Patterico's Pontifications

9/9/2019

Praising Trump When He Deserves It, Mishandling Classified Information Edition

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:32 am



In a new feeture here called “Praising Trump When He Deserves It”, we take on the media bias against Trump and expose the real storys, like the deep state and mainslime media conspiracy against our patriot of a president, here you go:

In a previously undisclosed secret mission in 2017, the United States successfully extracted from Russia one of its highest-level covert sources inside the Russian government, multiple Trump administration officials with direct knowledge told CNN.

A person directly involved in the discussions said that the removal of the Russian was driven, in part, by concerns that President Donald Trump and his administration repeatedly mishandled classified intelligence and could contribute to exposing the covert source as a spy.

The decision to carry out the extraction occurred soon after a May 2017 meeting in the Oval Office in which Trump discussed highly classified intelligence with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and then-Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. The intelligence, concerning ISIS in Syria, had been provided by Israel.

The disclosure to the Russians by the President, though not about the Russian spy specifically, prompted intelligence officials to renew earlier discussions about the potential risk of exposure, according to the source directly involved in the matter.

You can’t trust it, it’s CNN, Trump’s too smart to mishandle classified information, he made billions and billions of dollars with just a small loan from his dad. More deep state shananigans, etc., what else is new. Anyways he’s the guy who classifys information so whatever he does cant be mislandling it by definision.

104 Responses to “Praising Trump When He Deserves It, Mishandling Classified Information Edition”

  1. This is a good thing because why would we be spying on our friend Vladimir anyways, he promised not to interfere in the electon which he hadn’t even done to begin with seeing as how Trump won totally on his own

    Patterico (115b1f)

  2. All you have to do is leave all punctuation out, right? Creepily accurate impression.

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  3. “Multiple Trump administration officials with direct knowledge” would choose to leak this to CNN, of all places — because why? I guess we could ask James Clapper.

    Munroe (732181)

  4. Let’s dive into this story a bit:

    What’s CNN’s source? “A person directly involved in the discussions” removing the guy.

    Did anyone else confirm it? I don’t see a second source. I instead see:

    A US official said before the secret operation there was media speculation about the existence of such a covert source, and such coverage or public speculation poses risks to the safety of anyone a foreign government suspects may be involved. This official did not identify any public reporting to that effect at the time of this decision and CNN could not find any related reference in media reports.

    We also see:

    At the end of the Obama administration, US intelligence officials had already expressed concerns about the safety of this spy and other Russian assets, given the length of their cooperation with the US, according to a former senior intelligence official.

    The CIA and WH denied all of this on the record (expected).

    Frankly, I find this story easy to deny as “fake news”, disinformation, or somebody’s strong point of view influencing a decision they were already inclined to make. The intelligence community mistrusted Donald Trump in 2017. Not really news. One source says the intelligence community made a big decision based on that. And notes Trump signed off on the decision.

    The media is the media, and will always tilt left and towards sensational stories which drag in Putin. Still. They don’t have enough to justify the story, and this story will have no legs.

    This one, on the other hand, seems like it might be a very big deal:

    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-shaking-down-ukraine-2020-election-assistance

    Appalled (d07ae6)

  5. On my #5 — I focused, not on the guy being withdrawn, but the reason being fear that Trump would say something that would expose the guy. There are multiple sources on the withdrawal, but only one source for “They did it because Trump”.

    Appalled (d07ae6)

  6. Frankly, I’m surprised as a whole that Trump (for the most part) seems to be staying within his lane regarding these sorts of things.

    One of the things I feared once Trump took control of the WH, that he’d be a serial blabber of all things classified. (I mean, would you bet good money that he’d blabbed about things like Area-51???)

    I still pucker up my bum whenever he does that Helicopter-presser where he’s free-wheeling all things though…

    whembly (51f28e)

  7. Narciso, I clicked through the link but I couldn’t follow the story that well. The point appeared to be that the FBI was harder on Trump and let Clinton skate. But all the references back to the Trump stuff made it hard to follow the allegations about Clinton and Libya.

