Timeline of the Political Persecution of Michael Flynn (VANITY)

Various | 5/23/2020 | rlmorel

[CJ Wolf]

“Nice work. Bookmarked” Agree

[PGalt]

Thanks very much. Some great work/focus. WOW! Thanks to all posters.

[rlmorel]

Thank to all of you for viewing this thread, because I hoped it would help others as well as myself. (I apologize for the length of this reply, but I have been dwelling on this subject quite a bit lately.)

There is a link here to a PDF if anyone wants it, I find it a bit easier to read:
Download Flynn Timeline

I undertook this because I felt like I was missing something. There are a lot of aspects and factors that made it hard to get my arms around it, and I feel that this is a historic time with potential to register as great or terrible.

And I am living through it. I feel it in my heart that these events centered around this man are the jewel that the workings of history are moving upon. Important and significant history.

Because of that, I feel a responsibility to understand these events as best I can and be informed by them. I had the feeling that I was approaching this in the wrong fashion (for me) and came to realize that it was the sequencing of events that was missing. The sequence was there for me to see (dates are dates) but I didn't have context, nor how the timing was important.

So I had to focus on that, and I thought I could see it better. I don't have any doubt other people could see the thing without that emphasis on the timing, I just needed it.

Anyway, I set out to do that and found there was another element I was unconsciously struggling with, and when another Freeper contacted me to ask why Obama and his fellow travelers were out to get Gen. Flynn and why they hated him so much, I saw that was important to my understanding.

The whole affair seemed so...irrational to me. (Now, I know they are leftists and I don’t have any expectation of rationality from them, but to risk everything to squash someone they didn’t like, well...that just made no sense to me at all...just because they didn’t like him?)

I have been watching it closely for several years and it has been an interesting transition for me and is one of the reasons I am interested in understanding it. I fell into the trap set by the Obama Administration working in concert with the media.

And I should have seen it, but there I was, reacting in just the way they hoped people would, and I should have known better. So I have to see where I failed to think for myself.

When I first heard of this (that Flynn was fired because “he lied to Vice President Pence”) I thought that was pretty stupid of Flynn, showed poor judgement, and I don’t recall having much more of an impression than “WTF, can’t Trump make a good choice on anyone?” After all, if the guy lied (and how could I argue with that because the FBI had transcripts of the call?) then...I couldn’t blame Trump for firing him. And I read all kinds of news articles talking about the issues with Flynn summarized in this Wikipedia entry which I have chosen to include for a specific reason:

---

From Wikipedia: “...Colleagues were concerned with Flynn’s chaotic management style and increasingly hard-edged views about counterterrorism, and his superiors viewed him as insubordinate, according to Pentagon officials. In mid-2014, his two-year term at the DIA was not extended...

...On April 30, 2014, Flynn announced his retirement effective later that year, about a year earlier than he had been scheduled to leave his position. He was reportedly effectively forced out of the DIA after clashing with superiors over his allegedly chaotic management style and vision for the agency.[ In a private e-mail that was leaked online, Colin Powell said he had heard in the DIA (apparently from later DIA director Vincent R. Stewart) that Flynn was fired because he was “abusive with staff, didn’t listen, worked against policy, bad management, etc.” According to The New York Times, Flynn exhibited a loose relationship with the truth, leading his subordinates to refer to Flynn’s repeated dubious assertions as “Flynn facts”.

---

I remembered hearing all this at the time, and thought that the guy was problematic “if any of that was true”. Just a bad choice by Trump. That was my thought process at the time.

It never occurred to me that any of it could be slander or a hit piece. I don’t even follow the media accounts of anything, and I discount reflexively anything they say. If they say the sky is blue, I would look up before even considering it.

Additionally, there is the political bloodsport of the character assassination variety, which the Left seems to lean so heavily on To me, it seems quite reminiscent of Soviet treatment of their political enemies. Complete with the organs of the government being brought into play, accusations of mental illness and nearly every single epithet they could manage to contrive especially the accusations of treason. The show trials certainly do complete the picture.

