What is #Pizzagate?

[Rory]

http://wamu.org/story/17/03/23/d-c-offi ... d-8-forum/

D.C. officials addressed the question of whether the city is seeing an increase in the number of teenagers going missing at a forum last night in Ward 8. At the meeting, entitled “Where are They Now?” concerned citizens and activists confronted Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. police commander Chanel Dickerson over the problem of the missing teens.

“This is truly an epidemic that’s been downplayed in our community,” said Ward 8 councilmember Trayon White. “We want to make sure that people know what’s going on and speak the truth to power and hold us elected officials accountable.”

[Searcher08]

http://wamu.org/story/17/03/23/d-c-officials-address-question-missing-teens-ward-8-forum/

D.C. officials addressed the question of whether the city is seeing an increase in the number of teenagers going missing at a forum last night in Ward 8. At the meeting, entitled “Where are They Now?” concerned citizens and activists confronted Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. police commander Chanel Dickerson over the problem of the missing teens.

“This is truly an epidemic that’s been downplayed in our community,” said Ward 8 councilmember Trayon White. “We want to make sure that people know what’s going on and speak the truth to power and hold us elected officials accountable.”

DC Police Chief “Mishandled” Case of Multiple Men Raping 11-Yr-Old Child: Reports

http://livingresistance.com/2017/02/06/dc-police-chief-mishandled-case-multiple-men-raping-11-yr-old-child/

Here he stands with Comet Ping Pong, the pizza place which was targeted by Russian hackers and neo-Nazis, both notorious for their poor sense of modern art appreciation, in order to smear John and Tony Podesta and David Brock of Media Matters, as part of a concerted attempt to vote-rig someone literally worse than Hitler into the Whitehouse and target Hilary Clinton and Democrats with invented demented occult cannibalism accusations.

[Rory]

There's just no end to the Russian menace.

Even good ol' American apple pie sex pest Anthony weiner was catfished by Soviet agents impersonating a midwest 15yo girl.

IS NOTHING SACRED!!?

[seemslikeadream]

thanks Rory ..I appreciate the heads up


BRING .... IT.... ON

FBI’S RUSSIA PROBE EXPANDS TO INCLUDE ‘PIZZAGATE’ THREATS
BY JEFF STEIN ON 3/22/17 AT 8:13 PM
What Is Pizzagate? The Fake News Scandal Explained
U.S.PIZZAGATEDONALD TRUMP
The FBI’s widening investigation into Russian subversion is now looking into continuing threats against a Washington, D.C. pizza shop targeted by right-wing conspiracy mongers.

Comet Ping Pong Pizza, a popular, family-oriented shop in an upscale northwest Washington, D.C. neighborhood, came under relentless online attack last year because of its owner’s friendship with senior members of the Hillary Clinton campaign as well as David Brock, founder of Media Matters for America, a website that tracks press coverage critical of the Clintons.

The perpetrators of the harassment alleged—without any evidence—that Comet pizza owner James Alefantis and the Clintons were operating a child-sex ring in the restaurant’s basement. Last December the flood of tweets, supercharged by anonymous online “bots,” motivated a 28-year-old North Carolina man, Edgar Madison Welch, to enter the shop with a loaded automatic rifle and fire off three rounds in search of the nonexistent basement sex chamber. Welch reached a plea deal on March 15 and is scheduled to appear in court Friday for sentencing.

According to McClatchy News, the FBI’s Russian-influence probe agents are exploring whether far-right news operations, including the pro-Donald Trump sites Breitbart News and Infowars, “took any actions to assist Russia’s operatives.” Trump’s ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn and his son, a member of the Trump transition team, were among those who boosted the so-called “PizzaGate” pedophile conspiracy theory.

Related: PizzaGate Resurfaces an Old Anti-Semitic Slander

As part of that probe, FBI agents on Monday interviewed a neighborhood friend of Alefantis. Newsweek is withholding the woman’s identity at her request. She told the agents that her mother had received a threatening call about her grandson Monday night, following the House intelligence committee’s daylong televised hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 elections and connections between unnamed Trump associates and the Kremlin.

“It was horrifying,” the woman said of the anonymous telephone call, in which a man relayed private details about her son. “It was an escalation” of the PizzaGate campaign, she said. “Someone’s spending time and money to harass me.”

