The First Bond Girl: Welcome To The Derbyshire Home Of The Tragic Beauty Who Inspired Ian Fleming's Only Mrs James Bond

Lynn Dixon at the British newspaper the Daily Telegraph offers a piece on the former home of Murial Wright (seen in the above photo), a woman who influenced James Bond author Ian Fleming.

Playing charades is a firm favourite with the Bailey family at Yeldersley Hall, near Ashbourne, on Christmas Day after their glorious festive feast.

And when it comes to acting out a book or a film, you can bet your boots that someone in the party will opt for a James Bond title.

“It might be Goldfinger, Casino Royale or On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” Andrew Bailey confides. “Or it might be one of the many others. But you can be sure that someone won’t be able to resist acting out James Bond.”

Well of course not. After all, Yeldersley Hall, the Bailey family’s handsome 200-year-old grade-two-listed country home, was once a regular haunt of the James Bond creator himself, Ian Fleming (seen in his naval uniform in WWII in the below photo). 

So this Christmas Day, as always, 007 is simply bound to feature in the family festivities.

The Baileys – that is Andrew, his wife Catherine and their children Emily, 18, and Oliver, 16 – are a friendly, unpretentious bunch, who never cease to be fascinated by the Bond author’s link with their house.

When Andrew first bought the hall back in the 1990s, it’s fair to say that the Ian Fleming connection left him shaken if not stirred! As Andrew, 50, explains when I visit to discover how the Baileys celebrate Christmas at Yeldersley Hall: “A former resident of this house, Muriel Wright, was actually the inspiration for the original Bond girl!”

Born in Nottinghamshire, Andrew, a solicitor, has spent a lot of time researching the history of his home since he bought it from the Sevier family in 1996, and the information he has come up with is truly remarkable.

Over coffee in the family’s lovely farmhouse style kitchen, Andrew muses about the surprising Ian Fleming-Muriel Wright connection.

He says: “Muriel was a member of a distinguished Derbyshire family, the Fitzherbert Wrights, and was by all accounts a very beautiful girl.

“She was a well bred English rose who was both aristocratic and sporty. She was an accomplished skier, polo player and even modelled lingerie, so she really did fit the bill of the archetypal Bond girl.”

For some years, so the story goes, Muriel had a passionate affair with Ian Fleming, who she first met at the fashionable Austrian ski resort of Kitzbuhel in 1935 when both were in their 20s.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/local-news/welcome-derbyshire-home-tragic-beauty-861019 

Note: You can read more about Ian Fleming's tragic love affair with Murial Wright in Andrew Lycett's biography of Ian Fleming,

You can also read my piece on On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, the Bond film I watch every Holiday season due to the film's Christmas setting, via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2016/12/merry-christmas-from-james-bond-and.html 

New Documents Reveal FBI's Clinton Cover-Up

I worked with the FBI when I did security work as a Defense Department civilian in Philadelphia many years ago, and during that time I also attended regular FBI national security briefings in Washington D.C.

As a writer, I’ve covered the FBI for more than 20 years. I’ve interviewed senior FBI officials, special-agents-in-charge (SAC) of field offices, and street agents. I also interviewed legendary FBI undercover agent Joe Pistone, aka, “Donnie Brasco.” 

I have great respect for the FBI’s special agents, who thwart terrorist attacks, take down organized crime groups and face danger every day. But I can’t say I have the same respect for the FBI leadership.

Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, offers his take on Fox News of the FBI’s response to the 2016 meeting of former president Bill Clinton and then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

In Washington, the ostensible story is rarely the real story. We know, for example, that former President Clinton engineered a meeting with President Obama’s attorney general, Loretta Lynch, on the tarmac of the Phoenix Airport on June 27, 2016.

That’s the official story, replete with the charming and intentionally disarming detail that all they talked about was their grandchildren. It was just coincidental, don’t you know, that at the time the FBI was looking into Hillary Clinton’s use of a “personal” email server to send, receive and store classified information.

