Small Wars Journal

What President Trump’s Foreign Policy Will Look Like

Wed, 11/09/2016 - 1:48pm

What President Trump’s Foreign Policy Will Look Like by David Ignatius, Washington Post

Donald Trump proclaimed “America First” on his way to his head-spinning victory in Tuesday’s presidential election, and the success of that message will rock many foreign capitals where leaders have feared that Trump would alter the basics of U.S. foreign policy.

Making predictions about Trump’s foreign policy is difficult, given his lack of experience. But the most likely bet is that as president he will seek to do what he promised during the campaign in breaking from current U.S. approaches to Russia, the Middle East, Europe and Asia…

A Trump foreign policy, based on his statements, will bring an intense “realist” focus on U.S. national interests and a rejection of costly U.S. engagements abroad. It will likely bring these changes:

A move to improve relations with a combative, assertive Russia…

A joint military effort with Russia and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to defeat the Islamic State…

A new push for European allies to pay more for their own defense…

An attempt to alter the terms of trade in Asia by renegotiating trade pacts and forcing China to revalue its currency…

Read on.

Comments

Outlaw 09

Mon, 01/16/2017 - 3:06am

This is what happens when intel chief tells @realDonaldTrump something he doesn't want to hear. He doesn't listen; just shoots the messenger

Trump is now officially at war with the entire US Intelligence Community...a war he cannot possibly win and it will be one of a death by a thousand cuts as they sit on information over his last 30 years of Russian activities and his money laundering days with his casino's....and they will leak it...

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 8h
8 hours ago

.@FoxNews "Outgoing CIA Chief, John Brennan, blasts Pres-Elect Trump on Russia threat. Does not fully understand." Oh really, couldn't do...

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 8h
8 hours ago

much worse - just look at Syria (red line), Crimea, Ukraine and the build-up of Russian nukes. Not good! Was this the leaker of Fake News?

Trump is a great user of the Russian propaganda SIX Ds.....which are being used here.....DEFLECT...DISMISS....DISTORT...

Does Trump really think Dir CIA had the power to unilaterally decide US policy on Syria, Ukraine or could've reduced Russian arsenal!?

Outlaw 09

Mon, 01/16/2017 - 3:00am

Strong German and EU comments coming out of Europe after Trump interview...

.@ischinger
„Donald Trump hat die EU bisher überhaupt nicht verstanden.“
Auch zu Trumps Einschätzungen zur NATO und Russland starke Kritik.

1. Trump does not even understand EU
2. Trump estimate of NATO and Russia are totally wrong....

IF the Russian controllers of Trump want the destruction of EU and NATO...Trump is the way forward....and there is no Russian connections????

APPEARS he ignored the CIA Directors' comments yesterday aimed straight at him....

European integration is profoundly in the interest of the peace and prosperity of all European nations. If it doesn't suit Trump, so be it.

Outlaw 09

Mon, 01/16/2017 - 2:23am

Let us see just what this Trump knows about international trade these days...not much actually and why should he..he dealth largely with licensing name deals, real estate and money laundering along the way....

"there are more German cars on US roads than US cars in Germany..that has to end....."

BUT WAIT if we use the Trump motto of producing German cars in the US...THEN EU could equally demand US produce cars inside EU or face a 35% tariff.....

All is fair in love and trade these days......

Secondly...Trump is no thinking through that there are already US auto companies in Europe....Ford....Fiat/C....GM.....producing cars for Europe and contributing to the overall profit margins of those US companies....the problem for them is how to bring back their profits with virtually no US taxes....OH forgot Trump has a plan for that....and it will cost the US taxpayer as the last time under Obama that US companies were allowed to bring back their overseas profits estimated in the 1.5T USD range...it all went towards stock buybacks and shareholder value in the form of dividends of Class A shares....

BTW...Trump seems to forget that US produced cars and exported to EU do not reach EU safety standards and must be altered at the import harbor before entering legally into EU...adding more to the vehicle price.....same requirements for Japanese and or Korean produced vehicles BTW...

AND oh by the way...all those German cars on US roads were largely produced inside the US..why the same problem US cars coming into Germany...Germans have coming into the US adding additional cost to a vehicle....example....US headlight standards have not changed for over 75 years and EU light technologies are now world class and yet cannot be sent into the US ....or let's look at bumper safety differences between EU/US....

RIGHT now one of the main problems with US car sales in Europe is the US pricing of those export vehicles...you can get a quality VW/MB/BMW at a lower price than the equal US model.....

SO is Trump going to tell US auto companies to export cheaper????

US auto companies are in the profit business not loss business....

WHAT Trump in his "down on EU comments in the interview" also forgets in international trade is the simple fact that the EU market is 800Mstrong vs the US market of 300M...add in the association and say CETA then the EU trading zone has over 1.2B consumers AND Trump wants to do a trade war with who again...1.2B consumers?????

Trump is also against the TTP trade deal...but by not holding to it...Trump literally allows china to dominate the Asian markets by setting product standards...financial standard s and trades services.....AND the US is on the outside looking in...

AND that makes sense in Trump's calculations of expanding US jobs and exports.....???

Outlaw 09

Mon, 01/16/2017 - 1:01am

Report: CIA set up task-force in 2016 to investigate possible Russian funding of Trump's campaign
http://read.bi/2iTFlvI

BUT WAIT...Trump states no contact with anyone and anything in Russia and no money from Russia...REALLY......???

Outlaw 09

Mon, 01/16/2017 - 1:00am

Worrying: sanctions on #Russia for invading #Ukraine wd be lifted w/o Ru withdrawal, in return for nuclear arms deal that US doesn't need?

Michael McFaul

@McFaul
Merkel has been America's most important ally for many years. Putin has not.

BUT WAIT Trump states we should trust Putin....DID he hear the CIA Director's comments directed at him yesterday about his total lack of understanding Russian intentions and abilities???

Outlaw 09

Mon, 01/16/2017 - 12:32am

ANOTHER perfect example of exactly WHY Trump is now dangerous for both NATO and the US.....

This depicts just how poorly informed he is and or the poor quality of advice he is getting....

NATO not fighting terror.....ASK how many NATO soldiers and civilians have been killed and wounded helping the US in both Iraq and AFG....AND how many NATO aircraft are flying over Iraq and Syria....

OR which NATO countries are providing SOF troops into Iraq...Syria...and AFG....

