The Russian Connection 2

[Howl]

Just watched first part of Frontline (PBS) title Putin's Revenge Part 1.  Brings everything into focus.  Find it.  Watch it.  Putin's Revenge Part 2 is on tomorrow night (Tuesday, Dec. 19th). 

[Howl]

Some thoughts from Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo about the warning then candidate Trump (or Trump and his top advisers) received from the FBI about potential for inappropriate contacts from foreign countries, including Russia. 

First, both candidates received this warning; it's a standard heads up from the FBI.  Of course, Hillary Clinton, with experience as  Secretary of State and FLOTUS, would know exactly what attempted infiltration of her campaign would look like and be on it like white on rice. 

Even with this warning (which Trump may or may not have passed along) not one person in the Trump campaign thought to contact the FBI concerning all of their dealings with the Russians.  NOT ONE PERSON.  Which leads Josh to think that they did realize they were doing something wrong; their excuse that they were so new to this political thing that they didn't recognize what was going on doesn't hold up on any level. 

And the FBI?  

Quote

So on the one hand, the FBI counter-intelligence officers were giving these standard, good-faith warnings. On the other, they already knew that Trump had made one of his five foreign policy advisors a man who the FBI had already put under FISA surveillance because they believed it was likely he’d been recruited as a Russian asset. In other words, it probably looked like there was a good chance Trump’s campaign had already been infiltrated just on the basis of Carter Page’s role. 

Anyway, fascinating perspective.  I like Josh Marshall because he turns things over, thinks about different aspects, and comes to interesting conclusions. 

Full text here: Trump Was Warned and What To Think About That

 

[Howl]

And a bit more.  Trumpski's third rate lawyers are freaking out over the fact that Mueller has all the transition team emails that were sent from or to government devices, and the Trump staff testified without knowing this.  A commenter said this about that: 

Spoiler

A possible sixth point could be that by Mueller getting this trove of unfiltered emails he can compare these emails to the previous document dumps that the transition team's lawyers have turned over on a voluntary basis. By looking at the gaps between the unfiltered vs filtered collections he can get a better feeling for what administration's lawyers are seeking to hide

A little bit of cat and mouse, eh?  Will Hope Hicks will be caught up in the dragnet?  Stay tuned. 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/20/house-republicans-quietly-investigate-doj-fbi-310121

Devin Nunes just pretended to recuse himself

[AmazonGrace]

http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/12/20/white-house-counsel-knew-in-january-flynn-probably-violated-the-law/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

[GrumpyGran]

8 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

Devin Nunes just pretended to recuse himself

Let's investigate this! Sneaking around behind people's backs, then accusing the investigation of being sneaky. Why do I feel like there is something big here that they want to keep buried?

[Howl]

Wonder if he's going to follow Chaffetz to Fox or just need to spend more time with his family.   One thing to keep in mind is that Mueller is likely uncovering all sorts of ancillary skullduggery that has nothing to do with Russia.  It could be extramarital affairs/Ashley Madison-"I was just helping my elderly parents access the internet"-porn addiction to financial malfeasance and every nasty little secret in between. 

[AmazonGrace]

Hoo boy.

http://www.newsweek.com/trump-putin-man-white-house-russia-investigation-scandal-moscow-kremlin-755321

Putin’s Man in the White House? Real Trump Russia Scandal is Not Mere Collusion, U.S. Counterspies Say

By Jeff Stein On 12/21/17 at 10:16 AM

 

TL; DR: “Everyone continues to dance around a clear assessment of what's going on,” says Glenn Carle, a former CIA national intelligence officer responsible for evaluating foreign threats. “My assessment,” he tells Newsweek, “is that Trump is actually working directly for the Russians.”

 

Spoiler

 

Last May, a top White House national security official met in Washington with senior Russian officials and handed over details of a secret operation Israel had shared with its U.S. counterparts. The meeting shocked veteran U.S. counterspies. The American official was not arrested, and he continues to work in the White House today, albeit under close scrutiny.

That official, of course, was Donald Trump. The president’s Oval Office meeting with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, and its then-ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak—which only Russian photographers were permitted to record—sparked a media brushfire that was quickly overtaken by more revelations of secret contacts between Trump associates and Kremlin agents. But the incident was not forgotten by American and Israeli security officials, or by longtime foreign intelligence allies of the U.S., who now wonder if the president can be trusted to protect their most guarded secrets.

