Three quick updates to our ongoing coverage of Putin’s campaign of active measures, dezinformatziya, kompromat, and cyberwarfare against the US, the EU and its member states, and NATO and its member states.
First up, if you’re going to try for clever keep your mouth shut!
I know that Nunes's Monday testimony was coordinated with WH because top WH official told me, "Watch the predicate that is set" by Nunes.
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) March 24, 2017
Additionally Congressman Nunes had not actually seen anything that he talked about at his two press conferences or with the President on Wednesday. He does not actually know what, if anything, was incidentally collected or if anything even was.
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes, R-Calif., does not know “for sure” whether President Donald Trump or members of his transition team were even on the phone calls or other communications now being cited as partial vindication for the president’s wiretapping claims against the Obama administration, according to a spokesperson.
“He said he’ll have to get all the documents he requested from the [intelligence community] about this before he knows for sure,” a spokesperson for Nunes said Thursday. Nunes was a member of the Trump transition team executive committee.
Nunes *retracts* claim Trump was monitored.
So the only news left is how Nunes acted – not info he claimed to have: https://t.co/Xnwcyuq8vD
— Ari Melber (@AriMelber) March 24, 2017
And that was before he destroyed what was left of his committee this morning.
BREAKING: Chairman just cancelled open Intelligence Committee hearing with Clapper, Brennan and Yates in attempt to choke off public info.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) March 24, 2017
It is important to note that Congressman Schiff is a former Federal prosecutor who has successfully prosecuted an FBI agent who was working for the Russians. He understands counterintelligence and he has successfully prosecuted a criminal case that arose out of a counterintelligence investigation. Congressman Nunes has a masters degree in agricultural science.
Secondly, and still involving the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Paul Manafort wants to come in out of the cold.
Manafort statement on House intel: wants to "provide information voluntarily regarding recent allegations about Russian interference" pic.twitter.com/9kbvL8cF0v
— Tim Mak (@timkmak) March 24, 2017
And now Roger Stone and Carter Page are looking to get a foot in the door to play let’s make a deal!
Roger Stone tells me we wants to voluntarily testify before house intel. And in public. Letter from his lawyer will say that.
— Gloria Borger (@GloriaBorger) March 24, 2017
NEWS: Carter Page willing to testify before the House Intelligence Committee to "set the record straight" on Russia https://t.co/acu0mSMTbv
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 24, 2017
But, you ask, what about LTG Flynn? Surely you couldn’t forget LTG Flynn? No, I have not. Our third entry this Friday afternoon is that LTG Flynn, while working for both the Turkish government as an unregistered foreign agent and the President as his campaign’s national security advisor, proposed kidnapping Fethullah Gulen from his home in Pennsylvania and rendering him back to Turkey – outside of the actual, formal, and required by law extradition process. This is usually referred to as kidnapping. It is also, usually, a crime!
James Woolsey, former CIA director, told me the most amazing story about Mike Flynn and Turkey. https://t.co/Nm8XwViXep
— JamesVGrimaldi (@JamesVGrimaldi) March 24, 2017
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, while serving as an adviser to the Trump campaign, met with top Turkish government ministers and discussed removing a Muslim cleric from the U.S. and taking him to Turkey, according to former Central Intelligence Agency Director James Woolsey, who attended, and others who were briefed on the meeting.
The discussion late last summer involved ideas about how to get Fethullah Gulen, a cleric whom Turkey has accused of orchestrating last summer’s failed military coup, to Turkey without going through the U.S. extradition legal process, according to Mr. Woolsey and those who were briefed.
Mr. Woolsey told The Wall Street Journal he arrived at the meeting in New York on Sept. 19 in the middle of the discussion and found the topic startling and the actions being discussed possibly illegal.
Top-notch reporting from @DailySignal @nolanwpeterson on Russia's targeted aggression against Ukraine this weekhttps://t.co/CPKV5OXGll
— John Cooper (@thejcoop) March 24, 2017
Air-defense systems up in #Belarus. These guys are not preparing for a demonstration.. https://t.co/rc4XmPCOkg
— Petri Mäkelä (@pmakela1) March 24, 2017
One last note: I’ve mentioned in comments a couple of times that all of the open source reporting and documentation is showing more and more penetration and penetration at all levels. This includes conservative organizations such as the NRA. If anyone was wondering how Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke and Trump campaign surrogate wound up in Moscow getting a briefing from Russia’s Foreign Ministry, well we now know:
In March 2014, the U.S. government sanctioned Dmitry Rogozin—a hardline deputy to Vladimir Putin, the head of Russia’s defense industry and longtime opponent of American power—in retaliation for the invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine.
Eighteen months later, the National Rifle Association, Donald Trump’s most powerful outside ally during the 2016 election, sent a delegation to Moscow that met with him.
The NRA delegation’s 2015 trip to Russia took place the same week, lasting from Dec. 8-13, according to Clarke’s public financial disclosure forms, (PDF), and included not only the people who met with Rogozin but a number of other NRA dignitaries, including donors Dr. Arnold Goldshlager and Hilary Goldschlager, as well as Jim Liberatore, the CEO of the Outdoor Channel.
The Maskirovka Slips XI*: Updates to Four Ongoing ComponentsPost + Comments (319)