Trump’s Foreign Policy Philosophy Hard to Pin Down
Masood Farivar, Voice of America
Is President-elect Donald Trump a foreign policy realist or idealist? Is he bringing Richard Nixon’s hard-edged realpolitik to his foreign policy or following in the footsteps of the more idealistic Ronald Reagan?
The question has become a parlor game among Washington's policy pundits.
Trump’s frequent invocation of Reagan’s “peace through strength” mantra and campaign pledge to rebuild America’s “depleted” military has invited comparisons to the Republican icon credited with winning the Cold War.
His advocacy of a foreign policy based on America’s national interests has led some to liken it to Nixonian realism, while his aversion to foreign interventions has won him the label of a non-interventionist and even isolationist.
Don’t Fence Trump In
Trump has professed no great power doctrine and his advisers discourage applying labels to his vision of the world.
“I’m not going to be put into the little academic, graduate school box because I think it doesn’t suit, and it doesn’t apply in a rapidly changing world,” said K.T. McFarland, Trump’s incoming deputy national security adviser, when asked to describe the Trump doctrine.
While Trump’s call for “peace through strength” reflects Reagan’s view of deterrence, “there are parts of Nixon and (Henry) Kissinger that Donald Trump has also advocated,” McFarland said at the U.S. Institute of Peace, alluding to Trump’s interest-based approach to world affairs.
Trump’s Speeches
A foreign policy neophyte, Trump has shied away from declaring any grand foreign strategy during the campaign, though he did give two major speeches devoted to foreign policy and national security.
In the first speech, delivered at the realist-leaning Center for the National Interest in Washington in April, Trump outlined what he called a “coherent foreign policy based on American interests” and called for “getting out of nation building,” creating stability and quashing “radical Islam.”
“Containing the spread of radical Islam must be a major foreign policy goal of the United States and indeed the world,” Trump said. “Events may require the use of military force, but it’s also a philosophical struggle, like our long struggle in the Cold War.”
In the second speech, at Youngstown University in Ohio in August, Trump ratcheted up his rhetoric about terror, warning countries around the world that they’d be judged based on their commitment to the U.S. goal of fighting terrorism.
“All actions should be oriented around this goal, and any country which shares this goal will be our ally,” Trump told a rally of supporters.
‘Strategic Surprise’
It was a theme that Trump would repeat, in one iteration or another, throughout the campaign, but his advisers say Trump’s pre- and post-election pronouncements on foreign policy, often delivered off the cuff, should not be read as policy prescriptions.
“Actually, he didn’t say a lot about foreign policy and national security on the campaign trail, and what he did say really doesn’t add up to a policy,” said James Carafano, director of foreign policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation who advises the Trump transition team on foreign affairs. “That’s very frustrating because the people want to know what’s this guy going to do.”
With the new administration yet to take office, McFarland, too, cautioned that Trump’s foreign policy is in an early stage of development.
“That’s what a new administration does: It takes time to rethink things and to come up with policies,” she said.
If history is any guide, Trump could quickly find himself facing a set of foreign policy crises different from the issues he campaigned on. Political scientists have a term for an unexpected world event that drives a new president into uncharted territory: “strategic surprise.”
For former President George W. Bush, who campaigned on pursuing a “humble foreign policy,” the strategic surprise came September 11, 2001.
For President Barack Obama, who vowed to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the “Arab Spring” protests in North Africa and the Middle East marked a strategic surprise, leaving his administration more deeply mired in the region than he’d hoped.
What international crisis might alter the trajectory of the Trump administration’s foreign policy agenda has become a guessing game, with the number of scenarios exceeded only by the variety of foreign policy labels attributed to Trump.
A game-changing terrorist attack on American interests is one possible candidate. Another contender: an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) launch by North Korea.
“I think the world is not necessarily going to allow President Trump to do everything he’s planned on,” said Blaise Misztal, director of the national security program at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington. “I think you’re going to see a triangulation between what he’s said, what he’s advised to do, and what is actually feasible on the world stage.”
Flip Flopping on Issues
While Trump has flip flopped on some issues, NATO and torturing terrorists, for example, he’s held steady on others. Among them: terrorism, trade, China and Russia.
In the weeks since his election, he’s reiterated his pledge to make terrorism a focus of his foreign policy, talked tough on trade, challenged the “One China” policy, and iterated again a desire to reset relations with Russia even as he embraced intelligence findings that Moscow interfered in last year’s presidential election.
Brian Katulis of Center for American Progress, a liberal Washington think tank, said the “most radical shift” Trump will likely undertake will be “engagement and involvement” with Russia, something Obama unsuccessfully attempted during his first term in office.
But former CIA director Michael Hayden said Trump is likely to reconsider his approach to Russia once he learns from intelligence agencies and allies that Russia and Syria are not committed to fighting IS.
“I’m personally very, very skeptical of any convergence between American and Russian interests in this part of the world,” Hayden said. “In fact, I’d offer the view that American and Russian interests are actually heading in different directions.”
Another major change: downplaying a postwar American foreign policy tradition of promoting democracy and freedom around the world.
“Trump has signaled as a candidate and in the transition a proclivity to appreciate authoritarian and repressive leaders around the world,” Katulis said. “And this may be the biggest departure that is historic, that there really won’t be as much of a values-based approach that focuses on human rights democracy and freedom in other countries. And that I think puts the United States itself on shaky territory.”
But McFarland played down those concerns, saying “the three bedrocks of (postwar) American foreign policy” — American leadership, American values and international alliances — will remain under the Trump administration.
Unpredictability
There is usually some continuity between administrations on foreign policy, but “that rule actually may not apply under Trump,” Katulis said.
“We’re dealing with something here that is just fundamentally different and off the charts,” Katulis explained.
That 'something' is Trump’s well-known unpredictability. Trump has criticized President Obama for telegraphing his policy moves and has vowed to remain unpredictable. But experts say unpredictability can be dangerous in the international arena where both allies and adversaries expect a certain degree of predictability from the United States.
"Predictability is the cornerstone of deterrence," said Clarke. "You need to be predictable if you’re the United states, both in what your allies know you’ll do and in what your adversaries know you’ll do and how you’ll respond."
Comments
One does have to wonder who the out of emotional control US President really works for....
1. he has badly lied about US voter fraud and never then released any supporting data other than a discredited right wing pundit's article
2. he has made what are repeatedly and clearly stated right wing pundit deep state conspiracy theories
3.he unleashes child like twitter rages which clearly shows a lack of maturity for his age of 70 plus
4. he stated openly and publicly Obama was behind the leaking out of his WH
5. he has the US taxpayer paying for a lavish oligarchish life style of residing in multiple places
6. he openly and clearly violated national security regulations with his handling of the NK missile firing in open view of restaurant customers...
