Sic Semper Tyrannis

A redacted FBI form 302 report of the Michael Flynn interview is released

By Robert Willmann

Sure enough, the office of "special counsel" Robert Mueller continued its practice of hiding the ball until forced to disclose something, at which time it is usually filed with the court clerk "under seal".  They have filed some documents under seal regarding the FBI's interview of Gen. Michael Flynn (ret.) after the court's order of 12 December 2018.  Out of whatever was filed, the public has no idea of even the number of documents or the title or general type of document, because no index or log is required to be filed, something Congress or the federal judicial council should change.  

The FBI form FD-302 was presented under seal, probably both with and without redactions, since the court's order written yesterday on the clerk's docket sheet says:  "... the Court finds that the January 24, 2017 FD-302, which was drafted immediately after Mr. Flynn's FBI interview, is relevant to Mr. Flynn's sentencing. The Court also finds that the government's proposed redactions to that document are appropriate ...."

The letter filed with the redacted report says that two versions of the form are presented, each one is 5 pages.  The first one had a headline saying "draft document/deliberative material", and when that "error was recognized", the header was removed and a "corrected version", without the header but with the same contents, was re-signed and re-certified on 31 May 2017.  Robert Mueller was appointed the special counsel on 17 May 2017.

Flynn's sentencing hearing is set for 11:00 a.m. today in a federal district court in Washington D.C.

https://turcopolier.typepad.com/files/flynn_gov_letter_about_the_form_302.pdf

https://turcopolier.typepad.com/files/flynn_gov_interview_302.pdf

P.S. and update.  The original notes and original note material taken during the Flynn interview have not been disclosed, and they are supposed to be retained.  Most likely, they were not filed with the court clerk under seal, although they are relevant because they, and the agents' memories, are used to write the 302 form, which is obviously not a verbatim transcript.  Usually, an interview is done by two FBI agents, and one takes notes.  With excellent high fidelity audio recording equipment available today, the interviews should be recorded. 

The name of the other FBI agent at the Flynn interview has been blacked out in the reports, but two letters of earlier this year from Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley reveal who it likely is, as the FBI and Justice Department have refused to let him testify for a transcribed interview with the judiciary committee staff.

 

The Mueller group disclosed only 2 redacted documents that were already known

By Robert Willmann

On Friday, 14 December 2018, the office of "special counsel" Robert Mueller filed a reply to Gen. Michael Flynn's sentencing memorandum by the court's deadline, as noted on the court clerk's docket sheet--

"12/14/2018 56 REPLY by USA as to MICHAEL T. FLYNN to Defendant's Memorandum in Aid of Sentencing (Attachments: # 1 Attachment A, # 2 Attachment B)(Van Grack, Brandon) (Entered: 12/14/2018)".

Judge Emmet Sullivan in an order on 12 December stated:   "In 50 defendant's memorandum in aid of sentencing, the defendant quotes and cites a 'Memorandum dated Jan. 24, 2017.' See page 8 n. 21, 22. The defendant also quotes and cites a 'FD-302 dated Aug. 22, 2017.' See page 9 n. 23-27. The defendant is ORDERED to file on the docket FORTHWITH the cited Memorandum and FD-302. The Court further ORDERS the government to file on the docket any 302s or memoranda relevant to the circumstances discussed on pages 7-9 of the defendant's sentencing memorandum by no later than 3:00 p.m. on December 14, 2018."

In response to Judge Sullivan's order, the Mueller group attached to its reply memo two noticeably blacked out (redacted) documents, which turned out to be the same ones that were referred to in Flynn's memo raising the issue of FBI conduct surrounding his interview, and were nothing additional or new!

The government's reply and two documents that were filed are here--

https://turcopolier.typepad.com/files/flynn_gov_sentence_reply_memo.pdf

https://turcopolier.typepad.com/files/flynn_gov_fbi_notes_20170124.pdf

https://turcopolier.typepad.com/files/flynn_gov_fbi_302_strzok_20170719.pdf

The two redacted documents are the "January 24, 2017" memo and the "FD-302 dated Aug. 22, 2017", which were cited in the court's order and which Flynn's lawyers apparently already had, or knew what they were about.  Judge Sullivan ordered the Mueller group to produce "any 302s or memoranda relevant to the circumstances discussed on pages 7-9 of the defendant's sentencing memorandum", not just the two that were already known [emphasis added].  The "Attachment B" is not the form 302 by an agent who interviewed Flynn on 24 January 2017, but rather is a 302 report by an unknown person of an interview of now former FBI agent Peter Strzok on 20 July 2017, in which Strzok allegedly talks about some things that happened on 24 January. 

 

Judge Emmet Sullivan in the Michael Flynn case orders the Mueller group to disclose interview material

By Robert Willmann

Two days ago, federal judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington D.C. ordered the "special counsel" Robert Mueller group to do the following by 3:00 p.m. eastern time today, as shown on the court clerk's docket sheet--

"12/12/2018 MINUTE ORDER as to MICHAEL T. FLYNN. In 50 defendant's memorandum in aid of sentencing, the defendant quotes and cites a 'Memorandum dated Jan. 24, 2017.' See page 8 n. 21, 22. The defendant also quotes and cites a 'FD-302 dated Aug. 22, 2017.' See page 9 n. 23-27. The defendant is ORDERED to file on the docket FORTHWITH the cited Memorandum and FD-302. The Court further ORDERS the government to file on the docket any 302s or memoranda relevant to the circumstances discussed on pages 7-9 of the defendant's sentencing memorandum by no later than 3:00 p.m. on December 14, 2018. Should the parties seek to file such material under seal, the parties may file motions for leave to do so. The government is also ORDERED to file its reply to the defendant's sentencing memorandum by no later than 3:00 p.m. on December 14, 2018. Signed by Judge Emmet G. Sullivan on 12/12/2018. (lcegs3) (Entered: 12/12/2018)"

Judge Sullivan is a Black lawyer who came up the hard way, going to Washington D.C. public schools and Howard University and its law school.  Howard University has been a reputable university with a full curriculum as it provided education to Black Americans from the time of segregation.  He was appointed by three different U.S. presidents to judicial positions, by Reagan, Bush sr, and Bill Clinton [1].

The actions and investigation regarding Gen. Michael Flynn (ret.) beginning when he was removed as National Security Advisor to president Trump have seemed odd and not to square with past behavior and the normal course of things.  With little information available publicly it is very difficult to look at the issue and pick through information, since it has been mainly hidden behind the skirts of the Mueller "investigation", which was supposed to look at "interference" by the Russian government in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.  

Flynn's sentencing is set for next Tuesday, 18 December.  However, that is subject to change, depending on what is filed today.  I will try to provide some relevant items from the court clerk's file that you can read to bring yourself up to date about the court case from what is available; some items are still filed under seal, and the probation office presentence investigation report (PSI) is kept private as a matter of federal judicial policy.  

 

A Murder in Bamako - TTG

Nov. 15 (UPI) -- The US Navy charged two Virginia Beach-based Navy SEALs and two Marines in the 2017 strangulation death of U.S. Army Green Beret Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar. The Navy accused the suspects of strangling Melgar in a chokehold after breaking into his room while he was sleeping and restraining him with duct tape they acquired from Marine quarters.

The four service members, whose names were not released, were charged Tuesday with felony murder in Melgar's death at age 34, and were also charged with involuntary manslaughter, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, hazing and burglary. If the charges result in conviction, they could face the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

Melgar, who was assigned to the 3rd Special Forces Group in Mali, West Africa, to counter terrorism, and served two tours in Afghanistan, was found dead on June 4, 2017, in embassy housing, in the Malian capital, as first reported by The New York Times. In May, his name was inscribed on the U.S. Army Special Operations Command Memorial Wall at Fort Bragg, NC.

Admiral Charles Rock, commander of Norfolk-based Navy Region Mid-Atlantic, decided to move forward with charges after he obtained a Naval Criminal Investigative Service report into Melgar's death.A preliminary hearing on the charges is set for Dec. 10 at Naval Station Norfolk.

A US Special Operations Command spokesperson said the charges should not tarnish the reputation of U.S. Special Operators worldwide. "We will not allow allegations or substantiated incidents of misconduct erode decades of honorable accomplishments by the members of U.S. Special Operations Command," Captain Jason Salata said. "If these allegations of misconduct are substantiated, they represent a violation of the trust and standards required of all service members."  (UPI)

******************

Colonel Lang asked me to write something about this. Naturally I have strong feelings concerning this incident, but finding the right words was difficult. I am enraged by the murder of one of my Special Forces brethren. I am viscerally disgusted by the behavior of the SEALs and Marine Raiders. Although not convicted, they have continued to lie through their teeth as each preceding lie is exposed. They marked themselves as men void of all truth. That alone should be cause for stripping them of all rank, honors and privileges. They should each receive a BCD after a stint in the brig. If convicted of murder, they should hang… literally.

Why were these men in Bamako in the first place? This was an intelligence collection mission in support of US, French and Malian operations targeting AQIM terrorists in Mali. They were probably conducting military source operations (MSO), formerly called low level source operations (LLSO). This has long been an inherent capability of Special Forces. Advanced HUMINT training for Green Berets has increased dramatically as our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq ramped up. Seems the SEALs of DEVGRU (formerly ST6) and Marine Raiders of MARSOC didn’t want to be left out. I see no logic in this. These commandos are not suited for HUMINT controlled collection operations. They should stick to kicking in doors and killing bad guys. This abomination in Bamako proves that. 

Since the initial reporting of this murder back in June 2017, stories circulated about the reason for the assault. The SEALs were skimming intelligence contingency funds, money meant to pay sources. That’s a mark of death among case officers. It’s a crime of unlimited opportunities. The only defense is the integrity and discipline of the practitioners. SSG Melgar reportedly called the SEALs on their transgressions and was prepared to report their crimes. That the SEALs may have committed a murder to cover up their crimes of theft and breach of trust is especially enraging.

At least one report I read said SSG Melgar also confronted the SEALs about their poor fieldcraft or tradecraft. The special operations ethos doesn’t lend itself to running agents. That requires the finesse, patience and humility more common to my Special Forces brethren. 

My experiences with the SEALs of DEVGRU did not leave me overly impressed. I and a couple of former Det Berlin Green Berets noted that their fieldcraft was shit when they weren’t assaulting an objective or swimming in the surf. I don’t know if this was a trait of the DEVGRU SEALs or all SEALs. I had a former Viet Nam era SEAL as one of my RECONDO instructors in Hawaii. He was indistinguishable from my former MACV-SOG instructors. Quiet professionals, the lot of them. Maybe it’s generational. I thank God I had the humility and patience to learn from that generation. DOL

TTG

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2018/11/15/Navy-charges-4-in-2017-Green-Beret-death/1941542307484/

https://www.thedailybeast.com/seals-marines-charged-with-green-beret-logan-melgars-murder

Clapper and Brennan are felons? Probably yes.

 

"The CIA is required by law to inform congressional oversight committees whenever one of its officers, agents, or administrators breaks the law, when an operation requires congressional approval because it is a “covert action” program, or whenever something happens at the CIA that’s potentially controversial and the agency wants to save itself the embarrassment of explaining itself to Congress later.

“I could see no reason to withhold declassification of these documents.” Grassley said. “They contained no information that could be construed as [betraying] sources and methods.”

Brennan was the leading force behind the prosecutions of eight national security whistleblowers during the Obama administration, almost three times the number of whistleblowers charged under the Espionage Act by all previous presidents combined.

Indeed, I was one of the “Obama Eight.” I was charged with five felonies, including three counts of espionage, after I blew the whistle on the CIA’s torture program. Of course, I hadn’t committed espionage and those charges were eventually dropped, but not until I had agreed to take a plea to a lesser charge. I served 23 months in a federal prison.

