Friday, March 17, 2017

Spying

One more time, I hope the last one, let's VERY quickly take a look at spying and US politics.

As part of the Democrats' desperation move to delegitimize and perhaps even abort the Trump presidency, the obedient and well-trained progressive national media took up the theme of Russian hacking of our election and of Russian intel efforts on behalf of Trump's candidacy. Please see the many pieces I have posted on this if you want more details of my views on this.

The Democrats, trying to avoid discussing that their terrible candidate used an illegal private server for classified work while she served as SecState, and to distract from the steady and corrosive drip-drip of information coming out of Wikileaks re a range of Democratic shenanigans, hit on the story of the Trump campaign being in bed with Putin and his agents. A series of "bombshell" "leaks" from what was claimed were intel sources alleged that the Russians were working to get Trump elected and that the Trump campaign not only knew this but was collaborating with Moscow. President Obama, awakening from his eight-year slumber re foreign intel operations against the USA, expelled a number of Russian diplomatic personnel and closed two Russian facilities in New York and in Maryland. As time passed, the Russian story took some different paths: one was a relatively short-lived effort to claim that Russian hackers could have gotten into our voting machines to rig them for Trump; the other, still with us, was to claim that key Trump personnel had meetings with Russian diplomats, including the "spy master" Russian Ambassador. A poor choice of words when testifying before the Senate ended up costing National Security Advisor Flynn his job, and nearly killed off AG Sessions's term before it had even begun. The AG agreed to recuse himself from any DOJ/FBI investigation into Russian involvement in our elections.

Editorial aside: I think Trump's personnel made a mistake. Flynn resigning and Sessions recusing appeared to give credibility to a massive Democratic hatchet job carried out by people who had little to no history of concern for US security. End editorial aside.

As the ceaseless "leaks" and demands for an investigation continued, President Trump angrily tweeted that Obama had placed him and his campaign under surveillance. This unleashed another torrent of abuse from the Dems, their media, and the RINOs demanding that Trump provide the evidence of this spying. They demanded a level of proof not demanded from those claiming Trump was in cahoots with Putin. Well, we now have the Congressional intel oversight committees reporting that they have found no evidence of Obama-ordered surveillance of Trump. Trump's spokesman countered that Obama asked British intelligence to do the deed to avoid American fingerprints. The British have denied that they did any such thing.

Editorial aside: I have worked with British intel folks, and would be very surprised if they had agreed to spy on Trump, at least on an official level. While PM May certainly expressed no love for Trump before the elections, getting Britain involved in US politics in this manner would provide little potential reward as a counter to the many, many liabilities of this sort of behavior being uncovered in our very Wikileaky times. This is not to say that ex-British intel personnel or some sort of once removed type of personnel, e.g., contracted hackers, might, perhaps, maybe, possibly have done something along those lines. Let us not forget that as Hollywood has established, anybody with a Russian or a British accent is almost certainly a villain, so there is that. End of editorial aside.

OK. We are left with the following.

The Dems claim that Trump is in bed with the Russians; Trump denies it and countercharges that the Dems had him under surveillance. We have here a problem. If the Dems have official intel on Trump's connections with Russia, how did they get it? Presumably from the official intel services which then it would appear were monitoring Russian contacts with Trump's people. If there was no surveillance order given to US intel, from where did the intel on Russian contacts come? The British is apparently the Trump answer. I have a more plausible one. I think there was surveillance of Russian activity, probably by the NSA, and it found nothing to show that Trump had contacts with the Russians; the Obamistas and the Clintonistas then made up the accounts of Russian interference. In other words, they lied. That's the most charitable explanation I can develop. There, of course, are harsher ones which I hope are not accurate, ones that would show, once again, Obama's misuse of the nation's intel and enforcement capabilities.

My two roubles and three pennies worth of analysis.

28 comments:

  1. "I think there was surveillance of Russian activity, probably by the NSA, and it found nothing to show that Trump had contacts with the Russians; the Obamistas and the Clintonistas then made up the accounts of Russian interference. In other words, they lied." - WLA

    Thanks for your insight and analysis Mr.Dip

    With all the foreign and domestic anti-American players, including shadow govt imbeds, nasty govt bureaucrats, BO tainted jurists, most marxist media, and their favored 'rats n' rinos, a LIE is probably the closest to the TRUTH that we're gonna get, at least till after the SHTF!

    Till Then, Skoal and Happy St Paddys Day, or as my Ol' Grand Dad, the Sgt. Major used to say to his friends and foes alike: "póg mo thóin"!

    Cheers~~~
    On Watch

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    1. Slainte' and 'we don't use "Paddy" anymore.

