Yeah, the coup is gathering strength and starting to roll downhill. Here’s former Homeland Security & Counterterrorism Advisor to President Bush, Fran Townsend, making a Tweet about it.
Important read by @20committee about dangerous internal insurrection: The Spy Revolt Against @POTUS @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/EfFyEmxDPQ
— Frances Townsend (@FranTownsend) February 12, 2017
Many important aspects to the piece, but here are the two most important ones:
What’s going on was explained lucidly by a senior Pentagon intelligence official, who stated that “since January 20, we’ve assumed that the Kremlin has ears inside the SITROOM,” meaning the White House Situation Room, the 5,500 square-foot conference room in the West Wing where the president and his top staffers get intelligence briefings. “There’s not much the Russians don’t know at this point,” the official added in wry frustration…
…In light of this, and out of worries about the White House’s ability to keep secrets, some of our spy agencies have begun withholding intelligence from the Oval Office. Why risk your most sensitive information if the president may ignore it anyway? A senior National Security Agency official explained that NSA was systematically holding back some of the “good stuff” from the White House, in an unprecedented move. For decades, NSA has prepared special reports for the president’s eyes only, containing enormously sensitive intelligence. In the last three weeks, however, NSA has ceased doing this, fearing Trump and his staff cannot keep their best SIGINT secrets.
Of course, the new Director of Central Intelligence who was appointed by Donald Trump has just signed off on denying a security clearance to one of Michael Flynn’s top allies on the National Security Council.
I’d have more to say about all this but if it’s Sunday it means I have to go to a first grader’s birthday party.
The Observer is Kushner’s paper, of course. I assume he supports efforts to remove Gen. Flynn because Kushner, for all his flaws, does not seem to be a completely insane moron.
That was my initial thought as well. If this story is one that is vetted by more reliable outlets then I’d be more inclined to believe it. Right now, I’m a skeptic.
There are many links in the story, including WashPo and CNN.
Most of the links go back to Observer. There is a sprinkling of a couple Politico links and a CNN link to stories that have been known for a bit. Perhaps I’m being a bit pedantic. So be it. I still contend that whatever is published in a website that is owned by Trump’s son in law should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. If the author is saying something that has some legs to it, great. I’ll be happy to check my skepticism at that point.
Actually harder to argue that it’s fake news.
The Observer has been on this since AUGUST of last year.
http://observer.com/2016/08/yes-american-spies-really-think-trump-is-putins-guy/
They are all written by John Schindler.
“John Schindler is a security expert and former National Security Agency analyst and counterintelligence officer. A specialist in espionage and terrorism, he’s also been a Navy officer and a War College professor.” http://observer.com/author/john-r-schindler/
This guy knows what he’s talking abut. I’m particularly impressed by his estimation of the Buzzfeed spy leak. He understands that it is a DELIBERATE mixture of fact and fiction. That is a common practice. They throw the fiction in, trying to discredit the whole report, including the facts. But that’s not going to happen, because our intel is already confirming some of the facts.
My take on this is not just that Kushner is trying to get rid of Flynn. If you read these reports, Schindler does not pussyfoot around Trump. Clearly Trump is totally out of his depth, doesn’t know what the f-k he’s doing, but I don’t get the impression of any attempt to salvage Trump’s presidency. Rather, I get the impression that Kushner is eager to get Trump out of there. Because, as has already been pointed out on this thread, Kushner, while not exactly a paragon of virtue, is intelligent and responsible enough to know that Trump in the White House is a great danger to himself and others.
Trump is also doing tremendous damage to the Trump brand, as witness his daughter’s clothing line; and Kushner isn’t about to see the gravy train derailed because his dog of a father-in-law caught the locomotive.
“John Schindler is a security expert and former National Security Agency analyst and counterintelligence officer. A specialist in espionage and terrorism, he’s also been a Navy officer and a War College professor.”
See my comment above. Why people take this Glenn Beck of the intelligence world seriously is beyond me.
It’s possible to be right about some things and terribly wrong on others. Do you take issue with any specific analysis by Schindler?