Brennan and Clapper think the law doesn’t apply to them. But it does. Without the rule of law, we have chaos. The law has to apply equally to all Americans. Brennan and Clapper need to learn that lesson the hard way. They broke the law. They ought to be prosecuted for it."  Kiriakou in consortium News

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I worked for Clapper once and detest the man.  I consider him to be an unprincipled careerist devoid of loyalty to anything or anyone but himself.  He was IMO by far the worst Director the Defense Intelligence Agency has ever had and a man who did great damage to that agency in the process of seeking favor from his superiors.  He is also a confessed perjurer.

I first knew John Brennan when he was a junior analyst attached to the CIA station in Saudi Arabia and I was the Defense Attaché in the same embassy.  I had a great deal of opportunity to observe  him on the job and found him to be lacking in integrity, courtesy and intellect.  It should be remembered that he was a supporter of the Communist Party of the United States before the CIA for some obscure reason hired him.  pl 

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/11/11/john-brennan-and-james-clapper-should-be-prosecuted-for-breaking-the-law/

Gina Haspel "heard Khashoggi audio"

 

"CIA director Gina Haspel has heard audio recordings that are believed to capture the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, media reports say.

They say Ms Haspel was allowed to listen to the audio during a visit to Turkey earlier this week.

Khashoggi, a US-based critic of the Saudi government, was killed during a visit to its consulate in Istanbul.

Saudi Arabia has blamed the killing on "rogue agents". The case has strained relations with the US and other allies.

Soon after the murder on 2 October, Turkish media quoted officials as saying they had audio recordings of Khashoggi's interrogation and death, but gave no details about the contents or how the audio had been obtained."BBC

--------------

Someone asked on SST what the purpose was of DCIA's trip to Turkey.  My suggestion was that she was there as another pair of eyes for Trump.

Well, pilgrims, Gina Haspel has a reputation as a hard nosed fact oriented intelligence pro.  There are not a lot of those around any longer.  Hiring and promoting policies over the last 30 years have changed the nature of the work force at the national level.  The Cold War era IC work force was a lot like a monastic order.  It was devoted to the trade of espionage and to analytic studiousness in modern scriptoria.  They were intensely proud of the often elegant results of the work.

In the era of identity politics and political correctness the emphasis in hiring and firing has been on things like gender, race, sexual orientation, etc.  The old breed are largely gone.  "Showboats" are everywhere.

In that context Haspel stands out as an exception.  Trump will listen to Haspel on this.  pl  

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45977041

"An entertainment"

 

 "Our Man in Havana is a 1959 British spy comedy film shot in CinemaScope, directed and produced by Carol Reed and starring Alec Guinness, Burl Ives, Maureen O'Hara, Ralph Richardson, Noël Coward and Ernie Kovacs.^[2][3][4] The film is adapted from the 1958 novel Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene. The film takes the action of the novel and gives it a more comedic touch. The movie marks Reed's third collaboration with Greene"  wiki

-----------

Graham Greene called this novella and the screen play derived from it "an entertainment."   It is certainly that.  I suppose that money was the reason that it was filmed in Black and White but I can't imagine it in color.  The richness of the material is such that color would be just too much, like an excess of sauce on a fine steak.

The cast is simply wonderful as is the direction.  It is hard to pick and choose among the great dialog and acting but who could forget Captain Segura (Ernie Kovacs) answering a question with "No, Mister Wormold, you are not of the torturable class ..."

 I mentioned to someone yesterday that when I ran Defense HUMINT I used episodes of "Reilly, ace of spies"  as the basis for seminar discussions with new entry trainees.  This was also true of "Our man in Havana."  pl 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Man_in_Havana_(film)

Habakkuk on the dossier's beginings

My strong impression is that nobody on the British side vetted the dossier for publication. A striking feature of the early news coverage is that there appeared to be total confusion, with some of the reporting suggesting that the sources quoted wanted to hang him out to dry, others that they wanted to defend him.

An interesting aspect is that not only were anonymous sources linked to MI6 quoted on both sides of the argument – which could have been explained by disagreements within the organisation: in different stories, not however far apart in date, its head, Sir Alex Younger, was portrayed as holding radically different views.

When CNN publicised the existence of the dossier on 10 January 2017, the same day that it was published by ‘BuzzFeed’, it suggested that the author was British. The following day, the WSJ named Steele.

On 13 January, Martin Robinson, UK Chief Reporter for ‘Mail Online’, published a report whose headlines seem worth quoting in full:

‘I introduced him to my wife as James Bond': Former spy Chris Steele's friends describe a “show-off” 007 figure but MI6 bosses brand him “an idiot” for an “appalling lack of judgement” over the Trump “dirty dossier”: Intelligence expert Nigel West says friend is like Ian Fleming’s famous character; He said: “He’s James Bond. I actually introduced him to my wife as James Bond’; Mr West says Steele dislikes Putin and Kremlin for ignoring rules of espionage; Angry spy source calls him ‘idiot’ and blasts decision to take on the Trump work; Current MI6 boss Sir Alex Younger is said to be livid about reputation damage.’

(See http://www.dailymail.co.uk/... . )

On 15 January, however, Kim Sengupta, Defence Editor of the ‘Independent’, produced a report headlined: ‘Head of MI6 used information from Trump dossier in first public speech; Warnings on cyberattacks show ex-spy’s work is respected.’

(See https://www.independent.co.... .)

A great deal of evidence, I think, suggests that practically all those involved in ‘Russiagate’ were caught totally unprepared by Trump’s victory, that they then went rushing around like headless chickens, and that part of this process involved a decision being taken to publish the dossier, without consulting British intelligence. If people like Younger were not consulted, then it would seem to me unlikely that Steele was.

John Brennan's security clearance is revoked, with a teaser at the end

 

By Robert Willmann

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders walked out to the podium today and, for the first 4 minutes, read a prepared statement in a deadpan voice--

http://www.c-span.org/video/?449848-1/white-house-revokes-cia-director-brennans-security-clearance

Likely written by White House counsel Donald McGahn, the statement, after its declaration that former CIA employee and director John O. Brennan's security clearance was going to be revoked, concluded with a teaser at the end.  Since he has show business experience, Donald Trump is doing this one act at a time.  He says that he is "evaluating" nine other people to decide whether to revoke their security clearances or prevent them from getting one:  James Clapper, James Comey, Michael Hayden, Sally Yates, Susan Rice, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Bruce Ohr.

Another name for such evaulation should be former NSA director Keith Alexander, but so far he has ducked beneath the radar.

Concerning this useful and amusing development, I express the following opinion--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGPNJBZc3oc

Brennan's biography as written at the CIA Internet website shows how he was wired in:  during 1994-1995, he was the agency's intelligence briefer to president Bill Clinton; he was chief of staff to George "Slam Dunk" Tenet from 1999-2001; he was deputy director of the CIA until 2003; he was an assistant to president Obama for homeland security and counterterrorism for four years; and was sworn in as CIA director on 8 March 2013.

A little item of personal interest is in the biographical sketch.  It says that after graduating from Fordham University in 1977, Brennan "later attended the University of Texas at Austin, where in 1980 he earned a master's degree in government with a concentration in Middle Eastern studies". 

While riding my bicycle to the law school and in and around the University of Texas campus at that time at all hours of the day and night, I might have come in close proximity to Mr. Brennan.

It's a small world after all.

 

Another theory bites the dust - TTG

An article of interest to both techno-geeks and hyper-partisans came out Tuesday in, of all places, Computer Weekly, a UK-based online magazine dedicated to the IT business community. In an investigative piece entitled “Briton ran pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign that helped Trump deny Russian links,” Duncan Campbell outed the man behind the “Adam Carter” identity as Tim Leonard, a British IT manager and former hacker living in Darlington. In addition to running the G2.space site and vigorously pushing the Forensicator theories, he ran defianet, an online gathering place for right wing conspiracists. 

Campbell, an investigative journalist and recognized computer forensic expert witness, investigated Leonard for more than six months with the help of fellow journalist Kelly Hayes, programmer Matt Fowler, media network analyst Lawrence Alexander, and former hackers Lauri Love and Mustafa Al Bassam. I don’t think any of these individuals are card carrying Borg operatives. 

Campbell covers a lot of territory in his article, but what I find most interesting is his interactions with William Binney and Thomas Drake. Campbell took Binney to the UK to examine the original Forensicator data first hand. Binney’s reaction restored my faith in him as a clear-eyed and sober intelligence analyst. I never doubted his sincerity, honesty or patriotism. 

***********************

According to former NSA technical manager Tom Drake, “Ray’s [McGovern] determination to publish claims he wanted to believe without checking facts and discarding evidence he didn’t want to hear exactly reproduced the Iraq war intelligence failures which the VIPS group was formed to oppose”. He and other VIPS members refused to sign McGovern’s report. 

…

Trump then told CIA director Mike Pompeo to see Binney to find evidence to support the claims. Pompeo met with Binney on 24 October 2017. Binney said he told the CIA chief that he had no fresh information. But he said he knew where to look – in the surveillance databases of his former intelligence agency, NSA.  

As a former top NSA insider, Binney was correct, but not in the way he expected. NSA’s top secret records, disclosed in the DoJ indictment earlier this month, lifted the lid on what the Russians did and how they did it.

A month after visiting CIA headquarters, Binney came to Britain. After re-examining the data in Guccifer 2.0 files thoroughly with the author of this article, Binney changed his mind. He said there was “no evidence to prove where the download/copy was done”. The Guccifer 2.0 files analysed by Leonard’s g-2.space were “manipulated”, he said, and a “fabrication”.

On inspecting the full data analysis, Binney agreed: “It’s clear G2 is messing with the data. Everything G2 says is suspect and needs to be proven by other sources/means. I agree there is no evidence to prove where the download/copy was done.” He added: “The merger of data from 5 July and 1 September ... makes all the G2 crap a fabrication ... we should only say what we can prove with evidence.” 

Privately, Binney says his colleague Ray McGovern, who has also pushed the Forensicator theories, accepts that there is no evidence where the files were really copied. “Ray no longer argues that point – except to call it an ‘alleged location’,” said Binney. McGovern has refused to confirm this, or to answer questions about evidence for his claims.

Despite accepting that there was no evidence, Binney and McGovern have not retracted the claims in the 2017 VIPS report at the time of writing.

***********************

Another one bites the dust.

TTG

https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252445769/Briton-ran-pro-Kremlin-disinformation-campaign-that-helped-Trump-deny-Russian-links

Simple Digital Truths - TTG

Yesterday, Colonel Lang and I had a short email conversation extending over several hours. 

************************

PL:  Do I understand that DoS has been wide open for penetration by any sort of phishing expedition in e-mail? And that the HC breach just happens to be the most obvious example? pl 

TTG:  In short, yes. The November 2014 hack required the entire DoS unclassified system to be taken off line for a weekend. NSA was still finding evidence of penetrations three months later. The Executive Office and JCS unclassified systems were also breached. The Russians were behind these. The Chinese were in the USPS and NOAA systems at the same time. NASA is perpetually hacked by everybody. Before that I knew INSCOM and army.mil were breached through their routers rather than any phishing attack. None of these systems are being left totally unprotected, but the defenses are inadequate.

PL:  Well, isn’t that special!  Did you write this up for us before?  I can’t remember.  pl

TTG:  I’ve mentioned these things in various comments over the last few months. CP and I put out a collaborative post on the OPM hack back in 2015. I've done several hacking posts over the years. It's become a supremely political act to do so today.

