Posted on 07/28/2017 7:46:48 PM PDT by springwater13
The evidence that has emerged from this meeting strongly suggests that this was not an effort to establish a secure back channel for collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign but an influence operation with one simple objective: to undermine the presidential election.
Sophisticated Russian intelligence tradecraft that was meant to be kept secret would not have permitted such an insecure opening gambit for establishing continuing communication with the Trump campaign. They would not have used something as insecure as email, or relied on liaison cutouts who could so easily be traced to the Kremlin. Instead, the Russians who attended the meeting had obvious Kremlin ties, including Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Moscow lawyer who has done work on behalf of the F.S.B.; Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist who served in the Soviet military; and Mr. Agalarov, whose father is a real estate titan close to Mr. Putin.
I can’t say how news of the meeting broke, but once it did, Mr. Putin achieved one of his goals: throwing the American government into greater turmoil amid the frenzied media coverage, escalating F.B.I. and congressional investigations and intensified political conflict. And with the revelation that Russia was behind the meddling, Mr. Putin achieved another objective: to allow Russia, despite its economic and military inferiority, to claim that it could rival the United States on the global playing field. He could do all this while denying, with a wink and a nod, any involvement.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Speaking of that, it would be good to review some of the infiltration and espionage going on after the breakup of the Soviet Union, starting with the Clinton administration—the promotion of Morton Halperin, the capture of Aldrich Ames, the Wen Ho Lee case, the John Deutch pardon. . .
I think the author is claiming something beyond losing faith in elections:
Mr. Putin achieved one of his goals: throwing the American government into greater turmoil
In fact, many of us have lost confidence in our intelligence agencies, but I believe that is mostly their own fault.
So, this rather convoluted argument goes, I think, this way
- Russia/Putin send some spies to talk to the Young Trump
- This freaks out the CIA, NSC and FBI
- They get the noble Obama admin to permit them to start spying on Trump &Co.
- FBI goes nuts on Clinton emails making Comey do whatever the heck he did.
- Therefore Trump wins
- Trump and co. get mad about being spied on
- Media gets CIA and FBI leaks and goes mad over Trump&Rusdia
- Democrats get mad over Trump&Russia
So, no harm no foul, it was just the Russians making everyone mad over nothing.
“he laid out how the XXXXXXX dictatorship works, how XXXXX has made hundreds rich by passing out government assets in return for which they’ll do anything, but anything, for him to keep their position, how the XXXXXXX attempt to corrupt others by involving them in even minor improprieties and then using those incidents to blackmail the participants into bigger and bigger “collusion””
Insert the names of your choice where I “X”ed out Russia and Putin, and this also describes DC to near perfection.
“The opinion piece sounds like an effort to concede there was no collusion while still diverting attention away from the Democrats’ connection to Fusion GPS.”
BINGO
The story is leaking out 0- the REAL story, with the ‘final’ arrest of one of the Aman brothers -
So they are, it seems, trying to cut their losses.
They’ll knock off their phony TRUMP/RUSSIA Meme - and just blame Russia - So please don’t look behind the curtain - They are, it appears, ready to throw lynch, Comey, lil Debbie, the DNC- everyone EXCEPT the worst one - Cankles - into the fire.
Get the popcorn....
you post: “ My mind is working overtime tonight about this story. I wonder if it was indeed Fusion GPS and the dimoKKKRATS that were behind this meeting? So, is this story trying to deflect from that and blame it all on the Russians and let the Trumps off the hook?”
BINGO... make viral
McCain and the other traitorous senators confidently ran against Obamacare because they thought Hillary would win.
That's better said compared with my remarks on the OP. Now that the reports are getting close to identifying the guilty parties, the set up, now that light is starting to shine on the subject, let's "move on" in harmony with each other.
I've long marveled that attention is on "Russians involve themselves in our elections", while the bulk of damage is done against those already elected, "Russians involve themselves in making US public policy."
How does that work? It wasn't "just Russia" chit chatting amongst themselves. The Russian panic in the US involves US actors launching insinuations of illegal activity by the Trump campaign. In other words, for the Russians to cause this insinuation, they had to collude with somebody.