      F3

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    2. You doona drink Paddys then! Well I'll be sure to pass the word to our decendent micks, err, the McCormacks and McMahons ;) ... and may the divil snooze all day today, whilst US heathens celebrate this blessed and loovely Saint Patrick's day!

      Good Health F3!

      On Watch~~~

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  2. Good analysis. I think that about sums it up. Too bad about Flynn and Sessions misspeaking, but I have heard whispers that not having Flynn in the NSC might ultimately be a good thing as he is not a good manager. I don't have any insight one way or another on that, just repeating a rumor from someone who has been reliably informed in past.

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  3. "A poor choice of words when testifying before the Senate ended up costing National Security Advisor Flynn his job"

    I think Gen'l Flynn has a disclosure problem. He didn't disclose his Turkish connections (revealed shortly after the election), he didn't disclose everything Trump thinks he should have to the Veep, and we didn't know about the money he received from Russia until yesterday. Shouldn't Flynn have filed to be a RFA?

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    1. RFA = Registered Foreign Agent?

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    2. Probably. He turned out not to be a great choice.

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    3. Maybe so Dip...
      At least tho Flynn resigned in a timely military manner! Not bad for Democrat, who had been marked for marginalization by the Obama admin which had elevated him: "...in one final interview as DIA director, he felt like a lone voice in thinking that the United States was less safe from the threat of Islamic terrorism in 2014 than it was prior to the 9/11 attacks; he went on to believe that he was pressed into retirement for questioning the Obama administration's public narrative that Al Qaeda was close to defeat.[32] Journalist Seymour Hersh wrote that "Flynn confirmed [to Hersh] that his agency had sent a constant stream of classified warnings ... about the dire consequences of toppling [Syrian President] Assad." Flynn recounted that his agency was producing intelligence reports indicating that radical Islamists were the main force in the Syrian insurgency and "that Turkey was looking the other way when it came to the growth of the Islamic State inside Syria". According to Flynn, these reports "got enormous pushback from the Obama administration," who he felt "did not want to hear the truth". According to former DIA official W. Patrick Lang: "Flynn incurred the wrath of the White House by insisting on telling the truth about Syria ... they shoved him out. He wouldn't shut up."[33]" wiki excerpt

      MOT and Hand salute General Flynn, hope to see you continue the good fight in your capacity as a private intel advisor!

      On Watch~~~

      P.S. If you haven't already done so, may I suggest you resign from the Democrat Party as well!

      "Let's Roll"

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  4. Russia back in Dems corner -Russia announces deepest defense cuts since 1990s [Not Really]. Just in time to give Democrats ammunition to attack Trump's increase in defense spending.

    Davod

    https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/259998/#respond

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  5. The essential point is that the Clinton's "pay for play" Slush Fund and Treasonous behavior with her Intel Felonies is off the USSA sheeples minds thanks to the MSM/ ProgreSSive DemocRats/Rinos and NWO Deep State.

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  6. The judge's info is not too far fetched, IMO. The Brits could have the NSA info. or this: https://spectator.org/how-john-brennan-and-some-brits-tried-to-tip-the-election-to-hillary/
    Since the 1960's the West has had agreements about sharing information from other countries spying that has evolved into spying on other country's citizens to get around their domestic spying laws. ECHELON, originally a secret government code name, is a surveillance program (signals intelligence/SIGINT collection and analysis network) operated on behalf of the five signatory nations to the UKUSA Security Agreement - Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, also known as the Five Eyes.

    http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/03/judge-napolitano-obama-went-british-intelligence-spy-trump-video/

    Agreed that no one has evidence of either accusations. But unfortunately the MSM has a larger bully pulpit and people are inclined to think the worse of people even when there is no evidence.

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  7. Democrats lied!?!?!? Impossible sir, just ask them. I do think that Trump's counter charge against Obama was pretty smart. It got people talking about things that the O (or his backers) would probably like everyone to forget. It also sent him to the other side of the world on vacation to get news of his posh Washington digs off the news. Speaking of that, the whole D.C. house with Jarret moving in was a pretty weird story which didn't play nearly as well as some people thought it would.
    Trump has a long hard fight ahead of him. His enemies correctly see him and his supporters as direct threats to their political and most importantly financial existence. The American people are his best allies and he needs to rally them on a constant basis to counter his enemies and pressure that stupid Congress. If he continues the fight good things will continue to come.

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  8. You've written the libretto ... next comes the opera, fat ladies and all!