In retrospect, I did fall prey to the leftist machinations on this, because...well, I do and always have had the capability to be a dumb ass.

In reality, there was nothing wrong with Lt. General Michael Flynn. Not only was there nothing wrong with him, he was the right person in the right job in an administration that has turned out the way Trump’s has. They could have used him, and used him well.

And that is one of the things that makes me angriest.

In these times, we needed a smart, tough, experienced person who intimately understood intelligence, its acquisition, analysis, byzantine bureaucratic navigation channels, AND ITS PITFALLS. Our country SHOULD have reaped the benefits of someone like him as Director of National Intelligence. He would have made us safer, and he would have better ensured that the people who wish us ill would have had appropriate action taken against them.

Instead (as Lee Smith laid out comprehensively in his superb article at https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/russiagate-obama-iran) the left engaged in a smear campaign (fully coordinated with a willing and compliant Leftist media) against General Flynn beginning as far back as 2014 but most likely even further back, and brought the tools of the government to bear on him, which are the subject of this entire thread I posted.

He had to be destroyed. Why?

• FIRST: The main reason: as Lee Smith put it, Obama saw Flynn as a signal threat to his legacy, which was rooted in his July 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). That was his crown jewel of his foreign policy, his legacy in a nutshell. It had to be protected at all costs. That is what is important to Obama.

  SECOND: Nearly everyone did have the knives out for Flynn, “especially the FBI. As former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s spy service, and a career intelligence officer, Flynn knew how and where to find the documentary evidence of the FBI’s illegal spying operation buried in the agency’s classified files—and the FBI had reason to be terrified of the new president’s anger.” in the words of Lee Smith.

  THIRD: Flynn gave vocal and public notice that in his role with the Trump Administration, he was going to call the Intelligence Community to account for their failures, justify their missions, and, as Lee Smith stated, “Flynn told friends and colleagues he was going to make the entire senior intelligence service hand in their resignations and then detail why their work was vital to national security. Flynn knew the USIC well enough to know that thousands of higher-level bureaucrats wouldn’t make the cut.”

All of those things put together explain just why Flynn had to be destroyed. And they set out to do it.

[rlmorel]

Thank you, I haven’t done that obvious thing.

[PeterPrinciple]

Thanks for the good analysis.

[rlmorel]

You are most welcome.

[PGalt]

Thanks so very much, rlmorel. Your work on this topic is EXTRAORDINARY. May the lord bless you, Lt. General Michael Flynn and America...the greatest opportunity in the history of civilization for individuals to live THEIR lives.

[RightField]

Bookmark

[Fedora]

Nice job putting this together.

[hoosiermama]

What an evil web they have woven. Hopefully they will be entrapped in it themselves. You’ve done excellent work. Have sent to several who will appreciate your labors.

[volunbeer]

The real lesson is to question authority, don’t believe what you read in the media (ask why this story now), and question conventional wisdom.

This was an unforgivable sin to me by a select group of supervisors on the 7th floor of the FBI and throughout our government. There must be severe consequences for this action, which violated the rule of law, civil rights, and hamstrung a President severely who was elected by millions of Americans.

They robbed Trump of much of his first term. How do you get that back? The damage is incalculable. They persecuted several innocent men for process crimes that in hindsight were far less serious than the sins they committed to get there. Flynn was one of them. Papadopoulus is another. Carter Page was victimized by this merry band of partisan corrupt cops.

There has to be punishment for this that reverberates for generations. If not, the next “independent and non-partisan director” will do something similar.

[rlmorel]

"...Wikipedia? Leftists.
Who would leak information about high level emails naming names but actually hearsay? Is there any proof of this at all? Who is the NYT supposedly infiltrated by? CIA? Is there any way of substantiating facts here? IMO unlikely..."

I, for one, don't believe a bit of it.

But as I said, I had a specific purpose of quoting Wikipedia (who I can barely trust even for birth dates) which I wanted to pointedly use to illustrate the tactics of the Left. All those things I heard from a variety of sources, and Wikipedia did a predictable job of putting them all together in one place for me...:)

At the time, I wasn't paying attention to this. But in retrospect, looking at it now, I have no doubt the media was being utilized by the Administration, through orchestrated "leaks" to a variety of sources. All done to make him damaged goods.

