Trumpublicons: Foreign Influence/Grifting in '16 US Election

[seemslikeadream]

The Mysterious Disappearance of the Biggest Scandal in Washington
Whatever happened to the Trump-Russia story?

It never existed in the first place. #fakenews central

NINE SOURCES


The talks were part of a series of contacts between Flynn and Kislyak that began before the Nov. 8 election and continued during the transition, officials said. In a recent interview, Kislyak confirmed that he had communicated with Flynn by text message, by phone and in person, but declined to say whether they had discussed sanctions.

National security adviser Flynn discussed sanctions with Russian ambassador, despite denials, officials say
Flynn spoke with Russia’s ambassador about sanctions during presidential transition Play Video2:28
The Post’s Adam Entous reports that national security adviser Michael Flynn’s conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. during the transition of power included discussion of sanctions. (Video: Bastien Inzaurralde/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
By Greg Miller, Adam Entous and Ellen Nakashima February 9 at 11:25 PM
National security adviser Michael Flynn privately discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with that country’s ambassador to the United States during the month before President Trump took office, contrary to public assertions by Trump officials, current and former U.S. officials said.

Flynn’s communications with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak were interpreted by some senior U.S. officials as an inappropriate and potentially illegal signal to the Kremlin that it could expect a reprieve from sanctions that were being imposed by the Obama administration in late December to punish Russia for its alleged interference in the 2016 election.

Flynn on Wednesday denied that he had discussed sanctions with Kislyak. Asked in an interview whether he had ever done so, he twice said, “No.”

On Thursday, Flynn, through his spokesman, backed away from the denial. The spokesman said Flynn “indicated that while he had no recollection of discussing sanctions, he couldn’t be certain that the topic never came up.”

Officials said this week that the FBI is continuing to examine Flynn’s communications with Kislyak. Several officials emphasized that while sanctions were discussed, they did not see evidence that Flynn had an intent to convey an explicit promise to take action after the inauguration.

Trump's Transition: Who is Michael Flynn? Play Video1:58

President-elect Donald Trump named retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn his national security adviser on Nov. 18, but Flynn has a history of making incendiary and Islamophobic statements that have drawn criticism from his military peers. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)
Flynn’s contacts with the ambassador attracted attention within the Obama administration because of the timing. U.S. intelligence agencies were then concluding that Russia had waged a cyber campaign designed in part to help elect Trump; his senior adviser on national security matters was discussing the potential consequences for Moscow, officials said.

[FBI reviewed Flynn’s calls with Russian ambassador but found nothing illicit]

The talks were part of a series of contacts between Flynn and Kislyak that began before the Nov. 8 election and continued during the transition, officials said. In a recent interview, Kislyak confirmed that he had communicated with Flynn by text message, by phone and in person, but declined to say whether they had discussed sanctions.

The emerging details contradict public statements by incoming senior administration officials including Mike Pence, then the vice president-elect. They acknowledged only a handful of text messages and calls exchanged between Flynn and Kislyak late last year and denied that either ever raised the subject of sanctions.

“They did not discuss anything having to do with the United States’ decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia,” Pence said in an interview with CBS News last month, noting that he had spoken with Flynn about the matter. Pence also made a more sweeping assertion, saying there had been no contact between members of Trump’s team and Russia during the campaign. To suggest otherwise, he said, “is to give credence to some of these bizarre rumors that have swirled around the candidacy.”

Neither of those assertions is consistent with the fuller account of Flynn’s contacts with Kislyak provided by officials who had access to reports from U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies that routinely monitor the communications of Russian diplomats. Nine current and former officials, who were in senior positions at multiple agencies at the time of the calls, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

All of those officials said ­Flynn’s references to the election-related sanctions were explicit. Two of those officials went further, saying that Flynn urged Russia not to overreact to the penalties being imposed by President Barack Obama, making clear that the two sides would be in position to review the matter after Trump was sworn in as president.

“Kislyak was left with the impression that the sanctions would be revisited at a later time,” said a former official.

A third official put it more bluntly, saying that either Flynn had misled Pence or that Pence misspoke. An administration official stressed that Pence made his comments based on his conversation with Flynn. The sanctions in question have so far remained in place.

The nature of Flynn’s pre-inauguration message to Kislyak triggered debate among officials in the Obama administration and intelligence agencies over whether Flynn had violated a law against unauthorized citizens interfering in U.S. disputes with foreign governments, according to officials familiar with that debate. Those officials were already alarmed by what they saw as a Russian assault on the U.S. election.

U.S. officials said that seeking to build such a case against Flynn would be daunting. The law against U.S. citizens interfering in foreign diplomacy, known as the Logan Act, stems from a 1799 statute that has never been prosecuted. As a result, there is no case history to help guide authorities on when to proceed or how to secure a conviction.

Officials also cited political sensitivities. Prominent Americans in and out of government are so frequently in communication with foreign officials that singling out one individual — particularly one poised for a top White House job — would invite charges of political persecution.

Former U.S. officials also said aggressive enforcement would probably discourage appropriate contact. Michael McFaul, who served as U.S. ambassador to Russia during the Obama administration, said that he was in Moscow meeting with officials in the weeks leading up to Obama’s 2008 election win.

“As a former diplomat and U.S. government official, one needs to be able to have contact with foreigners to do one’s job,” McFaul said. McFaul, a Russia scholar, said he was careful never to signal pending policy changes before Obama took office.

On Wednesday, Flynn said that he first met Kislyak in 2013 when Flynn was director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and made a trip to Moscow. Kislyak helped coordinate that trip, Flynn said.

Flynn said that he spoke to Kislyak on a range of subjects in late December, including arranging a call between Russian President Vladi­mir Putin and Trump after the inauguration and expressing his condolences after Russia’s ambassador to Turkey was assassinated. “I called to say I couldn’t believe the murder of their ambassador,” Flynn said. Asked whether there was any mention of sanctions in his communications with Kislyak, Flynn said, “No.”

Kislyak characterized his conversations with Flynn as benign during a brief interview at a conference this month. “It’s something all diplomats do,” he said.

Kislyak said that he had been in contact with Flynn since before the election, but declined to answer questions about the subjects they discussed. Kislyak is known for his assiduous cultivation of high-level officials in Washington and was seated in the front row of then-GOP candidate Trump’s first major foreign policy speech in April of last year. The ambassador would not discuss the origin of his relationship with Flynn.

In his CBS interview, Pence said that Flynn had “been in touch with diplomatic leaders, security leaders in some 30 countries. That’s exactly what the incoming national security adviser should do.”

Official concern about Flynn’s interactions with Kislyak was heightened when Putin declared on Dec. 30 that Moscow would not retaliate after the Obama administration announced a day earlier the expulsion of 35 suspected Russian spies and the forced closure of Russian-owned compounds in Maryland and New York.

Instead, Putin said he would focus on “the restoration of ­Russia-United States relations” after Obama left office, and put off considering any retaliatory measures until Moscow had a chance to evaluate Trump’s policies.

