The Trump impact on US policy

[Azor]

The people who do the work in the CIA/NSA are not political appointees. They are career civil servants, many of whom put their life on the line to do what they do. If they thought it was a problem, it was a problem.

The CIA Directors are all career civil servants?

Brennan became a political appointee years ago and his two Deputy Directors are operatives with no experience in intelligence.

I cannot think of an administration in which the CIA was not politicized, so this is nothing new, really.

As for the dossier, there are good reasons why the major news outlets refused to publish it and why BuzzFeed did so only with big caveats.

Ultimately, it revolves around whether or not there is evidence of Trump paying prostitutes to have a "golden shower".

The rest is simply a rehash of Clinton campaign talking points with some cloak and dagger bits thrown in for excitement.

I'm sure that Putin found the dossier helpful in determining who in the FSB, and Finance and Foreign Ministries are traitors... *eye roll*

[Azor]

http://www.npr.org/2017/01/11/509137...resident-elect

I see that CNN has determined that Michael Cohen was not in Prague secretly meeting with the Russians...

[OUTLAW 09]

http://www.npr.org/2017/01/11/509137...resident-elect

I see that CNN has determined that Michael Cohen was not in Prague secretly meeting with the Russians...

Appears there was in fact a M Cohen was in Prague on that date...but different person same name...Although it would be easy for him to go to the local FBI office sit down and explain exactly where he was....

There is though some indications that it was actually the correct Cohen and his passport photo was a stunt.....

[OUTLAW 09]

White House invokes birther claims after Trump bemoans 'fake news'

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politi...cid=spartanntp

[Azor]

Appears there was in fact a M Cohen was in Prague...but different person same name...Although it would be easy for him to go to the local FBI office sit down and explain exactly where he was....

There is though some indications that it was actually the correct Cohen and his passport photo was a stunt.....

No, there are no indications, and even The Observer tried to backtrack and claim that Cohen didn't have to physically meet the Russians to be in contact. The Interpreter also craps all over this claim.

[OUTLAW 09]

No, there are no indications, and even The Observer tried to backtrack and claim that Cohen didn't have to physically meet the Russians to be in contact. The Interpreter also craps all over this claim.

Azor...even your recital of 20@committee presentation is wrong...go back and thoroughly this time reread the article...you might actually have a different assumption at the end of what he wrote....

You thoroughly do not fully and completely understand just how especially HUMINT is gathered....written up and then processed inside the intel chain of analysis....

I will give you something that in the end was verified by national level agencies much to their surprise and for which I got laughed at all the way up the national intel chain...that laughter was heard all the way back to Berlin and I had to grin and bear it.....but that is the way HUMINT sometimes works...sometimes you win some and sometimes who lose some....

I once wrote a report taken from a local farmer...country remains unnamed....who in my conversations about farming life and farmer shortages suddenly started rambling about a train silver in color that would race through his village on unannounced days usually around 0200/0300 in the morning making so much noise due to the speed that he could not sleep...that was what he was complaining about......well there was a rail line near his house for starters but listed as largely unused...but at least a rail line .....BTW..largely listed as unused but in great condition for an unused line which was strange at that time thus the report..

Well up went the report of this "unidentified silver bullet train traveling on an unused rail line" single report.....from Berlin to DC they thought I had lost my mind....but what is said is reported in the HUMINT business...

After several months the laughter died out BUT six months later I get an urgent call from the DC analysts ..can you recontact the farmer and ask the following additional questions...l.....

Appears that the bullet train was in fact the Soviet mobile rail launched ICBM system that Russia has now put back into service and I had stumbled by accident onto the rail line being used at that time...then the train was in fact verified and was actually silver in color....DC was no longer laughing....

REFERENCE this Buzzfeed report...in the HUMINT business one must report what is heard and or stated....letting others confirm or deny...

HUMINT is so important....why...satellites and SIGINT cannot tell you what is behind door four on the fifth underground floor of a bunker complex....nor what officers say during exercise discussions or what is being produced in a side factory located nowhere on a map...behind three other factories.....

THIS report is interesting because in fact what is being reported has not been actually denied as having occurred nor has it be confirmed.......

Will give you a hint...sometimes that even happens with a polygraph test....we cannot tell if he is lying or telling the truth....and you are forced to make a judgment call based largely on your years of experience in this business.

Or as the Navy tells aircraft pilots on their last seconds of the carrier approach..."call the ball"...meaning it is all yours now....you make the call that is what you are paid for.....

It all depends on the quality of the sources being used.....

[OUTLAW 09]

Azor..this caught my attention as it goes to what I have been virtually preaching to you....the WHY was it included.....?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politi...cid=spartandhp

CHECK the highlighted para.....

Reporters from various news outlets also had sought confirmation of the information with Rick Wilson, a GOP strategist, but he hadn’t seen a copy of the document before Tuesday and denied passing any copies to U.S. intelligence.