    Time123 (89dfb2)

  8. Patterico, I’ve got four concerns with the news reported here.

    1. It’s a scary indictment of Trumps competence, but there are plenty of those.
    2. It’s not good that people are leaking information about recent covert ops to CNN. I have no idea if this article will give Russia important information about how we operate, or not. I get that Trump’s a buffoon, but still this isn’t good.
    3. I’m glad CNN published the information once they had it. The public has a right not know.
    4. In the first line it should be ‘stories‘ not ‘storys‘. Not trying to be picky, but I know you care about that type of thing.

    Time123 (89dfb2)

  9. I think the misspellings (feeture, storys, shananigans, Anyways, classifys, mislandling, definision) and poor grammar (cant) was on purpose, Time123.

    DRJ (15874d)

  10. Never reveal spycraft; beware the leaker.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  11. Loose cannons sink ships of state.

    nk (dbc370)

  12. Did anyone else confirm it? I don’t see a second source.

    The first paragraph mentioned “multiple Trump administration officials with direct knowledge”. That sounds like more than two sources to me.

    Paul Montagu (f59cb7)

  13. Read on down in the CNN article:

    A US official said before the secret operation there was media speculation about the existence of such a covert source, and such coverage or public speculation poses risks to the safety of anyone a foreign government suspects may be involved. This official did not identify any public reporting to that effect at the time of this decision and CNN could not find any related reference in media reports.

    Asked for comment, Brittany Bramell, the CIA director of public affairs, told CNN: “CNN’s narrative that the Central Intelligence Agency makes life-or-death decisions based on anything other than objective analysis and sound collection is simply false. Misguided speculation that the President’s handling of our nation’s most sensitive intelligence—which he has access to each and every day—drove an alleged exfiltration operation is inaccurate.”

    A spokesperson for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined to comment. White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said, “CNN’s reporting is not only incorrect, it has the potential to put lives in danger.”

    and

    The decision to pull the asset out of Russia was the culmination of months of mounting fear within the intelligence community.

    At the end of the Obama administration, US intelligence officials had already expressed concerns about the safety of this spy and other Russian assets, given the length of their cooperation with the US, according to a former senior intelligence official.

    The Power of the Jump™

    Kevin M (19357e)

  14. I think the misspellings (feeture, storys, shananigans, Anyways, classifys, mislandling, definision) and poor grammar (cant) was on purpose, Time123.

    As I recall, our host was an English major in college, so I would stake a pretty large wager that the misspellings and ungrammatical constructions are intentional and part of the overall joke.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  15. Asked for comment, Brittany Bramell, the CIA director of public affairs, told CNN: “CNN’s narrative that the Central Intelligence Agency makes life-or-death decisions based on anything other than objective analysis and sound collection is simply false.

    You know you’re old when someone at the CIA with the title of “Director” is named Brittany.

    If anyone needs me, I’ll be in the kitchen stewing up some prunes for lunch to go with my cottage cheese.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  16. Also:

    The removal happened at a time of wide concern in the intelligence community about mishandling of intelligence by Trump and his administration. Those concerns were described to CNN by five sources who served in the Trump administration, intelligence agencies and Congress.

    “five sources who served in the Trump administration, intelligence agencies and Congress” does not mean they served in all three, and does not mean that any of them were favorable to Trump. One could be James Clapper, one could be Maxine Waters, one could be James Comey. All could be political hacks, of the sort that infest both parties.

    Kevin M (19357e)

  17. that’s not that surprising there was a nicolle devenish, who had a similar job in the early 00s, after working for jeb, you know her best as nicolle Wallace, trapped in the mumenchantz box at MSNBC,

    narciso (d1f714)

  18. Montagu,

    I don’t doubt the spy was pulled out. The sourcing that uneasiness about Trump was a reason he was yanked boils down to one person. You don’t have the story, the news hook, or even Patterico’s insinct towards parody without Trump being a significant cause of the yanking of the spy.

    Appalled (d07ae6)

  19. Still, the removal of such an agent is a big deal, and to the degree that it was caused by carelessness in ANY administration is a problem. Thankfully, no one in the Obama administration has ever been charged with such carelessness.

