HARPER: DEMOCRATS THREW THE FIRST PUNCH

Now that the Devin Nunes memo is out in the public—with no redactions—and a counter-memo by Adam Schiff is expected to be released within days, it is a good moment to step back and look at the bigger picture of what has gone wrong with our system and where we are headed as a country.

 First, it has been clear, long before the Nunes memo flap, that a network operating within the U.S. law enforcement and intelligence community had it out for Donald Trump for reasons that had little or nothing to do with alleged Russian ties.  Hardcore Obama-Clinton loyalists at the top of the FBI, the CIA, the ODNI and the DOJ abused their positions in a flagrant partisan effort to prevent Donald Trump’s election.  After he won the presidency, they continued in their efforts to deny him the job, deluding themselves that they could forestall the inauguration by claiming that Trump’s victory was solely the result of Russian interference, and by extension, that Trump was a blackmailed dupe of Moscow and Putin.

Post-Nunes memo claims by the Borg media that it was the George Papadopoulos comments to an Australian diplomat that led to the FISA Court surveillance request—not the Steele MI6 memos—are flagrantly phony.  The Steele memos were passed to the FBI, as well as to Fusion GPS from the outset.  The references to Carter Page appeared in Steele memos months before the FISA Court applications, and before the alleged Peter Strzok probe of Page began in late July 2016 (Page’s name came up in the July 19, 2016 Steele memo and the allegations of Russian possession of damaging material on Hillary Clinton were in the first Steele memo, dated June 20, 2016).

It is one thing for people in government service to have political views and biases, it is another thing for those biases to infect the workings of our law enforcement and intelligence agencies.  Likewise for the House Select Committee on Intelligence, which had been one of the last bastions of non-partisan work on Capitol Hill (the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence appears to have preserved some semblance of bipartisan collaboration).  That above-politics commitment has been trashed and it may never be restored.  And it began with Adam Schiff, who seems to have spent half his time on CNN and MSNBC since the Trump election.

While the entire Mueller probe may have been the result of the fruit of a poison tree (the salacious Steele allegations, which even the FBI admitted were never corroborated), I doubt that the Mueller probe will be shut down before completion.  Mueller moved quickly to dismiss Strzok and Page once the amorous emails were turned over to him in July 2017 and somewhat insulated himself from their bile.

 If there was credible evidence of Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 elections—outside of the toxic claims in the Steele dossier—that is a fair subject for counterintelligence investigation.  But it is becoming more and more clear that the inclusion of President Trump in the Mueller probe derived almost 100 percent from the Steele product.  FBI Director James Comey read the documents and was reportedly so horrified that he threw himself fully into the scheme—along with Obama partisans John Brennan and James Clapper—to stop Donald Trump from taking office.

That, IMHO, is criminal.  Comey, Brennan and Clapper are legitimate targets for Federal investigation.  Only by getting to the bottom of the abuse of the awesome powers of the Federal law enforcement and intelligence services can we hope to ever restore credibility and non-partisanship, two hallmarks of a genuine republic. 

Comments

[LeaNder]

Is this Steele memo still available net wise, Harper, SST'lers? I am not particularly drawn to smear campaigns. ... And admittedly the reported pissing prostitutes were enough for me to not take a further look. Sounded pretty silly.

[Anna]

Here is one of the explanations of the "abuse:" https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/02/03/democrat-mike-whitneys-take-russiagate/
"That the plan to undermine Trump has catastrophically backfired turning the most reactionary, right wing president in our history into a populist hero fighting against an evil and corrupt political establishment. (Way to go, Dems. Time for a victory lap.) That the corrupt media is joined at the hip with elements in the deep state that work overtime to deceive and mislead the American people. (Nothing new, but bears repeating). ... Whitney points out that by lining up with the Deep State, the liberal/progressive/left has destroyed itself. This raises the question whether Russiagate was the Deep State’s conspiracy against Trump or the Deep State’s plan to destroy those opposed to war and wasting another trillion dollars on nuclear weapons." http://www.unz.com/mwhitney/the-loser-dems/

[EEngineer]

It appears a constitutional crisis or confrontation is almost inevitable at this point. Too many of the actors seem to have gone all-in, or are just too naive to understand the gravity of the situation or how it could play out. This is the stuff revolutions are made of.

