March Madness is not a threat to our national security, but Pentagon officials are giving employees their annual reminder not to go crazy over college basketball. In an email sent Wednesday night, the Defense Department asked workers not to stream games from the tournament or they would feat up the Pentagon’s valuable internet bandwidth, and slow down the computers that run the U.S. military:
“Your JSP support team acknowledges and appreciates that college basketball fans within the DoD are excited to cheer on their favorite teams, update brackets, and otherwise obsess over the Big Dance.”
“Please keep in mind; if you’re streaming video to watch your favorite player shooting free throws, you’re consuming network resources that could be served to support the Warfighter.”
Documents released by the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee show a representative from RT, the Russian television network, successfully negotiating a lower speaking fee from Mike Flynn, the retired general who served briefly as Donald Trump’s national security advisor before stepping down amid questions about his foreign ties.
Flynn spoke at an RT conference in December 2015, and was famously seated at the same table as Russian President Vladimir Putin. The documents released this afternoon by the Oversight Democrats show Flynn’s booking agent for speeches, a company called Leading Authorities, negotiating logistics for the visit with the head of marketing for RT, a state-sponsored broadcaster.
Click Here to Read the Documents
While critics have suggested that Flynn was influenced by Russian money, the email chain shows RT asking for a discount, and getting a quick yes from Flynn’s rep.
“Sorry it took us longer to get back to you” writes Alina Mikhaleva of RT on Nov. 9, 2015, “but the problem is that the speaking fee is a bit too high and exceeds our budget at the moment, so we had to negotiate it with the management. Do you think there is any possibility to reduce the price to 45K?”
Flynn’s rep responds, “Great news! He has accepted (followed by a smiley face emoticon) … I can get a contract over to you stat.”
The size of the fee Flynn originally requested is not in the document, but at the time Leading Authorities was asking for up to $55,000 for appearances in Europe and $75,000 for events in Asia, according to Yahoo News.
The top Republican and top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to the Defense Department on Feb. 17 saying they were looking into Flynn’s speaking engagements.
“We are attempting to determine the amount Lieutenant General Flynn received for his appearance, the source of the funding, and whether he may have received payments from any other foreign sources for additional engagements,” wrote Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R.-Utah, and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D.-Maryland.
The Russian spy ship that transited up and back down the East Coast of the United States in February is taking another lap — and making no waves in Washington.
Last month’s trip by the SSV-175 Viktor Leonov, though routine, made headlines because it appeared at an intriguing moment in U.S.-Russian relations.
After making its way back down the coast, it had a port call in Havana for a couple of weeks and then embarked on a return trip.
As of Wednesday morning, it was about 20 nautical miles off the coast of Georgia, staying well outside of U.S. territorial waters and conducting a perfectly legal transit, according to one U.S. military official.
The official said the ship is expected to head north along the coast and then turn back around and head to a port call in Jamaica. As NBC News reported last month, its limited and outdated electronic eavesdropping gear means it can only listen to radio communications — ship-to-ship, ship-to-shore, and commercial radio broadcasts.
Asked whether the U.S. military is concerned about the transit, the official said, “Not really. We are about as concerned this time as we are every other time they do this.”
The Viktor Leonov CCB-175, a Russian Navy intelligence warship, is docked at a pier in Havana in 2015.
Chip Somodevilla
/ Getty Images, file
In a new report, the Center for American Progress says that President Trump is “following the same playbook” as European far-right leaders like France’s Marine Le Pen who are backed by Russia, “adopting eerily similar language … and pursuing the same policies that advance Russia’s objectives.”
“Trump or top Trump administration officials even met with four of these European far-right leaders during the presidential campaign or the transition,” notes Ken Gude in the report, titled “Russia’s Fifth Column.”
The liberal think tank says that Russia uses tools that include disinformation, propaganda, “alleged illicit financing,” and “covert influence operations” to help its proteges, and in return receives “a strikingly resistant level of support” from these leaders, “who all praise Putin.”
Click – to read the full report.
A journalist holds a board with portraits of Russian President Vladimir Putin, French National Front leader Marine Le Pen, and U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump ahead of an annual news conference by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, at Moscow’s World Trade Centre.
Sergei Fadeichev
/ TASS via Getty Images, file
The Justice Department has charged an admiral and eight other current and former Navy officials with corruption for allegedly taking bribes from a Singapore-based defense contractor nicknamed “Fat Leonard” in exchange for classified and internal Navy information.
Rear Adm. Bruce Loveless, several Navy captains, a retired Marine colonel and an enlisted sailor are accused of accepting Cuban cigars, prostitutes and free hotel rooms from Leonard Glenn Francis, who also allegedly threw sex parties for U.S. sailors. The behavior described in the charges allegedly occurred between 2006 and 2014.
Francis, the former CEO of Glenn Defense Marine Asia, has pleaded guilty to defrauding the Navy of millions of dollars. The information he received from Navy officials allowed him to overcharge the government by $20 million.
“This is a fleecing and betrayal of the United States Navy in epic proportions, and it was allegedly carried out by the Navy’s highest-ranking officers,” said Alana Robinson, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California. “The alleged conduct amounts to a staggering degree of corruption by the most prominent leaders of the Seventh Fleet – the largest fleet in the U.S. Navy — actively worked together as a team to trade secrets for sex, serving the…