The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

One of the principal proselytizers of the PizzaGate conspiracy appears to be David Seaman, a one-time unpaid Huffington Post contributor and author of Dirty Little Secrets of Buzz: How to Attract Massive Attention for Your Business, Your Product, or Yourself. Seaman's personal YouTube channel has been viewed over 6 million times since October 2016, when he began writing about PizzaGate.

According to one account, he is also "the founder of Shutterline Interactive, a vehicle for rapidly deploying publicity stunts.” In a 2008 YouTube interview to publicize his book, Seaman said, “I would protest gravity if I thought it was going to get me buzz.”

In an online March 3 video, he talked about his “Journey from HuffPo to PizzaGate.”

Related Stories
#Pizzagate Resurfaces an Old Anti-Semitic Slander
D.C. Gunman Was Driven by Fake News, Police Say

He and others are calling for a “March on Comet Pizza” on Saturday, March 25.

“If you don't know who David Seaman is, he's the self-appointed head spokesman of the Pizzagate movement,” according to another account on Reddit. “If you are a pizzagater, this association should make you very nervous, because David Seaman is a mentally unstable con man.”

He could not be reached for comment.
http://www.newsweek.com/pizzagate-trump ... man-572578

SAY WHAT?
Trump Nominee: Lax Deal for Billionaire Pedo Jeffrey Epstein Was ‘A Good Thing’
Trump’s labor secretary nominee Alexander Acosta defended his record as a U.S. Attorney and his secret non-prosecution deal with perverted billionaire and Trump pal, Jeffrey Epstein.
Brandy Zadrozny

03.22.17 12:20 PM ET


At his senate confirmation hearing Wednesday morning, labor secretary nominee Alexander Acosta generally described the secret non-prosecution deal he oversaw as U.S. Attorney with billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein as “a good thing.”
According to law enforcement officials and alleged victims, between the years 1998 and 2007, financier and playboy Jeffrey Epstein—who socialized with the likes of Donald Trump and Bill Clinton—ran a kind of sexual pyramid scheme in Florida, New York, and on his private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands where he paid minors as young as 13 years old to perform sexual massages and recruit other girls for the same. Police eventually caught up with Epstein—after his alleged serial abuse of some 50 girls—but a secret agreement with federal prosecutors, overseen by Acosta, resulted in an unusual sentence that critics, including the alleged victims and local police, felt was far too lenient and allowed a member of the rich elite to evade appropriate punishment for his crimes.
After a round of questions from senators about overtime, worker protections, department budgets, and job training, Democratic senator Tim Kaine got right to it on Wednesday, pulling out a recent Washington Post story that rehashed all of the Epstein ugliness.
Asked whether he had worked to keep the plea deal quiet, and whether he declined to indict Epstein on federal charges despite his own office’s desire to do so, Acosta said, “That is not accurate.”
Acosta went on to say that a difficulty in the Department of Justice is that it “does not litigate in the public record or the media, but in court.” Acosta said that Epstein case was originally a state matter and disputed the notion that he hadn’t acted aggressively, noting that had he not stepped in, Epstein could have been charged even more leniently under a local grand jury.
“The grand jury in Palm beach county recommended a single count which would have resulted in zero jail time, zero registration as a sex offender and zero restitution.”
Declining to discuss specifics of the Epstein case, Acosta called his office’s sealing of the draft indictment “pretty typical,” and defended the deal in general terms.
“At the end of the day, based on the evidence, professionals within a prosecutor’s office decide that a plea that guarantees someone goes to jail, that guarantees he register generally, and guarantees other outcomes is a good thing.”
“That was a broadly held decision,” Acosta said.

Police in Palm Beach County, Florida arrested Epstein in 2008, after a months-long investigation that included stakeouts and interviews of local girls whom they determined to be victims. They took that evidence to prosecutors and suggested the billionaire be charged with several felonies, including lewd and lascivious molestation and multiple counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor. If federal prosecutors had charged him according to police suggestions, the man with a little black book full of princes, presidents, and prime ministers could have faced 15 years in prison.
But after a meeting with Epstein’s high-priced and high-powered lawyers, including Gerald Lefcourt and Alan Dershowitz—who defended their client by reportedly having witnesses followed and discrediting alleged victims by offering their social media profiles as evidence that they weren’t as innocent as they claimed to be—state prosecutors recommended that Epstein be charged with a single misdemeanor. In response, the Palm Beach police chief wrote a letter to the Department of Justice asking that it step in.
It seemed to have little effect.

