The "Birther" meme attached to President Obama was a cleverly crafted and slimy attempt to derail his Presidential campaign. While it developed a life of its own after his inauguration it never was going to be a call to action by patriots. The Trump – Russia meme in my opinion is a much more serious information operation because it is designed to question the legitimacy of a President Trump defence and foreign policy actions.
To put that another way, this IO is not political point scoring, its attempting to influence U.S. foreign and defence policy in a very direct way – precluding a whole raft of policy options related to normalizing relations with Russia, winding back NATO expansion and other areas that I don't even know about. I don't know if this is against the law or not.
CNN has just led with a story that the intelligence community presented Trump with a dossier alleging five years work by the Russian Government to both compromise Trump and promote his presidential prospects and allege collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian Government.
"….(CNN)Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN.
The allegations were presented in a two-page synopsis that was appended to a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The allegations came, in part, from memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative, whose past work US intelligence officials consider credible. The FBI is investigating the credibility and accuracy of these allegations, which are based primarily on information from Russian sources, but has not confirmed many essential details in the memos about Mr. Trump…."
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/10/politics/donald-trump-intelligence-report-russia/index.html
Buzzfeed obligingly then leaks all 35 pages of the alleged "Memos" on which the summary is allegedly based, that go into scatalogical detail about Trump in Russia.
Folks, to me, it doesn't seem to me that American politics can get more surreal. I don't think I've seen more flaky conglomerations passing as intelligence summaries, ever….. and CNN apparently bought it,….. and the liberal media follow suit. Trump wanted to defile the bed that President Obama slept in at a hotel in Moscow, so he arranged a sex party???
The Alt right are now digging and it seems that at least the plot for that particular memo ( the sex party one) was fed by a prankster to one DNC operative Wilson, who appears to have run with it. CNN, Fake News all of the time.
I'm half a world away in opposite time zones, please tell us what your morning brings… It seems to me that a "Trump the Traitor" meme is a very dangerous creation.
The west and its NATO mémé have gone bunkers, literally…. It’s very very hard to stoop any lower than that.
Shooting themselves in the foot, is the least we can say, but IMO, they are about to go even lower ….
The chicken will come home to roost.
Walrus
There’s a concerted attempt to de-legitimize the President-elect as he takes office. This seems clearly to prevent rapprochement between the US & Russia and other yet to be evident reasons. What is interesting is this is a continuation of the attacks during the campaign where the media and the political elite threw everything they had to take him down but he was able to get enough voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan & Wisconsin to bring him victory. Now, the intelligence agencies have also joined in the takedown. This seems like a building coup attempting to lead to impeachment or a coerced resignation. The right it seems are gonna fight back. Note this tweet by Drudge:
“Are corrupt US intel agencies blackmailing Trump with their own dirt cleverly tagged to ‘Russian’ operatives?”
https://twitter.com/DRUDGE/status/818983576935034881
The question is will the intensity of these attacks increase after Trump is sworn in? Will Trump push back? How will he deal with the government “insiders” who want his scalp?
This could get ugly real fast.
Very dangerous, indeed. This strategy assaults the heart of America’s vitality: The right to dispute, to dissent, and to quest for a better way. It installs inquisition, the rights of nqked kings to impose their lies as god-given truths, and saves the asses of a feudal mob robbing American citizens and other human beings with impunity, killing opposers as they like. Good night and good luck, America.
It’s not just the US, but also the EU where the political left builds a world where there is no place for people who do not subjugate to even their wildest ideas.
In the very spirit of Marx, Lenin, Guevara and other communist icons the political right (or anybody who refuses to be subdued) is nothing but ‘enemy of progress’ and must undergo being labeled a terrorist, a nazi etc. And all that in the name of tolerance.
This wrongly called ‘liberal’ world view which excludes anybody on the other side of an opaquely drawn line (compare that to Göring’s: I decide who is Jew!) is the direct successor of hard line communism.
And as the world is finally turning against them you all better heed the advice of Sándor Márai, exiled hungarian writer:
“It will be difficult to get rid of the communists, since noone is more dangerous than a beneficiary of a fallen ideology who does not fight for the idea anymore, but for its prey.”
Walrus,
When the CIA tells Trump that the Russians have incriminating material on him, they are really telling him, that THEY have incriminating material. Hoover did the same with the Kennedys. He showed them all sorts of pictures, and then claimed to protect them. Very obvious blackmail.
“WikiLeaks = relentlessly attacked for publishing verified, authentic info
BuzzFeed = cheered for publishing what appears to be a total sham”
Check out @mtracey’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/mtracey/status/819063759515881472?s=09
Walrus,
I have never seen anything like this intentional delegitimizing of the President Elect prior to the Inauguration. It is more than Intelligence Agency managers being forced into retirement or a cover up of the Democratic Party’s incompetence. The Global Elite who own the corporate media have awakened to the fact that their lackeys can’t paper over the escalating looting of the Middle Class. Globalism and Democracy are incompatible. It is in the best interest of Western Citizens to be allied with Russians to contain the spread of the Daesh; but, not for war profiteers or disaster capitalists.
I firmly believe mankind’s survival depends on democratic governments seizing power for the people back from oligarchs who took it over the past 36 years.
I find it hard to gauge how much traction all this rubbish gets in the public mind. Now the Pakistanis and N. Koreans are firing missiles with increasing range, US tanks are rolling into Estonia, yet the media seem best exemplified by Meryl Streep castigating Trump for mocking a reporter — just as Pence was lectured by the cast of Hamilton. The marriage of Hollywood and Washington is doing as well as ever. Pity the public may not be able to distinguish between them.
So much for our intelligence services.
If you could travel back to 2012 and looked around for the likely next president of the United States after Obama and drew up a list of potential candidates, how close to the top would Trump be? Would he even be on it?
