What Are the Democrats Hiding? by Publius Tacitus

The mainstream media appears to be working overtime to ignore the following story:

EXCLUSIVE: FBI Seized Smashed Hard Drives From Wasserman Schultz IT Aide’s Home

This is the story of Pakistani born Imran Awan. In late May the NY Post reported that:

The criminal probe into a cadre of Capitol Hill techies who worked for dozens of Democratic lawmakers remains shrouded in mystery, months after their access to congressional IT systems was suspended.

It’s still not clear whether the investigation by the Capitol Police into the five staffers, who all have links to Pakistan, involves the theft of classified information.

The staffers are accused of stealing equipment and possible breaches of the House IT network, according to Politico, which first reported on the investigation in February. . . .

In the midst of the criminal probe, Imran and Abid Awan are now being accused of more wrongdoing, this time by a member of their own family. Last month, their stepmother accused them of threatening her in order to force her to sign a power of attorney to gain access to assets in Pakistan.

 

In court papers filed in Fairfax County, Samina Gilani alleges her stepsons of wiretapping her phones, threatening to kidnap family members in Pakistan, and preventing her from seeing her dying husband in a Virginia hospital unless she granted them power of attorney. She also accused them of trying to remove her as the beneficiary of her husband’s $50,000 life-insurance policy. Her husband, Mohammad Ashref Shah, died in January, and the insurance payout is being disputed in court.

 

And in a recent twist in the criminal probe, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) demanded that Capitol Police Chief Matthew Verderosa return equipment belonging to her office that was seized as part of the investigation — or face “consequences.”

Virtually no one is paying attention to the fact that a group of Pakistani muslims, working for a Jewish Congresswoman from Florida, had full computer access to a large number of Democrat Representatives. Most of the press is disinterested in pursuing this matter.

Politico was the first on this story:

The five current and former House staffers are accused of stealing equipment from members’ offices without their knowledge and committing serious, potentially illegal, violations on the House IT network, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the probe. . . .

Awan has long-standing relationships with Meeks, Wasserman Schultz and Fudge. Meeks was one of the first lawmakers Awan worked for after coming to Capitol Hill in 2004. He joined Wasserman Schultz’s office in 2005 and started working for Fudge in 2008.

In addition, Meeks and, to a larger extent, Wasserman Schultz, are said to have a friendly personal relationship with Awan and his wife, according to multiple sources.

Awan made nearly $2 million since starting as an IT support staffer for House Democrats in 2004, according to public salary data. Alvi, who worked for House Democrats beginning in 2007, earned more than $1.3 million as an IT staffer during that time.

As shared employees, Awan, Alvi and their relatives worked for dozens of House Democrats at a time, meaning no one lawmaker was responsible for paying their full salary.

The access to the House IT network means that, at a minimum, Mr. Awan had access to the emails of several members of Congress. What are the odds that he had obtained compromising information? I would say high. But that is not the only possibility. Members of Congress running for office need money. Normally they steer clear of foreign money. Is it possible that Mr. Awan was knowledgeable of a scheme to bring in foreign money but disguise it as a domestic source? Or, and this is more far fetched, was Awan acting on behalf of a foreign intelligence organization to penetrate and monitor the Congressional email accounts?

No answers yet. The facts must be determined by investigation. I am in touch with a Pakistani friend who is investigating this matter. I am waiting eagerly to find out what he comes up with.

 

Comments

[dilbert dogbert]

Finally they will get the evidence on Chelsea Clinton's criminal actions at Benghazi!!!

[SteveSA]

VIDEO: Ex-Obama Official Evelyn Farkas Urges Intel Community to Compromise Sources, Methods

Evelyn Farkas, a former top Obama administration Defense Department official, has advocated for the intelligence community to consider compromising sources and methods when it comes to “saving American democracy.”
“And I know that we have to preserve our sources and methods,” Farkas said, speaking about the U.S. intelligence community. “But at some point you know, sometimes maybe you have to actually compromise some kind of source or method if it comes down to saving American democracy.”

http://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2017/07/25/video-ex-obama-official-advocated-spying-trump-urges-intel-community-compromise-sources-methods/

[SteveSA]

Jordan releases video showing US troops (Green Berets) surrendering before deadly shooting

A Jordanian military guard hunted down and ruthlessly killed three U.S. Special Forces soldiers as the men held their hands up in surrender, newly released video of the controversial November incident shows – contradicting the Jordan military’s original claim the American troops didn’t follow proper protocol when trying to enter the military base.

