National Security in the Trump Era: Business as Usual?
G. Murphy Donovan
Donald Trump has only been in office for a couple of months. Any performance evaluation to date is probably premature. Nonetheless, early on, there are some good and bad omens. The good news is domestic. President Trump seems to be focused on health care reform, the economy, employment, border security, and immigration/alien control.
In contrast, national security and foreign policy initiatives are off to a hoary start.
One national security advisor has already been sacked and President Trump has been horse-collared as a Moscow puppet or stooge. No matter the evidence, insinuations that Russians played a role in the 2016 election is a smear now morphing into a political zombie, a Beltway specter with tenure.
By throwing, General Mike Flynn, erstwhile national security advisor, under the bus, Trump has forfeited the first game of “gotcha” to hostile Democrats and a partisan media. Beyond hasty judgement, the Flynn affair also suggests that team Trump folds at first fright.
President Trump flinched again by allowing his new Attorney General to recuse himself from the Russophobia probe. Flynn and Sessions are just blood in the water now. Trump opponents are circling like sharks.
The Flynn/Sessions casualties confirm what critics already believe about a Putin/Trump “bromance.” The Putin proxy is now tar and feathers to be used by a neo-conservative/ liberal establishment who believe that globalist experiments like the EU, military alliances like NATO, and regime change stunts in Ukraine and elsewhere are beyond reproach or reform.
President Trump may have thus handcuffed himself to “business as usual” on the world stage. Just before the 2016 election, the Obama White House and DOD deployed NATO and American tanks to the Baltics and Poland. New anti-missile missile deployments to Eastern Europe are now part of that mix too.
Yes, German tanks are again in Poland and the Baltics. Clearly designed to annoy the Kremlin, these “symbolic” NATO encroachments are now Trump baggage.
We say symbolic because, NATO sabre rattling on Russian borders is more than a bit of a strategic mime. Putin says that he could be in Kiev in two weeks, should the need arise. The Russian president is probably correct.
Why would anyone believe West Europeans, who will not pay for NATO, would fight Russians today any more successfully than they fought the Wehrmacht in the last continental war?
Trump’s original campaign instincts were correct. NATO is an expensive Cold War artifact, not unlike the defunct Warsaw Pact. The need to defend defense budgets today is more important than any hedge against real Russian aggression. The long war against the Muslim jihad, still unresolved after 50 years, provides a similar rational for Intelligence spending.
The deep state has deep roots.
Appeasing Muslims, demonizing Israelis and Russians, and fiscal incontinence at home seem to be the three defaults, or inherited, legs of American national security policy and strategy.
NATO is next to useless when it comes to active shooters in a half dozen Muslim small wars. In fact, Schengen Zone vulnerabilities, and Berlin oblivion, are facilitating an ever expanding Islamist threat within Europe itself.
Take Angela Merkel’s “open borders” policy and subsequent Muslim migrant blitz. No head of state in Europe has done more for terror, fear, appeasement, jihad, Islamic religious fascism, and continental instability than the German chancellor. If Brexit is followed by a “Frexit,” Mrs. Merkel can take a bow.
If the EU is going the way of the Holy Roman Empire, no single individual is more culpable than “Angela.” Indeed, if common sense and culture is at risk in Europe, the angel of death again rides again on a Berlin broomstick.
Muslim admission to Europe now seems to come at the price of another Jewish exit. You would think a German chancellor who walks under the shadow of the Holocaust would know better.
In a real world, a stable and prosperous future for Europe is a function of American and Russian forbearance and cooperation. Unfortunately, posturing or histrionics in Brussels and Washington is now more about business and appeasement than a stable European future.
Besides automobiles, the only manufacturing of any consequence left in the West is the defense industry. If the business of national security is now business, it’s a booming business.
The Middle East and Africa are awash with weapons, war, and instability because NATO nations are willing to sponsor sedition and sell the wherewithal to friends and foes alike.
US military exports grew by 54 percent in the Obama era and are expected to rise faster under Trump. America now accounts for 36 percent of world arms exports compared to 12 percent for Russia.
Unfortunately, taking on the American military/industrial establishment at this point might be a bridge too far as it seems to be one of a few manufacturing games left in America. Whilst Defense and Intelligence industries experience explosive growth, the private sector languishes in the doldrums.
Throwing money at bombs and bullets is hardly new policy in Washington. America already spends more on its military than the next seven countries combined, including China and Russia. The Pentagon spends seven times ($680 billion versus $94 billion) more on defense than does the Kremlin.
Possible explanations for such disparities include waste, fraud, abuse, and incompetence. The truth is probably the Eisenhower prophesy actualized. The military/industrial complex seems to be more about profit than patriotism.
