The Quiet Assault – A Glance at Interdicted Tech Smuggling to Russia and China

18 Sunday Jun 2017

Posted by commart in American Domestic Affairs, Political Spychology

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Russian espionage and smuggling, spychology

Last week’s short wee-hour’s shutdown of a portion of Charleston’s port set off by a potentially disinformed conspiracy blogger and webcaster signaled popular American concern and sensitivity to the defense of the homeland, never mind the capabilities and sensitivities of the nation’s capacious national defense and security industry.

Made curious by the homegrown event, BackChannels recalled an incident in which a young Russian national living in the south had been arrested for shipping rifle scopes to Russian, but memory being what it is — some fluid-inscribed organization of thought suspended in brain chemistry and structure — I thought to briefly explore a more subtle aspect of assault on the homeland. Two themes emerged: 1) the role of innocents either duped into the smuggling process or possibly ignorant of the law and the import of their actions (perhaps Fermenova’s “delivery” had been intended solely for hunting boar); 2) we might want the struggling democracy to get the shipment 🙂 — but, really, the action must be propelled by our own collective politics and government authorized.

Or else!

Here listed in chronological order are the morning’s result —

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wisconsin-woman-unwittingly-ships-military-hardware-russia/story?id=11290519 – 8/2/2010 – Conspiracy exploited an innocent to work an at-home job fiddling with packaging (“Don’t do it. Go for a regular job in a regular business”). 🙂 -> Russia.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/latvian-beauty-anna-fermanova-months-prison-smuggling-sniper-scopes-russia-article-1.967810 – 10/25/2011 – Night vision goggles and sniper scope -> Russian ex-husband, “target master” at a hunting lodge.

https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/houston/press-releases/2012/russian-agent-and-10-other-members-of-procurement-network-for-russian-military-and-intelligence-operating-in-the-u.s.-and-russia-indicted-in-new-york – 10/3/2012 – 11-member “procurement network” – micro-electronics -> Russia.

http://www.theblaze.com/news/2014/10/08/officials-russian-man-attempted-to-smuggle-military-night-vision-technology/ – 10/8/2014 – Dmitry Ustinov – arms components – night scopes – thermal imaging technology -> Russia.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdga/pr/russian-citizen-sentenced-federal-prison-illegally-exporting-firearm-parts-russia – 12/11/2014 – Viacheslav Zhukov – firearm magnifier scopes -> Russia.

http://nypost.com/2015/09/09/spy-pleads-guilty-to-smuggling-military-technology-to-russia/ – 9/9/2015 – Alexander Fishenko – $50 million – sensitive electronics -> Russia.

https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/smuggle-military-technology-russia-brooklyn-doj/ – 10/6/2016 – Alexey Barysheff (naturalized), Aleksandrovish Karpenko, Alexey Krutilin – sensitive electronics -> Russia

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/04/27/bay-area-couple-charged-with-illegally-exporting-night-vision-scope-parts/ – 4/27/2017 – Naum and Irina Morgovsky – Night vision rifle scope parts -> Russia.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/23/la-woman-arrested-on-charges-of-smuggling-us-space-technology-to-china.html – 5/23/2017 – Cathy Chen – $100,000 worth of space communications technology -> China.

Also in this morning’s look-see, an attempt to distribute rifle scopes and thermal imaging technology to the westbound state of Ukraine:

http://www.uapost.us/en/news/u-ssha-zaareshtuvaly-ukrayincya-za-kontrabandu-teplovizoriv/ – 3/7/2017 – Volodymer Nedoviz -> Ukraine. While BackChannels is with reason more concerned with the smuggling of “game-changing” restricted technologies to Russia, which may be reverse-engineered as well as distributed, it understands U.S. State’s interests and others in maintaining oversight of the same in a troubled world.