PL:  IMO we need to re-state reality. pl 

************************

Government and commercial networks are being breached all the time. It’s certainly not just Russia, China and other state hackers. Those router hackers I mentioned were an international group of like-minded fellows ranging from a drug-addled kid living in his mother’s basement to a cyber-security instructor for a major national law enforcement agency. That drug-addled kid was smart and disciplined enough to pass through three different compromised .edu routers before he did anything operational. He shut down a major ISP with his router botnet just to screw with another hacker group and monitored his progress by watching internet activity over several countries in real time. And this kid was one of the least accomplished members of his group. I keep this in mind whenever I hear the claim that only a nation state could pull off some hack.

Another point to keep in mind is that my small team was able to identify these router hackers through a relentless HUMINT operation over a long period of time. Add a robust SIGINT capability to this HUMINT effort and you will begin to understand how attribution is accomplished these days. Forensic investigations are not the answer. Those investigations could lead to deception just as easily as they could lead to valuable clues.

Finally, back to the Colonel’s and my conversation. The reality is that Clinton’s private email server was certainly open to penetration by a wide array of hackers, including Chinese state hackers. The DoS network was, and is, also open to penetration by these actors. The very nature of unclassified governmental email systems makes this a reality. They are open to any connection with the right email address. Those emails are then opened by fallible users who too often succumb to clever phishing attacks. Yes there are effective security measures for email, but unless users are willing to revert to a command line email client like pine and pull their heads out of their asses, email will remain an especially vulnerable service. 

TTG 

Senator Rand Paul will ask the president to revoke John Brennan's security clearance

By Robert Willmann

Demonstrating that he continues to learn about the application of governmental politics, Senator Rand Paul said that he plans to meet with president Trump today, 23 July 2018, and request that John O. Brennan's security clearance be revoked--

http://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/1021359932795482112

http://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/1021359930387902466

http://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/1021471167205576705

He asks:  "Is John Brennan monetizing his security clearance? Is John Brennan making millions of dollars divulging secrets to the mainstream media with his attacks on @realDonaldTrump?"

This important issue is rarely stated, much less discussed as a topic in itself, and is not limited in relevance to Brennan.  Paul asked back in January 2018 if FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page still had security clearances.  Arrogantly delaying exactly three months to reply, the FBI liaison for congressional affairs tap danced in a letter and gave no real answer (a non-answer answer)--

http://www.paul.senate.gov/letter-fbi-director-christopher-wray-and-response-fbi

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/04/11/trump-haters-strzok-page-still-have-top-secret-security-clearance-fbi-tells-rand-paul.html

Strzok was asked at the recent Congressional hearing if he had a security clearance, to which he answered in the affirmative.  However, an article reported that the clearance was "limited" for purposes of the hearing--

http://dailycaller.com/2018/07/12/strzok-security-clearance/

 

Page confirmed China penetration of HC e-mail.

 

"Former top FBI lawyer Lisa Page testified during two days of closed-door House hearings, revealing shocking new Intel against her old bosses at the Bureau, according the well-placed FBI sources.

Alarming new details on allegations of a bureau-wide cover up. Or should we say another bureau-wide cover up. 

The embattled Page tossed James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok and Bill Priestap among others under the Congressional bus, alleging the upper echelon of the FBI concealed intelligence confirming Chinese state-backed ‘assets’ had illegally acquired former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 30,000+ “missing” emails, federal sources said.

The Russians didn’t do it. The Chinese did, according to well-placed FBI sources.

And while Democratic lawmakers and the mainstream media prop up Russia as America’s boogeyman, it was the ironically Chinese who acquired Hillary’s treasure trove of classified and top secret intelligence from her home-brewed private server. 

And a public revelation of that magnitude — publicizing that a communist world power intercepted Hillary’s sensitive and top secret emails — would have derailed Hillary Clinton’s presidential hopes. Overnight. But it didn’t simply because it was concealed."  True Pundit

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A woman scorned?  Maybe, but Page has done a real job on these malefactors.   And, who knows how many other penetrations of various kinds there were in Clinton's reign as SecState? 

"You mean like with a towel?" Clinton mocked a reporter with that question when asked if her servers had been wiped clean.  It is difficult to believe that there won't be prosecutions.  pl  

https://truepundit.com/fbi-lisa-page-dimes-out-top-fbi-officials-during-classified-house-testimony-bureau-bosses-covered-up-evidence-china-hacked-hillarys-top-secret-emails/

Three legal matters: the Supreme Court, Michael Flynn, and FBI DOJ documents

 

By Robert Willmann

Three legal matters worthy of attention are here this week of 8 July 2018. 

1.  U.S. Supreme Court nomination 

A nomination should be made today to the U.S. Supreme Court to take the place of Judge Anthony Kennedy, who will be leaving the court this year.  As the media speculates on who will be officially announced at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time tonight, the number being considered was said to be four, if the NY Times newspaper is at all correct:  Thomas Hardiman, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, and Raymond Kethledge [1].

In my opinion, neither Kavanaugh nor Kethledge would be good nominees.  For example, Kethledge was the author of the decision of a three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals that said a search warrant was not required before getting cellular phone location data to use in a criminal case [2].  Fortunately, the Supreme Court agreed to consider that case, and reversed it recently on 22 June 2018 by a 5-4 decision.  Judge John Roberts wrote the opinion for the majority, but the "conservative" judges, including Neil Gorsuch, did not think that a warrant was required.  

Although the issue of abortion, even though important, dominates all the talk on mass media, more important to the foundation of the country are questions such as search and seizure, detention without trial, disclosure of government documents and information to the public (without the new trend of "redactions"), jury trials, and uses of and limits on the police power (the use of force domestically by a government).

2.  Gen. Michael Flynn (Ret.) court hearing

Judge Emmet Sullivan, who is now presiding over the Michael Flynn criminal case in federal court in Washington D.C. after Judge Rudolph Contreras recused himself, set a hearing for a "status conference" to be at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, 10 July, and wants Gen. Flynn to attend.

Judge Contreras conducted the hearing at which Flynn pled guilty, and then bailed out.  He was appointed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) on 19 May 2016 and his term expires on 18 May 2023 [3].  This might be a factor in his recusal.  Also, more recently, text messages of FBI agent Peter Strzok revealed that he was/is a friend of Judge Contreras.  Probably still hidden from the public and likely from Gen. Flynn himself is information about the FISC surveillance warrants directed at one or more persons associated with the Trump presidential campaign, and any relationship between Strzok, his paramour -- former FBI attorney Lisa Page, who has resigned -- and Judge Contreras.  

3.  House Committees want FBI and Dept. of Justice documents

For more than a year, the U.S. House Intelligence Committee has been trying to get documents from the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ), by both letter requests and by subpoena.  As some documents were disclosed, it became obvious that more information was needed, and on 24 October 2017, a joint investigation was started by both the Intel Committee and the House Judiciary Committee.  After partial compliance, blacking out some information by "redactions", and tap dancing by the FBI and DOJ, the whole House passed a resolution on 28 June 2018 that the documents should be provided by last Friday, 6 July.  They apparently were not all produced.

More Deep State criminal leakers in the IC

"Per Reuters and NBC News, US intelligence officials (albeit ones speaking under the cover of anonymity) believe that Kim may care a little bit more about the long-term survival of his regime than being flattered with Trumpian propaganda videos, and so may have told a few white lies about whether or not he is continuing to move forward with his nuclear weapons program. Specifically, reports suggest that while North Korea has stopped testing nukes or missiles for now, they are continuing to enrich uranium and stockpile the relevant materials."  Gizmodo

********

"Four other officials agreed that North Korea is intentionally trying to deceive the US about its ongoing nuclear capabilities, NBC News reported, and others said intel suggests that North Korea is continuing to operate more secret uranium enrichment sites than previously believed."  Gizmodo

------------

Well, pilgrims, unauthorized disclosure of classified information of any kind and especially the results of satellite photography is a federal felony subject on conviction to sentencing to mandatory prison terms.  You can be sure that these Deep State operatives within the Intelligence Community received NO permission to disclose this information to Gizmodo and the numerous other media outlets for whom they spied.

The Deep State continues to wage war against President Trump.  There should be a massive manhunt to find these violators of the Espionage and Illegal Disclosure laws and imprison them "pour encourager les autres."  pl

 

https://gizmodo.com/us-intel-officials-allege-north-korea-is-still-enrichin-1827264002

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Byng

Rob Reiner's Shock and Awe--Not So Much by Publius Tacitus

Last night (Monday the 11th) at the Newseum in Washington, DC, Rob Reiner screened his new film, Shock and Awe. Hard to believe that 15 years have passed since George W. Bush launched an unnecessary war in Iraq. During the prelude to that war, Knight Ridder was a lone voice in the media herd that refused to swallow the propaganda elixir brewed and served by the White House, the Pentagon and the CIA. Specifically, the movie is supposed to tell the story of Editor John Wolcott and his reporters, Warren Strobel and Jonathan Landay, who spent almost two years as pariahs in the journalism community because they reported that there were no facts to back up the claim that Iraq had WMDs. Rob Reiner's new movie (it will hit theaters next month), attempts to tell this story. Sadly, he fails.

I was tempted to title this review, SHOCKINGLY AWFUL. But that would be unfair. The movie is not dreadful. Just really disappointing. A more accurate title would be, BANAL and MEDIOCRE. Although the movie is stocked with a talented cast--Woody Harrelson, James Marsden, Tommy Lee Jones and Rob Reiner--and the actors do a fine job given the material they have to work with, the story is fragmented and superficial. The problem starts with the script. It lacks identity and focus. 

The movie opens with a paraplegic black Army private wheeling himself into a Congressional hearing where he then testifies before a stereotypical congressional committee. It is a few years since Bush went to war in Iraq and the soldier, rather than read his testimony, decides to  ask the committee members a blunt question--why the hell did we go to war in Iraq. Cue the flashback.

It is now September 11, 2001 and we are introduced to reporters Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel. The Al Qaeda attack on America lit the fuse on an 18 month time bomb that ultimately exploded in Iraq. We still do not know why George W Bush and his band of malevolent neocons decided that Saddam Hussein should be taken down. Maybe some really believed that Saddam and Bin Laden were in cahoots. Perhaps some knew that was just a pretext for getting rid of Saddam as a stepping stone to creating a path for democracy in the Levant. Reiner's movie does not answer this question. 

The Plot to Slaughter Donald Trump by Publius Tacitus

Each day brings more evidence of a plot involving intelligence and law enforcement officials to destroy Donald Trump using the pretext of Russia. This is not a theory. It is a fact. While many of the specific details about who actually made key decisions remains to be revealed, there is abundant evidence in the public record that exposes the skeletal framework of this plot. To put it bluntly, Trump has been a target of a coup d'etat that has relied of information warfare rather than actual arms. But the objective of the plotter was no different from a traditional coup, such as the one that removed Chilean President Salvador Allende in 1973. In fact, it appears that the CIA has been involved in both efforts.

Let's go through the evidence. The first piece comes courtesy of the dump of John Podesta emails. Podesta is in contact with Brent Budowsky (a longtime Democrat operative who served in senior congressional staff positions including legislative assistant to former Senator Lloyd Bentsen;^[6] extensively involved with the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and Intelligence Officers Death Benefits Act). In that email sent on 21 December 2015, shortly after noon, Budowsky recommends using Russia to bludgeon Trump. His email states it starkly:

Best approach is to slaughter Donald for his bromance with Putin

Budowsky's message to Podesta was not just a rant on Trump. It included a detailed discussion of Syria and the need to distance Hillary from the Obama policy while also lamenting Vladimir Putin's support for the Syrian Government of Bashar al Assad. This is a critical point to understand. The plot against Trump was not based on a simple dislike of someone perceived as an uncouth bully from New York. His policy stances on issues like Syria and NATO were viewed as an attack on the establishment status quo. Such effrontery could not be tolerated.

