Posted on 09/12/2018 1:56:55 PM PDT by Red Badger
“I heard the Judge just this morning saying that we didn’t know enough to say that Strzok and Page were up to no good”
I don’t think he said that.
Produced for television by Wright with the Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney and the veteran showrunner Dan Futterman, The Looming Tower is a taut, tense restaging of the internecine squabbles between the FBI and the CIA in the lead-up to 9/11. Like Wright’s book, it makes the case that the failure of U.S. intelligence agencies to share information thwarted any chance they might have had of stopping the attacks. But where the book focused primarily on the people who conspired to orchestrate the worst terrorist attack on American soil, the series reorients itself around the people who failed to stop them.
On one side is John O’Neill (Jeff Daniels), a larger-than-life FBI counterterrorism chief grappling with the increasing threat of al-Qaeda. On the other is Martin Schmidt (Peter Sarsgaard), O’Neill’s CIA counterpart. O’Neill was a real person; Schmidt is reportedly an amalgam, although there are reasons beyond his initials to deduce whom he’s based on. From the very first episode, O’Neill and Schmidt are at each other’s throats for reasons that are hard to ascertain. Schmidt guards CIA intelligence with fanaticism, while O’Neill resorts to spewing profanities and epithets when he can’t get what he wants.
In my experience, there has always been a tension and competition between both agencies as to who wields the most power in the bureaucracy. The CIA has only two political appointees, the Director and the Deputy. Everyone else excluding contractors are career employees.
15 Dec 2016 - this dominated the FakeNewsMSM:
15 Dec 2016: Obama White House: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Josh Earnest, Deputy Press Secretary Jennifer Friedman, and CEA Chair Jason Furman
MR. EARNEST:....With that out of the way, Kathleen, do you want to kick us off here?
Q Thanks, Josh. And thanks to Jen for all your hard work.
I want to just start with the latest reports on the Russia hacking story. Has the White House been told that Vladimir Putin was personally involved in Russia’s attempts to interfere with the election?
MR. EARNEST: I do not have an additional intelligence assessment to share from the podium. As we’ve seen in the last several days, there are officials in the intelligence community who apparently are calling all of you to anonymously share their thoughts and conclusions and opinions.
I think what is relevant to this point is to consider the statement that was made back on October 7th. This was the statement that was issued by the intelligence community. It reflected the unanimous opinion and conclusion of all 17 intelligence agencies. And they reported publicly that Russia was engaged in malicious cyber activity to erode public confidence in our democracy. They included another sentence that I believe is worth repeating, so let me just read it here. That statement included in part: “We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.” That is the statement from the intelligence community that was made public on October 7th...
Q And since you mentioned some of the officials being willing to talk to the media, are you worried about leaks on this issue?
MR. EARNEST: Well, listen, one of the challenges of any White House Press Secretary, regardless of which administration they’re serving in, is that they have a responsibility of coming out here in public and answering questions from all of you, on camera and on the record. Others are allowed to offer their opinion anonymously. It’s a free country, and that’s certainly what people are, to some extent, allowed to do...
So, again, I don’t know if it was a staff meeting, or he had access to a briefing, or he was just basing his assessment on a large number of published reports, but Mr. Trump obviously knew that Russia was engaged in malicious cyber activity that was helping him and hurting Secretary Clinton’s campaign. And again, these are all facts that are not in dispute. This is not a situation where we are launching charges and countercharges, or I’m offering up my opinion and hoping that it will be considered more persuasive than the opinion that’s offered up by somebody else. These are just facts.
And I know that we’ve also heard from the President-elect’s team that they’re concerned that there’s some effort to delegitimize his presidency...
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/12/15/press-briefing-press-secretary-josh-earnest-deputy-press-secretary
15 Dec 2016: Associated Press: White House Says Trump Knew About Russian Hacking During Election, Trump Team Fires Back
After an NBC News report quoted U.S. intelligence officials pointing the finger specifically at Putin, White House press secretary Josh Earnest pointed to an October assessment of the U.S. intelligence community that said “only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.”
Earnest said the reference to “senior-most officials” wasn’t supposed to be subtle. “It’s pretty obvious,” he told reporters...