While the “live fire demonstration” that some consider the atrocious military behavior by Russian forces in Syria has boosted Russian defense sales, it would appear evident that Putin’s Federation has yet to figure out, much less build and distribute (much less commercialize) state-of-the-art night vision and thermal imaging technology. Caution: don’t take the observation as authoritative, but rather a sensible conclusion drawn from the efforts of so many over time to attempt to ship the same toward Moscow. If we need to be fanciful, and since the innocent’s packages (first URL cited in the above list) included military or police uniforms, that content suggests some interest in infiltrating American units (same uniform, same arms — slip a person into costume and plant).

Additional Reference

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article156277354.html – 6/15/2017. “No problem on ship at after threat claim at Charleston port” (AP).

–33–

Spy Games – “Ask Permission”

17 Wednesday May 2017

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Political Spychology

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intelligence community, intelligence conventions, political spychology, Trump-Lavrov remarks

Update – May 17, 2017 / 1605 EST

U.S. President Donald Trump’s alleged intelligence disclosure to Russia has endangered the life of a spy who was placed inside ISIS by Israel, current and former US officials are reported to have affirmed on Wednesday . . . .

http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/US-officials-Trumps-intel-leak-endangered-life-of-spy-placed-inside-ISIS-by-Israel-490968 – 5/17/2017

When pressed by ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, McMaster would not say if Trump disclosed classified information. Trump said in a pair of tweets Tuesday he had the “absolute right” to share “facts” with the Russians.

But many in the counter-terrorism community say what the President did was a mistake.

“Russia is not part of the ISIS coalition,” Olsen said. “They are not our partner.”

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/trumps-disclosure-endangered-spy-inside-isis-israel-officials/story?id=47449304 – 5/17/2017

The “Olsen” mentioned in the ABC piece was Matt Olsen, a former director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

The press on this story has come to mention the possibility of compromising a spy, i.e., a source of information inside ISIS.

What follows are BackChannels earlier remarks, and in light of the seriousness of these allegations, the shrug in the first sentence may have been premature although the democratic and western bonds between Israel and the United States would indeed seem unshakable provided the United States hews to its Constitution, its heritage, its hard won ideals, principles, and values.

This blog contains the essential oaths taken by America’s military and security officers and officials throughout the body of the government. Readers may appreciate visiting those sworn statements:

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2017/02/02/united-states-of-america-basic-training/

If the American-Israeli intelligence relationship survived Pollard, it will survive this latest faux pas produced by President Trump’s uninhibited tongue. However, noted in the Reuters article cited below, the additional criticism adds to a parade of such small scandals.

Truth to tell, and at least in the past, Russia (cooperative Chechnya) has embedded spies in the ISIS ranks — and some have been caught and dispatched by ISIS.

Also, while Saddam’s former Baath officers and the ISIS ranks are real enemies for Assad, his allies, and the west, they have also been invited by their enemies to produce themselves — they are the enemy Assad really wanted (click on that last link) — and BackChannels believes that’s no secret.

Brigadier General Amnon Sofrin, a retired senior official in Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, said such agreements are subject to “unwritten rules” observed for decades.

“They say that you [the US] cannot make any use of sensitive information without any coordination or without asking my [Israel’s] permission,” he told journalists in a call organised by The Israel Project, a pro-Israel advocacy group.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-classified-information-latest-russia-secret-intelligence-israel-isis-laptop-ban-mossad-a7740481.html – 5/17/2017

While the president has the authority to disclose even the most highly classified information at will, in this case he did so without consulting the ally that provided it, which threatens to jeopardize a long-standing intelligence-sharing agreement, the U.S. officials said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-idUSKCN18B2MX – 5/16/2017.

“I spoke to him (Lavrov) today,” a smiling Putin told a news conference with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.

“I’ll be forced to issue him (Lavrov) with a reprimand because he did not share these secrets with us. Not with me, nor with representatives of Russia’s intelligence services. It was very bad of him.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-putin-idUSKCN18D1EA

In the same Reuters’ piece: “”It’s hard to imagine what else these people who generate such nonsense and rubbish can dream up next,” said Putin, referring to unnamed U.S. politicians” — so says the world emperor when it comes to KGB everything but especially “active measures” and disinformation.