Alas, big spending never meant more capability. The profligate USAF F-35 fighter program alone is illustrative, possibly the biggest budget boondoggle ($1.5 trillion) in all of military history.
If America needs a next-generation fighter that is affordable and operational, the Pentagon might think about giving the next contract to the Kremlin. Russian rockets now shuttle American astronauts in and out of orbit, a dependency that doesn’t get much visibility in national security estimates.
Government debt in the US now stands at 24 trillion dollars, ten times larger than Russian debt. National sovereignty isn’t a virtue if the price is moral bankruptcy or national insolvency. .
President Trump Needs a Dog
Obama era national security acolytes, now serving under Trump, are not doing much to help with or clarify American foreign policy or national security futures.
The Ummah provides the best example.
Just days after the Trump inauguration, the newly minted CIA director, Michael Pompeo, flew off to Saudi Arabia to present Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, with a medal for “counterterrorism” efforts (sic). Saudi Arabia is America’s most generous arms customer, indeed the largest buyer worldwide.
CIA and the Crown Prince
The ties that bind America to Arabia are first pecuniary and then political.
Yes, the same Saudi Arabia that produced the 9/11 terrorists, the same House of Saud that finances and arms global Sunni jihad and terror in the Levant and North Africa, and the same Arabia that exports the worst kind of Islamic irredentist theology to the rest of the world gets another azimuth kiss from an American Intelligence nabob.
Irony here is beyond satire. The medal in question is named after George Tenet. Tenet is the CIA director who, with Colin Powell’s help, fabricated the fake intelligence that gave America the ongoing 30 year religious war in Iraq; a war we might add, that reversed the sectarian power poles in Iraq from Sunni to Shia.
A White House that claims that America is not at war with Isalm, now doubles down with Saudi Sunnis against Shia Yeminis in another proxy religious war in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia has long denied complicity with Islamism, Sunni terrorism, or wars motivated by a 1400 year old religious schism. Now Riyadh has a CIA medal provided by team Trump to prove it.
Meanwhile over at the National Security Council, newly christened director, H.R McMaster, is apparently laying down a companion party line about Islam with White House staff. General McMaster cautions that terms like “radical Islamic terror” are not helpful. According to the General, “terror is not Islamic.”
Like many millennial era flags, the new national security advisor seems to have succumbed to the Obama thought police. Surely not all Islamists are terrorists, but virtually all terrorists these days are Muslims, Mohammedans who kill in the name of their god, their prophet, and Islam - the “religion of peace.”
“Allah hu akbar” is what an Islamist chants at a beheading, bombing, and other sanguinary rituals. Links between terror and Islam are more real than any links between US Army generals and analytical theology.
Who is McMaster to pontificate on what is or is not Islamic? The national security advisor is not an imam, ayatollah, prophet, priest, or religious scholar. Based on recent sermons, he’s not much of a historian either.
Over at the Department of Defense, another scholarly warrior seems to be confused about real threats too. The new Secretary of Defense, like Obama era staff officers, shoots from the hip at the “Russian” chimera and personalizes the assessment with trash talk about Vladimir Putin.
At confirmation, General James Mattis rose to every leading question from John McCain, the Senate’s most notorious Kremlin baiter. Mattis swallowed McCain’s practiced political demagoguery hook, line, and sinker.
Mattis also failed to distinguish between a threat that actually kills Americans today and a threat that might. Worse still, General Mattis’ sweeping indictments of “Russians” fails to distinguish between a proud nation and a regime that doesn’t fit the globalist EU/imperial NATO business plan.
NATO began as an allied mutual security pact and the EU began as a modest economic condominium. Both institutions have strayed far from original designs and the world is not safer place because of it. Brussels is now populated by political autocrats and imperial janissaries. Hat tip to a Turk or Ottoman model.
If sweeping vile assessments of Muslims are unacceptable, why is sweeping slander about Israelis or Russians allowed? Is selective bigotry at the Pentagon now a military virtue?
Indeed, after leaving the military, Mattis claimed that Israeli “settlements” and “apartheid” made his job at CENTCOM more difficult. The general’s also says that there was “a price to be paid” for backing Israel, a sneer that is vintage David Petraeus.
General Mattis claims that “Russia needs to prove itself.” In contrast, apparently, no Islamic country, especially Arabian, need to prove anything to America, the world, or the new Secretary of Defense.
The sad truth of the European Union today is a tragic combination official Islamic tolerance and official indifference to parallel anti-Semitism. The western migration of fascist Islam comes again at the expense of European Jews.