Trump responded with effusive praise for Putin. “Great move on the delay,” he said in a posting to his Twitter account. “I always knew he was very smart.”

Putin’s reaction cut against a long practice of reciprocation on diplomatic expulsions, and came after his foreign minister had vowed that there would be reprisals against the United States.

Putin’s muted response — which took White House officials by surprise — raised some officials’ suspicions that Moscow may have been promised a reprieve, and triggered a search by U.S. spy agencies for clues.

“Something happened in those 24 hours” between Obama’s announcement and Putin’s response, a former senior U.S. official said. Officials began poring over intelligence reports, intercepted communications and diplomatic cables, and saw evidence that Flynn and Kislyak had communicated by text and telephone around the time of the announcement.

Trump transition officials acknowledged those contacts weeks later after they were reported in The Washington Post but denied that sanctions were discussed. Trump press secretary Sean Spicer said Jan. 13 that Flynn had “reached out to” the Russian ambassador on Christmas Day to extend holiday greetings. On Dec. 28, as word of the Obama sanctions spread, Kislyak sent a message to Flynn requesting a call. “Flynn took that call,” Spicer said, adding that it “centered on the logistics of setting up a call with the president of Russia and [Trump] after the election.”

Other officials were categorical. “I can tell you that during his call, sanctions were not discussed whatsoever,” a senior transition official told The Post at the time. When Pence faced questions on television that weekend, he said “those conversations that happened to occur around the time that the United States took action to expel diplomats had nothing whatsoever to do with those sanctions.”

Current and former U.S. officials said that assertion was not true.

Like Trump, Flynn has shown an affinity for Russia that is at odds with the views of most of his military and intelligence peers. Flynn raised eyebrows in 2015 when he appeared in photographs seated next to Putin at a lavish party in Moscow for the Kremlin-controlled RT television network.

In an earlier interview with The Post, Flynn acknowledged that he had been paid through his speakers bureau to give a speech at the event and defended his attendance by saying he saw no distinction between RT and U.S. news channels, including CNN.

[Trump adviser Michael T. Flynn on his dinner with Putin and why Russia Today is just like CNN]

A retired U.S. Army lieutenant general, Flynn served multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — tours in which he held a series of high-level intelligence assignments working with U.S. Special Operations forces hunting al-Qaeda operatives and Islamist militants.

Former colleagues said that narrow focus led Flynn to see the threat posed by Islamist groups as overwhelming other security concerns, including Russia’s renewed aggression. Instead, Flynn came to see America’s long-standing adversary as a potential ally against terrorist groups, and himself as being in a unique position to forge closer ties after traveling to Moscow in 2013 while serving as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Flynn has frequently boasted that he was the first DIA director to be invited into the headquarters of Russia’s military intelligence directorate, known as the GRU, although at least one of his predecessors was granted similar access. “Flynn thought he developed some rapport with the GRU chief,” a former senior U.S. military official said.

U.S. intelligence agencies say they have tied the GRU to Russia’s theft of troves of email messages from Democratic Party computer networks and accuse Moscow of then delivering those materials to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, which published them in phases during the campaign to hurt Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic rival.

Flynn was pushed out of the DIA job in 2014 amid concerns about his management of the sprawling agency. He became a fierce critic of the Obama administration before joining the Trump campaign last year.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/na ... 807b02525f

[Rory]

9 sources. Omg.

Some German fella said something about repeating a lie often enough then it might become accepted

[seemslikeadream]

what about Ledeen's yellowcake lie?

It's been really enlightening getting to know you


nice that you are on Gen. YellowKekc side...I mean that you believe the guy that is best friends with Ledeen the forger/peddler of the Niger docs...amazing..just fucking amazing...or I guess you believe the bullshit Cheney was tossing out

you must have been all for the Iraq war I guess

Published on
Thursday, November 17, 2016
byCommon Dreams
Meet the Islamophobic Black-Ops Master Likely to Head Trump's National Security Team
Flynn, who has suggested killing the families of suspected terrorists is okay, has been called "the embodiment of Donald Rumsfeld's view that the world is the battlefield"
byLauren McCauley, staff writer
11 Comments
As former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn was "one of the most influential figures in the dramatic post-9/11 expansion of the role of U.S. Special Operations forces globally," (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
As former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn was "one of the most influential figures in the dramatic post-9/11 expansion of the role of U.S. Special Operations forces globally," (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Amid the many rumored reports of President-elect Donald Trump's likely cabinet picks, one name that has risen to the surface is seriously concerning observers of the foreign policy arena.

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn is the "leading contender" to become Trump's national security advisor, one of the top posts in the White House, MSNBC reported Thursday.

"A source familiar with the Trump transition says that all signs point to Lt. General Michael Flynn," reported Kristen Welker, though "nothing is finalized."

The powerful post, which does not require Senate confirmation, is currently held by Susan Rice under President Barack Obama and formerly by Condoleeza Rice under George W. Bush.

Welker noted that Flynn is a "controversial figure in his own right who has been known to eschew 'political correctness'," who, like most of the rumored appointees, is also a "Trump loyalist who stayed by the GOP candidate's side even as other national security experts sharply criticized him during the campaign."

Though Flynn is better known for his radical declarations against Islam—for instance, saying that he is "at war with" the religion, calling it a "cancer," tweeting that "fear of Muslims is rational" (and writing a book to that effect), and insinuating that killing the families of suspected terrorists is acceptable—perhaps more concerning is his ambition to act on those beliefs.

As former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Flynn was "one of the most influential figures in the dramatic post-9/11 expansion of the role of U.S. Special Operations forces globally," Intercept reporter Jeremy Scahill wrote in September.

Scahill continued:

Along with Gen. Stanley McChrystal and Adm. William McRaven, Flynn was the embodiment of Donald Rumsfeld's view that the world is the battlefield. Flynn, who ran the elite Joint Special Operations Command's intelligence operations, is still revered as a legend within the military intelligence world.

[...]

After 9/11, Flynn was on the knife's edge of the intelligence technology that would be at the center of the mounting, global kill/capture campaign. In both Iraq and Afghanistan, Flynn and JSOC waged secret wars within the broader conventional wars and dramatically expanded the pace of night raids. Central to this strategy was taking prisoners and extracting information from them as quickly as possible.

The seriousness of his record prompted Lizz Winstead, co-creator of "The Daily Show," to quip:


Though he was ousted by the Obama administration in 2014, "ironically," Scahill noted, "it was Flynn whose black ops programs laid the groundwork for President Obama's 'counterterrorism' strategy in Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and, increasingly, Syria and, once again, Iraq."

Among his other foreign policy views, Flynn is friendly with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and "portrays Iran as the source of many of America's national security problems," according to CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen.

Another point of concern is Flynn's relationship with the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which he has reportedly been paid to lobby on behalf of, raising "ethical concerns" and "cast[ing] doubt on his suitability for public office," according to David Phillips, director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Human Rights.

And keeping in line with some of Trump's other appointees, namely chief strategist Steve Bannon, Flynn has used his platform to amplify rhetoric of the alt-right movement.

