Former President Donald Trump might make another bid to become the next POTUS in 2024

Donald Trump appears to be keen to make a bid for the next POTUS in 2024. He was back on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania. It was his first rally after the search by the FBI of his Mar-a-Lago estate. That happened last month. At the rally he expressed his views and kept repeating – “I may just have to do it again. You'll be... stay tuned. I have to do it again. …. May just have to do it again.” He went on to add - "But first, we have to win a historic victory for the Republican Party this November." The mid-term elections are looming on the horizon and President Joe Biden said the followers of the previous president believe in a distorted ideology. That is to look at America and see nothing but carnage, darkness and despair. Donald Trump hints he may run for2024 presidency, saying 'I may just have to do it again'. On the subject of the FBI search of his home in Florida, Trump described it as “shocking abuses of power by any administration in American history.” He went on to add that it was a witch-hunt against him.

Incidentally, the FBI did conduct a raid on the estate of former president Donald Trump. That was on 8 August and it was part of an investigation into whether he had taken classified records from the White House. The US Justice Department says the investigation revealed presence of more than 11,000 government documents marked as “classified.” Investigators conducting the criminal probe are focused on two aspects. First is why the records were stored at the estate. Second, whether the Trump team intentionally misled them about the unlawful presence of government secrets. Donald Trump insists - "The Biden administration invaded the home of their chief political opponent, who is absolutely destroying him and everyone else in the polls, I hate to say it."

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Passenger of Japan bound flight turns violent for not being allowed to do yoga in mid-air

The plane was an United Airlines flight from Honolulu International Airport to Narita International Airport but it had to return to Hawaii because of a violent passenger who wanted to do yoga instead of occupying his seat. The pilot of the March 26 flight was forced to turn the plane around after hearing the passenger yelling at crew members and shoving his wife - this is as per the FBI's criminal complaint.
This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 1 April 2016.

It seems the passenger told the FBI that he did not want to sit in his seat during the meal service and, therefore, went to the rear of the aircraft to do yoga and meditate. He lost his temper when his wife and flight attendants tried to coax him to return to his seat. He even pushed his wife away and head-butt and bite Marines who were passengers on the flight. They were trying to get him back to his seat.
Moreover, he threatened to kill passengers and yelled that there is no god. He urinated on himself and was put on suicide watch at the Honolulu Federal Detention Center. The US Magistrate has ordered that the man be released on US$25,000 bond, but with certain conditions including not leaving the island of Oahu and undergoing a mental health evaluation.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Nightmare for 33 students planning to study in the United States

It was nothing short of a nightmare for 33 students hailed from Hyderabad, Delhi, Chhattisgarh and other states. A group of fourteen of them were deported after being interrogated for almost 15 hours by FBI. They were apparently kept in cells and grilled by the FBI in San Francisco before being deported back to India.
Based on this, another group of about 19 students was stopped from boarding flight at Hyderabad by Air India.
The reason given was that the university they were about to join in US was under scrutiny by the local authorities there for certain reasons.
This has been reported in zeenews.india.com daed 22 December 2015.

All the students had a valid visa and other documents but were off loaded from the flight because the Silicon Valley University at San Jose and North Western Polytechnic College, Fremont, both in California, where these students were heading for admissions had been blacklisted by the local authorities.
Air India was provided this information by US Customs and Border protection agency.
The airline had taken the decision to stop then from traveling so as to prevent them from further embarrassment and deportation. Moreover, Air India had asked travel agents and other ticketing agencies not to issue tickets to students traveling to US for admissions into these specific universities.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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A 23-year-old youth Alexander Ciccolo of Boston was held on 4 July for unlawful receipt of two Glock handguns, a Colt AR-15 rifle and a SigArms high-powered rifle from an undercover witness who was working with terrorism investigators.
The youth is the son of a Boston police captain and has been arrested for allegedly planning to detonate pressure-cooker bombs at a US university in a terror plot that had been inspired by the Islamic State.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 15 July 2015.

