GRcade

The Verge wrote:A US-born NASA scientist was detained at the border until he unlocked his phone

Two weeks ago, Sidd Bikkannavar flew back into the United States after spending a few weeks abroad in South America. An employee of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Bikkannavar had been on a personal trip, pursuing his hobby of racing solar-powered cars. He had recently joined a Chilean team, and spent the last weeks of January at a race in Patagonia.

Bikkannavar is a seasoned international traveller — but his return home to the US this time around was anything but routine. Bikkannavar left for South America on January 15th, under the Obama Administration. He flew back from Santiago, Chile to the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas on Monday, January 30th, just over a week into the Trump Administration.

Bikkannavar says he was detained by US Customs and Border Patrol and pressured to give the CBP agents his phone and access PIN. Since the phone was issued by NASA, it may have contained sensitive material that wasn’t supposed to be shared. Bikkannavar’s phone was returned to him after it was searched by CBP, but he doesn’t know exactly what information officials might have taken from the device

..[O]ut of worries about the White House’s ability to keep secrets, some of our spy agencies have begun withholding intelligence from the Oval Office. Why risk your most sensitive information if the president may ignore it anyway? A senior National Security Agency official explained that NSA was systematically holding back some of the “good stuff” from the White House, in an unprecedented move. For decades, NSA has prepared special reports for the president’s eyes only, containing enormously sensitive intelligence. In the last three weeks, however, NSA has ceased doing this, fearing Trump and his staff cannot keep their best SIGINT secrets.

Since NSA provides something like 80 percent of the actionable intelligence in our government, what’s being kept from the White House may be very significant indeed. However, such concerns are widely shared across the IC, and NSA doesn’t appear to be the only agency withholding intelligence from the administration out of security fears.

What’s going on was explained lucidly by a senior Pentagon intelligence official, who stated that “since January 20, we’ve assumed that the Kremlin has ears inside the SITROOM,” meaning the White House Situation Room, the 5,500 square-foot conference room in the West Wing where the president and his top staffers get intelligence briefings. “There’s not much the Russians don’t know at this point,” the official added in wry frustration.

Donald Trump’s controversial state visit to Britain could move from London to the Midlands to allow the US president to address a mass rally and raise money for Armed Forces veterans.

Ministers also say the trip could be delayed from June to July to coincide with Mr Trump’s visit to the G20 summit of developed nations in Hamburg.

Trump advisers and senior Foreign Office figures have discussed how to save the controversial visit.

One idea, which has been suggested to the White House, is for President Trump to address a rally in Birmingham where the audience would pay to enter, with profits going to the Royal British Legion.

Venues such as the National Exhibition Centre are being considered in the hope that people outside London will be more receptive to the president and the event would be easier to police.

It is felt that a gathering in the Brexit heartland might offer President Trump a more sympathetic hearing as a supporter of Britain out of the European Union.

One source close to the president said: “It would be his biggest rally with 85,000 people coming together to celebrate the US-UK special relationship. If he is not speaking to the Houses of Parliament, let’s go to the people. The only person who gets screwed is the Speaker of the House of Commons.”

Preezy wrote:Brave Donald - only a hero would dare risk travelling to one of the UK's infamous exclusion zones

KKLEIN wrote:'Trump can't go to London, they hate him...too many Muslims. Where can we send him?'
'What about Birmingham? It's twinned with Alabama, there'll be no Muslims there whatsoever...'

lex-man wrote:

KKLEIN wrote:'Trump can't go to London, they hate him...too many Muslims. Where can we send him?'
'What about Birmingham? It's twinned with Alabama, there'll be no Muslims there whatsoever...'

Why don't they go to Wincanton it's twinned with Ankh-Morport and Trump loves fiction.

Moggy wrote:

lex-man wrote:

KKLEIN wrote:'Trump can't go to London, they hate him...too many Muslims. Where can we send him?'
'What about Birmingham? It's twinned with Alabama, there'll be no Muslims there whatsoever...'

Why don't they go to Wincanton it's twinned with Ankh-Morport and Trump loves fiction.

Actually it is Ankh-Morpork but don't let me stop you promoting your alternative facts.

twitter.com/Morning_Joe/status/831113210728062976

Garth wrote:Man, that guy looks like a soulless husk, completely dead behind the eyes.

Alvin Flummux wrote:

Garth wrote:Man, that guy looks like a soulless husk, completely dead behind the eyes.

You'd have to be, to work for them.

Garth wrote:

twitter.com/Morning_Joe/status/831113210728062976

Man, that guy looks like a soulless husk, completely dead behind the eyes.