I'm a fan of Kunstler's bi-weekly tirade. This Friday's was on "The Memo".
http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/sotu-klaatu-barada-nikto/

[Laura]

The Steele memo was not the basis of the investigation. The Nunes memo states that very clearly. (see below) The extensive discussion of the Steele memo in the Nunes memo is a red herring --- do not follow it.

"The Page FISA application also mentions information regarding fellow Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos, but there is no evidence of any cooperation or conspiracy between Page and Papadopoulos. The Papadopoulos information triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 by FBI agent Pete Strzok."

[Tim B.]

It's pretty simple really. Prior to the election, Trump said he wanted better relations with Russia and that the US and Russia should be allies in the fight against ISIS and al-Qaeda.

The warmongers fought back with smears. And here we are.

[Huckleberry]

Criminal prosecutions of traitors is necessary, but merely treats the symptoms and not the disease.

"Only by getting to the bottom of toxic Israeli influence on the awesome powers of the Federal government and its intelligence and armed services can we hope to ever restore credibility and patriotism, two hallmarks of a genuine republic."

[Lars]

With a steel guitar and a banjo, this post can be made into a country ballad. It has all the crying elements. But there is a reason why so many Republicans are leaving the House. It is akin to the rats leaving a sinking ship.

If there is a Deep State, why has it all Republicans at the top? There has never been a Democrat leading the FBI. Maybe it is time?

[BillWade]

Anna, I think and hope it's the former:

This raises the question whether Russiagate was the Deep State’s conspiracy against Trump or the Deep State’s plan to destroy those opposed to war and wasting another trillion dollars on nuclear weapons.

I think it's the former as President Trump could have just said, "While I certainly appreciate Rep. Nunes' memo, mainly because it completely exonerates myself of this "Russiagate" nonsense, I'll have to deny it's release on national security grounds. Then one can imagine how things would go from there.

[plantman]

Harper says: But it is becoming more and more clear that the inclusion of President Trump in the Mueller probe derived almost 100 percent from the Steele product.

Yes, yes, YES.
This is critical to understanding what really happened.

Trump was an afterthought, that was attached to the original (CIA-generated Information Operation) to attack Russia. Brennan was already working on a plan to demonize his arch rival Russia (that had stopped him in Ukraine and Syria) BEFORE THE DOSSIER WAS EVER WRITTEN.

Then along came the Dems who decided that the same trope would work for them in the 2016 presidential campaign. They needed a scapegoat to blame for the release of the Clinton embarrassing emails , so VOILA-- "Russia did it!"

For Brennan the merging of interests created a "two birds with one stone" scenario where Russia was branded as an enemy of the state while Trump was branded as a "Putin stooge".

What could go wrong?

A 4-page memo, that's what.

[robt willmann]

LeaNder,

Here is the 35-page paper attributed to Christopher Steele. Attaching the phony label "dossier" to it is a little twist of cognitive psychology to lead people into thinking that it has more credibility that it otherwise would have--

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3259984/Trump-Intelligence-Allegations.pdf

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3259984-Trump-Intelligence-Allegations.html

https://www.buzzfeed.com/kenbensinger/these-reports-allege-trump-has-deep-ties-to-russia?utm_term=.kprPN1lVz#.hi0OdV13W

[Sid_finster]

Something useful I read, Caity Johnstone's definition definition of the Deep State:

https://steemit.com/politics/@caitlinjohnstone/the-biggest-nunes-memo-revelations-have-little-to-do-with-its-content

[catherine]

I would hesitate to tar the entire FBI as for Hillary and against Trump but I am quite content to watch the Dems and Repubs eat each other.

There may be an 'accidental' good in all this depending on how one feels about whistle blowers. With the exception of military intel I am all for every word politicians and deep state puppet masters utter being exposed to the public.

https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/crime/item/27936-trump-admin-begins-paving-the-way-for-wikileaks-julian-assange-to-go-free

" Even more promising to Assange’s plight is the fact that President Trump’s lawyers have filed a motion with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia arguing that Assange’s publication of the DNC and John Podesta e-mails was protected by the First Amendment even if the e-mails were stolen.

