard White House tradition in not sending out a personal greeting for Chinese New Year, Ivanka Trump was seen with daughter, Arabella, at the Chinese Embassy's New Year reception partaking in Chinese traditions and playing with puppets. The public meeting was subsequently lauded by China press......Donald Trump has been a vocal critic of China since before his presidential campaign, noting as recently as January that the country "has been taking out massive amounts of money and wealth from the U.S. in totally one-sided trade." The president has also surrounded himself with advisers who are also skeptical of Chinese President Xi Jinping's government -- including White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who has said there is 'no doubt' the U.S. will be at war with China in the next few years......

Jared Kushner -- senior adviser and son-in-law to President Trump -- has also played a role in the U.S.-China connection. Kushner and China Ambassador Cui Tiankai reportedly had a behind-the-scenes meeting and have had an extensive ongoing dialogue described as "positive" by a White House official...Kushner's relationship with China previously sparked intrigue when it was reported that China's Anbang Insurance Group was in talks to invest in a project to redevelop a flagship New York City building owned by Kushner Companies.....

President Jinping addressed the World Economic Forum and included a clear message to President Trump on trade, saying, "No one will emerge as a winner in a trade war."

March 2017....WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's daughter and son-in-law are renting a house from a foreign billionaire who is fighting the U.S. government over a proposed mine in Minnesota.The Wall Street Journal reports that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are renting a $5.5 million house in Washington's Kalorama neighborhood from Andrónico Luksic. One of the Chilean billionaire's companies is suing the federal government over lost mineral rights leases for a proposed copper-nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota.....Ivanka Trump and Kushner, the president's senior adviser, moved into the property around the time of President Trump's inauguration in January.....Luksic bought the Kalorama property after the November presidential election.......Former President Barack Obama's administration announced in December it would not renew mineral rights critical to the proposed $2.8 billion Twin Metals project near Ely, near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, about 250 miles north of Minneapolis....Luksic said there was "no connection between the house rental and the fight over mineral rights."....The home, in Kalorama Heights, is two blocks from the new Obama residence.

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Trump and “Collateral Damage”

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The nature of kingship in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth follows the events that occur during Macbeth’s unlawful rise to the throne......The themes of greed, arrogance and excessive political ambition are still, very relevant to the world today. Shakespeare got it right - his story of Macbeth still applies to today's world....

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Click Here to view the Index

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Collateral damage is a general term for deaths, injuries, or other damage inflicted on an unintended target. In American military terminology, it is used for the incidental killing or wounding of non-combatants or damage to non-combatant property during an attack on a legitimate military target.

Mosul, Iraq….March 26, 2017…..”The US-led coalition bombing ISIL positions in Iraq has admitted that it carried out air raids last week at a location in west Mosul where officials and residents say scores of civilians were killed……The acknowledgement on Saturday came hours after the United Nations said it was "stunned" by the reported deaths of civilians in suspected coalition air raids in Mosul's ISIL-held al-Jadida district on March 17……An initial review of strike data ... indicates that the coalition struck [ISIL] fighters and equipment, March 17, in west Mosul at the location corresponding to allegations of civilian casualties," the US military's Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement on Saturday……Iraq says 200 bodies pulled from rubble in Mosul The coalition said that it had struck the area "at the request of the Iraqi security forces" and was investigating to determine the facts and the validity of reports of civilian casualties…… it took about a week for the coalition to acknowledge the air raids…….About 200 people are thought to have died in that strike alone," our correspondent added. "These reports of a high toll of civilian casualties were first given by the civilians who actually managed to get out of western Mosul."