    Kevin M (19357e)

  20. if it happened, which I wouldn’t take from sciutto, or any of his fusion buffett colleagues,

    narciso (d1f714)

  21. What pisses me off, though, is the incredibly pig-headed unwillingness of legacy partisans to address the REAL problem with Trump: that both parties had so completely lost contact with the American people that Trump became possible, and the doubling and tripling down on old policies that are non-starters with a new majority.

    The Sixth Party System, begun somewhere between 1968 and 1982, utterly collapsed in 2016. We are into a different political era. Not sure where the actual battle lines are, but it isn’t about abortion and free trade any more.

    Kevin M (19357e)

  22. That was supposed to be a link, not italics.

    Sixth Party System

    Kevin M (19357e)

  23. JVW, you’re almost certainly right. I wooshed again.

    Time123 (6e0727)

  24. The sourcing that uneasiness about Trump was a reason he was yanked boils down to one person.

    It actually boils down to “multiple sources”.

    You don’t have the story, the news hook, or even Patterico’s insinct towards parody without Trump being a significant cause of the yanking of the spy.

    Let’s not get personal, Sammy. I trust my insincts.
    The irony here is that the intelligence community defended this country from Trump by extracting one of our spies.

    Paul Montagu (f59cb7)

  25. nick sandmann and andy ngo say hi, we aren’t going to revisit that hack job from the Portland mercury are we?

    narciso (d1f714)

  26. If all you got is snark to defend CNN, then you got nothing. There’s no reason to believe an anti-Trump story from CNN based on Anonymous sources. Period. Especially when its source is someone in the “intelligence Community” aka Comey, Brennan, or Clapper. But keep believing. The walls are closing in on Trump. We’ll get him this time for sure.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  27. How many times has CNN have to lie about Trump using Anonymous sources before people stop believing them. Wishing doesn’t make it so – Anderson Cooper.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  28. Putin is the worst guy in the world, unlike those lovely ChiComs that Feinstein likes so much. Or the Castro Family in Cuba. But the walls are closing in on Trump. One of these days, the MSM will prove he’s Putin’s secret agent. A Manchurian candidate! They’ll get proof – just you see!

    rcocean (1a839e)

  29. Montagu,

    1. Don’t blame Sammy. Blame me.

    2. The CNN story is carefully written, and designed to not be carefully read. Here is what the first two paragrahs say:

    In a previously undisclosed secret mission in 2017, the United States successfully extracted from Russia one of its highest-level covert sources inside the Russian government, multiple Trump administration officials with direct knowledge told CNN.

    A person directly involved in the discussions said that the removal of the Russian was driven, in part, by concerns that President Donald Trump and his administration repeatedly mishandled classified intelligence and could contribute to exposing the covert source as a spy.

    The withdrawals of the asset — multiple Trump officials.

    The naming of Trump for the withdrawal — a person involved directly in the discussions.

    The rest of the article is a discussion of history that recalls intelligence group concerns with Trump that have been reported before. It seems designed to shore up that they only got one guy on background. There are also the ritual on the record denials, and not so ritual outline of other concerns that were also reasons for withdrawing the agent.

    Appalled (d07ae6)

  30. “The irony here is that the intelligence community defended this country from Trump by extracting one of our spies.”
    Paul Montagu (f59cb7) — 9/9/2019 @ 10:48 am

    Gee, I wonder if it was Mifsud.

    Munroe (ae4602)

  31. nick sandmann and andy ngo say hi, we aren’t going to revisit that hack job from the Portland mercury are we?
    Before you pull your pants down again, narc, you need to clean up the dump you took in this thread by by retracting and apologizing for your lie.

    Paul Montagu (f59cb7)

  32. Right, right, I’m really worried about Trump: he’s the problem:

    LEAKS BY OUR NEUTRAL, TRUSTWORTHY PROFESSIONALS AND MEDIA:

    -Leslie Howard, CIA agent turned traitor;
    -James Hassen: FBI agent turned traitor;
    -Jonathan Pollard, NSA employee turned traitor;
    -The CIA incompetent who let out Chinese spies be rolled up in last 7 years;

    New York Times: outed the SWIFT program for spying on terrorists;
    New York Times: published the Pentagon Papers;

    John Kerry: encourages Iran to wait out the Trump Admin;

    UNKNOWN; leaked multiple telephone transcripts of Trump’s calls with foreign leaders;

    COMPARABLE LEAKS BY TRUMP:….