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Also in Media: “Hacking, Leaking” – Report of Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Open Hearing, March 30, 2017: “DISINFORMATION A PRIMER IN RUSSIAN ACTIVE MEASURES AND INFLUENCE CAMPAIGNS”

11 Thursday May 2017

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Also in Media, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Epistemology, Philology, Political Spychology

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Active Measures, disinformation, foreign meddling in elections, political spychology, Soviet post-Soviet

Sen-Disinfo-Rpt-3-30-2017-hacks-img

Then, in May and June 2015, the first publicly known large-scale disinformation operation, dubbed “Saudi Cables,” tested an innovative tactic: hacking a target, exfiltrating compromising material (kompromat), setting up a dedicated leak website under false flag, and then passing files to Wikileaks for laundering and wide distribution.9 Between June 2015 and November 2016, at least six front organizations sprung up as outlets for compromised files by GRU: Yemen Cyber Army, Cyber Berkut, Guccifer 2.0, DC Leaks, Fancy Bears Hack Team, and @ANPoland.

Finally, in past year, the timeline of US-election operations began to align. In early March, GRU began to train its well-established, semi-automated targeting tools from worldwide military and diplomatic targets to US political targets. Between 10 March and 7 April, GRU targeted at least 109 Clinton campaign staffers with 214 individual phishing emails (with 8 more attempts on 12 and 13 May). 36 times Clinton staffers clicked a malicious link (the success rate of actually breaching the account after a victim clicked this link is 1-in-7). Russian intelligence targeted Jake Sullivan in at least 14 different attempts beginning on 19 March, each time with a different malicious link against two of his email addresses. GRU targeted Hillary Clinton’s personal email account at least two times in March, but the available data show that she did not fall for the password reset trick. The military intelligence agency also targeted DNC staffers with 16 emails between 15 March and 11 April, and 3 DNC staffers were tricked into clicking the treacherous “reset password” button on 6 April 2016.

https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/os-trid-033017.pdf – 3/30/2017 PDF; same available in other formats (for -e-readers:

https://archive.org/details/ActiveMeasuresPrimer

Passed to BackChannels in the way of all free press, the Senate report retells not only the story of Russian infiltration of the Democratic National Committee’s computers and subsequent access to internal exchanges in e-mail, it touches on the history, scope, and techniques of KGB-style methods involved.

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Orwell in America – President Trump’s Sudden Firing of FBI Director Comey

10 Wednesday May 2017

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Epistemology, Political Psychology, Political Spychology, Politics, Psychology

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21st Century Feudalism, 21st Century Neo-Feudalism, Comey, firing, Orwellian, political integrity, Trump, Trump's Russian Question

“It is essential that we find new leadership for the FBI that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission,” Mr. Trump wrote in a letter to Mr. Comey.

“The FBI is unlikely to regain public and congressional trust until it has a director who understands the gravity of the mistakes and pledges never to repeat them,” he wrote. “Having refused to admit his errors, the director cannot be expected to implement the necessary corrective actions.”

Ballhaus, Rebecca. “Trump Fires FBI Director Comey.” The Wall Street Journal, A1, A4, May 10, 2017.

Comey’s errors?

Publicly commenting after close of investigation on Clinton’s e-mails, an act with which then candidate Trump and later President Trump appeared to have had no issue.

That’s one error.

That’s it.

One possible other, not cited as an error, might be Comey’s heading up the investigation into possible collusion between Trump’s 2016 campaign effort and Moscow.

The format of Trump’s ire and its delivery appears to BackChannels that of j’accuse, the Jacobin’s pointing the finger at all suspected of political heresy.

Regarding the President’s claim of having had no business with Russia — it might be true; however, the query may be also complicated by Russia’s feudal gaming over time plus the business class in which he resides.

At this point, the reader may wish to keep in mind Moscow’s duplicitous and manipulative feudal character and its kleptocratic ends:

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2017/03/11/reflexive-control-process-allahu-akbar-terrorism-new-nationalism-neo-feudalism/

Motivation?

Feudal wealth; feudal power; absolute and above and beyond questioning — if not rule by divine right, then by way of most worldly thuggery.