As an U.S. Attorney, Alex Acosta did get involved, but as he claimed in a 2011 letter, the state had been outmatched by Epstein, whose attorneys launched "a year-long assault" on prosecutors “more aggressive” than any Acosta had previously encountered.
“Our judgment in this case, based on the evidence known at the time, was that it was better to have a billionaire serve time in jail, register as a sex offender, and pay his victims restitution than risk a trial with a reduced likelihood of success,” he wrote in the letter.
In the end, Epstein paid settlements to dozens of accusers, and plead guilty to a single count of soliciting a minor. He served 13 months of an 18-month sentence in a Palm Beach county jail instead of state prison—16 hours of which, on every day but Sunday, he could spend at his home or in his office, due to a work release provision in the deal. Since 2008, Epstein has quietly paid settlements to scores of his alleged victims, and must register as a sex offender for life. Meanwhile, the women who allegedly procured girls for Epstein, referred to as “potential co-conspirators,” in the non-prosecution agreement, also received immunity from prosecution.
In the same 2011 letter, Acosta conceded that the work release and county jail location of his state sentence seemed like "highly unusual treatment" that "undermined the purpose of a jail sentence."
In 2016, several of Epstein’s alleged victims decried the plea deal, filing a civil lawsuit against the federal government and alleging Acosta’s office had violated their rights as victims by not notifying them of the secret agreement. The two sides have been in settlement talks since last summer, according to court documents. Brad Edwards, the attorney on behalf of the Jane Does, declined to comment on Acosta when reached by The Daily Beast, but has suggested he hopes the government will admit wrongdoing or perhaps pay a fine to resolve the case.
Federal prosecutors did offer some additional insight into Acosta’s decision during a 2015 hearing, were Assistant U.S. Attorney Dexter Lee suggested the alleged victims may have complicated any prosecution by the fact that they in turn became recruiters—finding additional victims, Lee said, for Epstein’s pyramid scheme in exchange for money.
"Your Honor, we believe there's an issue about whether or not Jane Does 1 and 2 may have been complicit in the offenses,” Lee said. “Specifically, that they themselves procured additional young women for Mr. Epstein and were paid commissions or referral fees for it.”
Epstein wasn’t the only scandal the labor secretary nominee was asked to address on Wednesday.
Senator Patty Murray questioned Acosta on his time as head of the civil rights division of the Department of Justice during the Bush administration between 2003 and 2005. During his tenure, the Department of Justice Inspector General found he relied on a subordinate, Bradley Schlozman, to make hiring decisions. Under Acosta’s watch, Schlozman illegally sought to purge liberal attorneys in favor of hiring more conservative, “real Americans” (as Schlozman put it). The Inspector General report never implicated Acosta himself in the department's politicization, but did determine he “took no action to investigate, bring the matter to the attention of their supervisors, or change Schlozman’s role in hiring for the Division.”
On that controversy, Acosta had little defense.
“That conduct should have never happened,” Acosta answered. “I deeply regret it.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... thing.html

President Trump on Witness List in Case Involving Pedophile Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein
by Rachel Stockman | 5:46 pm, March 14th, 2017

President Donald Trump is on the witness list for a civil trial, involving a Florida attorney, who represents convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein‘s alleged victims, and the disgraced billionaire himself.

“President Donald Trump has been identified as an individual who may have information relating to these allegations,” attorney Jack Scarola told LawNewz.com in an interview. Scarola is representing attorney Bradley Edwards, a party in the case.

Scarola told LawNewz.com that they have evidence that at least one of the now (former) employees at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club were recruited by Epstein’s agent to become involved in a pattern of alleged molestations.

The civil trial, which is expected to begin soon, is a complicated one and dates back to 2009. It involves allegations of malicious prosecution, and defamation filed by Florida attorney Bradley Edwards. Edwards also represents several of Epstein’s alleged victims who brought separate civil cases against Epstein. But, what is particularly interesting about this latest case is that it now appears to involve President Donald Trump himself.