For over a year, the question of collusion has driven various investigations into what’s become known as Russiagate. Special counsel Robert Mueller has been pursuing questions of whether Team Trump, which included the president’s son Donald Jr. and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, actively coordinated the Trump campaign with the Kremlin to hurt Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. That suspicion was bad enough, but now a far more grim consensus is developing in the topmost circles of the U.S. national security establishment: The president has become a pawn of America’s adversary, Russian President Vladimir Putin. It’s a nightmare scenario even the writers of House of Cards would have discarded as implausible.

 

Until now. In a December 18 interview on CNN, retired Air Force Lieutenant General James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, virtually called Trump a Putin puppet. The Russian president, Clapper noted, is a former KGB “case officer,” or spy recruiter, who "knows how to handle an asset, and that's what he's doing with the president. That’s the appearance to me." (Pressed to clarify his “asset” comment, Clapper said, “I’m saying this figuratively.”)

“Wow,“ tweeted former CIA Russian hand John Sipher. “The rest of us try to find other clever ways to say the same thing. Good on him for having the courage to call out Putin's behavior. Our president shouldn't have fallen for it.”

Veteran spy handlers have judged Trump an easy mark for Putin, who spent years in the KGB sizing up and exploiting a target’s vulnerabilities. They note how easily he falls for praise, as when Putin thanked him and the CIA for helping him thwart a bomb attack plot in St. Petersburg. “POTUS is a [spy] handlers' dream,” Asha Rangappa, a former special agent in the FBI’s counterintelligence division, said. “He responds, without fail, to praise and flattery and telegraphs his day-to-day thoughts on Twitter. Likewise, said Harry “Skip” Brandon, a former FBI deputy assistant director of national security and counterterrorism. “He often very publicly states he goes by his instincts. If that is accurate, he may be the ultimate unwitting asset of Russia.”

 

And so on. The steady drip of revelations emerging from multiple Trump investigations—his business deals with Russian investors, his associates’ many undeclared meetings with Kremlin agents, his resistance to accepting evidence of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and his indiscretion with Israeli intelligence—draws a far darker picture.

Some veteran intelligence operators think it’s well past time to shift the narrative on Trump’s disturbing affinity for Putin, which the president insists is innocent and good for world peace. “Everyone continues to dance around a clear assessment of what's going on,” says Glenn Carle, a former CIA national intelligence officer responsible for evaluating foreign threats. “My assessment,” he tells Newsweek, “is that Trump is actually working directly for the Russians.”

The Israelis can’t say they weren’t warned. In January 2017, a few weeks before Trump’s inauguration, top U.S. intelligence officials welcomed a delegation of their Israeli counterparts to Washington. The meeting proceeded uneventfully, according to veteran Israeli intelligence journalist Ronen Bergman, although the Americans vented their dismay over a president who had loudly disparaged their past work. “Just as their meeting was wrapping up,“ according to Bergman and a later report in Vanity Fair, “an American spymaster solemnly announced there was one more thing: [that] they believed that Putin had ‘leverages of pressure’ over Trump.” His advice: “Be careful.“

Five months later, the Israelis came to rue what they had shared with Trump’s new CIA director, former Republican Representative Mike Pompeo. They were astonished to read media reports that Trump had told the Russian foreign minister and ambassador about their top secret operation in Syria to penetrate a cell of the Islamic State militant group (ISIS). U.S. intelligence experts assumed the Russians had shared the information with their allies in Iran, Israel’s mortal enemy .

Clapper, now writing a book about his intelligence career, told Newsweek by email that “the Israelis were/are upset about it, since it proves once again we can’t be trusted to keep the secrets we share with them.”

Some of America’s closest intelligence allies were also upset by Trump’s leak, a top former national security official tells Newsweek, on the condition he not be identified when discussing such sensitive issues. “I hear the Brits are reluctant to share” intelligence on Russian subversion, he says, “not as much for security reasons as for political—they don’t wish to get crosswise with [Trump].”

Another analyst, Joseph Fitsanakis, co-editor of the Intel News blog, said relations between the U.K.’s spy chiefs and the Trump administration “are extremely tense.” During the 2016 campaign, he recalled, Trump riled London with an unsubstantiated claim that its version of the National Security Agency, the Government Communication Headquarters (better known as GCHQ), had eavesdropped on his communications. He refused to apologize.