Reminder: Flynn

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/04/donald-trump-2016-russia-today-rt-kremlin-media-vladimir-putin-213833 – 5-6/2016:

I saw the relation with Russia as necessary to the U.S., for the interests of the U.S. We worked very closely with them on the Sochi Olympics. We were working closely with them on the Iranian nuclear deal. We beat Hitler because of our relationship with the Russians, so anybody that looks on it as anything but a relationship that’s required for mutual supporting interests, including ISIS, … that’s really where I’m at with Russia. We have a problem with radical Islamism and I actually think that we could work together with them against this enemy. They have a worse problem than we do.

Flynn’s statement sounds true enough on the surface, but place it beside this analysis of ISIL and it’s role in the east v west, feudal v modern contest:

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2017/04/09/ftac-reprise-how-isil-serves-moscow-damascus-and-tehran/

BackChannels thesis: Moscow, Damascus, and Tehran ditched a mild revolutionary opposition in favor of the al-Qaeda type organizations, so as to produce for themselves and the west a political spectacle, “Assad v The Terrorists”, certain to aggrandize themselves while blackmailing and goading the west in the direction of complicity with — or weakness in the face of — each their own totalitarian dictatorships and kleptocracies.

General Michael T. Flynn, proving less than one-hundred percent honest with Vice President Pence in relation to his Moscow-related experience got himself fired in much the same brusque manner as now former FBI Director Comey.

Here’s a smattering of related URLs, but the main thing here is to remind of Flynn’s connection to Trump’s denial of his initial team having had nothing to do with Russia.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/08/15/trump-adviser-michael-t-flynn-on-his-dinner-with-putin-and-why-russia-today-is-just-like-cnn/

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-michael-flynn-russia-money-20170316-story.html – 3/16/2017

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/russians-paid-mike-flynn-45k-moscow-speech-documents-show-n734506 – 3/16/2017

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/31/michael-flynn-new-evidence-spy-chiefs-had-concerns-about-russian-ties – 3/31/2016

Reminder: Manafort

The header alone should operate like Proust’s fabled taste of Madeleine, for Manafort falls into place with Yanukovych, Putin’s puppet deposed by cause of his own corruption in Ukraine, and then Sergei Millian — http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/01/donald-trump-russia-sergei-millian (1/19/2017), Konstantin Kilimnik — http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/trump-russia-manafort-235850 – 3/8/2017 – and on to the dreaded “Steele Dossier”, which has done Trump’s reputation some damage while being simultaneously dismissed for appearing itself beyond corroboration — http://dailycaller.com/2017/05/08/comey-intel-community-could-not-corroborate-trump-dossier/ – 5/8/2017.

Still, “kompromat” aside, there’s Manafort — and then question of how the leading consultant to the world’s bloodiest dictators got on to Trump’s campaign team in the first place.

One may leave that question in the shadows because that’s where it’s bound to live given the silence prized by political mafia and political consultants alike. However, one may take note of this passage in the Politico article:

Manafort stressed that his work in Ukraine was intended to steer Yanukovych towards more pro-Western policies and more engagement with the European Union. And Kilimnik told POLITICO that “one thing that was grossly under-reported to date is the effort that Paul Manafort undertook to help Ukrainian leaders defend Ukraine’s interests and move the country towards [a European Union] Free Trade Agreement.”

Yet Yanukovych in 2013 backed away from a commitment to that agreement, and fled Ukraine for Russia under the protection of Russian President Vladimir Putin amid widespread protests over government corruption.

We’re a suspicious lot, we Americans, a condition amplified always by missing datum.

At the same time, we have been also subject to traditional KGB “Active Measures”, i.e., efforts to massively disinform and misguide EU / NATO constituencies, and it may take both an army of responsible editor-readers and plain curious and independent Americans to get a true measure on states of affairs.

Here’s the problem:

Manafort could be the “good guy”, a guy making great money transitioning the world’s worst leaders toward western and conscionable standards.

How would BackChannels or the public know?

It seems in the President Trump “Trust Me” stories — on the economy, foreign affairs, immigration — that suspect alleys dead-end in political space.