Ultimately, Scahill predicts, "Flynn's presence in Trump's corner means that a very sophisticated, accomplished assassin could end up in a position of tremendous authority."
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/1 ... urity-team

[seemslikeadream]

Michael Flynn’s Disaster
FEBRUARY 10, 2017

Trump’s national security adviser’s potentially false statements about his pre-inauguration contacts with Russian officials are a major problem.

“This reminds me of the run-up to Iran- Contra.”

The person offering that gloomy observation was a veteran of many years in and around the US defense community. Unusually for a person with such a background, he had been a Trump supporter even during the Republican primaries. Now, though, he was worried. The new National Security Council leadership was taking form—and he feared he saw history repeating itself.

“The National Security Council,” he warned, “is not one executive body. It is a deliberative body.” But the new national security adviser, General Michael Flynn, obviously hungered to carry out policy, not merely preside over policy formation. That way lay the disaster that had befallen Reagan’s national security advisers Bud Macfarlane and John Poindexter in the 1980s, who were convicted of lying to Congress about the administration selling arms to Iran to finance anti-communist militants in Nicaragua.

Disaster now seems to have happened. The Washington Post last night reported that—contrary to previous denials not only by Flynn himself, but from Vice President Mike Pence—Flynn “privately discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with that country’s ambassador to the United States during the month before President Trump took office.”

That matters because “Flynn’s communications with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak were interpreted by some senior U.S. officials as an inappropriate and potentially illegal signal to the Kremlin that it could expect a reprieve from sanctions that were being imposed by the Obama administration in late December to punish Russia for its alleged interference in the 2016 election.”

According to the Post, 9 current and former U.S. officials confirmed that Flynn had not told the truth about his diplomatic outreach to the country whose spies had helped to elect his boss to the US presidency. If these reports are true, we have here a very serious scandal.

And one of that scandal’s proximate causes, as my friend observed, is a national security adviser who sees his role as that of foreign policy operative. This vision of the role sort of worked when the deft and cunning Henry Kissinger headed an NSC staff of 40. Since then the NSC has grown into a quasi-agency in its own right, some 400 people in the White House or seconded from other departments. And Michael Flynn is no Henry Kissinger.

Flynn’s maladroitness in fact is the one thing that may have saved the administration from an even worse scandal: His reported lie was exposed so quickly that the uproar will thwart any project to lift early the sanctions on Russia for its role in the 2016 election. He has given the Trump administration an opportunity to localize what is really a much larger scandal.

They can now try to load all the blame for all the various sinister connections between the Trump campaign and Russian spy agencies onto one man, in an effort to protect everybody else implicated in the scandal, including the president himself.
http://www.defenseone.com/politics/2017 ... er/135335/

[seemslikeadream]

US Intelligence Has Confirmed Parts Of The Dossier About Trump’s Alleged Ties To Russia
BuzzFeed News has confirmed CNN’s initial report that the US government has verified some details — though not the most explosive — in the 35-page document alleging links between President Donald Trump’s campaign to Russia

Originally posted on Feb. 10, 2017, at 5:39 p.m.
Updated on Feb. 10, 2017, at 6:54 p.m.
Jason Leopold
BuzzFeed News Reporter

US intelligence has confirmed several details in the explosive dossier about President Donald Trump’s alleged ties to Russia, two American intelligence officials told BuzzFeed News on Friday.
CNN initially reported late Friday afternoon that parts of the 35-page dossier, which Trump has dismissed entirely as “fake news,” stood up under further investigation from US intelligence and law enforcement. But CNN said it has not confirmed whether any of the confirmed details relate to Trump. The CNN report also indicated that the intercepted calls that led to the confirmation were solely between foreign nationals and picked up during routine intelligence gathering.
An intelligence source told BuzzFeed News that CNN’s reporting was accurate, saying that the details that have been confirmed “are not the salacious allegations” of a sexual encounter in a Moscow hotel “but more about Trump’s relationship with Russia.” He declined to provide more details about the nature of that relationship, calling it “closely held.”
Additionally, the source said, some of the other confirmed details amount to things “no one will care about,” such as gossip among Russians who dislike Hillary Clinton.
A second US intelligence official working with federal law enforcement told BuzzFeed News, “Over the past two weeks we’ve determined some portions [of the dossier] are credible.” The source said the determination was made after “multiple analysts” reviewed intercepted communications between Russian officials. He would not disclose the sections of the document that have been confirmed but, like the other intelligence source, said it was a small portion and was not the sensational details.
BuzzFeed News first published the full dossier, compiled by British former intelligence operative Christopher Steele, in January, following a CNN report that a summary of it had been prepared for then-President Barack Obama and President-elect Trump. While the dossier contained clear errors, the file had made its way throughout the upper echelons of Washington and had been circulating widely among journalists, lawmakers, and law enforcement officials for weeks before its full release.
The report’s details alleged compromising materials gathered against Trump, including during a trip to Russia in 2013. It also details alleged contacts between Trump’s campaign advisors, including Carter Page, and Paul Manafort, who served as national chairman of Trump’s campaign from last April until August.
“This is more fake news,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer told CNN about its latest reporting. “It is about time CNN focused on the success the President has had bringing back jobs, protecting the nation, and strengthening relationships with Japan and other nations. The President won the election because of his vision and message for the nation.”
The White House did not immediately respond to BuzzFeed News’ request for comment.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/jasonaleopold/ ... .wk78wQqRb

Russian Dossier On Trump Gaining Credibility
http://www.sfgate.com/news/media/Russia ... 740650.php

[seemslikeadream]

Once this Flynn thing gets back and sticks to trumpty dumbty and IT WILL THERE ARE RECORDINGS OF FLYNN there will be impeachment hearings ..don't let anyone convince you otherwise ...IT WILL HAPPEN NO DOUBT

Do not let anyone convince you this is fake news ... trumpty dumbty spews fake news do not believe him... do not believe anyone that agrees with what trumpty dumbty is saying...

DO NOT BELIEVE ONE LINE WONDERS


In total there are 97 users online :: 2 registered, 3 hidden and 92 guests (based on users active over the past 5 minutes)

I will not sit down I will not shut up I will not stop posting



people know what is going on


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pRt4dFBkCA


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


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbhz3XcNzGU

[seemslikeadream]

Trump left the key in the lock bag in the same manner that someone might accidentally leave their house keys in the front door while bringing in an armful of groceries. Donald Trump is so ignorant and reckless with classified info that he not only left the key in the bag, but he left the bag out in the open and exposed to non-classified individuals.

Martin HeinrichVerified account
‏@MartinHeinrich

Never leave a key in a classified lockbag in the presence of non-cleared people. #Classified101 (Original Photo @AP https://wpo.st/sAia2 )

http://www.politicususa.com/2017/02/10/ ... intel.html

“Since January 20, we’ve assumed that the Kremlin has ears inside the SITROOM (Situation Room),” a Senior Pentagon intelligence official is quoted as saying.