BTW, British “intelligence” have a history of making stuff up such as the various dodgy dossiers about Iraq and the Political Warfare Executive that morphed into the Psychological Warfare Division within SHAEF.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_Warfare_Executive
Walrus; yes, this Trump/Russia hysteria goes far beyond the silly political partisan ranting of the
“he is illegitimate and not my President” line so prevalent with Obama since ’08 and now with our soon to be new POTUS. Trump above all represents a threat to the deeply held bipartisan establishment crush Russia policy of the last three administrations. A true Russia reset can not be allowed, thus there is this unprecedented preemptive attempt to cut Trump off at the knees even before he takes the oath of office. I’ve never seen anything like it before. There is however a Kissinger led school of thought that supports Trump and seeks to ally with Russia against China just as we did the opposite in the ’70’s when the relative positions of those two powers was reversed. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Particularly dangerous since Buzzfeed, who leaked it, is well aware it’s “vague allegations” with serious to doubt its veracity. Yet they still leaked it, and the mainstream media ran with the story like Trump had actually been caught on live TV doing these things…
https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedBen/status/818978955965464580
Dangerous both for the US democracy, with a worsening climate, having half the country mistrusting the future president and the other half mistrusting media as a whole. Dangerous for US media themselves, since their credibility is taking serious hits, and they’ll have the future president and part of his government and administration with an axe to grind and possibly bent on retaliation – and far fewer people willing to defend “freedom of the press” if it ever is under attack.
here’s a screen shot of the poast from /pol/
https://southfront.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/2.png
The altright has been trolling Rick Wilson for a while, ever since he accused them of an overly amorous relationship to anime. You can read the whole sordid tale of what they uncovered here: https://mpcdot.com/forums/topic/8748-rick-wilsons-son-is-a-goddamn-piss-pimp/page__st__40#entry243563
I am, literally, LMAO this morning.
It seems that now that Buzzfeed published the “memos” the MSM outlets will be promoting the story for the next news cycle, however long that lasts. B goes into this stories background quite a bit for those who would like more information. The following is from Moon Of Alabama:
“The first “reports” were created as part of the opposition research by a Republican candidate running in the primaries against Trump. They were later produced for the Democratic Party campaign. They have been shopped around in Washington for several month. The NYT, the WSJ, CNN and the FBI investigated the assertions in them. Despite their considerable combined investigative capacities they could verify none of them.”
If the Trumpster can survive until his inauguration, there’s going to be a massive purger over in Langley starting January 21st. After that, I’m sure this newfound liberal love affair with the CIA will come to an abrupt end.
The sad thing is, this tripe is being disseminated across national and language borders – here’s a sample from ZDF, one of two major public channels here in Germany:
http://www.heute.de/kreml-dementiert-kompromittierende-trump-infos-zu-besitzen-46298004.html
A translation of key parts, including title:
“Kremlin: No controversial documents on Trump
[…]
Buzzfeed: Justified doubts about accusations
According to a two-page summary, which was presented to Trump, Moscow is in possession of information about the private life and finances of Trump, the New York Times reported. While CNN did not provide any particulars on this alleged information which was circulated in Washington for months, the media portal Buzzfeed published 35 pages which mention sex videos with prostitutes in a Moscow luxury hotel in 2013, among other things. Further, he [Trump] was offered lucrative business deals to gain influence on him. Editor-in-chief of Buzzfeed Ben Smith, however, said that there are “serious reasons* to doubt the allegations”. Yet, for sake of transparency the decision for publishing [the article] was made.
Initially, other media outlets did not report on the concrete accusations as they were not solid.”
Given the last sentence, why in the world was it picked up, then? For whom it may be of concern, here’s a link to the 35-page “document” that is mentioned there, with the worst howlers marked in yellow:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3259984-Trump-Intelligence-Allegations.html
I hope this is just a matter of an intern filling the gaps while the core personnel are still off for New Year’s holidays…then again, who am I kidding given the never-ending barrage of hysteria coming out of western MSM across the board ever since they were deprived of their God-Empress’s coronation in November?
Yea, at least Republicans had the class to wait until after the inauguration.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38579126
“The BBC has not verified the claims. The US intelligence community has not said anything.”
“It allegedly refers to documents said to have been compiled for Mr Trump’s political enemies by a former British intelligence agent, CNN and the New York Times say.
Past work by this operative was considered by US intelligence to be credible, the reports add.”
So a thousand lawyers working for a thousand news outlets in the US and here have decided it’s OK to circulate transparent fiction about the President-elect of the United States. Provided an “alleged” is thrown in here and there.
The “former British intelligence agent” should be identified. The means by which this fiction was originated and publicised should be investigated. The politicians and government employees who assisted in circulating the fiction should be held to account.
Until that’s done the politicisation of intelligence work will be an ever-present danger. The intelligence services are supposed to look to the defence of their country. Why employ them for that if they decide instead to get involved in smear politics?
Presumably the lawyers checked that the news outlets publicising this fiction could do so safely. That doesn’t alter the fact that those news outlets have now lost any remaining shred of credibility.
Don’t read or visit 4chan ever. They have a reputation for being pranksters, bordering on behaving like total assholes. But they take credit for things they do and don’t take credit for things they don’t do–but that’s their general rep, from what I understand from my more internet literate/millennial friends.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-10/4chan-claims-have-fabricated-anti-trump-report-hoax
Well, this is an interesting twist if true.
=========================
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/10/fbi-chief-given-dossier-by-john-mccain-alleging-secret-trump-russia-contacts
John McCain passes FBI dossier alleging secret Trump-Russia contacts
Senator John McCain passed documents to the FBI director, James Comey, last month alleging secret contacts between the Trump campaign and Moscow and that Russian intelligence had personally compromising material on the president-elect himself.