7. he had refused to reveal his actual worth and tax filings
8. AND he blatantly and wrongly accused Obama for wire tapping him AND then reuses to provide his so called evidence which again came from right wing deep state pundit conspiracy theorists...
BLUF
Trump's false accusations about wiretapping, voter fraud, deep state , etc plays right into Kremlin propaganda about US.
I virtually find daily in the Russian media constant references to Trump's statements on only of the above comments....
One could think the President of the US actually works for Russian propaganda media outlets....
PERFECT EXAMPLE
North Korea is shooting the shit out of the Sea of Japan & our Pres will tweet at 3am about how Obama keeps ringing his doorbell and running
And the man is what again....sane???
AND he was the man supposedly going to be tough on NK..China...and eradicate IS/AQ from the face of the earth....
BUT who now provides named US terror groups Hezbollah...KH and PKK USAF CAs and US SOF direct support.
BTW..he was so busy tweeting against virtually everything that he forgot to take credit for the drone killing of the AQ second in command in Syria....
What the heck does this mean.....it basically means we Trump and the Trump WH dump a twitter rage blast into social media backed by flaky and flimsy right wing pundit fakes news blaming the former President of illegal activities.....
BUT THEN we decide to make this accusation again and then sue Congress as a smokescreen so we do not have to admit we had basically no information other than right wing conspiracy theories voiced on Brietbart.com
QUOTE
“President Donald J. Trump is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016,” Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said in the statement.
Mr. Spicer, who repeated the entire statement in a series of Twitter messages, added that “neither the White House nor the president will comment further until such oversight is conducted.”
UNQUOTE
Trump plays the parking meter conspiracy right wing pundit world in order to side track attention that is mounting about his definite connections to Russian oligarch money...
Just asked @PressSec when Trump will produce evidence to back up his charge about Obama. Tomorrow? He said, "Let's just enjoy tonight."
But Trump said Obama broke the law. So Monday? @PressSec shrugged. Tuesday? I asked. He walked away.
White House is really seeking access to DoJ warrants? This would be interference with an ongoing investigation https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/03/04/us/politics/trump-obama-tap-phone… …
Trump touts support for NATO, but expansion languishes in Senate #Montenegro http://reut.rs/2lVdGhZ
Trump's support of NATO is a total farce and just for appearance sake...he wants them to fund NATO fully including the US costs....as he does not want basing costs to be deducted from his so called massive defense budget...
A Ukr businessman who helped the Felix Sater "peace deal" has died.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/new-development-on-the-michael-cohe…
Another individual tied to the ongoing Russian connection debate and who is specifically tied to the proRussian Ukrainian plan that was supposed to be handed to Flynn...has dropped dead....
Yet another individual directly involved in Donald Trump’s Russia scandal has dropped dead under suspicious circumstances, and for the first time, the deceased is a United States citizen. Alex Oronov, one of the organizers of a plot that had the Kremlin pressuring Trump to oust the president of the Ukraine, has died. Palmer Report has determined that Oronov lived in Donald Trump’s building.
Alex Oronov was the individual who arranged a meeting between Donald Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen and Trump’s Russian former business partner Felix Sater, with the assistance of Russian-controlled Ukrainian politician Andrey Artemenko. That meeting resulted in Cohen delivering a Kremlin-backed proposal to National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s office just before he resigned.
The plan involved Donald Trump using Russian blackmail to force out the president of Ukraine, so Artemenko could become president and give Crimea to Russia.
Artemenko announced that Oronov is dead, and he blames the death on the plot becoming public knowledge. The implication seems to be that Vladimir Putin and Russia had Oronov killed after he was outed as a conspirator by the media. It turns out Oronov had direct ties to Donald Trump. Business Insider and Talking Points Memo first reported on the fact that Oronov had died. Palmer Report’s own research team has since determined that Oronov lived in the Trump Hollywood building.
Trump Hollywood is a group of condominiums in Hollywood, Florida (not California) that’s controlled by Donald Trump and a real estate partner. According to separate English language and Russian language background searches we’ve conducted, Alex Oronov lived in a condo in Trump Hollywood. Oronov was born in Ukraine while it was part of the Soviet Union. Shortly after the Soviet Union fell, he moved to Florida, ending up in Trump’s building. Oronov is also an in-law of Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen, another conspirator in the Ukraine plot.
The timing suggests that Alex Oronov may have been a Kremlin agent or loyalist, and fled after the USSR fell. That would explain why, despite being Ukrainian himself, he was involved in a plot to overthrow the Ukrainian president and hand control back to the Kremlin. In any case, Oronov has been a naturalized United States citizen for twenty years. Up to now, the seven previous people who dropped dead in and around the Trump-Russia scandal had all been Russian citizens.
"No man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man’s permission when we ask him to obey it….'
Teddy Roosevelt
So Trump simply needs to post all his tax returns for the last ten years..truly place his business empire into a true blind trust and demand then that all those who are being named in ...various reports for their contact to and with Russians testify in front of the Senate under oath.....
And if nothing is found..then put it to rest and simply move on...
BUT by not doing this he simply reinforces the small fact that he is hiding something and attempting to cover it up....
Instead he invents enemies...the media is the enemy of the people..his misstep and poor performance are the results of Obama leaking and now Obama wire tapping....
He has absolutely no feeling of his own personal responsibility..
One does have to wonder just what the Trump WH believes is the rule of law...
VP Pence tweeted he was angry with AP for releasing his wife's private email address...which came from a hack of his private email account where he conducted State business as well as private email...and that it was a security issue and privacy issue.......
BUT WAIT.....
Didn't you read one of private citizen John Podesta's emails at a campaign rally? Why yes, yes you did!
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc-quick-cuts/watch/pence-reads-aloud-podesta-s… …
REMEMBER Trump tweet blasted UC Berkeley for their blocked of the overt white nationalist who actually supported pedophilia and who once this was known was kicked out as the main CPAC speaker....
Trump threatened in his tweet to have UC Berkeley federal funds blocked....
Milo Yiannopoulos, Donald Trump and the Rise of Revolutionary Camp
http://thebea.st/2m9CClU
Understand the ultra right and you understand Trump...Bannon and Miller...
One of the many individuals around Trump and the Trump WH who is actively being looked at for his many Russian contacts is a Roger Stone....
Roger Stone was a 19 year old Nixon dirty tricks guy who got caught and sentenced for those activities during Watergate times...and now is suddenly with the Trump campaign.....and now Trump WH...
BREAKING: Tonight an angry & unhinged @RogerJStoneJr admitted previously denied contacts with Julian Assange - then immediately deleted it.