Mattis also gave the Senate a truncated Russian history tutorial as a closer to his testimony. The self- described student of military history failed to mention the last world war where, without Russian sacrifice, the battle with secular fascism would not have been won. The United States lost less than half a million casualties in WWII. Russia lost more than 20 million souls.
Now that Europe and America are confronted with fascism again, this time religious, General Mattis and other Obama holdovers are still confused or mute about who is a genuine threat in the 21st century.
The best guarantors of civil and human rights are independent, democratic nation states with common cultural and civic values. Monoculture anywhere has always been the enemy of liberty and true diversity everywhere.
All globalist or utopian schemes, now including the EU, have been failures. General Mattis is wrong about NATO too. Sort of nuclear Armageddon, NATO provides little stability for the Mideast, Africa, or anyplace beyond Europe for that matter.
Mattis seems to have misread the Brexit and Frexit graffiti now defacing the walls of the European Union.
Candidate Trump ran on a tougher line with Islamists and a softer line with the Kremlin. Such policies are heresy for the establishment, right and left, in Washington. Any diminution of the Russian threat is a clear and present danger to the DOD budget and legions of Intelligence and defense industry federal contractors.
No big Russian threat, no big funding.
Obama era rear echelon warriors have yet to get the message from Trump or appreciate the angst of “deplorables” in the heartland. Maybe the new commander-in-chief needs to speak louder - or carry a bigger stick
President Trump has few friends in the media, few friends among Obama holdovers, and fewer friends or loyalists midst permanent or deep state government bureaucrats inside the Beltway. Washington D.C. and the surrounding suburbs voted for Hillary Clinton by a margin of nine to one. Those votes, like California, were votes for a deep state where change is “progressive” - or anathema.
And those who claim that establishment apparatchiks, including the Pentagon, are “non-partisan” are delusional. The only currency in the nation’s capital is politics. The most lucrative politics are found now in the defense and Intelligence bowels of the permanent state.
Obama era military relics are no exceptions to partisanship. Outsiders, critics, and reformers are not welcome in Washington. National security and Intelligence Community leaks now underwrite the anti-democratic, anti-Trump resistance on a daily basis.
Donald Trump is trying to reform or change a federal autocracy that is populated with Clinton and Obama loyalists. For a permanent political elite, weaned by a nanny state, reform is just a turd in the punchbowl.
Willingness to serve in government should never be confused with loyalty, especially inside the Beltway. Harry Truman said it best. If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.
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How is that Trump lean government machine and saving the taxpayers money really working out......
REMEMBER cutting the DoS...USCG...FEMA budgets were to reduce waster and duplication supposedly as was stated by the Trump WH....
BUT golfing costs fall under what again....waste and abuse of taxpayers money and the USSS budget????
33 mins @POTUS Trump spent at his golf club Sunday, where he was photographed WATCHING GOLF ON TV.
Cost — $3 million to taxpayers for this golf outing...
REMEMBER Trump constantly bashed Obama for his golfing...but now????
Trump has golfed 13 times in the first two months in office...Obama in the first FOUR months....ZERO....
The Republican Chairman of the HSCI claimed to have classified documents proving Trump was right about wiretapping...at least this is what he claimed at a press conference and a dash to the WH to brief them....
BUT WAIT.....
More hints Nunes got his intel from the white house; dni, fbi, nsa said he did not use their scifs on his midnight escapade..
So exactly where did he get TS/SCI LIMDIS materials and who leaked them to him is still a valid security clearance question....and the simple fact is he is not interested in fully investigating Russian connections and focuses on strictly defending Trump as he had worked on the Trump transition team...
Interesting: what Americans need to know If Russia intervenes in Libya’s civil war
http://for.tn/2nZtnn9
German Regional election today....
UK & #US press write all the time about #Merkel losing power... and in the first elections of the year her party gained +5.8%
German ultra right wing AfD only 5.9%....current national polling shows a general drop from 13.5% and climbing to be after Trump then Holland now at 6.8% nationally...
German comment....
And #Putin's two lickspittle parties #DieLinke lost -3.1% and the #AFD barely made it over the 5% threshold... nice result for #Merkel.
NOW truly convince me by any SWJ reader/commenter that he have sanity ruling in the White House.....??????
Germany slams ‘intimidating’ £300bn White House bill via @thesundaytimes @STForeign #Trump
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/germany-dismisses-white-houses-intimi…
Donald Trump handed the German chancellor Angela Merkel a bill — thought to be for more than £300bn — for money her country “owed” Nato for defending it when they met last weekend, German government sources have revealed.
The bill — handed over during private talks in Washington — was described as “outrageous” by one German minister.
“The concept behind putting out such demands is to intimidate the other side, but the chancellor took it calmly and will not respond to such provocations,” the minister said.
