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You are here: Home / Archives for Foreign Affairs / Countries / Russia

Russia

Russiagate Open Thread: Another Day, Another ‘Snow’ Storm…

by Anne Laurie|  December 10, 20197:50 am| 64 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Impeachment Inquiry, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Russia, Trump Crime Cartel, All Too Normal

dc braces for blizzard of evidence - walt handelsman

(Walt Handelsman via GoComics.com)

NEW: Democrats expected to unveil articles of impeachment against Trump Tuesday, focusing on abuse of power, obstruction of Congress @rachaelmbade @mikedebonis @eliseviebeck @ToluseO https://t.co/8BZML3Gwr0

— Emily Guskin (@EmGusk) December 10, 2019

Notably, Trump is meeting Russia’s foreign minister tomorrow. https://t.co/I64KHWvCjl

— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) December 10, 2019

Trump/Lavrov meeting in the Oval office will be “closed press” pic.twitter.com/ryOfpou1Rj

— Jérôme Cartillier (@jcartillier) December 10, 2019

show full post on front page

So it appears there will be a mtg with Trump, and once again, the news comes from Moscow. https://t.co/lUyoMaplLo

— Bianna Golodryga (@biannagolodryga) December 9, 2019

Annual performance review with Trump & Pence at the WH.

Then onto Congress for #MoscowMitch, #LeningradLindsay, and a host of others.

Word is that he'll attend the weekly @GOP Congressional meeting to give the team fresh orders from Putin. https://t.co/kLDTmW5lHl

— dengre (@denngree) December 10, 2019

Here's what Trump may be up to meeting Lavrov in a "closed press" Oval meeting tomorrow, the day after Putin met Zelensky at #NormandySummit to resolve Russia-Ukraine war. It's always been about sanctions, which entails absolving Russia of election attack, rehab'ing pariah Putin. https://t.co/xNc6kcJJCW

— Paula Chertok🗽 (@PaulaChertok) December 10, 2019

I think for Christmas, he's gonna give him Afghanistan ??

Lavrov will drop some small bit of info that POTUS will tweet before the end of the day https://t.co/T4qoM5SS1o

— Molly McKew (@MollyMcKew) December 9, 2019

Caving to inferior-but-independent-and-ruthless powers is the essence of Mr. ArtoftheDeal. He always caves.

— Aki Peritz (@AkiPeritz) December 10, 2019

Russiagate Open Thread: Another Day, Another ‘Snow’ Storm…Post + Comments (64)

The DOJ Inspector General’s Report on the Origin of the DOJ’s & FBI’s Investigation of the President’s 2016 Campaign Has Been Released

by Adam L Silverman|  December 9, 20191:46 pm| 170 Comments

This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Election Year, Foreign Affairs, Impeachment Inquiry, Open Threads, Politics, Russia, Silverman on Security

Michael Horowitz, the DOJ Inspector General, has released his long awaited report into the origins of the DOJ’s and FBI’s investigation into the President’s 2016 campaign. The report can be found here and I’m uploading it below.

DOJ_IG_Investigation_DEC_2019

The bottom line up front: the Crossfire Hurricane investigation and the four related investigations, including those into Carter Page and George Papadapolous, were properly predicated and there was no political bias. So no bias and no corruption. No coup, no deep state conspiracy. Nothing, nada, bupkis.

Here’s the key findings from the Executive Summary (emphasis mine):

In Full Investigations such as Crossfire Hurricane, all lawful investigative methods are allowed. In Preliminary Investigations, all lawful investigative methods (including the use of CHSs and UCEs) are permitted except for mail opening, physical searches requiring a search warrant, electronic surveillance requiring a judicial order or warrant (Title III wiretap or a FISA order), or requests under Title VII of FISA. An investigation opened as a Preliminary Investigation may be converted subsequently to a Full Investigation if information becomes available that meets the predication standard. As we describe in the report, all of the investigative actions taken by the Crossfire Hurricane team, from the date the case was opened on July 31 until October 21 (the date of the first FISA order) would have been permitted whether the case was opened as a Preliminary or Full Investigation.

The AG Guidelines and the DIOG do not provide heightened predication standards for sensitive matters, or allegations potentially impacting constitutionally protected activity, such as First Amendment rights. Rather, the approval and notification requirements contained in the AG Guidelines and the DIOG are, in part, intended to provide the means by which such concerns can be considered by senior officials. However, we were concerned to find that neither the AG Guidelines nor the DIOG contain a provision requiring Department consultation before opening an investigation such as the one here involving the alleged conduct of individuals associated with a major party presidential campaign.

Crossfire Hurricane was opened as a Full Investigation and all of the senior FBI officials who participated in discussions about whether to open acase told us the information warranted opening it. For example, then Counterintelligence Division (CD) Assistant Director (AD) E.W. “Bill” Priestap, who approved the case opening, told us that the combination of the FFG information and the FBI’s ongoing cyber intrusion investigation of the July 2016 hacks of the Democratic Nat ional Committee’s (DNC) emails, created a count erintelligence concern that the FBI was “obligated” to investigate. Priestap stated that he considered whether the FBI should conduct defensive briefings for the Trump campaign but ultimately decided that providing such briefings created the risk that “if someone on the campaign was engaged with the Russians, he/she would very likely changehis/her tactics and/or otherwise seek to cover-up his/her activities, thereby preventing us from finding the truth.” We did not identify any Department or FBI policy that applied to this decision and therefore determined that the decision was a judgment call that Department and FBI policy leaves to the discretion of FBI officials. We also concluded that, under the AG Guidelines and the DIOG, the FBI had an authorized purpose when it opened Crossfire Hurricane to obtain information about, or protect against, a national security threat or federal crime, even though the investigation also had the potential to impact constitutionally protected activity.

Additionally, given the low threshold for predication in the AG Guidelines and the DIOG, we concluded that the FFG information, provided by agovernment the United States Intelligence Community (USIC) deems trustworthy, and describing a first-hand account from an FFG employee of a conversation with Papadopoulos, was sufficient to predicate the investigation.This information provided the FBI with an articulable factual basis that, if true, reasonably indicated activity constituting either a federal crime or a threat to national security, or both, may have occurred or may be occurring. For similar reasons, as we detail in Chapter Three, we concluded that the quantum of information articulated by the FBI to open the individual investigations on Papadopoulos, Page, Flynn, and Manafort in August 2016 was sufficient to satisfy the low threshold established by the Department and the FBI.