'While that motion is specifically geared toward Assange’s publication of the DNC and Podesta e-mails, it recognizes WikiLeaks as a valid media organization protected by the First Amendment. WikiLeaks has not always been seen in that light by the powers-that-be in the U.S. government.

[SmoothieX12]

But it is becoming more and more clear that the inclusion of President Trump in the Mueller probe derived almost 100 percent from the Steele product. FBI Director James Comey read the documents and was reportedly so horrified that he threw himself fully into the scheme—along with Obama partisans John Brennan and James Clapper—to stop Donald Trump from taking office.

Exactly! That is what this whole thing is about--it is about Steele's "Dossier". Ramifications of using what amounts to high school girls bathroom rumors as a valid excuse for starting "investigation" in no less than candidate and now POTUS is unprecedented. At least in Watergate there was some actual intrusion.

[Rd]

“it is a good moment to step back and look at the bigger picture of what has gone wrong with our system and where we are headed as a country. “

The problems are ‘mainly’ the baby boomers, from the low end to the mid and the higher ends. They are behaving like a very spoiled child. Spoiled with a generous society that for the most part provided them with safety and prosperity. Looking thru the lens of their grand parents and parents generations of the 1910s, 20s and the 1930s, 40s. The boomers came along after their G. parents suffered thru the previous generation of robber barons and then their wars. By then, life and society had settled down. The economy was booming, the family and the home was there with dad working and mom looking after boomers. The public school was functioning, the partying, drugs, music was aplenty. College was affordable and readily available and much much more.
Perhaps the “only” bright moment could be considered the Vietnam war demonstrations. And that was simply due to their understanding of serving in a loosing war, they are likely to come back in body bags. After that, they had their jobs, careers, the house, dogs, two cars, etc.. and now, they are retiring to their motorhomes (those who can afford it) and traveling and enjoying their pensions, 401k, etc..

Generally, They have no interest to change anything! Regardless of their worth status. They are the ones who neglected to do their bidding to keep their government in check (excepting folks like Nader, etc, and Nader is shunned by most of them!). Just showing up at the booth and voting mindlessly will not do.
not much will change while they are around. The next generation who ,to some extend had been living with parents or of parents, have no motivation.
If this is to be the government of the people, by the people, for the people, the boomers, left for good and the government became hi-jacked. However, this generation had all the comforts of the society in general. They did not suffer like those in the early 20th, no comparison. So it seems, they in “general” behaved as the “spoiled” child and did not take the responsibility to “govern” regardless of being heart bleeding this or that.

Those are the behaviors associated to a spoiled child who has no compass. They have no reason to see things differently. Regardless of being demo, or republican, atheist v religious, poor or rich. They had all the comfort of the society, unlike what many people experience in most other parts of this world. By comfort, I don’t mean wealth. They had a society that had some level of checks and balances. It had the freedom, privacy, some of level guarantee for personal property , etc….

How do you change the behavior, or perspective of an spoiled child? They have no reason to do so. Thats why, not much will change here, except, there will be more poor. Some 50% make less than 27k/yr, while some 48% feel the economy is doing good. In 5 yrs, there will be more of the 50% and less of the 48%, not much will change. Perhaps some more violence and more of the extremists here and there. There is still way too much comfort (or perceived comfort) here for most, even in the lower ends.

The failure of the occupy movement in GENERAL is one example. Neither the left over boomers, nor their off-springs felt the need to endanger their status quo. So no resistance. It folded when the party became stale.

Such are the stories of human societies past and present. how do you get the masses to wake up? when there is pain and suffering, they’ll pay attention. Seems like we have yet to leave the caveman’s mentality.

So, With due respect, please don't blame the government. Not that they don't deserve being blamed. However, the gov of people by the people and for the people requires folks to be involved..

btw, some of those necons and the establishments too would be part of these boomers. They too, are not willing to change despite continued failed FP practices that are very damaging to the empire. Perhaps, dollar failure or financial bust for the country, ‘may’ wake up folks. Such is life and deaf of societies, not the first, nor the last one.. if you can figure out how to get thru average folk, then change will be fairly easy to follow.

