Pooty Is Not Our Friend

[Cheerful Charlie]

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/tr...ell-nyt-report-on-russian-assassination-unit/

...
“American intelligence officials have concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan — including targeting American troops — amid the peace talks to end the long-running war there,” the newspaper reported,” the newspaper reported.

​

“The intelligence finding was briefed to President Trump, and the White House’s National Security Council discussed the problem at an interagency meeting in late March, the officials said. Officials developed a menu of potential options — starting with making a diplomatic complaint to Moscow and a demand that it stop, along with an escalating series of sanctions and other possible responses, but the White House has yet to authorize any step, the officials said,” the newspaper explained. “Any involvement with the Taliban that resulted in the deaths of American troops would also be a huge escalation of Russia’s so-called hybrid war against the United States, a strategy of destabilizing adversaries through a combination of such tactics as cyberattacks, the spread of fake news and covert and deniable military operations.”
....

Here we have Pooty's Russia offering the Taliban bounties on American soldiers. And Trump knew this and did nothing. Sat there with his thumb up his fat ass. This may b the "October Surprise" come early for Trump. I am quite sure this will not be greeted with approval from American military service men and women, or American veterans. And where were the U.S. Senators and Congressmen? Were they informed of this, or not? And if not, why not? And if so, why no action? And we will see if Pelosi demands immediate hearings, or decides not to bother us with any of that.

Will this grotesque scandal finally put the final nail in Trump's re-election effort? Will this just be another scandal to flap over for awhile and then forget as usual? This is an opposition researcher's dream.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/tr...ffered-bounties-for-killing-us-troops-report/

....
“The United States concluded months ago that the Russian unit, which has been linked to assassination attempts and other covert operations in Europe intended to destabilize the West or take revenge on turncoats, had covertly offered rewards for successful attacks last year,” The Times explained. “Islamist militants, or armed criminal elements closely associated with them, are believed to have collected some bounty money, the officials said. Twenty Americans were killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2019, but it was not clear which killings were under suspicion.”
...
Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, said the United States had not raised the issue.
“If someone makes them, we’ll respond,” Peskov said of the accusation.
...
“The officials familiar with the intelligence did not explain the White House delay in deciding how to respond to the intelligence about Russia,” the newspaper reported. “They said the intelligence has been treated as a closely held secret, but the administration expanded briefings about it this week — including sharing information about it with the British government, whose forces are among those said to have been targeted.”
...

A "closely guarded secret"? Secret from the U.S. Congress maybe? What other noxious "closely guarded secrets" are there out there?

 

[SLD]

Jesus fucking Christ! It’s not Putin, it’s fucking Trump! He has refused to take any action. If this isn’t proof that Trump is a Russian agent. It just is! Fuck Trump. He has to be compromised, most likely in a honey pot scheme decades ago when he first went to Moscow. Ever since then, he’s given them good deals, he’s given them everything they wanted in his admin. This is insanity. Trump is not our friend. He’s gotta fucking go.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

In before the dismissiveness of conservatives who are a-okay with betraying the country:

 

[barbos]

There is absolutely no reason to believe US, Russian or any other intelligence when it comes to that kind of stuff.
Russian intelligence is saying the same thing about US in Syria where they are/were supporting ISIS. In fact russians even have actual proof of that.

I think it's a case of projecting. US intelligence are actually paying terrorists in Syria and think russians would do the same. Or worse some rabidly anti-trumpers in US intelligence circles decided to hurt Trump and outright fabricated that shit.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

There is absolutely no reason to believe US, Russian or any other intelligence when it comes to that kind of stuff.
Russian intelligence is saying the same thing about US in Syria where they are/were supporting ISIS. In fact russians even have actual proof of that.

I think it's a case of projecting. US intelligence are actually paying terrorists in Syria and think russians would do the same. Or worse some rabidly anti-trumpers in US intelligence circles decided to hurt Trump and outright fabricated that shit.

So you believe Putin over US intelligence.

Great. Your prerogative. You might even be a Russian spy or bot. That's cool. You do you.