Trump says NATO is obsolete but still 'very important to me'

Quote:
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said NATO was obsolete because it had not defended against terror attacks, but that the military alliance was still very important to him, The Times of London reported.
“I took such heat, when I said NATO was obsolete," Trump told the newspaper in an interview. "It’s obsolete because it wasn’t taking care of terror. I took a lot of heat for two days. And then they started saying Trump is right."
Trump added that many NATO members were not paying their fair share for U.S. protection.
“A lot of these countries aren’t paying what they’re supposed to be paying, which I think is very unfair to the United States," Trump said. "With that being said, NATO is very important to me. There’s five countries that are paying what they’re supposed to. Five. It’s not much."

Outlaw 09

Mon, 01/16/2017 - 12:17am

NOT exactly sure WHY Trump does not understand the Chinese language......

They are getting a tad more direct with him YET he cruises along as if he does not get the not so subtle warnings....

Beijing will 'take off the gloves', if Trump continues on Taiwan- China Daily
http://reut.rs/2jmZApa

Outlaw 09

Sun, 01/15/2017 - 2:29pm

In reply to by Outlaw 09

CIA director: "What I do find outrageous is [president-elect] equating intelligence community w/ Nazi Germany."

Outlaw 09

Sun, 01/15/2017 - 2:28pm

Kellyanne Conway: Details of Russia investigation should be kept secret ‘to protect the public’
http://ow.ly/5REr3081dSh

Because maybe the truth might be to unsettling to realize an elected US President might in fact be a traitor under US Criminal Code

18 U.S. Code § 2381 - Treason
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

BUT WAIT...Conway is totally wrong...normally a classified document is not intended to "protect the public"...BUT to protect sources and methods...

Quote:
Donald Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway on Sunday expressed disappointment that intelligence officials and lawmakers are leaking information on the Russian hacking of the election to help the president-elect and insisted it should be kept secret to “protect the public.”
Appearing on Fox & Friends, Conway was asked by co-host Clayton Morris about Trump’s planned meeting with embattled FBI Director James Comey, only to have Conway lash out at leaks coming from U.S. intelligence agencies.
“I’m always disappointed how public and sometimes political some of these figures can seem to be,” she responded. “I’m very concerned, very concerned. You realize it is the Trump team, only us at this time, that is not divulging what occurred in a classified briefing.”
“Ladies and gentlemen,” she continued with her voice rising. “It’s called a classified briefing for a reason. You had the vice president of the United States making a comment about it the other day. You have intelligence officials confirming or denying. This classified information, it’s top secret.

Why is it top secret? It’s not top secret to keep it from the public, but to protect the public.”

Outlaw 09

Sun, 01/15/2017 - 1:58pm

Trump's great friend Putin is now causing a potential explosion in the Balkans....HOW is Trump going to reign in his friend and protector Putin...???

https://www.yahoo.com/news/serbia-warns-intervention-kosovo-amid-balkan…

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A Serbian train halted at the border with Kosovo and bearing signs reading "Kosovo is Serbian," has fueled a major crisis in the Balkans and escalated a potential Russia-West row over dominance in the heart of the Balkans.
Serbia accused Kosovo's leaders on Sunday of "wanting war" and warned that it would defend "every inch" of its territory, a day after the train, decorated in Serbian Christian Orthodox symbols and flags, was prevented from entering the neighboring nation.
Kosovo, supported by much of the West, declared independence from Serbia in 2008. But, Serbia and its Slavic Orthodox ally, Russia, do not recognize the split.
Serbia has sought to maintain influence in Kosovo's north, where most of the country's Serb minority lives. NATO-led troops have controlled Kosovo's borders since a three-month air war in 1999 to stop a bloody Serbian crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists.
Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic issued the latest warning after the passenger train, painted in the colors of the red, blue and white Serbian flag, was prevented from crossing into Kosovo, where his government contends ethnic Serbs are under threat from Kosovo Albanians.
"Yesterday, we were on the verge of clashes," Nikolic said after a meeting of the country's top security body following the train's overnight return to Belgrade. He accused the Kosovo Albanians of "wanting war."
"We are a country which has to protect its people and its territory," Nikolic said, in the strongest rhetoric since the NATO-led troops took control of Kosovo's borders in 1999.
Serbia officially is seeking European Union membership, but has lately been sliding toward the Kremlin and its policies to increase its influence in the Balkans. Serbia has strained relations with most of its neighbors — something many analysts believe is a Russian influence.
Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa said he had contacted the United States and the European Union to express his country's concerns.
"The time of provocation, conflicts and wars should belong to the past," Mustafa said, adding that such moves "are unacceptable, unnecessary actions that do not contribute to the normalization of the relations between our two countries."
Nikolic, who is staunchly pro-Russian, said the EU and the West have never been on Serbia's side or come to its aid.
"Why were the so-called international community and the Albanians so upset about one train?" Nikolic asked. "Maybe because it had 'Kosovo is Serbian' written on it, and because it had pictures of our icons inside."
He also urged that Serbia halt its EU membership negotiation in Brussels, including a key part that calls for normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo.
"My suggestion now is only to talk in Brussels when this train is allowed to pass. ... If there is no freedom of movement, what kind of Western civilization are we talking about then?" he said.
Nikolic also slammed the outgoing Obama administration, and the U.S. support of Kosovo's independence — comments that reflected the general presumption here that President-elect Donald Trump will be more favorable toward Russia and Serbia.
Referring to the naming of several locations in Kosovo after former President Bill Clinton, he said: "It seems to me that these are the last gasps of the outgoing American administration, whose representatives must earn the names of streets and squares they received for directly supporting, sponsoring the independence of Kosovo."
Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo have soared following the recent detention in France of Ramush Haradinaj, a former Kosovo prime minister, on an arrest warrant from Serbia.
Kosovo has called the warrant illegitimate and urged France to ignore it, while Serbia is urging Haradinaj's quick extradition to face war crimes charges.

1987 called, it wants "We will defend the Serbs of Kosovo" back.
Slobodan Milošević was not available for comment.

Serbia seems bent on getting its pre-1912 borders back. That's a very achievable goal, guys -- keep it up. Just do everything Putin says.

Outlaw 09

Sun, 01/15/2017 - 1:29pm

Russian state TV moderator...and close Putin friend.....

Kiselev on Obama's presidency: "a disgrace...destructive...bloody... catastrophic". Kiselev on Trump: "plain-talking...a man of his word".

Russian TV's Kiselev likens the US intelligence report on alleged Russian hacking to "a mouse excreting something, it's pathetic"
 

Outlaw 09

Sun, 01/15/2017 - 12:49pm

AP Politics

@AP_Politics
CIA director says Trump tweeting harms security:
http://apne.ws/2jTe3K9

Putin is clearly confident that #Trump will upend all U.S. sanctions against #Russia, hence no need to retaliate.
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/53678#

BUT WAIT...........
Pence DOES NOT answer Qs on CBS on whether Trump Admin wants Russia out of Eastern Ukraine/Crimea: "He’ll work through these issues, John."