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    1. Yeah George!
      "Fat bottom girls make the rockin world go 'round..." ;)
      OW~~~
      "Let's Roll"

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  9. I submit the FISA request that was turned down in June, for the 13th time out of some 30,000 since FISa's inception, was supposed to be the October surprise. Once it was refused, someone got the brilliant idea to 'ping' the Trump Tower computer from the Russian bank for the nexus to the Russians. Once the 'ping' was taken back to FISA, in a much narrower warrant, it was expanded in the field to include whatever they wanted it to include. Instead of being an October surprise it turned into a belated attack to discredit the president-elect, now the president.

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  10. Lowly Knave,
    That's pretty good. I could go with that.

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  11. Administration should blow the doors off this... obviously there's a huge problem. Why wait for the next Snowden to declassify everything unilaterally?
    Open up sources, methodologies, everything related to this.
    If the dems are going to make an existential crisis out of this, then opening up everything is necessary.

    - reader #1482

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  12. I have had a suspicion for many years that the sharing of communications intelligence by the five major English speaking nations (Five Eyes) included a provision allowing one of the participating nations to monitor another to avoid legalities.

    A hint of cross monitoring came on a 60 Minutes segment around 2004. It was an interview of former CSE (Canadian equivalent of NSA) employee. He had resigned because he felt the intercepts had become overly intrusive. He described the intelligence collection efforts as inhaling all communications from the ether (electromagnetic space), then looking for keywords, targeted phone numbers, names, etc. He described an incident were two mothers were discussing their high school sons. One said her son “bombed” on a test. The use of that word required him put the mother on a watch list. Canada has similar laws to the US on individual privacy that would preclude CSE from monitoring its own citizens. And also “bombing” on a test is primarily US slang,

    It is not unreasonable that GCHQ (UK equivalent of NSA) might have intercepts on file of high level US politicians who might be in touch with Russians or political enemies during the Obama administration.

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  13. I read this morning that Putin is not putting under investigation in his country all media outlets. I reckon this might be the ultimate get even match ever seen. It was our media outlets who proffered this Russia stole the election, without one wit of common sense and no details. Thus the Dems ran with that....daily and still do.
    Now, here is Putin coming after the neophytes of the Demo party (oh, excuse me....journalists and other reporters)....and I bet he will curtail any operations they have ongoing in his country.
    Payback....indeed....

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  14. Diplomad,

    I've been saying this everywhere I get a chance, the assistant AG for National Security, John Carlin, resigned from office on Oct 12th just a few days before the FISA court

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    1. That is the reported Oct 15 FISA court warrant.

      My guess is the Obama admin sought a warrant on the Russians as a back door to spy on the Trump campaign

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    2. The assistant AG for NatSec is the person responsible for pursuing FISA warrants

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    3. I believe it all.....having once been stationed in that town. Never saw so much wrongdoing in my entire life. I'd fly home to work with my Daddy on the ranch at least four times a year. When Geo Bush went home to chop brush on his ranch, I understood his reason, fully.
      It is a vile and shameful place, our capital and folks there think if you do not think as they do, you need to be told what to do or how to live. I saw all that over 30 years ago. I will never return there to visit even for a day.....I'd rather step in cow manure on my own ranch. At least I'd know to clean my feet before I entered my ranch house.
      In D.C. they are neck deep in manure, clueless of the smell, and tracking it into the homes of all of us in the rest of the nation.
      They need to be hosed out.
      An honorable man would resign, like AG John Carlin. Truth is in the quietness of him after he retires. A man like him would never go telling a thing about why. Yet Congress will never call him to a closed door meeting to find out why. They just play word games with Comey, and not even efficiently.
      East Texas Rancher

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  15. The political arsonist Chuck Schemer participated in setting a fire and has been fanning the flames ever since. PDT set a backfire to counteract the Dems' misdeeds. In the end, burnt ash is about all this is likely amount to, and the arsonists will go free.

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    1. "Chuck Schemer [et al] participated in setting a fire...In the end...the arsonists will go free."

      Let's hope not Brother!
      On Watch~~~
      "Let's Roll"

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  16. For the Archives:
    Intelligence, what is it, and what are our Foreign and Domestic enemies, and/or US Governmental entities doing with it?