It also seems to BackChannels that former FBI director Comey’s tenure has been particularly scrupulous as regards the investigator’s legal permit to share information with the public. As much appeared in play before the public last month during the “House hearing on Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election.” The same may be shared in closed sessions with select elected public representatives: is the public to trust whom it has elected to oversight?

The public has no choice beyond what it has with its vote, and it either elects its officials for their integrity or it fails and suffers endless doubts.

The leftward Mother Jones has gone full tilt on news of Comey’s firing.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/05/donald-trump-james-comey-firing-watergate-russia-1 :

Not since Watergate.

How else can one start an article about President Donald Trump summarily firing FBI chief James Comey?

. . . This is reminiscent of when President Richard Nixon dismissed Archibald Cox, the special Watergate prosecutor who was getting too close to the truth. Nixon canned Cox rather than cooperating with his investigation.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/05/donald-trump-firing-james-comey-investigation-fbi-russia (by David Corn, May 10, 2017):

Last month, Comey appeared before the House intelligence committee, and his testimony put Trump in a bad spot. Comey noted that the FBI had no information to support Trump’s baseless charge that President Barack Obama had wiretapped Trump before the election. He was practically calling Trump a nut or a liar. Then Comey, in an unprecedented move, revealed that the FBI had been investigating interactions between Trump associates and Russia since last July. It was a stunning moment: the FBI chief disclosing his bureau was running an investigation that could lead to his boss, the president. All of this showed the Trump-Russia scandal was still on fire.

If Trump fired Comey to impede the Russia investigation, he possibly engaged in obstruction of justice. That is a crime. That is a case for impeachment.

Naturally, Trump was enraged. He has dismissed the Russia story as fake news and a hoax. Comey said it was nothing but.

What don’t we know?

In an Orwellian society, the matter would end with authoritarian contempt, Orwell’s communist-socialist totalitarian “boot in the face”, a world in which the government’s monopoly on information and continuous diversion and suppression of criticism and truth were so notorious that interpreted through the work of the socialist George Orwell — Eric Arthur Blair — the same has left its stamp indelible on the informed western conscience.

http://www.george-orwell.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Orwell_Matters

President Trump’s imperious and sudden decapitation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation smacks of the feudal approach to criticism and threat to authority. Instead of allowing James Comey and his organization to come up empty handed, which result may have required only the President’s inaction, President Trump will now forever have appeared to have lashed out at someone he perceived as an actor and source intending to undermine this authority.

MOSCOW (AP) — He visited imperial palaces and construction sites. He presided at a Miss Universe pageant. He hobnobbed with city officials at gala functions and seemed to particularly enjoy dining on Russian sausage.

But Donald Trump did not strike any real estate deals here.

The New York real estate tycoon has his name on hotels, resorts and other properties from South Korea to Turkey to Panama, but none in Russia, though he repeatedly said he wanted to build a Trump tower in Moscow and discussed various deals in three visits dating back to 1987.

Vasilyeva, Nataliya. “Russian real estate deals never materialized for Trump.” AP, March 4, 2017.

One more excerpt, this from Reuters:

A Reuters review found that at least 63 individuals with Russian passports or addresses have bought at least $98.4 million worth of property in seven Trump-branded luxury towers in southern Florida.

Layne, Nathan, Ned Parker, Svetlana Reiter, Stephen Grey, Ryan McNeill. “Russian elite invested nearly $100 million in Trump buildings.” Reuters, March 17, 2017:

The Reuters review of investors from Russia in Trump’s Florida condominium buildings found no suggestion of wrongdoing by President Trump or his real estate organization. And none of the buyers appear to be from Putin’s inner circle.

Addendum – Odd ‘n’ Ends

http://www.salon.com/2017/05/10/russia-is-trolling-the-u-s-over-james-comeys-firing-accusations-of-trumps-russian-connections/ 5/10/2017.

