Category Archives: Viva!

Monday Open Thread | Michael Avenatti Bombshell: Qatari Investor Accused of Bribery Met Cohen and Flynn at Trump Tower

Members of the Trump transition team appear to have met on December 12, 2016 with a group from Qatar that included Ahmed Al-Rumaihi, the former Qatari diplomat and current head of a division of Qatar’s massive sovereign wealth fund who is accused in a recent lawsuit of scheming to bribe Trump administration officials.

Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for adult film actress Stormy Daniels, on Sunday shared an ambiguous tweet showing a group of unidentified men in a Trump Tower elevator with Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney.

The photos include a person who appears to be Al-Rumaihi, who in late 2016 and 2017 was part of an aggressive Qatari effort to forge ties with members of the Trump administration. It has not previously been reported that Qataris, including Al-Rumaihi, met with Cohen in December 2016. Avenatti later followed up with another tweet asking why Cohen was meeting with Al-Rumaihi and Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security advisor.


Ice Cube, the rapper and actor, and his business partner Jeff Kwatinetz recently filed a $1.2 billion lawsuit that includes an allegation that Al-Rumaihi and other Qatari officials who invested in the men’s BIG3 basketball league indicated interest gaining access to people connected to Trump. “Mr Al-Rumaihi requested I set up a meeting between him, the Qatari government, and Stephen Bannon, and to tell Steve Bannon that Qatar would underwrite all of his political efforts in return for his support,” Kwatinetz said in the court filing. Kwatinetz says he rejected the offer, which he viewed as a bribe.

Those portions in slow motion. pic.twitter.com/MghJXIcQdm

— UsHadrons (@ushadrons) May 14, 2018

In response, Kwatinetz claims, “Al-Rumaihi laughed and then stated to me that I shouldn’t be naive, that so many Washington politicians take our money, and stated ‘do you think Flynn turned down our money?’” That’s a reference to Michael Flynn, who was fired as Trump’s national security adviser after lying about his contacts with then Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Sports Trinity, a group that included the Qatari investors in BIG3, claims that Kwantinetz is lying. “The statements in Mr. Kwatinetz’s declaration are pure Hollywood fiction,” a spokesperson for the group said in a statement. “Mr. Kwatinetz is engaging in a xenophobic PR smear campaign against Sport Trinity, the largest investor in BIG3 basketball, to cover up his own mismanagement and erratic behavior with respect to the league.”

Last week Avenatti released a report, later largely confirmed, that detailed secret payments by a several corporations to a limited liability company set up by Cohen. In another picture Avenatti posted along with the photos of Al-Rumaihi, Cohen speaks with Flynn. Avenatti’s photo of Flynn appears to be a screenshot of a YouTube video that does not feature the footage of Al-Rumaihi. Flynn has pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents and is cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump campaign ties to Russia.

The Qatari Embassy and Qatari Investment Authority did not respond Sunday to requests for comment on Al-Rumaihi’s presence at Trump Tower and purpose of the meeting.

Every document copy stored on used digital photocopiers

CBS News picked up four used photocopiers and looked at the hard drives. There was a lot of private information stored in them:

Nearly every digital copier built since 2002 contains a hard drive – like the one on your personal computer – storing an image of every document copied, scanned, or emailed by the machine.

In the process, it’s turned an office staple into a digital time-bomb packed with highly-personal or sensitive data.

If you’re in the identity theft business it seems this would be a pot of gold.

“The type of information we see on these machines with the social security numbers, birth certificates, bank records, income tax forms,” John Juntunen said, “that information would be very valuable.”

Okay, save the dramatics, it’s still disconcerting.

Not every photocopier makes it so easy to access copied documents, but it’s surprising that it’s still so straightforward with some machines these days. Then again, part of the responsibility belongs to the previous owners. As the Federal Trade Commission instructs, it’s like getting rid of a computer.

Tags: photocopier, privacy

غزة تعود من أجل القدس Gaza is Returning for Jerusalem

نادية حرحش

English follows

غزة تعود من أجل القدس

بينما يعم الحداد سماء القدس , تنتفض أرض غزة وتملأ الأجواء بعوادم الحقيقة المدوية من سواد.