This is similar to your bashing of Malcolm Turnbull. Attacking someone who you think the left is making a hero simply because there is a momentary point of agreement with that person.
Speaking of Kushner trying to save the Trump brand by getting daddyo off the stage:
http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/12/news/companies/trump-brand-sears-kmart/index.html — Warning: autoplay video goddammit.
A lot of the surviving big box stores up there are in cities where of course, the 18-49 demographic sees Trump like gum on the bottom of their shoe. A lot of the entertainment industry has the same issue. Industrial companies like IBM or the automaker, not so much. So you see a division based on who buys what.
I think for now I prefer to err on the side of caution. This seems plausible, but I’d really prefer seeing similar reports surfacing across a variety of news sources. Hate to go all Dana Skully on anyone who is already jumping on this, but just will be more comfortable doing so. If this does indeed have legs, it will get my interest really quickly.
I think that’s probably a good idea, a little skepticism.
Was Dana Scully the dude or the lovely red head?
the lovely red head.
And to this day still one of my favorite sci fi characters.
Probably the best attitude to have. But I couldn’t give you a 4 with “Skully.”
Scully. Should really watch what I type.
If you’re reading the story as flattering to Kushner and Trump, you’re not reading it right. It’s about how misrule in the White House is leading to desperation among the insulted and frightened professionals. If it has anything to do with Kushner, it’s that by never mentioning him it suggests that he’s not really working there and doesn’t have any responsibility for what’s going on. But since we all know he is working there, we can only ask, “What the fuck is he doing?”
Well, for one thing, he’s running the newspaper this story is printed in. And they’ve been running these stories since August of last year — since before Trump was elected. KUSHNER DID NOT WANT TRUMP TO BE ELECTED. Please read my comment just above.
No he’s not running it, since January 9, see my earlier comment, but point taken. I agree with you that the story in the article seems likely to be true. In fact I may have been the first to suggest the likelihood of a military-CIA coup against Trump, well before the inauguration, on New Year’s Eve:
Two months later, I still think it could be a better outcome than President Pence.
You know what? That’s pretty much what they do with all presidents anyway. It’s just that some presidents have a clue, or even more than a clue.
Or even, like Obama, manage to push back and rein in or even cashier some of the would-be puppet masters.
The problem is that a lot of the actual white soldiers are Trumpers. Trump will need to continue getting them killed by going off half cocked for a while for them to follow through with something like that against him.
And I will note, Erdogan is close to as nasty as the Turkish Deep State was.
Think you’ve convinced me. If I could go back I’d rewrite to focus on the idea that Kushner is interested in appearing to have nothing to do with the whole sorry mess.
Though the author, John Schindler, is an ex-NSA officer more famous for getting his penis selfies mentioned in Gawker.
This is one business Kushner can’t control. He stepped down as publisher January 9. We don’t know how the new publisher, his brother-in-law Joseph Meyer, feels about Trump, but we know there’s a lot of dissension in the family (Jared’s brother Josh founded a pretty good insurance company, Oscar, that depends on Obamacare and he is not happy with family members trying to destroy him). And the paper has been up for sale for weeks now. I bet the writing and editing staff hates Jared passionately, for turning what was once a very stylish paper into a fascism-supporting rag and no doubt for being an abusive boss as well. We may be seeing some worm-turning revenge here.
Note, Schindler has been writing these stories for the Observer since August 5, 2016, if not earlier.
Not only that, I remember reading that August 5 story.It was one of the first, and clearest, on the subject.
I have no interest in whitewashing either Kushner or the Observer, but he’s probably the closest to sane of anyone in the whole Trump entourage.
Schindler is also a right-wing lunatic that was fired from the Naval War College for sending dick pics to someone who isn’t his wife. So people need to read that story with a grain of salt.
Sounds like a typical counterterrorism expert to me.
Seriously, though, what does that have to do with the Russian stuff? Schindler’s hardly the only one saying it! What I find most interesting is that it’s a window into Kushner’s attitude about Trump.