I suspect there is at least a dim yes to the second, or the IC wouldn’t be reminding Trump that they know. They know. For God’s sake, man, THEY KNOW.

Congress Must Act As Intelligence Experts Warn Russia Is Listening In Trump’s Situation Room
By Sarah Jones on Sun, Feb 12th, 2017 at 5:15 pm
“Since January 20, we’ve assumed that the Kremlin has ears inside the Situation Room," a Senior Pentagon intelligence official is quoted as saying. Adding, “There’s not much the Russians don’t know at this point."

“Since January 20, we’ve assumed that the Kremlin has ears inside the SITROOM (Situation Room),” a Senior Pentagon intelligence official is quoted as saying. Adding, “There’s not much the Russians don’t know at this point.”

This shrieking crumb, so quietly laid down, was provided by security expert and former National Security Agency analyst and counterintelligence officer John Schindler, who dropped a few more trails leading to alarm Sunday in his Observer column.

In terms of the Trump-compromised-by-Russia dossier that gathered steam with further corroboration on Friday, Schindler, based on his conversations with the intelligence community, put a finer point on what parts of the dossier were confirmed.

It is a fact that senior Russian officials conspired to assist Trump’s win, “Now SIGINT confirms that some of the non-salacious parts of what Steele reported, in particular how senior Russian officials conspired to assist Trump in last year’s election, are substantially based in fact.”

Citing Spicer’s dodge of a denial, courtesy of that Trumpian charge of “fake news” aimed at CNN, Schindler pointed out that calling a report “fake news” is not a denial.

Schindler says the report “is damning for the administration.” This could mean that there is evidence that Trump or someone in his administration conspired with Moscow. It seems to suggest something more than the idea that Trump has been compromised, because that doesn’t seem specifically damning to the administration.

The former NSA analyst explained, “None of this has happened in Washington before. A White House with unsettling links to Moscow wasn’t something anybody in the Pentagon or the Intelligence Community even considered a possibility until a few months ago.”

We are in uncharted waters here.

Because of these concerns and because President Trump doesn’t even bother to show up for briefings sometimes, and is sending the already disgraced Flynn, some agencies worry about the Trump White House’s inability to keep secrets and so they are no longer sharing some of the intel.

“In light of this, and out of worries about the White House’s ability to keep secrets, some of our spy agencies have begun withholding intelligence from the Oval Office.”

He also touched on the blatant incompetence of this administration, “Our Intelligence Community is so worried by the unprecedented problems of the Trump administration—not only do senior officials possess troubling ties to the Kremlin, there are nagging questions about basic competence regarding Team Trump—that it is beginning to withhold intelligence from a White House which our spies do not trust.”

There is good reason to fret over Trump’s inability to guard even the most basic of classified information, as last Friday he left a classified bag with the key in it on his desk while non-cleared people were in his office.

Schindler corroborated what our editorial board suspected (and why we didn’t run any of the salacious accusations in the dossier), “As I’ve previously explained, that salacious dossier is raw intelligence, an explosive amalgam of fact and fantasy, including some disinformation planted by the Kremlin to obscure this already murky case.”

The dossier corroborated the more damning and less salacious bits, at least in part.

What appears to be happening is exactly what I have been predicting. That is, given the Republican cowardice (I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and surmise that many of them are also compromised by Putin, but still – patriotism anyone) in light of Trump’s Russian connections, there would be no one left to save this country but the intelligence communities.

Schindler, in fact, warned Republicans to get on the bus before it’s too late, “Republicans on the Hill who would prefer that the White House stop lying to the public about its Kremlin links ought to get behind Schiff’s initiative before the scandal gets worse.”

There are two issues at stake: Is Donald Trump compromised by Russia and did the United States President conspire with Russia to impact the U.S. election.

So far, we have a yes to the first. That in and of itself puts our country in danger and means that Donald Trump can’t be trusted to put America first.

I suspect there is at least a dim yes to the second, or the IC wouldn’t be reminding Trump that they know. They know. For God’s sake, man, THEY KNOW.

The security expert also warned the Trump administration (yet again), “Our spies have had enough of these shady Russian connections—and they are starting to push back.”

I’m no spy and I have no spy connections. Given that caveat, even I have seen what looks to be a warring drop of warnings from the Kremlin to Trump and from the United States Intelligence Communities to Trump.

The Kremlin lets something leak that could harm Trump, possibly to keep him in line or warn him of what they have. Our IC tries to warn Trump with a leaking drop that isn’t exactly hard to read at this point.

The message is clear. Get your act together, put some non-Russian hands on the wheel, put America first, or else.

I suggest the intelligence community break this threat down to its most basic, second-grade level in hopes that the Trump administration finally grasp that they aren’t going to win this one.

It is only a matter of when and for what, not if.
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/02/12/ ... -room.html

The Spy Revolt Against Trump Begins
Intelligence Community pushes back against a White House it considers leaky, untruthful and penetrated by the Kremlin
By John R. Schindler • 02/12/17 10:00am

In a recent column, I explained how the still-forming Trump administration is already doing serious harm to America’s longstanding global intelligence partnerships. In particular, fears that the White House is too friendly to Moscow are causing close allies to curtail some of their espionage relationships with Washington—a development with grave implications for international security, particularly in the all-important realm of counterterrorism.

Now those concerns are causing problems much closer to home—in fact, inside the Beltway itself. Our Intelligence Community is so worried by the unprecedented problems of the Trump administration—not only do senior officials possess troubling ties to the Kremlin, there are nagging questions about basic competence regarding Team Trump—that it is beginning to withhold intelligence from a White House which our spies do not trust.

That the IC has ample grounds for concern is demonstrated by almost daily revelations of major problems inside the White House, a mere three weeks after the inauguration. The president has repeatedly gone out of his way to antagonize our spies, mocking them and demeaning their work, and Trump’s personal national security guru can’t seem to keep his story straight on vital issues.
That’s Mike Flynn, the retired Army three-star general who now heads the National Security Council. Widely disliked in Washington for his brash personality and preference for conspiracy-theorizing over intelligence facts, Flynn was fired as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency for managerial incompetence and poor judgment—flaws he has brought to the far more powerful and political NSC.

Flynn’s problems with the truth have been laid bare by the growing scandal about his dealings with Moscow. Strange ties to the Kremlin, including Vladimir Putin himself, have dogged Flynn since he left DIA, and concerns about his judgment have risen considerably since it was revealed that after the November 8 election, Flynn repeatedly called the Russian embassy in Washington to discuss the transition. The White House has denied that anything substantive came up in conversations between Flynn and Sergei Kislyak, the Russian ambassador.

That was a lie, as confirmed by an extensively sourced bombshell report in The Washington Post, which makes clear that Flynn grossly misrepresented his numerous conversations with Kislyak—which turn out to have happened before the election too, part of a regular dialogue with the Russian embassy. To call such an arrangement highly unusual in American politics would be very charitable.

