Potential explosives sent to Hillary Clinton, Obama, Time Warner

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK - Police intercepted suspected explosive devices sent to former U.S. President Barack Obama, former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the CNN bureau in New York that apparently targeted figures disparaged by right-wing critics two weeks before U.S. congressional elections.

With the country deeply polarized under President Donald Trump, the packages brought a new level of tension to political contests that will decide whether Democrats can challenge the majorities now held by Trump's Republicans in Congress.

The package to Clinton was found late Tuesday while the one addressed to Obama was recovered early Wednesday, both during routine off-site mail screenings, the Secret Service said. Obama and Clinton were not at risk, they said.

A bomb was delivered earlier this week to the suburban New York home of George Soros, a major Democratic Party donor.

The Time Warner Center housing a CNN newsroom in New York was evacuated "out of an abundance of caution" after a suspicious package was received in the mail room, CNN President Jeff Zucker said in a note to employees. He said CNN was checking its bureaus worldwide.

New York police issued an emergency alert urging people around the building, which is on the southern edge of Central Park, to "shelter in place." Police later said they had safely removed the suspicious device from the Time Warner Center.

CNN is a frequent target of Trump, who routinely calls the news media the "enemy of the people" and belittles critical coverage as "fake news."

CNN reported the package it received was addressed to former CIA director John Brennan, a periodic guest commentator on the cable network.

Brennan, who led the CIA under Obama, has been an outspoken critic of Trump, calling the president's performance during a July joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki "nothing short of treasonous."

Trump in August revoked Brennan's security clearance in retaliation for the criticism.

The White House, in a statement, condemned the attempted attacks on Obama and Clinton.

"These terrorizing acts are despicable, and anyone responsible will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said. "The United States Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies are investigating and will take all appropriate actions to protect anyone threatened by these cowards."

Trump was briefed on the suspicious packages "and we're taking it very seriously," said a senior White House official.

In Florida, the building that houses the office of U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a former Democratic Party national chairwoman, was evacuated after a suspicious package arrived in the mail, WFOR-TV in Miami reported, citing Sunrise police.

Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers condemned the attempted attacks, saying political violence has no place in the United States, even as some Democrats said Trump's rhetoric was escalating tensions.

"Words matter. Leadership matters. This is the country @realDonaldTrump has created, and he must condemn such acts of terrorism in the strongest terms," Democratic U.S. Representative David Price tweeted.

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, the top Republican in Congress, called the acts "reprehensible," adding, "We cannot tolerate any attempt to terrorize public figures."

The package addressed to Clinton at her home in the New York suburb of Chappaqua was an explosive device, the New York Times reported.

Former President Bill Clinton was home when the device was intercepted at a Secret Service facility not near the Clintons' home, MSNBC reported. It said Hillary Clinton was in Florida attending fundraising events.

A federal law enforcement official told Reuters that more than one of the packages appears to have the same construction or design. Another source told Reuters the FBI was still evaluating whether the suspicious packages contained dangerous or explosive materials.

The Chappaqua Patch, a local news website, citing a law enforcement official, reported the devices sent to Soros, Obama and Clinton appeared to be a pipe bomb. "Not fancy but definitely functional," the official said.

The New York Police Department's bomb squad said the package at the Time Warner Center, which also houses stores and restaurants, appeared to be an explosive device, CNN reported.

The discovery of the packages came after a small bomb was found earlier this week at the home of billionaire liberal donor Soros in the New York City suburb of Katonah, about 10 miles (16 km) from the Clintons' home.

"Nothing made it to their home," Bill Clinton's spokesman said in an email. A spokesman for Hillary Clinton referred queries to the Secret Service statement. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Trump revokes ex-CIA chief's security clearance, slamming critic

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump moved to penalize a sharp critic on Wednesday, revoking the security clearance of Obama-era CIA Director John Brennan for making what he called "a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations" about his administration.

The Republican president, in a statement read to reporters by White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, also announced he was evaluating whether other former high-ranking officials, all of whom have criticized him, should have their security clearances withdrawn as well.

The decision came a day after Brennan, who headed the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency under Democratic President Barack Obama, leveled a blistering attack against Trump for the president's tweeted criticism of former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, who wrote a book critical of Trump.

"It’s astounding how often you fail to live up to minimum standards of decency, civility, & probity. Seems like you will never understand what it means to be president, nor what it takes to be a good, decent, & honest person. So disheartening, so dangerous for our Nation," Brennan wrote.

Trump, without mentioning specific comments made by Brennan, said the former CIA leader had engaged in "frenzied commentary" and had sought to "sow division and chaos" about the Trump administration.

"Mr. Brennan has recently leveraged his status as a former high-ranking official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations – wild outbursts on the internet and television – about this administration," Trump said.

Brennan, in a tweet, said he would not back down.

"This action is part of a broader effort by Mr. Trump to suppress freedom of speech & punish critics. It should gravely worry all Americans, including intelligence professionals, about the cost of speaking out. My principles are worth far more than clearances. I will not relent," he said. Trump said he may also revoke the clearances of other critics, including former U.S. national intelligence director James Clapper, former FBI Director James Comey, former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice, former National Security Agency director Michael Hayden and former deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, among others.

Also on the list was Bruce Ohr, a current Justice Department official in the criminal division.

"BANANA REPUBLIC"

Republican lawmakers gave mixed reviews to Trump's decision, with some criticizing it and others saying Brennan had acted inappropriately with his comments about the president.

“I don’t like it at all," said Republican Senator Bob Corker, referring to Trump's decision. "It feels very much like a banana republic kind of thing.”

Brennan has frequently appeared on cable television news shows and sent out lashing tweets to attack Trump's foreign policy positions.