Outlaw 09

Sun, 01/15/2017 - 12:15pm

In reply to by Outlaw 09

"They are the opposition party," a senior official says about the *press*.

No, America, this is NOT normal.

Outlaw 09

Sun, 01/15/2017 - 10:24am

Esquire
Verified account
‏@esquire
EXCLUSIVE: The Trump administration may evict the press from the White House
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics...white-house/#

.@seanspicer says it's about "logistics " & numbers. Another transition official quoted calling press "the opposition party"

Our forefathers fought and died for freedom of press. To have Trump supporting American voters cheer its downfall is disturbing.

Outlaw 09

Sun, 01/15/2017 - 10:13am

Trump has not even become President and he is destroying US intelligence abilities and sowing distrust among close ICs of our closet allies....

IC has temporarily cut intel off from allies when their govts got too cuddly w/our enemies.

Nobody ever thought they'd have to cut off DC.

When jihadist attacks against the West start rising, thank President Trump for breaking the Western intelligence alliance to placate Putin.

Outgoing CIA boss says Trump does not understand Russia's intentions and capabilities.
http://news.sky.com/story/cia-boss-s...ssia-10730196#

UPDATE:White House Reviewing #DworkinReport On #Trump's #Russian Ties
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...=1478882710090

Outlaw 09

Sun, 01/15/2017 - 10:04am

At Paris meeting, major powers to warn Trump over Middle East peace

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-israel-palestinians-france-idUKKBN14Y0…

Major powers will signal to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday that a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians is the only solution, with France warning him that plans to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem could derail peace efforts.

Some 70 countries, including key European and Arab states as well as the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, are in Paris for a meeting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected as "futile". Neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians will be represented.

But, just five days before Trump is sworn in, the conference provides a platform for countries to send a strong signal to the incoming American president.

Trump has pledged to pursue more pro-Israeli policies and move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv, where it has been for 68 years, to Jerusalem, all but enshrining the city as Israel's capital despite international objections.

Calling it a provocation, France's Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the move would have serious consequences on the ground.

"One cannot have such a clear-cut, unilateral position. You have to create the conditions for peace," he told France 3 television.

Paris has said the meeting will not impose anything on Israel or the Palestinians and that only direct negotiations can resolve the conflict.
A draft communique seen by Reuters reaffirms existing international resolutions, urges both sides to restate their commitment to the two-state solution and disavow officials who reject it. The communique asks the protagonists to "refrain from unilateral steps that prejudge the outcome of final status negotiations".

LOW POINT
Diplomats said the communique could be toughened up with an allusion to Trump's plans for Jerusalem and whether to have a follow-up to the French initiative intensely debated.

"This conference is among the last twitches of the world of yesterday," Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting on Sunday. "Tomorrow will look different and that tomorrow is very close."

Relations between the United States and Israel have soured during President Barack Obama's administration, reaching a low point late last month when Washington declined to veto a U.N. resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements in occupied territory.

Obama's secretary of state, John Kerry, said the settlement programme threatened Middle East peace and the two-state solution.

Related Coverage
France's Ayrault says Trump Jerusalem proposal provocation
Palestinian President Authority Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday that he had told Trump that a move to Jerusalem would kill off the peace process and strip the U.S. of its role as honest broker - and could lead to the Palestinians going back on their recognition of Israel.

Home to Europe's largest Muslim and Jewish communities, France has tried to breathe new life into the peace process over the past year. It believes that, with the uncertainty surrounding how the next U.S. administration will handle the issue, it is important to push the sides back to talks rather than allowing a fragile status quo to fester.

But with elections coming up this year in France and Germany, and Britain appearing to align itself more closely with the Trump administration on the issue, the prospects of the European Union, the largest economic partner for both Israel and the Palestinians, taking a lead on the matter appear unlikely.

Arab states also have concerns about how Trump's relationship with them will turn out, and have taken a cautious line.

Outlaw 09

Sun, 01/15/2017 - 9:18am

Michael McFaul

@McFaul
Since Reagan-Gorbachev analogies being invoked today, reposting my take on why Trump is not Reagan on foreign policy
http://wpo.st/E2iR2

Outlaw 09

Sun, 01/15/2017 - 9:05am

British intelligence asks for guarantees that its spies in Russia will remain anonymous under the Trump administration. Source: Sunday Times

AFP news agency

@AFP
#BREAKING France says 'serious consequences' if US embassy moves to Jerusalem

Outlaw 09

Sun, 01/15/2017 - 8:47am

So just how Trump going to handle his friend Putin about this key Russian geopolitical goal.....

"We all know the Russians' dreams have always been to have military bases in the Mediterranean” #Libya #syria
https://euobserver.com/foreign/136537

Outlaw 09

Sun, 01/15/2017 - 2:30am

In reply to by Outlaw 09

While US media snoozed, Financial Times did report on how dirty money flowed into Trump

WHY is it that Steele is a Brit...the FT is Brit and some of the best social media Trump black money flows OSINT analysis are coming from EU and UK????

WHERE is the US MSM in all of this...and they are American supposedly....

Outlaw 09

Sun, 01/15/2017 - 2:24am

From a former experienced NSA field agent with solid ties still to the IC...globally as well....

John Schindler

@20committee
We established our country, with so much blood, to be free from foreign meddling. We paid more blood 1861-65. Don't surrender to Putin now.

Never apologize for standing up for freedom from foreign meddling.

There is, quite literally, nothing more genuinely American.

I lead a pretty charmed life, why deny?

Took my lumps defending this country.

This means I can say whatever I like.

And....I do.

PS Traitors deserve a bullet.

We are in the middle of a "political war" right now that was not being fought well by Obama and it is now even worse by an incoming US President who is bound and determined to undermine that even further for WHAT reasons outside of money and sex.....and his image of himself....

Outlaw 09

Sun, 01/15/2017 - 1:52pm

In reply to by Outlaw 09

Trump spokesperson Spicer stated the UK article about Trump meeting Putin was 100% lies....

BUT WAIT.....now comes Russian state TV media and their comments....

Interesting, since #Russia's state-sponsored TV says #Trump & #Putin are getting ready for a meeting.
@FoxNews @seanspicer @realDonaldTrump

Russian TV on Putin/Trump meeting: "Preparations already began...global problems so serious it's unlikely meeting will be delayed for long"

Outlaw 09

Sun, 01/15/2017 - 2:17am

Reference the 100% lies of the UK press ...as stated by the Trump spokesperson ......