BUT he failed to realize social media is not archiving all tweets when they pop up....
Interestingly both he and Giuliani knew far in advance when WikiLeaks was going to dump the DNC hacks....but when confronted about their prior knowledge BOTH are in fact running from their public statements....
In October, Roger Stone seemed to be aware of the specific date that those hacked emails would be released..also a tweet from him that was archived before he deleted it...
So on Friday, Roger Stone told CBS News he did not have knowledge of the subject matter or subsequent disclosures of hacked emails. But actually based on his own deleted tweets he definitely did know...
CENTCOM let the new Trump Syrian FP changes out of the bag by publishing a critical tweet and then deleting it with the excuse..."poor choice of words"...but the tweet remained in place for hours....
The #US haven't saved a single square meter of #Syria from being (re-)captured by #Assad& #Iran since 2011.
But they stop #Turkey &the #FSA.
Well, as can be read in (deleted) Tweet by the CENTCOM, the IRGC, Hezbollah, Assad and Russia are now 'partner forces'.
Really: if I would be a member of US armed forces, I would quit on the spot.
Just no end of shame for the US SOF and USAF........
Who would have thought US would be actively working and supporting US named terror groups who have American blood on their hands??
A critical problem Trump and his WH is having and it is a serious one...they have basically created an Trump focused echo chamber that feeds what they know Trump wants to hear...coming from right wing blogsites...right wing social media and from right wing pundits on right wing radio/TV....ALL pushing to a large degree nothing but conspiracy theories...or as Trump states "fake news"...
With FOX being the biggest echo chamber supporter....
Appears that this FOX pundit does not fully understand the FISA Court process nor exactly how FBI CI investigations work...
Sean Hannity
Verified account
What did @BarackObama know and when did he know it? FISA court to wire tap opposition party? Straight out of Bill Ayers, Rules for radicals
It is truly sad that a US President who has been blasting MSM for their publishing of what he claims is "fake news" gets caught out using right wing pundit "fake news" as the basis for his twitter rages...
"Fake news". Sad.
https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/artic
les/2017-03-04/trump-calls-obama-sick-claims-trump-tower-was-wiretapped
How a Russian Steel Oligarch and Putin Ally Is Profiting from the Keystone XL Pipeline
http://www.desmogblog.com/2017/02/13/abramovitch-putin-keystone-xl-steel
There are no Russian connections????
REMEMBER this was one of the very first Trump EOs that he signed....
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/03/trumps-new-russia-scandal-…
Trump’s New Russia Scandal Defense Is to Pose as the Victim of Obama
By Jonathan Chait
It is usually a mistake to read Donald Trump’s tweets as reflecting any course of action more considered than dyspeptic gut responses to whatever news has flashed across his face at the moment.
Donald Trump’s splenetic Saturday morning tweets, alleging that Barack Obama wiretapped his phones came as a surprise to his advisers.
Accusing the former president of serious crimes, and threatening legal action against him, is the sort of step that most presidents would not take without some advance planning.
And indeed, not long after alleging that the former administration had consummated a Watergate-esque scheme to subvert the democratic process and destroy him, Trump was moving on to beef with the successor as host of his old reality television show.
Still, elements of a long-term strategy, accidental or otherwise, could be gleaned from the rant. The president may well have previewed the line of argument that may emerge as his primary defense.
Before this morning, Trump’s message on the Russia scandal has emphasized his innocence. He and his associates have done nothing wrong, and all the charges reflect baseless Democratic attempts to make excuses for Crooked Hillary’s sad defeat. (i.e., “Russia talk is FAKE NEWS put out by the Dems, and played up by the media, in order to mask the big election defeat and the illegal leaks!”)
His new line of argument ignores the question of his own guilt or innocence and turns the accusation against his predecessor, who – he alleges – ordered his phones to be wiretapped.
The apparent source of this theory is a radio rant by right-wing talk show host Mark Levin, which was aggregated by the pro-Trump conservative ethnonationalist site Breitbart, and which (Robert Costa reports) came to the attention of the White House staff.
Since wiretaps must be legally approved by a special court and would require a high standard of evidence, it is highly unlikely that Levin’s theory is correct. (Or, at least, the theory assumes an act of breathtaking illegality by Obama for which Levin has produced no evidence.)
It is also fairly ironic that Trump has chosen to compare Obama to Richard Nixon and Joseph McCarthy, given that Trump was closely mentored by the key architect of McCarthy’s smear campaign, and deliberately patterned his own campaign on Nixon’s.
But intellectual coherence or consistency are not baseline requirements for the messaging task Trump needs. If the Russia scandal continues to produce revelations of unethical or unpatriotic behavior by his campaign, he will need a response that can rally the conservative base behind him (and thus make Republicans in Congress reluctant to support independent investigations or even impeachment proceedings.)
Turning the charge against Obama does that for him. It reframes the issue as a matter of the hated Obama abusing his power to discredit Trump. Any information flowing from the scandal is therefore presumptively tainted by its association with the former president.
The benefit of this line of reasoning is that it does not require conservatives to actually defend Trump’s behavior. All that’s needed is for their distrust of Obama to overcome their misgivings about Trump – a condition that describes virtually the entire Republican base. Notably, Mark Levin himself had lined up behind Ted Cruz against Trump during the presidential primary, calling Trump’s attacks on Cruz “Nixonian” and – even using the strongest rebuke in the conservative movement lexicon – “Alinskyite.”
Now Levin is back on the team and, having forgotten his earlier diagnosis of Trump’s character and honesty, redirecting his anger against the Democrats. Conveniently for Trump, while unifying his base, attacking the alleged crimes of Obama also attracts support from left-wing sources like the Nation and the Intercept, which have consistently dismissed the Russia scandal as “neo-McCarthyism.”
A crucial element to Trump’s success during the campaign was his ability to position himself as an insurgent, marshalling the support of Americans who had a wide range of discontent with the status quo under a single anti-establishment candidacy.
Every populist who wins an election has to deal with the tricky problem of converting a political style that requires a lack of power or responsibility to the condition of having both.
By making himself a victim of Obama’s alleged abuses of power, Trump revives and extends his status as insurgent indefinitely.
The most powerful person on Earth will remain the victim of a conspiracy so vast.
THIS is exactly how a US fake news cycle works ............
Thursday: Conservative radio show says Obama sought Trump wiretap
Friday: Breitbart reports this
Saturday: Trump tweets it
Mark Levin to Congress: Investigate Obama’s ‘Silent Coup’ vs. Trump
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/03/03/mark-levin-obama-use…
Radio host Mark Levin used his Thursday evening show to outline the known steps taken by President Barack Obama’s administration in its last months to undermine Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and, later, his new administration.