Trump has criticised a number of Nato countries — Germany among them — for insufficient military spending, leaving America to pick up more than its fair share of the tab. He wants them to honour a commitment made in 2014 to invest 2% of their GDP in defence — a target met at present only by the US, Britain, Estonia, Greece and Poland.
Trump appeared to go one step further during his meeting with Merkel. Taking 2002 as a starting point, his officials calculated the extent to which German defence spending had fallen short of the 2% target each year, added the amount together — and then put interest on top.
US officials told their German counterparts they chose 2002 because, they claim, that was the year Merkel’s predecessor, Gerhard Schröder, committed his country to higher defence spending.
Neither side revealed the total, though official figures suggest a cumulative shortfall of more than £250bn. Addition of compound interest would take the amount past £300bn. According to diplomatic sources, Trump had his staff prepare similar calculations for all other Nato members below the 2% target.
A source close to Merkel was dismissive. “The president has a very unorthodox view on Nato defence spending,” the source said. “The alliance is not a club with a membership fee. The commitments relate to countries’ investment in their defence budgets.”
Merkel is said to have “ignored the provocation”, but did commit to raise German defence spending gradually, although she asked for spending on international development to be taken into consideration.
WH demotes someone for being a jerk to media? That would be a first. Seems more like a Russia connection issue.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/25/us/politics/boris-epshteyn-white-hou…
If you believe Boris "SVR" Epshteyn was kicked out of the White House for being racist with TV staff, then you haven't been paying attention to his confirmed Russian connections...
SVR refers to the Russian foreign overseas intel service....
This is the result of when an entire group of voters hit that wall called..."altered state of reality" basically ignoring truth as a whole....
Angry over U.S. healthcare fail, Trump voters spare him blame
http://reut.rs/2mDbqOc
He basically failed in the face of his own stated abilities in his book..."The Art of the Deal"....
YET they blame others for it...
TWO perfect examples of what the NSA official was pointing towards....
1. "Pizzagate" a conspiracy theory floated by the ultra right wing blogsite "Infowars" and Alex Jones a master conspiracy theorist..which was that Clinton was supporting a pedophile ring operating out of a specific pizza shop and then someone right winger comes in with a rifle to "investigate" and fires off a rifle round....
WHICH even now Alex Jones actually states was a "fake news piece"...
A demo outside the WH demanding a "pizzagate" investigation
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/
2017/03/25/protesters-outside-white-house-demand-pizzagate-investigation/
2. Trump tweets repeatedly after his massive failure of TrumpCare that the sorry Democrats did nothing to support him.
REMEMBER Trump did tweet that he had this "beautiful healthcare plan"....
THEN for the last two days there has been massive bashing on social media of Democrats by Trump supporters WHO refer to Trump's comments...
NOTE...why would these Trump voters honestly think Democrats would support the elimination of something they themselves pushed....
THIS show the irrational mindset of these Trump social media supported and their failure to even see the "truth in front of them"...
…
For the last two years on the Ukrainian and Syrian threads I have been beating this drum....
I have since the release of the Russian military doctrine non linear warfare which is used as the vehicle for Russian political warfare been stating the two key corner stones of that doctrine are...
1. cyber warfare
2. information warfare or what some call the weaponization of information.
Current Russian political warfare geostrategic goals are and they have not changed...
1. discredit and damage NATO
2. discredit and damage EU
3. totally disconnect US from Europe and ME
The CIA has said it...as well as NATO and EU and now NSA officially states it....
BUT WAIT what is the attitude of our President...Bannon and Miller....they use it via Infowars and Breotbart.com and all the other ultra right blogsites supported by massive Russian twittier botnets..Russia Today and Sputnik International...as well as roving bands of Russian hacking criminals....AND then they all deny it exists...
AND it is happening in Bulgarian..Moldavia..France..Holland....Germany and UK...
QUOTE
Asked whether the NSA had any inkling that the Kremlin was going to orchestrate the release of hacked Democratic National Committee emails last July, he demurred. “I actually don’t want to talk about that.”
At the same time, he said, what Moscow did was “no strategic surprise.” Rather, “what may have been a tactical surprise was that they would do it the way they did.”
Campaigns of propaganda and disinformation, dating back to the Soviet Union, have long been a staple of the Kremlin’s foreign policy. Now, however, it is making effective use of its hacking prowess to weaponize information and combine it with its influence operations, or what intelligence officials call “active measures.”
