NEW Trump "back channel".....
The Associated Press
@AP
BREAKING: President Trump has been urging world leaders to call him on his cellphone, raising security and secrecy concerns.
MY suggestion to Trump WH...
Dear @POTUS: Please do not use your cell phone for sensitive calls. SS7 flaw in networks allows foreign intel to monitor conversations
THAT flaw will not be fixed for a long while as it is a true engineering problem....
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 05-31-2017 at 05:28 AM.
Azor...care to comment.....??
ALL American Presidents are controlled by "the men in black".......
IS that not the famous "Deep State" proTrump supporters talk about on the various alt right ie white nationalist blogsites and FOX News????
Putin say it is true so it must be true....just like he says there are ceasefires in eastern Ukraine and in Syria.....
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 05-31-2017 at 08:59 AM.
Did the Uk government take action?
Citing Outlaw 09 in part from Post 1080:I recall Prime Minister David Cameron made a speech in Singapore about "dirty money" and extensive property purchases, in July 2015; which is summarized well on:https://www.theguardian.com/politics...ket-corruptionIt is a well known fact that on the UK virtually all of the Russian real estate purchases are via unnamed LLCs located in a tax haven....OR what UK states is extensive "Russian black money laundering".....and which now has been stopped by a new law....BUT only after investigative journalists documented it and how extensive it was...
His speech appears to be influenced by an advocacy group Transparency International and their website still has concerns today. See:http://www.transparency.org.uk/
I am not aware of any new law to stop this practice; there were suggestions of a new register for land purchases - that too has yet to appear.
Perhaps you can enlighten me please?
davidbfpo
Speaking of bots...
(These accts are tweeting a 2012 article to try to justify Trump's backchannel w/ Russia. Bad false equivalency bots).
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 05-31-2017 at 09:18 AM.
Azor....more German economic news.....
1. Berlin Brandenburg 15,000 unfilled blue and white collar apprenticeship positions ...simply no one left to apply
2. German unemployment rate drops to 1989 rates.....continuing to fall for June.
3. ALL EU countries are in an economic growth mode....all increased at the same time in roughly with the same rate...as a block it moved forward not just individual countries....
There was a UK expose run as a three part series on the land purchases by Russians and it indicated some of the complete London street blocks that have empty houses owned by Russians and how the black money flows into these purchases....Originally Posted by davidbfpo
Actually the journalist pretended to be Russian as he speaks Russian and went through the entire process of dealing with UK real estate sale types...thus much of the story is off the undercover work....
Out of that article the government that was before the May flip into PM indicated they clearly wanted to bring in control mechanisms to clearly indicate who owns the property and to require the money flow be documented....with Brexit and the resulting turmoil not sure that it went through....although there are money laundering laws in place if no one uses them......then they do not exist....even if on the books...
Various articles from JUL 2016....to MAR 2017
1. https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-where-it-went
The article concerns the OCCRP article on Russian Laundarmat money laundering
2. London estate agents caught on camera dealing with 'corrupt' Russian buyer
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...-russian-buyer
3. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...-10083527.html
4. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ty-bubble.html
Away from the UK nowBy law, Mr Moran should inform his company of his suspicions about money laundering and they should refer the case to the authorities. However, later that evening, he phoned Mr Borisovich’s assistant and described the deal as ‘too good to be true’.
Russians Flocking to Buy U.S. Property After Donald Trump's Win ...
fortune.com/2016/12/08/us-property-real-estate-trump-russian-buyers/
https://www.bloomberg.com/.../articl...rump-s-russia-...
16.03.2017 - Millionaires scrambled to get their money out and into New York. Real estate provides a safe haven for overseas investors. It has few reporting these investments.......
US Will Track Secret Buyers of Luxury Real Estate - The New York Timeshttps://www.nytimes.com/.../us-will-...yers-of-luxury... -
13.01.2016 -
It will shine a light on the darkest corner of the real estate market: all-cash purchases made by shell companies that often shield purchasers'#...
Last edited by davidbfpo; 05-31-2017 at 12:15 PM. Reason: Fix links
Can someone in the US explain what Trump means by this????
Is it some kind of new FP or something that Germans did and NATO did not do???
Donald J. Trump
Verifizierter Account
#
@realDonaldTrump
Despite the constant negative press covfefe
Whatever is behind it..it has opened the flood gates of the meme world....and actually made Twitter "nice" for a few hours....