In 2007, federal prosecutors, ironically under the leadership of Trump’s current Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta (who was a U.S. Attorney at the time), quietly entered into a secret non-prosecution agreement with the billionaire which ensured that Epstein and his ‘co-conspirators’ would not be prosecuted federally in exchange for Epstein’s guilty plea to state charges. Basically, Epstein got a slap on the wrist and served 13 months in a Florida prison and home detention for solicitation and procurement of minors for prostitution .

Court records in the civil case claim that Epstein repeatedly sexually assaulted more than 40 young girls on numerous occasions between 2002 and 2005 at his mansion in West Palm Beach, Florida.

While there is no evidence that Trump was involved in Epstein’s scheme, Bradley’s attorneys claim that “Trump and Epstein have acknowledged that they were friends, that they have socialized together. We have reason to believe that Trump was a guest in Epstein’s home during the period of time that Epstein was engaged in molestation.”

Trump is included on a witness list filed on August 31, 2016 along with Bill Richardson, the former governor of New Mexico.

In Bradley Edwards’ affidavit filed in support of the civil case, he claims that Mark Epstein (Jeffrey Epstein’s brother) testified that Trump flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane with him (the same plane where multiple young girls say they used to have sex.) Former President Bill Clinton is also said to have flown on that same plane.

“Epstein’s phone directory from his computer contains 14 phone numbers for Donald Trump, including emergency numbers, car numbers, and numbers to Trump’s security guard and houseman,” the affidavit claims.

“The likelihood is very low that he is deposed or called as a witness at trial,” Scarola explained in a story first reported by The Florida Bulldog, an investigative nonprofit. “There are, as you might imagine, substantial hurdles in calling a sitting U.S president and we don’t want any further delays on this case.”

The civil trial has been delayed several times, and a judge is expected to set a trial date shortly. We’ve reached out to Trump’s personal attorney for comment, and will update the story if we hear back.

This post has been updated to include a link to the Florida Bulldog website.
http://lawnewz.com/uncategorized/presid ... y-epstein/

Trump once called Epstein a 'terrific guy' in 2002. The president is now on the witness list in the Florida court battle over how federal prosecutors handled the allegations against Epstein. But lawyers said it's very unlikely Trump will be required to testify in the case

Trump's Labor Secretary nominee faces questions over why he cut a deal with pedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein instead of indicting him on federal sex crimes
Alexander Acosta is facing questions over plea deal he oversaw for pedophile
Billionaire sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida charges of soliciting prostitution and was sentenced to 18 months in prison
Lawsuit questions why Acosta, whose confirmation hearing is this week, cut deal with Epstein a decade ago instead of pursuing a federal indictment
Acosta defended decisions as best outcome given evidence available at the time
By Dailymail.com Reporter and Associated Press
PUBLISHED: 01:47 EDT, 22 March 2017 | UPDATED: 11:18 EDT, 22 March 2017

President Donald Trump's labor secretary nominee is facing questions over the unusual plea deal he oversaw for billionaire sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, while serving as US attorney in Miami.

Alexander Acosta made a deal with Epstein which meant he avoided federal prosecution and a potential life prison sentence when he was found guilty of soliciting prostitution in 2008.

He is now at the center of a lawsuit, which names President Donald Trump as a witness, which accuses him of mishandling the case a decade ago.

Critics, including attorneys for some underage victims of financier Epstein, claim the plea agreement was a 'sweetheart deal' made possible only by Epstein's wealth, connections and high-powered lawyers.

The story resurfaced just hours before his confirmation hearing for the secretary of labor was set to start.

President Donald Trump's labor secretary nominee Alexander Acosta (pictured) is facing questions over the unusual plea deal he oversaw for billionaire sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, while serving as US attorney in Miami
+4
President Donald Trump's labor secretary nominee Alexander Acosta (pictured) is facing questions over the unusual plea deal he oversaw for billionaire sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, while serving as US attorney in Miami

The lawsuit questions why Acosta, whose confirmation hearing is scheduled to begin Wednesday, cut a deal with Jeffrey Epstein (pictured) 10 years ago rather than pursuing a federal indictment
+4
The lawsuit questions why Acosta, whose confirmation hearing is scheduled to begin Wednesday, cut a deal with Jeffrey Epstein (pictured) 10 years ago rather than pursuing a federal indictment

Trump once called Epstein a 'terrific guy' in 2002, saying that 'he's a lot of fun to be with', adding that 'he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side', according to the Washington Post.

