Exposed: Undercover secrets of Trump's data firm
An investigation by Channel 4 News has revealed how Cambridge Analytica claims it ran 'all' of President Trump's digital campaign - and may have broken election law. As the report went on air, the firm announced it has suspended chief executive Alexander Nix, pending a full investigation.
An undercover investigation by Channel 4 News has revealed how Cambridge Analytica claims it ran key parts of the presidential campaign for Donald Trump.
The British data company was secretly filmed discussing coordination between Trump's campaign and outside groups - an activity which is potentially illegal.
Executives claimed they "ran all the digital campaign, the television campaign and our data informed all the strategy" for President Trump.
In the third part of a Channel 4 News investigation into Cambridge Analytica, bosses also talked about:
The full scale of their pivotal work in Trump's election win How they avoid Congressional investigations into their foreign clients Setting up proxy organisations to feed untraceable messages onto social media Using a secret email system where messages self-destruct and leave no trace Cambridge Analytica's involvement in the "Defeat Crooked Hilary" brand of attack ads
UPDATE: Cambridge Analytica have announced they have suspended chief executive Alexander Nix pending a full investigation. They said: "In the view of the board Mr Nix's recent comments secretly recorded by Channel 4 News do not represent the values or operations of the firm."
'We ran all the digital campaign'
The company says their work with data and research allowed Mr Trump to win with a narrow margin of "40, 000 votes" in three states providing victory in the electoral college system, despite losing the popular vote by more than 3 million votes.
The election was plagued by allegations of fake news and smears on social media, along with the alleged attempt by Russia to influence the outcome.
Mr Nix boasted about Cambridge Analytica's work for Trump, saying: "We did all the research, all the data, all the analytics, all the targeting, we ran all the digital campaign, the television campaign and our data informed all the strategy."
Separately, Mr Turnbull described how the company could create proxy organisations to discreetly feed negative material about opposition candidates on to the Internet and social media.
He said: "Sometimes you can use proxy organisations who are already there. You feed them. They are civil society organisations. Charities or activist groups, and we use them - feed them the material and they do the work...
"We just put information into the bloodstream to the internet and then watch it grow, give it a little push every now and again over time to watch it take shape. And so this stuff infiltrates the online community and expands but with no branding - so it's unattributable, untrackable."
Cambridge Analytica's senior executives were also filmed discussing a twin-track strategy to campaigning, putting out positive messages through the official Donald J Trump for President campaign, while negative material was pushed out through outside organisations.
Cambridge Analytica's chief data scientist Dr Tayler said: "As part of it, sometimes you have to separate it from the political campaign itself. So in America you know there are independent expenditure groups running behind the campaign... Super pacs. Political action committees.
"So, campaigns are normally subject to limits about how much money they can raise. Whereas outside groups can raise an unlimited amount. So the campaign will use their finite resources for things like persuasion and mobilisation and then they leave the 'air war' they call it, like the negative attack ads to other affiliated groups."
In a different meeting, Mr Turnbull described how the company created the "Defeat Crooked Hilary" brand of attack ads, that were funded by the Make America Number 1 super-PAC and watched more than 30 million times during the campaign.
Coordination between an official election campaign and any outside groups is illegal under US election law. Cambridge Analytica deny wrongdoing, insisting a strict firewall separated out their activity and that they were transparent about their work on political campaigns and PACs.
'No paper trail'
In one exchange Alexander Nix revealed the company used a secret self-destructing email system that leaves no trace. He said: "No-one knows we have it, and secondly we set our... emails with a self-destruct timer... So you send them and after they've been read, two hours later, they disappear. There's no evidence, there's no paper trail, there's nothing."
Mr Nix also belittled representatives on the House Intelligence Committee to whom he gave evidence in 2017. He claims Republican members asked just three questions. "After five minutes - done."
"They're politicians, they're not technical. They don't understand how it works, " he said.
Mr Nix further claimed that Democrats on the Committee are motivated by "sour grapes".
He said: "They don't understand because the candidate never, is never involved. He's told what to do by the campaign team."
"So the candidate is the puppet?, " the undercover reporter asked.
"Always, " replied Mr Nix.
He added that his firm could avoid any US investigation into its foreign clients. "I'm absolutely convinced that they have no jurisdiction. . ." he said. "We'll say none of your business."
The meetings involved Mr Nix, along with Mark Turnbull, Managing Director Political Global, and Dr Alex Tayler, the company's chief data scientist.
'Very disturbing'
Defeated presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has told Channel 4 News how she faced a "massive propaganda effort" during the election - and questioned if Cambridge Analytica helped the Russians in their alleged attempt to influence the election outcome.
In an exclusive interview filmed in October 2017 to promote her book, she said: "There was a new kind of campaign that was being run on the other side - that nobody had ever faced before. Because it wasn't just all about me. It was about how to suppress voters who were inclined to vote for me.
"When you have a massive propaganda effort to prevent people from thinking straight, because they're being flooded with false information and you have people who are searching.. trying to make sense of it. But every search engine, every site they go into is repeating these fabrications. Then yes It affected the thought processes of voters."
The former candidate also questioned whether Cambridge Analytica were involved in the Russia's alleged attempt to influence the election, calling the possibility "very disturbing".
Cambridge Analytica strongly deny any involvement and say any such allegation is false.