Levin called Obama’s effort “police state” tactics, and suggested that Obama’s actions, rather than conspiracy theories about alleged Russian interference in the presidential election to help Trump, should be the target of congressional investigation.
Drawing on sources including the New York Times and the Washington Post, Levin described the case against Obama so far, based on what is already publicly known. The following is an expanded version of that case, including events that Levin did not mention specifically but are important to the overall timeline.
1. June 2016: FISA request. The Obama administration files a request with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) to monitor communications involving Donald Trump and several advisers. The request, uncharacteristically, is denied.
2. July: Russia joke. Wikileaks releases emails from the Democratic National Committee that show an effort to prevent Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) from winning the presidential nomination. In a press conference, Donald Trump refers to Hillary Clinton’s own missing emails, joking: “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing.” That remark becomes the basis for accusations by Clinton and the media that Trump invited further hacking.
3. October: Podesta emails. In October, Wikileaks releases the emails of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, rolling out batches every day until the election, creating new mini-scandals. The Clinton campaign blames Trump and the Russians.
4. October: FISA request. The Obama administration submits a new, narrow request to the FISA court, now focused on a computer server in Trump Tower suspected of links to Russian banks. No evidence is found — but the wiretaps continue, ostensibly for national security reasons, Andrew McCarthy at National Review later notes. The Obama administration is now monitoring an opposing presidential campaign using the high-tech surveillance powers of the federal intelligence services.
5. January 2017: Buzzfeed/CNN dossier. Buzzfeed releases, and CNN reports, a supposed intelligence “dossier” compiled by a foreign former spy. It purports to show continuous contact between Russia and the Trump campaign, and says that the Russians have compromising information about Trump. None of the allegations can be verified and some are proven false. Several media outlets claim that they had been aware of the dossier for months and that it had been circulating in Washington.
6. January: Obama expands NSA sharing. As Michael Walsh later notes, and as the New York Times reports, the outgoing Obama administration “expanded the power of the National Security Agency to share globally intercepted personal communications with the government’s 16 other intelligence agencies before applying privacy protections.” The new powers, and reduced protections, could make it easier for intelligence on private citizens to be circulated improperly or leaked.
7. January: Times report. The New York Times reports, on the eve of Inauguration Day, that several agencies — the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Treasury Department are monitoring several associates of the Trump campaign suspected of Russian ties. Other news outlets also report the existence of “a multiagency working group to coordinate investigations across the government,” though it is unclear how they found out, since the investigations would have been secret and involved classified information.
8. February: Mike Flynn scandal. Reports emerge that the FBI intercepted a conversation in 2016 between future National Security Adviser Michael Flynn — then a private citizen — and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The intercept supposedly was part of routine spying on the ambassador, not monitoring of the Trump campaign. The FBI transcripts reportedly show the two discussing Obama’s newly-imposed sanctions on Russia, though Flynn earlier denied discussing them. Sally Yates, whom Trump would later fire as acting Attorney General for insubordination, is involved in the investigation. In the end, Flynn resigns over having misled Vice President Mike Pence (perhaps inadvertently) about the content of the conversation.
9. February: Times claims extensive Russian contacts. The New York Times cites “four current and former American officials” in reporting that the Trump campaign had “repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials. The Trump campaign denies the claims — and the Times admits that there is “no evidence” of coordination between the campaign and the Russians. The White House and some congressional Republicans begin to raise questions about illegal intelligence leaks.
10. March: the Washington Post targets Jeff Sessions. The Washington Post reports that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had contact twice with the Russian ambassador during the campaign — once at a Heritage Foundation event and once at a meeting in Sessions’s Senate office. The Post suggests that the two meetings contradict Sessions’s testimony at his confirmation hearings that he had no contacts with the Russians, though in context (not presented by the Post) it was clear he meant in his capacity as a campaign surrogate, and that he was responding to claims in the “dossier” of ongoing contacts. The New York Times, in covering the story, adds that the Obama White House “rushed to preserve” intelligence related to alleged Russian links with the Trump campaign.
By “preserve” it really means “disseminate”: officials spread evidence throughout other government agencies “to leave a clear trail of intelligence for government investigators” and perhaps the media as well.
In summary: the Obama administration sought, and eventually obtained, authorization to eavesdrop on the Trump campaign; continued monitoring the Trump team even when no evidence of wrongdoing was found; then relaxed the NSA rules to allow evidence to be shared widely within the government, virtually ensuring that the information, including the conversations of private citizens, would be leaked to the media.
Levin called the effort a “silent coup” by the Obama administration and demanded that it be investigated.
In addition, Levin castigated Republicans in Congress for focusing their attention on Trump and Attorney General Sessions rather than Obama.
Obama spox on Trump claims: "neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen."
I'd be careful about reporting that Obama said there was no wiretapping.
Statement just said that neither he nor the WH ordered it.
NatSec History 101: The 1978 law removed Presidents from authorization and gave it to DOJ for secret surveillance
DOJ represents the Exec Branch, who then submits a FISA application to a special court. Targets: suspected agents of foreign powers in US
REMEMBER and the Trump WH cannot refute this....
The 4 dead Russian diplomats mentioned in the Trump Steele dossier all died mysteriously in the last 60 days
AND one retired KGB General linked as a potential source was also found dead in the back seat of his car and the Moscow Police ruled his death...after first calling it a murder...was determined death by heart attack...so what was he doing in the back seat of his car instead of dying driving his car....
TEN key questions concerning Trump's twitter storm rage from today...that both he and his WH need to seriously think about....
Here are my questions, about all of which I am, I want to stress, entirely serious:
1. Are you making the allegation that President Obama conducted electronic surveillance of Trump Tower in your capacity as President of the United States based on intelligence or law enforcement information available to you in that capacity?
2. If so—that is, if you have executive branch information validating that either a FISA wiretap or a Title III wiretap took place—have you reviewed the applications for the surveillance and have you or your lawyers concluded that they lack merit?
3. If you know that a FISA wiretap took place, are you or were you at the time of the application, an agent of a foreign power within the meaning of FISA?
4. Was anyone else working in Trump Tower an agent of a foreign power within the meaning of FISA?
5. If you know that a Title III wiretap took place, are you or were you at the time of the application engaged in criminal activity that would support a Title III wiretap or might you have previously engaged in criminal activity that might legitimately be the subject of a Title III wiretap?
6. Was anyone else working in Trump Tower engaged in criminal activity that would support a Title III wiretap or might another person have previously engaged in criminal activity that might legitimately be the subject of a Title III wiretap?
7. If you were tweeting not based on knowledge received as chief executive of the United States, were you tweeting in your capacity as a reader of Breitbart or a listener of Mark Levin's radio show?