As part of our review, we also sought to determine whether there was evidence that political bias or other improper considerations affected decision making in Crossfire Hurricane,including the decision to open the investigation. We discussed the issue of political bias in a prior OIG report, Review of Various Actions in Advance of the 2016 Election, where we described text and instant messages between then Special Counsel to the Deputy Director Lisa Page and then Section Chief Peter Strzok, among others, that included statements of hostility toward then candidate Trump and statements of support for then candidate Hillary Clinton. In this review, we found that, while Lisa Page attended some of the discussions regarding the opening of the investigations, she did not play a role in the decision to open Crossfire Hurricane or the four individual cases. We further found that while Strzok was directly involved in the decisions to open Crossfire Hurricane and the four individual cases, he was not the sole, or even the highest-level, decision maker as to any of those matters. As noted above, then CD AD Priestap, Strzok’s supervisor, was the official who ultimately made the decision to open the investigation, and evidence reflected that this decision by Priestap was reached by consensus after multiple days of discussions and meetings that included Strzok and other leadership in CD, the FBI Deputy Director, the FBI General Counsel, and a FBI Deputy General Counsel. We concluded that Priestap’s exercise of discretion in opening the investigation was in compliance with Department and FBI policies, and we did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced his decision. We similarly found that, while the formal documentation opening each of the four individual investigations was approved by Strzok (as required by the DIOG), the decisions to do so were reached by a consensus among the Crossfire “Hurricane agents and analysts who identified individuals associated with the Trump campaign who had recently traveled to Russia or had other alleged ties to Russia. Priestap was involved in these decisions. We did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced the decisions to open the four individual investigations.

IG Horowitz did, as is the case in almost every IG investigation, found some low level wrongdoing and other minor errors. There are always decisions made or actions taken that, in hindsight, should have been made differently or not taken at all. Had IG Horowitz found nothing at all, then things would have looked as hinky as if he’d found the whole thing to be unpredicated and biased.

Attorney General Barr, however, is not happy with these conclusions. And he is once again, as he did with the Mueller Report, trying to place both hands on the scale to justify his ideologically driven priors.

Barr again in statement defending Trump: “It is also clear that, from its inception, the evidence produced by the investigation was consistently exculpatory.”

— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) December 9, 2019

Given that AG Barr isn’t going to let this go, because it interferes in his career long mission to establish the presidency as an unelected king who is free from all constitutional and statutory constraints, despite Inspector General Horowitz’s findings, AG Barr and his surrogates, as well as the President and his, will continue to try to undermine the findings, as well as the actual reasons for the investigation into the President’s 2016 campaign. It is important to remember that during AG Barr’s first appointment as the Attorney General he created a factually dubious predicate that was used to create the inquiry that would eventually become the Whitewater investigation into the Clintons. This was done while then Governor Clinton was running for president against President Bush (41), who was Barr’s boss and shortly after he advised President Bush (41) to pardon all of the Iran-Contra conspirators, which would make it impossible to actually ascertain how much or how little President Bush (41) was involved in that criminal conspiracy to subvert American foreign and national security policy. Barr is an old hand at fixing investigations as attorney general. Either to make them go away or to create them. And both for political benefit. Despite IG Horowitz’s findings, this is not over. And it is not over because Attorney General Barr doesn’t want it to be over. And he will only want it to be over when he is able to arrange the conclusions in line with his preferences.

Open thread!

The DOJ Inspector General’s Report on the Origin of the DOJ’s & FBI’s Investigation of the President’s 2016 Campaign Has Been ReleasedPost + Comments (170)

Black PSYOP Part IV: Rudy Giuliani’s European OANN Adventure is the Black PSYOP’s Sixth Line of Operation

by Adam L Silverman|  December 4, 20196:53 pm| 126 Comments

This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Election Year, Foreign Affairs, Information Warfare, Open Threads, Politics, Russia, Silverman on Security, War

 

Black PSYOP IV: Rudy Giuliani's European OANN Adventure 1*

Ken Vogel at The New York Times has reported that Rudy Giuliani, the President’s personal attorney, is in Kyiv via Budapest. Vogel’s reporting clarifies Giuliani’s tweet from yesterday about a collaboration he is working on with One America News Network (OANN), which is a niche, far right news outlet.

Working on an important project with @OANN, intended to bring before the American people information Schiff (recently disclosed investor in Franklin Templton) “Star chamber” proceedings have covered up. Stay tuned.

— Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) December 3, 2019

From The New York Times:

Even as Democrats intensified their scrutiny this week of Rudolph W. Giuliani’s role in the pressure campaign against the Ukrainian government that is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry, Mr. Giuliani has been in Europe continuing his efforts to shift the focus to purported wrongdoing by President Trump’s political rivals.

Mr. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, met in Budapest on Tuesday with a former Ukrainian prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko, who has become a key figure in the impeachment inquiry. He then traveled to Kyiv on Wednesday seeking to meet with other former Ukrainian prosecutors whose claims have been embraced by Republicans, including Viktor Shokin and Kostiantyn H. Kulyk, according to people familiar with the effort.

The former prosecutors, who have faced allegations of corruption, all played some role in promoting claims about former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a former United States ambassador to Ukraine and Ukrainians who disseminated damaging information about Mr. Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, in 2016.

Mr. Giuliani is using the trip, which has not been previously reported, to help prepare more episodes of a documentary series for a conservative television outlet promoting his pro-Trump, anti-impeachment narrative. His latest moves to advance the theories propounded by the prosecutors amount to an audacious effort to give the president’s supporters new material to undercut the House impeachment proceedings and an eventual Senate trial.

The European trip was organized around the filming of a multipart television series featuring Mr. Giuliani that is being produced and aired by a conservative cable channel, One America News, or OAN.

OANN has very little actual platform presence. It is not carried by most of the major cable providers and Nielsen doesn’t provide ratings for it. But that’s not the point of making and airing this documentary. The actual purpose of the documentary is to get it made so that it can be aired, in its entirety or in snippets, on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. This is the sixth line of operation in the domestic Black PSYOP to launder misinformation, disinformation, and agitprop about what actually happened with Russia’s act of war against the US by interfering in the 2016 presidential election in order to blame Ukraine for conspiring with Secretary Clinton, her campaign, as well as the Director of the FBI, the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of Central Intelligence, the Democratic National Committee, Vice President Biden, the mainstream media, and Alexandria Chalupa to steal the election from the President and to frame Russia for doing so. This is, of course, a lie. It is factually inaccurate. And it has been debunked repeatedly.

43% of Americans get their news from Facebook, 21% from YouTube, and 12% from Twitter. And 61% of those who get their news from Facebook are women and 62% of those who get their news from Facebook are white. That’s the primary target for the Black PSYOP’s sixth line of operation. The secondary targets are everyone they share it with and everyone who sees it once it is picked up and covered by mainstream news media outlets. Once OANN makes and broadcasts the video, the video in its entirety, as well as the soundbites edited for the most informational influence and effect, will be weaponized through Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter to promote this misinformation, disinformation, and agitprop.