The point is that Schindler is a paranoid lunatic trying to make a name for himself after getting fired from a prestigious job for blatant stupidity. Kushner no longer directly controls the paper/website this was in/on. But do you think he, or his family, want the Trump gravy train to go away? Pence would likely kick all those SOB’s out for his own theocrats. So Trump is their one shot at immortality, you could say.
First of all, Schindler is saying pretty much what a lot of reporters are saying.
Second, the Trump “gravy train” is destroying the Trump brand and losing lots of $$$ for Trump and his family.
It’s a gravy train for GOP opportunists, white supremacists, and Putin. Trump is messing things up for his family businesses, not helping them.
Trump’s only ability as president is to be a stooge for other powerful interests and to create chaos.
To be fair, he’s also doing a hell of a job of organizing his opposition.
Evidence:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ivanka-trump-nordstrom-sales-dropped_us_58a1c571e4b03df370d85ff5
?
Maybe those rust belt Trump voters will take up the slack at Nordstrom?
Ah, so setting up a Battle Royale between the Repub Unitary Executive and the Deep State, with leaks galore. Should be very interesting for the entire world to watch.
I confess to not seeing how the Deep State prevails unless the Unitary Executive’s DNI refuses to undertake the mass purges ordered, or lies about doing it. I guess VP Pence can reprise Cheney’s role as Grand Inquisitor, with on-site visits to the headquarters of the rebels and interrogations using “loyal” elements like this incredible weasel Steven Miller (another profoundly out-of-his-depth rightwing mediocrity who should himself begin to be the subject of intense media investigation ala Bannon)
Anyway, it’s also hard to see how a “coup” can result with single party control of executive, legislative and judicial branches, especially when that party hasn’t a single statesmen or patriot in its ranks. The Repub party and its elected turds is far more concerned with feeding, burping and wiping the Frankenstein monster it created than national security–as bastardized and perverted as that concept has become.
It is generally the case that intelligence services comply fully with the wishes and prejudices of authoritarian leaders/dictators, and that such leaders do tend to purge their “security” services with some regularity, Stalin being perhaps the greatest example of the tendency over the course of his rule. To date, Der Trumper is much less fearsome an adversary than Stalin, and leaks to a not completely controlled media obviously complicate Trumper’s bringing CIA and NSA to heel via mass purges. That and being essentially a stupid person battling the clever.
I know the conventional wisdom (and all spy novels) is strongly on the side of the spymasters and their calculating operatives, but the reality is that the deck is stacked against them, assuming a competent adversary—which likely is the equation our rebels rely upon!
Heil Trumper?
The only really competent forces the American spymasters would be up against are Russian intelligence. And I don’t think they are going to be much of a block either, because it’s not worth it to them. Although it’s been a lot of fun, I believe even they realize that these characters are just a bunch of incompetent nut cases that could lead the world to dire and unpredictable consequences.
As far the Deep State, hey, if my kid was drowning and the Deep State went in and rescued him, the fact that it was the Deep State would be irrelevant. There’s nothing deep state about the issue itself, except for the technical competency. It’s just plain common sense.
I admit that about 3% of the ideas of the Trumpsters correspond to, let’s say, Bernie Sanders; but the Trumpsters have no ability to actually implement those ideas anyway. Even the withdrawal from TPP, credited (technically) to Trump, really had nothing to do with Trump; it had effectively already happened. Bring back jobs? It’s all smoke and mirrors.
The Trump White House is so far from being a unitary Executive that it flips sign when you take its Hermitian conjugate.
It’s invariant under Parody Transformations, also too.
I am beginning to think that “a first grader’s birthday party” is a euphemism for something.
When Comey pulled the donald aside and showed him the rumors, that was his opportunity to get his WH in order and he failed. Did ya know the tech guy in charge of WH cyber security left and was not replaced?
Congratulations, GOP.
You just elected a traitor to America.
Feeling proud?
When the intelligence agencies briefed Trump and his people on their evidence that Russia was behind the DNC hacks and then their assets in Russia’s cyber espionage services were all charged with treason for spying for the US, that was his opportunity to get his house in order. If he wasn’t actually a Russian stooge, I mean.
