Wiki: Elliott Abrams

Elliott Abrams (born January 24, 1948) is a former Americandiplomat, lawyer and political scientist who served in foreign policy positions for U.S. Presidents, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.[7] Abrams was convicted for withholding information from Congress about the Iran-Contra affair while serving for Reagan, but pardoned by President George H. W. Bush.[8]

He is currently a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.[9] Additionally, Abrams holds positions on the Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf (CPSG), Center for Security Policy & National Secretary Advisory Council, Committee for a Free Lebanon, and the Project for the New American Century.[10]...

...When Congress shut down funding for the Contras' efforts to overthrow Nicaragua's Sandinista government with the 1982 Boland Amendment, members of the Reagan administration began looking for other avenues for funding the group.[23] Congress opened a couple of such avenues when it modified the Boland Amendment for fiscal year 1986 by approving $27 million in direct aid to the Contras and allowing the administration to legally solicit funds for the Contras from foreign governments.[24] Neither the direct aid, nor any foreign contributions, could be used to purchase weapons.[24] Guided by the new provisions of the modified Boland Amendment, Abrams flew to London in August 1986 and met secretly with Bruneian defense minister General Ibnu to solicit a $10-million contribution from the Sultan of Brunei.[25][26] Ultimately, the Contras never received this money because a clerical error in Oliver North's office (a mistyped account number) sent the Bruneian money to the wrong Swiss bank account.[25]...

...During investigation of the Iran-Contra Affair, Lawrence Walsh, the Independent Counsel tasked with investigating the case, prepared multiple felony counts against Abrams but never indicted him.[25] Instead, Abrams cooperated with Walsh and entered into a plea agreement wherein he pled guilty to two misdemeanors of withholding information from Congress.[27] He was sentenced to a $50 fine, probation for two years, and 100 hours of community service. However, Abrams was pardoned by President George H. W. Bush, in December 1992 (as he was leaving office following his loss in that year in the U.S. presidential election)....

...President George W. Bush appointed Abrams to the post of Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Democracy, Human Rights, and International Operations at the National Security Council on June 25, 2001.[28]...

...The Observer has claimed that Abrams had advance knowledge of, and "gave a nod to," the Venezuelan coup attempt of 2002 against Hugo Chávez.[33]...

...Abrams accompanied Condoleezza Rice as a primary adviser on her visits to the Middle East in late July 2006 in the course of discussions relating to the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.[37]...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Abrams#Special_Assistant_to_President_Bush

http://www.cfr.org/experts/middle-east-israel-human-rights/elliott-abrams/b1567

How NSA targeted the Venezuelan oil company PdVSA

There aren't many new revelations from the Snowden-documents anymore, but recently an NSA document was published telling how the agency prepared the interception of communications from the Venezuelan oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA).

It's not a very spectacular disclosure, but it gives a nice insight in what an NSA analyst actually does. The story was published on November 18 by the website The Interceptand the Latin-American broadcaster teleSUR.

Most people will have read The Intercept's report, but that misses one of the most interesting details of the story. Here, the disclosed NSA document will be discussed in full, with details explained based upon information from earlier disclosures.

The document that was published is an excerpt from SIDtoday, the internal newsletter of the NSA's Signals Intelligence Division from March 23, 2011 (which was apparently accessed (by Snowden?) on Saturday, November 10, 2012). It contains a story that is told by a Signals Intelligence Development (SIGDEV) analyst from the NSA's Transnational & Strategic Partnerships SIGDEV branch.

A SIGDEV analyst is someone who looks for new targets or new means to access communications of existing targets. His unit S2C13 is part of the International Security Issues (ISI) Product Line, which is responsible for analysis and production of intelligence about countries in Europe, South-America and elsewhere.

Intelligence requirements
As the analyst recalls, a year-end review had shown that there was no progress on the "Venezuelan Energy target set" as most reporting came from warranted collection. That could refer to PRISM and Upstream collection under section 702 FAA, but that only requires annual certifications approved by the FISA Court. Strictly spoken, individual warrants are only needed for "traditional FISA" collection, like for example for eavesdropping on the Venezuelan embassy in Washington.

The analyst decided to do a "target reboot", which he describes as "taking a fresh look at opportunities for collection". He first looked at specific Information Needs (INs) and used SURREY, which is the main NSA requirements database.

These requirements are the outcome of an administrative process, that starts with the US president setting the highest priorities for foreign intelligence collection. These priorities are then translated into the general National Intelligence Priorities Framework(NIPF)...

http://electrospaces.blogspot.com/2015/12/how-nsa-targeted-venezuelan-oil-company.html

The Assassination of Hugo Chavez - Director: Greg Palast

U.S. expels Venezuelan diplomat in Miami

Last month, a group of American lawmakers said they had "grave concerns" about Acosta and called for an investigation after the Spanish-language TV channel Univision aired a documentary alleging that she was among a group of Venezuelan and Iranian diplomats who expressed interest in an offer from a group of Mexican hackers to infiltrate the websites of the White House, the FBI, the Pentagon and U.S. nuclear plants.

The evidence that the plot was real, according to Univision, are secret recordings with diplomats who ask questions about what the hackers can do and promise to send information to their governments.

via cnn.com

Chavez in 'critical' condition: report

via news.yahoo.com