Video Relay: “Senate Intelligence Committee Open Hearing on Russian Intelligence Activities”, March 30, 2017

30 Thursday Mar 2017

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Also in Media, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Fast News Share, Philology, Political Psychology, Political Spychology, Russia

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Cold War history, information warfare, intelligence history, modern spychology, Putin's Russia, Russian Active Measures, Soviet post-Soviet

Publisher: President Trump Speeches & Press Co., – 3/30/2017

C-Span source: https://www.c-span.org/video/?426227-1/senate-intelligence-panel-warned-russians-play-sides (Morning Session) Afternoon Session as recorded at this posting: https://www.c-span.org/video/?426227-101/former-nsa-director-testifies-russian-interference-capabilities&vod

Related Online

–33–

Also in Media: “LIVE STREAM: House Open Hearing w/ FBI’s James Comey On Trump & Clinton Russia 2016 Election Hacking” | Live at Posting

20 Monday Mar 2017

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Also in Media, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Political Spychology

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House Open Hearing, intelligence, intelligence community, national security, United States

Posted by President Trump Live Speech and Press Conference

As you will see during our hearing, Mr. President, there is no evidence Mr. Obama tapped your phones. This is what is called "fiction."

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) March 20, 2017

Rep. Schiff spoke both points in session.

Also regarding President Trump’s assertion of Obama Administration wiretapping, FBI Director Comey reports, “The Department has no information that supports those tweets.”

Related: http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/20/politics/comey-hearing-russia-wiretapping/index.html – “Comey confirms FBI investigating Russia, Trump ties” (Stephen Collinson).

Related on BackChannels to “east-west-” Russo-American political relations: https://conflict-backchannels.com/2017/03/11/reflexive-control-process-allahu-akbar-terrorism-new-nationalism-neo-feudalism/

——

Re. Roger Stone, Paul Manfort: https://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/former-top-trump-aides-roger-stone-and-paul-manafort-both-wanted-for-questioning-in-russia-investigations/ 3/19/2017

Reference

“FISA 702”. U. S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

–33–

American Presidential Credibility, Integrity, Trust

04 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Epistemology, Philology, Philosophy, Political Psychology, Political Spychology, Politics, United States of America

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credibility, Donald J. Trump, integrity, political evaluation, Trump Administration, trust

Opening scene, Putin’s Kiss, 2012 documentary.

Think back a little bit.

Hicks also asked other superiors why Susan Rice, US ambassador to the UN, had said the attack might have been a spontaneous reaction to an anti-Islamic video. That video was a “non-event” in Libya, Hicks said, adding that it seemed clear from the first that the assault was a terrorist attack.

“The sense I got was I needed to stop the line of questioning,” Hicks told the House panel.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/Decoder/2013/0509/Benghazi-whistleblower-Has-diplomat-Gregory-Hicks-suffered-for-speaking-out-video – 5/9/2013.

Related more recently by former diplomat Gregory Hicks:

When asked about security at Benghazi on Sept. 11, Mrs. Clinton has repeatedly asserted her lack of responsibility. Initially, she said that she never read any of the reporting on security conditions or any of the requests for additional security, claiming that “she delegated security to the professionals.” More recently, she stated that “[I]t was not my ball to carry.” But the law says otherwise. Sound familiar?

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/09/11/what-benghazi-attack-taught-me-about-hillary-clinton.html – 9/11/2016.

The Benghazi attack and Hillary Clinton’s explanations — it was a video that did it, but no it wasn’t; security was left to the experts, she reportedly said, but the buck had been by law made to stop at her own desk . . . and she delegated downward and away from herself — became strong talking points for conservatives.

Now there comes a full suite of talking points for liberals questioning President Donald J. Trump’s (” . . . you grab ’em by the pussy”) character and the weight of complex business and political relationships involving “Moscow”, the metonym here for the “Russian State” as headed by Vladimir Putin.

Posted by mtvnations February 13, 2017.

Putin’s Kiss is available for viewing via Amazon by purchase or by subscription to Amazon Prime.

BackChannels assumes, or presumes, that readers wish not to live in President (Forever) Putin’s “Nashti” proto-fascist state (for further reference, enjoy in the World Affairs Journal Malik Kalyan’s “Mysterious Circumstances Surrounding Russian Murders, Deaths” (March 3, 2017).

