There’s so much to digest in the leaked intelligence report on Donald Trump’s connections to Vladimir Putin and Russia that I feel like I’m drinking from a firehouse. I want to just throw one quick thing at you. I noticed the following excerpt about an alleged meeting in Prague between Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen and Russian operatives that was supposed to have occurred in late August or possibly the first week in September.
I was intrigued at the idea that Putin might utilize a member of the Duma to provide plausible deniability about official communications with the Trump campaign, so I looked to see what I could find about Konstantin Kosachev and whether he was active in talking up Trump and talking down Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Amazingly, I found a TASS article published just yesterday where Kosachev was quite vocally trashing Obama and crowing about the demise of the United States as a global leader and “winner” of the Cold War.
Barack Obama’s efforts to pin the Democratic Party’s defeat in the US presidential election on Russia and its leader indicate the complete failure of Washington’s policy of hegemony, Chairman of Russia’s Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Committee for International Affairs Konstantin Kosachev said.
“Obama’s desperate efforts to pin his defeat on the Russian president just seem to be a banal attempt at settling scores. But in fact this indicates the utter failure of America’s hegemonic policies and more important systemic shifts in global politics rather than Trump’s victory over Clinton,” the Russian senator wrote on his Facebook page.
He went on:
According to Kosachev, during the past 25 years, US presidents have made a number of serious mistakes concerning world politics which lead to global instability. In particular, in the senator’s words, the US considered itself to be a “winner” eligible to impose its will on the world after the Cold War had ended, while it was not ready to build cooperation with its former rivals. “The US and its staunch allies have been plagued by fatal mistakes in a growing number of global scenarios which are becoming more and more unpredictable and devastating,” the Russian senator added.
And then the capper:
“However, the world cannot remain an eternal hostage to America’s blunders, the US version of the Western leadership has failed completely. Obama is not just a president losing an election, he is a symbol of a post-Cold-War era coming to an end,” Kosachev noted.
“Let us hope that unlike his failed predecessors, Trump understands that there is no sense in maintaining the logic of winners and losers,” the Russian senator concluded.
That sounds a lot like a man who may have worked to elect Trump in order to destroy American leadership, win a lifting of crippling economic sanctions on Russia, raise the price of oil and gas, and then be at pains to deny his role in the whole affair.
It’s just one piece, but it’s a piece that deserves deep inspection by our Congress and our intelligence agencies.
Of course, Michael Cohen took to Twitter to rebut the charge that he visited Prague, but there was just one little problem with his argument.
I have never been to Prague in my life. #fakenews pic.twitter.com/CMil9Rha3D
— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) January 11, 2017
This guy really tweeted a pic of the OUTSIDE of his passport as proof he's nevee been to Prague?!
LOL#CaseClosed#DropTheMic https://t.co/lkQF4IHCQS— Jayar Jackson (@JayarJackson) January 11, 2017
The intelligence report first reported that the meeting with Cohen took place in an “operationally soft” country in the European Union because it was considered too “hot” to meet with him in Moscow. Only later did the report offer intelligence that the meeting had been in the Czech Republic. This will all need to be cleared up, but Cohen’s denials aren’t going to be sufficient. We need his full itinerary.
Needless to say, if the allegations in this report are true, Donald Trump cannot be our president.
You correctly identified the critical link, and vulnerability, is the Cohen liaisons.
Jake Tapper is saying that government sources report it was a different Michael Cohen. Not that there are not a LOT of them floating around. CNN never bother to check before going with it????
That’s a big problem.
The shit is about to hit the fan.
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Pg 8 “Firstly there were agents/facilitators within the Democratic Party itself […] All three elements had played an important role to date.”
No shock there. No organization like that can or will ever be secure.
Agreed.
