If I were advising Trump ...

"Executive Order 13526 was issued on December 29, 2009 by United States President Barack Obama.^[1] It is the latest in a series of executive orders from US Presidents outlining how classified information should be handled. It revokes and replaces the previous Executive Orders in effect for this, which were EO 12958 (text) and EO 13292 (text)."  wiki

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Listen up, pilgrims!  The system of classifying most US government information originates in an Executive Order, not in federal law. 

If you watched the senate hearing yesterday presided over by Lindsay Graham it quickly became evident that he was to some extent channeling Roy Cohn in the long ago Army-McCarthy hearings (1954).  I was a boy then but, freaky kid that I was, I was glued to our tiny black and white TV set to watch.  "Have you no sense of decency left? " Lawyer Welch asked Senator Joe McCarthy.   I had the feeling yesterday watching Senators Feinstein and Whitehouse try to torture responses into new meanings that this was a "star chamber" proceeding in the fullest meaning of the term.  A clear example was Feinstein's attempt to twist the former AG's statement that Flynn "could have been compromised" into "Flynn compromised the national security of the US."  It seems evident to me that a certain element in the Democratic Party is intent on portraying both Flynn and Trump as traitorous agents of Russis.  

Well, pilgrims, life is not just a bowl of cherries and fire should be fought with fire.  The president is the ultimate declassification authority.  As noted above, the classification and security clearance structure and procedures are created thought Executive Orders (with the exception of atomic energy information).  In other words, with that exception, the president can declassify anything that is presently classified.

It is not a crime to talk to Russian officials. Flynn talked to the Russian ambassador on circuits that were commercial and unencrypted telephones.  Presumably they spoke in English.  The whole world knows that these conversations took place.  The New York Times revealed this to the world after someone in the government told them.  The whole world knows that all capable governments eavesdrop on foreign government officials.  This is a secret without effective secrecy.  Was the information collected by a cooperating foreign service?  Well, that is just too bad!  The political situation in the US is so toxic that exceptional disclosures by the US government are justified. 

IMO, the president should declassify the transcripts of the intercepted Flynn/Russian ambassador conversations and the present DNI should release them himself at a presser with release of hard copies of the documents to the press.

If Flynn was guilty of something more than chatting with this Russian diplomat or any others, the transcripts will show that.  pl

ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_13526

Comments

[turcopolier]

Yes, but for what?  Ok

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[robt willmann]

Off topic ... but then again, maybe on topic. President Trump has removed James Comey from employment as the Director of the FBI, after a letter from Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The brief article includes a copy of Sessions's letter--

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-09/president-trump-fires-fbi-director-james-comey

I have not yet found the memo written by the new deputy attorney general.

[walrus]

Does the Logan act apply to a President - elect before inauguration? Could Flynn have been passing a communication from Trump to Putin? Would that explain a reluctance to declassify?

[turcopolier]

That could be but there has never been a prosecution under the act. Pl 

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[Keith Harbaugh]

Colonel Lang said:

It seems evident to me that
a certain element in the Democratic Party
is intent on portraying both Flynn and Trump
as traitorous agents of Russia.

Amen!
I would only add: and the media,
certainly including both the Washington Post and New York Times.

[Ash TheLightningFan]

Mr. Lang,

Given that background...do you buy into the "Team Petraeus vs. Flynn-Stones" framing?

[kooshy]

Comey just got fired,he had it coming

[turcopolier]

Not sure yet. Pl

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[Fred]

Markf,

And if Slick Willie gets $500,000 for a speech in Moscow it's got good ole American jawboning.

[turcopolier]

IMO the radical Dems seek to invalidate the election. Pl

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[John LeDell]

On a related subject what do people think of Trump firing Comey today?

[phodges]

Lots of removed comments. I feel like I am reading a redacted document :)

[Valissa]

LOL... about time...

President Trump dismisses FBI Director Comey https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/comey-misstated-key-clinton-email-evidence-at-hearing-say-people-close-to-investigation/2017/05/09/074c1c7e-34bd-11e7-b373-418f6849a004_story.html

[Shnozzola]

If I were advising Trump ...