Well then . . . .

Are you making the allegation that President Obama conducted electronic surveillance of Trump Tower in your capacity as President of the United States based on intelligence or law enforcement information available to you in that capacity?

If so—that is, if you have executive branch information validating that either a FISA wiretap or a Title III wiretap took place—have you reviewed the applications for the surveillance and have you or your lawyers concluded that they lack merit?

https://www.lawfareblog.com/ten-questions-president-trump – 3/4/2017.

In Benjamin Wittes’ piece, eight additional question follow for President Trump as regards alleged wiretapping by former President Obama.

Let’s move on with moving back in memory.

There’s the Steele report —

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2017/01/17/address-christopher-steeles-2016-report-involving-president-elect-donald-j-trump/ – 1/17/2017 & https://conflict-backchannels.com/2017/01/14/trump-vs-steele-an-emerging-credibility-gap/ – 1/14/2017

Add to the above, the continuing FBI investigation of Trump-associated relationships with “Moscow” (3/4/2017).

Add: The Flynn resignation.

Add: The Sessions recusal.

Worst of all: Rachel Maddow’s connecting the dots between a Russian mogul and a Trump real estate sale, which would not be so bad were Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross not at the center of (the art of) the deal (Feb. 27, 2017).

Trust me?

When an obscure blogger asks that question, it’s time to roll out the ROTFLMAO!

However, please do note this blog’s — this blogger’s — providing ample reference to many (most) of the most reliable sources in journalism and the think-tanks.

When an American President asks / demands trust, that’s something else.

Posted by The Guardian, March 3, 2017.

David Remnick’s most powerful bona fide: the Pulitzer Prize winning Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire (1993).

Posted by CNN, February 28, 2017.

The complete quotation having to do with absolute power and corruption: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”

Published February 8, 2017 in The Chicago Tribune (by Steve Chapman):

Asked about Melissa McCarthy’s portrayal of him on “Saturday Night Live,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer had some advice for the actress: “Dial it back.” May I suggest the president adopt that phrase as his administration motto?

So far, Donald Trump has made it a practice to obliterate every known limit and pump up every grievance. Harvard law professor and former Reagan administration official Charles Fried, marveling at the president’s Twitter volleys at federal judges, said, “There are no lines for him. There is no notion of, this is inappropriate, this is indecent, this is unpresidential.”

Perhaps the word order in this post’s title needs to be changed from the alphabetical “credibility, integrity, trust” to what comes first and last:

Integrity –> Credibility –> Trust

Although this piece would seem to end with Trump, it may be thought to go back some decades to Carter and Reagan (remember “Iran-Contra”?), to Mr. Clinton (how would you define what is and what is not sex) and forward to Obama and Clinton and the New Guy, but it’s that last with whose grandiose posturing and promises and tweets the nation awakes or falls to sleep.

–33–

Address: Christopher Steele’s 2016 Report Involving President Elect Donald J. Trump

17 Tuesday Jan 2017

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Political Spychology, Politics

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21st Century Feudalism, 21st Century Neo-Feudalism, Christopher Steele, President Elect Trump, Vladimir Putin

Mark Schoofs, Investigations and Projects Editor at Buzzfeed (Twitter page), appears to have uploaded to “Document Cloud” the Christopher Steele report on President Elect Trump:

Company Intelligence Report 2016/080: US Presidential Election: Republican Candidate Donald Trump’s Activities in Russia and Compromising Relationship with the Kremlin

Of note cogent to the ever philosophical BackChannels: this wrap in the first point:

Source C, a senior Russian financial official said the TRUMP operation should be seen in terms of PUTIN’s desire to return to Nineteenth Century ‘Great Power’ politics anchored upon countries interests rather than the ideals-based international order established after World War Two. S/he had overheard PUTIN talking in this way to close associates on several occasions.

The “Great Power politics” noted would seem to jive with BackChannels assertions about “Medieval Political Absolutism” vs “Modern Democratic and Checked Distributions of Political Power.”