Sunday Times: "Trump wants Putin summit in Reykjavik." UK apprehension abt team Trump is the sanest thing I've heard

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/ne...vik-rc909n9t0#

Michael McFaul

@McFaul
Trump needs to focus first on allies not Russia. My take: Our allies are afraid. Here’s how Trump can reassure them.
http://wpo.st/m3iR2

Outlaw 09

Sun, 01/15/2017 - 1:49am

THIS is exactly how Trump DEFLECTS/DISTORTS the US MSM 24 hour news cycle when the flames get to close to him.....

REMEMBER DEFLECT and DISTORT are two of the SIX Ds of Russian propaganda and disinformation tactics....

We had the Steele released of allegations which social media has at least actually closely linked to actual events inside Russia...THEN we get a massive Trump twitter storm on the actress Steep....the FBI...then Clinton....THEN blasting the Steele memos....ALL designed to create a massive storm of news cycles BUT not in the direction of Trump and Russia....

THEN the Flynn disaster.....meaning a TS/SCI clearance holder is off and telephoning on a monitored line the Russian Ambassador a number of times not explained by the Trump transition team.........WITHOUT apparently informing his SSO......

THEN Congressman Lewis stated he views Trump as not legitimate due to the Russian assistance in the election ......NOW Trump gets into DEFLECT/DISTORT mode and unleashes a twitter broadside against Lewis causing a major dustup in the MSM......AND initially successfully DIVERTING attention from Flynn and the Russian calls....

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 18h
18 hours ago

Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to......

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 17h
17 hours ago

mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk - no action or results. Sad!

BUT the MSM backlash was actually I think a wakeup call for Trump and his record of being a VN draft dodger FOUR times due to a bone spur in which foot he cannot recall today....VS a civil rights veteran of MLK who was arrested 45 times during the civil right movement days...

THEN this today....
Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 6h
6 hours ago

Congressman John Lewis should finally focus on the burning and crime infested inner-cities of the U.S. I can use all the help I can get!

BUT WAIT...another Trump lie ..he repeatedly stated over and over at his rallies ...he and he alone had a plan for the inner cities that he was going to clean up...NOW he is walking those statements back because he has no plan to fix 70 odd years of inner city decay.....in a 4 year term and he knows he will be held to his statements so he wants others in the ship so hen it goes down he came blame others....AND that 1T USD infrastructure plan does nothing for the inner cities...

The NYTs carried an interesting article on how Trump uses an even bigger distraction to sidetrack pressure on him...and create a new news cycle....

BUT in the middle of the Lewis twitter broadside he sends this tweet out....

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 17h
17 hours ago

INTELLIGENCE INSIDERS NOW CLAIM THE TRUMP DOSSIER IS "A COMPLETE FRAUD!" @OANN

NOTICE he refers to not a single person by name...just "insiders" raising the illusion he is home free and clear WHICH is the furthest from the truth...

THIs tweet was used to pass to his voters that all is well in Trumpland and all the stories around his close and deep connections to Putin and Russian balc money are fake reports....

BUT then he got caught out when the Senate suddenly shifted course and will include investigations into the Russian connections of his inner staff....WHICH are in fact proven already....plus his potential Russian black money flowing into his real estate business....

Outlaw 09

Sun, 01/15/2017 - 1:57am

In reply to by Outlaw 09

IMHO Trump was set to first met with Putin but it blew up in his face over the information concerning Flynn and his MULTIPLE calls just not Merry Christmas calls to the US Russian Ambassador AND the sudden turn by Republican Senators to investigate not only the Russian hacking BUT also the connections between first his own staff and Russia and then working up the chain directly to Trump and his now proven Russian financial connections potentially found in his own federal tax information...

NOW his own spokesperson is caught out treading water trying to divert from the planned visit and Flynn's calls..

Outlaw 09

Sun, 01/15/2017 - 1:20am

Trump and his transition team are so wrapped up in trying to not be connected to Russia even though they are deeply tied to Putin...

EXAMPLE

Former JSC chief of intel and former DIA Director Flynn gets caught calling the US Russian Ambassador FIVE times on the day of the US sanctions against Russia supposedly wishing him a "Merry Christmas"...BUT added in the Spice comment was "he was working to get a meeting between Putin and Trump scheduled" and from the tone of the comment ..that was to be ...soonest....

THEN it was said Flynn had been calling the Ambassador multiple other times as well.....HOPEFULLY Flynn has kept his SSO informed of those contacts as required with Russian counterparts?

THEN we now have this from late yesterday.....

Incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Saturday evening denied a report that President-elect Donald Trump would be meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in his first foreign trip as president.
Spicer called the report in The Sunday Times highlighted by media outlets "100 percent false" in a tweet.

The U.K. newspaper reported Saturday that Trump and his team told British officials that their first foreign trip would be a summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, with Putin within weeks of his Jan. 20 inauguration.

The report said Trump wanted to talk about nuclear disarmament with Putin and that the president-elect wanted to meet him outside Russia.
Trump has put a focus on pushing for warmer relations with Russia, and told The Wall Street Journal on Friday that he would be open to lifting sanctions on Russia if satisfied by relations.

"If you get along and if Russia is really helping us, why would anybody have sanctions if somebody's doing some really great things?" Trump said, adding he would keep the sanctions announced by President Obama in place for "at least for a period of time."

Trump also indicated he would be open to meeting with Putin soon after his inauguration next week, saying, "I understand that they would like to meet, and that's absolutely fine with me."

The moves come amid continued congressional probes involving Russian intelligence activities leading up to Trump's electoral win.
The Senate Intelligence Committee announced Friday it would launch an inquiry into Russian intelligence activities, including whether Trump's allies were in contact with the Kremlin.

NOW is the interesting point...Spice first indicated the calls to the Russian ambassador were of a harmless nature...Merry Christmas and oh by the way we would like to meet with Putin......

THEN the so called Trump transition leak to the UK press with actually solid planned details...US press is under a strict liable law system thus they rarely leak without solid information.....

SO ES the very first FP meeting was to be with Putin AS it tied nicely back into the Trump press conference where he wanted to lift Russian sanctions if the Russians were of a "friendly nature" BUT notice Trump did not set the bar other than being "friendly and oh by the way help me fight IS"....

BUT Trump did not get the outgoing SecDef memo about Russia not contributing a single thing to the IS fight in Syria....

So Trump was expecting in Iceland a Putin vague verbal statement supporting him in the fight against IS and maybe a vague statement on nuclear weapons reductions THEN Trump would have lifted sanctions as he stated he would do in his press conference.....