“In general, if you’re responding to nation-state actions like that, you have to find out what are the levers that will move the nation-state actors and are you able and willing to pull those levers?” said Ledgett when asked how the United States should respond.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/us-needs-to-stop-russian-elector…
Russia propaganda media spread & amplified fake news to help Trump. Now that he's in WH, Sputnik wants WH press pass
http://politi.co/2nSXiAN
So if we take all Trump statements at face value of being true which they are not but for the sake of argument...IF all statements were true...
No one has had any contact with Russia/Russians...no one..nor have I called any Russians nor had contacts with Russians...
That is my statement and I am sticking with it.....end of story.....
WELL THEN why do we hear this being now reported by evidently "WH leakers"....
Andrea Mitchell reports that White House officials are “purging their cell phones” in expectation of getting subpoenaed.
SO again NO RUSSIAN contacts...whatsoever???? Apparently there were contacts...otherwise why purge data????
Oligarch is Rybolovlev. He bought Trump's mansion for $100M using Putin's Bank of Cyprus. Wilbur Ross is Vice Pres.
Trump made a 43M USD profit on this house during the real estate implosion in 2008 and then it was eventually torn down...
And since then this oligarch has been virtually near Trump especially during the campaign and the transition period....
Russia’s Infamous ‘Troll Factory’ Is Now Posing as a Media Empire:
https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/russias-infamous-troll-factory-is-n…
This is the perfect example of just how Russia attempted to influence the US elections regardless of what Trump says and or thinks...THIS is reality up front and personal and real.....
37% of all proTrump English tweets during the campaign came from Russian troll factories....and bot farms....
Those that claim this is not true have failed to fully understand Ukraine...Crimea and Syria....
CNN Breaking News
✔
@cnnbrk
Republicans cancel open House hearing on Russian election meddling and Democrats are raising alarm bells.
http://cnn.it/2nkqWxc
Chairman of the HSCI just gets deeper into his security violations of TS/SCI LIMDIS materials....
"I'm the only one who's seen the documents as far as I know," says Nunes, doing the same thing Schiff blasted him for on Weds.
Nunes is trying to have an illegal TS/SCI presser with the media....and it ain't pretty.
Remember when Nunes completely melted down on camera about LEAKS OF CLASSIFIED....4 days ago?
BLUF: Nunes thinks it's up to him to decide what legitimate SIGINT FI tasking should be, and how USP unmasking should work.
WH insists Trump wasn't aware of ex-campaign chairman Paul Manafort's work helping Russia
http://hill.cm/dc9a9Cp
BREAKING: Trump and his inner circle of super-smart guys did not have Google or Internet access in 2015-16.
Schiff doing separate presser shortly. That HPSCI heads aren't appearing together shows damage done to bipartisan cooperation on committee
Basically, Nunes told IC+NSA that they're on double-secret probation with the #GOP+WH, but he actually has no idea why. He just "feels" it.
BREAKING: Chairman just cancelled open Intelligence Committee hearing with Clapper, Brennan and Yates in attempt to choke off public info.
WH full panic has set in....
Nunes went from #GOP Anti-Leak Crusader to (As Yet) Unindicted Co-Conspirator in just 4 days, all in public view.
Devin's got a gift there.
Bannon privately saying GOP bill “doesn’t drive down costs” and was “written by the insurance industry”
http://nym.ag/2mzjZd7
AND from those great low paying manufacturing jobs Trump has so talked about we get the following....
Inside Alabama's auto jobs boom - cheap wages, little training and crushed limbs
http://bloom.bg/2nMf4FK
So if he raises wages...forces working training improvements....the companies will simple move overseas and continuing supplying US companies...
BTW these company healthcare plans cover virtually nothing but hey they have healthcare....
Unions which traditionally drive wages up...nowhere to be seen many southern states are right to work states....
Suddenly now Trump realizes hopefully the difference between being a businessman and a politician...those who he kept beating up on....
A businessman can walk around from a deal that makes no sense and or profit for him...BUT you cannot walk out on the "people's business" WHICH is always about compromises....even one's you do not like but might be good for the country as a whole....
right now this so called rammed through in 10 days healthcare law that will literally strip Americans for their healthcare and or reduce their coverage to virtually nothing is not a "good deal"...it answers a hard right Republican mantra but does not answer the needs of millions of Americans regardless of political party..
Trump is "done negotiating" even though he has no idea what's in the bill.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-negotiating-health-care_us_58…
Trump talks constantly about Fake News..BUT is he really just a Fake President who is running from his responsibilities to govern regardless how hard that is?????
Somehow Trump and his merry band refuse to accept this simple concept....
Bulgarian documents show Russia uses rigged polls, fake news to sway foreign elections
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-does-russia-meddle-in-elections-look-a…
Sound vaguely familiar?