As far as the President of the United States, he needs to take US intelligence seriously. If he doesn't agree with how it's run, he can fire the head and replace him with a different qualified person with the advice and consent of the Senate. Oh wait...that was already done.

So, he needs to take his qualified, competent intel people seriously.

Now after taking them seriously, he needs to do something rational in response in consideration of diplomatic relations with other countries.

Being a madman stable genius who can make the best deals in 3 months doesn't quite cut it. He needs to be rational, appropriate and act quickly.

 

[barbos]

There is absolutely no reason to believe US, Russian or any other intelligence when it comes to that kind of stuff.
Russian intelligence is saying the same thing about US in Syria where they are/were supporting ISIS. In fact russians even have actual proof of that.

I think it's a case of projecting. US intelligence are actually paying terrorists in Syria and think russians would do the same. Or worse some rabidly anti-trumpers in US intelligence circles decided to hurt Trump and outright fabricated that shit.

So you believe Putin over US intelligence.

I don't believe either. But Russian intelligence (Unlike US) does not have a history of such crap.
They prefer poison their own people here and there.

Great. Your prerogative. You might even be a Russian spy or bot. That's cool. You do you.

As far as the President of the United States, he needs to take US intelligence seriously.

You mean like WMD in Iraq? Iran-Contras? Sorry but US intelligence does not have stellar track record.

If he doesn't agree with how it's run, he can fire the head and replace him with a different qualified person with the advice and consent of the Senate. Oh wait...that was already done.

So, he needs to take his qualified, competent intel people seriously.

Well, I understand why he would not do that.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

I don't believe either. But Russian intelligence (Unlike US) does not have a history of such crap.
They prefer poison their own people here and there.

Great. Your prerogative. You might even be a Russian spy or bot. That's cool. You do you.

As far as the President of the United States, he needs to take US intelligence seriously.

You mean like WMD in Iraq? Iran-Contras? Sorry but US intelligence does not have stellar track record.

If he doesn't agree with how it's run, he can fire the head and replace him with a different qualified person with the advice and consent of the Senate. Oh wait...that was already done.

So, he needs to take his qualified, competent intel people seriously.

Well, I understand why he would not do that.

The two counterexamples you gave were not incompetence. They were deliberate conspiracies driven by the previous Presidents. US intel is competent, will tell the truth to the CiC.

 

[barbos]

I don't believe either. But Russian intelligence (Unlike US) does not have a history of such crap.
They prefer poison their own people here and there.

You mean like WMD in Iraq? Iran-Contras? Sorry but US intelligence does not have stellar track record.

Well, I understand why he would not do that.

The two counterexamples you gave were not incompetence.

They were deliberate conspiracies driven by the previous Presidents.

These presidents were not Trumps. So intelligence had to take initiative this time

US intel is competent, will tell the truth to the CiC.

Nobody disputes their competence, it's their agenda and truthfulness which is worrisome.

 

[SLD]

US intel did not predict Iraq WMDs. That was Bush administration ignoring US intel and manipulating data to fit their previously decided course of action. That was Cheney.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

The original story tells us that Trump was briefed on Russia's bounties on U.S. soldiers. Now the administration is claiming Trump was not briefed. Some body is lying. and since Trump is one of the biggest liars ever, I suspect we know that answer. We need immediate hearings to get to the truth of the matter.

 

[barbos]

US intel did not predict Iraq WMDs. That was Bush administration ignoring US intel and manipulating data to fit their previously decided course of action. That was Cheney.

US intel did receive info about Iraq WMD, they merely choose to be skeptical of it. I bet there are people in US intelligence who are skeptical of this latest BS.

 

[barbos]

The original story tells us that Trump was briefed on Russia's bounties on U.S. soldiers. Now the administration is claiming Trump was not briefed. Some body is lying. and since Trump is one of the biggest liars ever, I suspect we know that answer. We need immediate hearings to get to the truth of the matter.

Looks like WH/Trump was not lying.