He was particularly biting about the president's joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki a month ago. Trump said he tended to believe Putin's denials about Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election despite the U.S. intelligence community view that Moscow was to blame.

Brennan suggested in a tweet that Trump could be impeached, saying his performance in Helsinki "rises to & exceeds the threshold of 'high crimes & misdemeanors'” and was "nothing short of treasonous."

High-ranking government officials sometimes retain their security clearances after leaving office, allowing them the ability to provide advice as needed to their successors.

"At this point in my administration, any benefits that senior officials might glean from consultations with Mr. Brennan are now outweighed by the risks posed by his erratic conduct and behavior ... That conduct and behavior has tested and far exceeded the limits of any professional courtesy that has been due to him," Trump said.

Brennan faces no formal charges or allegations of violating any regulations or laws. Another former CIA director, John Deutch, had his security clearance revoked in 1999, three years after he resigned as CIA chief, after he violated security rules for keeping classified information on computers at his home.

Ned Price, a former National Security Council spokesman for Obama and former CIA official, said Trump was trying to shift public attention away from the critical book by Manigault Newman.

"The proximate target was John Brennan, but the real intent of today’s announcement was to simultaneously shift and silence," he said.

"The White House knows as well as anyone that Brennan, in his criticism of Trump, has never disclosed classified information. And that’s always been the metric when it comes to a revocation of a clearance," Price said.

Hayden, asked for his response to Trump’s announced review of his security clearance, replied in an email, “Meh.” “With regard to the implied threat today that I could lose my clearance, that will have no impact on what I think, say or write,” Hayden wrote. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

CIA chief warns Islamic State may have other attacks ready

WASHINGTON - CIA Director John Brennan warned on Monday that the attacks in Paris claimed by the extremist Islamic State movement were not a “one-off event” and that the militants may have similar operations ready to launch.

Foiling those plots, however, could prove difficult because Europe's intelligence and security resources are severely stretched trying to keep track of the hundreds of European extremists who have returned home from fighting in Syria and Iraq.

"A lot of our partners right now in Europe are facing a lot of challenges in terms of the numbers of individuals who have traveled to Syria and Iraq and back again, and so their ability to monitor and survey these individuals is under strain,” Brennan said.

Brennan’s comment at a Washington policy institute came as France, Belgium and other countries intensified a manhunt for suspects in Friday’s attacks on a concert hall, sports stadium, restaurants and bars in Paris that killed 129 people.

U.S. intelligence still hasn’t confirmed that the Islamic State was responsible, said Brennan. But, he added, the Paris attacks and the suspected bombing of a Russian airliner in Egypt on Oct. 31 that killed all 224 passengers and crew aboard “bear the hallmarks” of the Islamist group.

The Islamic State, which threatened in a new video on Monday to attack in Washington, appears to have formed an external operations branch that may have readied follow-up strikes to the Paris attacks, he said.

“I would anticipate that this is not the only operation that ISIL has in the pipeline,” Brennan said, using an acronym for the Islamic State. “And security intelligence services right now in Europe and other places are working feverishly to see what else they can do in terms of uncovering it.”

Careful planning for the Paris strikes is believed to have taken place over several months “in terms of making sure they had the operatives, the weapons, the explosives, the suicide belts,” Brennan said.

The attacks did not surprise the U.S. intelligence community, which had “strategic warning” that ISIL was planning to strike somewhere outside of the Middle East and was “looking at Europe in particular,” Brennan said.

“I certainly wouldn’t consider it (the Paris attacks) a one-off event,” he said.

One major problem is the huge burden that tracking extremists who’ve returned from Syria has imposed on resource-short European intelligence agencies, he said.

European officials estimate that as many as 5,000 Europeans have gone to fight in Syria since 2011. That number includes an estimated 1,400 French nationals, of whom some 900 have returned to France.

Moreover, between 10,000 and 20,000 individuals have been flagged by French authorities as potential security threats under a procedure known as an “S Notice,” said Roland Jacquard, a French counter-terrorism expert.

“We're in a situation where the services are overrun. They expect something to happen, but don't know where and you have to see how much stress they are under,” said Nathalie Goulet, the head of a French Senate investigation into jihadi networks.

Belgium, where investigators believe the Paris attacks were plotted, has been striving to keep track of more than 70 returnees from Syria. Officials estimate that 350 Belgium nationals have gone there to fight.

U.S. and European officials say that as many as two dozen to three dozen officers must work around the clock to keep a single suspect under full-time surveillance.

At least two men identified by French investigators as having carried out the Paris attacks were known to European and U.S. intelligence agencies before the carnage.

A Belgian man suspected of masterminding the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was identified in the New York Times in January as a prime suspect in a foiled plot to strike targets in Brussels. He also was known to U.S. spy agencies, said a U.S. government source.

Another problem confronting intelligence services is that militant groups have intensified their security measures as a result of “unauthorized disclosures,” said Brennan.

While he did not elaborate, Brennan may have been referring to former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations of the agency’s massive communications monitoring operations and leaks of classified documents by Wikileaks.

(Reporting by Jonathan S. Landay; Editing by Alistair Bell and Stuart Grudgings)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

CIA condemns 'malicious' hack of director's personal email

WASHINGTON - The CIA on Wednesday condemned the hacking of director John Brennan's personal email account, describing it as a crime and saying so far there was "no indication" that any classified information was released.

"The hacking of the Brennan family account is a crime and the Brennan family is the victim," the Central Intelligence Agency said after anti-secrecy campaign group WikiLeaks published documents it said had come from the account.

"The private electronic holdings of the Brennan family were plundered with malicious intent and are now being distributed across the web," it said.

"This attack is something that could happen to anyone and should be condemned, not promoted. There is no indication that any of the documents released thus far are classified."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com