San Diego…February 23….A Mexican man has leaped off a bridge and killed himself near the Tijuana-San Diego border crossing hours after being deported……Guadalupe Olives Valencia reportedly screamed he did not want to return to Mexico before leaping to his death on Tuesday. The 44-year-old father of three had worked as a gardener in California…..Authorities are investigating his death as suicide,

Yemen….January 29……Donald Trump authorised air strike that killed eight-year-old American girl 'without sufficient intelligence’……officials say ‘almost everything went wrong’…..The US military is investigating whether more civilians were killed in a raid on al-Qaeda in Yemen at the weekend, in the first operation authorised by President Donald Trump as commander in chief…..After initially denying that there were any civilian casualties, American officials said they were assessing reports that women and children had died in the attack…..Trump called the raid “successful” and said that it had captured “important intelligence that will assist the U.S. in preventing terrorism against its citizens and people around the world.” He also lamented the loss of the American service member “in our fight against the evil of radical Islamic terrorism.”…..Yemeni officials said that at least eight women and seven children, ages 3 to 13, had been killed in the raid. Qaeda supporters said that Mr. Awlaki’s young daughter was among the dead and denied that any senior Qaeda leaders had been killed….

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Warplanes were bombing a rebel-held town in Syria for a second day amid increasing international tensions over an apparent chemical attack that killed more than 70 people.....Bashar al-Assad’s government has categorically denied using poisonous gases in Khan Sheikhoun or possessing the banned munitions, while his ally Russia claimed Syrian jets conducting legitimate strikes had struck a "rebel weapons facility".....Major General Igor Konashenkov, from the Russian defence ministry, claimed a "destroyed warehouse" was used to produce and store shells containing toxic gas to be sent to Iraq."

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The Viktor Leonov and the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay Georgia

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The nature of kingship in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth follows the events that occur during Macbeth’s unlawful rise to the throne......The themes of greed, arrogance and excessive political ambition are still, very relevant to the world today. Shakespeare got it right - his story of Macbeth still applies to today's world....

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Click Here to view the Index

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Russian CCB-175 The Viktor Leonov, a nearly 300-foot spy ship, was spotted off the Georgia coast on Wednesday, 20 miles south of the U.S. nuclear submarine base at Kings Bay….These ships are large, purpose built ships designed for signals intelligence gathering via an extensive array of sensors. The data could be transmitted to shore via satellite link antennas housed in two large radomes. The ships are armed with two AK-630 close-in weapon systems and SA-N-8 SAM launchers, for last resort self-defense.

Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay is the U.S. Atlantic Fleet's home port for U.S. Navy Fleet ballistic missile nuclear submarines armed with Trident missile nuclear weapons.

Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay is a principle submarine base of the US Navy. Located near to St. Marys in Camden County, Georgia, the base is the home port of the US Navy Atlantic Fleet's Trident nuclear-powered submarines.

Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay is the home port to ballistic missile submarines and guided missile submarines of the US Navy Atlantic Fleet. The submarines assigned to the base are:
USS Florida (SSGN-728)….Armament: 154 × BGM-109 Tomahawk Missles W80 series thermonuclear weapon
USS Georgia (SSGN-729)…Armament: 154 × BGM-109 Tomahawk Missles W80 series thermonuclear weapon
USS Alaska (SSBN-732)…..Armament: 24 × Trident II D-5 ballistic missiles w/ thermonuclear MIRV
USS Tennessee (SSBN-734)…Armament: :24 × Trident II D-5 ballistic missiles w/ thermonuclear MIRV
USS West Virginia (SSBN-736)……Armament: :24 × Trident II D-5 ballistic missiles w/ thermonuclear MIRV
USS Maryland (SSBN-738)…Armament: :24 × Trident II D-5 ballistic missiles w/ thermonuclear MIRV
USS Rhode Island (SSBN-740)…..Armament: :24 × Trident II D-5 ballistic missiles w/ thermonuclear MIRV
USS Wyoming (SSBN-742)..Armament: :24 × Trident II D-5 ballistic missiles w/ thermonuclear MIRV

Naval Base Kitsap is a U.S. Navy base located on the Kitsap Peninsula in Washington state. It was created in 2004 by merging the former Naval Station Bremerton with Naval Submarine Base Bangor. The Mission of Naval Base Kitsap is to serve as the home base for the Navy’s fleet throughout West Puget Sound and to provide base operating services, including support for both surface ships and Fleet Ballistic Missile and other nuclear submarines having their home ports at Bremerton and Bangor….Naval Base Kitsap is the third-largest Navy base in the U.S. It features one of the U.S. Navy's four nuclear shipyards, one of two strategic nuclear weapons facilities, the only West Coast dry dock capable of handling a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier and the Navy's largest fuel depot."