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said in his own statement late Saturday that he had "confirmed that neither the President nor the Vice President were ever briefed on any intelligence alleged by the New York Times in its reporting yesterday."
He added: "The White House statement addressing this issue earlier today, which denied such a briefing occurred, was accurate. The New York Times reporting, and all other subsequent news reports about such an alleged briefing are inaccurate."

And the fact that Trump was not briefed suggests that "intelligence" did not think their "intelligence" was worth it.

 

[funinspace]

The original story tells us that Trump was briefed on Russia's bounties on U.S. soldiers. Now the administration is claiming Trump was not briefed. Some body is lying. and since Trump is one of the biggest liars ever, I suspect we know that answer. We need immediate hearings to get to the truth of the matter.

Looks like WH/Trump was not lying.

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said in his own statement late Saturday that he had "confirmed that neither the President nor the Vice President were ever briefed on any intelligence alleged by the New York Times in its reporting yesterday."
He added: "The White House statement addressing this issue earlier today, which denied such a briefing occurred, was accurate. The New York Times reporting, and all other subsequent news reports about such an alleged briefing are inaccurate."

And the fact that Trump was not briefed suggests that "intelligence" did not think their "intelligence" was worth it.

How does one know 'the fact that Trump'? As Clownstick and his team are willing to lie about pretty much anything... And Ratcliffe came into his position with a already known penchant for lying...

I'm not saying it happened, but simply it is hard to say. I am tired of Clownstick sucking on Putin's ass or something... Neither am I outraged if Russia did it. Hell the US gave the rebels/terrorists in Afghanistan stinger missiles 2 generations back, in a place that we don't belong either.

And US soldier deaths did increase in a little in 2019 (from 2016-18), and so far 2020 is looking to be about the same rate:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unite...r_in_Afghanistan#Casualties_by_month_and_year

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/in...-for-hushing-up-russian-military-bounty-plot/

...
In an extended rant on MSNBC’s “AM Joy” national security expert Malcolm Nance ripped into Donald Trump and his advisors over the report that Russia has been paying terrorists bounties for killing U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan, saying it is an affront to all who serve overseas.
Speaking with host Joy Reid, Nance was unsparing in his criticism of the president and his national security advisors.

​

“The statements by Kayleigh McEnany, the press secretary, [John] Ratcliffe, the DNI and now coming out of Donald Trump himself, I can tell you personally that these are lies,” Nance excitedly explained. “There is a special reporting communications system that we have set aside for very imminent, very critical threat intelligence when it is recognized and identified which gets these reports to the desk of the president or into the president’s hands 24/7, 365, in no more than ten minutes for the initial report.”

​

“I have actually generated reports like this,” he continued. “These reports are not normal.”

​

“They are dancing around the word ‘briefed,’ and we have lost 20 service members in Afghanistan — that’s five Benghazis according to the way they count,” he elaborated. “So what we need to do is we need to determine through other sources whether it’s the House or the Senate intelligence community to determine if this type of communication went through that network or whether this was, you know, some sort of reporting that came from another source and that was bought into the PDB [presidential daily briefing] or not.
....

Question #1. What the hell happened here?
Question #2. Were there other bad things trump needed to know that were never told to him?
Question #3. Was, and is there oversight to make sure things like this don't slip past the system? If not, why not?
Question #4. Has Trump followed up on this and warned Putin to look into this on his end, and stop such actions if they have been done?

 

[fromderinside]

We should be comparing apples with other fruit in Afghanistan rather than apples with rotten fruit ins Syria. let's be fair.

There is a whole movie about Charlie Wilson's war where Carter and Reagan spent much bribing Mujahadeen to make life difficult for occupying Russians after american efforts failed to prop up apologist regime there in the seventies. That support which lead to Russians abandoning Afghanistan probably brought about the collapse of USSR after failures kept building up in Russia.

Of course US domino approach to Communicam in late '50s reflects Russia's homeland threat approach leading to the Cold War in the 40s-50s to a Tee.

Look closely. You'll see evidence of US clumsy hand all over Russian policy toward 'merica.