    Harcourt Fenton Mudd (0c349e)

  33. As crazy as all of this has been and continues to be, we ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Just wait until the Notorious Ruth Bader-Meinhof Ginsburg moves on to that Big Gig in teh Sky…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  34. 34:

    “SEN GRASSLEY”: So professor Ford, this is the person who attacked you and not Justice Kavanaugh?

    PROF FORD: Yes, as verified by Sabrina Rubin-Erdley in her new Rolling Stone article, “What Really Happened.”

    Harcourt Fenton Mudd (0c349e)

  35. Was this Ruussian source also a source for Christopher Steele?

    Sammy Finkelman (8dcc71)

  36. @33,

    1). News media publishing a leak isn’t a bad thing, it’s their Job.
    2). I said upthread that I thought the leak of this information was concerning.
    3). 2 weeks ago trump published a spy photo of Iran. Analysis of this photo revealed a lot of information about our capability.

    Time123 (ae9d89)

  37. it’s an opinion, you ran with Nathan phillips drive by smear, you approved of heshmat alavis’ unpersoninng by twitter, and carried the watter for that black bloc smear of one of the real journalists in the pacific northwest, you are mostly concerned with phantoms, but real threats to speech and self defense, you don’t apparently care about,

    narciso (d1f714)

  38. Narciso, Was that addressed to me? Because I don’t recall saying much of anything about Nathan Phillips or know who heshmat alavis is. If it was addressed to me could you be more clear about what you’re saying?

    Time123 (ae9d89)

  39. If Trump would just follow accepted protocol — like putting all this classified stuff on a private hackable hard drive in his toilet, then deleting it when there’s an investigation —none of this would raise an eyebrow. But, he’s a moron.

    Munroe (732181)

  40. indeed or john deutsch can put it on an insecure laptop, david Petraeus kept his documents in hard copy, his paramour also had clearances, but probably not as high,

    narciso (d1f714)

  41. it’s an opinion, you ran with Nathan phillips drive by smear, you approved of heshmat alavis’ unpersoninng by twitter, and carried the watter for that black bloc smear of one of the real journalists in the pacific northwest, you are mostly concerned with phantoms, but real threats to speech and self defense, you don’t apparently care about

    You’re a liar.
    I literally said nothing about Nathan Phillips. I literally wrote no opinion of Alavi because I hadn’t heard of him until you mentioned the hack. Oh, and I’ll take “real threats to speech and self defense, you don’t apparently care about” as a personal attack.
    You owe me a retraction and an apology, bub.

    Paul Montagu (f59cb7)

  42. Col @ 34
    Burning Dungeon for her views on abortion.

    mg (8cbc69)

  43. you didn’t pronounce the Covington boys guilty, before any evidence came in, and as I recall you were hepped up on having alavi taken down, even though it all came from mouthpieces for the mullahs,

    narciso (d1f714)

  44. #CovingtonKids #RedHatPunkz #RacistyRacistyRacists #NeverTrump #Fifeisms

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  45. Is this how Trump’s yammering went down?

    felipe (023cc9)

  46. You’re changing subject, narc, which is not honest. Retract your comment about Nathan Phillips and Alavi, and apologize.

    Paul Montagu (f59cb7)

  47. really, you’re going to stand by that:

    Finally, you link to something I actually said, but I’m still waiting for you to retract and apologize for something you accused me saying and didn’t. Or are you not man enough?

    Paul Montagu (f59cb7)

  48. Wow, that Covington thread had a lot of sad comments, narciso. They have not aged well.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  49. yep, now we should know by now when we’re being gaslighted, that’s practically every day, so this fusion morsel, has no specifics, and the few details it does provide are contradictory,

    narciso (d1f714)

  50. Multiple people confirm an intel asset was extracted from Russia.
    Only one “Administration” source said it was due to Trumps big mouth.
    The asset was supposedly Israeli and I doubt the Israelis will confirm or deny even the extraction, but they might.