8. If so, on what basis are you confident the stories and allegations in these august outlets are true and accurate vis a vis the activity of the government you, in fact, now head?
9. If you learned of this alleged surveillance from media outlets, did you or anyone on your staff check with any responsible law enforcement or intelligence officials or agencies before making public allegations against your own government?
0. What exactly does any of this have to do with Arnold Schwarzenegger?
JUST what the hell is Trump tweeting now..just when you think he cannot rage even more than he normally does...now he is truly in an "altered state of reality"...what has he truly been smoking is all one can say after this barrage of tweets....
The pressure must now be at a level he has never experienced below...WHICH means that in fact there has been serious contacts with Russians at multiple levels by both Trump and his WH...
Trump has some serious issues on just how government works...MAYBE he could get a long briefing by his own Russian contact lying and tainted AG.....
BUT WAIT....he does in fact understand....
Obama WH cannot TAPP (another Trump misspelling BTW)it must be done via the FBI who requests first a FISA warrant....AND here Trump is actually correct..the first one was turned down as it was to wide a net...the SECOND one was tighter and specific and was approved by the FISA Court and it included also all financial records and international transactions as well....Trump did not mention that did he....
BTW...the fact that the FISA WARRANT was issued came as a leak and never really focused on by the MSM...social media though kept watching it and noticed it had not been revoked...meaning it was still a work in progress and the FBI was still chasing leads and information...
WHAT should be of far more concerned for Trump instead of ranting and twitter raging is the fact that in order to get a FISA Warrant the FBI must show to the FISA Court probable cause.....meaning that they have some evidence that in fact the FISA search will provide the needed further information for a possible conviction of a violation of Federal law....
Evidently the FBI had some information already and were not simply fishing....and the FISA Court agreed with them...
THAT is the problem for Trump....WHAT is interesting is that now Trump is ACTUALLY revealing the highly classified briefing he got by the entire IC led by the DNI...WHICH is in fact a security violation especially since the information was at the TS/SCI level...
IT WAS NOT COMMON knowledge that his Trump Tower phones were monitored before the election which indicates to many that the FBI was highly concerned about something...which is the timeframe where many were already talking about Russian interference in the general election AFTER the hacking incident...REMEMBER even the FBI signed onto the entire US IC report that in fact the Russians had hacked and had interfered with the US election process...just who was behind it was the outstanding question among the IC and the FI...
NOW COMES THE TRUMP RAGING TWITTER BARRAGE AND IT IS A BARRAGE AND DEPICTS A MAN OUT OF CONTROL...AND HE CONTROLS THE NUCLEAR BUTTONS....
Donald J. Trump
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump 36m
36 minutes ago
How low has President Obama gone to tapp (SP) my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!
Donald J. Trump
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump 46m
46 minutes ago
I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!
Donald J. Trump
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump 50m
50 minutes ago
Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!
Donald J. Trump
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump 56m
56 minutes ago
Just out: The same Russian Ambassador that met Jeff Sessions visited the Obama White House 22 times, and 4 times last year alone.
Donald J. Trump
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump 1h
1 hour ago
Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!
Donald J. Trump
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump 1h
1 hour ago
The first meeting Jeff Sessions had with the Russian Amb was set up by the Obama Administration under education program for 100 Ambs......
BLUF:
WHAT Trump cannot seem to realize there are official meetings that everyone knows about..made public with tons of PR and photo ops and on official schedules......
VS those meetings held in private off the record as Carter Page indicated in his TV interview this week that SEVEN individuals lied about ever happening.......
REMEMBER when Flynn was questioned the first time about his calls to the Russian Ambassador...his and the Trump WH and Spicer all stated...he was wishing the Ambassador a Merry Christmas...honestly that was his and their first comments....
THAT is what Trump has not figured out as of yet.....official contacts VS unofficial off the books contacts that all have basically been lying about including Trump himself...
THIS series of tweets is actually very telling...
BTW...REMEMBER we have the personal lawyer for Trump wrapped up in FIVE different versions of a meeting with a right wing Ukrainian who was pushing a proRussian anti Ukraine peace deal to Flynn...
CAN anyone in the Trump WH including Trump actually tell the truth or even knows what "truth looks and feels like anymore"????
Interesting question..just how many Trump WH officials...Trump campaign officials and even Trump himself have gone officially on record and clearly and concisely stated in full public view....THERE has never been contacts with Russia during the campaign and after the election....
EXCLUDING Trump's own statements..there have been a grand total of SEVEN....
So did Trump and the SEVEN lie to cover up what exactly is these Russian contacts were just "routine getting to know you met and greets"....which would actually be easy to admit to...
WHY the lying...the cover ups and poor memories???
BLUF:
If in fact the below postings are accurate...Trump and his WH decisions are about to cost the USAF a major Med and ME airbase and to cause Turkey to seriously question being a NATO member WHEN the US supports terrorists who have been attacking Turkey for over 40 long years....AND not holding to verbal promises made by the Obama and now the Trump WH to Erdogan personally...to ensure Turkish border security ALL the while Trump proclaims his Mexican wall to keep out illegals...Turkey defends itself from a PKK that pulls all the time back into Syria...and Trump does not care about that small terrorist problem....
My 27 FEB posting on the Great Raid thread has turned out to be very correct....there will be no "Great" raid as the US...Iran...Russia...ASSAD....Hezbollah a US named terror group...Afghan Shia militia and Iran ARE NOw being fully supported by US SOF and USAF CAS TOGETHER with the PKK (the US argument that they were supporting the Kurdish group YPG...was a fig leaf to cover their actual support for another US named terror group PKK).....
AGAINST the Syrian opposition and Turkey....in time Turkey will now pull the plug on the US airbase at Inclilik and Turkey will seriously question their NATO commitment as the US under BOTH Obama and Trump have not honored a single thing they told Erdogan........
PHOTOS of both US SOF with new armored vehicles and Russian troops in Manbij are posted on the Syrian thread as well as a photo of the Russian flag flying over Manbij...
USA now in an open alliance with Russia, Assad regime and PKK against Syrian opposition and Turkey?
Russian & American army now patrolling Manbij area,handing it to Assad & allied Kurdish militants.
So I was 100% right w/"tacit US approval"
Humvee column near #Manbij.
Not clear who rides them - #SDF / #YPG or #US troops.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r090Z2kvOIk#…
So in the end which was better for Syria the Obama or Trump WH?????
Never thought I would see the USAF flying CAS for Iran...Russia and Hezbollah nor US SOF working together with US named terrorists...Hezbollah who has the blood of the US Embassy bombing in Beirut on their hands...