The real problem in trying to deal with this evolving Black PSYOP is that everyone keeps responding as if Walter Cronkite was still anchoring the nightly news. So the Black PSYOP is being conducted without actually discussing and understanding  how information, especially news as a type of information, is experienced by Americans in 2019 as opposed to 1974! The news media, the candidates, and their campaigns need to get their heads around this reality. And they need to come up with strategies for dealing with it, as well as with the Black PSYOP campaign and its various lines of operations that are exploiting it so that Americans aren’t so misinformed that they cannot determine what is and is not true, factual, and real.

Open thread!

* I have chosen this image because it is an inversion of the actual Psychological Operations Regimental Crest – the knight is facing the wrong way and the colors are black. I have done so to symbolize the inversion and misuse of psychological operations against Americans. Propagandizing American citizens by members of the government is illegal under The 1991 Intelligence Authorization Act.

The actual crest for the US Army Psychological Operations Regiment is a golden knight rampant to dexter (in profile and facing left) with two golden thunderbolt bladed swords crossed behind it surrounded by a laurel wreath. The motto is “Persuade, Change, Influence”. The crest is described as:

The laurel wreath symbolizes honor and achievement. The center device is adapted from the Psychological Operations collar insignia. The chess knight represents the ability to act obliquely and influence all types of warfare. The lightning bolt swords denote speed and the ability to strike anywhere. The silver gray, white and black represent the three types of Psychological Operations. White represents the overt processes, black is for the covert and gray for the hidden. The Insignia was authorized November 18, 1998.

Black PSYOP Part IV: Rudy Giuliani’s European OANN Adventure is the Black PSYOP’s Sixth Line of OperationPost + Comments (126)

Meanwhile in Ukraine

by Adam L Silverman|  December 3, 20199:41 pm| 68 Comments

This post is in: America, Election 2016, Election Year, Foreign Affairs, Military, Open Threads, Politics, Russia, Silverman on Security, War

While everyone is focused on all the President’s, his political appointees’, his personal attorney’s, and the variety of post-Soviet state oligarchs’/post-Soviet state mobsters’, and various other riffraffs’ ongoing attempts to screw around with and screw over Ukraine until President Zelensky announces an investigation into the Bidens, which he’s not going to do, and Guiliani and the various post-Soviet state oligarchs/post-Soviet state mobsters he’s working with to shake down the Ukrainian natural gas industry, life actually goes on in Ukraine. And that life is one where part of Ukraine has been scarfed up by Vladimir Putin and another part has been invaded by Putin. And, as a result, Ukraine is at war with Russia in order to preserve its territorial integrity.

As a result of all of this, President Zelensky has learned some hard lessons in his short time in office. His views below are just one of those lessons.

I don’t trust anyone at all. I’ll tell you honestly. Politics is not an exact science. That’s why in school I loved mathematics. Everything in mathematics was clear to me. You can solve an equation with a variable, with one variable. But here it’s only variables, including the politicians in our country. I don’t know these people. I can’t understand what dough they’re made of. That’s why I think nobody can have any trust. Everybody just has their interests.

He also knows that at least for right now, he’s largely on his own despite the US’s international agreement obligation to preserve Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

“If you’re our strategic partner, then you can’t go blocking anything for us,” he said. “I think that’s just about fairness. It’s not about a quid pro quo.”

Ukraine has just reached an unfortunate milestone, for lack of a better term.

Since the beginning of the fighting in the Donbass, human casualties from explosive objects amount to more than a thousand people. Mine killed 300 civilians, including 27 children. About it reports ArmyInform  with reference to management of ecological safety and mine action of the Ministry of Defense.

According to preliminary estimates, the area of ​​areas contaminated with mines and explosive objects is about 7 thousand square meters. km controlled areas and approximately 9 thousand square meters. km of occupied territories.

Infrastructures are in a critical condition because sometimes they cannot be accessed through shells and improvised explosives.

This is a humanitarian nightmare and is going to take decades to fix even if a ceasefire was put in place immediately and was quickly followed by the withdrawal of Russian and Russian proxy forces and the reestablishment of Ukrainian sovereignty over the occupied territories in Donbass.

This is the actual effects on the Ukrainian citizenry not only of the occupation and the war, but the mine fields:

Baba Masha’s neighbors say that because of the danger of entering the village of Opytne at night (it sits on Ukraine’s front line and is accessible only by a dirt road through a mined field) fire trucks were unable to respond. Her house is still smoldering as I type this.

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) December 1, 2019

Here’s more from Christopher Miller at Buzzfeed (emphasis mine):

When he’s not engaged in gun battles with Russian-led forces on Ukraine’s eastern front line, Stas, a scruffy 26-year-old soldier, likes to cozy up in his bunker and brush up on his English skills by watching Stephen Colbert and Saturday Night Live. He cracks up at Alec Baldwin’s portrayal of President Donald Trump.

Watching political satire on American TV — when he’s able to get a strong enough signal on the battlefield to access YouTube — is also how Stas learned that Trump had frozen $391 million in US security aid meant for the Ukrainian armed forces over the summer. The news made him angry. The fighting was hot at the time, and he and his fellow soldiers were stuck with mostly crappy, old gear.

“Look at this. It’s old and falling apart,” he complained of his Ukrainian government–issued bulletproof vest in accented English. It was barely stitched together and slouching on one side. “It’s a piece of shit.”

There’s one thing Stas and the soldiers in Ukraine’s 72nd Mechanized Brigade positioned in the village of Novooleksandrivka do have, which they say has helped them spot enemy soldiers who creep within grenade-throwing range of their trenches at night: a pair of US-made night vision sights.

The only problem? They don’t fit on the Ukrainian rifles.

He explained that “they would definitely be more effective if we had them on our rifles,” which is impossible without a special adapter. He demonstrated how he has to hold the sight in one hand, pick a target, lower the device from his eye, and try to remember where he was looking as he aims and fires his weapon. Despite all this, an extra pair or two would be good, he said.

He wondered: Would his brigade have gotten at least another sight if the security aid hadn’t been held up? If only Americans knew how much the equipment would help…

“Nobody in your country knows what’s happening here,” Stas continued, waving his arms in frustration. “They don’t know how we are fighting for our lives with almost nothing.”

Fought for more than five years in trenches cut through some of Europe’s most fertile farmland, Russia’s war in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas has killed around 14,000 people and brought under its control a chunk of a territory larger than the state of New Jersey. Yet — despite it being fought with $1.6 billion of US help in the form of military aid and training since 2014 — the war had largely been forgotten before it was catapulted into the headlines amid the House impeachment inquiry against Trump.
“While they were playing with our aid, I wonder, did they know we were dying out here?” asked Oleksandr, a sergeant in the 14th Mechanized Brigade who goes by the call sign “kuvyrok,” or “somersault.” As we crept through trenches outside the village of Krymske, 40 miles northwest of Stas’s position, careful to keep our heads down and out of Russian snipers’ sights, Oleksandr said at least two soldiers were killed at the position over the summer.