Interestingly that memo from late July 2016. By 30 July we are being told:
I raised this before when I asked why the Russians did this. Based on nothing but my own guesswork, I believe the Russians did this to fuck with Obama and Clinton as payback. They did not believe it would ever get as much traction as it did. The median term result here is going to be tougher US policy toward Russia. I suspect that the Russians began to suspect this. Trump is going to be inevitably pushed into confrontation by the GOP right. The Russians have received a bounty in domestic propaganda (Putin humiliates America) but the result is likely… Read more »
I raised this before when I asked why the Russians did this. Based on nothing but my own guesswork, I believe the Russians did this to fuck with Obama and Clinton as payback. They did not believe it would ever get as much traction as it did. The median term result here is going to be tougher US policy toward Russia. I suspect that the Russians began to suspect this. Trump is going to be inevitably pushed into confrontation by the GOP right. The Russians have received a bounty in domestic propaganda (Putin humiliates America) but the result is likely… Read more »
Not only just a dossier, it was raw, unanalysed; data collection with source identification and context but little else; a collection tray.
Sure is interesting, though.
On your second point it seems several media outlets are implying they have had this material but did not publish it. Seems to have been widely available.
The always cooperative-wth-the-Permanent-Government mass media.
So nu???
AG
Ya think this why Woolsey walked away?
If it wasn’t this, it was something worse. Maybe something by the actual American intelligence community.
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Bullies negative rate.
Just sayin’…
AG
just to accommodate “bullies”?
That’s quite an accusation against the proprietor!
Not his fault, except perhaps in the passive sense. As he wrote here recently, he has become something of an absentee landlord. Too busy, I guess…family, WAMO, whatever. Changing the site system would require a complete reboot of BooTri,b with all of the concomitant complications and missteps. Computer hell is obviously not Booman’s thing, nor is it mine. Neither is paying a lot of money to someone else to supervise the job. So…during Booman’s comparative absence, a bunch of lames swooped in and to some degree took over, posting inane, short replies to well thought-out posts and throwing 1s and… Read more »
ya mean? (Howling hypocrites, all!) That’s just one really, really easy example for starters; dozens more could be found just as easily. Notably, all “troll”-rating a fact-based, substantive comment containing no slightest element of “trolling” by any standard, reasonable definition. Can’t even claim the (bogus) excuse of tit-for-tat retaliation-via-downrating against downrating (completely hypocritical in its own right). I.e., all 3 of you abusing the Trib’s rating system (by the very “standards” you hypocritically invoke with self-serving selectivity against others). I.e., doing precisely what you rage and whine, with great weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, about others purportedly doing.… Read more »
If there was back-channel contact between Putin and the Trump campaign … how rare is that? It’s unheard of for a major party nominee to send representatives to meet with representatives of other countries?
It’s late. I’m missing something.
That’s the allegation; that’s billions I’m guessing.
Oh! So … is the allegation that the offer was accepted? It’s morning, and I’m still confused!
The Rosneft sale went through on 10 December and the proceeds went into a rat’s nest of cutout entities, some created for the purpose, including a Qatari soverign wealth fund.
From whence they’ll emerge clean, and deniable, into the appropriate hands.
You are missing nothing, steggies. This is just another trumped-up (sorry, couldn’t resist), perhaps last-ditch attempt by the Permanent Government to derail…or at the very least cripple…Trump’s presidency.
In the Scylla and Charybdis myth, there seems to have been no competition between the two disaster-makers. They were equal opportunity destroyers.
Maybe the compettition got lost in multiple translations.
Or…maybe we are seeing a new wrinkle in an old story.
Like the Japanese “Godzilla vs. Whatever” series.
Two villains fighting for supremacy.
God help us.
AG
I proposed this scenario when the Patriot Act was passed, but then I thought the Republicans would be the villains. President Obama utilizes the powers in the Patriot Act to declare that Trump, all the (R) House and all the (R) Senate part of a Russian terrorist conspiracy to overthrow the government, arrests them all and sends them to Guantanamo for “interrogation”. Possibly Trump is killed resisting arrest during a shoot out with his guards. The remaining House elects Nancy Pelosi as Speaker and declares that their being no candidate with 270 EV’s the House will elect voting by state.… Read more »
That would be awesome! At the last hour, Obama goes all Kenyan, Muslim usurper on their ass. Then pardons everybody else on the way out.