Lawyers told the Post that it's very unlikely Trump will be required to testify in the case.

The lawsuit questions why Acosta, whose confirmation hearing is scheduled to begin Wednesday, cut a deal with Epstein 10 years ago rather than pursuing a federal indictment, according to the Tribune.

Sen Patty Murray, the leading Democrat on the committee, said in a statement that she met with Acosta and is concerned about whether he would 'stand up to political pressure' and advocate for workers as labor secretary.

Acosta has defended his decisions as the best outcome given evidence available at the time.


'Some may feel that the prosecution should have been tougher. Evidence that has come to light since 2007 may encourage that view,' Acosta wrote in a March 2011 letter to media outlets after leaving the US attorney's office.

'Had these additional statements and evidence been known, the outcome may have been different. But they were not known to us at the time.'

Unlike Trump's original choice for labor secretary, Andrew Puzder, Acosta is expected to win confirmation.

The Florida International University law school dean was nominated after Puzder, a fast-food executive, withdrew over his hiring of an undocumented immigrant housekeeper and other issues.

Acosta, 48, has previously won Senate confirmation as Miami US attorney, head of the Justice Department's civil rights division and the National Labor Relations Board.

Trump once called Epstein a 'terrific guy' in 2002. The president is now on the witness list in the Florida court battle over how federal prosecutors handled the allegations against Epstein. But lawyers said it's very unlikely Trump will be required to testify in the case
+4
Trump once called Epstein a 'terrific guy' in 2002. The president is now on the witness list in the Florida court battle over how federal prosecutors handled the allegations against Epstein. But lawyers said it's very unlikely Trump will be required to testify in the case

He declined comment when asked about the Epstein case this week.

Epstein, now 64, pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida charges of soliciting prostitution and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, of which he served 13 months.

He was also required to register as a sex offender and pay millions of dollars in restitution to as many as 40 victims who were between the ages of 13 and 17 when the crimes occurred.

According to court documents, Epstein paid underage girls for sex, sexual massages and similar acts at a Palm Beach mansion he then owned as well as properties in New York, the US Virgin Islands and New Mexico.

Prosecutors say he had a team of employees to identify girls as potential targets.

After an investigation by local police, Palm Beach prosecutors decided to charge Epstein with aggravated assault, which would have meant no jail time, no requirement that he register as a sex offender and no guaranteed restitution for victims.

Unhappy local investigators went to Acosta's office, which opened a federal probe and eventually drafted a proposed 53-page indictment that could have resulted in a sentence of 10 years to life in prison for Epstein, if convicted.

With that as leverage, a deal was worked out for Epstein to plead guilty to state prostitution solicitation charges and the federal indictment was shelved.

Acosta has defended his decisions as the best outcome given evidence available at the time. 'Some may feel that the prosecution should have been tougher. Evidence that has come to light since 2007 may encourage that view,' Acosta wrote in a March 2011 letter
Jeffrey Epstein
Acosta has defended his decisions as the best outcome given evidence available at the time. 'Some may feel that the prosecution should have been tougher. Evidence that has come to light since 2007 may encourage that view,' Acosta wrote in a March 2011 letter

It didn't stop there. Epstein's lawyers worked out an unusual and secret 'non-prosecution agreement' to guarantee neither Epstein nor his employees would ever face federal charges.

'This agreement will not be made part of any public record,' the deal between Epstein and Acosta says, according to the Tribune. The document was unsealed by a federal judge in a civil lawsuit in 2015.

In his 2011 letter, Acosta defended his decisions as the best possible outcome.

'Our judgment in this case, based on the evidence that was known at the time, was that it was better to have a billionaire serve time in jail, register as a sex offender and pay his victims restitution than risk a trial with a reduced likelihood of success,' Acosta wrote.

'I supported that judgment then, and based on the state of the law as it then stood and the evidence known at the time, I would support that judgment again.'

In the letter, Acosta acknowledged that 'some prosecutors felt that we should just go to trial, and at times I felt that frustration myself.'