Would you advise him to fire the FBI director at this time?

[Lefty]

Yep, what it has all been about is it not? Bizarre that they've taken to calling themselves the "resistance".

[John_Frank]

Suggest people go back and listen to what the President said sometime ago during a press conference.

Mr. Trump did not say that he told General Flynn to talk with the Russian ambassador, but rather that was Flynn's job and Trump had no problem with what Flynn did.

This whole issue is a manufactured crisis, in an effort to continue to undermine the Trump administration.

P.S. According to reports, after meeting with Secretary Tillerson, FM Lavarov will have a meeting with the President.

[John_Frank]

In somewhat related news:

Text of President's letter to FBI Director Comey telling him he is fired, along with enclosures
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trumps-letter-to-james-comey-telling-him-he-is-fired-read-the-full-letter/article/2622610

I write somewhat, because those seeking to overturn the election results will seek to use this, along with the President's meeting with FM Lavarov as more evidence of a 'conspiracy.'

[VietnamVet]

Colonel,

Hopeful the deletion of the last three comments by the moderator was a minor snafu not the unleashing of NSA against dissident blogs.

With the firing of James Comey, there is a full blown constitutional crisis underway; but unlike Richard Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre, the Democrats cannot do a damn thing about it.

This is all tied up with Michael Flynn and classified secrets. Warfare has broken out between the globalists and nationalists within the government. This is all about what was on Carlos Danger’s laptop besides pictures of his dick. NYPD said it was explosive. James Comney said it was thousands of Hillary Clinton e-mails and around ten that were classified. (Note; a seaman was jailed for tossing in the trash his cellphone with selfies taken inside a nuclear submarine.) The media now says “just several” e-mails were on the laptop.

With all the backstabbing, no one knows what is the official story line. This doesn’t inspire confidence that re-surge into Afghanistan or the new Cold War with Russia will turn out well.

Reality has been tossed in the dumpster.

[John_Frank]

fyi Federal Prosecutors have issued grand jury subpoenas to associates of Michael Flynn
http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/09/politics/grand-jury-fbi-russia/index.html

The investigation has nothing to do with Flynn's discussions with the Russian Ambassador, but rather his business dealings and whether he failed to properly report them.

[John_Frank]

Not just Democrats. IMV there is also a contingent on the right that seeks to overturn the election results.

[Paul Mooney]

I'm not sure I would de-classify in any case.

Doing so kind of establishes the idea that if de-classification can exonerate me I will de-classify but if it can't I won't. This might be problematic some time in the future when I decide for whatever reason something must stay classified.

In addition I believe one thing the aggressors want are more documents. It is almost certain that more documents will lead to more questions then then to clamoring for more documents. I don't think this particular beast can ever be sated.

[Laura]

turcopolier -- IHO, the radical Dems are getting all the help they need from the Administration itself.

Yes, I am partisan...but, first and foremost, I am an American who reveres the Constitution and the rule of law and the national interest (both foreign and domestic).

[Walrus]

Comedy has been fired!

[Green Zone Café]

I didn't think Flynn did anything wrong, talking to the Russian ambassador. Seems like a normal thing an incoming NSA would do. Yes, his lobbying for Turkey and taking money from RT smells, but hardly something to hold a retired Lt. Gen. in thrall to a foreign power.

But after this Comey firing, my prediction is that Flynn will be made into a scapegoat and have to bear the load of all the "Russia" stuff. Facts be damned. They will lock him in a place with "special administrative measures" to ensure his silence.

This is based on my experience in Iraq, where petty thieves and pirates were prosecuted while major systemic corruption and those politically connected got a pass.

[Dabbler]

With due respect, it's Hillary dems rather than radical dems who seek to invalidate the election. Radical dems, for better or worse, are focused more on issues and general opposition.

Off-topic (if there's any interest), things appear quite calm in the immediate vicinity of the Hanford site. The PUREX tunnels, source of today's heavily publicized soil collapse, contain a concentration of unique and intensely radioactive material, but the material is not mobile and effects/consequences are not likely to be widespread, except for politics and cleanup funding.