[Jack]

Do you know which investigation was launched July 2016? Carter Page FISA warrant was issued October 2016.

[Richardstevenhack]

I just looked at Wikipedia's entry on Carter Page. As far as I can see, the complaints against him amount to "he worked in Russia" and "he admires Putin." Also, he's an "idiot."

Apparently this was enough to convince a FISA judge - who as Glenn Greenwald mentions yesterday is 99.8% likely to approve a FISA warrant - that Page is some sort of "covert agent engaging in clandestine intelligence against the US for the benefit of Russia."

According to a Wikipedia entry detailing the collusion charges, the following is stated:

Quote

In a March 2016 interview, Trump identified Carter Page, who had previously been an investment banker in Moscow, as a foreign policy adviser to his campaign.[86] Page became a foreign policy advisor to Trump in the summer of 2016. During the investigation into the Russian interference in the 2016 elections, Page's past contacts with Russians came to public attention.[87] In 2013 Page met with Viktor Podobnyy, then a junior attaché at the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, at an energy conference, and provided him with documents on the U.S. energy industry.[88] Page later said that he provided only "basic immaterial information and publicly available research documents" to Podobnyy.[87] Podobnyy was later one of a group of three Russian men charged by the U.S. authorities for participation in a Russian spy ring; Podobnyy and one of the other men was protected by diplomatic immunity from prosecution; a third man, who was spying for the Russia under non-diplomatic cover, pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an unregistered foreign agent and was sentenced to prison.[87] The men had attempted to recruit Page to work for the Russian SVR. The FBI interviewed Page in 2013 "as part of an investigation into the spy ring, but decided that he had not known the man was a spy", and never accused Page of wrongdoing.

End Quote

It was until Page's name surface in the Steele dossier that he again became a "person of interest" and subsequently became investigated by the FBI, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

Clearly therefore Page was only of real interest because of the Steele dossier.

That this is weak sauce should be obvious to anyone.

Absent obtaining evidence that Page illegally obtained classified documents and revealed them to Russian agents, or has been in contact with known Russian agents (REAL Russian agents, not just random Russians) and has been given orders from them and obeyed those orders, I find it highly likely that this was just another routine investigation that an FBI agent with a phone, some Internet research and an hour's interview with Page could have dismissed.

The same applies to the Papadopoulos "intel".

[Anna]

"Deputy Director McCabe testified before the Committee in December 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISC without the Steele dossier information." See the record.

[D]

Except that NYT claims "...[Carter Page's] trip last July was a catalyst for the F.B.I. investigation into connections between Russia and President Trump’s campaign, according to current and former law enforcement and intelligence officials."
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/us/politics/carter-page-russia-trump.html

[Harper]

The investigation that began in late July 2016 was an investigation of Trump possible Russian ties. It was based solely on the material that Steele passed to the FBI in his first two "dodgy dossiers." Part of the Steele-triggered investigation dealt with Carter Page, part with the claims of Russian blackmail on Trump, part with the allegations of Russian leaking of the DNC emails.

[Harper]

Steele memos are fully accessible in their original typed format on the internet. Just do a basic Google search on Steele dossier and the third or fourth item down will be the PDF of the 35 pages. Take note that the dossier is actually a series of reports, each of which is dated. Both Fusion GPS and the FBI got copies, probably in close time proximity. FBI had reached out to Steele, who had worked with both the FBI and the State Department over the years, requesting copies of all of the memos he provided to Fusion GPS, after they were given a copy of his first June 20, 2016 memo.