In particular, Flynn and Kislyak discussed the possible lifting of the sanctions President Obama placed on Russia and its intelligence services late last year in retaliation for the Kremlin’s meddling in our 2016 election. In public, Flynn repeatedly denied that any talk of sanctions occurred during his conversations with Russia’s ambassador. Worse, he apparently lied in private too, including to Vice President Mike Pence, who when this scandal broke last month publicly denied that Flynn conducted any sanctions talk with Kislyak. Pence and his staff are reported to be very upset with the national security adviser, who played the vice president for a fool.

It’s debatable whether Flynn broke any laws by conducting unofficial diplomacy with Moscow, then lying about it, and he has now adopted the customary Beltway dodge about the affair, ditching his previous denials in favor of professing he has “no recollection of discussing sanctions,” adding that he “couldn’t be certain that the topic never came up.” That’s not good enough anymore, since the IC knows exactly what Flynn and Kislyak discussed.

In pretty much every capital worldwide, embassies that provide sanctuary to hostile intelligence services are subject to counterintelligence surveillance, including monitoring phone calls. Our spy services conduct signals intelligence—SIGINT for short—against the Russian embassy in Washington, just as the Russians do against our embassy in Moscow. Ambassadors’ calls are always monitored: that’s how the SpyWar works, everywhere.

Ambassador Kislyak surely knew his conversations with Flynn were being intercepted, and it’s incomprehensible that a career military intelligence officer who once headed a major intelligence agency didn’t realize the same. Whether Flynn is monumentally stupid or monumentally arrogant is the big question that hangs over this increasingly strange affair.

Prominent Democrats in Congress are already calling for Flynn to be relieved over this scandal, which at best shows him to be dishonest about important issues. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, has bluntly asked for the national security adviser’s ouster. Republicans on the Hill who would prefer that the White House stop lying to the public about its Kremlin links ought to get behind Schiff’s initiative before the scandal gets worse.

In truth, it may already be too late. A new report by CNN indicates that important parts of the infamous spy dossier that professed to shed light on President Trump’s shady Moscow ties have been corroborated by communications intercepts. In other words, SIGINT strikes again, providing key evidence that backs up some of the claims made in that 35-page report compiled by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence official with extensive Russia experience.

As I’ve previously explained, that salacious dossier is raw intelligence, an explosive amalgam of fact and fantasy, including some disinformation planted by the Kremlin to obscure this already murky case. Now SIGINT confirms that some of the non-salacious parts of what Steele reported, in particular how senior Russian officials conspired to assist Trump in last year’s election, are substantially based in fact. This is bad news for the White House, which has already lashed out in angry panic, with Press Secretary Sean Spicer stating, “We continue to be disgusted by CNN’s fake news reporting.”

That is hardly a denial, of course, and I can confirm from my friends still serving in the IC that the SIGINT, which corroborates some of the Steele dossier, is damning for the administration. Our spies have had enough of these shady Russian connections—and they are starting to push back.

There are pervasive concerns that the president simply isn’t paying attention to intelligence.

How things are heating up between the White House and the spooks is evidenced by a new report that the CIA has denied a security clearance to one of Flynn’s acolytes. Rob Townley, a former Marine intelligence officer selected to head up the NSC’s Africa desk, was denied a clearance to see Sensitive Compartmented Information (which is required to have access to SIGINT in particular). Why Townley’s SCI was turned down isn’t clear—it could be over personal problems or foreign ties—but the CIA’s stand has been privately denounced by the White House, which views this as a vendetta against Flynn. That the Townley SCI denial was reportedly endorsed by Mike Pompeo, the new CIA director selected by Trump himself, only adds to the pain.

There is more consequential IC pushback happening, too. Our spies have never liked Trump’s lackadaisical attitude toward the President’s Daily Brief, the most sensitive of all IC documents, which the new commander-in-chief has received haphazardly. The president has frequently blown off the PDB altogether, tasking Flynn with condensing it into a one-page summary with no more than nine bullet-points. Some in the IC are relieved by this, but there are pervasive concerns that the president simply isn’t paying attention to intelligence.

In light of this, and out of worries about the White House’s ability to keep secrets, some of our spy agencies have begun withholding intelligence from the Oval Office. Why risk your most sensitive information if the president may ignore it anyway? A senior National Security Agency official explained that NSA was systematically holding back some of the “good stuff” from the White House, in an unprecedented move. For decades, NSA has prepared special reports for the president’s eyes only, containing enormously sensitive intelligence. In the last three weeks, however, NSA has ceased doing this, fearing Trump and his staff cannot keep their best SIGINT secrets.

Since NSA provides something like 80 percent of the actionable intelligence in our government, what’s being kept from the White House may be very significant indeed. However, such concerns are widely shared across the IC, and NSA doesn’t appear to be the only agency withholding intelligence from the administration out of security fears.

What’s going on was explained lucidly by a senior Pentagon intelligence official, who stated that “since January 20, we’ve assumed that the Kremlin has ears inside the SITROOM,” meaning the White House Situation Room, the 5,500 square-foot conference room in the West Wing where the president and his top staffers get intelligence briefings. “There’s not much the Russians don’t know at this point,” the official added in wry frustration.

None of this has happened in Washington before. A White House with unsettling links to Moscow wasn’t something anybody in the Pentagon or the Intelligence Community even considered a possibility until a few months ago. Until Team Trump clarifies its strange relationship with the Kremlin, and starts working on its professional honesty, the IC will approach the administration with caution and concern.

I previously warned the Trump administration not to go to war with the nation’s spies, and here’s why. This is a risky situation, particularly since President Trump is prone to creating crises foreign and domestic with his incautious tweets. In the event of a serious international crisis of the sort which eventually befalls almost every administration, the White House will need the best intelligence possible to prevent war, possibly even nuclear war. It may not get the information it needs in that hour of crisis, and for that it has nobody to blame but itself.

John Schindler is a security expert and former National Security Agency analyst and counterintelligence officer. A specialist in espionage and terrorism, he’s also been a Navy officer and a War College professor. He’s published four books and is on Twitter at @20committee.
http://observer.com/2017/02/donald-trum ... n-embassy/

TRAITORS ONE AND ALL

[Elvis]

First rate dope from Schindler — thanks SLAD — Trump's relationship with the intel agencies is the aspect I always thought would be most interesting. As expected, Trump's being difficult to manage, and, judging from Schindler's report, it seems a safe bet that someone has good if not total coverage of the Trump Gang's private conversations.

I have mixed feelings about that but a lot of people around the world are already yearning for impeachment, a coup etc.—anything to get rid of Trump & Co.— and Murkin IC may take those sentiments as permission to act.

[seemslikeadream]

The New York Observer — which is owned by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner— reported Sunday that the intelligence community (IC) is “pushing back” against an administration it believes is incompetent, dishonest, leaky and “penetrated by the Kremlin.”

What? Kushner can't just talk to Trump in person about this

THE RIGHT WING
US Spies Withholding Intel from White House Because they Know Russia Is Listening
"None of this has happened in Washington before."
By David Ferguson / Raw Story February 12, 2017

U.S. intelligence operatives are withholding sensitive information from the White House for the first time in history because they believe that Russia will find out anything they tell Pres. Donald Trump and his aides.