The US Navy has a total of 18 Ohio-class submarines which consist of 14 ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), and four cruise missile submarines (SSGNs). The SSBN submarines are also known as "Trident" submarines, and provide the sea-based leg of the U.S. nuclear triad.

In 2015, informations emerged that Russia may be developing a new up to 100 megatons nuclear torpedo, the Status-6 Ocean Multipurpose System, codenamed “Kanyon” by Pentagon officials. This weapon is designed to create a tsunami wave up to 500m tall that will radioactively contaminate a wide area on an enemy coasts with cobalt-60, and to be immune to anti-missile defense systems such as laser weapons and railguns that might disable an ICBM. Two potential carrier submarines, the Project 09852 Belgorod, and the Project 09851 Khabarovsk, are new boats laid down in 2012 and 2014 respectively.

According to the Federation of American Scientists, an organization that assesses nuclear weapon stockpiles, as of 2016, Russia possesses 7,300 total nuclear warheads, of which 1,790 are strategically operational.

China a fleet of about 85 submarines….The US Navy has a fleet of 70 submarines: 14 SSBNs, 4 SSGNs, and 52 attack submarines.

In 33 minutes or less, that's how long it would take for an enemy ballistic missile launched from the other side of the world to hit the United States…..Fired from a submarine it would take less than 12 minutes.

This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain.

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Garry Kasparov on Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump

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The nature of kingship in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth follows the events that occur during Macbeth’s unlawful rise to the throne......The themes of greed, arrogance and excessive political ambition are still, very relevant to the world today. Shakespeare got it right - his story of Macbeth still applies to today's world....

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It’s risky to hack American institutions like leading parties, and even just to interfere with American elections—but it was inevitable because Putin made anti-Americanism and the challenge of America’s influence in the world a core of his domestic propaganda. He saw a big opportunity, because after so many years of weakness shown by Obama’s administration, Putin felt emboldened. That’s why I was sure he would do it, because I’ve read enough history books to learn that dictators—if they don’t stop at an early stage, they eventually go off-limits. Putin saw a big opportunity with Donald Trump and he grabbed this opportunity, and we know that this administration—Obama and the White House, the State Department, CIA—they received these reports and they tried to avoid an open conflict with Russia because, obviously, there are many arguments why you should avoid this conflict. That was Putin’s precise calculation.

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Two Russian intelligence agencies—first the FSB, which is Putin’s organization, the successor to the KGB, and then separately Russian military intelligence—both hacked into the DNC. And if the story is to be believed, one hand didn’t know what the other hand was doing. It sounded, at some level, like a coordinated plot, and then at another level, like a certain amount of chaos.

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Putin was betting on Obama doing nothing, sitting on his data, hoping that Hillary would win anyway. And then Putin believed that he could not just win this battle, not just get the outcome he wanted, but also send a message. Because Putin’s role in America’s election is not just a fact of American domestic politics. It demonstrated to everybody—to American allies in NATO, to Arab monarchies in the Gulf, to Chinese, to Japanese, to African nations, to Latin America—that Putin is so powerful, so arrogant, and so confident, that he could intervene in the American political process, and the U.S. basically swallowed it.

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Trump’s behavior. I read an interview you did in Playboy. You said, talking about Trump “for somebody who is inconsistent in almost everything, being so consistent in defending Putin raises my suspicions.” I thought that was a really interesting observation. I mean, Trump’s all over the map. He’s a figure of chaos. But he’s been amazingly consistent in being pro-Putin. .....It’s highly unusual for any candidate of a major party, especially for a Republican, to go after the CIA or FBI and take the word of the KGB. But there are two reasons. One is that since we have no knowledge or almost no knowledge of the structure and finances of Trump’s empire, I think it was a phenomenal success of Trump that he could get elected without revealing the true nature of his financial affairs. Whether, you know, he’s a billionaire, maybe he’s not, he owes money to people in America or elsewhere. We don’t know whether the man—who, as we all know, survived four bankruptcies and borrowed tons of money and now is about to become commander-in-chief—owes favors to maybe America’s foes around the world. We don’t know.

