Eric Lichtblau vs. Eric Lichtblau: Why is the NYT hiding key information that the FBI knows but claims not to know (and that Lichtblau knows because he played a role in it) about the connection between a Trump organization server and Alpha Server, a huge Russian bank with connections to Putin?
Okay, folks. Read this entire article, or if you’re short on time, do a word find for “Lichtblau.” Then read this article in today’s NYT by Eric Lichtblau and Steven Lee Myers.
Then ask, rhetorically, why Lichtblau did not mention in the Times article what happened with the Trump server that the FBI claims is receiving only random marketing spam (but only from Alpha Bank), after Lichtblau called Alpha Bank and inquired about why the Trump server was receiving data from Alpha Bank.
Also ask—rhetorically—why the Times article today simply reports the FBI’s stated reason for concluding that this marketing-spam thing is plausible (and that that’s why they haven’t sought a search warrant for the server?), but doesn’t mention what Lichtblau knows: that the scientists Foer and, as I understand it, Lichtblau have received their information concluded a month or two ago that that explanation is virtually impossible.
Nor does it explain what happened with the Trump server after Lichtblau called Alpha Bank and inquired about why the Trump server was receiving data from Alpha Bank.
Who in the FBI decided to accept that explanation, despite the fact that at least one of the scientists who told Foer that that explanation is highly implausible also works under contract for … the FBI or one of the other agencies working on the matter?
Lotsa rhetorical questions to ask, actually. Start asking them, folks. And not just ones for the New York Times.
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UPDATE: Gotta say, Comey comes off in this Washington Post article today as dumber than a rock.
Added 11/1 at 1:32 p.m.
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SECOND UPDATE: Reader JackD and I just had the following exchange in the Comments thread:
JackD / November 1, 2016 2:26 pm
Dailykos is currently reporting that the FBI is releasing its closed investigative files regarding the Clinton Foundation and Bill Clinton’s pardon of Mark Rich. Come supervised the latter as it concluded. I suppose it could just be a coincidence. I didn’t know the FBI released its closed files that do not result in criminal action. The timing certainly stinks and could be relevant to a finding of Comey’s intent for Hatch Act purposed.
Me / November 1, 2016 3:16 pm
Hmmm. Who knew that the REAL purpose of the FBI is to use its investigative authority to help the Republican Party regain the WH and hold the Senate and House? Guess Comey did, but I sure didn’t. Until now.
Jack, the Foer revelations ARE now getting some real news media attention, as is the CNBC report from yesterday that Comey argued against release of the report in early Oct. that the Russians clearly are behind the Dem hackings and that the purpose is to influence the election.
I think what Comey’s up to is a preemptive distraction from probable imminent leaks that the FBI buried their own scientists’ conclusions that that Trump server in fact was communicating with Alpha Bank–and that the FBI declined to request a search warrant to confiscate the server. There’s no longer any danger of a breach-of-national-security charge against the leaker for release of classified info. The info about the server is now out there.
But just think about this: Comey knows that a Trump server at a minimum may be, and very likely is, communicating with Alpha Bank very, very secretly, using very elaborate techniques, and has been doing so since last spring. Yet he’s releasing raw investigative info shortly before the election, and during early voting in more than 20 states, in order to help Trump and down-ballot Republicans win election.
This is the FBI Director we’re talking about here.
And he’s not even named Hoover. Or so he claims.
Added 11/1 at 3:29 p.m.
Need to fix your second link.
Thanks. Just did.
Here we go again. Bev is now accusing the NYT of lying to us. Why is the Times deliberately lying to us? Does the NYT secretly love Trump and hate HRC? Is the NYT printing stories because the FBI asked them to? This is an effort to manipulate public opinion not only in the USA at a critical time in its history, but the entire globe?
In addition, the FBI is lying to the public. They told the Times that they had done a review and concluded that there is nothing to see with Alpha. So the FBI is in a conspiracy with the NYT. The most senior levels of the NYT and the FBI are conspiring to rig a national election because they love Trump so much.
Bev – you can’t believe that can you?? You are so deep into the conspiracy world that you believe that the NYT and the FBI are secretly working to undermine this election? If you do actually believe in what you are writing, that you, alone, have uncovered the greatest conspiracy since Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, then I think you should get some help.
Dailykos is currently reporting that the FBI is releasing its closed investigative files regarding the Clinton Foundation and Bill Clinton’s pardon of Mark Rich. Come supervised the latter as it concluded. I suppose it could just be a coincidence. I didn’t know the FBI released its closed files that do not result in criminal action. The timing certainly stinks and could be relevant to a finding of Comey’s intent for Hatch Act purposed.
Hmmm. Who knew that the REAL purpose of the FBI is to use its investigative authority to help the Republican Party regain the WH and hold the Senate and House? Guess Comey did, but I sure didn’t. Until now.