…Michael Cohen went to Prague last July / August and made a deal with Russia (under auspices of Rossotrudnichestvo in Prague) to hack DNC servers and suck up Podesta’s emails. If it’s true, did Cohen (Trump) know what they were looking for? (Assume it didn’t matter, anything they found at the DNC and/or in Podesta’s emails would do for fake news purposes….) Why a meeting, though? Hard to see why Trump sent his lawyer to meet with Russia in person. (And who did Cohen meet with exactly?) Did Cohen deliver assurances to his contact there (a quid pro quo)? Should… Read more »
CrowdStrike June 15, 2016 UPDATE: CrowdStrike stands fully by its analysis and findings identifying two separate Russian intelligence-affiliated adversaries present in the DNC network in May 2016. … … CrowdStrike Services Inc., our Incident Response group, was called by the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the formal governing body for the US Democratic Party, to respond to a suspected breach. No disclosure on when the DNC hired CrowdStike. Various subsequent reports have stated that the “intruder(s)” were kicked out of the DNC servers at least a week before CrowdStrike issued its report to the DNC which would make that sometime before… Read more »
drat — echoes of the yellowcake papers:
Too cheap to hire a new and/or better scriptwriter?
It worked the first time…why not run the same game again?
AG
Bad sequels are box office bombs.
And good ones are box office gold.
They never know until they put it into the theaters, do they?
AG
Schengen country. Land in London, meet in Prague, and there’s no entry/exit data on you ever having been in Czech Republic. Cleared for one EU/Schengen country, you’re good for the rest.
UK isn’t in Schengen, but yes. In theory. In practice, thanks to the war in Syria, there are border controls.
Also – thanks in large part to NSA and the war against Terra – we do have paranoid surveillance. And if this has been making the rounds since this summer without any newsorganistion being able to confirm that he was there, I think chances are he wasn’t.
The real Michael Cohen they were using to justify the charges has been identified as NOT the Michael Cohen they thought it was.
Therefore, a link to the source of the claim is needed (would be obligatory if I ruled the universe; or even just the intertubes).
(And no, linking to your comment up-thread, where you made the same claim, also with no link to a source, would not suffice.)
It is EU, though…
Marie, this might be some more Bush revenge. Remmeber Bush 1 was director of the CIA.
We are now thoroughly ensconced in a new era. The “Post-Truth” era. There is no more “truth.” Not as far as public affairs are concerned, for sure. This guy went to Prague. No he didn’t. The Russians own Trump. No they don’t. Trump will be impeached before he sits down in the Oval Office. No he won’t. And on and on and on and on and on. Proof? There is no proof. Just lying liars saying that there’s proof. Video of Trump having Russian whores piss on the bed in which the Obamas slept. Naaaahhhh…even if there is, it’s a… Read more »
If you see that it’s raining, and a liar says that it is, do not believe him! — because some narcissistic ignoramus falsely and repeatedly claims that Cicero said you shouldn’t. And on top of that, that anyone who points out that this is wrong, is engaging in “empty sniping”. I’ve got news for you, AG, it’s not empty and it’s not sniping — you are the liar.
There’s also that fable about the boy who cried wolf, doubtless written by a narcissist as well, but most of us, looking out the window, see this sort of misty stuff. Is it rain, or just fog? How do we report the truth? It’s a boring, wierd misty sort of day (probably a global warming side-effect–we never used to have so many misty days). And people do love weather reports. I think the truth is, AG’s point here, is it’s no longer possible to know what the truth is. So we’re all on high alert wondering whether to believe our… Read more »
Thank you.
One more Bootribber who gets it.