Epstein, now 64, pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida charges of soliciting prostitution and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, of which he served 13 months
+4
Epstein, now 64, pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida charges of soliciting prostitution and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, of which he served 13 months

He said that Epstein 'received highly unusual treatment while in jail,' including being allowed to serve much of his sentence in the county jail rather than a state prison, and being permitted to leave the jail six days a week to work at home before returning to jail to sleep, according to the Tribune.

'The treatment that he received while in state custody undermined the purpose of a jail sentence,' Acosta said.

Well-known Miami defense lawyer Joel DeFabio, who has represented numerous defendants in sex cases, said he had never heard of such an agreement before Epstein's came to light.

DeFabio said he has had clients with far less egregious sex charges — and far less wealth — who were sentenced to 10 or 15 years behind bars. DeFabio tried to use the Epstein case to argue for more lenient sentences.

'There still has been no clear explanation as to why Epstein received such preferential treatment,' DeFabio said. 'This thing just stinks. The elite take care of their own.'

The non-prosecution agreement became public in a related civil case, leading two Epstein victims — identified only as Jane Does No. 1 and 2, to file a victims' rights lawsuit claiming they were improperly left in the dark about the deal. The lawsuit, which is still pending, seeks to reopen the case to expose the details and possibly nullify the agreement.

Other victims have come forward, including one woman who claimed as a teenager that Epstein flew her around the world for sexual escapades, including encounters with Britain's Prince Andrew. Buckingham Palace has vehemently denied those claims.

The Justice Department's position in the victims' rights lawsuit is that since no federal indictment was ever filed, the victims were not entitled to notification about the non-prosecution agreement. Settlement talks last fall went nowhere.

'There will not be a settlement. That case will eventually get to trial,' said Bradley Edwards, attorney for the two Jane Doe victims.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z4cGuqtlPq

[Luther Blissett]

oh yea she was on Dr. Phil yesterday ...didn't say anything about pizza gate

she is a real survivor

What do you make of her decision to go to Dr Phil?

I'm not really in the business of doubting people who would put themselves out there as survivors.

I am in the business of questioning neo-nazis who are scared of art and invent scandals out of whole cloth, discrediting real survivors and actual research into stopping real pedophile rings.

[Searcher08]

oh yea she was on Dr. Phil yesterday ...didn't say anything about pizza gate

she is a real survivor

What do you make of her decision to go to Dr Phil?

I'm not really in the business of doubting people who would put themselves out there as survivors.

I am in the business of questioning neo-nazis who are scared of art and invent scandals out of whole cloth, discrediting real survivors and actual research into stopping real pedophile rings.

Name a single real survivor who has been discredited. Just one.

Name a single piece of actual research into stopping real pedophile rings that has been discredited. Just one.

[Luther Blissett]

It's all up to the court of public opinion, which was already on shaky ground to begin with as regards issues like McMartin, Epstein, Trump, Berlusconi, and Clinton. Have you not in witnessed people say, "oh, that's just more of that ping pong stuff?"

Why not focus on real people and their testimonies?

[seemslikeadream]

there were real victims of pizzagate?

I must have missed that...would someone please name them?

not counting the owner of the pizza shop

[Iamwhomiam]

Well, there was that guy with the gun.

[Luther Blissett]

there were real victims of pizzagate?

I must have missed that...would someone please name them?

not counting the owner of the pizza shop

He means "name a real survivor discredited by the ping pong philistine fairytale".

[liminalOyster]

oh yea she was on Dr. Phil yesterday ...didn't say anything about pizza gate

she is a real survivor

What do you make of her decision to go to Dr Phil?

I'm not really in the business of doubting people who would put themselves out there as survivors.

I am in the business of questioning neo-nazis who are scared of art and invent scandals out of whole cloth, discrediting real survivors and actual research into stopping real pedophile rings.

Sorry if it came across otherwise - I am most definitely not in said business either. But I'm not sure what to make of the decision to go to said venue.

[PufPuf93]

One almost has to wonder if Jones is worried about a legal issue.

Or maybe Jones is adding fog to obscure the story.

http://www.newsweek.com/alex-jones-apol ... ews-574025


Alex Jones Apologizes for 'Pizzagate' Fake News

By Tom O'Connor On 3/24/17 at 4:52 PM


What Is Pizzagate? The Fake News Scandal Explained

Conservative radio host Alex Jones apologized Friday for promoting an anti-government conspiracy theory that allegedly inspired one man to open fire in a Washington restaurant last year.