Jack, the Foer revelations ARE now getting some real news media attention, as is the CNBC report from yesterday that Comey argued against release of the report in early Oct. that the Russians clearly are behind the Dem hackings and that the purpose is to influence the election.
I think what Comey’s up to is a preemptive distraction from probable imminent leaks that the FBI buried their own scientists’ conclusions that that Trump server in fact was communicating with Alpha Bank–and that the FBI declined to request a search warrant to confiscate the server. There’s no longer any danger of a breach-of-national-security charge against the leaker for release of classified info. The info about the server is now out there.
But just think about this: Comey knows that a Trump server at a minimum may be, and very likely is, communicating with Alpha Bank very, very secretly, using very elaborate techniques, and has been doing so since last spring. Yet he’s releasing raw investigative info shortly before the election, and during early voting in more than 20 states, in order to help Trump and down-ballot Republicans win election.
This is the FBI Director we’re talking about here.
Here’s a Politico article about it: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/marc-rich-pardon-files-230590
It was quietly put on the FBI’s FOIA website yesterday, but not discovered until today, I guess.
I’m guessing that he will be resigning a day or two after the election, and this is his attempt to show how nonpartisan he is regarding the Clintons. He opted not to try to prosecute Bill Clinton for the Rich pardon.
There was an FIOA petition case on it in court, apparently, but no immediate deadline for producing it.
I should add that I had thought that such info is exempt from the FOIA, for what I would think are obvious reasons.
There is nothing in the first link to indicate that the Trump computer was receiving anything, ever, from the Alfa computer. What we do have are repeated DNS lookup requests. That is NOT actually connection to the computer for which one asked the address. That can be done with an nslookup, dig, or getent command.
In fact, such repeated DNS lookup requests indicate that such communication was NOT occurring. The Alfa system attempted communication, but it failed. Alfa’s DNS cache, assuming it had the wrong address, would make a public request for the address and retry the communication. If communication were actually established, no more DNS requests would be made, because Alfa’s local cache would have the correct address.
This is now a mutiny by the FBI against DOJ . Seems Loretta Lynch appointed a friend of Podesta to evaluate the emails. Conflict of interest much? Do these idiots not realize that people with internet connections can figure this shit out in a matter of hours?
They are so used to getting away with this crap that they feel they can operate as though no one in the public has any common sense.
“Very very secretly using elaborate techniques” is a misstatement.
The researchers were monitoring traffic to one of the “control towers” of the internet. When someone wants to reach a website, the name has to be resolved into a number (like looking in a phone book), the way this is done is that the computer talks to one of (normally two) specified computers that keep a list of names and addresses. This is the Domain Name Service.
The researchers looked at the logs of the name resolution requests. They didn’t look at the packets or traffic between the two systems, they just looked at the list of the times and dates that those computers looked up each other’s addresses, and also looked at what other computers they were asking to look up.
The traffic could have been almost anything. Calling something secret when it’s just obscure or opaque is misleading.
I can see how many times the mailman drops a package off at my neighbor’s house and I could probably read the address if I wanted to, that doesn’t make what they’re doing secret, it’s just in a box, and I didn’t make any effort to look in it (as I should not, without specific authorization).
There’s no shortage of ways to do this sort of thing in actual secret if you wanted to.
It’s either a sloppy job because they didn’t think anyone would look, or it’s just a weird story.
Trump has enough things he hasn’t even really hidden about Russia (Manafort, public statements, the sick little mutual admiration society with Putin) that this isn’t a good place to hang your hat. I don’t need secret former spy private investigations and dns server logs to tell me that Trump’s relationship with Russia is not and would not be the same as … all other national level US politicians in the last 70 years.
Well, YOU may not need secret former spy private investigations and dns server logs to tell me that Trump’s relationship with Russia is not and would not be the same as all other national level US politicians in the last 70 years.
But apparently many, many millions of OTHER people DON’T know that. Yet.
As for the attempt at secrecy, the Foer article is VERY CLEAR that the scientists said that there appears to have been an attempt at secrecy. They also said that the shut-down of the service immediately after Lichtblau phoned Alpha Bank was done very sloppily, and in apparently in real haste.
And about that thing that happened after it was shut down very sloppily and in real haste? Y’know, that thing about the server quickly coming back to life but using a different protocol and password, and that the password had to be sent to the server’s operator through some other means of communication?
How would THAT all have happened if Alpha Bank wasn’t using the server to communicate with Trump people? Any ideas?
Also: Any ideas about why the FBI hasn’t requested a search warrant to seize the server?
Once again, Beverly, that scenario just does not make sense. If someone were to call up Alfa to tell them the new hostname, he could just as easily tell them the IP address and avoid DNS lookups completely.
Because you need probable cause that a crime has been committed to get a search warrant, unless you can yell terrorism.
JG,
You can also obtain a search warrant from a host of Rep judges by saying “Hillary e mails”
Figure half an hour.
Yeah, apparently. Although that’s probably easier since there had already been a criminal probe previously.