IMHO Trump was trying to type "confusion" and fell asleep......in mid sentence.....
BUT I am betting this will be said today at the WH press conference.....
What’s a ‘Covfefe’? Trump Tweet Unites a Bewildered Nation"Everyone knows #covfefe is a real word. POTUS has been very clear about his position on it." -Sean Spicer, at tomorrow's WH press briefing.
By MATT FLEGENHEIMER 2:11 AM ET
Mr. Trump’s Twitter feed has become an essential tool of his tenure. So he grabbed the world’s attention early Wednesday when he tweeted, “Despite the constant negative press covfefe.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/31/u...T.nav=top-news
WOW....Trump just committed a Federal Crime in deleting his delightful early morning tweet...THERE is a Federal Law pertaining to all communications conducted by a President and his WH......AND it explicitly states ALL communications will be secured and stored and then turned over when he leaves office.....
Punishable by a heavy fine and jail time for those that destroy such records.....comes from the Watergate days....
BLUF
AND the Twitter world responded to the sad news of his delete....
RIP #covfefe
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 05-31-2017 at 10:13 AM.
Trump Takes Aim at German Trade, but Overlooks Benefits
By MARK LANDLER
The president’s campaign against the trade deficit with Germany ignores the 700,000 jobs its carmakers have brought to America and overstates Berlin’s ability to do much about the imbalance.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/30/w...T.nav=top-news
This social media journalist a former UK Parliment Member has been running an accuracy rate of close to 95% on her Trump Russian stories along with two other social media journalists and now US MSM has been racing to catch up and confirm her stories.....
She has been on a hunt for the two servers that communicated between Trump Tower and Alfa Bank Moscow since she broke the story first and then it was picked up by MotherJones and bashed by Trump as "fake news"...appears with this search and seizure it was not "fake news"....
https://patribotics.blog/2017/05/31/...t-trump-tower/
EXCLUSIVE: Federal Marshals Execute Seizure Warrants At Trump#Tower
.Sources with links to the intelligence community report that Federal Marshals executed two search and seizure warrants at Trump Tower on Friday, May 19.
One of the warrants covered an electronic storage space in Trump Tower. Several electronic items were seized#as a result of this search.
Another of the warrants, sources report, was served on Paul Manafort’s apartment in Trump Tower.
Patribotics hopes#to expand reporting and commission other writers. If you would like to donate, there are buttons around the site, or you could make a contribution here.##
Unlike the first warrant, this warrant was served, sources say, with “consent.” That means that Mr. Manafort is almost certainly co-operating with Federal authorities.
The Trump Data team worked out of Trump Tower. Separate sources, with links to the intelligence and law enforcement communities, report that the FBI is looking at photographs posted publicly on #Twitter by members of that team that appear to show a Python server connection loading on the screens of one of the Trump data team workers.
These same sources have confirmed my April reporting that the Russian Alfa Bank server, with an ip address in Trump Tower, was communicating with Russia and Spectrum Health, and that it was ‘washing’ hacked U.S. State voter database information with the social media ‘fake news’ botnet for micro-targeting to voters. There will be a separate piece of analysis on how this might relate to the ‘electronic devices’ that were seized on Friday afternoon, 19 May. Sources report that this was done ‘very quietly’, in an attempt to evade detection by the press.
The servers and data in Trump Tower, and the items taken from Manafort’s apartment, may form part of the “secure communications channel” that Kushner wanted to establish with Russia. I broke on November 7th that a FISA warrant had been secured on any US person’ in relation to two Russian banks, Alfa Bank – with whom the server was communicating – and SVB Bank. SVB Bank, which had a deal with Sberbank, is implicated in the meeting Kushner had with Gorkov. Further to that, Avi Berkowitz, who was on the Trump Data team, working with Boris Epshteyn and Brad Parscale, formed a go-between for Kushner and the Russian Ambassador.
My earlier exclusive report stated that the Kelhios botnet for which the Russian hacker Pyotr Levashov was indicted, was run out of Trump Tower with a ‘command and control server.’
The Trump sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., were interviewed by the FBI, sources say, the day before James Comey was fired. This is because, sources linked to the intelligence and law enforcement communities say, they are suspected of being complicit in the Kelhios botnet’s repurposing to service and pay both pro-Russia and pro-Trump Twitter and facebook bots, but also to deliver ‘fake news’, loaded with malware, and to pay those spreading it through bitcoin transactions.