WYSIWYG concept with Trump...I have said that from the beginning of this thread and we finally now see it coming together....

Outlaw 09

Sat, 01/14/2017 - 3:11pm

This journalist in Russia was at first dismissive of the Steele reports.....NOW a sudden and surprising shift....

Really worth reading this long article.....

https://cgrozev.wordpress.com/2017/0...-cards-part-1/

Tower of Cards (part#1)
Posted on
January 14, 2017
Quote:
When Buzzfeed.com leaked ex-MI6 spook’s Trump Dossier last this past Wednesday, most critical thinkers’ initial reaction was wide-eyed skepticism. The combination of alphabetized sources, the improbable breadth of alleged access to top-secret information, and over-explicit details from the (not as improbable – more on this in a future post) alleged fetishes of a President-Elect, beggared belief.# Serious analysts like Mark Galeotti who cannot be accused of sympathy for Trump or Putin, challenged the dossier’s plausibility, arguing that the cited anonymous sources had suspiciously wide a network with access to diverse state secretes – and on top of that, were willing to share them via remote communication with a UK based handler.
My initial reaction was similarly dismissive. However, after playing devil’s advocate – and testing certain assumptions about how the dossier may have been compiled – I have shifted my position. We now know conclusively (against his will) that the report was written by an industry-respected former MI6 agent Christopher Steele. Is it probable that Steele would have invented, purposely conflated, or embellished details in the report in order to please his client – or to substantiate his own Russophobic precepts? (the theory has been posited in the UK press that he may have been emotionally blinded by his own experience in handling Litvinenko’s case on behalf of MI6).
I strongly doubt the embellishment theory. Steele’s only gainful asset of late has been his reputation, both among private clients but also – crucially – among state actors who have used him to investigate transnational corruption cases such as the FIFA scandal. There is no plausible hypothesis in which Steele would knowingly embellish his report and then proceed to not only furnish it to his private clients (who, one could argue, might be gullible enough to accept Ludlumesque fiction as fact), but also to the FBI and CIA – who he would know would never trust him again if he once served them red herrings.
Therefore, I believe# Steele provided a bona-fide report of what he thought was the objective truth at the time of writing, and (importantly) in doing so, drew on actual sources, alphabetized or not, that he trusted. He did communicate with his sources, via proxies as described, and yes, such communication would have had to be remote, most likely via tradecraft-standard apps such as Signal (which at least a year ago intelligence operatives were swearing by). Whether or not what his sources fed him was truthful, is a different matter.
Now let’s move to the main substantive criticism of the dossier: the plausibility of existence of sources with such broad scope of access to Kremlin insiders – including to head of Rosneft and former PM Igor Sechin, presidential adviser Sergei Ivanov, Foreign Ministry officials, and even to Putin himself.
Indeed, such ubiquitous access to sources is extremely hard to acquire, especially for a non-state actor such as Christopher Steele. But impossible it is not.
A complex power-wielding apparatus such as the Kremlin cannot function without an extensive human support system.# While decision-making is highly centralized, information dissipation is inevitable, often as result of the eventual complacency that any successful authoritarian system promotes among its insiders. (let’s just remember the several mail hacks of senior Kremlin aparatchiks over the last 3 years – with one exception the “hacks” were not the result of foreign signit or cyberattacks, but of rather primitive humint – literally of passwords being visually pilfered as they were typed-in by self-assured Kremlin staff working at their macs in trendy cafes near the Kremlin.
But more importantly: namely because of the# concentration of the most sensitive information at the top of the power pyramid, any potential source in the vicinity of the top# would have access to not one, but to a variety of information vectors, that all lead to the very peak.
Continued.
On July 19, 2016, Christopher Steele reports for the first time of# having a source close to# Rosneft President Sechin:
“A source close to Rosneft President, Putin close associate and US-sanctioned Igor SECHIN, confided details of a recent secret meeting between him and visiting Foreign Affairs Adviser to Donald TRUMP, Carter PAGE. According to Sechin’s associate, the Rosneft CEO had raised with PAGE issues of future bilateral energy cooperation and prospects for associated move to liet Ukraine-related western sanctions against Russia. PAGE had reacted positively to this demarche by SECHIN but had been generally non-committal in response”
Three months later, in October 2016 Steele followed up with his alleged source to provide more details from the July 2016 meeting with Carter – arguably from the same source close to Sechin. In this more detailed section, it becomes clear that the original source – “a close associate of Sechin” – is confiding details to “a trusted compatriot”, and not directly to Steele. Here is the relevant section from the October 19 report:
Continued....
Sudden Death Syndrome
At 14:23 Moscow time, one of Russia’s most subservient news outlet with a# first-at-the crime-scene reputation –# Life.ru, ran the sensationalist headline: #“Sechin’s Chief of Staff Killed in Downtown Moscow”.# I caught a glimpse of this headline in real-time, as I have a browser alert for breaking news from Life.ru. I remember being particularly startled by the headline, as only a week earlier, a Russian mid-level diplomat had been found shot in the head, with two bullets, in his Moscow apartment.# The working hypothesis of the investigation was reported to be “accidental homicide or suicide”. Did I mention the two bullets?

