The legendary cowboy humorist Will Rogers once said, “There are men running governments who shouldn’t be allowed to play with matches.”
He also said many times, “I am not a member of any organized party. I am a Democrat.”
Today’s topic, courtesy of Luke Rosiak and the 4/1/2018 Daily Caller, embodies both of the real Mr. Rogers’ truisms. It also shows how not to do background checks, and why the Democrats are the party who gave Stalin the atom bomb and Putin our uranium reserves.
We at How to Be Your Own Detective tell you how to check on people. Does the person have a criminal record? What about lawsuits that might show crooked or evil behavior? What about bankruptcies that show money problems? And what about police calls to the person’s residence?
If you buy HOW TO BE YOUR OWN DETECTIVE, you will get detailed tips on how to do these types of checks. Even the pages on this website give you some good info for starters.
But many Democrats in Congress ignored basic security when they allowed a family of Pakistani Moslems to do their IT work. The Pakis stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in computers and harvested info from these Dems and others. And yet the Dems are still against punishing them. All while they blame President Trump and the Russian tooth fairy for allegedly stealing an election …. and applaud Fuhrer Mueller for violating the law to go after him.
Here’s the Rosiak article.
“Every one of the 44 House Democrats who hired Pakistan-born IT aides who later allegedly made “unauthorized access”to congressional data appears to have chosen to exempt them from background checks, according to congressional documents.
All of them appear to have waived background checks on Imran Awan and his family members, even though the family of server administrators could collectively read all the emails and files of 1 in 5 House Democrats, and despite background checks being recommended for such positions, according to an inspector general report. The House security policy requires offices to fill out a form attesting that they’ve initiated background checks, but it also includes a loophole allowing them to simply say that another member vouched for them.
Among the red flags in Abid’s background were a $1.1 million bankruptcy; six lawsuits against him or a company he owned; and at least three misdemeanor convictions including for DUI and driving on a suspended license, according to Virginia court records. Public court records show that Imran and Abid operated a car dealership referred to as CIA that took $100,000 from an Iraqi government official who is a fugitive from U.S. authorities.
Numerous members of the family were tied to cryptic LLCs such as New Dawn 2001, operated out of Imran’ residence, Virginia corporation records show. Imran was the subject of repeated calls to police by multiple women and had multiple misdemeanor convictions for driving offenses, according to court records.
If a screening had caught those, what officials say happened next might have been averted.
The House inspector general reported on Sept. 20, 2016, that shortly before the election members of the group were logging into servers of members they didn’t work for, logging in using congressmen’s personal usernames, uploading data off the House network, and behaving in ways that suggested “nefarious purposes”and that “steps are being taken to conceal their activity.”
A pair of closely-held reports on Imran Awan, his brothers Abid and Jamal, his wife Hina Alvi, and his friend Rao Abbas, said, “he shared employees have not been vetted (e.g. background check).”
“Shared employees”means they were all hired as part-time, individual employees by individual members, cobbling together $165,000 salaries. Jamal began making that salary at only 20 years old, according to House payroll records; Abid never went to college, his stepmother said; and Rao Abbas’most recent job experience was being fired from McDonald’s according to his roommate. (“Whether they had formal training or not, they were trained on the job by Imran,”one of Imran’s lawyers said.)
Among the 44 employers, the primary advocate for the suspects has been Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, who introduced a bill Monday that would require background checks on Americans purchasing ammunition. “Without bullets a gun is just a hunk of useless metal,” she said, calling ammunition the “loophole”in gun control policy.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz in “rode hard and put away wet” mode
(Ms.) Wasserman Schultz was also chair of the Democratic National Committee when Wikileaks published its emails. (The Wikileaks emails show that DNC aides called Imran when they needed the password to her device.) Since then, she and other Democrats have described cyber breaches in the strongest possible terms, such as “an act of war ”and “an assault on our democracy.”
But there is no indication Democrats put those concerns into practice when they entrusted the Pakistani dual citizens with their data, nor when suspicious activity was detected. Police banned anyway. He was in the building and in possession of a laptop with the username RepDWS months later, according to an April 6, 2017 police report.
(Comment: No one in the Democrat Party called Debbie Wasserman Positive an aggressor against democracy when she basically whored and allowed Hillary Clinton to take over the Democrat Party and cheat Bernie Sanders out of the 2016 Dem presidential nomination. BTW, “Wasserman Positive” is a term meaning someone has tested positive for syphilis.)
