New Report Suggests Jared Kushner May Be Compromised By China | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC

Rachel Maddow looks at a new report in the New Yorker about U.S. intelligence concerns that Jared Kushner tried to mix personal business with U.S. China policy and made himself vulnerable to manipulation as a result.

US Intelligence on Syria Gas Attack 'Unconvincing', Says Russia

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Western intelligence reports about Syrian use of chemical weapons that have been seen by the Russian government are “completely unconvincing,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.

Mr Lavrov said that evidence recently provided by the United States, Britain, and France showing regime culpability for chemical weapons attacks was too vague to stand up to scrutiny.

“What we were shown before and what our American, British and French colleagues sent us more recently absolutely does not convince us,” he said.

His remarks came a day after John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, insisted America had evidence that Bashar al-Assad used sarin gas in the devastating chemical weapons attack that killed more than 1,400 people last month. Mr Kerry used an appearance on Fox News on Sunday morning to pile pressure on the US Congress ahead of a vote on military strikes announced by Barack Obama over the weekend.

Mr Kerry said that he could not contemplate the idea that Congress would grant "impunity to a ruthless dictator to continue to gas his people". He said the US had detected sarin in soil and blood samples obtained from first responders.

Meanwhile it was reported that Russia has dispatched an intelligence ship to the Eastern Mediterranean, as it further beefs up its naval presence in the region ahead of anticipated US strikes against its Syrian ally. » | Roland Oliphant, Moscow | Monday, September 02, 2013

Verizon Treason: US Government Seizes Millions of Call Records at FBI's Request
Millions of Americans are reportedly having their phone records seized without their knowledge. The U.S. National Security Agency has allegedly secretly forced Verizon, one of the nation's biggest phone companies, to hand over all its call data. RT's Tom Barton reports.

here

NSA Spying: Sweeping US Data-mining Program Revealed
US intelligence confirms it is collecting the private messages of internet users but defends the move, claiming the mass surveillance was targeting only "non-US persons" outside the country. Earlier British and American papers reported that the US was tapping directly into the servers of leading American internet companies, getting access to personal e-mails, photos and documents. A leaked court order has become the first hard evidence of Washington's sweeping data collection program. RT's Anastasia Churkina reports. ¶ Eugene Puryear, an activist for the civil rights organization Answer Coalition, joins after to give his perspective on the issue.