WAS GEHLEN A FRAUD? (By Patrick Armstrong)

For some years I have wondered about Gehlen and I have written this up for SST in order to get the opinions of such a well-informed group on the two questions I ask at the end.

Reinhard Gehlen (1902-1979) was a German General Staff officer who in July 1941 was assigned as senior intelligence officer to the Fremde Heere Ost (Foreign Armies East) intelligence section of which he took command about a year later. In April 1945 he was fired (or more likely, seeing the way things were going, quit) and resurfaced in May, surrendering to the US Army and offering his knowledge and organisation to the victors. His offer was accepted, his past and the past of his group cleansed, and eventually the Gehlen Organisation became the nucleus of the West German intelligence organisation and he became its boss. Wikipedia tells us he was forced out of that position in 1968 because his organisation had been penetrated by the Soviets and because of "poor leadership". For an anti-Soviet specialist, he did run a pretty sloppy outfit: vide Heinz Felfe, a Soviet agent who was brought into the Gehlen Organisation quite early in its history. He wrote a book in which he justified all this which I read years ago. Which all contributes to the question that I am asking you to comment on.

But before I get to the question, a vignette in a railway car in Finland. On 2 June 1942, a year after the German attack on the USSR, Hitler invites himself to Marshal Mannerheim's 75th birthday celebration. The Finns record the first eleven minutes of their conversation before the Germans catch them and the recording exists. This bit sets the scene:

They have the most monstrous armament that is humanly conceivable (‘menschendenkbar’)…so…if anybody had told me that one state… if anybody had told me that one state can line up with 35.000 tanks (Hitler uses the word ‘tank’), I had said ‘you have gone mad’…

Hitler continues expressing his astonishment at the Soviet armaments industry, complaining that the Germans have only "good weather armament". After other remarks indicating that he is beginning to realise that he is in a contest Germany cannot win, the recording ends.

All of which leads me to this observation: German intelligence on the Soviet military was poor.

If we look at the whole course of the war we see that almost all the surprises come from the Soviet side. While the initial attack surprised the Soviet leadership (although it did have quite a bit of intelligence of the coming attack), after that it's almost always the Germans who are surprised. Hitler's dumbfounded comments to Mannerheim shows there was no conception of the scale of Soviet industrial production, to say nothing of its surge capacity. David Glantz has convincingly argued that unexpected resistance in the Battle of Smolensk sealed the end of the hope of a quick victory. The appearance of unknown divisions in front of Moscow (thanks to a Soviet intelligence coup) in the winter of 1941 was a surprise. The Stalingrad counter-attack was a surprise. The Soviets almost seem to have been aware of the Kursk battle plans before the German front line commanders were and again the counter attack was a surprise. Operation Bagration, perhaps the biggest military operation in history, while the Germans were expecting something, was another shattering surprise.

So, in a word, the Russian military intelligence has many surprises to its credit while Gehlen's FHO... not so many intelligence successes. (And taking Hitler's rant to Mannerheim into account, not at the beginning either.)

The Americans and the other Western allies were delighted with Gehlen's offer. Washington in particular had very little knowledge of the Soviets; indeed the FBI seems to have been only dimly aware that one of the most important Soviet defectors ever – Aleksandr Orlov – was living quietly in the USA. The British had some intelligence from earlier times from people like Bruce-Lockhart or Reilly but that was long out of date and it is unlikely that they had much in 1945. And, as we now know, British intelligence was practically a branch plant operation of Moscow Centre. Neither France nor Canada (Gouzenko was September and had nothing much to offer on the Soviet Army) would have had anything to offer. So they were very happy to take up Gehlen's offer – a whole network of agents, knowledge, historical records, reputation and interrogation data: a treasure trove; offered for nothing except making the Nazi past disappear. One must assume that the Gehlen organisation became the primary source – if not the sole source – of information on the USSR's military.

I can't now find the reference but I remember being told by a specialist that there was an important meeting in the late 1940s chaired, as I recall, by Field Marshal Montgomery, that discussed what the nascent Western Alliance could do against a Soviet attack or military threat. The meeting assumed (I recall) that the Soviets could field 150 divisions on fairly short notice for an attack. The Western Allies couldn't possibly muster anything like that number. The conclusion was that any attack from the USSR could only be stopped by nuclear weapons. Who could have been the source of the 150 division figure other than Gehlen?

Now it is true that, in whatever country the Soviet Army had ended the war, "elections" were held in which socialist or communist parties came to power and stayed in power. (Austria being an exception). There were at least two ways that one could understand this extension of Soviet power. One was that they were the actions of an expansionist hostile power that fully intended to go all the way to Cape Finisterre if it could and, if not prevented, would. In such an case the Western Allies would be fully justified in forming an defensive alliance to deter Soviet expansion. The other possible interpretation was that, after such a hard victory in so fearfully destructive a war, Moscow was determined that never again would its neighbours be used as an assembly area and start line for the forces of another Hitler. Such an interpretation would call for quite another approach from the Western Allies. We all know which of the two interpretations was followed by the Western Allies. And who else would have encouraged that interpretation than their new expert on all things Soviet?

So we find two extremely important founding Cold War decisions taken right at the start: that Moscow was expansionist and that the Soviet Army was so powerful that nuclear weapons gave the only hope of stopping them. Each decision might well have been taken without him but it is surely reasonable to see Gehlen's hand in both.

So I have the following questions:

1. Did Gehlen actually know anything about the Soviet Armed Forces or was he basically winging it all along?

2. How influential was he in setting the course of the Cold War towards hostility and away from cooperation?

Framing the Trump Campaign as Lackeys of Russia by Publius Tacitus

There are still many unanswered questions, but the evidence that now is part of the public record removes any doubt that British and US Intelligence services collaborated in a devious and fabricated scheme to portray the Trump campaign as intent on collaborating with Russia. The evidence was planted and cleverly fabricated. It was done through highly classified intelligence channels, which created a paper trail and provided prima facie "evidence" that individuals with tenuous ties to the Trump campaign where seeking meetings with Russian officials. What was not reported, however, was the fact that the original impetus for those reporting on those communications originated with an individual who appears to be an MI-6 intelligence asset. His name is Joseph Mifsud and I believe that evidence ultimately will establish that he was directed to contact and then feed incriminating information to George Papadopoulos. That information became the foundation of creating a counter intelligence investigation of Donald Trump and his campaign.

First a word about Joseph Mifsud. He is currently missing. But the public record on him strongly suggests that he was working as an intelligence asset of the United Kingdom's MI-6. Elizabeth Vos at Disobedient Media provides an excellent review of Mifsud and his links to British intel (her article appears to have been taken down, but it is solid and I saved a copy):

Pompeo as imperial proconsul

 

"Pompeo’s list of 12 requirements included many that Iran is highly unlikely to consider.

He said Iran must “stop enrichment” of uranium, which was allowed within strict limitations under the 2015 deal. Iran must also allow nuclear “unqualified access to all sites throughout the country,” Pompeo said, alluding to military sites that were off-limits under the 2015 deal except under specific circumstances. To that end, he also said Iran must declare all previous efforts to build a nuclear weapon, reopening an issue that the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency has already deemed a closed matter.

Pompeo also demanded that Iran cease from a range of activities throughout the Middle East that have long drawn the ire of the U.S. and its allies. He said Iran must end support for Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen, “withdraw all forces” from Syria, halt support for its ally Hezbollah and stop threatening Israel.

Iran must also “release all U.S. citizens” missing in Iran or being held on “spurious charges,” he said."  The Mercury

--------------

Well, he may have been 1st in his class at USMA but he doesn't seem to have learned much since then.  Does this man listen to anyone other than his local, friendly AIPAC rep. when the ME is the subject?

The DJT Administration is doing a lot of things that are to my taste but their ME policy is completely under the control of Israel and its paranoia.  Do they imagine that Iran will meekly consent to being Morganthau-ized?  Do they really think that China, Russia and the EU can be bullied into screwing themselves economically by cutting off trade with Iran?  If so, this is a silly concept.

By implication it is clear that  there will be a serious attempt to subvert the Iranian government by further ruining the economy and encouraging armed revolt.  Well, pilgrims, Iran is a theocratic police state.  Good luck.

Gina Haspel will be given the job of fomenting revolt within Iran.  Good luch to her on that.  CIA has tried such things many time at the direction of various presidents.  They have a very mixed record.  pl 

http://www.pottsmerc.com/general-news/20180521/pompeo-issues-steep-demands-for-nuclear-treaty-with-iran

Senate votes to stop debate then votes 54-45 to confirm Gina Haspel as CIA director - By Robert Willmann

Moving quickly to prevent further opposition to the nomination of Gina Haspel as CIA Director, the Senate Intelligence Committee on 16 May (yesterday) gave her a positive vote of 10-5 in a closed meeting to move the nomination out of committee and to the full Senate for consideration, and this afternoon it was brought up for a vote.  First was a vote to stop debate on the nomination, called cloture.  If successful, it ends debate and a vote is then taken on the item in question.  Sometimes cloture requires 60 votes to be invoked and to stop debate.  However, I think during the Obama administration the rule was changed to keep the 60 vote requirement only for Supreme Court nominees and legislation, because the struggle over nominations had intensified.  Thus, to stop or end any debate on Haspel would need only a simple majority vote.

The cloture vote on Haspel was 54-44, with two senators not voting, and so there would be no public Senate debate on her nomination.  Immediately after that, the vote was held on the nomination and she was confirmed, 54-45.  Six Democrats voted for confirmation, otherwise the nomination would have failed.

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=115&session=2&vote=00101

For your reference, here is a short paper from the Congressional Research Service describing the Senate's executive calendar, on which are placed treaties and nominations--

http://www.senate.gov/CRSpubs/8eb2b6af-bfa7-4fe8-b1bf-e89411d5ded4.pdf

 

Keep an eye on the FBI or CIA spy inside the Trump campaign - By Robert Willmann

Bubbling up in the last several days is a story separate from but perhaps more highly charged and incriminating than the surveillance of Carter Page through a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court warrant that followed Page into the Donald Trump campaign for president.  A U.S. citizen who had been an informant for the FBI and CIA may have been acting as an informant gathering information from inside and around the Trump campaign for one or both of them.

Even though everybody and their dog want to get a mole inside the campaign of a political opponent, this appears to be action by one or more governmental agencies to spy on a political campaign through an inside source, a/k/a HUMINT. 

Although Carter Page may have been also acting as a knowing informant, he was at least and maybe was no more than a "walking wiretap" under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) during his interactions with the Trump campaign.  A clue in the 18 January 2018 memo of the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence which was declassified by order of the president on 2 February 2018 said that the FISA probable cause order on Carter Page "was not under Title 7" of FISA.  It was under Title 1, which is the most expansive authorization under that law [1].

This issue of an informant who was being handled by one or more government agencies has received wide media coverage, from the Wall Street Journal [2], to talk radio host Rush Limbaugh.

This new misconduct is being explored by U.S. Representative Devin Nunes (Repub., California, 22nd District), who is chairman of the House Intel Committee and is actually trying to do his job.  He was first elected to Congress in 2002 [3].