    "Just utter the word “intelligence” and most people conjure up images of spies, secret satellites peering down on foreign cities and terrorist camps, and rooms full of young technocrats reading private emails and listening to private conversations. These images are accurate, but they reflect the tools and techniques of our intelligence service, rather than its purpose."
    . . .
    "In the intelligence business...
    you must abandon your flawed thesis and re-think the issue. If you refuse to do this, you’re like a scientist who continues to insist that the Earth is flat—or a president who continues to insist that ISIS is like a “junior varsity” team. - Herbert E.Meyer

    https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/how-intelligence-works-when-it-does/

    OW~~~

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  17. Friday night Special Report with Bret Baier featured A. B. Stoddard and Charles Krauthammer both stating categorically that Trump’s allegation of being spied on is false.
    Stoddard rolled her eyes and called Trump an “international embarrassment,” accused him of levelling false allegations and threatening America’s alliances and international order.
    The media is getting hysterical about Trump’s failure to retract or hunker down when they attack. That's what they are accustomed to from Republicans and they are deeply angry that Trump is not following the script.
    Charles Krauthammer said that:
    “It’s a farce, you know, the idea that everyone in this town – the media – the agencies – the congress – are running around chasing their tails on a story that everyone knows it’s not true, but having to pretend that it might be because he’s the President when we know how it’s going to end.”
    It’s absurd. Neither of these media personalities know that Trump was not under surveillance and that his team’s conversations were not recorded. They can’t possibly know but they want to believe that Team Obama would never do that. The same administration that weaponized the IRS to go after the Tea Party, that created Fast and Furious so that Mexican drug cartels would have access to American guns, that brazenly lied to get Obamacare passed, that appointed a guy who supported the Communist Party as head of the CIA and who lied to congress about the extent to which the American people are spied on.
    If there was no surveillance we have to conclude that the press lied instead of passing along "leaks" from the Deep State; that they made up stories out of whole cloth and lied about those "Trump and his people are tied to the Russians" stories. It's possible, there’s Jason Blair who fabricated a series of stories for the NY Times. We are unaware of multiple media organs promoting the same story using the same unnamed intelligence sources all lying. The NY Times and the Washington Post are not running any stories backing off their earlier claims that electronic surveillance showed that Team Trump was in contact with the Russians. These papers are writing as if these revelations prove that Russia was behind the Trump victory. Of course the stories prove no such thing, but they do prove that the intelligence community is feeding information to the press. So both Stoddard and Krauthammer are accusing the largest American media organs of lying.
    Judge Andrew Napolitano’s story is logically consistent. He claims that British Intelligence has access to NSA intercepts. He accused Team Obama of going to GCHQ to get information from NSA about NSA records of Team trump conversations ... intercepted by NSA. There is no accusation that GCHQ spied on Team Trump. There has been no denial that GCHQ and NSA share information. The British denial is pro-forma and as dismissible as our head of intelligence stating that the NSA does not have records on Americans; a lie.
    Why would Team Obama take that route? Simple, it does not leave legal trails, no FISA requests, no court orders. Spooks talking to spooks don’t leave a paper trail.
    The reason that people like Stoddard and Krauthammer claim that Trump lied is the same reason that neither one of them believed during the campaign that Trump would be elected. He’s just not the kind of person they see in the role of American President. Even now, months after the inauguration, they are denying his legitimacy. Stoddard refuses to believe a President who acts like Trump is real or legitimate. She wants the President to act like her Central Casting's image of a president. They deny he’s the President and deny his very rational assertions that his conversations and that of his aides were recorded and disseminated to the news media in an attempt to attack him and impugn his legitimacy.

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  18. Lunge, parry, thrust... MoneyMan!

    >>"Even now, months after the inauguration, they are denying his legitimacy. Stoddard refuses to believe a President who acts like Trump is real or legitimate. She wants the President to act like her Central Casting's image of a president."<<

    Concur, but what else can we expect from the loins of Brandon Stoddard, the former president of ABC Entertainment and the grease that got A.B. her gig at ABC as a producer for World News Tonight and then as U.S. Senate stroker and apologist for ABC News!?


    >>"They deny he’s the President and deny his very rational assertions that his conversations and that of his aides were recorded and disseminated to the news media in an attempt to attack him and impugn his legitimacy."<<

    Exactly so! And that has been the Krauthammer 'Never Trump' modis operandi all through the campaign and only recently modulated, to keep his lucrative seat on Bill O'Reilly's cartoon show! To me the only difference between the FRUM and KRAUT political persuasion and analytic stylings is an unused Medical degree! RINOs both!

    More troubling is the decline of Bret Baier since he hitched his wagon to "I Like Ike"! Or perhaps its the natural outcome of the FOX fall into the koala-realm of Murdock's sons?

    Truth be told Trump has accomplished more corrective change and exposed more media and Govt. collusion, corruption, constipation in his 2 months at the helm than in 2 terms of BO and the 2nd one of Dubya!

    So, as most of US "deplorables" believe/think, anything else Trump is able to accomplish is all gravy! And I'll be with him against all comers and pretenders till the TRUMPeter sounds Taps on his campaign to "Make America Great Again", and retires form the field of battle!

    On Watch~~~
    "Let's Roll"

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