One of the reasons James Comey was illegally fired by Trump was that his investigation was at the point of interviewing Trump’s own sons. For the avoidance of doubt, White House sources report that Donald Trump himself is considered by investigators to be directly complicit in Russia’s hack of the American election, and Trump fears that the FBI has data-based evidence that will prove this
Trump's presidency has ushered in a new kind of hypocrisy that is likely to damage the international liberal order.
http://ow.ly/KTUi30caizr
The Hill
✔
@thehill
One arrested, two missing after investigating working conditions at Ivanka Trump shoe factory in China
http://hill.cm/5WTrodt
Someone has drunk too much Schnapps
Perhaps this is one thing upon which we agree.
I joined this thread with my article from Der Spiegel, which is a center-left publication and which has no love for Trump: the article dealt with the military spending and capabilities of Germany as well as other continental European NATO members.
In reply, you have tried every trick in the book to evade the article’s allegations and underlying premises. Your responses are akin to a NVAF MiG-21 hopelessly trying to escape a F-4 on its tail.
In February of this year, after Trump’s inauguration, the German government announced that it would increase its military spending. If there was no capabilities gap, if Germany’s foreign aid and EU contributions counted as military spending, and if German anti-militarism was due to U.S. indoctrination, then this was an unnecessary increase, no?
As for the rest of your drivel, I suggest you return to the focus of this thread, which is Trump’s impact on foreign policy, not his troubles at home. As for “tactics”, it is called logic mi amigo. I am not sure what “other sites” you are referring to, but feel free to delve into my past comments at SWC/SWJ at your leisure.
Prove to me how Putin is in more of a commanding position now than during Obama’s tenure. I am still waiting for the piss and prostitutes tape, which is Putin’s trump card (pun intended). Perhaps the Napoleon of the Kremlin is waiting for 2020?
Sounds like the plot of LeCarre's Our Kind of Traitor...
Azor..something that you tend to miss in your comments allies should pay more and Trump's tweets that they do not pay...
Primer for President Trump: How NATO funding really works
http://www.politico.eu/article/prime...ampaign=buffer
By David M. Herszenhorn 5/31/17, 6:04 PM CET Updated 5/31/17, 7:03 PM CETAllies including Germany pay far more per capita to the alliance than the US does.
After berating NATO allies over military spending in Brussels, U.S. President Donald Trump declared victory at the G7 summit in Sicily.
But his pronouncement that money had begun to “pour in” only confirmed to allies that Trump, even after his visit to NATO headquarters, still didn’t have a clue about how the alliance’s financing actually works.
If he understood the system, Trump#would know that relatively little money ever pours in to NATO. And when it comes to the money that does go directly into NATO coffers, there is a strict cost-sharing formula — and allies are all paying their share.
Should allies decide to meet Trump’s demand for increased military spending, the money will never pour in. On the contrary, it is supposed to pour out, with individual NATO members spending more money on their own military forces, equipment and weapons.
Here’s a simple primer on how NATO’s direct budget (officially known as “common funding”) works, and who’s paying what share. We’ll even use bullet points in the hope that a certain someone in the White House might pay 2 percent of attention.
NATO’s “common funding” budget, the part of the alliance budget controlled by its#international civilian and military staff, is divided into three#main categories:
• Civil Budget
• Military Budget
• NATO Security Investment Programme (for capital expenditures)
As NATO explains, “These are the only funds where NATO authorities identify the requirements and set the priorities in line with overarching Alliance objectives and priorities.”
Allies provide money for these three budget categories according to a two-year cost-sharing formula, based on each ally’s gross national income, meaning the wealthier members pay a proportionally bigger share.
According to the formula for 2016 and 2017 —the United States pays 22.14 percent (rounded to two decimal places; NATO is even more specific on its website). Germany, which has been castigated by Trump, is the next biggest contributor, paying 14.65 percent, followed by France, which pays 10.63 percent, and the United Kingdom, which pays 9.85 percent.
For 2017, NATO’s total budget is roughly €2.18 billion, or $2.44#billion, divided as follows:
• Civil Budget: €234.4 million, or $262 million
• Military Budget: €1.29 billion, or $1.44 billion
• NATO Security Investment Programme: maximum of €655 million or $734 million
From here on, let’s keep the figures in U.S. dollars, just so it’s easier to follow in Washington.