USA now in an open alliance with Russia, Assad regime and PKK against Syrian opposition and Turkey?
Russia ®ime forces have entered #Syria's #Manbij as #US Army deploys armoured vehicles
Wow are they so afraid of #Turkey. Damn
Can the Trump WH even spell the word..."security"......
Wait a minute: Trump’s deputy national security adviser doesn’t have a security clearance?
http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/03/03/the-curious-case-of-sebastian-gorka…
Interesting...to say the least...
Former and maybe still Trump advisor Carter Page refused to say on camera that Russia meddles in the affairs of other countries, but he quickly pointed out that the US does.
REMEMBER when Trump asked in a recent interview about the alleged Putin killings of his political opponents....Trump responded "well the US is no better"....
REMEMBER when Trump bashed Obama repeatedly for his golfing and not taking care of important US business back in DC....
By the end of the weekend, Pres Trump will have spent all or part of 14 days at Mar-a-Lago. Amounts to 31% of his days in office, so far.
SO if we add up all the US taxpayer money spent on his flights and security details HOW many well paying US jobs could he have produced with that money OR how much of his Mexican Wall could he have built...interesting question???
REMEMBER Trump stated that only the "bad dudes would be deported"
WELL they are not being deported...this man worked and paid federal and state taxes.....
A sobbing 13-year-old girl recorded her undocumented father get arrested by ICE agents after a school drop-off
https://www.buzzfeed.com/adolfoflores/girl-records-immigration-arrest-o…
SO is Trump lying and or is ICE..CBP and INS going rouge????
If I were Trump I would actually be concerned....Steele has indicated in Europe he is fully able to backstop all his information.....and actually major pieces inside his dossier have been either confirmed by OSNT that is 100% available without the need of a security clearance....or by the US IC....
US Senate calls on British spy Chris Steele to give evidence on explosive Trump-Russia dossier
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-tru…
That university degree that Trump earned while dodging the VN draft four times with a bone spur he today cannot tell you which foot it was has sure paid off...and he even admitted his biggest problem was fighting off the women....
Trump had to resend this tweet rage above THREE times in order to get the single word "Hereby" correct....
Trump really does have a fifth grade spelling problem...he is averaging one misspelling per week now....
BLUF:
We're at the stage where the definition of an elitist is the ability to spell your native language.
The trouble when Trump tweets is that he is not in his element...meaning he is starting to show a mild form of panic if he is getting into a twitter war...PLUS he is heavily using the Russian propaganda SIX Ds principle....in the process of his tweets....
Donald J. Trump
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump 11h
11 hours ago
I hereby demand a second investigation, after Schumer, of Pelosi for her close ties to Russia, and lying about it.
FIRST he tweets demanding an investigation of Krispy Kreme donuts that Putin was eating in full public view AND then refuses to have his team be question as Schumer fully indicated he has no problem answering questions about the coffee and Krispy Kreme donuts....
BUT apparently Trump WH does have problems answering questions....
SECONDLY, the photo Trump refers to is a fully recognized Senate meeting with the Russian PM and Russian FM....NOT a privately held meeting that was then lied about by Sessions...Flynn and company.......
Russian propaganda is built on the SIX Ds principle.....
Deflect...Distort....Dismay...Dismiss...ALL designed to create Doubt and distrust.
SO exactly which Russian propaganda SIX Ds did in fact Trump use in his tweet above?????
From the Russian propaganda outlet TASS....
Kremlin re: the possibility of Russia recognizing Russian terrorist "republics" in E. Ukraine: "It's up to Putin."
http://tass.com/politics/933869
Direct threat voiced against the US and Trump...BTW where is he..oh again golfing when the world is basically burning in BOTH Syria and Ukraine....and he complained how often Obama went golfing....
Senator Coons on Andrea Mitchell 3 MARCH 2017…..
Summary of his on air statement
There are transcripts of conversations that point to the distinct possibility that Russian officials…and RIS up to the level of Putin were cooperating with and or colluding with the Trump campaign at the highest levels…to influence the election…
He specifically used the single most important word..."collude with"..this term is coming out more and more from those that were briefed lately by the FBI in SCIF briefings....
Russia investigations a 'witch hunt'? Not according to polls
Even some of his own supporters are slowing turning on him.....
BTW...concerning the sudden lost memory by Sessions on his Russian contacts until confronted about them....after he lied under oath...
For most of us, chatting with the Ambassador of a country which has thousands of nukes pointed at us is a decidedly memorable thing.
Basically Trump and his Bannon/Miller/Gorka driven FP ideas will never get off the ground simply because........until there are adequate clear and concise answers to a lot of questions he will be spinning in circles and going nowhere fast.....
7 men worked for Trump's campaign & had undisclosed contact w/ Russian ambassador, Russian gov't, or Russian operatives.
AND this does not cover possible money transfers...which did occur with three of them...
AND Trump tries to sell you it was just coincidence?
AND concerning the Trump close friend and current AG....also one of those seven.
A Timeline of Jeff Sessions’s Trump Ties and Meetings With Russia
https://nyti.ms/2lE6Nzd
REMEMBER after the largely failed Yemen raid which Trump approved while dinning out at his dinner table...He and his WH had started the basic myth IE narrative that the raid had been approved during the Obama WH but not carried out....and they still hold to that basic myth which we now see is/was a lie....
Susan Rice
✔
@AmbassadorRice
Cohen is correct. It is false that the Yemen raid was approved by the Obama Admin.
No specific conop ever presented to WH for that raid.
THEN we just had Trump basically blaming the DoD for the raid failure....and again because of the Obama WH and the death of a ST6 member....
BUT WHAT is extremely interesting...even for Trump is his basic ignoring in taking any PR credit for the drone killing of the second in command of AQ in Syria ...WHICH did happen on his watch it actually totally strange...
WHEN he claimed he as going to eradicate IS/AQ off the face of the earth.....
Donald J. Trump
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump
We should start an immediate investigation into @SenSchumer and his ties to Russia and Putin. A total hypocrite!
Chuck Schumer
Verified account
@SenSchumer
Chuck Schumer Retweeted Donald J. Trump
Happily talk re: my contact w Mr. Putin & his associates, took place in '03 in full view of press & public under oath. Would you &your team?
Chuck Schumer
Verified account
@SenSchumer 59m
59 minutes ago
And for the record, they were Krispy Kreme donuts.
Charles Lister
Verified account
@Charles_Lister
This is not a joke.
- This terrorism "expert" sat in the White House, thinks using "Radical Islamic…" is the "key" to defeating #terrorism.
Charles Lister
Sebastian Gorka DrG
Verified account
@SebGorka
INCORRECT
After 8 years of obfuscation and disastrous Counterterrorism policies those 3 words are key to Victory against Global Jihadism.