Lower-level U.S. and foreign intelligence officials customarily find ways to deal with such high-level friction. But Trump’s repeated attacks on NATO have not only frustrated Washington’s closest allies but also raised questions as to whether the president has been duped into facilitating Putin’s long-range objective of undermining the European Union. “Some Western European colleagues are saying that sharing has been strictly limited to [counterterrorism] and some maritime [intelligence],” Fitsanakis says. “There's almost no sharing on Russia.”

How Trump’s attacks on “radical Islamic terrorism” will play out in the CIA’s relations with the spy services of Arab, African and Asian nations is not known. Historically, Langley has relied on such local partners to share its insights and intelligence on militant groups, —sometimes to its regret when double agents wormed their way into their ranks.

Israeli officials uncharacteristically howled publicly about Trump’s “betrayal” in May and have only recently calmed down. Still, their anger could be detected months later, when a former Mossad deputy director, Ram Ben Barak, did an interview with The Cipher Brief’s Kim Dozier. “The rule is, if I give you information to help you, you do not give this information to another side without my permission,” Ben Barak said. “I am sure he will not do it again because, you know, it hurts the relationship.”

But all signs point to Trump not caring who gets hurt if it serves his interests—and vanity. Despite constant evidence of Russian interference throughout the summer of 2016, culminating in a January report by Clapper and Jeh Johnson, his Department of Homeland Security counterpart, saying the Kremlin had worked to put Trump in office, the president evidently permitted his incoming national security adviser, Michael Flynn, to intrigue with the Russians over lifting sanctions—and apparently didn't care enough to fire him after learning Flynn had lied about it to the FBI. Flynn’s later indictment and plea deal, Trump tweeted, was “a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!"

All this was going on, despite an explicit warning from the FBI to Trump soon after his nomination about potential espionage threats from Russia, according to NBC News. FBI agents also visited longtime Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks only days after the inauguration, saying that certain named Russian agents were trying to penetrate the new administration. Hicks, who says she forwarded the warning to White House counsel Donald McGahn, has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Continually jousting with Trump over his denial that any of this amounted to “collusion” with the Russians is a distraction, say veteran intelligence hands. It amounts to looking for an explicit quid pro quo that may not exist. It misses, moreover, “what is right under our noses,” wrote Rangappa, the former FBI counterintelligence agent, along with Sipher, the onetime CIA Moscow station chief, and Alex Finley, a former CIA operations officer, in a joint piece for the Just Security website. “There is no question that Russia made multiple, unprecedented attempts to penetrate a U.S. presidential campaign, that its approaches were not rebuffed, and that its contacts were sensitive enough that everyone, to a person, has concealed them.

“These facts might never be adjudicated inside a courtroom,” they added. “They may not even be illegal—but they present a clear and present national security threat that we cannot ignore.

 

 

[AmazonGrace]

And Tillerson pretty much confirms it:

 

[Howl]

Well, we all know why Tillerson is Secretary of State: to get sanctions lifted.  Russia desperately wants that and Tillerson knows that huge oil deals are contingent on it. Sanctions lifted?  Win for Russian and win for Exon Mobil. 

Trump is truly a Russian puppet; I heard him referred to today as a quisling. 

[GreyhoundFan]

From Vanity Fair: "Donald Trump Is About to Get Some Very Bad News"

Spoiler

As recently as Monday, Donald Trump was in excellent spirits as far as Robert Mueller’s probe into his campaign’s alleged Russian ties was concerned. Multiple sources told CNN that the president was “so convinced of his impending exoneration that he is telling associates Mueller will soon write a letter clearing him that [he] can brandish to Washington and the world.” Despite evidence to the contrary, both Trump and his legal team have maintained this rosy outlook. But when White House lawyers come face to face with the special counsel this week, their ruse could fall apart at a critical moment, leaving Trump scrambling for a foothold.

Sources familiar with the Mueller investigation said that far from promising a quick conclusion, Mueller’s team will likely reveal that its investigation could continue through late 2018, given the cooperation of Mike Flynn and George Papadopoulos, who both pleaded guilty to minor charges and have expressed their willingness to supply information to the F.B.I. “I think it’s possible [that during the meeting] Mueller’s team could give them an idea of how much longer they anticipate their investigation will last,” Peter Zeidenberg, a former deputy special counsel, told The Washington Post. “I would be shocked if they have a timeline anything similar to what we’ve heard coming from the White House.”