AG
You write: If you see that it’s raining, and a liar says that it is, do not believe him! Simplistic to the max!!! Just one level up from your idiotic take on what I am saying: Upon being told by someone that it is not raining when it very plainly is raining, any smart third grader would at the very least put a hold on paying attention to whatever that person said in the future. Upon being repeatedly lied to, the same third grader would no doubt stop paying attention to that person, and if the lying continued would try… Read more »
He repeatedly misquotes Cicero even after being repeatedly corrected because he likes the point that he wished Cicero had been making.
Alas, but unsurprising, that you are unable to proceed from there to the rational, practical conclusion from that.
OTOH, re:
There are??? Where? I’m not aware of any lying liars saying that. In fact, I’m not aware of anyone saying that! Haven’t seen that reported. Anywhere. (Well, except here, from you. But I think we can all probably agree that that doesn’t count as “reported”. Right?)
Could you please link to an example or two?
Thanks in advance!
nuthin’ to back up your claim.
I’m so disillusioned!
I think this is interesting for two things. These Reports Allege Trump Has Deep Ties To Russia – BuzzFeed News The documents have circulated for months and acquired a kind of legendary status among journalists, lawmakers, and intelligence officials who have seen them. Mother Jones writer David Corn referred to the documents in a late October column. So it is important in understanding why so many are convinced of the Russian narrative. These Reports Allege Trump Has Deep Ties To Russia – BuzzFeed News BuzzFeed News reporters in the US and Europe have been investigating various alleged facts in… Read more »
Nothing is isolated. One of the reasons the narrative is so believable is; He has surrounded himself with people with ties to Russia and its satellites. And in particular, people who loves them some Putin. His SoS choice is so unqualified that he demands the question ‘Why him?’. Then you see his business dealings with Russian and Putin, and realize he would do nothing to endanger them. Trump has made fun of and attacked EVERYONE. Clinton, Obama, Warren, Streep, Christie, Perry, Merkel, the Chinese…..even the Pope. The list is endless…..except with one person that stands out….Putin. With him….nothing but admiration.… Read more »
The problem with going with narrative weight is that it can build momentum of its own, and add pieces that do not fit together. See for example Bay of Pigs and the Iraqi invasion. In this case, the secret intelligence appears to be part trolling from 4chan. 4Chan Claims To Have Fabricated Anti-Trump Report As A Hoax | Zero Hedge In a story that is getting more surreal by the minute, a post on 4Chan now claims that the infamous “golden showers” scene in the unverified 35-page dossier, allegedly compiled by a British intelligence officer, was a hoax and fabricated… Read more »
Well none of that is true.
You are right, I let my confirmation bias run away with me there. Mostly because it would be funny in a very absurd way.
OK, I understand now.
My mistake.
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Putin-love is a gateway drug to the hard stuff.
Is the hard stuff golden showers or 4chan?
White supremacism, fascism, misogyny and the Orthodox Christian schism.
I will leave the PeePee the Frog memes to you. If you are suggesting that 4chan is the source of this material you are either a willing tool or deplorable.
Trump is going Orthodox now?
I did suggest that a small part originated at 4chan, but Camussie argued well for why that’s probably not true, so I’ve changed my mind there. The claim of trolling is more likely to be the actual trolling.
That is the advantage of actually arguing for what you think, you can convince people.
Not Trump, the Patriarch. You know what I’m talking about. As for 4chan, best leave them alone. Bad frogs.
“According to Kosachev, during the past 25 years, US presidents have made a number of serious mistakes concerning world politics which lead to global instability. In particular, in the senator’s words, the US considered itself to be a “winner” eligible to impose its will on the world after the Cold War had ended, while it was not ready to build cooperation with its former rivals. “The US and its staunch allies have been plagued by fatal mistakes in a growing number of global scenarios which are becoming more and more unpredictable and devastating,” the Russian senator added.” I can’t disagree… Read more »
I appreciate your categorical statements on this.