And it was also simply coincidental that just a few days later, the director of the FBI – who served under Attorney General Lynch – announced that he wouldn’t recommend a prosecution of Hillary Clinton.

Richard Nixon must be rolling over in his grave.     

You can read the rest of the piece and watch a video clip via the below link:

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/12/03/new-documents-reveal-fbis-clinton-cover-up.html

National Security Advisor Hints At Basis Of Trump’s National Security Strategy

Jim Garamone at the DoD News offers the below piece:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 2017 — During a speech to the Reagan National Defense Forum yesterday, President Donald J. Trump’s national security advisor gave hints on what the president’s national security strategy will contain.

Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, the first active-duty national security advisor since Army Gen. Colin Powell, said the strategy would set the stage for the country to reclaim its strategic confidence.

Making the speech at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, was a tribute to the president who resurrected U.S. confidence when he took office in 1981. The 1970s were not a high point in American history. One president forced to resign, the loss in Vietnam, the Arab oil embargo and Iran breaking into the American embassy in Tehran and holding 55 American citizens hostage set the stage for Reagan’s presidency.

Confidence in the United States and the nation’s influence abroad were at a low point, McMaster said. “The Soviet Union appeared to be on the rise and America, it seemed, was in decline,” he said. 

“President Reagan ushered in a dramatic rethinking of America’s role in the world and a dramatic renewal of American confidence. America would not only triumph in the Cold War and beyond but reach a new height of influence and prosperity.”

It was also fitting to discuss the Trump administration’s national security strategy, which will be released shortly, since Reagan signed the first national security strategy in 1987, the general said.

Crossroads

“Today as we approach the unveiling of the Trump administration’s national security strategy, we are at a similar crossroads,” McMaster said.

Russia and China are subverting the post-World War II political, economic and security orders to advance their own interests at the expense of the United States and its allies, the national security advisor said.

Iran and North Korea are violating the sovereignty of their neighbors, pursuing weapons of mass destruction and exporting terror to other nations. “Jihadist terror organizations such as [the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria] threaten all civilized people in every corner of the world,” he said.

“These national security challenges also require a dramatic rethinking of American foreign policy from previous decades,” McMaster said.

The national security strategy “will focus on protecting our homeland, advancing American prosperity, preserving peace through strength … and finally enhancing American influence,” he said.

McMaster said the administration is reclaiming the strategic confidence necessary for implementing the strategy through understanding in four areas. “First, the values that define our nation; second, the full instruments that define our power; third, the threats facing our nation; and fourth, the dynamic and competitive nature of our security environment,” he said.

Instruments of Power

The values that define America are important. President Reagan called America “a shining city upon a hill” and spoke of the suffering of people living under fear and oppression. Americans believe in the value of every human life, McMaster said, and the world should know that is the case.

Trump’s actions have reinforced this, the general said. He ordered attacks on the Syrian airfield from which aircraft laden with chemical weapons launched attacks on their own people. “The president further demonstrated his commitments to American values with changes in the policies toward Cuba, Iran and Venuzuela,” he said.

Using all instruments of national power is at the heart of the strategy. “President Reagan understood that diplomacy and military force were both important and equally vital tools for national power,” McMaster said. “President Trump is aligning diplomatic, economic, military, informational, intelligence and law enforcement efforts since the first days.”

The South Asia strategy is a good example of this, he said. “We would no longer confuse activity with progress,” the general said. “Our military efforts and operations in the region combined with the efforts of our partners would focus on what brought us to Afghanistan in 2001 -- to deny terrorists safe havens that they could use to threaten America and threaten our allies.”

The administration is also clear about the threats facing America, McMaster said. These threats, he said, “emanate from revisionist powers, rogue regimes and jihadist terrorist organizations.”

The approach adopts a realistic view of our security environment, the general said. “For this reason, we do not base national security decisions on rigid ideology, but instead on our core national interests and clearly defined objectives derived from those interests,” McMaster said.