According to statistics from the Ukrainian military, at least 46 soldiers have been killed since July 18, when word spread throughout the Trump administration that the president had secretly frozen aid for Ukraine. Around 19 of those deaths came during the window of time in which the aid was delayed. While there’s no way of tying those deaths directly to the lack of new US aid at the front line, more than two dozen Ukrainian soldiers — located at four fighting positions, a tank base, and a military hospital — told me they were disappointed by the news. Their morale suffered, and they felt vulnerable and abandoned by their biggest supporter.

The soldiers, whom I met over the course of a week this month while traveling along the snaking 250-mile front line in eastern Ukraine, painted a clear picture of just how important US military assistance is for Ukraine in its war against Russia. The soldiers spoke on the condition that their surnames not be used for security reasons. In what many described as a David-and-Goliath-like fight, they shared several stories about how the US aid has helped level the battlefield and stop the larger and more powerful Russia from grabbing more of their land.

They also said that any aid freeze — even a temporary one — jeopardizes not only themselves but perhaps the very future of Ukraine.

There is much more at the link.

14,000 Ukrainians – Soldier and civilian alike – have been killed in Ukraine’s attempt to resist Russia’s incursion into Donbass. And to establish enough of a position of strength so that Ukrainian officials can negotiate a ceasefire and peace agreement that maintains Ukraine’s territorial integrity and gets Crimea back as well. That isn’t going to happen without the US backing it up. Which means it isn’t going to happen until, at least, January 2021 and despite the US’s international obligations to preserve Ukraine’s territorial integrity. What the US would need to do today is much harder than it would have been in 2014 and in 2021 any response will be that much harder than it would be today. And throughout it all Ukrainians are dying – Soldiers and civilians – because Putin has decided that he gets to draw the borders of eastern Europe wherever he likes. And that cannot be allowed to stand. However, because Ukraine has now been turned into another partisan issue, just as trade, Israel, healthcare, education, climate change, and so many other issues, as long as there is a Republican president and/or at least one chamber of Congress in Republican hands, stepping up and doing the right thing for Ukraine, as well as for the rest of our European and NATO partners is going to be a very heavy lift. Because it is going to be a partisan lift.

When you see the domestic news reporting on Ukraine, where Ukraine is simply a sort of funny sounding part of the horserace coverage of domestic American politics, keep in mind that the real focus here should be Ukraine; should be on the fact that Ukraine has been invaded and been occupied for going on five years; should be on the fact that the US has an actual international obligation to safeguard Ukraine’s territorial integrity; and that it isn’t just another partisan football so the talking heads on the news shows have something to stroke their chins about.

Open thread!

Meanwhile in UkrainePost + Comments (68)

House Intelligence Impeachment report is out

by David Anderson|  December 3, 20192:17 pm| 93 Comments

This post is in: Impeachment Inquiry, Russia, Lock Him Up...Lock Them All Up

The House Intelligence Committee impeachment report just dropped with 300 pages of details:

 

The impeachment inquiry into Donald J. Trump, the 45th President of the United States, uncovered a months-long effort by President Trump to use the powers of his office to solicit foreign interference on his behalf in the 2020 election. As described in this executive summary and the report that follows, President Trump’s scheme subverted U.S. foreign policy toward Ukraine and undermined our national security in favor of two politically motivated investigations that would help his presidential reelection campaign. The President demanded that the newly elected Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, publicly announce investigations into a political rival that he apparently feared the most, former Vice President Joe Biden, and into a discredited theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 presidential election. To compel the Ukrainian President to do his political bidding, President Trump conditioned two official acts on the public announcement of the investigations: a coveted White House visit and critical U.S. military assistance Ukraine needed to fight its Russian adversary.

 

That is the language of bribery.

 

House Impeachment report is out

House Intelligence Impeachment report is outPost + Comments (93)

Black PSYOP Part III: The Fifth Domestic Line of Operation is Now Operational

by Adam L Silverman|  December 1, 201910:13 pm| 94 Comments

This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Election Year, Foreign Affairs, Impeachment, Open Threads, Politics, Russia, Silverman on Security, War

On 25 October and 12 November I defined what a Black PSYOP is, how it differs from normal Psychological Operations, debunked the conspiracies, misinformation, and agitprop at the root of the Black PSYOP that the President and his surrogates are trying to perpetrate on the American people, and delineated the four lines of operations up to mid November. The President’s surrogates, specifically elected Republican officials like Senator Kennedy (R-LA), have now rolled out the fifth line of operation in this Black PSYOP.

This fifth line of operation is to launder the completely debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine, through its elected and appointed officials, interfered in the 2016 US presidential election in the attempt to get Secretary Clinton elected by conspiring with Secretary Clinton, her campaign, the Democratic National Committee, the Obama administration, the DOJ’s National Security Division, the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of Central Intelligence, the Director of the FBI, the Director of the FBI’s National Security Branch, Fusion GPS, Christopher Steele, MI6 and other elements of British Intelligence, other allied intelligence services, and Alexandra Chalupa to subvert the election and prevent the President from being elected. And that Russia had nothing to do with trying to subvert the 2016 presidential election. Or, if Russia did, it was ineffective and no one in the President’s campaign, his businesses, or among his surrogates and supporters was involved in whatever it was Russia might or might not have been doing in 2016.

We know that this conspiracy theory and misinformation is NOT TRUE! IT IS A LIE! A fabrication of Russia’s leadership and intelligence services put out in an attempt to muddy the waters around what happened in the 2016 presidential election, further obscure Russia’s actions in and against Ukraine, make Ukraine the villain to justify the actions in and against Ukraine that Russia is trying to obscure, all so that Russia can get out from under the US sanctions against it. We know it’s a lie because last month US intelligence officials briefed members of the Senate and told them it was a lie and delineated its origins. We know it’s a lie because we have a transcript, posted by the Kremlin on the Kremlin’s outward facing English language website, of Putin making these claims in February 2017:

Second, as we all know, during the presidential campaign in the United States, the Ukrainian government adopted a unilateral position in favour of one candidate. More than that, certain oligarchs, certainly with the approval of the political leadership, funded this candidate, or female candidate, to be more precise. Now they need to improve relations with the current administration, and using a conflict to do so is always a better, easier way to draw the incumbent administration into addressing Ukrainian problems and thus establish a dialogue.

We know it is a lie because of materials brought to light by Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation and the prosecutions that resulted from it, which clearly indicate that Paul Manafort was fed this information by his Russian handler, Konstantin Kilimnik, and was pushing it within the President’s campaign in 2016.