According to the cost-sharing formula, the approximate total share of the wealthiest major allies (presuming NATO spends the maximum allowed on capital investments) for 2017 is:
• U.S. $540.32 million
• Germany $357.46 million
• France $259.46 million
• U.K. $240.3 million
On a per capita basis, that means Americans are paying far less than Germans, roughly $1.68 per person for the 2017 NATO budget. On a per capita basis, Germans are paying more than 2.5 times as much: $4.39 per person. (By this same math, the French are paying $3.88 per person, and Britons $3.69 per person.)
Of course, Trump’s point (and to be fair it’s the same point as many of his predecessors in the White House) is that the important spending by NATO allies is not on the relatively small annual budget for headquarters, but on the soldiers, weapons, equipment and other capabilities that give the alliance its great military might.
On that score, U.S. spending dwarfs that of all other allies. The U.S. forks out more than $600 billion a year on its military compared to about $40 billion spent by Germany.
At NATO headquarters, there is a general sense that Trump doesn’t quite grasp how NATO funding works, though some officials leave open the possibility that he is deliberately simplifying his comments.
At the same time, no one in NATO leadership wants to criticize Trump because they agree with his overarching goal — even if he doesn’t quite understand the goal himself.
In 2014, NATO allies pledged to work toward spending at least 2 percent of annual GDP on defense, a target currently met by the U.S. and just four other countries: Greece, Estonia, the U.K. and Poland.
The pledge in 2014 was voluntary and the alliance set no consequences for countries that fail to meet the target. In response to Trump’s pressure, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg convinced allies not meeting the 2 percent GDP target to agree to develop, by the end of this year, national plans showing how they would do so.
In Germany’s case, meeting the 2 percent GDP target would require nearly doubling its annual military spending to roughly $70 billion from $40 billion.
But even if German officials, who have pushed back on Trump’s demands, agreed to such a sharp increase, that spending would be on Germany’s own national capabilities, which could be shared with NATO — if Germany wanted to do so. Under no circumstance, however, would that money ever “pour in” to NATO.
When Trump talks about pushing for 2 percent of GDP in spending, his comments suggest that money would automatically fill the alliance’s coffers, something that officials at NATO headquarters acknowledge is a mistaken impression — if, in fact, that’s what Trump believes.
“That would be national defense budgets, any portion of which could be contributed to NATO but that would be a national decision based on operational requirements,” a senior official said, describing the potential 2 percent of GDP in spending.
That the U.S. spends far more than 2 percent of GDP on its own military is a sovereign decision that reflects its unique role as the world’s only superpower.
“It’s also about the US’s global reach and global responsibilities,” the NATO official said. “Because the U.S. has this global reach and global responsibility then of course the military defense expenditures are going to be very different from a country like Slovenia or Luxembourg.”
Anyone interested in learning more about NATO funding — perhaps during a break from covfefe memes on Twitter — can find#more detailed information#on the alliance website.
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 05-31-2017 at 05:23 PM.
I am a major fan of Snyder's research. Decades spent studying the horrors of East-Central Europe have left him with a personal need to fight contemporary tyranny. Unfortunately, he has consciously or unconsciously decided that Trump is Hitler and Stalin rolled into one, and that he can be a hero from the comforts of his keyboard.
Yet it doesn't take a doctorate or fluency in a dozen languages to know that the U.S. is not Germany in the early 1930s or Poland, Hungary, Romania or Czechoslovakia in the mid-1940s.
There is a temptation to consider one's time and place to be a fulcrum of history and for one to want to be a hero. This temptation worsens if "heroism" coincides with one's beliefs and imposes no costs.
Azor..something that you tend to miss in your comments allies should pay more and Trump's tweets that they do not pay...maybe this will help you understand that what Trump seemingly does not and you do not fully understand...
Hopes it helps.....it is a shame to have to expalin to some Americans exactly how NATO works since it was the US that help set it up in the first place....
Primer for President Trump: How NATO funding really works
http://www.politico.eu/article/prime...ampaign=buffer
By David M. Herszenhorn 5/31/17, 6:04 PM CET Updated 5/31/17, 7:03 PM CETAllies including Germany pay far more per capita to the alliance than the US does.
Putin says Trump is right to ask NATO countries to spend more on defenseAfter berating NATO allies over military spending in Brussels, U.S. President Donald Trump declared victory at the G7 summit in Sicily.
But his pronouncement that money had begun to “pour in” only confirmed to allies that Trump, even after his visit to NATO headquarters, still didn’t have a clue about how the alliance’s financing actually works.