The material, which has been seen by the Guardian, is a series of reports on Trump’s relationship with Moscow. They were drawn up by a former western counter-intelligence official, now working as a private consultant. BuzzFeed on Tuesday published the documents, which it said were “unverified and potentially unverifiable”.
[snip]
This can’t get any better… John McCain, CNN and the main strike forces of the Borg cabal have all picked this up without verification without realizing it’s a hoax originating on 4chan – a piece of fan-fiction. You just go to love those mischievous folks over there.
This will thoroughly discredit any remaining attempts at these types of stunts, and hopefully put Buzzfeed and several individuals under litigation.
Well, What’s Next cause this garbage is only cutting it at Clapper & Brennan’s desks. There are too many holes in this ex MI6 supposed agents crap to be believable and a few honest liberals are saying that this morning. Just nine more days till the inauguration, what will they pull next.
It turns out the CIA got this info from Rick Wilson, who got it from 4Chan who pretended to be a “highly placed source in the Trump Campaign”. Wilson sent this BS to the CIA and the CIA published it.
In other words, the CIA, the supposedly premier intelligence service, got trolled by 4Chan. That is the state of our media and our intelligence services right now.
It’s getting interesting. The Financial Times (in several articles) and noted human rights lawyer Scott Horton claim that Trump was bailed out of his 7th bankruptcy after 2008, when banks would no longer extend credit lines to him, by Russian oligarchs etc. who work hand in hand with the Kremlin. According to the article they own him more or less lock stock and barrel. His son has stated that the Trump business has a lot of money invested from Russia. I’m sure the average Russian was jumping to invest with Trump. Trump has never released his taxes or other financial information so we don’t know how much of his businesses he owns vs. foreigners. As for the alleged sexual compromising information; yea, I can believe it. Anyone as narcissistic as the Trumpster wouldn’t think twice if presented with an attractive Natasha. As for the meme that the CIA etc. is trying to delegitimize him, maybe yes; but maybe they see smoke and want to make sure there is no fire. Come the 20th of Jan. they don’t want to see a Manchurian candidate take the oath.
Walrus,
“memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative…”
Is his code name “slime ball”? We know just how good the info was from “curveball” was in the last run up to war…..
Dang, and Trump was doing such a good job dignifying the role of president elect with his early am tweets.
Stu Wood
If Trump’s business is heavily funded from Russia you have a point, IF … Where is the proof? Have you looked at his financial statement filed with the FEC? As for the ridiculous fabrication about his supposedly letting whores piss in Obama’s hotel bed, are you seriously telling us you believe that nonsense? pl
Peter,
Right. We should apply Occam’s Razor and realize that these people running with the story are very stupid and incompetent.
But, boy, it sure would have been a savvy sting from Team Trump to release the story for the ultimate purpose of totally discrediting the MSM and the lunatic McCain.
There are ways that a public figure can still initiate a libel suit. I hope Trump goes for it and ends up owning Buzzfeed and CNN.
Tyler,
Also – nobody is talking about Obama’s farewell address. Talk about irrelevant.
“Past work by this operative was considered by US intelligence to be credible….”. If true, this alone should generate a congressional investigation into CIA sourcing standards. It would also not hurt for congress to propose CIA reforms and reorganization suggestions to the new administration.
This will probably be opposed by the “old boys club” of former CIA agents and analysts who are now in government, academia, think tanks, and news organizations. Their push back will be quick and organized.
Vic
Bobo,
In my more paranoid moments I worry about Trump experiencing airplane crashes, lone gunmen, terrorist attacks, plutonium in the salt shaker……
All I read was sexual compromise so I assumed it was heterosexual sex which is probably something he would not care if exposed.
Western politician: “I decide who is a radical Muslim.”
…………..and by CNN’ wolf B. just the night before the new secretary of state’ ( a putin’ agent) confirmation hearing .
Col. Lang, SST;
A couple of non-rhetorical questions:
1-Is there any background investigation of presidential candidates prior to the election? If so, who does this? IMO, since the president-elect automatically gets the highest security clearance possible(?), someone must have done due diligence(?).
2-Can Mr. Trump & Co. take private legal action against the publication of such unverified, bizarre, claims, or are they, now, public personas who can be slandered w/ impunity?
Coming after Fred’s Paris story, this is a bummer. What is going on?
Ishmael Zechariah
It appears that our lives are now part of a TV reality show. Of course, realism left the stage a long time ago. At some point a majority of Americans will have to decide whether they want solid governing, or just continuous entertainment. Right now it seems the latter is on the menu.
Just remember: We have the best government money can buy.
If the Russians owned him because they were the lender of last resort in 2008 when the liquidity dried up, then by 2013-2014 he would have refinanced whatever debt they gave him, at lower rates, and he would no longer be beholden to him.
The guy has said he wants to have a normal relationship with Russia, and defeat ISIS, and all of a sudden he’s a Manchurian candidate. I hope the first thing he does is start working up to break the corporate media, because despite their waning influence, they have managed to partially corrupt a whole generation of people’s minds.
So some prankster from 4chan feeds a ridiculously fake story to a DNC operative, who foolishly buys it then forwards it on to the CIA, who foolishly puts it in their official intelligence report. They then conclude that Russia plans to blackmail Trump, with this completely made up story…
Just let all that sink in
This tweet by DT says it all
“Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
I win an election easily, a great “movement” is verified, and crooked opponents try to belittle our victory with FAKE NEWS. A sorry state!”
To listen to media reports, Trump is the new Saddam Hussein. Only question is, how will the war be prosecuted?
From what I understand of British intelligence, counter-intelligence is handled by MI5 and intelligence is handled by MI6 and they each had their own turf where the other was not welcome except when it comes to terrorism. So how would a UK domestic operator have contacts in Russia?