    Jumping on this stuff is fun, but the truth usually filters out over a few days so I’ve been trying to train myself to wait and see.

    steveg (354706)

  51. Speaking of gaslighting, narc, you need to back up your assertion that I supported “alavis’ unpersoninng”. This is the second or third time that I’ve asked you to back up your comments. You’ve now shown that you know how to go back and link to comments from the past.

    Paul Montagu (f59cb7)

  52. Wow… please tell me a red laser dot doesn’t appear in a flash on Trump’s forehead during this Plame for Congress ad…

    The power of ethereal images… there in a flash and gone…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICW-dGD1M18

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  53. @58. Wow- it’s not. But the Devil’s Dick is flashed from behind a pillar.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  54. Sure it is… lotsa poppin’ and effects to make the film look old for some reason but the one that flashes on the POTUS’s forehead’s the only one that flashed red that I noticed.

    Devil’s dick, you say. Go see your doctor, DCSCA!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  55. Ephemeral was the word I was looking for…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  56. @60. It’s not red, Haiku; it’s one of several translucent flecks that catch a light orange hue thanks to the skin of you know who. Sing it, Colonel: ‘Devil with the Blue Suit On’…

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  57. Col, that may be true re the laser dot, but it could have been part the whole “chosen one” bit…wasn’t he signing something with a bunch of East Indians in that video?

    urbanleftbehind (4b7363)

  58. “We’re keeping more promises than we made!” — President Donald J. Trump, Fayetteville, NC 9/9/19

    Is Mexico paying?!

    Where’s the Wall?!
    Where’s the Wall?!
    Where’s the Wall?!

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  59. Yeah it’s just an effect of whatever film effect they were using to make it look “old” or weathered or whatever. There are orange flecks dotting the screen at several points.

    Hey Plame pulled a Jim Rockford maneuver.

    JRH (52aed3)

  60. @63. No. It’s not.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  61. @58 It doesn’t seem to. There’s a 70s film style artifact that pops up there for a second, but if you watch the rest of the ad, those are all over the place. It’s a pretty good ad over all.

    Also, I had no way intended to donate money to Valerie Plame, but now she has a couple of views worth of view money, so she should send you a thank you.

    Nic (896fdf)

  62. 3rd rate analyst that fitzgerald used to attack bush adninistration policy, a vicious anti semitic atreak like her husband joe wilson,

    Narciso (9b9220)

  63. Multiple people confirm an intel asset was extracted from Russia.

    Multiple news outlets have confirmed it with Anonymous sources. Probably the SAME GUY. They’re done if before. “We confirmed CNN’s story with our Anon source who is familiar with the situation”.

    And then it turns out all the liberal MSM news outlets were ALL confirming with the same person. Get rid of the Anonymous sources and never quote from some anonymous person who’s “familiar with the situation” or “who’s close to someone in the White House/CIA/FBI/etc”

    rcocean (1a839e)

  64. Seriously, we JUST HAD Lawrence O’Donnell admit he lied about Trump having Putin co-sign his loans or some nonsense. Sorry, he didn’t LIE. He just accused trump with no proof. Sorry MSNBC, I wouldn’t want to insult your Journalist Integrity.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  65. When CNN/MSNBC/NTY/WaPo start quoting anonymous sources praising Trump and making him look good, I’ll start believing all the negative ones. Given their track record the MSM have ZERO credibility when it comes to Trump.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  66. One thing I noticed: When Dems criticize the Bushes, Geo W Bush is defended as the greatest President this country has ever seen and savior of Western Civilization.

    When Trump criticizes the Bushes, Bush is dismissed a Deep State RINO socialist who wanted to destroy America.

    JRH (52aed3)

  67. 67… already given her my $.02 then, nic.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  68. Narciso, whatever you do, control thy thirst.

    urbanleftbehind (4b7363)

  69. 65… I watched it again… several white dot flashes, no other orange/red flashes.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  70. The only way to improve on that video is to have her drive to the NM- AZ border and pick up a hitchhiking Sen. Sinema.

    urbanleftbehind (4b7363)

  71. Sad, urban, this is the rotten culture, that venerates worthless people, and shreds others.

    Narciso (9b9220)

  72. Cnn and msnbc were so into obama, they needed penicillin shots, they cried so much over poor valerie, of course the head of the review committee had to write a letter to the post saying the reveal had no impact, which the post wouldnt print

    Narciso (9b9220)

  73. “One thing I noticed: When Dems criticize the Bushes….”
    JRH (52aed3) — 9/9/2019 @ 5:31 pm

    … a snowball freezes in hell.