Trump was late to the game in some respects such as obtaining foreign policy experts, and ended up with people like George Papadopoulos and Carter Page being late into constructing his team and had to pick leftovers. This is not to disparage them, just saying this is how some people saw it. Same with General Flynn. But this worked, because in spite of the politics of personal destruction practiced by the Left (which Wikipedia so helpfully combined in their entry for him) to get him forced out of the DIA, he landed on his feet with Trump.

They probably didn't see that coming in the Obama Administration. Flynn was a Democrat, after all.

[GOPJ]

Additionally, there is the political bloodsport of the character assassination variety, which the Left seems to lean so heavily on To me, it seems quite reminiscent of Soviet treatment of their political enemies. Complete with the organs of the government being brought into play, accusations of mental illness and nearly every single epithet they could manage to contrive especially the accusations of treason. The show trials certainly do complete the picture.

Excellent...You've don't a great job with this rlmorel...

[rlmorel]

Actually, I think Dan Bongino (whose podcasts made me see the terrible things our country has done to a man who served it honorably) had the best take on this, and it is what I have come to believe...that Pence did not lie. Not at all. I believe that the PNG (Persona Non Grata) ejections and Sanctions are two completely separate things, and I am not alone in this. Many parts of the media saw it that way as well, as Bongino pointed out with articles from various sources who seemed to well understand the distinction. Which makes this all the more heinous. If the 302 interviews can be trusted at all, Flynn had zero foreknowledge of the PNG actions which apparently Kislyak informed him of, and he was surprised by the fact that 35 had been ejected. In reading the 302, the questioning of the FBI sounds TORTUROUSLY contextual. I read it a bunch of times, and it sounds either they questioned deliberately to trap him, or wrote it up in the 302 in such a way to produce the effect of a lie. Sally Yates helpfully told White House Counsel McGahn that Flynn "may have lied" followed up by a Washington Post article the DAY BEFORE McCabe was to meet with Pence (the article no doubt "leaked" deliberately to stoke the appearance of disorganization in the new administration and a DNI who lied to his direct superior, all done to produce the effect in Pence of “This is totally opposite, it’s not what he said to me.” Obama and his comrades must have been rubbing their hands in glee and satisfaction that it was playing out the way they wanted it to.



[rlmorel]

Damn. I hate it when I forget there is some tag in a post I didn’t preview.

[rlmorel]

This is how I meant it to come out:

Actually, I think Dan Bongino (whose podcasts made me see the terrible things our country has done to a man who served it honorably) had the best take on this, and it is what I have come to believe...that Pence did not lie.

Not at all.

I believe that the PNG (Persona Non Grata) ejections and Sanctions are two completely separate things, and I am not alone in this. Many parts of the media saw it that way as well, as Bongino pointed out with articles from various sources who seemed to well understand the distinction.

Which makes this all the more heinous.

If the 302 interviews can be trusted at all, Flynn had zero foreknowledge of the PNG actions which apparently Kislyak informed him of, and he was surprised by by the fact that 35 had been ejected.

In reading the 302, the questioning of the FBI sounds TORTUROUSLY contextual. I read it a bunch of times, and it sounds either they questioned deliberately to trap him, or wrote it up in the 302 in such a way to produce the effect of a lie

Sally Yates helpfully told White House Counsel McGahn that Flynn "may have lied" followed up by a Washington Post article the DAY BEFORE McCabe was to meet with Pence (the article no doubt "leaked" deliberately to stoke the appearance of disorganization in the new administration and a DNI who lied to his direct superior, all done to produce the desired effect in Pence of “This is totally opposite, it’s not what he said to me.”

Obama and his comrades must have been rubbing their hands in glee and satisfaction that it was playing out the way they wanted it to.



[rlmorel]

The more of us who understand what they have done, there more chance we have of seeing anyone punished.

It won’t be Obama. But his reputation and precious legacy with be rightfully turned to crap.