Month: December 2019

An Exodus of Defense

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Why is the Pentagon Bleeding Top Officials?

On December 16, the Defense Department’s senior advisor for international cooperation in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, Ambassador Tina Kaidanow, announced her resignation from her position at the Pentagon. Ambassador Kaidanow, who assumed her current post in September of 2018, is a longtime State Department official, having served as the first U.S. ambassador to Kosovo, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, and as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. embassy in Kabul. She then became Coordinator for Counterterrorism, then moved to the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, serving as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary before moving to the Defense Department in 2018.

Kaidanow was the fifth Pentagon official to tender their resignation in the prior seven days, and the sixth in under a month. This lengthy list includes four positions that will require Senate confirmation, including Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs James Stewart, Assistant Secretary for Indo-Pacific Affairs Randy Schriver, and Principal Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Kari Bingen. The other resigning official who will not require Senate approval to replace is Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Steven Walker.

The six Pentagon officials who have resigned between 11/24/2019 – 12/16/2019

The four positions listed above requiring Senate approval are in addition to fourteen other vacant positions also requiring confirmation from the Senate. Meaning that Pentagon officials are leaving faster than the positions can be filled – an alarming trend that is leaving many questioning what exactly is going on within the Department of Defense.

Many former officials, who have been willing to speak to the media regarding their departures, seem to be pointing their fingers toward top Defense Department policy official John Rood, implying a very abrasive leadership methodology that has created an extremely toxic work environment. Rood’s reputation is also being blamed for the department’s inability to fill many of their vacant positions.

Fortunately for Rood, many former and current officials point their finger elsewhere: Straight toward the administration itself. Recruiting talent has been extremely challenging since the beginning of the Trump administration, partially because many national security experts signed “Never Trump” oaths, thus disqualifying them from taking any role within the administration, and even many who did not sign the now infamous letters refuse to work for the administration in any capacity.

Many also point their fingers toward the resignation of former Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who departed the administration after years of tension with President Trump and his cabinet – tensions that heavily increased after the unceremonious departure of former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who he felt was his only real ally within the administration. Since Mattis’ departure, he has been extremely critical of the administration, going as far to say that Trump was “of limited cognitive ability” and was a man of “very dubious character.”

General Mattis is incredibly respected among the military, among national security and defense experts professionals, and is also well respected among both Republicans and Democrats alike in Congress and the general public. Mattis, though critical of past administrations at times, has never been so vehemently opposed to a particular president or his cabinet. Mattis has objectively criticized, and objectively praised administrations going back to George H.W. Bush. This review of the administration coming from such a generally respected individual has been seen as an obvious reason for the department’s inability to fill these vacant slots.

Whether a toxic work environment is to blame, or a thin recruitment pool due to the reputation of the President and his administration, there are certainly problems within the Department of Defense, and clearly changes need to be made in order to attract the best talent for the positions available. Attracting the best possible and highest quality candidates clearly needs to be the top priority for the department responsible for the entirety of our national security infrastructure.

No War is Civil

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The NDAA and America’s Foreign Policy in Syria

I cannot deny having a personal bias for the people of Syria. I’ve seen the wreckage first hand in a way I wish I could explain further. I’m probably responsible for 60% of the views of HBO’s Cries from Syria since its release in 2017. I’ve played as large a part as possible in multiple charities trying desperately to help Syrian civilians, namely one whose aim is to build mobile hospitals in Syria’s most war-torn areas. I’ve sponsored a young girl there named Amira for seven years – a girl who I’ve watched grow into an incredibly strong young woman who I have no doubt will someday spread revolutionary ideals throughout her country – who thankfully has remained safe after all of these years of war and bloodshed in Syria. Amid all of this I knew to classify this as an opinion piece, because of my inability to remain unbiased on the subject.

Today, the U.S. Senate passed the NDAA, or National Defense Authorization Act, a yearly budget bill relating to national defense, the military, foreign aid, black budget money, intelligence, etc… This legislation was passed by the so-called “Do Nothing Democrats” last week, and is expected to receive the President’s signature within the week. This year’s NDAA contains a measure several years in the making: The Caesar Syrian Civilian Protection Act. A piece of legislation that provides for sanctions against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as well as members of his regime.

The bill’s history is an interesting one. The legislation shares its namesake with the pseudonym of a Syrian police officer who fled the country in 2016, smuggling with him a multitude of photographic evidence – some 50,000 images – of President Assad’s regime’s egregious and downright evil crimes against humanity. Spanning from torture to mass killing, the images are gruesome and not for the faint of heart, but many are available to the public. Caesar testified before Congress in disguise and presented the evidence he risked his own life, and the lives of his family, to smuggle out his homeland.

Congress, though slowly, began drafting a bill that became part of the NDAA. A provision that not only imposes sanctions and censures against President Assad and members of his regime, but also imposes consequences against foreign actors such as Iran and Russia, have had boots on the ground in Syria for almost a decade attempting to squash revolutionary uprisings against Assad. Doing so using not just guerrilla tactics, but going as far as to drop illegal dirty bombs on civilian centers such as Huraytan, a town northwest of Aleppo, where bombs were dropped on hospitals and schools.

Child pulled from the rubble of a school by civilian volunteer medical force known as The White Helmets after Russian airstrikes north of Aleppo.

According to the Wall Street Journal, “The measure establishes as U.S. policy the use of ‘diplomatic and coercive means…to compel the government of Bashar al-Assad to halt its murderous attacks on the Syrian people and to support a transition to a government in Syria that respects the rule of law, human rights and peaceful co-existence with its neighbors.'”