My comment: That was the most finely crafted piece of serpent speak I have ever seen, (outside of the speech Bush gave after 911). Simply disgusting! How about an investigation into how CNN helped Hillary?
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Christopher Steele Enemy of the US
Facebook ZUCK'ing Itself into OBLIVION
More reading on Zuckerberg:
The Ultimate Fake Person Award
Surveillance state: Unfolding Facebook data scandal (DEBATE)
Source: LaRouchePac
Cambridge Analytica: SCL, The Heart of the British Establishment: Christopher Steele's Inside Accomplices?
March 21, 2018
A bombshell piece published March 20th by investigative journalist Liam O'Hare, entitled "SCL, a Very British Coup" in Bella Caledonia raises profound new issues regarding British meddling in the 2016 U.S. elections. Those following the news may be aware of stories over the past 48 hours claiming that Cambridge Analytica, a data mining firm employed by the Trump campaign, stole data from Facebook compromising the privacy of many Americans. Across the pond, Britain's news Channel 4 caught Cambridge executive Andrew Nix bragging about using dirty tricks, including bribery and sex honey pots, to entrap politicians and subvert elections. Nix was suspended as a result of the Channel 4 sting videos by the company.
Who is supposed to be at fault here? Donald Trump for hiring this gang of miscreants after Steve Bannon, the Mercers, and others dragged Cambridge Analytica into Trump's campaign from Ted Cruz's campaign, where Bannon, the Mercers, and Cambridge previously operated? Or Facebook, already correctly called a primary intelligence and personality profiling mechanism, by Edward Snowden?
O'Hare's piece indicates that pointing the finger at Trump or at Facebook are very, very serious diversions here. He profiles the investors, Board, and activities of the parent company, SCL (Strategic Communications Laboratories). O'Hare says the Board is "an array of Lords, Tory donors, ex-British army officers and defense contractors," offering military grade psy ops as a private company. This is a scandal that cuts to the heart of the British establishment. According to The Observer, Cambridge Analytica and SCL are not separate entities. For all practical purposes they are one and the same.
The organization boasts that it has conducted behavioral change programs in over 60 countries with clients including the British Ministry of Defense, the U.S. State Department, and NATO. SCL has a contract with the U.S. State Department to counter terrorist propaganda and disinformation. The company participated in "countering Russia propaganda operations" in support of Ukraine for NATO. This puts them right in the center of the Christopher Steele, Victoria Nuland, Project Democracy anti-Russia, pro-Kiev operations in the State Department.
Mark Turnball, who heads up SCL elections, spent 18 years at the disgraced British intelligence-connected public relations firm Bell Pottinger. He headed up the Pentagon-funded PR campaign for Bell Pottinger in occupied Iraq which included production of fake Al Qaeda videos, according to O'Hare. The firm is headed by Nigel Oakes, who, according to the website, PowerBase, has links to the British royals and was once rumored to be associated with MI5.
Oakes says he uses the same techniques as Aristotle and Hitler. The president of SCL is Sir Geoffrey Pattie, the Defense Secretary in Margaret Thatcher's government. "The British military and royal establishment links to SCL are further highlighted by another Director, Rear Adm. John Tolhurst, a former Assistant Director of Naval Warfare in the Ministry of Defense and aide de camp to the Queen," according to O'Hare's profile.
O'Hare ends his stunning profile with the following words:
"We finally have the most concrete evidence yet of shadowy actors using dirty tricks in order to rig elections. But these characters aren't operating from Moscow intelligence bunkers. Instead they are British, Eton educated, headquartered in the City of London and have close ties to Her Majesty's government."________
Source: http://82.221.129.208/.zb7
Trump is still dealing with leakers
Trump's national security advisors told him not to congratulate Putin's election victory. Trump did anyway, however, leakers in the white house told the press that Trump was told not to congratulate Putin, and that is where the problem is.
From The Hill (caution, this link is darn near crapware)
"President Trump and his chief of staff John Kelly are furious that details of the president's national security briefing materials telling him not to congratulate Russian President Vladimir Putin were leaked to the press, according to a CNN report Wednesday. Trump was reportedly "fuming" on Tuesday night after The Washington Post reported that Trump's national security advisers specifically instructed him not to congratulate Putin on his electoral victory. The Post reported that the materials read "DO NOT CONGRATULATE."
Only a small group of staffers would have access to those briefing materials and would have known what his advisers would suggest before the phone call to Putin on Tuesday morning, CNN reported.
The network, citing an unnamed source, reported that the president was asking allies and outside advisers who they thought was responsible for the leak.
The source told CNN that the incident has again given air to Trump's long-held belief that members of his administration are actively working against him.
A White House official told the network that Kelly is furious that a confidential presidential briefing was made public just hours after the president's phone call with Putin.
Kelly reportedly plans to address the leak on Wednesday as aides work to figure out how the information became public.
Related reading:
Chief of Staff John Kelly is on the Hunt For a White House Leaker
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Further reading:
Cambridge Analytica CEO Caught On Camera Offering Bribes And Sex Workers To Entrap Political Opponents
Lawmakers zero in on Zuckerberg
Facebook Chief Security Officer Leaving After Clashing Over "Spread Of Disinformation"
Cambridge Analytica's Facebook MI6 Psyop
Assange agrees to share 'evidence' in Cambridge Analytica probe by British MPs
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