The House security policy, HISPOL 16, says “House Offices shall…Ensure background checks, as defined in this policy, have been conducted on Privileged Users.” It includes quarterly reviews of privileged accounts’ appropriateness. By the time the policy was enacted, some members had dropped the Awans for assorted reasons, including Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona in early 2015 for what her spokesperson called “incompetence.”
The $1.1 million bankruptcy in itself would be enough to stop many employers from giving access to sensitive data. “Excessive indebtedness increases the temptation to commit unethical or illegal acts in order to obtain funds to pay off the debts,” so “financial problems are the number one killer of security clearances,”according to ClearanceJobs.com.
For each server administrator, an “Authorizing Official”from the member’ office must fill out a form on which the office attests “ have assessed the risk of the prospective Privileged Account holder via background check processes outlined in HISPOL 16.”
However, there is an alternative: “ I have verified that a trustworthiness determination has been made on behalf of this shared resource by another Member.”
The option B does not ask the name of the member that vouched for the employee, and the language does not directly specify that vouching for an employee requires that the earlier member provided a background check.
The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to all 44 members, and none disputed that they had not conducted a background check. Not a single one of the 44 would say which of their colleagues vouched for the Awans, nor stated what criteria they used to determine that it was prudent to give them access to all their data. Besides Wasserman Schultz, Imran has longstanding personal relationships with Reps. Gregory Meeks and Marcia Fudge of New York, Politico reported.
Employers also include Rep. Ted Lieu of California on the Foreign Affairs Committee and three members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence: Reps. Andre Carson of Indiana, Jackie Speier of California and Joaquin Castro of Texas.
(Comment: Moslems from Pakistan were in a position to monitor Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committee members for intel. How thoughtful of the Dems.)
The HISPOL16 policy was created in September 2015 and says “as privileged accounts have a greater potential impact on information and information systems than general user accounts, organizations must promote trustworthiness of users of privileged accounts. Authorization officials must check the backgrounds of users of privileged accounts for elements that might make trustworthiness of a user questionable…The Office of the CISO suggests that Hiring Officers and their designees use the rigorous criminal history records search services provided by the United States Capitol Police.”
The policy focuses on and encourages members to use the Capitol Police’ background check service, but it says private background check companies can also be used. The IG report does not specify whether it made the determination that the Awans had not received background checks by looking at the forms or by consulting with the Capitol Police, but it says that they “have not been vetted.”
The Shared Employee Handbook, published in 2009, says “due to the sensitive nature of the information to which Shared Employees may be exposed during day-to-day job functions, it is recommended that Member and Committee offices request a Capitol Police Criminal History Records Check on potential Shared Employees.”
Eric McCracken, a spokesman for the Committee on House Administration, would not say why the screening policy provided the option B loophole that allowed another member to vouch for the aides in lieu of a background check. Despite the IG report addressing it, Gregg Harper, the Mississippi Republican who controls the committee, told The Daily Caller in 2017 that he did not know whether the Awans had background checks.
(Nice oversight, Harper, you peckerwood.)
The Awans’ employers also included Rep. Yvette Clarke of New York, who saw $120,000 in computer equipment disappear under Abid Awan’ watch but “wrote off” he taxpayer funds rather than make an issue of it, according to the IG report and multiple senior government officials.
(Comment: Foreign Moslems stealing from taxpayers is acceptible to Democrats. Thanks, Yvette.)
Xavier Becerra, now attorney general of California, ran the House Democratic Caucus, and his server was physically stolen shortly after the IG report named it as evidence in a hacking probe, three senior government officials said.
(Note: Ironically Becerra is now the AG of California. He is the Nazi who is prosecuting muckrakers who outed Planned Parenthood as the Reich to Choose. Why? The muckrakers got Planned Parenthood officials to admit they were selling aborted baby body parts. Like Nazis who collected gold and silver fillings from piles of dead Jews and other POWs for profit.)
The IT guys in the House criminal probe could read these members’ emails. The Awans and their associates collected more than $5 million in pay from congressional offices, often drawing chief-of-staff level pay though there is reason to believe many didn’t even show up. The House’s internal probe found they logged into servers they had no affiliation with, used members’ usernames, covered their tracks, and persisted even after being fired.
A list of the members who (hired the Awans but) did not conduct background checks (on them) is below.
Gregory Meeks (D-NY)
Robert Wexler (D-FL), Left office 2010
Xavier Becerra (D-CA), Left House in 2017. Now AG of California.