The New York Observer — which is owned by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner — reported Sunday that the intelligence community (IC) is “pushing back” against an administration it believes is incompetent, dishonest, leaky and “penetrated by the Kremlin.”

“Our Intelligence Community is so worried by the unprecedented problems of the Trump administration — not only do senior officials possess troubling ties to the Kremlin, there are nagging questions about basic competence regarding Team Trump — that it is beginning to withhold intelligence from a White House which our spies do not trust,” wrote former analyst for the National Security Agency Jack R. Schindler.

Not only has Trump gone out of his way to discredit the nation’s spy agencies, his main national security guru, Gen. Mike Flynn either appears to by lying about his conversations with the Russian government about U.S. sanctions or can’t remember breaking the law.

“Whether Flynn is monumentally stupid or monumentally arrogant is the big question that hangs over this increasingly strange affair,” Schindler wrote.

One of Flynn’s top aides was denied a security clearance, and although they have not made public exactly what caused them to deny Rob Townley access to Sensitive Compartmentalized Information, Schindler believes that it is a sign that the IC is going to be taking a harder line with the administration.

Most worrisome of all is the fact that — as one senior Pentagon official told Schindler — our nation’s spies believe that “the Kremlin has ears inside the SITROOM,” otherwise known as the Situation Room, where the nation’s most protected secrets are discussed.

“There’s not much the Russians don’t know at this point,” the official said.

Schindler wrote, “None of this has happened in Washington before. A White House with unsettling links to Moscow wasn’t something anybody in the Pentagon or the Intelligence Community even considered a possibility until a few months ago. Until Team Trump clarifies its strange relationship with the Kremlin, and starts working on its professional honesty, the IC will approach the administration with caution and concern.”

If Trump poisons his relationship with the IC, Schindler warned, the situation becomes extremely risky because, “President Trump is prone to creating crises foreign and domestic with his incautious tweets. In the event of a serious international crisis of the sort which eventually befalls almost every administration, the White House will need the best intelligence possible to prevent war, possibly even nuclear war. It may not get the information it needs in that hour of crisis, and for that it has nobody to blame but itself.”
http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/us-s ... -listening

[seemslikeadream]

Published on
Monday, February 13, 2017
by Common Dreams
For America’s Sake, We Need Answers about Russia. Now.

Donald Trump's embrace of Russia and Vladimir Putin and that country's interference with our election could drag democracy to an early grave.
byMichael Winship

These first weeks of the Trump White House have felt like one of those tennis ball machines run amok, volley after volley shooting at us in such rapid fire that often the only reaction is to grimace and duck. Outrage after outrage, imperial pronouncement after pronouncement, lie after lie; it’s just one damned, fast and furious, flawed thing after another.



All of this is confusing and distracting and of course, that’s precisely what they want. As the old saying goes, if you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit. It easily distracts us from the real issues, diverting our eyes from those important things that have to be closely examined and resolved if we’re to continue trying, at least, to behave like a free nation.



Outrage after outrage, imperial pronouncement after pronouncement, lie after lie; it’s just one damned, fast and furious, flawed thing after another.


One of those burning issues is Russia, which largely seemed to go off the scope in the days immediately before and after Trump’s mini-inauguration, even though around the election and in the weeks after we heard a great deal about Russia’s hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the release of emails aimed at defeating Hillary Clinton — allegations that were backed by the US intelligence community. With the FBI, those spy agencies also have been investigating intercepted communications from Russian intelligence. And then there’s that infamous “dossier,” compiled by ex-British spy Christopher Steele, filled with thus far unverified allegations about President Trump’s business dealings with Russia as well as certain salacious tales of his purported extracurricular activities there.



But with last week’s news about Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn’s December phone calls with the Russian ambassador to the United States and word that US intelligence has confirmed some of the information in the Steele dossier, interest in Russia has rekindled — and a good thing, too.



On Thursday night, The Washington Post broke the story that Flynn:



“… Privately discussed US sanctions against Russia with that country’s ambassador to the United States during the month before President Trump took office, contrary to public assertions by Trump officials, current and former US officials said.

“Flynn’s communications with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak were interpreted by some senior US officials as an inappropriate and potentially illegal signal to the Kremlin that it could expect a reprieve from sanctions that were being imposed by the Obama administration in late December to punish Russia for its alleged interference in the 2016 election.”



Which raises the famous questions that so bedeviled Richard Nixon: What did Donald Trump know and when did he know it?



The Flynn story was followed on Friday by news from CNN that investigators have now corroborated some of the less personal information in the Steele dossier, conversations among Russian officials: “The corroboration,” the network reported, “has given US intelligence and law enforcement ‘greater confidence’ in the credibility of some aspects of the dossier… Some of the individuals involved in the intercepted communications were known to the US intelligence community as ‘heavily involved’ in collecting information damaging to Hillary Clinton and helpful to Donald Trump, two of the officials tell CNN.”



Which raises the famous questions that so bedeviled Richard Nixon: What did Donald Trump know and when did he know it?


These latest developments came on the heels of Trump’s astonishing remarks to Bill O’Reilly, in an interview pre-taped for Super Bowl Sunday, when Trump said he respected Putin and O’Reilly noted that the Russian leader is a killer: “There are a lot of killers,” Trump replied, sounding more like a two-bit Al Capone than the leader of the free world. “We have a lot of killers. You think our country is so innocent?”



This is way beyond troubling, so it merits noting some of the other news about Russia that has transpired in the last few weeks, news that might have flown under your radar while Trump’s fusillade of executive orders and tantrums was bombarding your every waking moment.



All of it is serious business, specifically when it comes to figuring out just why Trump is so deeply enamored of Vladimir Putin and how much Russia interfered with our election, and more broadly for what it says about Trump and his chief strategist Stephen Bannon’s vision, God help us, of a world divided and dominated by white nationalists.



For one, and speaking of killers, there’s the matter of the missing Russian intelligence men, all of whom may be connected to the Trump affair. Amy Knight, former Woodrow Wilson Fellow and author of Orders From Above: The Putin Regime and Political Murder, writes in The New York Review of Books, “… Since the US election, there has been an unprecedented, and perhaps still continuing shakeup of top officials in Putin’s main security agency, the FSB, and that a top former intelligence official in Putin’s entourage died recently in suspicious circumstances.”



She’s worth quoting at length:



“It appears that the Kremlin has been conducting an intensive hunt for moles within its security apparatus who might have leaked information about Russian efforts to influence the US presidential election. In mid-December 2016, following public assertions by leading US intelligence officials that Russia had intervened in the election, two high-level FSB officers, Sergei Mikhailov, deputy chief of the FSB’s Center for Information Security, which oversees cyberintelligence, and his subordinate, Dmitry Dokuchayev, were arrested. (Russian authorities reportedly took Mikhailov away from a meeting of the FSB top brass after placing a black bag on his head.) The two men — along with Ruslan Stoyanov, who headed the Kaspersky Lab, a private company that assists the FSB in internet security — were charged with state treason. Russian independent media reported that the men had been responsible for leaks to Western sources, including US intelligence, about Russian cyber attacks against the US and also about Russian covert efforts to blackmail Donald Trump…

“Also, the authoritative independent Russian business daily Kommersant reported two weeks ago that Andrei Gerasimov, chief of the FSB’s cyberintelligence department, and Mikhailov’s boss, would be fired, although Gerasimov’s dismissal has yet to be officially confirmed. According to Russian security expert Andrei Soldatov, the upheaval in the FSB amounts to a purge of the entire Russian state security team dealing with cyberintelligence and cybersecurity.”