Sebastian
FOX & friends
Verified account
"There's nothing magic about those three words. They're not a strategy, they're a talking point." -Marie Harf on 'radical Islamic terrorism'
US SOF has been fighting as boots on the ground with their so called SDF Arab fighters to defeat IS only to take the areas they liberated along with US SOF and hand it over to Assad....
A total Trump WH failure in Syrian and they are only in the WH now for FIVE weeks....
Remember this day!
@CJTFOIR prefers to hand over land,liberated from #ISIS,to #Assad.
Rather than finding a solution between #SDF & #Turkey.
It also confirmed, the transfer of large tracts of land, @CJTFOIR liberated from #ISIS, to #Assad and Iranian-led militias, started this AM.
The "Syrian Democratic Forces" (#YPG and friends) - our "biggest hope against ISIS" - are more&more showing their true pro-dictatorial face.
Iranian-backed Iraqi Shiite militia on attacks by Turkish-supported Iraqi Kurds on Yazidis, who themselves demand PKK to withdraw to Syria.
Why is the #PKK/#YPG handing areas over to the Assad regime, but not to the #Peshmarga despite demands of the Yazidi https://twitter.com/rudawenglish/sta...105518247936#…
There were some clashes between syrian kurds of the legimated Roj Peshmarga & the terrorists #kurds of the #PKK/#YPG
Or in other words: Welcome to the giant post-#ISIS clusterf*ck that will entertain us for the next decade & lay foundation to the next ISIS.
The Trump WH and the SecDef Mattis BOTH appear to be lying....ANd it now definitely appears that the USAF was flying CAS for a US named terror group Hezbollah and supporting as well Iran and Afghan Shia militias AND ESPECISLLY Russian ground forces.....
BREAKING Pentagon says it is not aware of any agreement between SDF and Assad to overturn the west of Manbij to pro-Assad forces
BREAKING Pentagon says they observed Russian humanitarian convoys moving into Manbij along with Russian armoured vehicles
BREAKING Russia informed Pentagon through deconfliction lines that it was moving to Manbij, and this is why US wasn't surprised by it
It seems, Trump, also like Obama, is likely to cooperate with the Syrian Kurdish group YPG in the region. Hence, making it impossible to start a new era in Turkey-U.S. relations
https://www.dailysabah.com/columns/ragip-soylu/2017/03/02/trump-adminis…
Trump is ever so slowly losing control of his emotions over something he could have avoided by simply stating all those accused of Russian connections should step up and be questioned by the Senate under oath....
BUT he did not and claimed to have never been informed by Manafort....Page....Sessions and Flynn.....
Donald J. Trump
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump 17m
17 minutes ago
We should start an immediate investigation into @SenSchumer and his ties to Russia and Putin. A total hypocrite!
REALLY worth reading as this individual is probably one of the best Russian analysts in the field right now.....
From Trump’s Washington to the Capitals of Europe, Corruption is Russia’s Greatest Ally
https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2017/03/03/from-trumps-washingto…
by Mark Galeotti
The steady drumbeat of Russian contacts with Trump’s team on one level should not surprise. The Russians – like most real and wannabe global powers – assiduously network, hoping to gather insights and make connections that can later be parlayed into access and impact.
This is, however, a case study of the way that the dirty little vices of modern democracy, from the inter-connectivity of transnational and untransparent business interests to the use of money and flattery to buy a voice, all the ways in which democracy becomes distorted by money, serve as a force multiplier for predatory authoritarian kleptocracies.
In fact, my view is that for the West today, the greatest security threat is not Russian tanks or Russian disinformation, it is our own corruption – and the ways Russian seeks to use it.
Let’s look at the Trump White House. I still have serious doubts about some of the headline allegations in Steele’s ‘Trump dossier,’ from the ‘salacious’ stuff (that has become the code word of choice, after all…), to the suggestion that Trump has been given 19% of oil giant Rosneft as the bribe of the millennium in return for lifting sanctions.
(Though that would mean we know the market value of the White House: about $11 billion.) Much more plausible is the general picture of regular, lower-level contacts between Russian officials and American movers and shakers, regardless of the serious tensions between their countries.
There are all kinds of contacts which are appropriate, unavoidable, and wholly acceptable. Some of the administration’s more strident critics need to be reminded that not every Russian is a spy or a gangster. However, all the mysterious bouts of amnesia or dependence on covert meetings suggests that even the participants realise they are transgressing the acceptable, and that they are probably not meeting simply to further international cooperation or exchange banalities about the weather.
In a dark past, America was ripped apart by the search for reds under the beds. Much of this was paranoid witch-hunting, but there were indeed those motivated by ideology, a sense that the Soviet Union represented something greater for humanity.
Today? Sure, some imbecilic racists and blinkered social conservatives may believe that Putin’s Russia stands for their values, but the people we are talking about, the people who matter, are in the main neither simpletons nor idealists, but pragmatically self-interested.
Those in Trump’s campaign and his administration who retain links with Russians do so not because they are dazzled by Putin, less yet by Tchaikovsky and Dostoevsky. They do so because it suits and pleases them, because the Russians offer something: flattery, information, personal gain.
This is not necessarily the crude corruption of a suitcase of cash in return for documents or a favourable vote. It is rather the more insidious corruption of hooking people on the notion that the Russians can help you get closer to your financial and personal goals. After all, the biggest differences between this new Cold War and the old one is that there is little real ideological dimension, and our societies and economies are now incestuously connected.
Russians buy penthouses in London and New York, Americans buy Russian stocks, Russian-funded media buy insert spreads in Western newspapers, and so forth. Much of this is essentially innocent, or at least as innocent as modern capitalism can be, but these are the wellsprings of the global rivers in which Moscow’s spies and agents of influence can freely swim.
In other words, the real story is about the way that the rich and the powerful may regard Russia as a geopolitical antagonist, and yet be happy to cut deals with Russians if it helps them become richer and more powerful.
But this is not just an American story. In Europe, too, corruption is Moscow’s friend. From the lobby groups which agitate against the Ukraine sanctions because they are suffering as a result, to the politicians happy to mobilise anti-US and anti-EU sentiment with the aid of Russian money and airtime to their own ends, this is a widespread issue.
The greatest danger, I would suggest, is not so much the overt ‘Putin-understanders’ such as the Czech Republic’s President Miloš Zeman or Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Of course, they are convenient for Moscow, not least because their words can be retransmitted for propaganda purposes, and their sentiments erode the European consensus on punishing Russia for its aggression in Ukraine. But at the same time, these are not fifth columnists looking to hand over their country to Putin.