Security camera footage released Monday revealed details of the Nov. 4 shooting at King Faisal Air Base in southern Jordan where Staff Sgt. Matthew C. Lewellen, 27, Staff Sgt. Kevin J. McEnroe, 30, and Staff Sgt. James F. Moriarty, 27, were gunned down. The video had previously been shown to the families of the U.S. Army Green Berets.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/07/25/jordan-releases-video-showing-us-troops-surrendering-before-deadly-shooting.html

[TV]

Another contributor (would be) to the "silent coup."
How dare this county elect an unacceptable "orange buffoon", etc. to the Presidency - an office only to be held by a member-in-good-standing of the self-anointed "ruling class?"

[ked]

I wonder what William of Ockham might've made of the same reports.
Are there many Pakistani IT services working the gov sector in DC area?
Do small businesses sometimes experience troubling internal management events and behavioral dynamics?
Are there many members of Congress who are Jewish? Does being one indicate anything in particular?
Might a Congress-person reasonably desire the return of personal property containing personal information that was swept-up in a criminal investigation?
What is a "...said...friendly personal relationship"... what is the criteria for it being determinative of criminal behavior and by that standard, did a crime occur?
Was actual IT work performed and how did the invoiced amount compare to industry norms for equivalent contracted work for Congressional services?

I think it's great intellectual fun to generate alternative narratives for a given set of assertions. It may serve as a template for surfacing and evaluating corroborative evidence... or not. The razor may indeed be a good tool to separate wheat from chaff.

[John_Frank]

fyi According to Chad Pergram of FOX News:

Feds/USCP bust Hse IT staffer Imran Awan & charge him with multiple counts of bank fraud as part of Hse IT procurement scandal
https://twitter.com/ChadPergram/status/889943929050845184

Feds/USCP picked up Imran Awan at Dulles Aiport last night as he was "trying to leave the country." Has been arraigned. Surrendered passport
https://twitter.com/ChadPergram/status/889944148379394048

Awan had been at center of scandal where he allegedly double charged Hse for IT equipment & may have exposed Hse info online
https://twitter.com/ChadPergram/status/889944308257837056

Group of Hse Dems fired other Hse IT staffers probed by USCP. But Wasserman Schultz kept Awan on payroll. He was barred from Hse servers
https://twitter.com/ChadPergram/status/889944512038146052

Fox is told that Hse IT staffer Imran Awan is still on Hse payroll for moment under Wasserman Schultz.
https://twitter.com/ChadPergram/status/889944670498893824

Awan & his relatives worked for Hse IT for more than decade, earning hundreds of thousands of dollars. He declared bankruptcy in '12
https://twitter.com/ChadPergram/status/889944822429208576

[Kooshy]

It all sounds like attorney general Sessions is done, like Ann Richard said, he's done you can put a fork in him. It all reminds me of early days of watergate ( my first year in US) starting with small incremental leaks, followed with big newsprint and TV stories till the White House becomes overwhelmed and start acting irrationally and "illegally?" Who knows how much more he (DT) has, but IMO, he will not go out without a fight, but now I think, out, he will go, since no one in the establishment (media, gov, etc.) wants him or is willing to work with him. Unfortunately this will cause a period of instability which looks like Borg has accepted and is willing to pay the price.
Some in Iranian academic and intellectual circles believe, the reason Iran was able to scape the grip of US hegemonic control over Iran's politics back in seventies, was only possible under this similar circumstances of destabilization in US' global and internal policy and policy making. Then it was the cause of Vietnam and watergate.Now Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. and the Russian gate. It don't smell good.