The fifth domestic line of operation of the Black PSYOP to remove the blame of interfering in the 2016 US presidential election from Russia and place it on Ukraine is to have presidential surrogates like Senator Kennedy (R-LA) go onto legitimate, mainstream news shows, such as the Sunday talk shows, and launder this misinformation and agitprop. The laundering of the information occurs once it’s been said on CNN, the three broadcast networks, and/or MSNBC. Then follow up reporting has been done on those networks about the claim, as well as in the major mainstream print and digital media. And even though this follow on reporting is all debunking, the misinformation and agitprop has been laundered through legitimate sources. Once that happens it is ready for weaponization on Facebook, Twitter, and the conservative digital and social media sites that Senator Kennedy and the other surrogates pushing the same conspiracy theory, misinformation, and agitprop were originally referencing as their sources. All that matters in this line of effort are the video clips of Senator Kennedy or other GOP elected and appointed officials above the CNN or MSNBC or broadcast network symbols looking into the camera and stating the agitprop. Once those exist they can and will be weaponized across social and digital media like Facebook and Twitter, as well as conservative social and digital media sites. And, of course, they’ll be picked up by Russia’s state media outlets like RT and Sputnik and spread to a whole different audience.

On average 2.3 million Americans watch the Sunday news talk shows on the three networks and Fox News Sunday. That’s not a lot. However, 43% of Americans get their news via Facebook. And among that 43%, 61% are women, and 62% are white. So if you can edit the footage of Senator Kennedy and other surrogates down to them just stating this conspiracy theory, misinformation, and agitprop on one of the Sunday news shows on NBC, ABC, CBS, and/or Fox News Sunday and put it out on Facebook, you’ve gone a long way to effectively weaponizing this misinformation and agitprop. From there it will get picked up and rebroadcast through a variety of different platforms and means. And, ultimately, the purpose isn’t to change anyone’s minds. It is to both reinforce the already held positions of the President’s supporters and to so confuse the actual, factual record of what happened in the 2016 presidential election that anyone who isn’t a political junkie or a committed political partisan just throws up their hands in disgust because it has been made impossible to tell the truth – that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to elect the President and ensure that Secretary Clinton would not and could not be elected – from the lie – that it was really Ukraine who interfered in the 2016 election by conspiring with Secretary Clinton and others to try to prevent the President from being elected. The point of this line of operation is to make it so that since nothing can be clearly demonstrated to be true, then anything and everything is possible.

It really doesn’t matter if Senator Kennedy (R-LA) believes the lies he’s peddling or if he knows that it is conspiracy theories, misinformation, and agitprop. I think he knows it is bullshit and the tell is his asserting that he never got the briefing that senior US intelligence officials provided to US senators last month. If he didn’t get the briefing then he really has no official information to rebut the less than reputable sources he’s citing. By being purposefully uninformed, by not taking the briefing, he’s able to say he doesn’t know which is true.

We have reached the point where elected US governmental officials are attempting to propagandize American citizens for partisan political purposes. It is illegal for government officials to propagandize Americans, though I highly doubt anything will be done and anyone will be held to account. But that is where we’re at. The real question has to be why Senator Kennedy has decided he needs to do this. Is it just fear of mean presidential tweet? Is it fear of being primaried or being voted out of office? Or is it fear of something else? Until or unless we get answers to those questions the only thing we can be certain of is that Senator Kennedy (R-LA) is promoting Russian misinformation and agitprop, which has been debunked by the US Intelligence Community.

We are off the looking glass and through the map!

Open thread.

Black PSYOP Part III: The Fifth Domestic Line of Operation is Now OperationalPost + Comments (94)

A Thanksgiving Story

by Cheryl Rofer|  November 28, 201910:42 am| 82 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Russia

Gorbachev offers a young girl a slice of pizza

You may be aware that Mikhail Gorbachev once did a Pizza Hut commercial. Here’s the whole story of how that came about.

Gorbachev is one of my heroes. He kept the breakup of the Soviet Union from becoming something much worse.

The decade described in that story is one of the best of my life. Being able to work with Estonians and Kazaks on some of the Soviet legacy was a great privilege.

The decade is being forgotten, though. We need to remember that we can all work together to make the world a better place.

Open thread!

A Thanksgiving StoryPost + Comments (82)

Russiagate Open Thread: Twelve Monkeys Spies

by Anne Laurie|  November 25, 201911:30 am| 111 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Impeachment Inquiry, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Russia, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?, Just Shut the Fuck Up, Our Failed Media Experiment

Twelve Russian military officers have been indicted for breaking into the Democratic Party's computers, stealing compromising information and selectively releasing it to undermine candidates https://t.co/I8toBG9Vcf

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) November 25, 2019

There was a lot of testimony during this past week’s impeachment inquiry about foreign interference in our 2016 election, including the president’s assertion that Ukraine was involved. But the president’s own intelligence agencies say it was the Russians who “hacked” the 2016 elections. Special counsel Robert Mueller spelled it out in his report.

Now the Justice Department has at least two open cases against Russian citizens for interfering with our presidential and congressional races, we decided to take a closer look at one of them – the case against 12 Russian military officers accused of breaking into the Democratic Party’s computers, stealing compromising information, and selectively releasing it to undermine Democratic candidates. There’s no evidence of similar operations against Republicans in 2016. With the 2020 election approaching, the story of “The Russian Hack.”

Robert Anderson: The Russians never left. I can guarantee you in 2016 after this all hit the news, they never left. They didn’t stop doing what they’re doing.

Bill Whitaker: This wasn’t just a one-time thing?

Robert Anderson: No way. Russia doesn’t do it that way.

Robert Anderson should know. He spent 21 years inside the cloak and dagger world of spies and hackers overseeing the FBI’s counterintelligence and cyber Divisions and tracking Moscow’s spy agencies, an alphabet of artifice, the FSB, SVR, and, especially, the GRU.

Robert Anderson: The GRU is military intelligence. So when we look at the attacks that happened during our presidential races in 2016 you had military organizations inside of Russia attacking our infrastructure…

These are the hacker-soldiers from GRU unit 26165 who, according to the Justice Department, were responsible for “breaking and entering” into the Democratic Party’s computers remotely, from Moscow. Their names, ranks and faces are now on the FBI’s most wanted list for stealing, among other things, the Democrats’ strategic plans, detailed targeting data, and internal polling. GRU Colonel Aleksandr Osadchuk commanded a separate unit, 74455. One of his officers was in charge of spreading the stolen material to political operatives, bloggers and the media. Another hacked state election boards.

show full post on front page

Bill Whitaker: It wasn’t some 400-pound guy in his parent’s basement?