If the insinuation had been against Jill Stein, the panic would not exist.
Finding that the Russians are behind the panic, behind the insinuations that resulted appointment of in a Special Counsel to investigate the Trump campaign, does not resolve the case. Who in the US was used by the Russians to gin up the panic?
I see many eager participants in the insinuation that the Trump campaign knowingly and illegally worked with the Russians. It's not possible that all of the participants in this propaganda effort are all dupes. Some of them must be Russian tools. Warner, Schiff, Durbin (who telegraphed an investigation into the Trump campaign, in the Sessions confirmation hearing on January 10th), hoards in the press.
If the "Russian collusion" story is BS, we need to get to the bottom of who pushed it, because if it hadn't been pushed, it wouldn't have caused this much damage.
In short, "let's move on" doesn't work.
So let me get this straight ...
"Sophisticated Russian intelligence tradecraft" such as e-mails and undercover agents that was designed to be kept secret couldn't be used here, so they just sent plain old Russians to meet with U.S. campaign officials?
This guy's whole storyline doesn't pass the smell test. It sound like he's using facts to retroactively create a narrative.
That is the most plausible theory I’ve read to date. They didn’t have to collude. They just had to have a common goal.
This almost makes me think someone leaked that the investigations are going nowhere and giving them time to “soften their tone” to save face.
My ten minute video explanation of the “deep state coup trap.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRKIsBlzVOk&feature=youtu.be
‘zackly.
A critical aspect to understand is that Clinton, Comey, Lynch, Brennan, Baker (FBI general counsel), Powers and Rice could all wind up in prison for actual felonies committed. They bet the farm on Hillary's election, and continuing coverup of their crimes, while they held the reins of power. With Trump as POTUS, all bets are off, and they are going for broke with the deep state coup, to save their own necks by taking out Trump before they are taken out.
“We need a very strong congressional investigation of Soviet/Russian covert operations in the US since the 1920’s . . .”
I agree but I have no faith in any GOP committee conducting a thorough investigation that follows the evidence trail wherever it may lead and will provide an honest report to the American people. Issa, Chaffetz, and Goudy have all been major disappointments leading investigations in the House and Paul Ryan certainly doesn’t promote full disclosure. Look at the Wasserman-Schultz fiasco with government computers and Pakistani criminals. The House is doing nothing to investigate the criminal activity taking place on Capitol Hill because the Republican leadership is protecting the Democrat leadership. Paul Ryan and the rest of the Republican leadership should be screaming today about the Awan brothers scandal. Where is the outrage? There is none and will be none, much less an investigation.
The Senate is an elite social club first, a protection racket for the monied interests of the donor class second, a cushy career for its members third, a deliberative body fourth, and a representative of the states (its Constitutional purpose) fifth. An investigative organization, much less representative of the people, doesn’t even make the list.
No investigation by the US Senate is going to shed light into dark corners much less go digging for real information. Senator Burr, leader of the Senate Intelligence Committee, seems more interested collaborating with Democrats in undercutting Trump than ferreting out the truth. He talks bipartisanship while the senior Democrat on the committee, Mark Warner, enjoys playing the partisan hatchet man. I watched about 30 minutes of Burr and Warner in action during the recent public hearings and see it was a farce put on by bad actors. Even if Burr were really trying to accomplish something, McConnell, McCain, Murkowski, Collins, Graham, Corker, Hatch, Alexander, and other squishy Republican Senators would block any action by the full Senate. The Senate is a fraternity and friendship between members of the club is more important than the future of the nation to most of them.
The sad fact is our legislative branch has only a handful of representatives and senators who are not completely corrupt or compromised. Even though most of them are attorneys, expecting them to conduct a real investigation is an exercise in futility.
An investigation by congressional Republicans that might destroy the Democrat Party and wake up the average American citizen? Fantasyland.
Please see 55 and 57.
https://judiciary.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/072717_HJC-Letter-to-AG-DAG.pdf
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.