“Many, many, many (people saw the report) in recent months because it’s a small enough circle of people and reporters and others are running into each other and crossing trails as they went through this thing,” Wilson#said Wednesday.

The U.S. official with knowledge of the matter confirmed Wednesday that McCain gave material to the FBI. The same documents, however, had been in the possession of the bureau months before McCain's contact, said the official who is not authorized to comment publicly.

Authorities have been examining the information since it was first obtained, but the official said that the salacious contents of it have remained unsubstantiated. As authorities became aware of the raw document's widening circulation and the imminent possibility that could be made public, top officials decided to include the summary as an appendix to the packet compiled to brief the president-elect on Russia's efforts to influence the U.S. election.

"These presidential briefings are always evolving and changing based on who occupies the office,'' said former FBI assistant director Ron Hosko. "But I think there is a naivete on the part of the public and press about the kind of influence campaigns that countries like Russia and China are pursuing. These are nation states who are all about getting an advantage in our world. Even if this information is unsubstantiated, it ought to be included (in a briefing) as something that could be used against a president.''

NOTICE the following formulation....

Authorities have been examining the information since it was first obtained, but the official said that the salacious contents of it have remained unsubstantiated

THIS tells me one clear and concise point...everything outside of the sex tape/tapes WAS in fact substantiated....

BUT somehow that got overlooked by Trump and his staff did it not????

BTW...this below is what I have been trying to get you to fully understand....comment from social media here in Europe....

I personally feel my walls of paranoia just crumbled & I changed to believers camp.

[OUTLAW 09]

FOX & friends
✔
@foxandfriends
EXCLUSIVE: Rudy Giuliani announces he's forming a cyber security group on behalf of Trump administration

THIS is the same exact Giuliani that announced before the FBI did that the FBI has going to reinvestigate Clinton..did he not AND the same Giuliani who "knew" about the WikiLeaks email dump that was coming but no one else knew about it....

AND the same Giuliani what then stated he knew the Russians had not been hacking the US and the DNC.....

This is the same Giuliani right?????

[TheCurmudgeon]

The CIA Directors are all career civil servants?

Brennan became a political appointee years ago and his two Deputy Directors are operatives with no experience in intelligence.

... and none of them came up with the intelligence. Nor would they ever come up with the intelligence. As you have pointed out, they are simply political appointees. They are not the dedicated civil servants of whom I have served with - of which I speak.

What seems clear is your total lack of understanding of how intelligence is gathered, processed, and presented.

[Azor]

... and none of them came up with the intelligence. Nor would they ever come up with the intelligence. As you have pointed out, they are simply political appointees. They are not the dedicated civil servants of whom I have served with - of which I speak.

What seems clear is your total lack of understanding of how intelligence is gathered, processed, and presented.

Well, aren't you being Curmudgeonly today...

Like it or not, political appointees speak for the US Intelligence Community.

What is most interesting in all of this is that the ODNI report contains no mention of Sanders, who WikiLeaks' main revelations gave a fighting chance at the Democratic National Convention, even after Clinton had secured the support of a clear majority of the super-delegates.

The report and various insinuations all imply that Trump is effectively a Russian agent and has been prior to launching his bid for the White House. Yet Putin would presumably have been satisfied with Sanders as President, who was both isolationist and in favor of slashing military spending. Unfortunately, Russia's preferences - which make sense - have been twisted into de-legitimizing Trump.

Also note the list of former intelligence officials who have publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton, and this list does not even include former NSC or DHS officials:

• David Shedd (DIA)
• John Negroponte (ODNI)
• Michael Leiter (ODNI)
• Matt Olsen (ODNI)
• Michael Hayden (NSA)

CIA alone:

• John Brennan (current Director)
• David Petraeus (ex-Director)
• Michael Morell (ex-Director)
• Michael Hayden (ex-Director)
• Robert Gates (ex-Director)
• Mike Baker (officer)
• Evan McMullin (officer)

I agree that Trump needs a good relationship with the US Intelligence Community, but that does not mean that Hillary's bitter partisans are not still running interference.

During Bill Clinton's tenure, it was said that the DCI would have to crash a helicopter into the White House to get an audience with Bubba, and yet we hear nothing about how Clinton ignored a CIA plan to destroy Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, or how the pretext for the Kosovo War was a complete sham.

[TheCurmudgeon]

Well, aren't you being Curmudgeonly today...



I agree that Trump needs a good relationship with the US Intelligence Community, but that does not mean that Hillary's bitter partisans are not still running interference.