Chris Bell (D-TX), Left office 2004
Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH), Left office 2008
Jim Costa (D-CA)
Hilda Solis (D-CA), Left office 2009
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)
Kendrick Meek (D-FL), Left office 2010
Melissa Bean (D-IL), Left office 2010
Sandy Levin (D-MI)
Tim Ryan (D-OH)
Baron Hill (D-IN), Left office 2010
John Sarbanes (D-MD)
Yvette Clarke (D-NY)
Dave Loebsack (D-IA)
Ron Klein (D-FL), Left office 2010
Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Left office 2013
Ben Chandler (D-KY), Left office 2013
Diana DeGette (D-CO)
Jackie Speier (D-CA)
Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), Left House in 2009. Now mayor of Chicago.
Marcia Fudge (D-OH)
Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Left office 2013
Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), Left office 2012. Shot by a pothead who fantasized about killing police.
Debbie Halvorson (D-IL), Left office 2010
Frederica Wilson (D-FL)
John Carney (D-DE)
Cedric Richmond (D-LA)
Karen Bass (D-CA)
Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO)
Ted Deutch (D-FL)
Henry Waxman (D-CA), Left office 2015
Ron Barber (D-AZ)
Patrick Murphy (D-FL)
Joe Garcia (D-FL)
Joyce Birdson Beatty (D-OH)
Lois Frankel (D-FL)
Mark Takano (D-CA)
Dan Kildee (D-MI)
Julia Brownley (D-CA)
Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Left House in 2017. Senator from Illinois.
Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM)
Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ)
Tony Cardenas (D-CA)
Robin Kelly (D-IL)
Joaquin Castro (D-TX)
Katherine Clark (D-MA)
Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
Joe Crowley (D-NY)
Brad Ashford (D-NE), Left office 2017
Andre Carson (D-IN)
Gwen Graham (D-FL), Left office 2017
Pete Aguilar (D-CA)
Ted Lieu (D-CA)
Seth Moulton (D-MA)
Jacky Rosen (D-NV)
Donald McEachin (D-VA)
Charlie Crist (D-FL)
Stephanie Murphy (D-FL)
Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE)
Darren Michael Soto (D-FL)
Here at How to be Your Own Detective, we tell you how to conduct background checks. See the page for background checks on the right margin. Again, the basics include criminal checks, lawsuit checks, police calls checks, and bankruptcy checks.The 44 Democrats above violated all of the guidelines we give.
And they were okay not only with the security breach, and the equipment theft, but with falsification. Xavier Becerra reported his laptop was stolen after the IG named it as evidence in a hacking probe.
Why would someone steal a laptop belonging to a loser like Becerra unless it contained something incriminating Becerra or someone else wanted to hide?
But the Democrats couldn’t act like traitors and buffoons alone. The Republicans controlled the House of Representatives. Even though the Pakistani IT scumbags didn’t work for GOP members, the GOP House leaders let the scumbags continue to spy, errr, work for the Dems even after they were suspected of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of computers and IT gear.
Luke Rosiak gave further info on the malfeasance, in the 4/4/2018 Daily Caller, which I quote here:
“A publication for IT security professionals says House leaders of both parties were negligent and in violation of basic IT protocol by allowing Imran Awan and his family to continue in their roles as server administrators for four months despite knowing they were suspected of serious misconduct by the House Inspector General.
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“The lack of concern and perspective on the potential risks posed by Imran Awan is alarming,” an article in SearchSecurity says. “This case is an example of negligence trumping security and, worse yet, common sense. Awan’s alleged activities and the way many handled themselves, from the hiring to the response in the wake of the investigation, should concern us all.”
Forty-four House Democrats employed the Pakistani-born Imran Awan and his family in a position where they could read all the emails and files of one in five Democratic congressmen. The author, cybersecurity expert Kevin McDonald of Alvaka Networks, especially faults the judgment of Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who kept Imran on her payroll for an additional six months after House leadership banned him from the network. He also questions her claim the IT aide was somehow providing tech services without ever connecting to the House network.
“When challenged about why she allowed a person under criminal investigation to continue to access the building —where computers are stored and used —to assist with IT issues, Wasserman Schultz defended her actions by telling reporters that IT admins could assist with issues without having network access, and that IT support included other elements besides the network, such as phones, printers and software,” the article reads.
Imran did, in fact, use his continued access to the building to leave a laptop apparently purchased by Wasserman Schultz’ office, which he left in a phone booth April 6, 2017, according to a Capitol Police report.