IZ
The president holds his position by constitutional election. His/her right to hold office is derived from election in the electoral college. There is no authority higher than the president’s. Who would you want to tell us who can be president, the FBI? The president has no security clearance. he is the supreme classifying authority. Members of Congress and federal judges including SCOTUS have no security clearances. They have access because of their constitutional office. I suppose the president could sue. pl
My first thought is “live by the sword, die by the sword”. President Elect Trump jumped on the birther band wagon early and for political reasons. This had its own corrosive effect on our democracy. The birther conspiracy was propaganda designed to rile the masses. I now I’m speaking to choir here but in this day and age we all need to be news analysts and very skeptical of what we see and read.
My own opinion about what is going in is that we are dealing with a combination of reality ( Trump’s dealings with Russia are deeper than he lets on), propaganda, and theater. One theory I’ve come across is that all these rumors about President Elect Trump are false but they actually do come from Russian sources. Why? Because what better way to damage American democracy.
President Elect Trump is not dealing with the situation very well either. Twitter is a very imprecise method of communication and allows a great deal of leeway in how his comments are interpreted. Trump defending himself with a ‘Because Russia said so’ is an incredibly weak defense. A much stronger defense would be to release his financial records and his tax returns.
HawkoMay
What was revealed in the WikiLeaks e-mails was the shoddy treatment given to sanders. Yes, that damaged American democracy but no one has challenged the truth pf this ugliness. pl
Stu Wood
Ah, I see. You are either a childish troll spreading unsourced and unvetted rumor or a malicious political operative. pl
Twitter is a perfect way to go around the mainstream media, which has proven they will manipulate and twist any story or even create their own to damage Trump anyway.
How else do you suggest he communicate directly with the American people without going through a verifiably compromised media complex?
Colonel,
Thank you. I now understand that “access through constitutional office” is the US law.
I was more thinking along the lines that the DNC or RNC would hire a competent private outfit to do some background checks and then inform a candidate that easily reachable skeletons exist in his/her closet. Or they might go public w/ the results, or inform the law… Would this constitute blackmail?
The current smear campaign is very strange. They had this “information” beforehand.
Ishmael Zechariah
Porkchop,
Before ascribing such a noble hacker ethic to 4chan, it pays to look into its history. Do they make stuff up? Absolutely. All around the points of the compass. I’m still waiting to find out for which celebrity nude image leak the myriad users of 4chan were responsible and which were just a hoax or false claim. I’d take any 4chan stories with a dairy farm sized salt lick.
It’s well-known that Trump in his biographies & many news articles that Trump is a germaphobe & clean freak who avoids shaking hands, pressing elevator buttons with his hands & avoiding using public restroooms
so the claim that he would be even in the same room as 2 strangers peeing in his hotel bedroom is likely a hoax
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/07/10/15-Facts-You-Didn-t-Know-About-Donald-Trump
&
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/10/the-7-oddest-things-donald-trump-thinks-214354
Also, Colonel Lang, is this true & debunks it? “The Trump-Russia intel document headers are “CONFIDENTIAL / SENSITIVE SOURCE” and the source is allegedly ex-MI6.
The US and UK don’t use that header in ANY sensitive material.”
Tyler,
Except it now turns out David Corn got this report of tin-foil-hat level unsubstantiated stuff not from Rick Wilson, but from some supposedly ex-intelligence officer from Britain in October 2016. I saw the 4Chan Rick Wilson troll story on the #goldenshower twitter storm last night. Looked like an effort to squash a flimsy story before it became a snickering undercurrent. Too bad they got their timeline and individuals involved wrong. I think it’s going to remain a snickering undercurrent on the left very similar to the way the birther movement was on the right for the last eight years. One would have to be a brainwashed, fanatical moron to accept either of these “shit-house” rumors as gospel and spout them as serious allegations for years.
I don’t know if this particular part of the the 35 page BuzzFeed release made it into the three page IC report that was handed to Trump. It would be sad if it did. That rumor should have been cursorily handled by a GG-12 analyst at best.
No, it won’t, unfortunately, nearly to the contrary this kind of things will probably increase the blurring between true facts and propaganda, to the average Joe it’s such a mess than “anything is possible”.
Dangerous times indeed.
It’s very kind to you to suppose that the CIA “got trolled”, they probably knew full well that this was garbage but nevertheless pushed it just because it was conveneient material already showing up in “some sources”.
All
“shit-house” rumor is a term of art in the US Army connoting rumor passed on from toilet to toilet. I concur in its application here. pl
LMAO
That’s clever plausible deniability, you take care NOT to really read the rumors you report about so you don’t have any problems…
Shhhh…
Man up dude!
This is SST not a tabloid, we deserve better quality trolls!
IZ
All those subject to the authority of the Executive Branch and therefore the president are required to obtain security clearances from the Executive Branch. Those positions NOT subject to the authority of the president do not require security clearances. i.e., federal judges, congressmen, but their staffs on the courts require security clearances, n their case they are adjudicated by the DoJ. I had one of those TS/SCI for five or six years for the sole purpose of reading classified exhibits for the benefit of the courts. I had no other access from DoJ when acting for the courts. I also had a collateral TS from DoD for about ten years so that I could be a role player in national war games. I had no other access from DoD in that period. During my actual career in the government I held clearances at the TS/SCI level with about 50 SAP accesses. The residual DoJ and DoD clearances I asked to be debriefed from in in May 2005 after the debacle of the Jeffrey Sterling trial. pl
TTG,
Here’s the archived post proving this was all a successful troll of the Borg apparatus.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-11/archived-posts-prove-4chan-trolled-cia-trump-golden-shower-story-entire-russian-hack
Only basing it off information from friends who use. Never visited it myself. Make of it what you will.
Walrus posted above:
“CNN has just led with a story that the intelligence community presented Trump with a dossier alleging five years work by the Russian Government to both compromise Trump and promote his presidential prospects and allege collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian Government. ”
A “Senior Intelligence Official” told NBCNews that Trump was NOT briefed on the 35 page bullshit. A two page summary was prepared as backup for the oral briefing but never used.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/trump-cites-nazi-germany-rejects-dossier-alleged-russia-dealings-n705586
—
The 4Chan claim of having originated the Moscow Hotel stuff is not valid.
