On Twitter Thursday morning, Donald Trump objected to news stories that have suggested he places a higher value on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s statements than on the findings of the U. S. intelligence community.
The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange – wrong. I simply state what he states, it is for the people….
to make up their own minds as to the truth. The media lies to make it look like I am against “Intelligence” when in fact I am a big fan!
In the tweet that mentioned Assange Wednesday, Mr. Trump cited the WikiLeaks founder, who had claimed in an interview with Fox News that Russia was not the source of the hacked emails of the DNC or of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta.
Julian Assange said “a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta” – why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!
The president-elect’s tweets Thursday morning came shortly before Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and NSA Director Adm. Mike Rogers were to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee about Russian cyber attacks during the 2016 election, as well as the greater cyber threat Russia poses to the U. S.
Clapper, who was asked what he thought of Assange during the hearing, told the panel, “I don’t think those of us in the intelligence community have a whole lot of respect for him.” And he said of the president-elect’s remarks on the intelligence community, “There’s a difference between skepticism and disparagement.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, who serves on the committee, said Thursday morning he was angry that Mr. Trump had embraced any of Assange’s statements.
President-elect Donald Trump may make significant changes to U. S. intelligence agencies when he takes office. Michael O’Hanlon, a foreign policy…
“It made me mad quite frankly that the president-elect would embrace anything Julian Assange said — a man who has a record of putting our American military at risk by leaking classified information undermining American foreign policies, a fugitive from the law,” Graham told reporters. “I don’t think you should ever embrace anything he says. And this is the same guy Donald Trump wanted to kill in 2010.”
He also said that he had “zero” doubt that Russia was behind the hacking, CBS News’ Alan He reports. Graham added that Russia is not only hacking here, but “they are doing it all over the world.”
Mr. Trump, Graham said, hasn’t been briefed on the Russian hacking report yet, and he offered the president-elect some unsolicited advice — “don’t question things until you’ve been informed of them. Then question them.”
Mr. Trump is not yet convinced that Russians are behind the cyber attacks against the DNC and Podesta, a doubt that comes across in his social media posts:
The “Intelligence” briefing on so-called “Russian hacking” was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!
Mr. Trump is also seriously considering cutting back the DNI, CBS News’ Major Garrett reports, and some involved in those conversations say one reason he has not yet named a DNI is that he might leave the post vacant as part of a reduction in force and the elimination of another layer of bureaucracy.
Graham did not dismiss the idea of getting rid of the DNI position, first reported by the Wall Street Journal Wednesday. “I’d be open-minded if you can prove to me it makes [intelligence] better,” Graham said.
Four intelligence chiefs are scheduled to brief the president-elect Friday on their report on Russian hacking.

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Veteran Indian actor Om Puri, star of British hit East is East, has died aged 66, a family member has told the BBC.
The actor suffered a heart attack at his residence in Mumbai early on Friday, reports say.
Om Puri, who acted in both mainstream and art films, was known for his gritty performances in a number of landmark Indian films in the 1980s.
He also appeared in a number of British films, including a cameo in Richard Attenborough’s epic on Mahatma Gandhi.
A versatile actor, Puri was known for his roles in Indian, Pakistani, British and Hollywood films. He was awarded an honorary OBE for his contribution to the British film industry in 2004.
He found international fame for his roles in American and British films, including the 1999 British comedy East is East about a Pakistani immigrant adjusting to life in the north of England.
Puri also worked in City of Joy, The Reluctant Fundamentalist and most recently in The Hundred-Foot Journey.
At home, Puri was best-known for his performances in critically acclaimed films like Ardh Satya, Sadgati, Paar and the satirical Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro.
Puri was one of India’s truly successful crossover actors, doing films with stars such as Jack Nicholson and Tom Hanks, says BBC’s Soutik Biswas.
His roles in Govind Nihalani’s Aakrosh as a tribal man falsely accused of murder and a policeman in Ardh Satya beaten back by the system remain among the finest performances on Indian screen, our correspondent says.
In a tweet two weeks ago, the actor reflected on his life and career:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office led the tributes to the actor:
A number of leading filmmakers and actors also remembered Puri:

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JTA
Posted on Jan. 5, 2017 at 5:47 pm
A neo-Nazi website said it has filed the paperwork for an armed neo-Nazi march designed to harass the Montana Jewish community of Whitefish.
The march was moved to Jan. 16, a Monday and the national holiday day set aside to observe Martin Luther King Day this year. The march had originally been set for the day before.
Andrew Anglin, who runs the Daily Stormer website, posted a photo of the filed application on Thursday. The Whitefish City Clerk’s Office told the Forward that it had not received an application, and that what was on the website appeared not to be complete.
Anglin wrote in a post published Thursday that nationalist groups from the United Kingdom, Sweden, France and Greece will attend the march. He also confirmed that “a representative of Hamas will be in attendance, and will give a speech about the international threat of the Jews.”
He said that participants will march through the center of Whitefish, and end at Memorial Park, where several people will speak.