“Needless to say, if the allegations in this report are true, Donald Trump cannot be our president.”
To quote Micheal Cohen himself: “Says who?”
The 20th is coming up fast, and at DC’s normally slow pressure cooker pace, he’ll be president before any of this builds any steam.
Precisely.
Thank you, bugboy.
See my comment below for more.
AG
So an updated summary, Trump’s R primary opponents commissioned a former British spy/current security consultant (I am going to call him MI-6 dude) to dig up the dirt on Trump. Well heeled supporters of Clinton picked up the mantle of this commission going into the general election. MI-6 dude pulled enough together for a pretty damning dossier but it is all very raw i.e. not thoroughly vetted and verified so the Clinton supporters didn’t use it. Still this dossier/collection of memos has been circulating around various intelligence agencies across the world since last summer. Not only that but several people… Read more »
It appears John McCain is in the mix.
Cuz that seems quite critical info.
“Some of the memos were circulating as far back as last summer. What has changed since then is that US intelligence agencies have now checked out the former British intelligence operative and his vast network throughout Europe and find him and his sources to be credible enough to include some of the information in the presentations to the President and President-elect a few days ago. On the same day that the President-elect was briefed by the intelligence community, the top four Congressional leaders, and chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees — the so-called “Gang of… Read more »
More. And more. Best of today’s lot so far.
Hmm, did you check the Daily Mail?
Hope the guy’s cat is OK. Otherwise plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
Will Trump’s term be as long as Harrison’s (31 days) or Taylor’s (16 months)? The Republican leadership would be very comfortable with Pence as president. Trump is volatile, unpredictable, willfully ignorant, interested in only what benefits him personally, disdainful of the Republican party and its leadership, malicious and vindictive. Trump doesn’t really care about most of what Republican leaders want, at least not enough to work for it. He’s going to put effort only into getting applause (and money)for himself and settling scores. Pence is a good party soldier. He agrees wholeheartedly with pretty much everything McConnell and Ryan… Read more »
I think that you may have pinned it, Audie. The only problems are…
1-How long will it take the glacially-paced congress to act?
2-If it takes months or even years, how much military and financial power (as evidenced by Trump’s cabinet picks) will have been concentrated in the executive branch by the time push comes to shove?
and
3-On which side will the military’s might really ally?
The U.S. as a gigantic North Korea?
Could happen…
AG
If the GOP does not find a way for the donald to build his wall, his approval will drop to the low 20s. An ugly messy hispanic deportation or Trumpcare that takes insurance back to 2007 will take him further down and then the GOP will abandon the donald.
Hilariously, this scenario has to be considered to have a non-trivial chance of occurring, although surely no one would predict it 10 days from Der Trumper’s inauguration, haha. Repubs would lose the chief spokesman for brazenly and openly hating on Latino immigrants, as Trump has invested heavily in that role. Any Repub can handle the Muslim-hatin’, of course. Of course, having a neo-confederate attorney general in place ensures that implacable racism in law enforcement can continue on course, satisfying the hoi polloi of the Trumpi movement. But yes, no one can doubt that Dummy Pence is a more proven conservative… Read more »
Plus, Democratic politicians know how to work with a Pence POTUS. They’re done it for years. They’re even more clueless on how to block, tackle, etc. Trump than Republican elites are. So, unlike the Arkansas Project, the Putin/Russia project is bi-partisany.
Not going to get into the details of this Spy vs. Spy episode except to point out that Julian Borger’s piece in the Guardian makes it curiouser and curiouser. My current reading of it is that it could have been a pre-emptive oppo research done by the Trump campaign on the QT, picked up by some Democratic queen-maker and now valuable as a way to shut McCain down. McCain said that he couldn’t get involved with it because it would look like payback for what Trump said about McCain (according to Borger). But McCain personally took it to Comey to… Read more »
Clapper rolls over into the “Tickle me Donald” position.