So far, White House lawyers have done their best to insulate Trump from reality, in part to prevent him from blowing up his own defense. Ty Cobb has taken the lead, telling reporters in August, “I’d be embarrassed if this is still haunting the White House by Thanksgiving and worse if it’s still haunting him by year end.” In November, Trump echoed with his own sentiments, reportedly telling his golfing buddies, “This investigation’s going to be over with pretty soon.” “It could wrap up soon,” Cobb repeated to the Post in December shortly after Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. But the attitude in the West Wing belies the president’s and Cobb’s breezy reassurances. “Of course they are worried,” a Republican operative told the Post in November. “Anybody that ever had the words ‘Russia’ come out of their lips or in an e-mail, they’re going to get talked to. These things are thorough and deep.”

It’s unclear what will happen when Trump, who one source told the Post is “living in his own little world,” is forced to confront reality. But at a time when his allies have escalated their campaign against Mueller to dangerous new heights, using anti-Trump texts sent between two former members of Mueller’s team as a pretext, the president could feel emboldened to move against the special counsel. Even if Trump is eventually cleared, the idea that the probe will continue past January is sure to inflame him, if only due to his repeated insistence that it will conclude posthaste. But with the anti-Mueller narrative taking hold among even mainstream Republicans, an infuriated Trump may be willing to entertain the unthinkable and fire the special counsel; the Post reports that he’s in close contact with parties who publicly bash Mueller—politicians, Fox News hosts, and other public figures—and, as one White House adviser told the outlet, “has enjoyed the attacks.”

So, Agent Orange thinks Mueller is going to give him a note, saying he's all clear? For pity sake, this isn't like getting excused from gym class.

[AmazonGrace]

http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/366116-fbi-deputy-confirmed-to-congress-that-comey-told-him-about-trump?amp&__twitter_impression=true

McCabe testified that Comey told him about the loyalty pledge request

[Howl]

Here's what I don't get.  Trump supposedly watches Morning Joe and CNN at times and Faux News for hours on end every day.  That Mueller's probe won't wrap up soon and that Trump has been insulated from this information is all over cable news, so how has Trump been insulated from THAT?  Does someone DVR these shows and Trump is watching an edited DVR version?  We DVR constantly (Uverse) so we can fast forward through commercials, although no editing is possible, but for Trump.....

[Ali]

Perhaps someone is creating a fake news feed for him just like someone made him a fake Time cover? Gotta keep the big baby happy.

[AmazonGrace]

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/amp/rhona-graff-longtime-trump-assistant-be-interviewed-house-intelligence-committee-n832056?__twitter_impression=true

[GrumpyGran]

3 hours ago, Howl said:

Here's what I don't get.  Trump supposedly watches Morning Joe and CNN at times and Faux News for hours on end every day.  That Mueller's probe won't wrap up soon and that Trump has been insulated from this information is all over cable news, so how has Trump been insulated from THAT?  Does someone DVR these shows and Trump is watching an edited DVR version?  We DVR constantly (Uverse) so we can fast forward through commercials, although no editing is possible, but for Trump.....

Deep down, he knows that the investigation isn't over. I think he is very stressed about it because he's not mentally capable of figuring out what's going on. He probably realized a long time ago that the people around him lie to him. It never mattered before but now he's wondering if some of them have turned on him.

I would guess he's very paranoid right now. All he can do, other than the usual bullying and insulting is say what's happening isn't happening. All of his business life he has called people into an office and told them to make things happen. They have because he paid them. Now it's different, just because he says something doesn't make it happen. But he keeps hoping because he has no other play. And the one thing he absolutely is not is a man who keeps quiet.

[formergothardite]

I think he is a man who lies to himself as much as he does to everyone else. 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[onekidanddone]

1 hour ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

Bannon is very smart and has loyalty to no one and will drop his ex boss under a bus in a New York minute. I see Lewandoski as a common street thug and while he is viscous bully, is not savvy enough to make it through with out having a complete melt down.

ETA:  Bannon has been trashing and threatening Republicans on the Hill for quite some time.  They will either be too afraid to confront him or so pissed off they show him no mercy. 

[AmazonGrace]

I don't know, personally I feel that Obama's minions went a little too far when they imprisoned little kids, pulled out their toenails and tattooed "long live Cthulhu in our deep dark well of hell's fire" on their foreheads for saying Merry Christmas. 

[onekidanddone]

5 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

I don't know, personally I feel that Obama's minions went a little too far when they imprisoned little kids, pulled out their toenails and tattooed "long live Cthulhu in our deep dark well of hell's fire" on their foreheads for saying Merry Christmas. 

Who paid for this?  What parent on Rufus's green earth would want to pimp their own kid like this?