Trump took to Twitter early Thursday morning to incorrectly question the White House’s timing on looking into the hacking. “If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?” tweeted the president-elect...
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/white-house-says-trump-knew-russian-hacking-election-956611
Trump Calls White House Spokesman Josh Earnest a ‘Foolish Guy’
NBCNews.com-16 Dec. 2016
Trump Calls White House Spokesman Josh Earnest a ‘Foolish Guy’ ... “It is just a fact — you all have it on tape — that the Republican nominee for president was encouraging Russia to hack his opponent, because he believed ...
Trump calls Obama’s press secretary ‘foolish’ and ‘so bad’ during ...
International-Washington Post-15 Dec. 2016
Obama Vows Action Against Government That Meddled in US Election
In-Depth-Voice of America-17 Dec. 2016
15 Dec 2016: UK Telegraph: White House launches attack on Donald Trump over hacking it says Vladimir Putin authorised
By Roland Oliphant, Moscow and Nick Allen, Washington
The White House launched an extraordinary attack on Donald Trump, suggesting that it was “obvious” he knew about Russian interference in the US presidential election, which it said had been personally authorised by Vladimir Putin.
Referring to leaked documents that were embarrassing to Hillary Clinton during the campaign, Josh Earnest, Barack Obama’s spokesman said: “It is just a fact that the Republican nominee for president was encouraging Russia to hack his opponent because he believed it would help his campaign. It was not in dispute.”
Mr Earnest added: “Mr Trump obviously knew Russia was engaged in malicious cyber-activity that was helping him and hurting Hillary Clinton.”
Asked if the Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, had authorised the hacking, Mr Earnest said it was “pretty obvious” he had...
The New York Times reported that the FBI detected an initial breach in Sept 2015, but failed to shut it down because the DNC’s systems administrator thought that their warning was a prank.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/15/white-house-launches-attack-donald-trump-hacking-says-vlad
THIS WAS REALLY THE POINT WHEN RUSSIARUSSIARUSSIA WENT INTO OVERDRIVE:
VIDEO: 16 Dec 2016: CNN: Russian hacking and the US election: What you need to know
by Jeremy Diamond
President Barack Obama has vowed the US will retaliate against Russia “at a time and place of our own choosing” for Moscow’s hacking attempts to influence the country’s elections.
A growing chorus of powerful voices on Capitol Hill — including Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate — is calling for a bipartisan probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential vote.
But President-elect Donald Trump has rejected out of hand any suggestions of Russian influence on the election — despite the CIA concluding that Russia acted to help Trump win.
So why is Trump so quick to dismiss intelligence agencies’ findings even as leaders of his own party express concerns about Russia’s role in the 2016 election? And how conclusive are the US intelligence community’s findings?
Let’s dig in...
The CIA’s new conclusion was based on its latest and most complete analysis of intelligence on the hacking, including the finding that Russian hackers breached GOP individuals and organizations prior to the election, including Republican House members, thought leaders and non-profits to the GOP, a former senior law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the hack investigation told CNN...
And in light of the latest findings, both Republicans and Democrats have issued calls for a deeper probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The calls began with a letter signed by the incoming Senate Democratic leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, Armed Services Committee chairman Sen. John McCain, Sen. Lindsey Graham and the Armed Services Committee’s ranking member Sen. Jack Reed...
https://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/12/politics/russian-hack-donald-trump-2016-election/index.html
.
If Judge Nappy didn’t get it wrong, he will soon.
He’s a train wreck.
.
Obamy emptied GITMO. It’s time for Trump to fill it back up.
note: • Minutes before Obama began speaking, U.S. officials confirmed that the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence had signed on to the CIA’s finding that Russia had hacked into Democratic institutions and political figures to help elect Trump...
16 Dec 2016: Politico: Key moments from Obama’s year-end news conference
By POLITICO STAFF
• In response to a question from ABC’s Martha Raddatz, the president confirmed publicly for the first time that he believed Putin personally directed the hacks. “[N]ot much happens in Russia without Vladimir Putin,” he said. “I mean, this is a pretty hierarchical operation last I checked. There’s not a lot of debate and democratic deliberation, particularly when it comes to policies directed at the United States. We have said and I will confirm that this happened at the highest levels.” It’s not in the habit of Russian officials, Obama said, to “go off rogue and decide to tamper with the U.S. election process without Vladimir Putin knowing about it.“...