Committee on House Administration leaders Republican Gregg Harper and Democrat Bob Brady learned the Awan family was suspected of equipment theft in April 2016 but did not suspend their network access, instead tasking the House Office of Inspector General (IG) with an investigation, according to an IG presentation
The misconduct extended beyond potential theft of equipment to cybersecurity issues, according to the IG. It (the IG) presented a briefing in September 2016 that alleged Imran and family members were logging into servers of offices they did not work for thousands of times and warned of indications a “server is being used for nefarious purposes and elevated the risk that individuals could be reading and/or removing information.” The briefing went to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Harper and Brady. “Despite an ongoing investigation into potential misconduct, these members of the House IT staff were allowed to continue working as administrators for nearly a year,”McDonald wrote.
The aides should have immediately been placed on a paid suspension, he continued. “If issues or questions arise about their conduct, they should have their access immediately revoked until an investigation can be completed. There is no room for leniency or error until the concerns are alleviated.”
Donald pointed out the dangers rogue IT aides pose. “They can add programs designed to spy on users, damage systems or data, redirect data flows and communications, or fully reproduce every bit of data contained on the systems they control. They can pretend to be a user and take action as if they are that user.”
The Awans were allegedly logging in, using members of Congress’ personal usernames, according to the IG.
The security professional wrote: “I have been involved in investigations where data was deleted, information was exfiltrated, money was stolen and clients were locked out of their own systems, and even extorted by staffers with information they gained from systems access. This means that the utmost care must be taken in selecting these technology professionals, determining their access and monitoring their behaviors.”
“In particular, sensitive systems in government, defense and finance should be accessed and supported only by those with impeccable work history, experience, knowledge and character,” he continued.
The Administration Committee requires background checks for IT aides, but its policy includes a loophole that allows other members to vouch for them in lieu of the recommended practice of a Capitol Police background check. The Daily Caller News Foundation reported Monday the IG report says the aides “have not been vetted (e.g. background checks),” meaning every member waived background checks for the Awans. House officials finally banned the Awans from the House network on Feb. 2, 2017. Wasserman Schultz still kept him (Imran Awan) on staff, claiming the IT aide was somehow providing tech assistance without touching the network.
“Imran Awan was allowed to continue working as an IT admin for several months with restricted network access despite obvious red flags,”McDonald lamented.
“Let’s break it down from an IT security perspective. First, Wasserman Schultz implies that allowing someone under criminal investigation to remain in proximity to sensitive computers and the network equipment connected to it is no big deal. Second, she goes on to say that, basically, phones, printers, the website and software are nothing to worry about, despite the fact that malware placed on any of the above can lead to systems’ access. Even without gaining system access, key loggers and other data capture malware can, in fact, steal copies of everything a House member or staffer is doing.”
Though the IG report says server logs show “unauthorized access,”the Awans have not been charged with hacking. Democrats, as the victims of the alleged wrongdoing, have been reticent to press charges against the Awans, a House source told the DNC. Democrats have, in turn, cited the lack of cybersecurity charges to dismiss the issue.
“Regardless of whether Awan is found guilty, the response from members of Congress should be concerning,”McDonald wrote. “Even if it does not rise to the level of espionage, it should be a massive wakeup call about who is being allowed to access congressional IT systems and other sensitive government computers.”
Imran and his wife were charged in July with felonies for allegedly cashing out their congressional retirement account under false pretenses before attempting to leave the country.
The Administration Committee hasn’t changed the policy surrounding House information security nor answered basic questions about the unauthorized access. “There should be a top-down investigation into the hiring, monitoring and termination practices of Congressional members’ IT staff, and new protocols need to be instituted,” McDonald wrote.
Luke the muckraker summed the case up nicely in a televised interview 4/2/2018 with the crafty and conscientious Maria Bartiromo. Rosiak said the entire scandal is becoming a Democratic cover up as investigators have been blocked from looking any deeper into the matter.
“There’s hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment suspected to have been stolen and that’s basically what the IG started investigating and then it found that data was coming off the network too. And we don’t know exactly what the data was. We know that it had, quote, sensitive file names according to the IG. And the reason we don’t know more because the House actually blocked investigators from looking at some of the stuff,” Rosiak said. “This is a cover-up.”
“This is the biggest story that you never hear about,” he continued. “It’s a hack on the Congress by foreigners and the Democrats didn’t care about it, they didn’t stop it. These are the same people who were talking constantly about cyber breaches and Russia. And if you care about one, you’ve got to care about the other. So why haven’t they addressed it?”