AND now Russian 300% owned propaganda media outlets Russia Today....Sputnik International started trying to claim they are not controlled by Putin and company nor do they have ties to US alt right blogsites Breitbart.com and Infowars....
This seriously falls under the rubric of "just what the heck does the Trump controlled OBM think"???
Trump campaigned hard on the concept of "drain the DC swamp" YET he and his family have in fact become the swamp themselves.....
Trump for years bashed Obama for occasionally taking a Thursday and or Friday off for golfing with his tweets..."Obama must stay in the WH and do the people's work"...
YET Trump has "golfed" TEN times in the last five weeks at a cost of 10M USDs.....
NOW the Trumps are located in DC...NYC...and USSS must also cover the sales travel costs for the Trump sons at a cost of 150K plus on every business sales trip they take........AND now Ivanka who has a security clearance which entails protecting her to...her husband and her kids as well...
28M USDs have already been spent on Trump security and another 33M USD is in the budget thus USSS requested an additional 60M USD based on the dollar burn rate they are experiencing JUST in the first six weeks...
BUT... they should "take the money from other USSS areas....
WHAT the Trump OMB does not seem to understand is the criminal areas that the USSS contributes greatly to .....chasing cyber crime...counterfeiting of US currency and chasing pedophiles and child porn rings.......
IN 2007, Trump in a public available interview actually mused that he felt he could actually make the job of being President into a money making deal....
AND that "drain the swamp thing?....just rhetoric as usual...
QUOTE
Ironically, Trump more than once criticized the cost of President Obama’s travel, saying it was “unbelievable” that Obama’s trips were “costing taxpayers millions of dollars.”
He vowed during the campaign to save the public money by working tirelessly in Washington and skipping extraneous or overly expensive trips. Since then, First Family travel and leisure has been taxing Secret Service resources. And that, over time, could degrade the quality of protection for the commander in chief.
UNQUOTE
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/secret-service-wont-get-dollar60…
Russian propaganda 6Ds Principles...drives all Russian propaganda and disinformation.....
Distort...Deflect....Dismiss...Dismay ALL designed to create Doubt and Distrust.....
So exactly which if the Russian 6Ds is the WH now using in this single statement......
QUOTE
Spicer says "more evidence that CNN colluded with Hillary & her campaign than Trump colluded with Russia".
Another Russian election connection....Le Pen had received from a Russian bank 21M Euros for her French campaign...but only got 3M because the Russian bank went into bankruptcy....
Le Pen To Visit Moscow On March 25 Amid Scrutiny Over Kremlin Ties
http://www.rferl.org/a/28386857.html
AND this is the example of Putin's operations against the Russian opposition
AND this the Putin that Trump appears to want to be "friendly" with and yet still denies he and his WH had any Russian assistance and or connections to....
"The system has lost its mind." Days before his death, Russian defector said he was in danger
http://wapo.st/2mwdR5k?tid=ss_tw
He was going to testify in Ukraine against corruption charges on Manafort and knew of other Russian corruption links into the West....so he had to be silenced....just as was a recent Russian opposition person who had been poisoned for the second time and who is now in the West....
Day before he was due in court, a U.S. federal witness in a money-laundering case "fell" out of his apartment:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...ng-putin.html#
The former Duma member killer in Kiev today has testified against Paul Manafort's longtime client - exiled Ukrainian president Yanukovych.
Why a Russian Defector Was Gunned Down in Ukraine:
https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/why-a-russian-defector-was-gunned-d…
REMEMBER the Manafort connection to this killing....
‘There’s a Smell of Treason in the Air’
https://nyti.ms/2mSSxSW
NOTICE that Nunes as Chairman of HSCI seems to be unable to brief the source of his statement BUT briefed them to the WH?????
QUOTE
"At the end of the day, sometimes you make the right decision, sometimes you don't," Nunes added, noting he could not show the panel information that was given to him by a source.
Nunes declined to disclose his source's identity when asked if it was the White House.
UNQUOTE
NOTICE that while the Trump WH seemingly focuses on the terrorist threats from Muslims..THEY all but ignore right wing white nationalist travelling to Russian occupied eastern Ukraine....
US MMA fighter @JeffMonson illegally entered #Ukraine and visited the "LNR" front near #Shchastya.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7hWEeKAeGM
There are a number of Americans fighting with the Russian mercenaries BUT they seem to be able to travel back and forth to the US without a single question by CBP or INS or ICE....
FINCEN agents, Cyprus banks, Russian bosses, money-laundering........Manafort RAN the Trump campaign unpaid for over SIX months.......
WASHINGTON - (AP) -- U.S. Treasury Department agents have recently obtained information about offshore financial transactions involving President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, as part of a federal anti-corruption probe into his work in Eastern Europe, The Associated Press has learned.