I read quickly through the new story. The gentleman in question, Gen. Oleg Erovinkin, had been found dead, by his driver, in the back seat of his corporate Lexus which had been parked in a downtown alley in Moscow’s China Town district. Erovinkin, 61, was a KGB/FSB general, who had been head of the Department for Protection of State Secrets at the Kremlin under Yeltsin, and later under the early Putin. In 2008,# Putin (then a fresh Prime Minister) appointed him Chief of Staff of his deputy PM Igor Sechin. When Sechin was promoted to President of the state-owned oil giant Rosneft in 2012, Erovinkin followed him into the ominous-sounding, if fuzzily-defined position of “Chief of Special Supervision of the President’s Apparatus.”# Insiders have described Erovinkin to me alternately# as “Sechin’s treasurer” and “the go-between between Putin and Sechin”.# One thing that everyone seems to agree – both in public and private sources – is that Erovinkin was Sechin’s closest associate.
The initial Life.ru story reported that FSB investigators were at the scene and working on determining the cause of death, and that doctors on site had only confirmed that Erovinkin was indeed dead.
By the time I had tweeted my observation that this murder would be the first time that a FSB General had been violently killed in Russia, Life.ru had already changed the headline of the story.# It was now “The Chief of Staff of Rosneft’s President found dead in Moscow“. However, certain news aggregators managed to copy the story with the original headline. (Life.ru also appear to have neglected to delete a reader’s comment referencing the change of headline; the fact that the story headline in Russian media was altered was also noticed by this Ukrainian newspaper) .# The original story was also completely deleted from the popular Kremlin-funded news-tracker, Mediametrics.ru (Mediametrics has a history of removing stories deemed inconvenient to the regime.)
Subsequent coverage of Erovinkin’s death in Life.ru and other Russian media provided contradictory narratives of what exactly took place. It was universally reported that due to Erovinkin’s high position in a strategic state corporation, and his former government function, the investigation will be handled solely by FSB, including FSB forensic pathologists.
However, while some media reported that Erovinkin had been found dead in the back seat, others reported that he has been in the driver’s seat, and had managed to park the car after his heart failed. Yet other news sites reported he “caused a minor traffic accident after his death“. # There were reports that Erovinkin may# been “en route to or from the Kremlin where he had been delivering highly confidential documents”
Continued.
Since the initial flurry of contradictory media reports on December 26th , there has been zero coverage of Erovinkin’s death in Russian media. Needless to say, FSB has not pronounced a cause of death, and is unlikely to ever do.
Was Erovinkin a Steele Source?
Steele’s source for the alleged Carter Page/Sechin convo must have fulfilled three mandatory criteria:
#s/he must have been credible enough TO STEELE for him to risk including this bombshell – knowing it would result in heavy doses of skepticism, potentially detrimental to his reputation.
#s/he must have been trusted enough by Sechin to be able receive access to this uniquely sensitive information.
assuming a “strictly-need-to-know” principle, such information must have inevitable had to be shared with him/her, due to his/her function.
It seems safe to conclude that Erovinkin fulfills, probably uniquely, all three conditions. Does the sudden death add credibility to the dossier?
Continued....
In the next part: Who in fact paid for and who acquired the 19% in Rosneft; who the direct source may have been; and why “germophobe defense” has holes]

Outlaw 09

Sat, 01/14/2017 - 3:01pm

Russia's state media: @BorisJohnson returned from meeting Trump's team with adjusted attitude, he is now ready to "stop demonizing Russia."

Under the rubric of the Russians are hitting the vodka to hard

Trump's spokesman says Trump's transition team has been invited to Russian-backed peace talks on #Syria in Astana
https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-backed-syria-peace-talks-bring-test-t… 

BUT WAIT the invitation came from the Turks not the Russians.....

WHY a transition team...I thought that is the job of the SoS....Tillerson...??

If before the 20th of JAN...then is this a direct Logan Act violation...

Outlaw 09

Sat, 01/14/2017 - 2:38pm

Trump suggests in WSJ interview he'd be open to lifting Russia sanctions and isn't committed to "One China" policy
http://on.wsj.com/2ivlLbo

WELL we have already heard the Chinese formal statement if Trump abandons the "one China policy".....blunt and to the point....seems Trump did not get the message in all of his tweeting did he....

Meanwhile in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin's "tourists" and local henchmen prepare for more war.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkDJz_9LmlE 

Outlaw 09

Sat, 01/14/2017 - 2:33pm

David Frum

@davidfrum
Putin sees the EU as his most dangerous adversary. Naturally therefore so do Trump and Bannon

Bannon via Breitbart.com has established offices and businesses in UK....France...Germany

Outgoing US Ambassador to EU has stated he and others at the EU are concerned that Trump is planning the breakup of EU...his office received numerous calls from the Trump transition team wanting him and others to tell them what EU members would follow Brexit and they alluded to their feelings the EU was breaking up.....

Outlaw 09

Sat, 01/14/2017 - 2:26pm

Russian Trump influence operation is ramping up again.....via again social media.....then into MSM.....

Lily Lynch @lilyslynch
Got an email from a London-based marketing agency offering me $100 to publish an article praising Trump's fiscal policy and plan for Syria.

Outlaw 09

Sat, 01/14/2017 - 2:22pm

Russia's state media: "We decided to take a look at the rednecks and white trash that voted for Trump—they live in houses made of plywood."

Russia's state TV: America is afraid of the outside world, except Trump will be going not after Russians, but after the Chinese & Mexicans.

Outlaw 09

Fri, 01/13/2017 - 12:28pm

Reactions to Tillerson's hearing on Russia's state TV ranged from "Take back his friendship medal" to "He's just faking it to be confirmed"

Outlaw 09

Fri, 01/13/2017 - 9:30am

There is a brave New World out there and I am afraid both Trump and Giuliani are not up for it....

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/13/mystery-hackers-blow-u…

Mystery Hackers Blow Up Secret NSA Hacking Tools in ‘Final F--k You’
A gang of elite hackers, believed by many to be Russian, say they’re quitting—just as Donald Trump gets ready to enter the Oval Office.

Kevin Poulsen
01.13.17 7:13 AM ET

A mysterious hacking group has been bedeviling the U.S. intelligence community for months, releasing a tranche of secret NSA hacking tools to the public while offering to sell even more for the right price. Now with barely a week to go before Donald Trump’s inauguration, the self-styled “Shadow Brokers” on Thursday announced that they were packing it in.

“So long, farewell peoples. TheShadowBrokers is going dark, making exit,” the group wrote on its darknet site. “Continuing is being much risk and bullshit, not many bitcoins.” The message was accompanied by a parting gift, described by the group as a “final fuck you”: an apparently-complete NSA backdoor kit targeting the Windows operating system. The kit is comprised of 61 malicious Windows executables, only one of which was previously known to anti-virus vendors.

The Shadow Brokers emerged in August with the announcement that they’d stolen the hacking tools used by a sophisticated computer intrusion operation known as the Equation Group, and were putting them up for sale to the highest bidder.

It was a remarkable claim, because the Equation Group is generally understood to be part of the NSA’s elite Tailored Access Operations program and is virtually never detected, much less penetrated. The Equation Group was, in a sense, the rough equivalent to the Russian “Cozy Bear” crew, now blamed for the DNC hacks. Except the American hackers operated for at least 14 years as virtual ghosts, until 2015 when the Russia-based cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Labs gathered enough evidence to prove that they exist.

It soon emerged that the Shadow Brokers really had the goods. Released along with the announcement was a huge cache of specialized malware, including dozens of backdoor programs and 10 exploits, two of them targeting previously-unknown security holes in Cisco routers—a basic building block of the internet.

While Cisco and other companies scrambled for a fix, security experts pored over the Shadow Brokers tranche like it was the Rosetta Stone. “It was the first time, as threat intelligence professionals, that we’ve had access to what appears to be a relatively complete toolkit of a nation-state attacker,” says Jake Williams, founder of Rendition Infosec. “It was excitement in some circles, dismay in other circles, and panic and a rush to patch if you’re running vulnerable hardware.”