The 35 pages or parts of them have been circled in Washington for several months (to NYT, WSJ, CNN, …) – probably since the primaries were over. The claim of the hotel stuff is in a July “report” and was part of that.
The 4Chan prank was issued sometime in early November.
It is thereby very likely that the 4chan prank was based on the circulating “reports” and not the origin of the claims.
—
I see more and more signs that all the anti-Russian stuff we have seen during the campaign and now is based on or originating from Ukrainian-American (fascist) sources.
– The Clinton/DNC operative Alexandra Chalupa was directly involved in them and was in direct contact with (or led by?) the Ukrainian embassy.
– ProPornOT is a Ukrainian-American operation.
– The 35 pages seem to have Ukrainian fascist origin.
The CIA has very longs-standing ties to fascist Ukranian organizations and was deeply involved in the 2014 coup which was led by fascist groups.
I have no evidence yet to connect those dots but I at least have verifiable dots while 35 pages contain only pure bullshit.
Also notice Crowdstrike’s CTO the exile-Russian Alperovich and his Atlantic Council connections … Background information on him seems to be impossible to find …
Why not release his own podcasts? No need to depend on traditional media for that.
It’s not easy to see a reasonable explanation for the action or inaction of the British authorities, not if the information put out so far is at all accurate.
From a CNN report:-
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/10/politics/donald-trump-intelligence-report-russia/
“Some of the memos were circulating as far back as last summer. What has changed since then is that US intelligence agencies have now checked out the former British intelligence operative and his vast network throughout Europe and find him and his sources to be credible enough to include some of the information in the presentations to the President and President-elect a few days ago.”
“The raw memos on which the synopsis is based were prepared by the former MI6 agent, who was posted in Russia in the 1990s and now runs a private intelligence gathering firm.”
If it is true that the agent was formerly in MI6 then presumably his “vast network” was built up on work done during his service career or during his association with the service. Who in British Intelligence authorised this use of such work? Such “research” by a past MI6 agent on an American Presidential candidate would surely have needed authorisation on a political level as well. Who gave that authorisation?
The operative should either be disavowed by the British intelligence services, in which case the question arises of how a past MI6 agent was let run loose on the American political scene with no-one noticing, or those two questions should be answered.
I recall recently reading of several law firms that were contacted or contracted (?) to conduct background checks on potential candidates for several potential candidates. I am reluctant to refer to this as due diligence; I am not a lawyer. Be well. H
LOL LOL You hit the nail on the head there! What a contorted ’16 Prez election we had and the next 4 yrs of Prez politics sure to be a wild ride! Trump/Clinton the worst of choices we have had in my memory!
Colonel, do you think the body of IC is also after DT or just the political appointed heads of agencies? Is this game at this intensity not dangerous, had you ever experienced anything like this> Did you see NYT reporting that senator Mc Cain released and passed this (shit) info to FBI before the holidays.
Hey, that has always been Trump’s style of “I don’t know, but [so and so] has been saying….” Trump plants the rumor, but does not own it. He did it all through the campaign, “birther” etc.
Even IF (and the “IF” is a big leap), the “golden showers” stuff with a guy like Trump who is reportedly a “germ phobic” is unlikely and (2) is water off a ducks back–the evangelicals have already prayed and excused his many transgression and will continue to do so for their pro life desires.
But financial intertwines with some nasty characters might well be revealed and have a hold on trump. As noted in another blog:
“If Trump has a vulnerability with regard to Russia, it is far more likely to be financial. He kept going bankrupt (six times!) as a strategy to avoid paying creditors, and understandably real banks stopped wanting to lend to him. The Financial Times alleges that Trump then got in bed with very wealthy figures from, e.g., Kazakhstan, who loaned him money or licensed his name for, e.g., the Trump Soho, in which he was a partner with a shadowy Kazakh figure. But FT suggests that the quid pro quo was that he got them into the New York real estate market, which they then used for money laundering. Money earned from embezzling (say, from the Kazakh ministry of petroleum) or criminal activity needs to be laundered before it can be openly invested. The criminal claims that the ill-gotten funds are profits from an investment, e.g. The FT thinks Trump may have, knowingly or naively, facilitated this kind of activity. If it was knowingly, of course, that was a heavy duty crime.” From Informed Consent blog
There’s more than meets the eye here.
The one fact in all of this is that content of Podesta’s and the DNC emails that show the rigging of the Democrats primary and the duplicity of the Clinton campaign and the media are truthful. To obfuscate this truth, a real influence operation with fake news and innuendo is being carried out that implicates the intelligence agencies and the media.
The question is how will Trump respond once he is the POTUS and will the intelligence agencies carry out the threat that Schumer noted.
b,
I think you’re definitely on to something with this Ukrainian connection. That Nuland-induced nightmare in Kiev will probably be the first to lose big league after 20 January. We don’t agree on the whole Russian influence op business, but I truly wish you good hunting in running down the Ukrainian trouble makers.
Tyler,
The 4chan stuff was on the #goldenshower comedy twitter storm last night. I think b explained it well in his earlier comment today. A 4chan troll trolled Wilson with the same stuff that was already out there. There’s nothing there to support 4chan as the originator of this particular rumor.
The left and the MSM are trying hard to disarm of Trump using social media for direct communication with public, a very direct, effective no intermediary way of communicating. They think they can shame him to do so, by them declaring it’s an Unpresidential way of communication. Why? IMO, the MSM has no credibility what so ever to shame anybody to do or not do anything nor asking the president elect what to do or not.