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So maybe Putin has something that is so vital for Trump that he didn’t want even to consider any conflict with Putin. Maybe. I don’t know. I think it’s very important for Democrats and, I guess, for Republicans to press Donald Trump to eventually show his tax returns—to understand whether there’s something in it that prevented him from doing it during the campaign. Of course, it could be something else. It could be some kind of blackmail materials, maybe recorded while Trump was in Moscow—I don’t know, I can only speculate, and I don’t feel very comfortable speculating.

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After Trump’s bankruptcy, American banks wouldn’t lend him money. One of the places he had to look for funding was Russian oligarchs. Whether he took money from them or not, he spent a lot of time with them.

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.....http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/12/garry_kasparov_on_why_vladimir_putin_hates_chess.html

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United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court

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FISA and Trump Tower

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The nature of kingship in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth follows the events that occur during Macbeth’s unlawful rise to the throne......The themes of greed, arrogance and excessive political ambition are still, very relevant to the world today. Shakespeare got it right - his story of Macbeth still applies to today's world....

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Click Here to view the Index

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Reports that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court granted Justice Department investigators a warrant to probe the Trump campaign’s ties with Russia surfaced in November..... Although no one has confirmed a FISA investigation, or wiretaps in Trump Tower, several news outlets have reported the former’s existence. The most detailed account thus far, from the BBC in January, provided a timeline: The Justice Department sought a FISA warrant in June to intercept communications from two Russian banks suspected of facilitating donations to the Trump campaign. The judge reportedly rejected the warrant, as well as a narrower version sought in July. A new judge granted the order in mid-October, according to the BBC......Almost half of the building’s 58 floors are dedicated to commercial and office space, and any one of them—not to mention the building’s residents—could be the target of an investigation unrelated to international espionage or election tampering..... Trump’s tweets show he doesn’t understand how the FISA system works.....Based on previous reporting and the nature of FISA courts, any wiretaps within Trump Tower would be legal. And they would stem from overwhelming evidence that the Trump campaign, or someone within it, has unsavory ties to Russia or another foreign power. Otherwise, it’s unlikely those wiretaps would exist at all.....If federal authorities did have cause to listen in on Trump Tower, though, and they provided enough evidence for a FISA court to approve the snooping, Obama is not the one who ought to worry.....(https://www.wired.com/2017/03/feds-wiretap-trump-tower-not-obama-worry/)

United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court......The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC, also called the FISA Court) is a U.S. federal court established and authorized under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to oversee requests for surveillance warrants against foreign spies inside the United States by federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Such requests are made most often by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Congress created FISA and its court as a result of the recommendations by the U.S. Senate's Church Committee. Its powers have evolved to the point that it has been called "almost a parallel Supreme Court."

In 2013, a top-secret order issued by the court, which was later leaked to the media from documents culled by Edward Snowden, required a subsidiary of Verizon to provide a daily, on-going feed of all call detail records – including those for domestic calls – to the NSA....Because of the sensitive nature of its business, the court is a "secret court" – its hearings are closed to the public. While records of the proceedings are kept, they also are unavailable to the public

Conservative radio host Mark Levin, including that the Obama administration "sought, and eventually obtained, authorisation to eavesdrop" on the Trump campaign last year.

Other media reports had previously suggested the FBI had sought a warrant from the foreign intelligence surveillance court (Fisa) in order to monitor members of the Trump team suspected of irregular contacts with Russian officials.

The warrant was first turned down but then reportedly approved in October, though there has been no official confirmation.

Under Fisa, wire-tapping can only be approved if there is probable cause to believe that the target of the surveillance is an agent of a foreign power. Mr Obama could not lawfully have ordered such a warrant.

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