Broadcasting from his website InfoWars, Jones said he was not the author of the so-called "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory, but regretted prior comments made in support of it.

He specifically appealed to James Alefantis, owner of Comet Ping Pong. The Washington pizza place was one of several that the theory's supporters believed hosted a child-sex trafficking ring sponsored by Democratic Party officials. In December, 28-year-old Edgar Maddison Welch entered the restaurant and opened fire with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle without any reported injuries. After his arrest, Welch claimed he was motivated to take action based on his belief of the theory and that he was an avid listener of Jones' radio show.

"I want our viewers and listeners to know that we regret any negative impact our commentaries may have had on Mr. Alefantis, Comet Ping Pong, or its employees. We apologize to the extent our commentaries could be construed as negative statements about Mr. Alefantis or Comet Ping Pong, and we hope that anyone else involved in commenting on Pizzagate will do the same thing," Jones said in a prepared statement.


Jones had previously supported the "Pizzagate" theory on his show and website, including a video entitled "PIZZAGATE: The Bigger Picture" posted days before the Comet Ping Pong attack. In the segment, Jones purported to link a number of high-profile pedophilia cases to a major operation led by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her campaign chief John Podesta and using underground tunnels to traffic young children through the city. The rumors, which were widely discredited by authorities, were further fueled by the hacking and release of private Democratic Party emails, which conspiracy theorists alleged used code words to refer to the child abuse ring.

[seemslikeadream]

maybe it has something to do with this

Breitbart and Infowars under investigation for ties to Russia: report

March 20, 2017
Peter Stone and Greg Gordon
McClatchy Washington Bureau
Posted with permission from Tribune Content Agency

WASHINGTON — Federal investigators are examining whether far-right news sites played any role last year in a Russian cyber operation that dramatically widened the reach of news stories — some fictional — that favored Donald Trump's presidential bid, two people familiar with the inquiry say.
......

The bots' end products were largely millions of Twitter and Facebook posts carrying links to stories on conservative internet sites such as Breitbart News and InfoWars, as well as on the Kremlin-backed RT News and Sputnik News, the sources said. Some of the stories were false or mixed fact and fiction, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the bot attacks are part of an FBI-led investigation into a multifaceted Russian operation to influence last year's elections.

Investigators examining the bot attacks are exploring whether the far-right news operations took any actions to assist Russia's operatives. Their participation, however, wasn't necessary for the bots to amplify their news through Twitter and Facebook.

The investigation of the bot-engineered traffic, which appears to be in its early stages, is being driven by the FBI's Counterintelligence Division, whose inquiries rarely result in criminal charges and whose main task has been to reconstruct the nature of the Kremlin's cyberattack and determine ways to prevent another.

An FBI spokesman declined to comment on the inquiry into the use of bots.

Russia-generated bots are one piece of a cyber puzzle that counterintelligence agents have sought to solve for nearly a year to determine the extent of the Moscow government's electronic broadside.

"This may be one of the most highly impactful information operations in the history of intelligence," said one former U.S. intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Bureau Director James Comey confirmed Monday at a House Intelligence Committee hearing what long has been reported: that the FBI is investigating possible links between individuals in the Trump presidential campaign and the Russian campaign to influence the election and whether there was any coordination between the two.

......

U.S. intelligence agencies charged in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered the offensive, in which cyber operatives also hacked tens of thousands of emails from Democratic National Committee staff, Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta and other Democrats.

.......

As for the bots, they carried links not only to news stories but also to Democratic emails posted on WikiLeaks, especially those hacked from Podesta and made public in October, said Philip Howard, a professor at the Oxford University Internet Institute who has researched the bot attacks.

Howard said that, as an example, bots had spread links to fictional stories that accused Clinton of involvement in running a child-sex ring in the basement of a Washington pizza parlor. The posts inspired a North Carolina man to drive to Washington and fire an assault weapon in the restaurant, according to police reports.

Howard's study of bot-generated Twitter traffic during last fall's Trump-Clinton campaign debates showed that bot messages favorable to Trump significantly outnumbered those sympathetic to Clinton.

He said his research showed that Americans who call themselves "patriotic programmers" also activated bots to aid Trump. In interviews, they described coding the computer commands in their spare time, Howard said.