Rosiak thinks Democrats are silent on the scandal because it would interfere with their Russian hacking narrative and affect their grasp on power.
“It basically destroys that Russian narrative just because it shows that they didn’t actually care about cybersecurity and they haven’t responded to this. And thirdly, it could just be a question of, do these guys have something on members of Congress?” he concluded.”
My only problem with Rosiak’s summary is that it ignores the RINOs in the House who would rather let the Moslem programmers steal equipment and sensitive info than stop the theft and the spying for so long. They treat the Dems as friends because they feed at the same troughs. A nationalist like Donald Trump has united all the Democrats and at least half the GOPers who infest the nation’s capital against him and against us.
In fact, the GOPers in the US Senate were terribly concerned David Zuckerberg, the Facebook monopolist, allowed Cambridge Analytica, whose people worked for Ted Cruz and then for Donald Trump, to mine some data. They ignored the fact Zuckerberg essentially gave the same work and more to earlier Obama campaigns, and likely extended the same favor to Hillary Clnton’s winged monkeys. And they took his money.
An April 10 Breitbart article had this to say about Zuckerberg’s money:
“Facebook and entities associated with it have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Senators who will grill CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday afternoon.
Zuckerberg will appear before a joint session of the Senate Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Tuesday afternoon. According to a USA Today analysis, based on data from the Center for Responsive Politics, lawmakers on the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee received $369,000 from Facebook and groups aligned with it since 2007. Facebook has reportedly donated $235,000 over the same period to Senators on the Judiciary Committee.
Facebook donated the most to lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee ($381,000), which will question Zuckerberg on Wednesday. In fact, just 9 out of 55 Members on this year’s House Energy and Commerce Committee have not received any contributions from Facebook.”
I thought bribery and accepting bribes were illegal.
Now you see why Donald Trump is a threat to almost everyone in DC. He doesn’t need the bribe money and he wants to drain the Swamp. (Thankfully, House Majority Leader and neverTrumper Paul Ryan just announced he is leaving the House.)
More on this to come in the next few days.
During Eastertide, I commented on the Gospel of Luke. I will finish with one of his spookiest accounts, in Chapter 8. Why? It would be nice to have something like this happen soon.
“Jesus and his disciples sailed on over to the territory of Gadara, which is across the lake from Galilee. As Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a man from the town who had demons in him. For a long time this man had gone naked and would not stay at home, but spent his time in the burial caves. When he saw Jesus, he gave a loud cry, threw himself down at his feet, and shouted, “Jesus, Son of the Most High God! What do you want with me? I beg you, don’t punish me!” He said this because Jesus had ordered the evil spirit to go out of him.
Many times it had seized him, and even though he was kept a prisoner, his hands and feet fastened with chains, he would break the chains and be driven by the demon out into the desert.
Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
“My name is Legion,” he answered — because many demons had gone into him. The demons begged Jesus not to send them into the abyss.
There was a large herd of pigs near by, feeding on a hillside. So the demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he let them. They went out of the man and into the pigs. The whole herd rushed down the side of the cliff into the lake and were drowned.
The men who had been taking care of the pigs saw what happened, so they ran off and spread the news in the town and among the farms. People went out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and they were all afraid. Those who had seen it told the people how the man had been cured.
Then all the people from that territory asked Jesus to go away, because they were terribly afraid. So Jesus got into the boat and left.
The man from whom the demons had gone out begged Jesus, “Let me go with you.”
But Jesus sent him away, saying, “Go back home and tell what God has done for you.”
The man went through the town, telling what Jesus had done for him.”
The people of Gadara were an ungrateful bunch, like many in America today who are ungrateful for the blessing of American citizenship. They bitch but they will not pitch in and help make America great again.
When President Trump and his lovely wife and his loved ones and inner circle are with him away from DC, it would be justice to hear all the Dems and most of the GOPers in Congress, their staffers, the Deep State bureaucrats and leaders, and the crooked lobbyists and judges, and the Nazis and corruptocrats in the FBI and elsewhere in the DOJ, CIA, and NSA run into the Potomac and drown.
It will tell us we are about to witness the Second Coming of Christ.
And it will confirm Our Lord has sent even more demons into these pigs.
SHERLOCK JUSTICE
WE CAN SHOW YOU HOW TO BE YOUR OWN DETECTIVE.