Whitefish is home to white supremacist leader Richard Spencer, president of the National Policy Institute, a white supremacist think tank, as well as his mother. In November, Spencer spoke at a white supremacist event in Washington, D. C., celebrating President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in which he called out “Hail Trump!” and was greeted by Nazi salutes.
The Daily Stormer published a blog post last month calling for followers to “take action” against Jews in Whitefish by writing and calling them with anti-Semitic messages. The post claimed that Jewish residents were “threatening” the business run by Spencer’s mother in the town.
The post included the names, phone numbers and addresses of Jewish Whitefish residents, as well as their photos emblazoned with yellow stars. It also showed the Twitter handle and photo of a child. Along with using a number of anti-Semitic slurs, the post warned readers against using “violence or threats of violence or anything close to that.”
“All I have asked for is an apology and a vow to stop harassing Richard Spencer’s mother in the future,” Anglin wrote Thursday, saying that his request has been refused by human rights activist Tanya Gersh and the Love Lives Here organization. Gersh is a local real estate agent.
“This is absolutely insane, and shows the mentality of Jews,” Anglin said of the lack of an apology.
“And they will rue the day, as they see two hundred skinhead Alt-Right Nazis marching with a guy from Hamas carrying machine guns through the center of their town!”
There are about 100 known Jewish households in Whitefish and nearby Kalispell, part of the Flathead Valley.
Montana lawmakers and faith leaders have issued statements in support of the Whitefish community.
Whitefish has a population of about 6,000 full-time residents and is home to a ski resort on Big Mountain called Whitefish Mountain Resort.
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Mike Pence is defending his President-elect Donald Trump’s tweets casting doubt on the U. S. intelligence community’s assessment that the Russian government was behind the hacking of the DNC and the Clinton campaign.
But in a subtle but notable move, Pence has backed up his running mate without ever saying that he agrees with Mr. Trump’s skeptical view of the nation’s intelligence services.
In a recent tweet, President-elect Trump appeared to side with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over U. S. intelligence. President of Diligence LL…
At a Capitol Hill press conference on Wednesday, Pence called Mr. Trump’s skepticism “very sincere” and “healthy.”
“Given some of the intelligence failures of recent years, the President-elect made it clear to the American people that he’s skeptical about conclusions from the bureaucracy,” Pence said with House Republican leaders at his side as he justified Mr. Trump’s tweets.
“I think the American people hear him loud and clear,” Pence added.
Those comments come ahead of a Friday briefing where the duo will be briefed by the heads of major intelligence and law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and CIA, about the hacks.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly said he was unsure if Russia was responsible for the hacks and has argued that “we ought to get on with our lives.” On Wednesday, Trump on Twitter referenced comments by Julian Assange, the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks and the publisher of many of the Democratic emails, to push back on the assertion that Russia was behind the hacks.
Julian Assange said “a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta” – why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!
Previous comments by Pence suggest that he actually may not totally agree with Trump on the hacking issue. At the very least, the two are striking markedly different tones.
In a mid-October interview with Fox News Sunday, Pence was asked whether he believed Russia was behind the hacks and whether it trying to influence the election. “I think there’s no question that the evidence continues to point in that direction,” he said at the time, “and we should follow it where it leads.”
He continued: “There should be severe consequences to Russia or any sovereign nation that is compromising the privacy or the security of the United States of America.”
Upon receiving his first intelligence briefing as a Vice Presidential candidate in September, Pence also expressed his “gratitude” to U. S. intelligence personnel and spoke glowingly of their “professionalism” and “thoroughness.” That briefing happened around the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks .
“The American people owe a debt of gratitude to the thousands of men and women each and every day who get up and ensure that we have the information to ensure a day like that never happens again in America,” Pence said at the time.
Trump has been far less effusive of his praise of American spies. After it became clear the CIA believes Russia performed the hacks with the intention of helping Trump , the president-elect’s team responded by mocking the agency over its performance in the lead-up to the Iraq War.
“These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,” read a statement from Mr. Trump’s transition team. “The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It’s now time to move on and ‘Make America Great Again.’”
President- elect Trump continues to level new criticism at the community despite plans for an intelligence briefing on Friday. Justice and Homela…
Mr. Trump’s skepticism toward the reports into Russian involvement in the hacking have met a mixed response from his fellow Republicans. A few, most notably Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain , have emphatically defended US intelligence and pushed back against Trump’s doubts.
“This was done by the Russians, and I hope by Friday, President-elect Trump will come to that realization,” Graham said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday, urging Trump to “condemn” and “ignore” Assange.
Graham also called Trump’s tweets on the issue “very disturbing.”
On Thursday morning, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and NSA head Admiral Mike Rogers will testify before at a hearing convened by McCain, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, which will address Russian hacking during the election.
Some Republicans who are inclined to be hawkish on Russia without criticizing Trump struggled on Wednesday. Rep. Martha Blackburn was asked in an interview with CNN whether she viewed Assange, who has repeatedly published sensitive U. S. documents pertaining to national security, as a credible source. “Mr. Trump has a direct line of communication with the American people,” she began, in an apparent attempt to dodge the question.
“I don’t know if I would put a whole lot of trust in Julian Assange…it’s not someone that I put on page one to find out what’s going on,” she then said when pressed on the issue.