Then there’s a former KGB and FSB general, Oleg Erovinkin, found dead in the back of his car in Moscow on Dec. 26, officially from a heart attack, but as Agatha Christie would say, foul play is suspected. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports:



“Erovinkin was a key aide to Igor Sechin, a former deputy prime minister. He has been described as a key liaison between Sechin and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Now head of the state-owned oil company Rosneft, Sechin is repeatedly named in the so-called Trump dossier… [Christopher] Steele wrote in the dossier, which was dated July 19, 2016, that much of the information it contained was provided by a source close to Sechin. That source was Erovinkin, according to Russia expert Christo Grozev of Risk Management Lab, a think-tank based in Bulgaria.”



Through their mutual love of petrochemicals and profits, Igor Sechin and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, former CEO of ExxonMobil are pals, and in fact Sechin complained that US sanctions against Russia kept him from coming to America to “ride the roads…on motorcycles with Tillerson.”



In December, Russia announced the sale of a 19.5 percent share of Rosneft, that massive government oil company run by Igor Sechin. He and Putin appeared on television to announce the deal, and Reuters reported that Putin “called it a sign of international faith in Russia, despite US and EU financial sanctions on Russian firms including Rosneft.”



Supposedly the transaction is a fairly straightforward joint venture between Qatar and Glencore, a Swiss firm, but as Reuters noted,



“Like many large deals, the Rosneft privatization uses a structure of shell companies owning shell companies, commonly referred to in Russia as a ‘matryoshka’, after the wooden nesting dolls that open to reveal a smaller doll inside. Following the trail of ownership leads to a Glencore UK subsidiary and a company that shares addresses with the Qatari Investment Authority, but also to a firm registered in the Cayman Islands, which does not require companies to record publicly who owns them.”



So who’s really behind the deal? Its convolutions may have the potential for a John Le Carre novel or Bourne movie. Some have even noted, as Amy Knight does, that coincidentally, “The Steele dossier… mentions that Carter Page, a member of Trump’s foreign policy team during his campaign, had a secret meeting with Sechin in Moscow in July 2016, in which the two reportedly discussed the possible lifting [of] US sanctions against Russia, in exchange for a 19 percent stake in Rosneft (It is not clear from the memo who would get the stake, but apparently it would have been the Trump campaign)” [Italics mine. mw]. She speculates that this, too, may have been another leak by the now-deceased Oleg Erovinkin.

A 19 percent stake in Rosneft, versus a 19.5 percent stake… admittedly, it’s a stretch, and probably nothing more than an odd coincidence, yet stranger things have happened, especially given the Bizarro World we now inhabit. But what’s not a stretch is that beyond the particulars, beyond whatever reasons, blackmail or otherwise, that Trump is so under Vladimir Putin’s spell, there is a global agenda both men share that’s the real danger.



Urged on by his American Rasputin, the ineffable Bannon, for all intents and purposes Trump is promoting white nationalism and what many call “traditionalism,” a worldview shared by Putin. It’s no coincidence that the Russian kleptocrat and his government also are supporting and being embraced by far-right political parties and leaders throughout Europe, including Marine LePen’s National Front in France, Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD), Golden Dawn in Greece, the Ataka Party in Bulgaria and Hungary’s Jobbik Party.



In a 2013 speech at the Valdai conference in Russia, Putin warned, “We can see how many of the Euro-Atlantic countries are actually rejecting their roots, including the Christian values that constitute the basis of Western civilization. They are denying moral principles and all traditional identities: national, cultural, religious and even sexual. They are implementing policies that equate large families with same-sex partnerships, belief in God with the belief in Satan.”



And here’s Trump consigliere Steve Bannon on the dangers of what he calls “jihadist Islamic fascism.” In 2014 he told a conference at the Vatican: “I believe the world, and particularly the Judeo-Christian West, is in a crisis… There is a major war brewing, a war that’s already global… Every day that we refuse to look at this as what it is, and the scale of it, and really the viciousness of it, will be a day where you will rue that we didn’t act.”

Asked about support for Putin and Russia from France’s National Front and Britain’s United Kingdom Independent Party (UKIP), Bannon replied, “One of the reasons is that they believe that at least Putin is standing up for traditional institutions, and he’s trying to do it in a form of nationalism — and I think that people, particularly in certain countries, want to see the sovereignty for their country, they want to see nationalism for their country. They don’t believe in this kind of pan-European Union or they don’t believe in the centralized government in the United States.”



Putin’s motives are pragmatic as well as ideological; distracting his people as he cracks down dissent at home while seeking destabilization in the West and hoping to prevent further expansion of the European Union and NATO. Bannon’s motives seem more messianic and, the greater the influence he exerts on Trump’s thinking (such as it is), dangerous.



In the current issue of The Atlantic, journalist Franklin Foer concludes:



“There is little empirical basis for the charge of civilizational rot. It speaks to an emotional state, one we should do our best to understand and even empathize with. But we know from history that premonitions of imminent barbarism serve to justify extreme countermeasures. These are the anxieties from which dictators rise. Admiring strongmen from a distance is the window-shopping that can end in the purchase of authoritarianism.”



And so it may go here in America. From a window-shopping distance, Trump admires Putin and his authoritarianism. This blind love, plus the lust that drove Trump to want the White House — and yes, perhaps extortion as well — may have allowed Russia not only to subvert our election but also to infiltrate Trump’s administration and erode if not destroy American democracy.



John R. Schindler at the Observer (the newspaper until recently owned by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner) writes, “Our Intelligence Community is so worried by the unprecedented problems of the Trump administration — not only do senior officials possess troubling ties to the Kremlin, there are nagging questions about basic competence regarding Team Trump — that it is beginning to withhold intelligence from a White House which our spies do not trust.” Democrats and even some Republicans are demanding answers, several congressional committees have announced probes, individual members like New York’s Jerry Nadler are searching for various maneuvers that will force Trump and the evidence of Russian intrusions into our government and politics out into the open. But the crisis still cries out for a bipartisan independent investigation.



The bottom line is that Putin is far shrewder than Trump and capable of playing him like a balalaika. And with the likes of foolhardy Bannon, dangerous professional twerp and presidential advisor Stephen Miller, security risk Michael Flynn and others egging Trump on — obsessed with a nightmarish hallucination about America and the world’s future — we live at one of the most dangerous moments in our republic’s history.