Robert Anderson: No. This was a well-choreographed military operation with units that not only were set up specifically to hack in to obtain information, but other units that were used for psychological warfare were weaponizing that. This is not an operation that was just put together haphazardly…

Bill Whitaker: Do you ever expect to get the 12 Russian officials to trial?

John Demers: I would be surprised. But the purpose of the indictment isn’t just that, although that’s certainly one of the purposes. The purpose of this kind of indictment is even to educate the public.

For a legal document, the 29-page indictment is a page-turner. It details how U.S. intelligence agencies tracked each defendant’s actions, sometimes by the keystroke, revealing the fictitious names and phony emails used to infiltrate the Democrats’ computers, and tracing the stolen data on its circuitous route from Washington, D.C. to Moscow…

Much more, including video clips, at the link.

Trump's obsession with the Crowdstrike fever dream has the effect of directly undercutting the open federal case, brought by Trump's own justice department, against these 12 Russian spies, all of whom are considered fugitives. https://t.co/d3ofdkiRAB

— Zeddy (@Zeddary) November 25, 2019

Journalist defends reporting that used Russian-hacked documents https://t.co/Rng7cnxZFj

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) November 25, 2019


Star turn for Politico comer!

Marc Caputo: This is a state where elections are decided by a percentage point or so. A coin toss. Add the Russians onto that and you’re looking at a real problem.

Marc Caputo has covered Florida politics for 20 years. The senior writer for Politico was one of the reporters who received and wrote about the hacked documents.

Bill Whitaker: Not a lot of people know that the Russians interfered in five congressional races here in Florida. When did you first get wind of it?

Marc Caputo: Well, I’d been paying attention, like the rest of the press corps, that Russia had been hacking and Russia had been trying to interfere in our election system. And then out of the blue I got contacted by this blogger, Hello Florida…

Bill Whitaker: You played a role in disseminating this stolen information.

Marc Caputo: I have a role to play as a reporter covering campaigns. And sometimes that information comes to us from a variety of sources. And in this case, it came to us from a source right at the edge of being unusable. But ultimately we decided, “Well, this tells a legitimate story about how these campaigns view their own candidates.” And voters have a right to that information.

Robert Anderson: This operation was a huge success…

Reporters ask their subjects to own their mistakes all the timeI’m glad they hold the powerful accountable for their errors.But there probably would be a lot less cynicism towards the press in our country if they, as a group and individuals, turned their scrutinizing gaze inward https://t.co/p69CFAsaDE

— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) November 25, 2019

Russiagate Open Thread: Twelve <del>Monkeys</del> SpiesPost + Comments (111)

Trump Crime Cartel Open Thread: I Learn Something New Every Day

by Anne Laurie|  November 23, 20194:55 pm| 208 Comments

This post is in: Impeachment Inquiry, Repubs in Disarray!, Russia, Trump Crime Cartel, Assholes, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

Sir, this is a Теремок. https://t.co/dkuLBCc5W4

— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) November 23, 2019

Never even heard of the Teremok chain, and now I wanna visit one…

Elsewhere, per the Hill:

President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani remarked Saturday that he has “insurance” if the president tries to turn on him while defending their relationship amid the ongoing House impeachment inquiry.

Giuliani in a wide-ranging interview on Fox News declined to say if he has spoken with Trump in recent days, saying, “You can assume that I talk to him early and often.”

He then touted what he called a “very, very good relationship” with Trump before knocking unspecified comments about him in the press, calling them “totally insulting.”

“I’ve seen things written like he’s going to throw me under the bus. When they say that, I say he isn’t, but I have insurance,” Giuliani told Fox News’s Ed Henry…

Trump on Friday defended his use of Giuliani despite scrutiny over his actions in Ukraine, calling the former New York City mayor “an iconic figure in this country” and “the greatest crime fighter probably in the last 50 years” based on his time as a federal prosecutor.

“He’s also a friend of mine. He’s a great person,” Trump added during an interview Friday on “Fox & Friends,” portraying the lawyer as focused on tackling corruption.

Pitch for the kind of “reality tv show” Trump so loves: Two former goodfellas share a cell! Wacky antics and non-stop backbiting! Which one will snap first?

Back in the USSR. pic.twitter.com/H47lEdWNjO

— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) November 23, 2019

Trump Crime Cartel Open Thread: I Learn Something New Every DayPost + Comments (208)

Russiagate Open Thread: Nothing Says ‘Holiday Cheer’ Like Setting Up An Extortion Scheme

by Anne Laurie|  November 17, 201911:32 am| 65 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Foreign Affairs, Impeachment Inquiry, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Russia, Trump Crime Cartel

The scandal burned far longer than eight days and nights.

A miracle. https://t.co/CxqSbhATWF

— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) November 16, 2019

… At least, if you’re a member of the Trump Crime Cartel:

Among the many guests who had their pictures taken with President Donald Trump at the White House’s annual Hanukkah party last year were two Soviet-born businessmen from Florida, Lev Parnas and Igor  Fruman. 
In the picture, which Parnas posted on social media, he and Fruman are seen smiling alongside Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Rudy Giuliani, the President’s personal lawyer.
At one point during the party that night, Parnas and Fruman slipped out of a large reception room packed with hundreds of Trump donors to have a private meeting with the President and Giuliani, according to two acquaintances in whom Parnas confided right after the meeting…
Eventually, according to what Parnas told his confidants, the topic turned to Ukraine that night. According to those two confidants, Parnas said that “the big guy,” as he sometimes referred to the President in conversation, talked about tasking him and Fruman with what Parnas described as “a secret mission” to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter…
To Parnas, the chain of command was clear: Giuliani would issue the President’s directives while Parnas, who speaks fluent Russian, would be an on-the-ground investigator alongside Fruman, who has numerous business contacts in Ukraine.
“Parnas viewed the assignment as a great crusade,” says one of the people in whom Parnas confided. “He believed he was doing the right thing for Trump.”
The White House did not respond to repeated requests for comment to a series of questions regarding the meeting and Trump’s relationship with Parnas and Fruman…

show full post on front page

Ken McCallion, a former federal prosecutor with numerous high-level clients in Ukraine, including former and current government officials, told CNN that he’s heard a similar story about the Hanukkah party encounter. Parnas told some of McCallion’s clients and contacts in Ukraine about the encounter. “Parnas told everyone in Ukraine about the White House meeting. He was adamant he was ‘their guy’ — that they chose him to be their ambassador in Ukraine,” McCallion said.
And in February this year, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Parnas and Fruman met with the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and then Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko. During that meeting, they extended Poroshenko an invitation for a State dinner at the White House, if he would commit to publicly opening investigations in Ukraine.
The December meeting at the White House is not the first report of Parnas and the President discussing Ukraine. The Washington Post has reported that in April 2018 at a small fundraising dinner in a suite at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, Parnas told Trump that the US ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, was unfriendly to him and his interests. Trump, according to the Post report, which cited people familiar with Parnas’ account of the event, suggested that Yovanovitch should be fired.
A year later in May 2019, Yovanovitch was recalled from her post…

Sending underlings to do crimes is routine dishonesty; what makes it Trumpian is choosing Giuliani, Parnas, and Fruman as the bagmen.