Information about Manafort's transactions was turned over earlier this year to U.S. agents working in the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network by investigators in Cyprus at the U.S. agency's request, a person familiar with the case said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to publicly discuss a criminal investigation.
The Cyprus attorney general, one of the country's top law enforcement officers, was made aware of the American request.
A spokesman for Manafort did not immediately respond to questions from the AP.
Manafort, who was Trump's unpaid campaign chairman from March until August last year, has been a leading focus of the U.S. government's investigation into whether Trump associates coordinated with Moscow to meddle in the 2016 campaign. This week, the AP revealed his secret work for a Russian billionaire to advance the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin a decade ago.
After the HSCI Nunes briefing of new intelligence directly to Trump and not to the rest of his HSCI....this is what Trump had say...
Donald J. Trump
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump 1h
1 hour ago
Just watched the totally biased and fake news reports of the so-called Russia story on NBC and ABC. Such dishonesty!
IF Nunes had something so "hot" that he dashed first to brief Trump TNHEN you think both he and Trump would release the information IF in fact it truly supports Trump's many version's of his tweets such as this one...
INTERESTINGLY he mentions nothing about the CNN story that he actually colluded with Moscow in 2016....
Top Oversight Dem calls for investigation into House Intelligence chairman
This investigation now should get into the realm of just how does the Chairman of the HSCI come to the conclusion that he has the inherent legal and national security right to inform individuals who might and or might not be under FBI investigation of what the FBI holds on them or does not hold on them....
THAT is usually called "obstruction of an ongoing investigation which are both a State and Federal offense"...
End of story...plain and simple he violated the laws.
This is now a serious National Security issue......
How does a so called Chairman of the HSCI get his hands "raw unmasked SIGINT" data WHICH is a minimum of TS/SCI level and if from FIVE EYES then much higher classified....
Just how did he get it and those that leaked it are now serious violation of Federal laws and national security regulations....
AND it was this same Chairman that bashed "leakers" throughout the FBI/NSA briefing was it not.....??
AND then to conduct a briefing of the TS/SCI materials without the authority of the releasing agency from where the data came from to the President is in fact another major security violation...
End of story......pull his TS/SCI clearance and press Federal charges...
Many military and civil service personnel have lost clearances FOR FAR FAR LESS....
EVIDENTLY the "rule of law" does not apply to the Republican Party nor the President....
Michael McFaul
✔
@McFaul
The NSA, FBI, CIA are part of executive branch.
Why does Trump need the legislative branch to inform him about HIS branch of government?
COMMENT...actually a valid point and the answer is really easy...he is afraid of what he will hear and then the impreachment process must be started then by him....as his lying basically has been a cover up attempt.
National Security Expert Predicts A Whole Bunch of Republicans Will Be Indicted for Major Crimes via @politicususa
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/03/22/national-security-expert-predict…
Adam Schiff......
Schiff on Nunes: "I have expressed my grave concerns with the Chairman that a credible investigation cannot be conducted this way."
Devin Nunes, a useful idiot who has no idea how politics works despite having been in Congress for fourteen years, set his career on fire today for no apparent reason. He got his hands on classified Trump-Russia intel through unofficial channels, and instead of following proper channels, he went running to Donald Trump and then to the media. But the real story of the day is who told him to do it: Speaker Paul Ryan.
Procedurally, as chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes should have taken the information to his committee’s ranking member Adam Schiff. Then they could have jointly taken it to the FBI to verify if it was real. That kind of bipartisanship would give them both cover for however they decided to proceed with it next. Instead, Nunes went running straight to the House leader of his own party, Paul Ryan. This was an inappropriate move, but perhaps he was merely unsure of his footing and he wanted advice from a trusted colleague. But what happened next is the real story.
Paul Ryan, who has long cynically demonstrated that he understands how politics and government work, knew full well that the only appropriate advice he could offer Nunes would be to redirect him back to Schiff. Instead, according to various accounts, Ryan made no effort to stop Nunes from running straight to Donald Trump with the evidence. In so doing, Ryan was certainly aware that he was committing obstruction of justice.
Ryan sent Nunes to deliver secret evidence in a crucial FBI investigation directly to the subject of that investigation. That’s Obstruction 101. And while Nunes might honestly be too dumb to have understood as much, Ryan knew better. So why did he do it? The only explanation is that Paul Ryan himself is a conspirator in the Trump-Russia scandal. And that might be the next shoe to drop.