He can’t get his necktie in order, for God’s sake.
If you trust Comey.
A first grader’s birthday party seems the perfect venue to appreciate the behavior of Donald Trump in the Situation Room, though I imagine the latter is the less well behaved.
We wish Trump had the maturity of a first grader. The world would be a safer place.
TarheelDem on John Schindler after Obama called off the “surgical strikes” to destroy Syria – Fri Sept. 13, 2013
“Still fighting the Cold War. Notice the reference to
Truman. Does not think the Cold War is over.”
From BooMan’s fp story – Neo-Con Nonsense
About John M. Schindler …
○ Unholy Terror: Bosnia, Al-Qa’ida, and the Rise of Global Jihad (2003)
○ A “What-If” of the Cold War: Operation Bourbon (2012)
I don’t understand why Schindler doesn’t criticize Obama’s use of Al Qaida linked militants to fight the Syrian Civil War.
From his book about Bosnia, Izetbegovic and betrayal by the CIA to send arms to Tuzla (Croatian Pipeline) and inserting Islamist warriors to fight the Serbs. The Soros Group also played a role to oppose Russia – see Dutch woman Mable Wisse-Smit.
“Unholy Terror at last exposes the shocking story of how bin Laden successfully exploited the Bosnian conflict for his own ends–and of how the U. S. Government gave substantial support to his unholy warriors, leading to blowback of epic proportions.”
” … why Schindler doesn’t criticize Obama’s use of Al Qaida linked militants to fight the Syrian Civil War.”
Well, then he’d be agreeing with Flynn.
Flynn’s a nut case, but I believe he’s right about that.
Note that Oui’s point requires everyone to agree that the militants the US supports in the Syrian civil war are Al Qaeda linked – basically insinuating that the US is supporting Al Qaeda. There’s at least a bit of truth to this however he makes it seem like it’s the whole truth when it’s actually Syrian government propaganda.
al-Nusra was affiliated with al-Qaeda until about 6 months, and even if they’re not any more, the reason would seem to be that they are more like al-Qaeda than al-Qaeda is.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/01/middleeast/al-nusra-rebranding-what-you-need-to-know/
However, that didn’t catch al-Qaeda napping. Their new affiliate in Syria is called Tahrir al-Sham, which is basically a breakaway group from the former al-Nusra, which is now known as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. But JFS itself appears to have joined Tahrir al-Sham, which also claims to have absorbed at least 4 smaller groups.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-38934206
So, right, not actually affiliated with al-Qaeda, but closely related.
There are of course other groups that have not joined Tahrir al-Sham.
In the national security world, those who know don’t tell and those who tell, don’t know.
John Schindler has been telling tales on the supposed inner workings of the Obama administration and now the Trump administration in relation to the intelligence community. He has quite a few axes to grind and is in general neoconservative.
This is likely Beltway Bubble gossip, of which there is an extraordinary amount right now and more unhinged in its creativity than I have seen. Fran Townsend’s pushing this argues a Project for a Secure America provenance, which would be very aligned with the rump Clinton campaign at the moment.
If someone is really, really concerned instead of playing inside-the-Beltway political games, they should put their evidence out in the open. Because for now, Trump still has the loyalty of more of the rank-and-file white military than you would want turned against the rest of the nationals security state. And then there’s the “Onward Christian Soldiers” contingent just waiting for their chance.
It has become a distraction from actual resistance to the political policies that the Trump administration and its rubber-stamp Congress are unwinding.
But which is the rubber stamp? Congress or Trump?
>>In the national security world, those who know don’t tell and those who tell, don’t know.
or, those who tell are intentionally putting out misinformation. No one in that universe has any respect for the public’s right to know, so believing much of it is IMO naive.
Tarheel,
Can you write something on the origins of Moral Mondays in North Carolina? I must confess when I saw Dr. Barber in Philadelphia I really had little idea who he was. As I have said here before, his was one of the few speeches that united the hall at the Convention.
They put 80,000 people on the streets in Raleigh over the weekend.
In some ways the movement is a model for the rest of the country.