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Apology...

The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Brennan, issued an extraordinary apology to leaders of the US Senate intelligence committee conceding that the agency employees spied on committee staff and reversing months of furious and public denials.

Brennan acknowledged that an internal investigation had found agency security personnel transgressed a firewall set up on a CIA network, which allowed Senate committee investigators to review agency documents for their landmark inquiry into CIA torture.

Among other things, it was revealed that agency officials conducted keyword searches and email searches on committee staff while they used the network.

The admission brings Brennan’s already rocky tenure at the head of the CIA under renewed question. One senator on the panel said he had lost confidence in the director, although the White House indicated its support for a man who has been one of Barack Obama’s most trusted security aides.

[Thu 31 Jul 2014 15.00 EDT Spencer Ackerman in New York - The Guardian.]

Wanted...

Need help, Avonatti is out of this business, can't provide any kind of witnesses. Currently he is busy with other urgent matters at the moment.

Timed...

Wingman...

Decision...

Decisions to start a war should not be taken lightly. The outcome of war is devastation to the young, the old, the families and those who serve. On the other side, it devastated humanities, and other countries. Say a prayer.

Hopes...

Former CIA Director John Brennan and former DNI James Clapper blasted President Trump for directing Attorney General William Barr to declassify documents related to the surveillance of his campaign during the 2016 election, calling it "outrageous.

"I see it as a very, very serious and outrageous move on the part of Mr. Trump, once again, trampling on the statutory authorities of the Director of National Intelligence and the heads of the independent intelligence agencies," 

Brennan told MSNBC host Chris Hayes. "And it's unclear to me what Mr. Barr is actually going to do. 

Is he investigating a crime? Well, what's the predication of that crime? Or he is just going to be looking for information... 

He later said he hopes that DNI Dan Coats and CIA Director Gina Haspel will "stand up" to President Trump's "unprecedented act."  ... Just a thought.

News

Anderson Cooper pressed a Facebook executive  over the company's decision to not remove a video that was altered to make it appear that Speaker Nancy Pelosi was slurring her words in a news conference. The video is seen by 2 million viewers.

"Anybody who is seeing this video in news feed, going to share it, know they are being alerted that this video is false,"  Monica Bickert responded. 

Cooper then pressed Bickert over whether Facebook had entered the "news business," questioning whether the company could be trusted to operate and make money by being a place for viewers to turn during major news events.

Cooper doesn't want any fake news generators by others, it is competition thing.  Just a thought.

Thrive...

Since its inception in 2015, ThriveNYC — the city's sprawling $850 million initiative to address a variety of mental health issues  has operated without much scrutiny or accountability.

With few public metrics by which to measure its success so far, and the broad strokes used by city officials to describe its operations, the city has offered little insight into how it has assessed Thrive's efficacy since it began.

It is difficult to establish a central, line-item budget delineating how the city is spending taxpayer dollars on the program.

Run by the mayor’s wife and closest adviser, Chirlane McCray, 

Two budget breakdowns acquired by POLITICO  one from City Hall and one from the Independent Budget Office  show significant differences in spending.

Who is thriving of thriveNYC?

"The money is in the wrong hand" said the husband.

Momentum...

Momentum is building toward uncovering the distasteful possibility that the targeting of a U.S. presidential campaign was actually a political operation, fostered at the highest levels of government, masquerading as an FBI counterintelligence investigation.

Attorney General William Barr has signaled his investigation extends beyond whether the FBI operated. Barr also wants to understand the role that the larger intelligence community, or IC, may have played in all of this.

Barr's use of the word "spying" appears more calculated than casual. "The FBI doesn't spy" became the sputtering counter-refrain of those trying to mask their nervousness.

But it also misses the point Barr appears to be making. The IC does spy; that's what they do. Barr may have been referring less to the FBI and more to the IC's possible murky involvements.