Below is a quote from yesterday, taken from: http://www.foreign.senate.gov/press/ranking/release/10-bipartisan-senators-introduce-comprehensive-russia-sanctions-legislation
“As Russia continues its flagrant efforts to sabotage and subvert democratic norms and principles of freedom across the world, this is a significant step that sends an unequivocal response to President Putin: The U.S. Congress remains united in our absolute rejection of their rule over Crimea, belligerent actions in Syria, and will hold them accountable for their interference in our democratic system,” said Senator Menendez, author of the STAND for Ukraine Act, legislation that was incorporated into the Countering Russian Hostilities Act. “This comprehensive, bipartisan legislation creates a broad policy framework that combines new ways to proactively support our allies, bolster democratic institutions across Europe, and also expand and strengthen aggressive sanctions across Russian individuals and entities. At a pivotal time in world affairs in the face of Russian aggression, the Countering Russian Hostilities Act makes clear that the United States will not tolerate dictatorial actions, annexation or interventionism.”
Note the claim of bipartisanship, the rejection of Crimea within Russia, and the constant claiming of Russian “hostilities” in Syria.
I suggest one read the whole press release to get a feel for what is at stake on the Ukrainian/US/Russian front. However, most critically, what the bill proposes includes: (and again I quote)
“The bill would mandate sanctions the development of Russian energy pipelines.” (sic)
“Similarly, the bill would impose mandatory sanctions on investments in the development of civil nuclear projects by the Russian Federation.”
“The bill would impose mandatory sanctions on U.S. and third party investment in Russian privatization of state-owned assets and sales of sovereign debt.”
Note that the sanction are on the development of Russian energy pipelines with no restriction on where those might be. Note that the sanctions include the servicing of sovereign debt.
These actions are the serious part of the iceberg, that part beneath the water, with the ridiculous misrepresentations of the CIA against Trump being the visible noise on top.
The Twisted Genius,
Well . . . any port in a storm to a desperate true-believing Clintonite or Obamacrat. So, yes . . . they will believe it and recirculate it for years. They will try to convince everyone they know that the analyses and stories indicating this material started as a 4-Chan “IQ-test” if you will are themselves hoaxes designed to falsely discredit this true intelligence.
The troof is out there. They want to believe.
jld,
I agree with your understanding of the CIA here. I too believe they know exactly how fictitious this material was and they decided to weaponise and disseminate it with malice aforethought as their part in the greater Establishment operation to shape the brainwar battlespace against Trump for impeachment or “other removal methods” to come.
One hopes that they are the people who get “removaled” instead.
HawkOfMay,
Perhaps Trump could put links to his own podcasts in his Fireside Tweets.
Perhaps Trump could also start his own You Tube Channel and put links to that, including to every new program or release, on his Fireside Tweets.
Perhaps he could call his podcasts ” Trumpcasts”.
Perhaps he could call his You Tube Channel ” You Trump” or “The You Tube Trump Channel”, or any other name he thinks is memorable or compelling.
( If by off-chance the Trump Team has any people reading these threads, I hereby give away for free use the terms Fireside Tweets, Trumpcast, You Trump, in the off chance that they might be useful. If they are not useful, I assume they will die a quiet unnoticed death in some dark corner).
Fred: Here’s why I hate the press. NPR did a story today about ExxonMobil CEO’s business in Russia….without ever mentioning how the Obama Administration encouraged American corporations to invest there.
Whatever we think of Trump, his electoral victory confounded a lot of smart people who thought he would self-destruct as a candidate in the primaries. Odds are. imo, that he will survive the smears for no other reason than his brick-wall doggedness that, so far, has worked.
I got that tingle-on-the-neck alert watching Sen. Marco Rubio question Tillerson at the confirmation hearings. Rubio seemed a bit nervous, and as an amateur body language reader I can’t say for sure, but just as the DNC delegates and candidates all had to proclaim allegiance to (read: endorse) HRC before being accepted into the DNC convention, I suspect a general political threat against anyone not complying with the Russian conspiracy theme. Openly speculating here, but I see a lot of over-acting going on, typical of theatrical actors who know they’re losing their audience. That “You can’t handle the truth” moment.
Tillerson’s measured responses not unfavorable to Russia suggest that Tillerson has Trump’s left flank, in spades. Gen. Mattis not looking bad, either.
TTG,
This sounds like hand waving away 4Chan cause its to embarrassing to admit how stupid the media/Intel forces arrayed against Trump is.
4Chan knew about this secret stuff circulating before it was public knowledge and decided to latch onto it? The evidence doesn’t match this but any port in a storm for the TruBelievrz.
It will be a battle to temper the desire Trump et al, especially et al (Bannon et al), to take a figurative flamethrower to the Intel people who either cooked this memo crap up, and leaked it…or bought it, from a troll, and leaked it with their good housekeeping seal on it. Versus reacting calmly, protecting US long term interests, but firmly, towards who did this. Who pushed it. Who repeated it. But me? I’d want some heads delivered to me.
You are, in my take Stumpy, correct, Tillison handed Little Mario his ass, after he kicked it. And so effortlessly. Like Joe D snagging a fly in deep center.
Here are two Financial Times articles on Trump and his business dealings with the Russians:
https://www.ft.com/content/33285dfa-9231-11e6-8df8-d3778b55a923
https://www.ft.com/content/549ddfaa-5fa5-11e6-b38c-7b39cbb1138a
In his news conference Trump says he will not divest himself of his businesses: https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-separating-business-avoid-conflict-concerns-lawyer-163222132–sector.html?ref=gs.
As the old saying goes, you can’t serve two masters at the same time. Time for Trump to appoint a trustee for his business empire? if he really wants to be President.
“Tillerson’s measured responses not unfavorable to Russia suggest that Tillerson has Trump’s left flank, in spades. Gen. Mattis not looking bad, either.”
Patrick Armstrong seems to think Trump will be able to make gains against the military-industrial complex re: NATO & Russia. His post is based on this question from Sputnik “what do I make of the US Army forces moved to Europe and what do I think US President-elect Trump will do about it”?