Despite calling the Wikileaks founder a “sychophant for Russia,” Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan declined to weigh in on Trump’s tweets in a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt Wednesday morning. But the Speaker expressed hope that Trump would “get up to speed about what has been happening and be better informed about it.”
While the intelligence community remains united that Russia was behind the hacks that reportedly interfered with the election, President-elect Tr…
Other Republicans have joined in Trump’s attacks against the nation’s intelligence services and gone even further than the President elect. Last month, New York Republican Rep. Peter King, the former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and currently a member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, asserted that CIA director John Brennan orchestrated a “hit job” on Trump.
For their part, Democrats, who generally are more critical of the CIA and other intelligence services, have come to the defense of the agencies in response to Trump.
“To suggest that we don’t have sophisticated tools that allow us to know who has conducted hacks is ill informed and to suggest that somehow that we should rely more on Julian Assange than the intelligence community is deeply misguided,” Democratic Senator Chris Coons declared late Wednesday afternoon at a press conference following a meeting with Rex Tillerson, Trump’s pick for Secretary of State.
“I suspect there is going to be a strong bipartisan pushback,” Coons predicted, “if the president elect and senior leaders in his administration continue along this path.”

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US spy chiefs were set to confront an openly dismissive President-elect Donald Trump Friday with their evidence that Russia mounted an unprecedented bid to disrupt the US elections by hacking his Democratic rivals.
The meeting comes amid high tension between the leaders of the US intelligence community and their future boss, who has bridled at any suggestion that Moscow tipped the election in his favor.
“My hope is that when the president-elect receives his own briefings and is able to examine the intelligence, as his team is put together and they see how professional and effective these agencies are, that some of those current tensions will be reduced,” President Barack Obama told Chicago’s NBC affiliate on Thursday.
After Trump first raised doubts early last month, Obama ordered the intelligence community to produce a comprehensive report on cyberattacks and Russian interference in the election.
Obama was briefed on the report Thursday, and the intelligence chiefs were scheduled to detail it to Trump on Friday.
James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, National Security Agency chief Mike Rogers, Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey and Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan were expected to take part in the briefing.
– ‘High confidence’ –
Clapper told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday he had “very high” confidence in their findings.
“The Russians have a long history of interfering in elections, theirs and other people’s,” he said. “But we have never encountered such a direct campaign to interfere with the election process as we have seen in this case. ”
“This was a multifaceted campaign. So the hacking was only one part of it, and it also entailed classical propaganda, disinformation, fake news. ”
Clapper, Rogers and Marcel Lettre, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, said in a joint statement that “only Russia’s senior-most officials” could have authorized the operation, in which hackers stole Democratic Party files and emails.
Those files were then disseminated via WikiLeaks, embarrassing the party and harming losing candidate Hillary Clinton’s White House effort.
“Russia has clearly assumed an even more aggressive cyber posture by increasing cyber espionage operations, leaking data stolen from these operations and targeting critical infrastructure systems,” Clapper said.
– Trump’s doubts –
Trump, who has pledged a rapprochement with President Vladimir Putin’s Russia after taking office on January 20, has repeatedly dismissed the findings.
The Republican has mocked via Twitter past intelligence errors of the CIA, FBI and other agencies, challenging them to prove that the hacking and leaks could be traced up to the top of Putin’s government.
Late Thursday, he again asked “how and why are they so sure about hacking,” claiming that the DNC prevented the FBI from accessing their servers. BuzzFeed News reported that the FBI had in fact never asked to examine them.
US officials familiar with the report told CNN that the liaisons who delivered the stolen emails from Russia to WikiLeaks had been identified.
And US intelligence agencies intercepted communications from senior Russian officials indicating they had celebrated Trump’s victory as a win for Moscow, according to a report in The Washington Post.
An unclassified version of the report presented to the president — stripped of sensitive details — will be released to the public early next week.
“I think the public should know as much about this as possible,” Clapper said.
Nevertheless, Thursday’s much-anticipated hearing did not offer any new evidence to back the allegations.
When asked by senators to provide more proof, Clapper repeatedly said he could not do so in public, saying it risked damaging the intelligence community’s sources and operations.
“We have invested billions, and we have put people’s lives at a risk to glean such information,” he said.
– Soured relations –
Friday’s briefing for Trump will come amid worries he has already poisoned relations with key parts of the all-important national security establishment.
Trump raised more hackles on Wednesday by citing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to suggest that anyone, even a 14-year-old child, could have been behind the hacking.
Under strong criticism from politicians of both parties for placing more credibility in Assange than the CIA and FBI, Trump defended himself Thursday.
“The media lies to make it look like I am against ‘Intelligence’ when in fact I am a big fan! ” Trump said on Twitter.
“The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange – wrong. I simply state what he states, it is for the people…to make up their own minds as to the truth. ”
Without naming Trump, Clapper said there was “a difference between healthy skepticism and disparagement” of the intelligence community.
“And I’ve received many expressions of concern from foreign counterparts about, you know, the disparagement of the US intelligence community,” he said.
“Public trust and confidence in the intelligence community is crucial,” he said.

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