[Sam Peralta]

Yes, looks like the dude was arrested at Dulles attempting to flee the country.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-25/wasserman-schultz-it-aide-arrested-dulles-airport-while-attempting-flee-country

"...Imran Awan being paid nearly $2 million working as an IT support staffer for House Democrats since 2004. Abid Awan and his wife, Hina Alvi, were each paid more than $1 million working for House Democrats. In total, since 2003, the family has collected nearly $5 million."

Nice change for IT services work!!

"Of course, if Republicans and/or members of the Trump administration hired foreign-born IT specialists who were suspected of committing a laundry list of federal crimes and then smashed a bunch of hard drives just before skipping town...we're sure the media would still gloss right over it in much the same way they're doing for the the Democrats in this instance."

Does Pakistani intelligence have a hand in the DNC "hack"?

[SteveSA]

Let me introduce you to one Faisal Ahmed, formerly of Karachi, Pakistan. Remember the OPM data breach? The Chinese have all the info of military, defense contractors, etc. OPM outsourced its IT to the Department of the Interior.

From Ars Technica:

Government IT official ran law enforcement data systems for years with faked degrees
Interior official resigned when caught, then took a job at Census Bureau.

SEAN GALLAGHER 7/16/2015

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/07/government-it-official-ran-law-enforcement-data-systems-for-years-with-faked-degrees/

The Department of the Interior's computer systems played a major role in the breach of systems belonging to the Office of Personnel Management, and DOI officials were called before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday to answer questions about the over 3,000 vulnerabilities in agency systems discovered in a penetration test run by Interior's Inspector General office. But there was one unexpected revelation during the hearing: a key Interior technology official who had access to sensitive systems for over five years had lied about his education, submitting falsified college transcripts produced by an online service.

The official, Faisal Ahmed, was assistant director of the Interior's Office of Law Enforcement and Security from 2007 to 2013, heading its Technology division. He claimed to have a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, and a master's degree in technology management from the University of Central Florida—but he never attended either of those schools. He resigned from his position at Interior when the fraudulent claim was exposed by a representative of the University of Central Florida's alumni association, who discovered he had never attended the school after Ahmed accepted and then suddenly deleted a connection with her on LinkedIn.

Faisal did not leave government service, however—he took another government job at the Census Bureau, and is apparently still there, according to a report by the National Journal. While his name had been redacted from the official report, Rep. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming mentioned him by name multiple times during the committee hearing.

[Fred]

Publius,

Apparently at least one of them has something to hide:

https://mobile.twitter.com/LokayFOX5/status/889948197556281344

[VietnamVet]

PT

This is the truth popping up through the cracks. It is impossible to drive Donald Trump from office without investigating the corruption and the information operation that supports the American Empire; in particular, the Clintons and Obama who are getting a free ride. It is shocking how inept the Trump family and the Russians are. To survive they will have to cultivate the truth and speak directly to the people. It is said that cassette tapes brought down the Soviet Union. Today we have the internet. Yesterday I read Tim Hayward’s “It’s Time to Raise the Level of Public Debate about Syria”. Appendix 1 states the obvious:

“The truth will be what it is forever, without any input from anyone, whereas a lie becomes increasingly high maintenance in the face of simple questioning. It is endlessly difficult to maintain the back story, and then the back story’s story, and so on, until the effort required to avoid self-contradiction simply becomes too much and the simple truth just comes out again, like a plant through cracked tarmac. That is why the propaganda campaign needs to be so vast and long term. It is a gargantuan feat that we only see the tip of.”

[ked]

Steve, if there's a specific link between Ahmed & Awan, I'm too dense to recognize it. Please help.

[different clue]

Kooshy,

The only reason I can think of for Trump to want Sessions removed from the Attorney Generalship is so Trump can get another Attorney General who can be said to be unconnected to Russian-whatever, and can therefor DE-recuse himself back into the Russia investigation. Trump would then want his new Attorney General to fire Mueller and fire whomever Mueller reports to. I can't think of any other reason why Trump would want Sessions removed.

For someone with nothing to hide, Trump sure behaves like someone with something to hide. The problem here is that Trump has such a trashy personality and such all-around trashy behavior that pure spite and irritation for no good reason at all is just as good a motive for Trump to want Sessions gone.