His last paragraph deals with the issue of Trump’s relationship with the military and I found his thoughts on that most interesting.
Rotating on Your Tanks https://patrickarmstrong.ca/2017/01/10/rotating-on-your-tanks/
This move – in the waning days of the Obama Administration – violates two Trumpian principles. First it is calculated to irritate Moscow and hobble US President-elect Trump in his stated intention to repair relations. Second it contradicts his ideas that NATO members should pay more for their own defence. (And a third: better relations with Russia obtained through diplomacy would eliminate the “threat” this deployment is supposed to be countering). Thus it is very probable that the whole thing will be reversed on the 21st. It should be remembered that Trump not only has a number of senior generals on his team but that there is plenty of evidence – “After 15 years of war, America’s military has about had it with ‘nation building’“**– that the US military are tired of endless wars. He’s not flying blind. And he’s not flying alone.
———————
**Here’s the link to the article http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/after-15-years-of-war-americas-military-has-about-had-it-with-nation-building
Most American military personnel are deeply skeptical of the United States’ nation-building missions overseas and would prefer to see leaders in Washington focus the country’s resources on less ambiguous missions like killing terrorists and protecting the homeland, according to a new first-of-its-kind survey.
… One survey question asked: “How do you view the U.S. government’s continued involvement in nation-building efforts, establishing democracies in the Middle East and North Africa using U.S. military and financial support?” About 55 percent of respondents said they “strongly oppose” or “somewhat oppose” those efforts while 23 percent expressed support for such missions. The remainder expressed no opinion on the issue.
—————–
Worthy of note is the seeming OSS-origin of the “golden shower” nonsense leveled against Trump.
William Langer’s much-praised OSS profile of Hitler solemnly insisted the latter enjoyed much the same treatment at the hands of women, just one untruth among many hilariously exposed by Lev Navrozov in, I dimly recall, his autobiography, The education of Lev Navrozov: A life in the closed world once called Russia.
The attempt to associate Trump with Der Fuhrer is by now wearyingly familiar.
Langer’s farrago can be read, in full, at the following link. See page 138 for the squatting urinator rubbish: https://archive.org/details/APsychologicalAnalysisofAdolfHitler
Navrozov’s book is displayed here: https://www.amazon.com/education-Lev-Navrozov-closed-called/dp/0061264156
British intelligence has a rich history of interfering in just about every nation’s elections, not least its own. But whereas both MI5 and MI6 once served as the covert arms of the Conservative Party, today it is the CIA which calls the tune, and pays the piper.
A particularly well-documented example of British intervention in American politics is to be found in Thomas E. Mahl’s splendid Desperate Deception: British Covert Operations in the United States, 1939-44.
For MI6, souring relations between a Trump White House and May’s post-Brexit poison chalice-holders would not be unwelcome, as it would reduce No 10’s options, and further delay any meaningful action in exiting the EU.
Time, it would appear, is to be bought to permit regime change in Washington, and the restoration of the status quo ante.
stu wood
Your view is that having done business in Russia is disqualifying because Trump likes his business partners and is not willing to divest himself of his assets? By your criteria George Washington should not have been president because of his wealth and vested interests. He did not divest himself of anything. Somehow I think you are just a partisan. pl
Colonel hope you feel better, but FYI, I was just listening to the British state propaganda radio BBC ( as per DT oh, yeh another beauty you read fake news ) it claims democrats are already asking for impeachment of not yet inaugurated president elect.
Not all seems well with Gen Mattis and the Trump team:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2017/01/06/mattis-clashing-with-trump-transition-team-over-pentagon-staffing/?utm
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/01/06/transition-team-disputes-report-gen-mattis-rejecting-defense-nominees/
I think there is a difference between “divest himself of his assets” and appointing a trustee of his assets. I am not a businessman but I think he would still own his assets with a trustee.
stu wood
I half expected Trump to ask Romney to act as trustee. pl
It is now very apparent that the best candidate for U.S. president in the 2016 election would have been Rex Tillerson, now appearing today before the Senate Foreign Relations committee as part of the confirmation process to be Secretary of State.
Measured. Calm. Smooth. Still provides some actual detail in responses. Insists on looking at the big picture also. Desires plans and policies that are thought through (mandatory in the oil and gas business). Does not paint himself into a corner, or trap himself with posturing “red lines”.
Since oil and gas are part of nature, exploring for it, drilling on and offshore, transporting, processing, refining, selling it at retail stations, and so forth is a reality-based operation. And very technical and science-based. Operating in foreign countries with drilling operations is difficult and fraught with innumerable problems.
Since Trump liked to loudly boast of his real estate business operation, etc. etc., one can quietly observe that ExxonMobil could buy him for pocket change.
Tillerson said shortly ago at the hearing that terrorism has been with us for centuries, and it is part of the human condition. I have not heard a politician or “high” government official speak that truth in 35 years.
Tyler,
I see 4Chan trying to hand wave away a silly rumor before it became embedded in the American as a running joke. The IC didn’t get the “memos” from Wilson, Corn, BuzzFeed, McCain or 4Chan. That former MI6 officer gave it directly to an FBI official in Rome in August or September. The 4Chan hand waving doesn’t add up.
Probably not a bad choice.
stu wood
BTW Washington had large sums of money in London Banks throughout the War of Independence. They kept it safe for him and after the war when he was president he was quite pro-British along with John Adams. pl
Valissa,
Thank you for the link. I’m sure that nearly all SST correspondents know way better than I how a professional soldier feels about being deployed as a symbolic gesture. Although I do miss painting the jeeps …
Matthew,
They don’t ask about Obama-moters operations in Russia either.
http://europe.autonews.com/article/20160226/ANE/160229901/gm-eyes-russia-production-restart
Robt
I saw part of the hearing and was very impressed with Tillerson. I think he’ll be in the mold of Jim Baker who recommended him to Trump. He will provide a refreshing contrast to Hillary and Kerry.