— SecretMissionHat (@Popehat) November 16, 2019


Of course, because this is Donald Trump, he’s insisting he doesn’t even remember shaking this Parnasassanian dude’s hand, whoever the guy thinks he is — one of errand boy Giuliani’s skeevy little chums, perhaps. With equally predictable blowback (from Parnas, if not yet Rudy):

… However he felt back then, those two sources say Parnas now feels quite differently about Trump. The day after Parnas and Fruman were arrested on October 9 and charged with criminal campaign finance violations, Trump publicly denied ever knowing them, a move that was enormously upsetting to Parnas, according to three sources close to him.
“I don’t know those gentlemen,” Trump told reporters from the South Lawn of the White House on October 10. “Maybe they were clients of Rudy. You’d have to ask Rudy, I just don’t know.” 
In the weeks since his arrest, Parnas has become disenchanted with Trump, these sources say. He’s even signaled that he’s willing to cooperate with the Congressional impeachment inquiry. Parnas’ lawyer Bondy said his client would comply with a Congressional subpoena for documents and testimony as part of the impeachment inquiry in a manner that would allow him to protect his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.
Prosecutors allege Parnas and Fruman illegally funded Republican politicians and campaigns with money from foreign nationals. Prosecutors also say the pair funneled $325,000 into Trump’s flagship super PAC, America First Action from an unknown source.
Both Parnas and Fruman have pleaded not guilty and are currently out on bail and on house arrest in Florida awaiting trial…
Last December, the day before the Hannukah meeting at the White House, Giuliani brought Parnas as his guest to the funeral of former president George H.W. Bush.
Now, Giuliani and Parnas snipe at each other through their lawyers…

How can the president be an anti-Semite if he was plotting an international criminal conspiracy at a Hanukkah party?! https://t.co/bMgKFNLIXP

— Daily Trix (@DailyTrix) November 16, 2019

Follow the money…

Pretty sure Trump’s Hanukkah mtg w Lev, Igor, & Rudy at the White House was a campaign finance violation.

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) November 16, 2019

Russiagate Open Thread: Nothing Says ‘Holiday Cheer’ Like Setting Up An Extortion SchemePost + Comments (65)

Late Night Schadenfreudelicious Open Thread: Stone Cold Guilty

by Anne Laurie|  November 16, 20192:45 am| 53 Comments

This post is in: Impeachment Inquiry, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Russia, Trump Crime Cartel, All Too Normal

HEY EVERYONE – NIXON’S FINALLY GOING TO PRISON!! #RogerStone pic.twitter.com/Ic2lidQJmc

— Sib Ventress (@cposnarky) November 15, 2019

A jury has now found Stone guilty of committing crimes to hide the Trump campaign's efforts to optimize the release of emails stolen by Russia.

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) November 15, 2019

The press treated him as a valued off the record source, thus tacitly protecting him from scrutiny for years

— J.D. Turner (@turndeaux) November 15, 2019

show full post on front page

Holy crap. @Popehat, @washingtonpost managed to not completely screw it up. pic.twitter.com/CCX0z0AO2Y

— Adot Crawley (@AdotCrawley) November 15, 2019

Remember when the Nixon Library had to publicly clarify that Stone had no role in the Nixon campaign, because they felt Stone could tarnish Nixon’s reputation.

— Every Chicken Sandwich Is A Policy Failure (@agraybee) November 15, 2019

The real point of the Yovanovitch hearing was underscored by the Stone conviction and Giuliani's pending charge: Trump is surrounded by crooks https://t.co/7JEweA1Lgj

— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) November 15, 2019

Bannon is really the only non-family member of the Trump Campaign's inner circle not in prison.

— Grudge of Whales (@grudging1) November 15, 2019

With the Stone trial over, time to declassify a big chunk of the Mueller report!

— Philip Bump (@pbump) November 15, 2019

 

Late Night Schadenfreudelicious Open Thread: Stone Cold GuiltyPost + Comments (53)

The Opening Statement of David Holmes, the Career Foreign Service Officer Assigned as the Political Officer at US Embassy Kyiv

by Adam L Silverman|  November 15, 20198:44 pm| 145 Comments

This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Election Year, Foreign Affairs, Impeachment, Open Threads, Politics, Russia, Silverman on Security

CNN’s Manu Raju obtained the opening statement of David Holmes in his deposition before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence this afternoon. He is the career foreign service officer assigned as the Political Officer at US Embassy Kyiv. He also read the statement on air. Holmes works for Ambassador Taylor, the Acting US Ambassador to Ukraine, who testified yesterday that Holmes and one of his other foreign service officers had overhead an unsecured phone call on 26 July between US Ambassador to the EU Sondland and the President at a restaurant in Ukraine. This call took place the day after the President’s call with President Zelensky of Ukraine where the President tried to extort him Zelensky into interfering in the 2020 election.

The call that Holmes overhead WAS NOT on speaker phone. Rather, the President was so loud that he could hear him through Ambassador Sondland’s ear piece. It is important to note here, that US government issued unclassified smartphones for official use have the bluetooth deactivated as it is considered insecure. If you’re issued a US government smartphone, you get a wired earpiece as part of the equipment package. We already know that the President was speaking on his own unsecured cell phone at the White House, but Raju’s reporting of Holmes’ opening statement seems to indicate that Sondland was also using his own personal cell phone to conduct official business. Or what he and the President considered official business, but is really a crime, as well as a High Crime and Misdemeanor. We now have an eyewitness (earwitness?) to these events, which won’t actually tamp down the President’s, his surrogates’, and his supporters’ complaints even though it should, because those complaints aren’t being made in good faith.

I obtained a copy of David Holmes' opening statement, saying that he heard Trump telling Gordon Sondland: "So, he's gonna do the investigation?" Sondland tells Trump: "He's gonna do it" and that Zelensky will do "anything you ask for." pic.twitter.com/24RgVCvzoy

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 15, 2019

His “phone was not on speakerphone, I could hear the President’s voice through the earpiece of the phone. The President’s voice was very loud and recognizable, and Ambassador Sondland held the phone away from his ear for a period of time, presumably because of the loud volume.”

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 15, 2019

Here’s the 10-page statement: https://t.co/HnkBJB821s

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 15, 2019

Bolton indicated at the meeting that the lifting of the aid would hang on whether Zelensky was able to "favorably impress" Trump, when they were scheduled to meet in Warsaw in September. https://t.co/cQ0E9L8Qtx

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 16, 2019

I’m uploading a copy of Holmes’ opening statement here.