[1]  Summary of Title 1 of FISA from the House Intel Committee--

https://intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/fisa_title_i_summary.pdf

[2]  A story in the Wall Street Journal on the alleged informant--

http://www.wsj.com/articles/about-that-fbi-source-1525992611

[3]  A video of an interview with Congressman Nunes on 7 May 2018:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=169&v=qub6z4f9_HQ

UPDATE:  A meeting was held this past Thursday, 10 May 2018, attended by chairman Nunes and committee member Trey Gowdy, which was described in a statement by the House Intel Committee--

"We had a productive discussion today with officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Department of Justice, and FBI in which we raised questions related to information requested from the Intelligence Community. The officials committed to holding further discussions of these matters, and we look forward to continuing our dialogue next week [this week of 13 May] to satisfy the Committee’s request."

http://intelligence.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=886

 

Former CIA Case Officer Charged With Conspiracy to Commit Espionage and Retention of National Defense Information -- J

 

May 8th, DoJ announced that Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 53 of Hong Kong was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia with one count of conspiracy to gather or deliver national defense information to aid a foreign government, and two counts of unlawfully retaining documents related to the national defense. 

Lee, a U.S. citizen who speaks fluent Chinese.  Lee was a case officer for the CIA until 2007.  After leaving the CIA, Lee resided in Hong Kong.  The indictment alleges that in April 2010, two Chinese intelligence officers (IOs) approached Lee and offered to pay him for the information.  The indictment alleges that Lee received taskings from the IOs until at least 2011.  The taskings allegedly requested that Lee provide documents and information relating to the national defense of the United States.  According to the indictment, the IOs provided Lee with a series of email addresses where he could communicate covertly with them.  The indictment further alleges that Lee prepared documents responsive to the taskings, made numerous unexplained cash deposits, and repeatedly lied to the U.S. government during voluntary interviews when asked about travel to China and his actions overseas. 

In August 2012, Lee and his family left Hong Kong to return to the United States to live in northern Virginia.  While traveling back to the United States, Lee and his family had hotel stays in Hawaii and Virginia.  During each of the hotel stays, FBI agents conducted court-authorized searches of Lee's room and luggage, and found that Lee was in unauthorized possession of materials relating to the national defense.  Specifically, agents found two books containing handwritten notes that contained classified information, including but not limited to, true names and phone numbers of assets and covert CIA employees, operational notes from asset meetings, operational meeting locations and locations of covert facilities.  Agents also found a thumb drive on which was stored a document later determined to contain information classified at the Secret level.  During voluntary interviews with the FBI, Lee admitted preparing the document in response to taskings from the IO. 

An indictment is merely an allegation and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.   If convicted, Lee faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.  The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress.  If convicted of any offense, the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. 

Lee's case was investigated by the FBI's Washington Field Office.  The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys of National Security Division's Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of Virginia. 

The above was from DoJ Press Release Number: 18-600

Download Lee Indictment

 

"Bureaucrats versus Artisis" on Unz Review

 

"The question under examination here is simple. Premise: “The Intelligence Community produced poor quality intelligence on Iraq.” Therefore, one asks – Are there embedded structural defects in the present United States Intelligence Community that contributed either directly or indirectly to the production of estimates that were unsound and which failed the nation? And, moreover, are there characteristics in the present intelligence community of the United States which now prevent and will prevent it from “reforming” itself? It is clear that the inability of the Intelligence Community to forecast or estimate Iraq’s true condition was a major failure. Why did this happen, and how can the defects in the “community” be repaired? What “limits” are there in the psychology and structure of the government that may prevent “repair” of the system?"  Lang

-------------

I decided to re-publish this in the Unz Review.  pl  

http://www.unz.com/plang/bureaucrats-versus-artists/

Gina Haspel Will Cruise to Confirmation by Publius Tacitus

I do not know Gina Haspel. Although we were at the CIA at the same time. She just lasted longer than me. Some of my former colleagues refer to her as "Bloody Gina" for her role in the so-called Enhanced Interrogation program. What most of the world fails to understand about this period is that the CIA had zero experience with "interrogation" and found itself starting from ground zero in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks. The CIA operators, i.e., those men and women who operate overseas trying to recruit foreigners to spy for us, are trained in the art of recruitment. This is akin to picking up a woman in a bar and convincing her to have sex with you. It is not rape. It should not be forced nor coerced. 

Gina went through the same training I did at the Farm and experienced the "Resistance to Interrogation" course (but we trained at different times). This particular training was offered as part of the paramilitary course and was designed to prepare CIA overseas operators for the possibility that they might be taken hostage or captured. The course included a field exercise where we were taken hostage and subjected to methods of the euphemistically described "Enhanced Interrogation" procedures. There was no waterboarding but we were forced to stand in place for 48 hours, deprived of sleep, subjected to noise bombardment, shoved into claustrophobically small boxes and deprived of food and drink. None of this was later described as "effective" techniques for getting people to talk. In fact, the instructors generally conceded that such practices were counterproductive.

Jim Comey, Liar or Fool? by Publius Tacitus

Lordy, Lordy, Lordy (to quote James Comey liberally). He was interviewed tonight (Thursday, 26 April 2018) by Bret Baier on the Fox 6pm news show and it was shocking. Why? Because Comey revealed that he is either a world class liar or a total moron. Actually, he may be both. I also think that he earned the title of "sanctimonious twit."

Do not take my word for it. Watch it yourself:

 

I want to direct you to look at the exchange that starts at 8:30 into the interview. It concerns the so-called Steele Dossier. This exchange should leave you slack jawed by the audacity of Comey's lies. We are asked to believe that Jim Comey is a boy scout. Honest to a fault. Just a humble man trying to do the right thing. Oh yeah, he also is supposed to be really smart. He is a lawyer don't cha know.

An interim post on Syria ... (Editorial) by PL

(Syrian Christian clergy)

1- The case for the Syrian government having illogically attacked with chemicals in Douma remains unproven although the language of certainty is emerging in the MSM.  It should be noted that Senator Angus King (I) of Maine told Jake Tapper today on SOTU that no evidence has yet been presented to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence concerning the gas attack.  King is a member of the committee. 

2- The hundred odd cruise missiles fired into Syria were clearly the result of a compromise Trump decision on options with Mattis arguing for restraint in the absence of more than "social media" evidence of the  attack while the ascendant neocon influence centered around John Bolton argued for fire and brimstone.  Bolton has the political weight of AIPAC and the likes of Adelson behind him as well as the egocentric contempt that Trump has for experts.

3- I have done and/or supervised many Bomb Damage Assessments (BDA).  The damage shown in the three struck facilities seems to me to be about right for the number of missiles that the Russians say got through the air defense.

4- These facilities were undoubtedly empty when struck.

5- It seems unlikely to me that Soviet era Syrian air defense equipment would have had much effect on this flotilla of cruise missiles.  Therefore, if the Russian claim resembles truth, then something else caused the losses.  I am not an air defense expert but it seems to me that some sort of advanced Russian air defense Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) may have been in play. Comments?

6- Heather Nauert, the State Department spokesperson says that Syria will have to confess to its crimes and declare its existing chemical weapons stocks before the US will "allow" Syria to participate in a political settlement of the war.  This will be difficult for Syria to do if there are no chemical stocks and there was no attack.

7.  Nikki Halley, (the sage of Turtle Bay) and VP Mike Pence (a man who believes that Homo Sapiens walked the earth with dinosaurs)  have declared that US troops will not be withdrawn from Syria until US "goals" are reached.

8.  The neocons are back, pilgrims.  pl 

More to come on this. 

Into the Abyss? by Publius Tacitus

I believe that the risk of war with Russia over Syria is growing rather than diminishing. Although Donald Trump has toned down his idiotic tweet taunts and is no longer vowing an imminent response, he still has painted himself into a PR corner and his only avenue of escape is to launch cruise missiles against some obscure Syrian military or political target.

This will not be a mere repeat of the fireworks show from April of 2017, when Trump ordered up a cruise missile strike on an isolated airfield in the aftermath of another staged "chemical" attack by Syrian rebels. Trump blamed that supposed attack on Assad but did nothing in terms of even marginally hurting Syrian military capabilities. But it was a feel good political moment. Trump beat up the kid in a wheel chair and won praise as a tough guy.

Today the stakes are higher for Trump. The neocons and interventionist hawks are reminding him that his attack last year accomplished nothing of import. And then they ramp up the stakes by declaring that a failure to really hurt the Syrian military means that Trump is just a white version of Obama. Trump is being told by many politicians on both sides of the aisle and a horde of pundits that he has drawn a red line and must enforce it.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has issued a Warning Order to the relevant units and an Alert/Deployment Order. This means that US forces are moving into position to launch military operations when given the order to EXECUTE by Donald Trump. 

We are not yet at that moment, but it appears to be nigh. Scuttlebutt is that SecDef Mattis and CIA Acting Haspel are urging caution because there is no supporting intelligence for the claim that a "chemical weapon" was used. In fact, there is not even confirmation about the supposed civilian casualties. 

I find it precious listening to the bipartisan parade of politicians and pundits decrying the "murder" of innocent woman and children. I don't see those same folks decrying the bombings of Hiroshima or Nagasaki. But hey, if you easily are shocked by hypocrisy then you will be in a catatonic state if you even cursorily follow events and pronouncements in Washington, DC.

Here is what I think is going on. Mattis and Haspel are arguing for a delay in order for the OPCW to get on the ground and conduct an initial assessment of what really happened. The problem is that the OPCW is unlikely to find anything. But that will not be taken as proof  that the Syrians or Russians are innocent. The pressure for a strike will still be on.

The Law is Akbar! A response to J. by Fred

J. you have stated that Jared Kushner has committed treason.  Let me summarize your piece of J'accuse! i.e. the Treason and give a response. You have made allegations yet the only substantial thing you have provided as evidence is a link to an article at the DailyMail. I'll quote a few tantalizing tidbits. 

"Sources have told DailyMail.com that the prince – known by his initials MBS – has been boasting about his close relationship with the president's son-in-law..."  

Russia Sends 14 Questions To Britain on the Skripal Nerve Agent Affair

By Robert Willmann

Russia has presented 14 questions to the British Foreign Ministry on the alleged poisoning of the Skripals in Britain by a nerve agent--

 1. Why has Russia been denied the right of consular access to the two Russian citizens, who came to harm on British territory?

2. What specific antidotes and in what form were the victims injected with? How did such antidotes come into the possession of British doctors at the scene of the incident?

3. On what ground7:55:14 PM7:57:06 PMs was France involved in technical cooperation in the investigation of the incident, in which Russian citizens were injured?

4. Did the UK notify the OPCW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) of France’s involvement in the investigation of the Salisbury incident?

5. What does France have to do with the incident, involving two Russian citizens in the UK?

6. What rules of UK procedural legislation allow for the involvement of a foreign state in an internal investigation?

7. What evidence was handed over to France to be studied and for the investigation to be conducted?

 

"Let's investigate John Brennan" by Phil Geraldi

"Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan, a Barack Obama friend and protégé as well as a current paid contributor for NBC and MSNBC, has blasted President Donald Trump for congratulating President Vladimir Putin over his victory in recent Russian national elections. He said that the U.S. President is “afraid of the president of Russia” and that the Kremlin “may have something on him personally. The fact that he has had this fawning attitude toward Mr. Putin …continues to say to me that he does have something to fear and something very serious to fear.”"

It is an indication of how low we have sunk as a nation that a possible war criminal like Brennan can feel free to use his former official status as a bully pulpit to claim that someone is a foreign spy without any real pushback or objection from the talking heads and billionaire manipulators that unfortunately run our country. If Trump is actually being blackmailed, as Brennan implies, what evidence is there for that? One might reasonably conclude that Brennan and his associates are actually angry because Trump has had the temerity to try to improve relations with Russia." Giraldi

-----------

I have known both Brennan and Giraldi for a long time.  They are examples of the worst (Brennan) and the best (Giraldi) that the  CIA has produced although I will remind that Giraldi started in the Army and was lured to Langley when already a well known and respected person in the intelligence community.

Brennan, at the beginning of his career was judged by CIA to be unsuited to be a field man and was made an analyst.  I first knew him when I was Defense Attache in Jiddah and he was attached to Alan Fiers office.  It was clear to me from the beginning that he was someone whom you should not trust or turn your back on. 

