Trump Defends Sharing Classified Intel with Russians: Can He Keep a Secret? (Parts 1 & 2)

Breathtakingly Irresponsible: Former Bush Iraq Adviser on Trump Sharing Secret Intel with Russians

President Trump has appeared to confirm parts of a bombshell Washington Post story that he had disclosed highly classified intelligence last week to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak last week during a meeting at the White House. Earlier this morning Trump wrote on Twitter, "As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism." According to The Washington Post, Trump disclosed highly classified intelligence—what’s known as code-name information—about the possible threat of ISIS launching an attack on an airplane using a computer bomb. We speak to Stanford professor Larry Diamond of the Hoover Institute. He served as senior adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad.

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Religious People Are Less Intelligent Than Atheists, Analysis of Over 63 Scientific Studies Stretching Back over Decades Concludes

THE INDEPENDENT: Study found 'a reliable negative relation between intelligence and religiosity' in 53 out of 63 studies

A new review of 63 scientific studies stretching back over decades has concluded that religious people are less intelligent than non-believers.

A piece of University of Rochester analysis, led by Professor Miron Zuckerman, found “a reliable negative relation between intelligence and religiosity” in 53 out of 63 studies.

According to the study entitled, 'The Relation Between Intelligence and Religiosity: A Meta-Analysis and Some Proposed Explanations', published in the 'Personality and Social Psychology Review', even during early years the more intelligent a child is the more likely it would be to turn away from religion.

In old age above average intelligence people are less likely to believe, the researchers also found. » | Rob Williams | Monday, August 12, 2013

Moussa Koussa Facing Calls to Return to Britain after Being Tracked Down in Gulf
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Moussa Koussa, Colonel Gaddafi’s former intelligence chief and foreign minister, is facing calls to return to Britain for prosecution after The Daily Telegraph tracked him down to a luxury hotel in the Gulf.

Mr Koussa has been living for several weeks in a 17th-floor penthouse suite at the Four Seasons Hotel in Doha, the capital of Qatar, under the protection of Qatari security services.

He has been in the Gulf state, a close western ally which is also a conduit for support for the Libyan opposition, since being allowed to leave Britain in mid-April.

At the time officials said Mr Koussa was likely to return to the United Kingdom, where his grandchildren live.

But at the weekend he refused to say when he would leave Qatar, or even if would be allowed to. He is constantly trailed by a team of Qatari “minders”, who were summoned to escort The Daily Telegraph away when it approached him for an interview.

The Conservative MP for Harlow, Robert Halfon, called for Mr Koussa to be handed over to the International Criminal Court in the Hague and put on trial for his role in atrocities perpetrated over decades by the Libyan government under Col Muammar Gaddafi.

“He was part of a grim regime,” said Mr Halfon, whose family’s roots are in Libya and whose grandfather fled Tripoli in the 1960s. » | Richard Spencer, Doha | Monday, June 27, 2011

Osama bin Laden Dead: Angry Pakistan Drops Intelligence Sharing with West
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Pakistan's intelligence services are refusing to share details of suspects or plots with their American counterparts in protest at the US operation to kill Osama bin Laden, raising the potential threat of attacks on Western cities.

In the past, Pakistani agents have been credited with helping identify targets for drone strikes and providing data to the CIA on plans being hatched in its lawless tribal areas.

Now buffeted and embarrassed by being kept in the dark for months as the US closed in on the al-Qaeda leader's bolthole, little more than 30 miles from the Pakistani capital Islamabad, agents with the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate have begun to withhold crucial operational details about militants on its territory.

At the same time, new details have emerged about bin Laden's extensive support network inside Pakistan, reaching all the way to the sprawling port city of Karachi.

The revelations will heap more pressure on to an administration already accused of helping shelter the world's most wanted man.

The Sunday Telegraph has learned that the ISI, which prides itself on arresting a series of key terrorists including the 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, has now broken off relations with the Central Intelligence Agency. » | Rob Crilly, Islamabad | Saturday, May 14, 2011

'Torture' Techniques Kept US Safe: Cheney
Dick Cheney ... blasted Barack Obama. Photo courtesy of The Sydney Morning Herald
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: Former US vice-president Dick Cheney says intelligence extracted from tough interrogations of suspected al-Qaeda militants had saved "perhaps hundreds of thousands" of US lives.

"No regrets. I think it was absolutely the right thing to do," he said on CBS television arguing that techniques decried by critics as torture were essential to break the resistance of captured extremists.

"I'm convinced, absolutely convinced, that we saved thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of lives," Cheney said, arguing again that al-Qaeda was bent on attacking a US city with a nuclear device.

But at the annual dinner of the White House Correspondents' Association late on Saturday, President Barack Obama skewered Cheney's doomsday view of the world for comic effect.

"Dick Cheney was supposed to be here but he is very busy working on his memoirs, tentatively titled How to Shoot Friends and Interrogate People," he quipped.

In one of his first acts as president, Obama reversed predecessor George W Bush's approval of harsh interrogation methods such as "waterboarding", or simulated drowning.

Recently released memorandums detail the reasoning used by Bush administration lawyers to justify waterboarding and other techniques such as sleep deprivation, physical slaps and painful "stress positions".

Cheney reaffirmed his belief that Obama had made the US more vulnerable to attack, and condemned calls by Democratic lawmakers for the Bush legal officials to face prosecution. >>> AFP | Monday, May 11, 2009

New Study Finds Belief in God Linked to IQ
Photo of Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” from the Sistene Chapel, Vatican City, courtesy of The Telegraph
THE TELEGRAPH: People with higher IQs are less likely to believe in God, according to a new study.

Professor Richard Lynn, emeritus professor of psychology at Ulster University, said many more members of the "intellectual elite" considered themselves atheists than the national average.

A decline in religious observance over the last century was directly linked to a rise in average intelligence, he claimed.

But the conclusions - in a paper for the academic journal Intelligence - have been branded "simplistic" by critics.

Professor Lynn, who has provoked controversy in the past with research linking intelligence to race and sex, said university academics were less likely to believe in God than almost anyone else. Intelligent People 'Less Likely to Believe in God' >>> By Graeme Paton, Education Editor | June 12, 2008

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