    Munroe (732181)

  74. Yes when sydney freeberg and jeff morley were doing the full physical on jeb in the 80s and 90s, pointing out every slithy tove he had to sqddle up when he was a developer (gasp) and party official, they forgot about those experiences

    Narciso (9b9220)

  75. @79 Do you not remember the mid 2000s?

    Nic (896fdf)

  76. Sure. Just interesting to watch Trump and Trumpists repeat talking points that used to be in the purview of Michael Moore.

    JRH (52aed3)

  77. @79 Do you not remember the mid 2000s?

    there is no reason for anyone to remember the mid 2000s because mr. donald the trump the president who is president of the united states was not president of the united states yet and nobody else matters

    nk (dbc370)

  78. Redstate has a good article on this. As someone stated, the MSM had started leaking about a “Highly placed source Russian source” in 2016 and continued through 2017. Per the NYT:

    The news reporting in the spring and summer of 2017 convinced United States government officials that they had to update and revive their extraction plan, according to people familiar the matter.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  79. 4. In the first line it should be ‘stories‘ not ‘storys‘. Not trying to be picky, but I know you care about that type of thing.

    Wen you make a billions of $$$$ after just a small lone from your dad than you can make fun of my grammer

    Patterico (115b1f)

  80. Redstate has a good article on this.

    By that submoron streiff?

    Patterico (115b1f)

  81. This post has better grammar and spelling than 95% of streiff’s writing.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  82. How many stories has sciutto got partially or completely wrong.

    Narciso (9b9220)

  83. “@79 Do you not remember the mid 2000s?”

    I remember ’em. As awful as Trump is, he hasn’t started a war on false pretenses or normalized torture, so he’s not as bad as Bush.

    Davethulhu (fe4242)

  84. Stephen Miller
    @redsteeze
    Our media: CIA was worried Trump might out a top spy in Russia

    Also our media:

    Ken Dilanian
    @KenDilanianNBC
    New: Possible Russian spy for CIA living in Washington area

    harkin (58d012)

  85. “1). News media publishing a leak isn’t a bad thing, it’s their Job.
    2). I said upthread that I thought the leak of this information was concerning.
    3). 2 weeks ago trump published a spy photo of Iran. Analysis of this photo revealed a lot of information about our capability.”

    You must be young. There was a time when media did not leak everything it secured. It didn’t gratuitously use photos FDR in a wheel chair, or alert the US to JFK’s health issues or cavorting. It normally didn’t publish US military plans. Media leaks that damage the US isn’t their “job.” No one but crooks and terrorists benefitted from outing SWIFT.

    And be serious now: no one anywhere is surprised by the Iran photo: the US had equally good satellite photos decades ago. People speculating that is was taken on site have no information to back that.

    Harcourt Fenton Mudd (0c349e)

  86. Its like that python sketch ‘learning not to be seen’

    Narciso (9b9220)

  87. The NYT did their own reporting on the Russian who spied for the US. So did the DDID.

    The exfiltration took place sometime after an Oval Office meeting in May 2017, when President Trump revealed highly classified counterterrorism information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador, said the current and former officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive operation.
    That disclosure alarmed U.S. national security officials, but it was not the reason for the decision to remove the CIA asset, who had provided information to the United States for more than a decade, according to the current and former officials.

    The NYT story is similar. CNN said that Trump’s disclosures to Kislyak was a reason “in part” to bring the spy here.

    Paul Montagu (f59cb7)

  88. “Normalized torture”

    Yeah, I saw the Dem Climate interviews.

    harkin (58d012)

  89. Gitmo is a thing of defilement, but I know I’m in the minority on that, here.

    nk (dbc370)

  90. Its much better than they deserve, you know la sante prison in france, even that prison in ths aegean

    Narciso (9b9220)

  91. @ Harcort

    And be serious now: no one anywhere is surprised by the Iran photo: the US had equally good satellite photos decades ago. People speculating that is was taken on site have no information to back that.