Giraldi here lays out the case for Brennan's turpitude.  Let Sessions act on this!  Let him act!  pl 

http://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/lets-investigate-john-brennan/

My Analytic Tools

Epistemology:

1-Duck Rule: If it walks like a duck, squawks like a duck and has feathers, it probably is a duck.

2–Sherlock’s Rule: When considering a problem, remove everything from consideration which seems untrue. What is left is probably the truth.

3-Occam’s Razor: In considering a complex phenomenon with many factors and a variety of explanations, remember that the simplest explanation that accounts for the factors is probably correct.

4- The KISS principal” “Keep it Simple, Stupid.” (Army Rule) pl

Another SIGINT compromise ...

 

"Officials in at least four countries have privately discussed ways they can manipulate Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, by taking advantage of his complex business arrangements, financial difficulties and lack of foreign policy experience, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reports on the matter.

Among those nations discussing ways to influence Kushner to their advantage were the United Arab Emirates, China, Israel and Mexico, the current and former officials said.

It is unclear if any of those countries acted on the discussions, but Kushner’s contacts with certain foreign government officials have raised concerns inside the White House and are a reason he has been unable to obtain a permanent security clearance, the officials said.

Kushner’s interim security clearance was downgraded last week from the top-secret to the secret level, which should restrict the regular access he has had to highly classified information, according to administration officials.  Washpost

------------------

 Most people will probably be struck by the fall from grace of Kushner and other WH staff dilettantes.  I am not terribly interested in that.  What strikes me is that this is the third major compromise of US SIGINT products in the last year.  The first was the felonious disclosure to the press of US intelligence penetration of Russian diplomatic communications.  the second was the disclosure to the press of penetration of GRU communications.  In this one the oral or written  discussions among the officials of several foreign countries are revealed.  These conversations were probably encrypted. 

Is Jeff Sessions still alive?  Why are there no prosecutions for these felonies?  pl  

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/kushners-overseas-contacts-raise-concerns-as-foreign-officials-seek-leverage/2018/02/27/16bbc052-18c3-11e8-942d-16a950029788_story.html?utm_term=.e3639623e918

One if by Land, Two if by Sea, Three if by GCHQ. The British are Coming! The British are Coming! Observations on a tangled tale, by Fred

It was a dark and stormy daniels night. In the daylight you know when they are going to use the bayonet. It is in the darkest hours of night that you least expect someone will use cold Steele to drive a dagger into the heart of American democracy - our system of free and fair elections. 

He doesn't look dangerous, does he? He looks like the very image of a noble ally, not like some ignoble troll. What possible deed could he have done to draw the ire eye of the American government? We know what Russian trolls did. Check the 13 Troll indictment:

"U.S. law bans foreign nationals from making certain expenditures or financial disbursements for the purpose of influencing federal elections. U.S. law also bars agents of any foreign entity from engaging in political activities within the United States without first registering with the Attorney General." 

" strategic goal to sow discord in the U.S. political system, including the 2016 U.S. presidential election. ..... derogatory information....."

The text of the indictment of the SVR 13.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/rosenstein-mueller-indictment-russia/553601/

Looks to me like a very professional operation  I look forward to more indictments. Let's see them!  pl

The GRU and Turkish MI -The ties that bind ...

 

Attack Pilot Major Roman Filipov (RuAF) has been posthumously awarded the  "Hero of the Russian Federation" decoration.  Filipov was shot down near Saraqib while flying a ground attack mission against jihadi fighters massing to counter-attack SAA spearheads west of Abu Duhur town.  Filipov ejected from his aircraft and then fought it out with the jihadis on the ground until they gotthe better of him.  IMO opinion he richly deserved the aw ard.

The Russian expeditionary force needs to improve its Search and Rescue service so that more Russian air crew are not left to die alone in enemy hands.  US practice is such that a rescue package would have been standing by in the air with gunships and extraction birds waiting, waiting.

Saraqib is not in Turkish Armed Forces hands, but they clearly have men on the ground in the area and in liaison with the jihadis.  In that context, the GRU (Russian military intelligence) or lower level Russian MI were able to obtain the cooperation of the Turks in recovering Major Filipov's body.  People who exist outside the world of soldiering and its military intelligence function do not generally understand the level of collegiality that exists in that world.  That collegiality often extends across political boundaries and the momentary whims of politicians.  was Erdogan consulted?   Certainly, but the retrieval of Filipov's body speaks of more than that.  pl   

https://southfront.org/body-of-pilot-from-downed-su-25-brought-to-russia-ministry-of-defense/

The House Intel Committee Memo and the White House Letter

By Robert Willmann

Here are the White House letter about the memorandum of 18 January 2018 from the U.S. House Intelligence Committee and the memo itself that were released today. 

White House Counsel Donald McGahn II dances around the delicate and not entirely clear issue of exactly what the legal grounds are for making information classified and unclassified and who in the federal government can do it.  He opts for a common idea in favor of the executive branch and mentions executive order 13526, which I noted in a comment the other day.  

He and President Trump have made it easy for everyone by saying, "... the President has authorized the declassification of the Memorandum".

https://intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/memo_and_white_house_letter.pdf

https://intelligence.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=856

How the U.S. House Can Disclose the Tantalizing Secret Memo About Surveillance

By Robert Willmann

On Monday, 29 January 2018, the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence met for a business meeting and voted on five agenda items or motions concerning classified executive session memoranda.  This is the tantalizing matter of conduct by one or more executive branch agencies of surveillance, perhaps of president-elect Donald Trump, campaign members, and others.  Also said to possibly be involved is the secret federal court created by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and maybe even the bawdy paper pushed during the presidential campaign by "former" (or current?) British MI6 agent Christopher Steele about Donald Trump and Russia.  Here are the agenda items and the votes on each one by committee members--

http://docs.house.gov/meetings/IG/IG00/20180129/106822/HMTG-115-IG00-20180129-SD001.pdf

The big one was item number four, which passed, and authorized the disclosure of one classified executive session memo.

Of equal interest is the fact that the U.S. Congress can declassify and make public a document or item that was deemed secret and not to be disclosed.  Buried in the 45 pages of fine print in the Rules of the House of Representatives is the language that is claimed to authorize the disclosure.  Rule 10 governs the organization of committees.  Section or clause 11 of Rule 10 deals with the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.  The good stuff describing the authority and procedure is on pdf pages 19 and 20 (document pages 15 and 16) of the rules, in parts 11(f) and 11(g).  You start near the bottom of the middle column with part "f" on pdf page 19 and go through part/clause 11(g)(2)(G) in the first column on pdf page 20--

https://rules.house.gov/sites/republicans.rules.house.gov/files/115/PDF/House-Rules-115.pdf

That Congress can decide what is classified secret and what is not, and can authorize disclosure, is self-evident from Article 1, section 1 of the U.S. Constitution:  "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives".  However, the House rules are not legislation.  I have not yet tried to find a law passed by Congress that creates this unilateral power to declassify material, but I assume that it does exist, or it certainly should.

The members of the House intelligence committee are listed here--

http://clerk.house.gov/committee_info/index.aspx?comcode=IG00

One little item of interest is that committee member Will Hurd (Repub. Texas, 23rd District) is a former CIA officer.  His Congressional district includes part of the San Antonio area.  According to the committee document cited above with the motions that were voted on, he participated in all of the votes except number four, the one that starts the process to try to disclose the memo to the public.  He did not vote "present", so he may have ducked out of the room for that one.  If he has a philosophical objection to disclosing material previously designated as classified, he may not be put on the spot as the deciding vote to disclose if the whole House has to vote on that question. If the Republicans have a surplus in their majority in the House, he might either not vote at all or make a symbolic "no" vote.

If the underlying material for the memo was submitted by the "executive branch" and the executive branch requests that it be kept secret, the committee notifies the president that the vote to disclose was made.

 

Beat Navy! Beat Russia! Beat everyone!

(Pompaeus as Plebian)

" CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Thursday Russia has no plans to leave Syria and will continue to try to meddle in U.S. affairs to "stick it to America."

He reiterated his belief that Russia interfered in the U.S. presidential election and described the U.S.-Russia relationship as "complicated."

"I think they find anyplace that they can make our lives more difficult, I think they find that's something that's useful," he said

Pompeo also said he has seen only minimal evidence that Russia has pursued a serious strategy against Islamic State of Iraq and Syrica (ISIS) militants in Syria. He said any suggestion that Russia has been a U.S. ally in Syria is not borne out by what's happening on the ground."   CBS News

------------------

Oh my!  Minimal evidence of Russia fighting IS in Syria?  Even CIA must know better than that.  This utterance at an Aspen Institute "fight rally" indicates to me that this fellow has a completely closed mind on the subject of Russia and undoubtedly Iran as well.  Clapper and Brennan expressed similar sentiments at the same meeting.  The great minds have met!  Clapper cannot keep himself from saying "Soviet" occasionally when what should be said is "Russia."  He was always a blockheaded group think schemer, so one should not be surprised.    As for Brennan it is easy to see Torquemada's spirit lurking behind the ruddy complexion and scowl.

When I was teaching at USMA (West Point) Pompeo's alma mater, I endured on a yearly basis the frenetic activities of the cadets as they prepared themselves emotionally for the annual titanic struggle against the USNA (Annapolis) football team.  There were rallies, building defacements with giant painted slogans "Beat Navy!"   There was a kidnapping of the Billy Goat which was USNA's mascot.  I seem to remember that some boy was dismissed for that caper. Good.

During one of these magic periods of anticipatory ecstasy, the Soviet military attaché came to visit.  He was the guest of the Russian language group in the Foreign Languages department.  I taught in the department and for some reason they asked me to the small dinner given for this general of the Red Army. 

We dined in the cadet mess where all the young ladies and gentlemen were fed together at one sitting.  This was in a cavernous space where centuries of re-modeling had freakishly produced an elevated platform between two buttresses  This was 20 feet or so above the floor on which the corps ate.  I think this place was called "the poop deck."  There was space  up there for a table that would seat ten or twelve while white jacketed waiters scurried around looking anxious overthe state of the napery, etc.  One could look over the stone rail at the masses below. 

During the dinner, various cadet cheerleaders were allowed upstairs in our sacred space to lead the corps in cheers against the US Navy (the navy undergrad school really)  The guest finally asked what all the noise was about.  I told him and he asked to lead the US Corps of Cadets in a cheer.  He took his place at the microphone where the cadets could see him, the very incarnation of the devil, and began. 

"Beat Navy!"  The kiddies cheered lustily.

"Beat Air Force!"  The cheering was more restrained.

"Beat Army!  Beat Everybody!"  After a moment's silence the kids began to boo him.  Since I was not an alumnus of this place I thought it was funny.

Former cadet Pompeo says that he has seen minimal evidence of Russia fighting IS?   Oh my!  Robert Fisk of the Independent has now reported (see link below) that he recently sat in a meeting in the dust bowl desert south of Raqqa, but hard by, in which SAA, and the YPG/SDF coordinated their joint fight against IS (ISIS).  A Russian Army colonel who called himself Yevgenii sat in the their midst as a full participant.  There were no Americans present.

The Soviet general took a great interest in what I was doing at WP.  IMO their biographic file on me started that evening.