Azor, get over your Hillary complex. She is not the President and she is not in the picture. If people don't like Trump, it is because they don't like Trump. Hillary did not tell Trump to ask the Russian to hack America to find Hillary's missing emails as a political ploy. Hillary did not tell Trump to deny that the Russian hacked the DNC. Hillary did not tell Trump to attack the Intelligence Community for doing their sworn duty. Hillary did not tell Trump to not release his financial information, so no one really knows if there is something there that the Russians can threaten him with. Hillary did not tell Trump to make this all about him, as if he is more important than than the people he will soon be sworn to serve (and not the other way around). Nope, that is all Trump. This is Trump's fault. Period.

[TheCurmudgeon]

Trump can solve half of this problem by simply releasing his tax returns and financial records. The shear fact that he does not indicates that there is something he wants to keep from the American people. This is not even secret information. Any number of accounting firms had the information (any of which were probably targets of hacking). So now, the Russians don't need to threaten him. They can go to his son-in-law, his close advisor, who is also financially tied to the Trump holdings, and threaten him. If he does not recommend policies the Russians like, then the Russians will release damaging financial information. This is all Espionage 101. Even if they don't know anything - even if they have absolutely no information, the threat alone will get a response. Nothing you did not get in you OPSEC training.

All Trump has to do to deflate the threat is release his financials. Yep that is it.

Oh, and Hillary is not telling him not to do that, in case you want to blame her.

Now do you see why what Trump is doing threatens our National Security? Now do you see why, even if the information from the British source is unsubstantiated, it can still be a threat and needs to be brought to his attention so he can deal with that threat like a responsible servant of the people (rather than calling the people trying to protect both him and the nation Nazis)?

(Yes, I use the handle TheCurmudgeon for a reason.)

[Azor]

Azor, get over your Hillary complex. She is not the President and she is not in the picture. If people don't like Trump, it is because they don't like Trump. Hillary did not tell Trump to ask the Russian to hack America to find Hillary's missing emails as a political ploy. Hillary did not tell Trump to deny that the Russian hacked the DNC. Hillary did not tell Trump to attack the Intelligence Community for doing their sworn duty. Hillary did not tell Trump to not release his financial information, so no one really knows if there is something there that the Russians can threaten him with. Nope, that is all Trump. This is Trump's fault. Period.

I'm not the one here with a complex bud.

Interesting that you point out Trump's joke but ignore the context that Hillary put classified materials at risk, and that it is not verified whether or not some of these were accessed by foreign powers.

According to the memo, the Russians have a video of the "golden shower" incident as Trump supposedly eschewed financial inducements, so tell me: will that appear on his tax returns?

Will his personal tax returns illustrate all of the foreign assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses of all of his companies and subsidiaries? Will they provide beneficial ownership information for all of these entities? Has the FBI done no vetting of Trump?

As there is absolutely zero evidence of Russia having any leverage over Trump, and as these insinuations began because of complimentary exchanges between Putin and Trump seized upon by the DNC and Clinton, you don't really have a point do you?

[TheCurmudgeon]

I'm not the one here with a complex bud.

Interesting that you point out Trump's joke but ignore the context that Hillary put classified materials at risk, and that it is not verified whether or not some of these were accessed by foreign powers.

According to the memo, the Russians have a video of the "golden shower" incident as Trump supposedly eschewed financial inducements, so tell me: will that appear on his tax returns?

Will his personal tax returns illustrate all of the foreign assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses of all of his companies and subsidiaries? Will they provide beneficial ownership information for all of these entities? Has the FBI done no vetting of Trump?

As there is absolutely zero evidence of Russia having any leverage over Trump, and as these insinuations began because of complimentary exchanges between Putin and Trump seized upon by the DNC and Clinton, you don't really have a point do you?

... and yet, you go straight to Hillary.

This is no longer an exchange of ideas. I wish you luck in you future endeavors.

[TheCurmudgeon]

Azor,

Do you know how the first openly gay linguist at the NSA was able to keep his security clearance?

"officials believed that a talented NSA linguist might be gay and stripped him of his security clearance, according to James Bamford, author of "The Puzzle Palace," a history of the code-breaking agency. But the linguist, represented by gay rights attorney Franklin E. Kameny, fought back. NSA Director Bobby Ray Inman agreed to a deal: The linguist could keep his job if he signed a document stating that he was gay, and if members of his family signed it, too, eliminating any possibility of blackmail."

Once information is open to the public, there is no longer a threat of blackmail. As long as personal information is withheld from the public ... well, you get the idea.

[Azor]

... and yet, you go straight to Hillary.

This is no longer an exchange of ideas. I wish you luck in you future endeavors.

Interesting, considering you replied to my post. Here are your ideas:

• Azor, get over your Hillary complex.

• What seems clear is your total lack of understanding of how intelligence is gathered, processed, and presented.

• You are missing the point.

Oh, and I forgot your bit about how Trump was going to allow Putin to just waltz into the Baltics, although I forgot to query you on why he would need his "little green men" if Article V was a dead letter...

You as well.