Finally, the approach seeks to understand the dynamic and competitive nature of the security environment. “We must acknowledge that the international system is, above all, characterized by competition, interaction and change,” he said.

The United States wants all nations to develop and compete, “but the competition must be fair,” McMaster said. “Our economic relationships will respect our partners sovereignty and their economic destinies, while ensuring American workers and American companies are not unfairly disadvantaged.”

Note: The above White House photo was taken by Shealah Craighead on July 18, 2017. From left, Vice President Mike Pence, President Donald J. Trump, and National Security Advisor Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster talk with service members during a lunch in the Roosevelt Room at the White House.

A Little Night Music: Four For Christmas - Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole And Vince Guaraldi's Christmas Albums

Below are links to four fine Christmas albums that I listen to every Holiday season:

Dean Martin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3VimrN6C1s

Frank Sinatra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIj7qDMuV4A 

Nat King Cole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EgZAajTf08

A Charlie Brown Christmas With the Vince Guaraldi Trio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9ukmV5aY8Y&t=814s

Note: You can read my Philadelphia Inquirer piece on Christmas Songs via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2017/11/tis-season-for-christmas-songs-why-i.html 

Life As A Gangster In Japan Just Isn’t As Fun As It Used To Be

Jake Adelstein, author of Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter On The Police Beat in Japan, looks at  the yakuza these days in his column in the Japan Times. 

A number of theories have been put forward on the reasons behind the 2015 split of the country’s largest crime syndicate, the Yamaguchi-gumi.

Some say the factions that left the organization and formed a group called the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi were egged on by the police, who had deliberately encouraged suspicions to grow among rival syndicates. It’s worth noting that police officers stood guard outside the new group’s headquarters when it announced its existence to the public.

Others believe the split was supported by several former Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate bosses who had been expelled with Tadamasa Goto in 2008. Those involved in organized crime call the cull the “Goto Shock,” a nod to the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the same year. Indeed, Goto allegedly bankrolled the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, allowing the new organization to get up and running.

And then there’s Morimasa Ohta, a syndicate leader who had been banished with Goto before eventually joining the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi as a boss. Ohta’s tell-all memoir, “Ketsubetsu” (“Blood Parting“) which was published in July 2015, weeks before the split, is now believed to have been a call to revolt. The book sales have since become problematic because Ohta had retired from organized crime when it was published. Now that he’s joined the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, however, Ohta’s royalty payments could contradict legislation on organized crime. The law prohibits payments to anyone involved in a crime syndicate.

Yet, none of these theories completely explain why the veteran Yamaguchi-gumi members decided to leave the powerful crime syndicate when they were nearing the end of their careers.

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/12/02/national/media-national/life-gangster-japan-just-isnt-fun-used/#.WiNNx0qnGM8

You can also read my Crime Beat column about Jake Adelstein and Japanese organized crime via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2010/03/tokyo-vice-american-reporter-on-police.html 

Philly Mob Talk #10: A Look Back At The Stanfa Era And A Look Ahead At latest FBI Investigation

Veteran organized crime reporters George Anastasia and Dave Schratwieser (seen in the above photo) discuss the South Philly Cosa Nostra in their video series Mob Talk.

The fall of Philadelphia Mob Boss John Stanfa.  This week on Mob Talk Sitdown 10, George Anastasia and Dave Schratwieser take a look back at the Stanfa regime on the anniversary of Stanfa's conviction.  Tapes and cooperators did Stanfa and more than a dozen other wiseguy's in.  A look ahead at the latest FBI investigation of the Philly Mob and who might cross over to cooperate with the Feds this time around.

You can watch the video via the below link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQmwmOx2I1c

Russian Cyber-Criminal Sentenced To 14 Years In Prison For Role In Organized Cybercrime Ring Responsible For $50 Million In Online Identity Theft And $9 Million Bank Fraud Conspiracy

A Russian cyber-criminal was sentenced today to 14 years in prison for his role in a $50 million cyberfraud ring and for defrauding banks of $9 million through a hacking scheme.

Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Steven W. Myhre of the District of Nevada, U.S. Attorney Byung J. Pak of the Northern District of Georgia, Assistant Special Agent in Charge Michael Harris of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (ICE HSI), Special Agent in Charge Brian Spellacy of the U.S. Secret Service in Las Vegas, and FBI Special Agent in Charge David J. LeValley in Atlanta made the announcement.

Roman Valeryevich Seleznev aka Track2, Bulba and Ncux, 33, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones of the Northern District of Georgia to serve 168 months in prison for one count of participation in a racketeering enterprise pursuant to an indictment returned in the District of Nevada, and to 168 months in prison for one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud pursuant to an indictment returned in the Northern District of Georgia, with the sentences to run concurrent to one another. In both cases, Seleznev was ordered three years of supervised release to run concurrently.  He was also ordered restitution in the amount of $50,893,166.35 in the Nevada case and $2,178,349 in the Georgia case. Seleznev pleaded guilty to the charges on Sept. 7.

In connection with his guilty plea in the Nevada case, Seleznev admitted that he became associated with the Carder.su organization, an identify theft and credit card fraud ring, in January 2009.  According to Seleznev’s admissions in his plea agreement, Carder.su was an Internet-based, international criminal enterprise whose members trafficked in compromised credit card account data and counterfeit identifications and committed identity theft, bank fraud, and computer crimes.  Seleznev admitted that the group tried to protect the anonymity and the security of the enterprise from both rival organizations and law enforcement.  For example, members communicated through various secure and encrypted forums, such as chatrooms, private messaging systems, encrypted email, proxies and encrypted virtual private networks. Gaining membership in the group required the recommendation of two current members in good standing.

Seleznev further admitted that he sold compromised credit card account data and other personal identifying information to fellow Carder.su members.  The defendant sold members such a large volume of product that he created an automated website, which he advertised on the Carder.su organization’s websites.  His automated website allowed members to log into and purchase stolen credit card account data.  The defendant’s website had a simple interface that allowed members to search for the particular type of credit card information they wanted to buy, add the number of accounts they wished to purchase to their “shopping cart” and upon check out, download the purchased credit card information.  Payment of funds was automatically deducted from an established account funded through L.R., an online digital currency payment system.

Seleznev further admitted that he sold each account number for approximately $20.  The Carder.su organization’s criminal activities resulted in loss to its victims of at least $50,893,166.35.

In connection with his guilty plea in the Northern District of Georgia case, Seleznev admitted that he acted as a “casher” who worked with hackers to coordinate a scheme to defraud an Atlanta-based company that processed credit and debit card transactions on behalf of financial institutions.  Seleznev admitted that pursuant to the scheme, in November 2008, hackers infiltrated the company’s computer systems and accessed 45.5 million debit card numbers, certain of which they used to fraudulently withdraw over $9.4 million from 2,100 ATMs in 280 cities around the world in less than 12 hours.

Fifty-five individuals were charged in four separate indictments in Operation Open Market, which targeted the Carder.su organization. To date, 33 individuals have been convicted and the rest are either fugitives or are pending trial.

The cases were investigated by HSI, the U.S. Secret Service, and FBI.  The Nevada case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Catherine K. Dick of the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly M. Frayn of the District of Nevada.  The Northern District of Georgia case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kamal Ghali of the Northern District of Georgia.

Seleznev is also a defendant in a wire fraud and computer hacking case brought by the Department of Justice in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.  On Aug. 25, 2016, a federal jury convicted Seleznev of 38 counts related to his role in a scheme to hack into point-of-sale computers to steal and sell credit card numbers to the criminal underworld.  On April 21, Seleznev was sentenced to 27 years in prison for those crimes, which will run concurrent to his sentences today.