Pompeo has a record of pompous (a sad linguistic joke) bellicosity.  He seems to desire enemies everywhere.  Perhaps someone should tell him that grown ups don't act like that.  pl 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Pompeo

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cia-chief-mike-pompeo-russia-loves-to-stick-it-to-america/

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/syria-isis-russia-kurdish-ypg-happening-in-secret-a7857471.html

The SVR

 

"The Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation (Russian: Слу́жба вне́шней разве́дки, tr. Sluzhba vneshney razvedki; IPA: [ˈsluʐbə ˈvnʲɛʂnʲɪj rɐˈzvʲɛtkʲɪ]) or SVR RF (Russian: СВР РФ) is Russia's external intelligence agency, mainly for civilian affairs. The military affairs espionage counterpart is the GRU. The SVR RF is the successor of the First Chief Directorate (PGU) of the KGB since December 1991.^[1] The headquarters of SVR are in the Yasenevo District of Moscow.

Unlike the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the SVR is responsible for intelligence and espionage activities outside the Russian Federation. It works in cooperation with the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (Russian: Гла́вное разве́дывательное управле́ние, tr. Glavnoye razvedyvatel'noye upravleniye; IPA: [ˈglavnəjə rɐzˈvʲɛdɨvətʲɪlʲnəjə ʊprɐˈvlʲenʲɪjə]) (GRU), which reportedly deployed six times as many spies in foreign countries as the SVR in 1997.^[2] The SVR is also authorized to negotiate anti-terrorist cooperation and intelligence-sharing arrangements with foreign intelligence agencies, and provides analysis and dissemination of intelligence to the Russian president. "  wiki

--------------

Why do you people keep prattling on about the FSB?  The GRU and the SVR are Russia's external intelligence services, not the FSB who are essentially cops and internal security people like the FBI.  pl 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Service_(Russia)

Another felonious disclosure.

"Ambassador Sergey Kislyak’s accounts of two conversations with Sessions — then a top foreign policy adviser to Republican candidate Donald Trump — were intercepted by U.S. spy agencies, which monitor the communications of senior Russian officials both in the United States and in Russia. "  Washpost

******

"A former U.S. official who read the Kislyak reports said that the Russian ambassador reported speaking with Sessions about issues that were central to the campaign, including Trump’s positions on key policy matters of significance to Moscow."  Washpost

--------

The present or former official (or officials) who read these intercepts because of his or her clearance for hyper-sensitive compartmented information and have discussed them with the Washington Post have in IMO committed a felony for which they should be prosecuted.  

I know a lot of you are uninterested in protection of US SIGINT products but IMO that is an altogether irresponsible position.  pl  

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/sessions-discussed-trump-campaign-related-matters-with-russian-ambassador-us-intelligence-intercepts-show/2017/07/21/3e704692-6e44-11e7-9c15-177740635e83_story.html?utm_term=.dc6f6599dac1

Ritter on the magic 17

 I have not had a high opinion of Scott Ritter in the past but this looks like a thorough piece of work.  I have thought him someone whose experience as a UN inspector in Iraq was exaggerated into something grander.  Perhaps I was wrong.  pl

-------------

 "According to reporting from the Washington Post, sometime during this period, CIA Director John Brennan gained access to a sensitive intelligence report from a foreign intelligence service. This service claimed to have technically penetrated the inner circle of Russian leadership to the extent that it could give voice to the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin as he articulated Russia’s objectives regarding the 2016 U.S. Presidential election—to defeat Hillary Clinton and help elect Donald Trump, her Republican opponent. This intelligence was briefed to President Barack Obama and a handful of his closest advisors in early August, with strict instructions that it not be further disseminated.

The explosive nature of this intelligence report, both in terms of its sourcing and content, served to drive the investigation of Russian meddling in the American electoral process by the U.S. intelligence community. The problem, however, was that it wasn’t the U.S. intelligence community, per se, undertaking this investigation, but rather (according to the Washington Post) a task force composed of “several dozen analysts from the CIA, NSA and FBI,” hand-picked by the CIA director and set up at the CIA Headquarters who “functioned as a sealed compartment, its work hidden from the rest of the intelligence community.”

The result was a closed-circle of analysts who operated in complete isolation from the rest of the U.S. intelligence community. The premise of their work—that Vladimir Putin personally directed Russian meddling in the U.S. Presidential election to tip the balance in favor of Donald Trump—was never questioned in any meaningful fashion, despite its sourcing to a single intelligence report from a foreign service. President Obama ordered the U.S. intelligence community to undertake a comprehensive review of Russian electoral meddling. As a result, intelligence analysts began to reexamine old intelligence reports based upon the premise of Putin’s direct involvement, allowing a deeply disturbing picture to be created of a comprehensive Russian campaign to undermine the American electoral process.

These new reports were briefed to select members of Congress (the so-called “Gang of Eight,” comprising the heads of the intelligence oversight committees and their respective party leadership) on a regular basis starting in September 2016.  Almost immediately thereafter, Democratic members began clamoring for the president to call out Putin and Russia publicly on the issue of election meddling. These demands intensified after the November 2016 election, which saw Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton. Intelligence collected after the election, when viewed from the prism of the foregone conclusion that Putin and Russia had worked to get Trump elected, seemed to confirm the worst suspicions of the intelligence analysts and their Congressional customers (in particular, the Democrats). Calls to make public intelligence that showed Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election intensified until finally, on December 9, 2016, President Obama ordered the U.S. intelligence community to prepare a classified review of the matter."  Ritter 

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/did-17-intelligence-agencies-really-come-to-consensus-on-russia/

A couple of points on thinking things through ---

1. Analysis is not advocacy. 
2.  Both intent and capability must be considered in any analysis of potential threats.  pl

A few thoughts on the leaks - TTG

I had every intention to post something last night concerning the leaked NSA report on Russian election hacking, the oddly named young alleged leaker and the possible motivations behind her action. But I faced a dilemma. Even though the NSA document has been widely published, it is still classified. I no longer hold an active security clearance, but I am still legally bound by the many security agreements I have signed over the years. Technically speaking, I am not supposed to be reading or hearing about this latest leaked NSA report or commenting upon it except in the most circumspect manner. For anyone else here who has signed one of these ubiquitous security agreements at some time in your life, this is something to keep in mind.

On the other hand, I have solemnly sworn to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies. I took this oath before God. I pledged my life and sacred honor. If I ever found myself faced with a decision to go with a solemnly sworn oath before God or my signature on a legal agreement, I certainly hope I would choose my sacred honor and loving God over the penalties of the US legal code, no matter how severe those penalties might be. But more on this later. Here’s my comments on some questions raised by some of our correspondents.

1.  Why did Reality Winner have access to this document? Reality probably was first processed for a TS clearance shortly after she began training as an Air Force linguist and before she was assigned to NSA at Fort Meade as a linguist. As such, she was given an account on NSANet. This TS/SCI intranet gives analysts broad access to practically all intelligence information within NSA and across many other IC agencies. This wide ranging access came about because of unexamined advances in information technology and the deliberate decision to eliminate the stove piping of intelligence as a post-9/11 intelligence reform. Very little remains behind the walls of need-to-know besides HUMINT operational data and designated SAPs. 

This became a real problem with cyber operations and cyber reporting. This reporting often required detailed and specific data to be of use to network defenders. If these reports were available in the existing intelligence reporting databases, any analyst could access it. When I was setting up my last collection outfit, I was advised by a high level CIA tech dude to make my reporting limited distribution outside the normal reporting system from the git go. Otherwise some bonehead analyst who thought they were a 1337 cyber-sleuth would start investigating from his NIPRNet box and blow the operation. I ended up establishing a reporting system that was technologically decades out of date but still responsive to the needs of my customers. Perhaps a certain amount of stove piping will come back into vogue.

2.  Why did a contract linguist have a TS/SCI clearance? Almost every job in the IC requires a TS/SCI clearance as a minimum requirement. Almost every building is a SCIF. This is especially true at the NSA. Even some of the cleaning staff have TS/SCI clearances, but no IT system access. The alternative is to stop over-classifying everything or make due with far fewer TS/SCI cleared personnel. I don’t see either happening anytime soon.

3.  Is this a real NSA document? Unless the FBI arrest warrant is also a total fabrication, the document is real. The FBI states so in the warrant. The Intercept also redacted parts of the document at the request of the NSA when it became apparent that it was going to be published. If it was fake, the NSA would have just blown off the Intercept reporter. 

Many will continue to insist this document is fake along with every other piece of information about the “Russians tried to hack the election” thing. It’s all part of the vast snowflake conspiracy to get Trump out of office, just like the USG was behind the 9/11 attacks and the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax perpetrated by Obama in an effort to take all our firearms. I can't help you.

4.  Did this and other illegal leaks damage our collection capability? I have no doubt the sum total of information that has been made public concerning the Russian info op has degraded our capabilities to collect against the Russian target. However, I believe Obama’s personal warning to Putin in September 2016, his “red phone” warning to Putin along with the expulsion of 35 Russian officials in December 2016 and the 6 January 2017 DNI report tipped Putin to holes in his commo systems. As soon as I heard our government accuse Putin of being behind the DNC hacks, I knew we were deep in their shit. All that didn’t come about because of the CrowdStrike malware report. The illegal leaks were just icing on the cake. 

5.  What was Reality Winner thinking? Damned good question. If she thought she was going to be a protected whistle blower, she was hopelessly mistaken. Her stunt will end up costing her ten years of her life. Perhaps she thought she could outfox the NSA and FBI and get away with it. Given her background, she should have known better. She hated Trump and the Republican agenda. Maybe in her naiveté, she thought this small act would help in stopping Trump and the Republicans. That’s hardly seems worth ten years of her life.    

There’s another possibility. This may apply to Winner and to the other illegal leakers. There is a real possibility that Russia made a deliberate and concerted effort to disrupt our electoral process in the run up to the 2016 election. Based on my experience with Russian info ops, I believe this happened. I do not know it happened because I don’t have access to the intelligence. I don’t appreciate others trying to give me illegal access to this intelligence. I still have faith in the system to weather this storm and do the right thing. 

What the Russians did was not a crime against humanity or an act of war. Compared to what we did to Ukraine, it was elegant and bloodless. No, it was just hardball international politics and I don’t begrudge them for trying. But I do want them to know that any effort to try anything like this again will be quickly discovered and it will cost them more than they hoped to gain. 

But Russian info ops do not constitute a crisis requiring illegal leaking of classified information. If Trump and/or those around him colluded with the Russians in the execution of this info op, I want them and the Russians spanked hard. If the Trump administration is actively seeking to suppress the investigation and protect the Russians, I want them spanked. Either of these cases would mean that the reins of power are currently in the hands of enemies of the Constitution. Although I have faith that our system can deal with this possibility, perhaps Winner and other leakers lack this faith. Perhaps, as misguided as this is, they choose to honor their sworn oaths to the Constitution rather than their signature on a legal agreement. It doesn’t matter. If caught and tried they will all probably face prison time... that is unless they are high level muckety-mucks

TTG

 

Another traitorous US spy

"The Washington Post and NBC News have confirmed that the Intercept has published the material allegedly leaked by Winner. Very recently, in fact: On Monday, the digital organization published a rather eventful exclusive under the headline, “Top-Secret NSA Report Details Russian Hacking Effort Days Before 2016 Election.” The piece detailed a complicated and industrious effort by Russian military intelligence to hack into a company that supports voting systems in various states. “The report indicates that Russian hacking may have penetrated further into U.S. voting systems than was previously understood,” write Matthew Cole, Richard Esposito, Sam Biddle and Ryan Grim."  Washpost

--------------

OK.  It is mildly interesting that the GRU (Russian Military Intelligence) experimented with electronic penetration of US companies connected to the electoral process.

It is also annoying that this particular air head decided to launch her own campaign of "resistance" to the Trump Administration by e-mailing Glenn Greenwald's publication  an NSA document that she was sworn to protect from public view.  "But, I have to have clean water and air to breathe."  This is a typical talking point that such people babble when all else fails.