Virtually nobody, though, believed the Shadow Brokers’ claim that they were mere hackers trying to sell the exploits for a quick fortune. For one thing, the group had released far more material for free than necessary to prove their bona fides. And the mechanics of their bitcoin “auction” were laughable—losing bidders, the group said, would not get their money back. The Shadow Brokers would release the whole cache to the public for the arbitrary, Dr. Evil-esque price of 1 million bitcoins, nearly $600 million at the time. They group later broke down the hacking tools into a revised al la carte buy-it-now price list, but the prices weren’t low enough to attract buyers. As of Thursday, the Shadow Brokers had pulled in a total of 10 bitcoins.

In an email interview with The Daily Beast early this week, the Shadow Brokers expressed frustration that they weren’t getting rich off the code, and hinted that they might be retiring soon. “Many rich hackers. Many rich hacker companies. $100k, $1,000,000, $10,000,000 is pennies to theritepeoples [sic]… TheRitePeoples who not caring about money. TheRitePeoples who just caring about really cool shit. Equation Group really cool shit. Equation Group really cool shit only theshadowbrokers is selling.”

The group also explained they are not activists, and they gave away the initial tranche of files purely as a marketing move. “NOT for [a] silly cause. Douchebags uses causes for trying to get laid. TheShadowBrokers is getting plenty laid, no need for cause douchbaggery. Leaving that to those straight men who looking, acting like gay men, thinking its called hipsters.”

The most popular Shadow Brokers theories in computer security and intelligence circles have nothing to do with money or getting laid. In one, the Shadow Brokers is an NSA insider gone rogue; on the other, it’s the Russian government. Last year the FBI investigated and arrested an NSA contractor named Hal Martin, who had allegedly been illegally stockpiling agency secrets in his house. But as Martin cooled his heels in federal custody, the Shadow Brokers continued to post messages and files, and the rogue insider theory withered.

The more persuasive theory, supported by no less than Edward Snowden, is that the Shadow Brokers are one of the same Russian government hacking groups now accused of targeting the U.S. election. Coincidently, the same day the Shadow Brokers said goodbye, the hacker who claimed responsibility for penetrating the DNC suddenly re-emerged after nearly two months of silence.

In the spy-versus-spy world of hacks and counterhacks, both the U.S. and Russia sometimes lose their code to the other side. The risk is unavoidable, because NSA malware has little value sitting safely on the agency’s classified network. Just as a spy plane must fly, even at risk of being shot down and reverse-engineered, the NSA’s exploits must be fired at targeted networks to be of use. Its backdoor “implants” must be installed in other people’s servers. As the first step in this process, the NSA sets up its tools on special “staging” servers on the internet—machines that are owned, leased, or otherwise controlled by the U.S., but with no connection to the NSA. From there, the individual programs are smuggled to wherever they’re needed.

The Russians could have traced a U.S. hacking campaign back to one or more of these staging servers, and collected the massive Shadow Brokers cache.
Under this theory, the Shadow Brokers were part of a tit-for-tat in the intelligence world. The group emerged just as the U.S. began confronting Russia over its election hacking, and then seemed to release its secrets in time with the public thrusts and parries between the two countries. On December 15th, for example, Obama announced to NPR that the U.S. would retaliate for the election hacks—“we need to take action.” On the 16th, the Shadow Brokers broke six weeks of silence to publish a tweetstorm of screenshots showing off its unreleased NSA files.

The message: Russia would do to the NSA what it was doing to the Democratic Party. It would dump sensitive stolen files to the internet, while hiding behind just enough of a cover-story that it could maintain public deniability.

Now, with a new, friendlier administration coming in, Vladimir Putin may be pressing the reset button. “The timing is interesting,” says Williams.
The Shadow Brokers, though, insist they have nothing to do with global affairs.

“TheShadowBrokers is dumb asses thinking found golden ticket sitting on server and just wanting cash out without dying or go to prison,” the group wrote. “TheShadowBrokers is wanting to win and exit. Starting to looking like epic fail. TheShadowBrokers still proud of very large balls for to taking risk. Is not many peoples can be saying same? Mostly cattle fed just enough by masters.”

Outlaw 09

Fri, 01/13/2017 - 9:25am

Joshua Yaffa @yaffaesque
Hmm, in curious turn of events, the head of FSB's cybersecurity unit is on verge of being fired.
https://meduza.io/en/news/2017/01/13...oon-be-sacked#
 
Well now we do not need Giuliani do we as the head of this new Trump hacking report.....

A PERFECT EXAMPLE of true FAKE NEWS for Trump to read and it comes from his very own supporters via Russia.....
https://twitter.com/Usainflames

Usa In Flames
‏@Usainflames
Mexico Quietly Agrees To Build Donald Trump’s Border Wall After All
http://viid.me/qoZeUC

Usa In Flames
@Usainflames
I have it, all about news of the moment with a fresh scent , follow me and you will have a lot of information in minutes IS NOT SPAM, WE ARE NEWS

Worldwide Trends
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Interestingly this site is hosted server wise OUTSIDE the US
 

Outlaw 09

Fri, 01/13/2017 - 8:57am

Ethics Chief Critical of Trump. Now House Committee Boss Threatens to Investigate Ethics Office-Perhaps Shut it Down
https://nyti.ms/2iqziBd

BUT hey there is no possibility of any conflict of interest ever occurring because Trump has told us he is not a kleptocract........besides Trump even stated you cannot charge a sitting President with conflict of interest.....

Tracking the dirty money is hugely time consuming, expensive-few newsrooms have the budget for this

During negotiations to finance Trump Florida properties, Kriss alleges Bayrock favored Putin-backed Russians over Icelandic competitors

Bayrock, headed by Russian mobster Sater and former Soviet official, Arif pumped hundreds of millions into Trump

Trump never opened up his taxes. He has 96 LLCs and shell companies-none release audited financial statements

The lawsuit names Trump as a “material witness” in evasion of taxes on as much as $250 million in income, and laundering $ to Russia.

Tax fraud case NY AG greenlighted notes that Trump did not report tens of millions he got from Bayrock on his tax returns

What's more astonishing than Russian money backing half-baked Bayrock-Trump projects? Intricate maze of companies involved in the scheme.

Outlaw 09

Fri, 01/13/2017 - 7:37am

Trump should be really watching his tweets and this will flash back on him in a way he does not expect....and it already has with the Hungarian model accusations...

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 1h
1 hour ago
It now turns out that the phony allegations against me were put together by my political opponents and a failed spy afraid of being sued....