Unlike those days 50 years ago when Russia posed a different kind of ideological threat, one that had us building fallout shelters and teaching kids to duck and cover, this is not a drill.
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/ ... russia-now

[seemslikeadream]

The Wind Is Sown

ByJOSH MARSHALLPublishedFEBRUARY 13, 2017, 11:41 PM EDT

I had wanted to end my work evening on the post I published just after 8 PM. Let me conclude on this note. Tonight's revelations (by which I mean those which preceded Michael Flynn's resignation) make it even more clear that there is much more going on out of view than we realize.

As the Russia story submerged out of view in the first days of February, the Acting Attorney General had already warned the White House about Michael Flynn's deceptions and susceptibility to blackmail. She was fired for refusing to enforce the immigration executive order days later. Though the White House now denies it, it seems that the President and his top advisors took no action in response to these warnings.

We can now also see the outlines of another part of the story. It appears that repeated efforts were made to apprise President Trump or those around him of the situation with Michael Flynn. When those warnings were ignored, people in the national security and law enforcement apparatus went instead to the press to get the word out that way. Only now can we see some of the hidden actions which reveal the pattern and provide context to the leaks.

This is not some ill-considered discussion by Michael Flynn. The role of Russia in the 2016 election and the President's relationship to Russia has been the un-ignorable question hanging over President Trump for months. Flynn's resignation does not come close to resolving it. It is highly likely that the Flynn/Russia channel was authorized by the President himself. There's much more to come.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-wind-is-sown

[seemslikeadream]

Michael Moore ‏@MMFlint 5h5 hours ago
More
Hey @realDonaldTrump-1hr after Obama put sanctions on Russia YOU told Flynn 2 call them & promise em it'll be OK. Traitor!Resign by morning!
626 replies 5,420 retweets 13,324 likes
Reply 626 Retweet 5.4K
Like 13K

Michael Moore ‏@MMFlint 6h6 hours ago
More
The Washington Post & NY Times now reporting Trump HAS KNOWN FOR A MONTH Flynn lied about the Russian call - and Trump did nothing. #IMPEACH
495 replies 5,689 retweets 12,081 likes
Reply 495 Retweet 5.7K
Like 12K

Michael Moore ‏@MMFlint 6h6 hours ago
More
TRUMP KNEW EVERYTHING. It will all come out. Along with the rest of Trump's collusion & obedience to Putin. #IMPEACH


213 replies 2,435 retweets 6,117 likes
Reply 213 Retweet 2.4K
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Michael Moore ‏@MMFlint 6h6 hours ago
More
Let's be VERY clear: Flynn DID NOT make that Russian call on his own. He was INSTRUCTED to do so.He was TOLD to reassure them. Arrest Trump.
702 replies 6,859 retweets 17,139 likes
Reply 702 Retweet 6.9K
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Michael Moore ‏@MMFlint 6h6 hours ago
More
Flynn was colluding w/ a foreign gov't accused of helping throw the election 2 Trump,promising them they would be taken care of. Arrest him.
286 replies 2,769 retweets 8,375 likes
Reply 286 Retweet 2.8K
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Michael Moore ‏@MMFlint 6h6 hours ago
More
Fondly remembering traitor Michael Flynn at the Republican convention leading the cheer from the stage: "LOCK HER UP."
350 replies 3,399 retweets 9,457 likes
Reply 350 Retweet 3.4K
Like 9.5K

Michael Moore ‏@MMFlint 6h6 hours ago
More
Now that Flynn is gone, he can rejoin his son in pedaling the story that Hillary was running a pedophile ring out of Comet Pizza. #security
185 replies 1,114 retweets 4,592 likes
Reply 185 Retweet 1.1K
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Michael Moore ‏@MMFlint 6h6 hours ago
More
He's only first to go. One by one they will drop until the so-called president is told "you're fired." Up next, Miller & Bannon.
656 replies 2,311 retweets 7,910 likes
Reply 656 Retweet 2.3K

[seemslikeadream]

Keep flogging that horse. It still ded

I sure will

Really Rory?....This is Reality Rory

9 sources. Omg.

Some German fella said something about repeating a lie often enough then it might become accepted

Why would Gen. Yellowkekc resign?

you should take your own advice and not preach to everyone else

quit repeating a lie now that you have been pwned.

[seemslikeadream]

do you hear that?

the sound of silence...republican silence

this will not stand

Jason Chaffetz: no need to probe Flynn and Russia, after all, it wasn't in Hillary's emails

What did the President know and when did he know it?


There will be a special prosecutor

Why did the President say on Friday he didn't know anything about this?

Why did Gen. Yellowkekc still sit in on classified meetings?

Why did the President do nothing for 3 weeks?

Walt starr kurious Feb 14 · 10:20:48 AM
The question now is, “are Chaffetz, Nunes, and Ryan actively involved in a criminal conspiracy to cover up crimes in the White House?”

GOP Senate Intel Member: Exhaustive investigation into Trump-Russia connections needed following Flynn resignation
By Andrew Kaczynski, CNN
Updated 11:56 AM ET, Tue February 14, 2017


Retired United States Army lieutenant general Michael T. Flynn introduces Republican Presidential nominee Donald J. Trump before he delivered a speech at The Union League of Philadelphia on September 7, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Trump spoke about his plans to build up the military if elected. Recent national polls show the presidential race is tightening with two months until the election.
Michael Flynn: Iran officially on notice
.
(CNN)Republican Sen. Roy Blunt, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Tuesday called for an exhaustive investigation into connections between President Donald Trump and Russia and said the Intelligence Committee should immediately speak with former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

Flynn resigned Monday evening amid revelations that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about conversations he had in December with Russia's ambassador to the US about sanctions placed on Russia. Pence had defended Flynn on television and denied he discussed sanctions after initial reports of the conversations.
"I think everybody needs that investigation to happen," Blunt said on KTRS radio. "And the Senate Intelligence Committee, again that I serve on, has been given the principle responsibility to look into this, and I think that we should look into it exhaustively so that at the end of this process, nobody wonders whether there was a stone left unturned, and shouldn't reach conclusions before you have the information that you need to have to make those conclusions."

"But the Senate Intelligence Committee is looking at this," he continued. "I would think that we should talk to Gen. Flynn very soon and that should answer a lot of questions. What did he know? What did he do? And is there any reason to believe that anybody knew that and didn't take the kind of action they should have taken?"
"For all of us, finding out if there's a problem or not and sooner rather than later is the right thing to do," he added.
Earlier the Missouri senator said the national security adviser needed to be trustworthy.
"The national security adviser of all the people that work with and for the President has to be absolutely trustworthy and truthful and apparently he wasn't and he paid the price for that..." Blunt said. "In this case absolute trustworthiness is the most important thing, even better than, even more important than knowledge, you've got to trust what the national security adviser says and apparently that wasn't gonna be the case here."
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/14/politics/ ... index.html

Max Boot ‏@MaxBoot 14h14 hours ago
With Flynn scandal, we are seeing only the tip of Kremlingate. Needed: bipartisan investigation into full Trump-Putin ties.

[Iamwhomiam]

And we're off to the races...