Holmes_Opening Statement

Mr. Holmes deposition is not particularly good for either the President or Ambassador Sondland who, it appears, will likely need to revise his testimony again.

According to David Holmes’s opening statement obtained by @mkraju and @jeremyherb, Holmes could hear Sondland tell Trump on the phone that President Zelensky “loves your ass.”

Trump responded “So, he’s gonna do the investigation?”

“Sondland; “He’s gonna do it."

— Mike Warren (@MichaelRWarren) November 15, 2019

It is now corroborated and very bad for the president https://t.co/x1TpBlHGZL

— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) November 15, 2019

A source familiar with WH discussions said aides to the president are not happy that Sondland apparently shared his call with Trump with others: “the president speaks loudly. Sondland should know that.”

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 16, 2019

Mr. Holmes is now scheduled to testify in open session next week. Tomorrow, Mark Sandy a senior career official at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will be deposed by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence ahead of what will surely be scheduled public testimony next week. Mr. Sandy was directly involved in the criminal orders that Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney gave that forced OMB to hold up the congressionally appropriated and mandated aid to Ukraine.

Read more: A top official at the Office of Management and Budget indicated he is willing to testify in the House impeachment inquiry, his attorney said. https://t.co/84WLRDMCeA

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) November 15, 2019

There is a second foreign service officer assigned to Embassy Kyiv, Suriya Jayanti, who overhead the unsecured phone call between Ambassador Sondland and the President on 26 July 2019. I haven’t seen any reporting yet as to whether she will be deposed by HPSCI.

The President’s very bad week is about to become an even worse weekend. Information from tomorrow’s depositions, for instance Mr. Sandy’s opening statement, will be released and picked over just in time for the Sunday news shows. The worst thing that could happen to the President has happened: he has lost control of the news cycle. He is unable, at least for now, to program it. And it is going to freak him out, enrage him, and drive him to commit even more self-destructive acts.

We should all hope that these self-destructive acts are limited to the political and the personal. It is going to be a long, bumpy weekend. So strap in, stay frosty, and keep your heads on a swivel!

We are off the looking glass and through the map!

Open thread.

 

The Opening Statement of David Holmes, the Career Foreign Service Officer Assigned as the Political Officer at US Embassy KyivPost + Comments (145)

The other obstruction and witness intimidation case tied to Russia and Ukraine

by David Anderson|  November 15, 201912:16 pm| 75 Comments

This post is in: An Unexamined Scandal, Election 2016, Goddamned Traitors, Grifters Gonna Grift, Mueller Report, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Russia, Trump Crime Cartel, Trump-Russia

Just another day when a president's oldest political adviser is convicted on 7 criminal counts including lying to Congress and witness tampering during a break in an impeachment hearing in which the president's tweets from the morning are described as intimidating by the witness.

— Philip Bump (@pbump) November 15, 2019

Roger Stone was convicted on all counts of obstruction, false statements and witness intimidation.

Open Thread

UPDATE 1

1) Trump on his way to impeachment

2) His longtime political adviser convicted on 7 counts

3) His personal lawyer under investigation for ties to 2 indicted associates

All happening around the noon hour on a Friday.

— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) November 15, 2019

At least this Friday has the courtesy of news-dumping during normal business hours.

The other obstruction and witness intimidation case tied to Russia and UkrainePost + Comments (75)

House Impeachment Hearings Day 2, Part 2: Ambassador Yovanovitch Testimony Continues

by Adam L Silverman|  November 15, 201911:09 am| 209 Comments

This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Election Year, Foreign Affairs, Impeachment, Open Threads, Politics, Russia, Silverman on Security

Here’s a nice, clean new post for when the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence comes back in to session after the scheduled morning votes in the House to resume hearing the testimony of Ambassador Yovanovitch.

Here’s the live feed:

House Impeachment Hearings Day 2, Part 2: Ambassador Yovanovitch Testimony ContinuesPost + Comments (209)

House Impeachment Hearings Day 2: Ambassador Yovanovitch

by Adam L Silverman|  November 15, 20198:50 am| 191 Comments

This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Election Year, Foreign Affairs, Impeachment, Information Warfare, Open Threads, Politics, Russia, Silverman on Security

The second day of the House impeachment hearings is scheduled to get started at 9:00 AM EST. Expect more of what we observed on Wednesday. The Democrats on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence focused on fact finding through Ambassador Yovanovitch’s testimony while the Republicans attempt to use the hearing as an information laundry to promote the conspiracy theories and agitprop that they want people to believe exonerates the President.

Update at 9:10 AM EST

News broke late last night that one of the senior career civil servants at the Office of Management and Budget assigned to the White House with firsthand information of the illegal orders to hold up the congressionally mandated and appropriated aid for Ukraine will give a closed door deposition if subpoenaed. We now know the officials name, that he has been subpoenaed, and that he’ll likely sit for that deposition tomorrow.

Mark Sandy, a senior White House budget official, is prepared to testify Saturday to House impeachment investigators about the halt in Ukrainian aid moneyhttps://t.co/dzwopQIOxM

— POLITICO (@politico) November 15, 2019

The President is going to have a very, very, very, very bad weekend. As is Mick Mulvaney. And several others.

Here’s the live feed:

Open thread!

House Impeachment Hearings Day 2: Ambassador YovanovitchPost + Comments (191)

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omfg the Watchmen was already amazing and now Jean Smart’s character and performance is taking it to the next level

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I dunno but I bet they love the White Album

I dunno but I bet they love the White Album
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What’s the name of this band?

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Johngcole avatarJohn Cole@Johngcole·
3h 1205284651310473218

#BeBest

Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump

So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill! https://twitter.com/RealRomaDowney/status/1204822160470093824

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Johngcole avatarJohn Cole@Johngcole·
3h 1205283390511026177

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Johngcole avatarJohn Cole@Johngcole·
3h 1205281775490084864

can't think of a more perfect name for a company run by Rudy Giuliani than Fraud Guarantee

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Johngcole avatarJohn Cole@Johngcole·
4h 1205266381228392448

New Post added at Balloon Juice - Timely Content Open Thread: The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson -

Balloon Juice | Timely Content Open Thread: The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

Everyone's talking about impeachment and Clinton & Johnson as the only presidents ever impeached. But most people don't know WHY Johnson was impeached...

www.balloon-juice.com

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Johngcole avatarJohn Cole@Johngcole·
5h 1205253091207065600

New Post added at Balloon Juice - Crushed -

Balloon Juice | Crushed

The UK exit polls show a major win for the Tories – up 51 seats, while Labour is down 71 seats. The history of the poll is that it can be wrong, but...

www.balloon-juice.com

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