Unlike counterintelligence investigators with more cyber sleuthing capabilities, Howard has not established that Russia was the source of the bot attacks he studied.

Russia also used "trolls," hundreds of computer operatives who pretended to be Trump supporters and posted stories or comments on the internet complimentary to Trump or disparaging to Clinton. Sources close to the inquiry said those operatives likely worked from a facility in St. Petersburg, Russia, dedicated to that tactic.

"Russian bots and internet trolls sought to propagate stories underground," said Mike Carpenter, a former senior Pentagon official during the Obama administration whose job focused on Russia. "Those stories got amplified by fringe elements of our media like Breitbart."

"They very carefully timed release of information to shift the news cycle away from stories that clearly hurt Mr. Trump, such as his inappropriate conduct over the years," he said, referring to the October release of a video in which Trump bragged about grabbing women's genitals. That event corresponded with a surge in bot-related traffic spreading anti-Clinton stories.

An additional Russian tool was the news from its prime propaganda machine, Russia Today, with a global television and digital media operation and a U.S. arm, RT America.

Last Nov. 19, Breitbart announced that its website traffic had set a record the previous 31 days with 300 million page views, driven substantially by social media.

Breitbart, which has drawn criticism for pursuing a white nationalist agenda, was formerly led by Stephen Bannon, who became chief executive officer of Trump's election campaign last August and now serves as Trump's strategic adviser in the White House. The news site's former national security editor, Sebastian Gorka, was a national security adviser to Trump's campaign and presidential transition team. He now works as a key Trump counterterrorism adviser.

Breitbart's chief executive officer, Larry Solov, did not respond to phone and email requests seeking comment.

Bannon and Gorka have controversial profiles. Bannon has been accused of taking anti-immigrant and racist positions. Last week, the Jewish newspaper Forward reported that Gorka had taken a lifelong loyalty oath to a Hungarian far-right group that for decades was allied with the Nazi Party.

The White House declined to respond to questions about Gorka.

Breitbart is partially owned by Robert Mercer, the wealthy co-founder of a New York hedge fund and a co-owner of Cambridge Analytica, a small, London-based firm credited with giving Trump a significant advantage in gauging voter priorities last year by providing his campaign with at least 5,000 data points on each of 220 million Americans.

InfoWars is published by Alex Jones, a Texas-based conservative talk show host known for embracing conspiracy theories such as one asserting that the U.S. government was involved in the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. During the 2016 campaign, InfoWars.com was a loyal Trump public relations tool. Trump was on Jones' show and praised his reporting.

Jones responded to questions from McClatchy on his talk show.

......

"The full impact of the bots was subterranean and corrosive," Podesta, Clinton's campaign chairman, told McClatchy in an interview. "The distribution channels were being flooded with this information. ... We perhaps underestimated the strategy of pushing fake news out through social media and how it impacted the race."

.....
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/breitba ... ia-report/

[divideandconquer]

If this has been posted already, I apologize. Anyway, I found this at Deep Politics Forum. The Twitter video in the second link is so disturbing I couldn't click on the last link because I suppose it's more of the same. Many people think it's John Podesta screaming at /hitting a child.

David Seaman offers screenshots of a story detailing FBI arrests at an orphanage in Ohio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkr1Owrn8e4

Much more disturbing - rumours of someone hacking into the password protected section of the Comet Pizza site lead to this video. This video is non explicit - you can't see what's going on at all, nor recognise any figures or people - but it's not work safe. The audio is extremely distressing. An audio comparison is provided at the end of the clip. The man yelling at the kids does sound like Podesta.

https://twitter.com/suziedaud/status/831898824763379716

Words fail me. That clip is nightmarish.

EDIT: A second clip, just as bad. Again, the visuals are indecipherable, but the audio is horribly upsetting.

http://worldcorpo.net/content/video/each.mp4

From a Youtube comment -

the same man in question is screaming at a child who screams back: "SKIPPPY!"
"Skippy" is john podesta's evil alter-ego as per these wikileaks emails: [/COLOR]
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/55867

If there are any good figures in law enforcement who have the discretion and authority to do what they need to do, people are going to go down over this. No wonder the deep state is frantically trying to fight back right now.

[seemslikeadream]

what date was the arrest


video removed by user and there are no comments