TTG,
Yeah, suddenly the people who are claiming this are adjusting their timeline after the archived proof has been put out there, claiming that somehow /pol/ knew about this after the fact, band wagoned on later, and are now acting as Trump’s internet vanguard? This sounds like after the fact was covering.
Believe what you want, but you’re only making yourself look foolish with 4D chess lawgic in the face of evidence that says otherwise.
Gwi,
Based off Beso Blog? LMBO. We need a better grade of shill.
All,
Lawd, we’ve gone from Curveball to Chalupa. I’m glad that Trump shut CNN down as fake news today.
H A. Goodman for a chuckle.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2glFHiY1Xsg
Great find, it appears the Shadow Government does indeed exist, operating under the “Bipartisan” characterization of its members, and intent on pursuing the broad policy objectives of the last 30 years. All of this public noise is to get Trump to comply with the game, like the other transients in the office of POTUS of the past, who might well be victims in all of this.
What is the end game?
Romney to run Trump, Inc.?
A terrible choice.
Romney has no track record of actually running companies.
Rather, his capital group acquired them through highly leveraged finances, then raped them for their lunch money to pay off the debt.
That theme has recently been a hot clickbait item on YouTube.
ya, James, it’s been known for decades that Trump is a germaphobe & clean-freak in his autobiographies (I read his ‘Art of the Deal’) & many news articles on Trump’s germaphobia
such as this link that better details Trump’s germaphobia
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2011/02/does_donald_trump_have_a_glad-.html
The fact that they still put that in the ‘intel’ report without any caveats about his germaphobial makes it likely a hoax or 4chan prank
or
the CIA, Clapper, & Brennan (who ALL LIED about ‘WMDs in Iraq’) is up to their old propaganda tricks
Intel officers are NOT stupid –you have to score very high on IQ, aptitute tests –I scored above 99.5% on the military’s ABSVAB test & offered any MOS (Militay Occpuational Specialty) I wanted when I was offered my 4 yr Air Force ROTC scholarship)
so the fact that they ingnored Trumps’ germaphobia (they would have known nit doing a background check on Trump & reading his biograhies & articles about him)
means it was included in the report ON PURPOSE for character assassination, especially towards the 30% of Republican voters that are religious ‘right’
It’s like how the CIA spread WMDs propaganda about the hoax Mobile WMDs labs on CANVAS TARP trucks ..
anyone with a brain would realize that no scientist or country would use CANVAS TARP for a WMDs lab because ANY rip or tear in the tarp would mean releasing toxic pathogens or chemicals into the surround area to kill the scientist or the nearby city or even country
Yet the fake hoax WMDs mobile CANVAS TARP TRUCK were featured as evidence of Iraqi active WMDS program
CIA officers aren’t that stupid but they are ruthless enough to use it as part of any propaganda misinformation program to acheive regime-change –whether in Iraq, Syria .. or even the US?
Larry Johnso was a CIA officer/analyst & Deputy Director of CounterTerrorism at State Dept & he has good insight here:
http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/79535/failed-cia-coup/
Johnson also recommends this great takedown of the hoax here by Glen Greenwald, one of the few reporters who isn’t afraid to speak truth to power & fair to Trump:
https://theintercept.com/2017/01/11/the-deep-state-goes-to-war-with-president-elect-using-unverified-claims-as-dems-cheer/
Exactly. I concur that this is all designed to make Trump comply with the status quo.
Babak, that is of no importance. What will have you fired, abandoned by friends, shunned by society and snarled at by dogs is to be far right wingers/racist/non-inclusive/deplorable. Woe upon you if you do not share the values of the liberals. You can be a white man (never good), or a white woman (traitor!) or even an immigrant (house n**ro). And a hawker of fake news and a Putin troll.
Terrorist? Our politicians will give a speech and place some flowers, create a hashtag and move on to the next Bilderberg meet.
I am always puzzled by acronyms:
ProPornOT = Professional Porn Off Topic
Is that it?
I think there are two different issues that people are conflating here. One is the allegation, circulating since last summer, that FSB had kompromat on Trump. The second is the specific content purported to be the substance of that allegation posted by Buzzfeed. IMO 4chan via Rick Wilson is credible as a source of what Buzzfeed posted, but as b, TTG, and others have pointed out, it is not credible as a source of the allegations that were circulating earlier (b makes a case for Ukrainians connected to the Clinton campaign as the source). There are telltale signs in the Buzzfeed release that it originated in the feud between Wilson and 4chan. Wilson had referred to 4chan as a bunch of guys who jack off to anime. One of the allegations in the Buzzfeed release is that Trump jacked off to anime in the company of Russian whores. So the way the Buzzfeed story unfolds for me is that 4chan baited the hook for Wilson and he bit hard (somehow he didn’t take the reference to anime as a sign that something was up, the fool!) and forwarded it to Buzzfeed. Maybe not as delicious as the CIA biting on the hoax, but seeing Buzzfeed go down with it is good enough.
Western politician: “I decide who is a terrorist.”
You propose an entirely plausible scenario but it requires step seven, silence the leaker for if he goes public it blows the whole operation. At 0420 on July 10 Seth Rich a DNC staffer was shot in the back a block from home. It was assessed as a robbery by the DC police though his wallet, phone and watch were not taken. Strangely enough with several dozen murders a day in the US Julian Assange who never comments about his sources commented that this murder showed that “our sources take serious risks” and offered a $20,000 reward to solve this crime. How obvious does it have to be?
Biden and the CIA have been directing Ukraine for some time, cf. Hunter Biden/Devon Archer/Burisma or the CIA admin building in Ukraine. Poroshenko has been alleged to be a CIA asset. Means exists. Just sayin’.