If he understood the system, Trump#would know that relatively little money ever pours in to NATO. And when it comes to the money that does go directly into NATO coffers, there is a strict cost-sharing formula — and allies are all paying their share.
Should allies decide to meet Trump’s demand for increased military spending, the money will never pour in. On the contrary, it is supposed to pour out, with individual NATO members spending more money on their own military forces, equipment and weapons.
Here’s a simple primer on how NATO’s direct budget (officially known as “common funding”) works, and who’s paying what share. We’ll even use bullet points in the hope that a certain someone in the White House might pay 2 percent of attention.
NATO’s “common funding” budget, the part of the alliance budget controlled by its#international civilian and military staff, is divided into three#main categories:
• Civil Budget
• Military Budget
• NATO Security Investment Programme (for capital expenditures)
As NATO explains, “These are the only funds where NATO authorities identify the requirements and set the priorities in line with overarching Alliance objectives and priorities.”
Allies provide money for these three budget categories according to a two-year cost-sharing formula, based on each ally’s gross national income, meaning the wealthier members pay a proportionally bigger share.
According to the formula for 2016 and 2017 —the United States pays 22.14 percent (rounded to two decimal places; NATO is even more specific on its website). Germany, which has been castigated by Trump, is the next biggest contributor, paying 14.65 percent, followed by France, which pays 10.63 percent, and the United Kingdom, which pays 9.85 percent.
For 2017, NATO’s total budget is roughly €2.18 billion, or $2.44#billion, divided as follows:
• Civil Budget: €234.4 million, or $262 million
• Military Budget: €1.29 billion, or $1.44 billion
• NATO Security Investment Programme: maximum of €655 million or $734 million
From here on, let’s keep the figures in U.S. dollars, just so it’s easier to follow in Washington.
According to the cost-sharing formula, the approximate total share of the wealthiest major allies (presuming NATO spends the maximum allowed on capital investments) for 2017 is:
• U.S. $540.32 million
• Germany $357.46 million
• France $259.46 million
• U.K. $240.3 million
On a per capita basis, that means Americans are paying far less than Germans, roughly $1.68 per person for the 2017 NATO budget. On a per capita basis, Germans are paying more than 2.5 times as much: $4.39 per person. (By this same math, the French are paying $3.88 per person, and Britons $3.69 per person.)
Of course, Trump’s point (and to be fair it’s the same point as many of his predecessors in the White House) is that the important spending by NATO allies is not on the relatively small annual budget for headquarters, but on the soldiers, weapons, equipment and other capabilities that give the alliance its great military might.
On that score, U.S. spending dwarfs that of all other allies. The U.S. forks out more than $600 billion a year on its military compared to about $40 billion spent by Germany.
At NATO headquarters, there is a general sense that Trump doesn’t quite grasp how NATO funding works, though some officials leave open the possibility that he is deliberately simplifying his comments.
At the same time, no one in NATO leadership wants to criticize Trump because they agree with his overarching goal — even if he doesn’t quite understand the goal himself.
In 2014, NATO allies pledged to work toward spending at least 2 percent of annual GDP on defense, a target currently met by the U.S. and just four other countries: Greece, Estonia, the U.K. and Poland.
The pledge in 2014 was voluntary and the alliance set no consequences for countries that fail to meet the target. In response to Trump’s pressure, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg convinced allies not meeting the 2 percent GDP target to agree to develop, by the end of this year, national plans showing how they would do so.
In Germany’s case, meeting the 2 percent GDP target would require nearly doubling its annual military spending to roughly $70 billion from $40 billion.
But even if German officials, who have pushed back on Trump’s demands, agreed to such a sharp increase, that spending would be on Germany’s own national capabilities, which could be shared with NATO — if Germany wanted to do so. Under no circumstance, however, would that money ever “pour in” to NATO.
When Trump talks about pushing for 2 percent of GDP in spending, his comments suggest that money would automatically fill the alliance’s coffers, something that officials at NATO headquarters acknowledge is a mistaken impression — if, in fact, that’s what Trump believes.
“That would be national defense budgets, any portion of which could be contributed to NATO but that would be a national decision based on operational requirements,” a senior official said, describing the potential 2 percent of GDP in spending.
That the U.S. spends far more than 2 percent of GDP on its own military is a sovereign decision that reflects its unique role as the world’s only superpower.