In other words nah, nah, na na, nah!*

*^{_{nothing political new under the sun.}}

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/pe...-russias-assassination-bounty-wapos-ignatius/
....
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” longtime political columnist David Ignatius said that his own follow-up on the New York Times’ explosive report that Donald Trump’s administration was well aware that the Russians were offering a bounty for the death of U.S. military members revealed that Pentagon officials have “pounding on the door” and trying to get Donald Trump to do something about it.

Speaking with host Joe Scarborough, Ignatius said he was stunned by the report from the Times and started looking into the details himself for confirmation.

“Based on my reporting trying to confirm the New York Times’ excellent story it’s clear in late March you had senior U.S commanders, senior civilian intelligence officials, in effect pounding on the door of the White House saying we need to do something about this, we need to come to a conclusion about what damage the Russian program is doing, we need to reassess our programs in Afghanistan and they couldn’t get an answer,” he reported. “To this day there’s not an answer, there’s not a real response. Was this because the president was briefed and did nothing or because he wasn’t briefed because people were afraid to give him bad news and kept it to themselves? I don’t know.”
...

It makes no sense that Trump was not briefed. Or that he may have been briefed but as usual as it was with Trump, the briefing was short and he was not paying attention. if a lot of people were trying to get trump's attention, we need to know why that failed? Did Trump refuse to listen, or did somebody else act as door keeper and kept them away from Trump? Who and why?

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/to...chiefs-for-briefing-on-russia-bounty-reports/

...
US Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday called on the heads of the intelligence services to hold a briefing on reports that Russia paid bounties to Taliban-linked militias to kill US soldiers deployed in Afghanistan.
An explosive New York Times report, citing anonymous officials, said US President Donald Trump had been told about findings, which he has denied.
“The questions that arise are: was the president briefed, and if not, why not, and why was Congress not briefed,” said Pelosi in a letter to John Ratcliffe, the Director of National Intelligence, and CIA director Gina Haspel.

​

​

According to the report, confirmed by several American and British media outlets, US intelligence concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit offered rewards to Taliban-linked militants to kill troops of the US-led coalition in Afghanistan.

...

​

Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, asked them to hold an interagency briefing for all members of the House of Representatives on the reports and “President Trump’s inexplicable behavior towards Russia.”
“Congress and the country need answers now,” Pelosi said, adding that the briefing should also focus on “what options are available to hold Russia accountable.”

...

I am sure that the intelligence officials that were "pounding on the door" at the White House will be eager to tell their stories to Pelosi. It is going to be a hot old time in Washington for Trump and the GOP and White House officials. Number one detail to clear up. Was Trump briefed on this activity of Russia in Afghanistan, or not? Number two, who was "pounding on the door"? Why were they not listened to? Number three, why was Congress not informed of this claim? Who made that decision?

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/na...ence-as-trump-bans-dems-from-russia-briefing/

...
Legal and national security experts expressed concern and anger Monday afternoon as word spread the White House would be briefing Congress on bombshell reports Russia has been paying the Taliban to kill American soldiers – and that Democrats would be banned from that briefing.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said the White House never briefed the Gang of Eight, which could be a violation of the law.
Meanwhile, Politico’s congressional reporter Kyle Cheney said Trump’s decision to a GOP-only meeting was “briefing political allies first,” but others were less generous in their assessments.

Presumably the briefing will be conducted by the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe.
CNN National Security Analyst Sam Vinograd, a former Senior Advisor to the White House’s National Security Advisor under President Barack Obama called it “politicizing intelligence.”
...

And when we think it cannot get worse, it does. And all of this may well have been done in an illegal manner, an illegal cover up.
And one wonders, why those intelligence officials "pounding on the door" of the White House did not inform the intelligence oversight committees of House and Senate? Were they muzzled? Or just incompetent?

126 days to election day to go.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

And now, for yet another big question to ponder. What did Mike pence know about any of this and when did Pence know it? Or did Pence not know anything and why did Mike Pence know nothing about this?