But, pilgrims, none of that is important when compared to the massive intelligence defeat suffered by the US in that the GRU now know that US SIGINT has been reading their internal communications traffic for years.  Given this revelation and the earlier CNN "scoop" given to Dana Bash by US spies concerning US penetration of Russian diplomatic communications I would think it likely that the Russian government will conclude that ALL their communications are compromised.  Having reached that conclusion they will set out to build completely new systems for the whole Russian government.

It will take billions of dollars and years of work to break into these new systems,  Until that is achieved US intelligence will be rather close to blind.  Some of you will rejoice in that, but you should not.  The insight provided by SIGINT into potentially hostile acts and motives have often kept the world from nuclear war.  pl 

 

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2017/06/06/did-the-intercept-bungle-nsa-leak/?utm_term=.5a4d1262874e

 http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/30/politics/russians-trump-campaign-information/

 

"Anatoly, you will not believe what the idiots proposed to me!" (Dramatization)

 

"Jared Kushner and Russia’s ambassador to Washington discussed the possibility of setting up a secret and secure communications channel between Trump’s transition team and the Kremlin, using Russian diplomatic facilities in an apparent move to shield their pre-inauguration discussions from monitoring, according to U.S. officials briefed on intelligence reports.

Ambassador Sergey Kislyak reported to his superiors in Moscow that Kushner, son-in-law and confidant to then-President-elect Trump, made the proposal during a meeting on Dec. 1 or 2 at Trump Tower, according to intercepts of Russian communications that were reviewed by U.S. officials. Kislyak said Kushner suggested using Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States for the communications.

The meeting also was attended by Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser."  Washpost

-------------------

 So, what is revealed in this Washpost story?

1.  US SIGINT successfully intercepts and decrypts what must surely be encrypted Russian diplomatic communications.  You may think it is obvious that this is true but it is not obvious.  Governments always want to believe that their own communications are secured by systems that prevent penetration and decryption by their international adversaries.  A great deal of time and effort are expended on maintaining that illusion.  This story states above the fold, right corner that US officials who either produced the report of the intercept or received the report of this successful intercept outside the IC in State, Defense, the NSC, etc. informed the Washington Post of the frailty of Russian diplomatic communications.  I was once a fixture in the world of Special Security.  It was a basic belief in this field that a breach of security like this one reported in the Washpost would result in a massive effort by the penetrated party to change and improve communications systems.  Translation - US SIGINT might have to start all over again in the process of breaking into those communications.

2.  Jared Kushner does not seem to have understood the possibility that US SIGINT would intercept and decrypt any line of communications he managed to establish through Russian diplomatic facilities.  Conclusion -  He was a very ignorant fellow in such matters.

3.  LTG (ret.) Flynn was present at the meeting.  Flynn is a career intelligence officer who had been Director of DIA.  Surely, HE, knew better but evidently said nothing to Kushner like - Hey, dummy rich kid - you can't do something so stupid!  But, on the other hand, maybe it was Flynn's idea!  Yes!  I will bet that is the truth.  Flynn probably wanted to talk to the Russian generals privately.  Another dummy heard from!

4. US officials, evidently properly cleared, chose to violate their oath of clearance access to reveal one of the Crown Jewels of US intelligence from a sense of pique or frustrated revolutionary zeal.  These people can be IC officials or more likely they are cleared individual recipients who work in non-IC parts of the government.  IMO they deserve hanging.

Was Kislyak "taken aback" by the proposal.?  This was so brainless an idea that I would think that was true.  pl   

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-ambassador-told-moscow-that-kushner-wanted-secret-communications-channel-with-kremlin/2017/05/26/520a14b4-422d-11e7-9869-bac8b446820a_story.html?hpid=hp_rhp-top-table-main_kushner-705pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.6a520d843117

First among unequals.

The news is replete today with PM Teresa May's well phrased outrage over the same US government leaks to the press that have outraged President Trump.  In this case it is likely IMO that some group like NYPD under Mayor Blasio's influence leaked to the NY Times.

Let us be clear about the possibility that UK intelligence (MI-5, MI-6 and the military) or police intelligence will stop cooperating with the US IC.   The possibility is ZERO.  I know as much as anyone of the nature of the relationships of the US IC and its allies as anyone.  The US contribution to all of these is somewhere between 80% and 95%.  These folks have very little real collection and analytic capabilities.  We give them everything and they cannot give us much of anything because they have nothing.   There are exceptions.  The US IC and the British "old boys club" are welded at the hip.  Our thing grew from their thing in WW2.  Before that our war plans were based on the idea of the British Empire as the enemy.  The US IC and that of the UK are virtually the same thing in the SIGINT field and James Bond fantasies aside, no one has trusted MI-6 since Philby.  Israel/US intelligence relations are overwhelmingly conducted on the basis of the Israeli attitude of "what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine as well."  The French have excellent HUMINT in their former empire but aside from their excellent soldierly qualities the rest is not much.  All the rest of US intel liaison relationships across the world is mostly a matter of diplomacy. 

I am so tired of the mendacious BS.  pl

Quelle Surprise! By Richard Sale

 

Part One 

It is not beyond the realm of possibility that the information given to President Trump by Israel and passed to the Russians was something the Russians already knew about. 

I cite this story below.

Soviet spies infiltrate Mossad, sources say

 

"By RICHARD SALE   |   Dec. 14, 1987

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WASHINGTON -- Soviet infiltration of Israel's spy agency, Mossad, is the most serious blow to Israeli intelligence since the 1970s and U.S. intelligence also was breached as a result, U.S. intelligence sources reveal.

Mossad has been penetrated by 'highly placed' Soviet moles and a full-scale internal counterintelligence investigation is under way, the intelligence sources said.

A Justice Department source said U.S. counterintelligence agents became aware of the Israeli-Soviet espionage pipeline when data stolen by Jonathan Jay Pollard, a U.S. Navy analyst convicted of spying for Israel, was 'traced to the Eastern bloc.'

Intelligence sources said data reaching the Soviets via this route included sensitive U.S. weapons technology and strategic information about the defense forces of Turkey, Pakistan and moderate Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia.

U.S. intelligence analysts said the Pollard data was traded to the Soviets in return for promises to increase emigration of Soviet Jews to Israel.

One analyst said Israel's 'right-wing' Jews are involved with spying for the Soviets and called it 'ironic,' noting that left-wing elements were responsible for similar scandals in the past.

A senior U.S. official said morale in Mossad 'had plummeted' but refused to comment on whether the breach had damaged U.S.-Israeli intelligence ties.

In Jerusalem, an Israeli government spokesman denied knowledge of the security breach.

'I know nothing about all that,' said Avi Pazner, spokesman for the prime minister's office. 'It seems to be utter fantasy.'

A State Department spokesman also declined comment. But an administration official said the Soviet penetration of Mossad was discussed at meetings of CIA, FBI and other U.S. counterintelligence specialists about the Pollard case.

'One of the guys was commenting that if Pollard had stolen stuff, at least it was going to a U.S. ally, but a CIA guy spoke up and said that if Mossad was involved it meant that copies of everything were going to (the KGB's) Moscow center,' the source said.

Pollard began serving a life sentence early this year in what U.S. officials have called one of the worst intelligence disasters in U.S. history, according to a senior administration official.

Asked to describe the Israeli-Soviet spies, an administration intelligence source said: 'They are highly placed agents in the top echelon of Mossad.' The source also said the infiltration has occurred at 'very significant levels.'

Israel has launched a full-scale investigation into the Soviet infiltration, disguising it as 'a probe into financial corruption' of some Mossad agents, an administration source said.

The source emphasized that 'counterintelligence investigations always begin with the painstaking study of financial vouchers,' inquiries aimed at determining whether an agent has received large, unexplained payments or lived an unusually high lifestyle. Another source said most double agents 'are caught by the careful study of documents.'

Israel apparently was first used as a base for Soviet agents in the early 1960s, when Professor Kurt Sitte, a nuclear physicist at the Institute of Technology at Haifa, was exposed as a Soviet agent.

Sitte, a specialist in cosmic radiation working with the U.S. Air Force, was convicted in 1961.

Joe Lieberman and the Three Amigos

 

"Charles Freeman Jr.’s withdrawal of his acceptance of a high-level intelligence position in the Obama administration was a national-security drama more riveting than an episode of “24.” The moral was clear: even a president who owes his job to a progressive movement in American politics could not support a longtime public servant who had made the mistake of criticizing Israel. Fierce advocates of the Jewish state, notably Sens. Chuck Schumer and Joe Lieberman and Reps. Eric Cantor and Steve Israel, played important roles in Freeman’s exit, while present and former officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee flitted in and out of the wings.

The message to all office-seekers is obvious. “They want to kill the chicken to scare the monkeys. They want other people to be intimidated,” Freeman told The American Conservative just before he withdrew his name to be chairman of the National Intelligence Council. He went on, “If the administration does not stick with me, then it’s destroying the argument that the Israel lobby is only a mythic entity and does not control the public space. … It will show the world that it is not able to exercise independent thinking on these issues.”"  Weiss

---------------

 I used to know Senator Joe Lieberman quite well.  I met him in the course of my third or fourth career, this one as a fellow who introduced people.  He is affable, polite, hospitable, and seemingly open to new ideas.

But there are a number of problems with the idea of making him Director of the FBI:

1.  He is too old.  The FBI Director works a very hard schedule and Joe Lieberman is 75 years old.  His ten year term would end when he would be 85.  This is out of the question.

2.  He is a politician.  His on again, off again love affair with the Democratic Party should, in itself, be a bar to appointment to head yhe US' most important national police force and counter-intelligence group.  Would the Republicans other than his pals, McCain and Graham, ever trust this Democrat?

3.  He was an ardent supporter of the disastrous Iraq War.  He and the other Amigos, McCain the strange, and Graham the oddball South Carolinian, traveled endlessly to Iraq, usually stopping off in Tel Aviv going and/or coming for a "booster shot" in enthusiasm for the project.  There surely should be some questioning of his judgment over this.

4.  He has no police or investigative experience other than a period as AG of Connecticut a long time ago.  He is not a cop.  Nor is he a CI spook.

5.   He is very close to AIPAC, the un-registered and IMO illegal Zionist lobby.

6.  Ambassador Charles (Chas) Freeman is probably the most skilled US diplomat in the last century in regard to matters involving the Middle East and the Arab World.  Joe was one of those who led the effort to block Freeman's appointment as head of the National Intelligence Council, a DNI function that writes all national intelligence estimates.  Relentless resistance by what Freeman called "The IsraeliLobby" caused Freeman to withdraw from the process. 

I URGE THE PESIDENT TO RESIST THOSE URGING HIM TO APPOINT JOE LIEBERMAN TO HEAD THE FBI.  pl 

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/freemans-fight/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Lieberman

Was this a Soft Coup? by Publius Tacitus

Devin Nunes, the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, is either a hero or mentally deranged. The Democrats are opting for the crazy diagnosis. I believe he is a hero. Mr. Nunes received information earlier this week from a whistleblower, but not you typical whistleblower. The "normal" whistleblower takes information, usually classified, to a member of the press in order to bring attention to wrong doing or lies by the government. He or she goes outside of channels. In this regard the Nunes' whistleblower is different. This person passed classified material to a person cleared for the classified material, i.e. Nunes. 

Nunes was shown information that had been withheld from the House and Senate oversight committees. His reaction upon receiving the material is telling. He clearly was shocked by the proof that intelligence reports containing the names of Trump campaign officials had been produced and disseminated to in violation of normal protocols. You simply do not put the name of a U.S. citizen in an intelligence report. It is supposed to be "minimized." In other words, masked. Our principal foreign intelligence agencies--NSA, CIA, DIA and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency--are supposed to collect on foreigners.