[Harper]

Laura, please re-read my posting. As I point out, the first mention of Carter Page in the Steele memos is in July 2016. That memo was shared with the FBI, as well as with the Hillary campaign and the DNC via Fusion GPS (the FBI asked for copies of all of Steele's memos after seeing his initial June 20, 2016 memo). The probe of Carter Page began right after that. Nothing in the George Papadopoulos material related to Carter Page, and if there is a distraction it is Papadopoulos, not Steele. Nobody has really dug deeply into GP. I have my own suspicions that he was sent in to the Trump campaign as an informant/provocateur in the first place, possibly by the FBI. That is my conjecture, not fact, but when things got very testy around the Steele dossier being the source of the FISA order, the NYT and others suddenly discovered that it all really traced back to a drunken chat between GP and the Australian ambassador to the UK--who is a well-known neocon and I suspect a hater of Trump.

[ed]

Excellent exposition, but I still cannot understand why no one seems to have read of the forensics run by Bill Binney (former technical director of the NSA and its in-house genius for many years) and his colleagues proving that the DNC emails were leaked locally not hacked over the internet, or that Pompeo was personally briefed by Binney. See for example: https://consortiumnews.com/2018/01/01/the-still-missing-evidence-of-russia-gate/ and,
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/10/29/the-democratic-money-behind-russia-gate/ and,
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/09/20/more-holes-in-russia-gate-narrative/

This has been in the public domain for months but never picked up by the Times, WAPO or other MSM. No wonder.

Furthermore, that the Russians influenced our elections has been a ludicrous canard and distraction concocted to cover for Clinton’s felonious takeover of the Democratic party, her surprising defeat (to which the Democratic leadership still cannot reconcile itself) - and the DNC’s and Borg’s attempt to disable a constitutionally elected President, and trigger a new cold war with Russia.

[Richardstevenhack]

It is unfortunate that Binney and the VIPS crew got turned around by The Forensicator's analysis.

That analysis does not apply to the original DNC emails provided to Wikileaks. It only applies to the emails allegedly released by one Guccifer 2.0, whom many people believe was inserted into the mix after the original report of a "Russian hack" in order to bolster that theory - or perhaps I should say, "hoax".

What The Forensicator indicated was that the files metadata was consistent with a local download to a USB 2.0 USB drive. It also established that most likely the files were downloaded in the Eastern US time zone - not in Romania or anywhere else in Europe.

While it is true that it would be difficult to transmit that amount of data over the Internet at the time it allegedly occurred, it is not impossible. However, it does pretty much put paid to the idea that Guccifer is some Russian in Eastern Europe.

We also don't know at which remove these files were downloaded, i.e., there is no proof it was done directly from the DNC servers.

Binney currently tries to link the Guccifer emails to the oiginal Wikileaks emails but that simply isn't possible to prove at this point.

There is considerably more serious evidence that the alleged "hack" is merely a hoax to cover up a leak and that should be the target of an independent investigation.

The FBI, according to Sy Hersh, is sitting on a report linking murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich directly to Wikileaks, for example. Sitting on it appears to be in line with this FBI "cabal" to depose Trump and I'm amazed no one has even mentioned this. Granted, Sy Hersh denied the tape as illegitimate, but the tape stands on its own. You'd think someone would be interested in subpoenaing Hersh about it.

[Richardstevenhack]

I might also point out that renewing the FISA warrant on Page three times means absolutely nothing except that someone wanted to pursue Page. It doesn't prove anything about whether there was anything to pursue. Only the underlying facts presented for the warrant can establish that.

Greenwald pointed out yesterday that the Democrats were screaming about how weak the FISA process was during the Bush years, but now they want to declare that it's a rigorous process which means every warrant is necessarily legit.

Weak argument. As is the argument that we should trust the intel and law enforcement community.

There was a case in Federal Court in San Francisco where a Magistrate was expressing skepticism about claims from a Federal agent. The US attorney said, "Your Honor, this man is a Federal agent. He wouldn't lie!" The Magistrate literally laughed in her face and said, "Don't try to tell me a Federal agent wouldn't come into my court and lie."

[turcopolier]

all

I used to take work as a defense expert witness a lot on national security cases. I have seen FBI people, and DoJ prosecutors lie by both commission and omission to get a conviction. Their favorite method is to deny the defense key exculpatory evidence on discovery and I have also seen judges participate in this farce. Often they receive classified "evidence" from DoJ and then deny it to properly cleared defense attorneys. pl