The real threats are those motivated not by naïve or contrarian but probably genuine and consistent beliefs, but by corruption. These are the cynics and opportunists, and they are dangerous for several reasons. First of all, unlike the Zemans and Orbans of this world, they may be subtle and covert, couching their lobbying and sabotage in the language of good business sense, or European resistance to American ‘bullying,’ or whatever other rationalisation seems more appropriate.
They can also be used as deniable fronts for Russian operations; the continuing (if unproven) belief that then-head of Lukoil in the Czech Republic Martin Nejedly funded Zeman’s campaign on Moscow’s behest (for which he was later recompensed) is a perfect example. Was this just a case of a Czech funding a Czech campaign, openly and entirely within the law, or foreign interference? And how do you prove the latter?
Secondly, they are self-propelled. They do not look to the Kremlin for instructions, although inevitably sometimes Moscow will seek to direct them. They will look for ways to advance their own causes, sometimes actually by seeking new ways to make themselves useful, because usefulness is rewarded. If it is true that members of Trump’s campaign colluded with Moscow to get him elected, did the Russians drive the whole process, or at what point did their American interlocutors begin to make suggestions and requests?
You do not need to corrupt those who are already corrupt, and who will instead approach you and see what you are willing to offer.
Thirdly, they not only take advantage of the fluidity of modern capital and ideas, the difficulty modern states have in proving where money came from, where ultimately ownership of an asset lies. They actively seek to protect and extend this system.
The drug lord, the spy, the terrorist, and the ruthless financial-political player all have a shared interest in foiling efforts to reverse this process. From the struggle to extend anti-kleptocracy laws in London, to the death-of-a-thousand-amendments facing new transparency laws in Prague, this is a battle being fought across the West, and yet one we have yet properly to appreciate is about security as much as fighting crime or controlling corporate malpractice.
The difficulty in regulating finances, the challenges addressing disinformation, and the failure often to monitor and limit campaign contributions, are all aspects of a common and systemic problem of corruption.
The Russians – and not only the Russians – are taking fullest advantage of this, and this makes it one of the most important battlefields of a conflict which is as much as anything else about values, laws and ideas.
What is being played out in Washington is as much as anything else a case study in how pernicious and wide-spread the challenge has become.
Six Russian diplomats have died in the last 60 days, and four of the dead Russians are in the Trump Steele dossier
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/eur
ope/russia-diplomats-deaths-theories-putin-kremlin-a7602201.html
AND there is no Russian Trump connections?...Russian cleaning up loose ends....just as they have been doing with their first generation criminal mercenaries in eastern Ukraine...over the last six months as well.
Pro-Russian forces in Montenegro call for Steve Bannon's help against NATO
http://read.bi/2lDhcKr
Hacked correspondence shows Kremlin’s efforts to promote “Russian world” in Eastern Europe by funding radicals
http://www.stopfake.org/en/hacked-correspondence-shows-kremlin-s-effort…
Sebastian Gorka, now a fierce defender of Trump, once said he had 'no depth' and was 'full of bluster'
http://cnn.it/2mjMDh4
APPEARS that now the Trump WH DAP Gorka might in fact have access to TS/SCI materials without the proper security clearance levels...
Gorka was a formerly well know Hungarian ultra nationalist before coming to the US....
According to AP, Trump terrorism guy Gorka doesn't have appropriate security clearances
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TRUMP_VS_SPIES?SITE=AP&SECTIO… …
If Trump's guy Gorka doesn't have sec clearance:
1. Every ref he makes to threat intel or NSC mtgs is a LIE
OR
2. Massive security scandal
Gorka is all over media claiming he is in NSC meetings and is reading CT TS/SCI reports within NSC but the highest clearance level he holds is interim Secret....if at all?????
In the world of politics and the US news media...words have meanings and those meanings make statements that could in fact come back to seriously haunt you if you are not careful....
This is statement made a number of times is seriously causing some Trump WH heartburn right about now....
Trump, Pence and Priebus all insisted that NO ONE associated with the Trump campaign talked to Russia
REMEMBER that single statement verbalized by Trump...Pence...Priebus and Spicer....it is clearly there for all to reread....
REMEMBER Trump himself has stated for the record he has never called Russia in the last TEN years...but he has and in 2013....at least.....
AND there has been no sudden change in the US FP in Syrian under this Trump WH...??
WHY is the Trump WH ordering CENTCOM to fly combat support missions for Russians...Hezbollah a US declared terror group...Iranians.... Lebanese....and Afghan Shia militias....??????
Taken from the Syrian thread today....concerns the fighting in and around Palmyra....
CrowBat...this is major.....he was being accompanied though by Spetsnaz from which we have not heard about any of their loses in the IED strike..there were loses but announced occurring in the Aleppo area....
Russian General blown up in IED blast in Palmyra last week - report
Russian general-mayor Petr Milyukhin seriously wounded in Palmyra a week ago ...lost two legs and one eye so it appears the vehcle are physically targeted...
General was chief of training/study of Russian Western Military District(located from Voronezh to Murmansk)
http://m.fontanka.ru/2017/03/03/101/
Yup. They've lost a few troops of the (AFAIK) 24th SPETSNAZ Brigade that guarded Milyukhin, too. Only one was named in the public so far, thought.
Seems, the organization of the battlefield is meanwhile such, that the Russians are commanding nearly all of the ops - except those undertaken by the IRGC alone (like in Western Aleppo).
The Russians in turn issue their commands to elements of the Quwwat Nimr, and this is then forwarding the same to 'everybody else'.
Example: the latest offensive on Palmyra (which, apparently, is about to recover that poor city). There's a Russian commander on the top, with his own staff - all protected by SPETSNAZ, and escorted by a FAC-team too.
Then there's the Hamza Group of the Quwwat Nimr (a company-strong element from the ''Tiger Force', a 'command & control' militia). They are there to play the 'SAA', i.e. show the flag and drive those recently-delivered T-62Ms in front of various cameras.
However, most of the force consists of Liwa Fatimiyoun (about 20,000 troops in total) and Hezbollah (one battalion). Considering these numbers along, little surprise the Daesh is losing as quickly.
And the CENTCOM is providing CAS...
So, when the Washington Post proudly announces Hezbollah, Russia and the U.S. help Syria retake Palmyra it's got the story entirely wrong (no surprise, since I doubt they've got even 1/10th of any of their journos really knowing what's up in Syria).
Correct title should be: Afghans, Lebanese, Iranians and Russians take Palmyra - backed by US air support.
Sessions' view on Russia changed a week or so *after* meeting Kislyak at the RNC in Cleveland.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/03/02/sessions-s-contact-the… …
BUT Trump is still insisting the Democrats are on a "witch hunt"