ربما تكون مسيرات العودة رمزية بما حملته من شعارات وتوقعات , فمن أراد العودة لا يحمل معه خطة للحظة اللاحقة لعودة لم نعد نعرف منها الا اسمها ومفتاح قديم لباب لم يعد موجود.

الا ان فعل الاحتلال الامبريالي دائما يأتي ليمنح شعاراتنا معنى اكبر . لتصبح هذه العودة من اجل ما يجري من اغتصاب للقدس حقيقة.

مرة اخرى يخترق الفلسطينيون اسلاك الرعب والفصل والقتل والظلم , ويقدموا الاغلى من اجل وطن يراد له من أبنائه المخلصين الحياة.

مرة اخرى يخرج الفلسطينيون بأجسادهم المليئة بحلم الحرية , الخالية من السلاح الا ذلك المؤمن بأن الحق سلاح اكبر من كل عتاد القهر والقتل والعنف الممارس ضدهم.

في هذه اللحظة التاريخية التي كشفت فيها نوايا الاحتلال وخطط الامبريالية ومآرب الصهيونية العربية المتأسلمة, تسطر غزة من جديد ما تخطه العناوين …

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52 martyrs Returning to God

Did the British claim Gandhi’s march to the sea was an act o terror, King’s March in Selma?

نادية حرحش

These are not mere men… youth … photos … these are heroes who were shot to death in a march dreaming return …

While Zionist fascist Israeli American governments celebrating the rape of Jerusalem …. and then they call us terrorists… and the world continues to watch shamelessly..

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Puerto Rico: The Teacher Uprising the Media Is Ignoring


May 14, 2018 / Meghan Brophy, Jonah Furman
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You’ve read about the teacher strikes in West Virginia, Arizona, Oklahoma, Colorado… but what about Puerto Rico? Fighting to keep the island’s public schools open in the wake of Hurricane Maria, teachers there are boycotting standardized tests and even teaming up with parents to occupy their schools.

The Guardian view on Gaza shootings: stop killing unarmed civilians | Editorial

Channelling a reckless Donald Trump, Israeli ministers appear to have adopted a dangerous mindset: to destroy the national aspirations of the Palestinians by military force

It is inexcusable for soldiers of a military, especially those under democratic civilian control, to shoot and kill protesters, almost all of whom were unarmed, and who pose no credible threat. Yet at the boundary between Gaza and Israel today Israeli soldiers seem to have done just that. It should make Israelis quail that demonstrators were sprayed with live ammunition with apparent impunity. There were dozens of deaths and hundreds of maimings among the Palestinians who had marched to the border to make a point about their right to return to their ancestral homes. Israel’s army evinced no shame in committing what looks like a war crime. These are serious accusations. Yet they were greeted with little more than a shrug. By blockading Gaza, Israel imprisoned 2 million people behind barbed wire and military towers. Israel treated the violence as a jailer might a prison riot: a tragic fault of the inmates.

This is a dangerous mindset for Israelis to embrace. Yet they have done so because the extreme right in Israel, and most of the present government ministers, nurture the idea that Israel can, through its vastly superior military force, end the national aspirations of the Palestinians. These politicians take succour from US president Donald Trump, who has made good on his promise to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Today Mr Trump’s ambassador, who gave money to Jewish far-right groups in Israel, opened his nation’s new embassy in Jerusalem. This is a reckless and provocative step that will harm the prospects for peace. Like the issue of refugees, settlements and borders, the status of Jerusalem is unfinished business. No state is internationally recognised as having sovereignty over Jerusalem. Its status was meant to be determined through negotiations.

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Aching… but hopeful in a generation of believers

I pray for a future for them that is humane and free!

نادية حرحش

Jerusalem is bleeding tears… I do t think there is worse of a scene to ever capture this city as the ongoing violation and forging of history .

A world that is watching quietly and maybe with excitement enjoying the Israeli crowning of a land that is occupied and distorted with injustice and racism .

However, at the very same timing , a new generation of high school graduates is paving its way to the future.. I was watching the graduation of the Frere college in Jerusalem yesterday and I could not but believe strongly , that as long as we are having such young men and women paving their way ahead , we have hope.

There is so much to describe and to relate to , within such a crowd of a generation that is taking their life seriously. They know what they want and have clear ideas of…

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