It seems the father Captain Robert Ciccolo had alerted the FBI last year that his son had a long history of mental illness and was talking about joining IS. The youth was, then, put under surveillance by the FBI based on some of his posts on social media. Subsequently, he was watched as he was buying at least one pressure cooker at a Walmart store in North Adams, Massachusetts.
He had, reportedly, confided to an informant that he wanted to build bombs similar to those used in the attacks on the 2013 Boston Marathon, in which three people died and 264 others were injured. Moreover, partially built bombs were found in his apartment.
These incendiary devices or bombs contained shredded Styrofoam soaked in motor oil.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Hacker claims to have hacked into the aircraft system in flight to make it fly sideways

#ChrisRoberts #FBI #securityexpert #hacker A well-known hacker has admitted to FBI that he had, at one time, hacked into the systems of an aircraft while on a flight and made the plane fly sideways. This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 18 May 2015.
If true, this would be a serious matter because there are several security checks on ground to prevent hijack or activities by terrorists to endanger the lives of passengers and crew and, if hackers can take over the control of an aircraft, there is no safety as such.

The individual who has made these claims is Chris Roberts. He has, apparently, told a special agent that he had repeatedly hacked planes' in-flight entertainment systems while aboard the aircraft. It seems in one instance he had overwritten the plane's Thrust Management Computer code. This allowed him to issue a climb command and make the plane serve sideways.
The FBI has subsequently, confiscated two of his laptops along with several hard drives and USB sticks. Chris Roberts is the founder of security firm One World Labs and his intentions probably were to make the security people more conscious about the reach of hackers.
He sent alarm bells ringing when he said might hack the onboard systems of the domestic United Airlines flight that he was traveling on. Of course, he was subsequently questioned for four hours in Syracuse, New York. His rime – he had jokingly told his 5,000 Twitter followers that he could hack the airplane's system and make its oxygen masks deploy.
(Image courtesy wikimedia.org)

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Cold War espionage ring – FBI arrests a Russian, two have slipped away

#coldwar #FBI #RussianSpy #SpyRing It was a Cold War espionage ring in NYC – in this respect, three Russians have been were charged with trying to recruit New York City residents as intelligence sources. However, only of them could be taken in because the other two have managed to slip away.
It seems the three named Evgeny Buryakov, Igor Sporyshev and Victor Podobnyy had hatched a conspiracy to gather economic intelligence on behalf of Russia. The information they were after included alleged information about U.S. sanctions against the country.
This has been revealed by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
As per the criminal complaint, the charges are linked to Buryakov's alleged covert work on behalf of Russia's foreign intelligence service, known as the SVR. It was not possible to arrest the other two, Sporyshev and Podobnyy because they do not live in the United States any longer and enjoyed diplomatic immunity during their stay.
The alleged conspiracy began in 2012 just after the expulsion of a number of Russian spies from the United States in 2010.
40-year-old Sporyshev worked as a Russian trade representative from November 2010 to November 2014, while 27-year-old Podobnyy was an attaché to Russia's mission to the United Nations from December 2012 to September 2013.
39-year-old Buryakov concealed his real intentions by posing as a banker for Russia's Vnesheconombank. He was arrested in the Bronx while the other two are at large.
The case against Buryakov has been built based on physical and electronic surveillance of dozens of meetings. Some of these meetings were with an FBI agent where the Russian posed as a wealthy investor who wanted to develop casinos in Russia.
It may be recalled that a Russian spy ring had been identified in 2010 and the concerned individuals had been expelled from the US and sent back to Russia. They had plans to infiltrate upper levels of U.S. business and government. In spite of such actions, Russian spies continue to seek to operate in the United States.

Terrorism in the air – FBI arrests Ohio man who planned to kill in US Capitol

#USCapitol #FBI #GreenTownship #pipebombs The FBI has arrested a 20-year-old Ohio man, a sympathizer of the Islamic State (ISIS) on charges of plotting to launch a bomb and gun attack on the US Capitol. He had, apparently, purchased two ArmaLite M-15 semi-automatic rifles and about 600 rounds of ammunition.
His name is Christopher Cornell of Green Township, Ohio – he is also known as Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah.
He had confided to a FBI informant about his alleged plan to “kill employees and officers working in and around the US Capitol” – he made the admission in exchange for leniency for his “exposure” on a different and unspecified but unrelated offense.
There have been instances when undercover FBI agents acted as catalysts to nab terrorists but in this case, neither did they suggest the plot to Cornell nor helped him to acquire the weapons.
It seems Cornell had told the anonymous informant in the fall of 2014 in Cincinnati that he “considered the members of Congress as enemies” and he also disclosed his plans to carry out two reconnaissance missions in the vicinity of the Capitol to prepare for the subsequent attack.
Cornell had plans to construct, place and detonate pipe bombs in the Capitol, and follow up the bombing with rifle fire. Towards this end, he did purchase the rifles and ammunition but there is no evidence about purchasing materials for the improvised pipe bombs.