“It’s also about the US’s global reach and global responsibilities,” the NATO official said. “Because the U.S. has this global reach and global responsibility then of course the military defense expenditures are going to be very different from a country like Slovenia or Luxembourg.”
Anyone interested in learning more about NATO funding — perhaps during a break from covfefe memes on Twitter — can find more detailed information on the alliance website.
http://read.bi/2rbXLyD
Last edited by davidbfpo; 05-31-2017 at 10:35 PM. Reason: Moved here from the Syria thread.
BREAKING: James Comey plans to testify that Trump pushed him to end FBI probe into aide’s Russia ties, a source says
Real obstruction of justice issues raised.
http://cnn.it/2qGBXHX
Let's see...
1. Flynn claimed 5th amendment when asked to testify suddenly now says he will provide the documents...
2. Manafort signed the FBI search and seizure served on his apartments which means he has been talking to FBI.....
3. Comey was held back from this by SC due to not wanting to damage the ongoing investigation so now it appears what he will say will not damage it..means investigation is now solid and has moved on to other areas thus the ability to now state what he wants to state...
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 05-31-2017 at 05:56 PM.
Azor..care to comment....??
Trump foreign policy looks like Trump:"selfish, isolated, brutish...and driven by immediate appetites"
https://www.theatlantic.com/internat...tm_source=twb#
Worth noting that Trump’s most important acts as President were negations: first withdrawing from TPP ; now Paris.
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 05-31-2017 at 05:57 PM.
EXCLUSIVE: @DevinNunes has TS/SCI security clearance revoked for leaking classified information
BTW...the alleged Russian hacker who drove this Kelhios botnet was recently arrested in Prague and is fighting to not be sent to the US..his court case was yesterday and he is appealing the court decision to allow him being sent to the US...Sources with links to the intelligence community report that Devin Nunes, the former leader of the Russia inquiry, and Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee* has had his TS/SCI clearance revoked.
As we reported in April, Nunes obstructed justice when, in collusion with Michael Ellis, his former lawyer on the Intelligence Committee, he blurted out evidence in an ongoing criminal case.
Patribotics hopes#to expand reporting and commission other writers. If you would like to donate, there are buttons around the site, or you could make a contribution here.#
As we also reported, this evidence included revealing one White House staffer, Boris Epshteyn, was still under investigation. From that report:
sources stated Epshteyn was named to the FISA court in June as a target, but – and I re-emphasize this point – that application was denied by the court.
Knowing the above, his departure from the White House after two epic failures by Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, is not, I believe, a coincidence. Mr. Epshteyn has not been indicted (as far as I know) still less convicted of any crime. But it seems fairly obvious to me that Nunes is obstructing justice in plain sight
Mr. Nunes still retains a security clearance, sources say. But he has been denied access to the most sensitive intelligence information. This is an extraordinary situation for a member of the House Intelligence Select Committee and reflects appallingly on Paul Ryan and on the House Oversight Committee, respectively the elected official and the Republican-led Committee responsible for ensuring the integrity of Congress.
In a later story we also reported exclusively that sources with links to the intelligence community said that Boris Epshteyn paid hackers from the Kelhios botnet on behalf of both the FSB, of which, these sources say, he is an agent, and Donald Trump. We will expand on this reporting later today. Mr. Epshteyn has emphatically denied he is an FSB agent. He has refused to answer our questions as to whether he is a registered agent of influence of the Russian state under FARA. Our report has been updated to reflect Mr. Epshteyn’s denials. Nevertheless, we continue to report what we have been told on the matter by sources with links to the intelligence community.
Outlaw,
I’m not getting into Trump’s semantics. Unlike Herszenhorn, I’m not paid per word. Unlike Trump, I make clear, concise and mostly correct statements.
The 2% NATO target was arrived at in 2006, when Merkel was a new Chancellor. It was later reaffirmed in 2014, when Merkel had been Chancellor for more than nine years. From 2006 to present, German defense spending as a percentage of GDP has actually fallen. As the Spiegel article noted, Merkel authorized more than EUR 8.0 billion to be slashed from defense spending after she had committed to the 2% target.
Germany’s declining capabilities degrade NATO’s collective defense and cause a greater burden to fall on the British, Americans and others. In fact, German defense spending (% of GDP) fell precisely as Russia invaded Ukraine. One could make a compelling argument that Merkel's actions have largely enabled Putin, regardless of her lip-service to Trans-Atlantic solidarity.
Posting the same article on multiple threads is only making your hole deeper.
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