Sessions won't want to go. He has a legal-ideological mission at Justice. He won't resign. He will tough it out in place as long as he can.

Hopefully some thread of this Trump bussiness will be wound around some thread of the Democrats's bussiness, giving Mueller a plausibly defensible reason to pull some Democratic affairs into this Trump investigation.

[Fred]

If this is accurate it is even worse for some Democrats.
http://dailycaller.com/2017/07/25/wasserman-schultzs-it-aide-arrested-trying-to-flee-the-country/

[Augustin L]

John Helmer on Jared Kushner's testinomonial to stupidity and unfitness. http://johnhelmer.net/jared-kushners-testimonial-to-stupidity-and-unfitness-american-and-russian/

[bks]

Perhaps Trump asked sessions to fire Mueller and Sessions refused?

[Anna]

The DNC/IT story is taking on wings (not exactly): http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-25/wasserman-schultz-it-aide-arrested-dulles-airport-while-attempting-flee-country

[Kooshy]

I agree with the first part of your comment, but IMO the reason he wants Muller (or any Special investigator) removed is that he don't want his past business dealing and tax returns to be investigated, IMO they are scared of old days business deals, write off etc. and i think that's what Demos and Borg wants to pull out in a legal public way, and not the Russian connection. IMO the real sewer lies in past business and tax deals.

[ked]

Does his behavior so far really strike you as that of an intel asset?
Or a screw-up flying too close to the flame?
Some of both... even a wanna-be free agent nothing burger?
I'm not sure, so I'll patiently await more "facts".

[different clue]

bks,

That could be, but we will never know as long as Sessions remains AG. Because Sessions will remain focused on the DoJ mission, and not get involved in a spat-fight with Trump.

Also, if indeed Trump did ask Sessions to fire Mueller and Sessions declined to do so; perhaps Sessions has given Trump reason to understand that firing Sessions would play right into the "Obstruction of Justice" narrative which the Remove Trump forces are engineering. And perhaps Sessions will have given Trump reason to understand further that even having given Sessions the reQUEST to fire Mueller could in itself further the "Obstruction of Justice" narrative. But in the event of imparting that further level of understanding unto the Trumpster, Sessions will then have followed up by reassuring Trump that as long as Trump does not fire Sessions, no one need ever know that Trump asked Sessions to fire Mueller. In the event of all these dominoes having fallen "just so" in a private discussion between these two men, Sessions will have reassured Trump that "no one need ever know about the request" . . . for as long as Sessions remains AG without being fired.

This is all pure speculation following on from your speculative question. We of the Great Uncleared will never know what has or hasn't been said behind the locked doors of steel and oak.

[different clue]

Fred,

Perhaps the Democrats knew this was going to start breaking and to divert attention from it they ( or somebody on their behalf) decided to rev up the "Mrs. Sanders college-collapse scandal" in order to somehow get Sanders so discredited that even if the Democrats collapse into a visibly dead beehive full of foul brood disease, Sanders would be rendered "un-turnable-to" as an alternative.

I hope the Democrats fail in that effort.

[LJ]

Politico was not the first on this. George Webb was all over this months before. It's just now starting to leak out. He links the Awan brothers to the Clinton Foundation.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrQ-wHKVi0JDWjQGcuoYnew

[LondonBob]

The Awan brothers (whatever is the deal with that), the unmasking/spying scandal, the Clinton foundation and related Clinton criminality. There is a lot to be concerned about, hence the hysteria.

Trump publicly chewing up Sessions looks like another smokescreen.

[ked]

If the "real sewer lies in past business and tax deals" and those happen to be penetrated by "the Russian connection", what then?

[Dr.Puck]

And if the conspiracy--with the Dems's black ops at the center--is never demonstrated to be factually the case, and Clinton and Obama skate away, it will be described by dead-enders as a "perfect crime."

I still know lots of people who who have for 16 years remained sure Dick Cheney Inc. masterminded 9-11, (an earlier 'perfect crime.')