But West did say that Steele is not dispassionate when it comes to Vladimir Putin, noting that he was the MI6 case office for former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko, who was fatally poisoned with radiation in 2006 after seeking asylum in the United Kingdom.

I would not call MI6 Russian case officers at this level of "being failed and afraid of being sued"......

Outlaw 09

Fri, 01/13/2017 - 7:43am

In reply to by Outlaw 09

So either Trump is a pathological liar (very possible) or he knowingly makes sex videos for the FSB. No 3rd option anymore

All the M. Steep bashing tweets...the LL Bean support/sales tweets and the bashing of the IC tweets and calling the Buzzfeed trash tweets are nothing more that a bad attempt to deflect from the real story of his compromising by the Russian FSB....

Outlaw 09

Fri, 01/13/2017 - 7:18am

In reply to by Outlaw 09

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 1h
1 hour ago

It now turns out that the phony allegations against me were put together by my political opponents and a failed spy afraid of being sued....

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 57m
57 minutes ago

Totally made up facts by sleazebag political operatives, both Democrats and Republicans - FAKE NEWS! Russia says nothing exists. Probably...

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 47m
47 minutes ago

What are Hillary Clinton's people complaining about with respect to the F.B.I. Based on the information they had she should never.....

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 52m
52 minutes ago

released by "Intelligence" even knowing there is no proof, and never will be. My people will have a full report on hacking within 90 days!

BLUF....NOW APPEARS Trump and his group are going to rewrite the US IC Russian hacking report???????

Concerns the individual behind the recently 17 raw humint intelligence report on Trump

The former British intelligence agent at the center of the maelstrom over a 35-page dossier about Donald Trump and the Russians is named Christopher Steele, but an ex-colleague refers to him by a more familiar moniker.
"He's James Bond," said Nigel West, the intelligence historian and spy-novel author. "I actually introduced him to my wife as James Bond."

Like the movie character, the 52-year-old Steele attended Cambridge University, where he was president of the Cambridge Union Debating Society. He was recruited by the Secret Intelligence Service, Britain's counterpart to the CIA, better known as MI6, right out of university, West said.

He was posted to Moscow in the early 1990s and then Paris, according to people who knew him at the time. One of his more recent responsibilities was running a course for new agents, West said. About eight years ago, he left Her Majesty's service and co-founded his own security firm, Orbis Business Intelligence, with partner Christopher Burrows.

Unlike James Bond, Steele wasn't a household name — until he burst into the public consciousness this week after being unmasked as the author of a sensational, unverified report commissioned and circulated by unknown clients opposed to Trump.

Steele — described as a compact, clean-cut man with an intense manner — has not commented on the uproar that was unleashed when media outlets reported the dossier had been presented to both Trump and President Obama and, in one case, published the document.

But those who know Steele or his work say that the widowed father of three children enjoyed a reputation as a meticulous professional among current and former members of the intelligence community.

"He's a squared-away guy," said former senior CIA officer John Sipher, who was posted to Russia in the 1990s and helped manage its efforts against Moscow before retiring in 2014.

To some, the dossier's errors and far-out claims stand in stark contrast to Steele's usual approach to intelligence-gathering. West noted that only one intelligence officer was listed as a direct source.

"Nobody is saying he believes in any of this," West said. "What he was hired to do was write a series of reports based on info he could glean from his contacts. His contacts are very good but they're more in the business community than the intel community."

"He's highly professional, very effective," West added. "He's an impressive individual, knows a lot of the people about whom he speaks — but he's got to earn a living like the rest of us."

But West did say that Steele is not dispassionate when it comes to Vladimir Putin, noting that he was the MI6 case office for former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko, who was fatally poisoned with radiation in 2006 after seeking asylum in the United Kingdom.

"He feels very strongly that the Putin Kremlin tore up the rule book and the convention by which intelligence agencies do not attack each other's personnel," West said of Steele.

"He also feels passionately about what you'd call the Kremlin kleptocracy. He doesn't believe there is a business deal in the past 10 years that has been legit."

Outlaw 09

Fri, 01/13/2017 - 7:00am

Looks like the Russian FSB did not silence all witnesses as of yet.....

This individual was a former NAS CI type who worked the Moscow front lines and fully understands both the KGB and FSB......

John Schindler ‏@20committee 8m
8 minutes ago

What kompromat?

BREAKING: Hungarian model tells of how @realDonaldTrump tried to seduce her in 2013 - in Moscow

In Hungarian
http://444.hu/2016/11/19/donald-trump-megprobalta-felszedni-sarka-katat

Note that the model, Kata Sarka, told her story back in May, long before Trump kompromat was a Thing....seems credible

Wasn't Trump just telling the world he's totally aware of how Russian hotel rooms are wired so be a good boy? Was I imagining that?

Outlaw 09

Fri, 01/13/2017 - 6:49am

REMEMBER the recent Trump statement he does not use email only uses couriers....??

JΞSTΞR ✪ ΔCTUAL³³º¹ @th3j35t3r
Trump on his use of email:
"I don't use email."
http://cnet.co/2i3JOjc

Jester on Trumps use of email:
"You sure as heck do."

Email account [email protected] found on three breached sites...

Outlaw 09

Fri, 01/13/2017 - 6:34am

Marine Le Pen spotted at Trump tower today. Here's why it matters
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/an-existential-… 

BUSTED: Marine Le Pen’s fixer lives in Trump Tower, says Steve Bannon OK'd her visit
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/12/steve-bannon-knew-abou… THIS is the same Bannon who is expanding Brietbart operations into UK...France and Germany ahead of the French and German elections AND there is no connection....???

THAT Buzzfeed article is getting closer to the truth that Trump is trying to avoid....

AND there was no connections between the Trump campaign...Trump advisors and Trump himself with Russians before the election and after the election??????

Outlaw 09

Fri, 01/13/2017 - 11:28am

In reply to by Outlaw 09

The official says the administration is also aware of contacts between Trump adviser Michael Flynn and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at other times as well.

AND Trump stated he and his team have no contact with Russians.....

Really weak excuse....took a media article to get this comment???

Trump team confirms Gen Flynn spoke w/Russian Amb in Dec, to wish him a Merry Christmas & discuss Trump-Putin meeting post-inauguration

Outlaw 09

Fri, 01/13/2017 - 10:15am

In reply to by Outlaw 09

So are Trump and Flynn now getting their instructions from the US Russian Ambassador.....

Russia Today panel says #Trump must "decapitate" anti-Trump leakers in the intel community, purge the State Department, the #CIA and the #Pentagon.

Flynn and Trump both have talked about a reorg of CIA so the RT request is not far fetched as it seems....