US Officials: Info suggests Trump associates may have coordinated with Russians
http://cnn.it/2mucy72
House Intelligence Chair Accused Of Obstruction Of Justice, Colluding With Trump
http://news.groopspeak.com/breaking-house-intelligence-chair-accused-of…
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep Devin Nunes (R-CA) is being accused of obstruction of justice. On Wednesday, Nunes went straight to the White House to discuss classified information directly with President Trump on information that concerned him regarding an ongoing FBI investigation.
Nunes wanted to let Trump know that his claims of being wiretapped at Trump Tower were possibly validated. Nunes even called a press conference saying he “recently confirmed on numerous occasions the intelligence community incidentally collected information about US citizens involved in the Trump transition.”
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The former chief of staff for the CIA blasted Nunes on MSNBC for going to Trump with the information, saying he’s “never heard of a chairman of an oversight committee going to brief the President of the United States about concerns he has about things he’s read in intelligence reports.”
He went on:
“This is a chairman who is supposed to be doing an impartial bi-partisan investigation of the president and his inner circle. And he basically goes and tells the president and his team everything he knows. It is very concerning.”
Ex-House Intel counsel: Nunes briefing Trump is a “breakdown in the entire oversight process,” other committee members likely “horrified” pic.twitter.com/aRn8dB3Ia6
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) March 22, 2017
Shortly after that, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), a ranking member of the House Intelligence Community, laid into Nunes, saying that this information “should have been shared with members of the committee” before the president was alerted to it.
“The Chairman also shared this information with the White House before providing it to the committee, another profound irregularity, given that the matter is currently under investigation,” Schiff said. “I have expressed my grave concerns with the Chairman that a credible investigation cannot be conducted this way.”
Today, Chairman Nunes shared information with WH still withheld from our committee. He cannot conduct a credible investigation this way. pic.twitter.com/wwrp7H7JWC
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) March 22, 2017
So, this begs the question: How is Nunes able to oversee his current investigation into Trump’s ties with Russia when he is directly colluding with the president on all his findings? The answer is he cannot.
Trump immediately tried to seize on the information, though the report Nunes released to the president only showed that they were indirectly monitored while surveying conversations taken place between American citizens and foreign agents – a very common intelligence activity.
Nunes even told the press that it was an incidental collection and he believed it was all done legally.
It must be said – this in no way confirms that President Obama was surveilling him personally. In fact, this type of incidental surveillance was even used to out Trump’s former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn when it was discovered he misled Trump and Vice President Mike Pence over the nature of his talks.
AND the clock is ticking on the Trump WH.......
(THREAD) BREAKING: The FBI may already have Carter Page on a major crime: 18 U.S.C. § 1001, punishable by up to 5 years in prison.
18 U.S.C. § 1001 punishes, in the context of federal investigations, falsifying a material fact and/or using a "false writing" to do so.
On September 25, 2016, knowing that he was under investigation by the FBI, Page wrote this letter to Jim Comey: https://www.washingtonpost.com/r/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/09/26/Ed… …
In the letter, Page tells Director Comey, in no uncertain terms, that "I have not met this year with any sanctioned official in Russia."
Page, on meeting Sechin, said: "It wasn't 1-on-1. I may have been in a meeting...but I never shook [his] hand."
That is in fact as we now know a false statement in writing to the FBI...
THIS is in the seriousness of the concept of "collusion"....and the depth of Trump's own problems as President....
Last week it was admitted that only 21 FBI agents were assigned to the Trump "collusion" investigation .....
BUT WAIT........
According to @KenDilanianNBC, the FBI has assigned 100+ agents to investigate Russian interference & potential #TrumpRussia collusion.
WHAT the Reuters press release using Nunes very own words means....in simple English....
It means Team Trump was in contact with legitimate FI targets who were being monitored totally legally via SIGINT.
FI incidental collection is not SURVEILLANCE.
AND that is the correct use of the rule of law regardless of what Trump and his WH seem to think....
The Chairman of the HSCI cannot seem to realize he is just digging himself deeper into a serious security violation and in the end the FBI will be asking him about...
He went full out about talking about leakers during the FBI/NSA briefing AND then leaks himself....
MORE: Nunes said information was provided to him by an unnamed source; was 'formal, foreign surveillance,' believes all was legal
NOTICE just how Nunes leak is then picked up by the Trump WH as "evidence they were tapped"...
BOTH Nunes and the WH apparently do not know the difference between FISA warrants and FI CI surveillance of foreign spies and being caught as "incidental collection" and the legal means used to shield that US person...
A US citizen caught up as "incidential collection" is always redacted in reports...and is protected with full legal rights as if they never were surveilled....
BASICALLY he is providing a "cover up myth" for Trump's ranting tweets against Obama AND attempting to sabotage and ongoing FBI CI investigation...