    Here’s what wired was able to learn based on ‘internet sleuthing’

    In theory, KH-11 satellites outfitted with a 2.4-meter mirror could snap photos with a resolution of about 10 centimeters. (By way of comparison, the highest-caliber commercial imaging satellites can reach roughly 25 centimeters.) But that’s pure speculation, because images from the satellites have always been classified. The only confirmed photos from a KH-11 satellite were leaked in 1984 by a Navy intelligence analyst who ended up serving two years in prison for espionage.

    “The US DOD has released reconnaissance satellite imagery on a number of occasions, but in all cases those were deliberately degraded images,” says Marco Langbroek, an archaeologist who runs an amateur spy-satellite tracking station in the Netherlands and who helped determine that USA 224 took the photo. “This is the first time since the 1984 leak that an image with this level of detail was released.”

    I don’t know if this is new info to our enemies or just confirmation of what they already know. But it’s data they didn’t have before.

    Time123 (306531)

  92. #94

    Paul Montagu,

    Since the reporting you cite makes it clear that Trump was NOT the reason to withdraw the agent, do you think it was good idea for the media to report this? Do you think CNN, which implied that Trump WAS a reason, should correct its story? What about all those twitter people, who corrupted CNN’s story into a conformation that the CIA had to withdraw this asset because Trump?

    What I have read (from CNN and NYT) suggests that the reporting around Russian meddling in the election in 2016 is what caused the withdrawal of the agent.

    I get concerned that people are so invested in removing Trump and discrediting him, that they are becoming objectively untrustworthy when talking about him. I also worry that the press, in its zeal, has thrown off another shred of objectivity, and won’t trouble itself with returning to that, once Trump shuffles off to his post-Presidential careeer of indictments, legal actions, and failed business ventures.

    Appalled (d07ae6)

  93. CNN should update its story, given the reporting from the NYT and DDID. It’s clear the decision was made after the 2016 election to get him out of Russia. It’s plausible that there was a greater sense of urgency to exfiltrate him after Trump’s conversation with Kislyak and the appointment of the Special Counsel, but that’s probably as far as it goes.

    Paul Montagu (b1e7b3)

  94. The difference between the two instances was the lap top bomb was sensitive info, btw it cams from a gulf state not israel, the uk asset dean revealed who was the bomber.

    Narciso (9b9220)

  95. 100. Appalled (d07ae6) — 9/10/2019 @ 5:34 am

    What I have read (from CNN and NYT) suggests that the reporting around Russian meddling in the election in 2016 is what caused the withdrawal of the agent.

    Again, was he a source for Christopher Steele?

    Now bad things were happening to a few of the Russians involved. That was probably not because they did something Putin didn’t want them to do, but because things didn’t work out quite as Putin expected. Or maybe somebody said too much, althouh I can’t imagine what it was since none of it was true. Or maybe for a totally independent reason.

    Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPDS seems to be all over the map on this.

    https://www.newsweek.com/russia-purged-spies-after-trump-dossier-release-785212

    Russia embarked on a “purge” of suspected spies after the leak of the dossier that provided unsubstantiated claims of potential ties between President Donald Trump and the Russian government, according to the founder of the opposition research firm that produced the document.

    The House Intelligence Committee published a transcript on Thursday of a behind-closed-doors interview with Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS, who shared his concerns that people had been picked off by the Russian government after the explosive claims of a Trump-Russia connection emerged.

    When asked if one of his sources was killed, Simpson said, “That’s not my information. I mean, there was a series of episodes where people were arrested or died mysteriously that came shortly after the disclosure of the existence of this information. And I do believe there was a bit of an old-fashioned purge.”

    Simpson said he did not believe it was “anyone that helped us” but more likely people “taking the opportunity to settle scores or were falsely accused” and “were sources of the U.S. intelligence community, not us.”

    Of course Glenn Simpson wanted to say that his information was valid, so hhe wanted to attribute any purge to “revelations” in the dossier.

    Sammy Finkelman (8dcc71)

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