• Obama would not commit to declassifying evidence that would prove that Russia was behind the pre-election hacks. “We will provide evidence that we can safely provide, that does not compromise sources and methods,” he said. “But I’ll be honest with you, when you’re talking about cybersecurity, a lot of it is classified and we’re not going to provide it because the way we catch folks is by knowing certain things about them that they may not want us to know — and if we’re going to monitor this stuff effectively going forward, we don’t want them to know that we know.”...
• Asked if Clinton lost because of the hacking, Obama demurred. “I’m going to let all the political pundits in this town have a long discussion about what happened in the election,” he said. But he took a shot at the media, which he has faulted for focusing too much on trivia and pseudo-scandals. “I don’t think she was treated fairly during the election. I think the coverage of her and the issues was troubling,” he said.
• He also chided the press for its coverage of the hacked documents. “I am finding a little curious that everyone is acting surprised that this looked like it was disadvantaging Hillary Clinton,” he said, “because you guys wrote about it every day. Every single leak about every little juicy tidbit of political gossip, including John Podesta’s risotto recipe. This was an obsession that dominated the news coverage.”...
• Obama explained why he hadn’t been more vocal in calling out Russian hacking before the Nov. 8 election. “In this hyperpartisan atmosphere,” he said, noting the charged political environment surrounding the election, “I wanted to make everybody understood we were playing this thing straight.”
• Minutes before Obama began speaking, U.S. officials confirmed that the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence had signed on to the CIA’s finding that Russia had hacked into Democratic institutions and political figures to help elect Trump...
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/obama-press-conference-today-live-speech-on-russia-hacking-232737
Apparently we heard him differently - no doubt he’ll be on again and again and again and probably talk about this issue in a way that’ll help me see his viewpoint more clearly - or not.....
16 Dec 2016: Time: President Obama Warns Russia Over Hacking: Don’t ‘Do This To Us Because We Can Do Stuff to You’
by Maya Rhodan
In an interview with NPR on Thursday, President Obama said he had already spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the incidents of hacking, adding that the U.S. must take action if and when foreign governments interfere with the democratic process in America. “Mr. Putin is well aware of my feelings about this, because I spoke to him directly about it,” he said...
Shortly before the press conference, the Washington Post reported that there is “strong consensus” among the CIA, FBI and the Director of National Intelligence that Russians interfered in the U.S. presidential election in part effort to help President-elect Donald Trump...
Obama denied that there was any “squabbling” between the two camps as a consequence of Trump’s stance.”There hasn’t been a lot of squabbling,” he said. “What we’ve said are the facts.”...
Later on Friday, he and the first family will travel to Hawaii for their annual Christmas vacation...
http://time.com/4605260/president-obama-russia-hacking-warn-press-conference/
“Apparently we heard him differently - no doubt he’ll be on again and again and again and probably talk about this issue in a way that’ll help me see his viewpoint more clearly - or not.....”
There is a video on-line. Besides he has spoken dozens of times during the past year.
None of his statements support strzok.
best to read it all:
16 Dec 2016: Lifezette: Myth Trump Called for Russian Hack Started with Katy Tur
Obama repeats media creation that president-elect called on foreign government to hack Clinton
by Matthew Vadum
Take a look at the video footage of Trump’s July 27 press conference...
At the press conference, Trump, half-jokingly, urged the Russians to hand over those supposedly personal emails from Hillary’s accounts that had disappeared into the ether. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said.
He added sarcastically: “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
Remember that Clinton admitted to grabbing some 66,000 emails and then returning about half of them which she claimed didn’t touch upon personal matters. She said those personal emails were deleted.
A few minutes later in the press conference, NBC reporter Katy Tur shouted a loaded question at Trump to introduce into the mainstream media ecosystem the Big Lie that Trump had personally invited Russia to interfere in U.S. elections.
“Do you have any qualms about asking a foreign government — Russia, China, anybody — to interfere, to hack into the system of anybody in this country?”
Trump was understandably dismissive of Tur’s question without specifically denying the premise underlying it — which was the false assertion that Trump asked a foreign government to engage in hacking.
Tur restated her question replacing the word “qualms” with “pause.”
“Hey, you know what gives me more pause, that a person in our government, crooked Hillary Clinton — here’s what gives me more pause,” Trump said.
He continued:
“Be quiet, I know you want to, you know, save her. That a person in our government, Katy, would delete or get rid of 33,000 emails. That gives me a big problem. After she gets a subpoena. She gets subpoenaed, and she gets rid of 33,000 emails. That gives me a problem. Now, if Russia or China or any other country has those emails, I mean to be honest with you, I’d love to see them.”
Trump reinforced his point on Twitter a few minutes later. He tweeted: “If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clinton’s 33,000 illegally deleted e-mails, perhaps they should share them with the FBI!”
In the meantime, The New York Times wrote on July 27: “Donald J. Trump said on Wednesday that he hoped Russian intelligence services had successfully hacked Hillary Clinton’s email, and encouraged them to publish whatever they may have stolen, essentially urging a foreign adversary to conduct cyberespionage against a former secretary of state.”
The New York Times and CNN then vigorously promoted the lie.
And so Katy Tur’s strategically placed Big Lie was carved into the Left’s narrative and repeated so many times that the mainstream media now treats it as indisputably true.
It is now regurgitated almost continuously by journalists, editorial writers, Democrats, Republicans, left-wingers, and even some conservatives who don’t know any better.
The Trump as pro-hacking myth is a case study in the power of cleverly placed propaganda to alter the course of events. This is what the Left and the mainstream media do every day.
So-called liberals and progressives use the power of narrative — of telling a story — in order to alter the public’s perception of reality. They take real facts and then they distort them or put a plausible spin on them until the truth is massaged to serve their interests.
In other words, they lie...
https://www.lifezette.com/2016/12/myth-trump-called-russian-hack-started-katy-tur-lie/
check the cnn news article that date april 22, 2017
https://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/22/politics/carter-page-smerconish-fbi-report/index.html
I don’t think I said that in general he “supports” Strzok - I was talking specifically about his reaction to the recent “leak strategy” texts between Strzok and Page - the clip I found at Fox News was with the Judge on Fox and Friends this morning - not the interview I saw, but as I recall he said pretty much the same thing in the later one which I did see - he’s asked specifically about the Strzok-Page texts to start, and goes off on a talk about how many leaks there are in the DOJ and the FBI, how this is standard operating procedure with them etc - the host again refers to the specific texts, and the Judge goes into another tangential talk about how we don’t know if what they did was illegal or not, maybe if it was classified material it would be illegal and so forth - to me he seemed to waffle and skirt the issue, never really talking about Strzok-Page - he seems to actually justify any leaking they may have done and never condemns what seems the real problem of two trusted FBI/DOJ officials using their positions to enter into a disgraceful plot to hurt the elected president whom they are supposed to be supporting - maybe he was just trying to be judicial by not taking sides, but sometimes judges do have to make judgments and I still like Dershowitz’s better in this case.....
BTTT!
“he seems to actually justify any leaking they may have done and never condemns what seems the real problem of two trusted FBI/DOJ officials using their positions to enter into a disgraceful plot to hurt the elected president whom they are supposed to be supporting.
Not even close.
Judge NAPPY is not real bright....but then he’s a libertarian democrat!
“Paramour” = adulterous skanky hoe
Strzok = demonically-possessed Creep of the Century
Lock both of these yucky criminals up!!!!!
Yes, the Judge really has veered leftward lately - I heard him in another interview recently say that Obama was the only president who correctly dealt with the 9/11 mastermind whatever his name was by having brought him to the US for trial in our court system - said that Bush and Trump, by keeping him in a military setting, only delayed justice for him - not of course that that wouldn’t have happened ten times over in our court system with all the motions, objections and appeals that would have been filed by the legion of lefty lawyers who would have been defending him - I think the Judge is a closet Never-Trumper trying not to go too far one way or another to keep his job at Fox......
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