The bill also adds measures against civilian or non-governmental militias, such as Hezbollah, which has also come to the aid of Assad’s regime, and even targets financial centers. Administration officials are now investigating whether or not the Central Bank of Syria has been engaging in money laundering. If this is found to be true, which it likely is, the U.S. will impose penalties on the institution, though those penalties aren’t very well outlined in what is publicly available from bill at the moment.

The bill goes further in restricting the transfer of funds, technology, and property, and bans any and all violators from entry in the U.S. in the future.

The bill contains language that will allow President Trump, or future presidents to lift the sanctions in the future if Assad and his allies produce evidence that their human rights violations have come to an end. They will have to prove they are no longer targeting civilians, restricting international humanitarian assistance, and of course, they must prove they are no longer using chemical weapons on their own citizens, meaning both civilians and rebel army militants.

With this bill, the United States severely escalates sanctions, joining its Western allies in targeting Assad and his regime. The U.S. has had sanctions on Syria since 2005, and those sanctions increased drastically under President Barack Obama, namely after 2011, when what was a series of massive civilian protests turned into bloodshed and civil war. You can find a list of sanctions against Syria dating back to 2004 here from the U.S. Department of Treasury.

With such a history of sanctions, however, one must wonder just how effective they are. One must also wonder how you sanction a government, but not its civilians. Also, why the sudden change? This comes months after President Donald Trump ordered the removal of U.S. troops in Northern Syria, claiming the war against ISIL was over in the region. As if to say, “Thank you for your help, and now you’re on your own to fight your government, Islamist rebel groups, ISIL, oh, and Turkey.” As anyone familiar with the situation remembers, only three days later, Turkish air strikes began in the border towns of Turkey and Syria – towns the United States was helping to protect just days before. The air strikes resulted in the death of 70 Syrian citizens, and the displacement of over 300,000. During the military act, both Turkish forces and Turkish-allied Syrian forces were accused of committing atrocious war crimes, including summary killings and unlawful acts, including, but not limited to, public executions and even public rape.

According to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – who I’ve written about recently in timeline of the prosecution of Michael Flynn found here – was to expel Syrian Democratic Forces – a rebel army mostly made up of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) – who is viewed as a terrorist group by the Turkish government due to its ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party. The SDF is considered an ally of the United States and Western allies, though, namely in its war against ISIL, as the SDF has helped the United States in a monumental fashion in the removal of ISIL from the region.

The flag of the Syrian Democratic Forces. (Wikipedia Commons)

However, the problem with war is that it’s complicated. It’s unfortunately not just made up of good guys and bad guys like the comics. It’s not made up of clear cut good people, or clear cut evil people, or even demon with the heart of gold anti-heroes who don’t get along with the other good guys, but fight for what’s right in the end. War, just like life, is rarely black and white. By the previous couple of paragraphs, it would appear that there is a narrative to present the Turkish government as awful people, and their armies as the evil invading scourge that wants to watch the world burn. On the contrary.

The Turks were the first to condemn the actions of Bashar al-Assad, who cracked down on peaceful protests in 2011, which led to the exorbitant bloodshed and murder of unarmed Syrian citizens, and kicked off one of the longest civil wars in recent world history. Turkey went as far as to create safe zones for Syrian refugees fleeing the violence, and even backed and funded the Free Syrian Army, which was the first organized revolutionary group to stand up to Assad’s tyrannical regime.

Turkey is responsible for a lot of the military funding toward the revolutionary groups working against Assad. Yet, what is the Free Syrian Army today? It’s a group that is made up of primarily radicalized Islamists, probably partially because of their relationship with ISIL in their growing phase. Now they’re a group backed by the Turks, and are taking part in the public rape and murder of North-Eastern Syrians, who are merely fighting for statehood.

And what is the U.S. to say one way or the other? During the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, we trained soldiers to fight for their independence, and those soldiers went on to become Al Qeada. We fought with the best intentions against South American drug lords, but all we did was make a mess out of Central America by cutting off their Caribbean pipeline, splitting one cartel into seven. We made a mess out of Iraq and Afghanistan and ultimately created ISIL in the first place, while giving radical groups free-reign in Iraq after removing their strongest opposition. Maybe the same might be the case in Syria, creating another militant group aligned to a particular world religion, thus creating another Bosnia, where people of three separate religions are killing one another, but we think of creative names for them so that the general public doesn’t realize religion does nothing but create war.

I wish I had the answers. I hope against hope that what this year’s NDAA was meant to accomplish will make change. I hope every night for the citizens of Syria, trapped in a civil war that seems to be going in three directions between the government, the Islamist revolutionaries, and the Kurds. A civil war that is little more than a proxy battle between foreign governments inside of a country with convenient resources, or adjacent to said resources. Above any of this, I just hope that a young woman named Amira, who I love with all my heart, grows up and holds onto her idealism, and doesn’t allow herself to get swept into a war in one way, or the other, or the other. I hope she is on the cover of TIME someday, as she should be, for uniting Syria, and establishing a democratic state in the region, aligned with U.S. and other Western forces, and never wavers in the face of adversity, as she doesn’t now, even when asked why her grades are slipping amid bloodshed happening outside her front door. At the risk of this being another 20,000 word timeline, I’ll stop this here, but I hope you learned something about the black and white politics we’re presented in the United States every day, and I hope Amira is the next revolutionary that hipsters wear on T-shirts without ever actually knowing her politics or background, just like Ernesto Guevara.

For more information on Syria and what you can do to help trapped civilians there, please visit https://app.mobilecause.com/vf/Sami4syria or text Sami4Syria to 71777. These poor people are caught up in a near decades long civil war they had nothing to do with, and deserve our help, as the poorest among us are living better than any of them. Please consider my request. Even a dollar helps.

Thank you for reading, and I hope this wasn’t as much of a slog as my normal articles.

Michael Flynn’s Sentencing Date Set

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The Fourth Victim of the Mueller Investigation Will Be Sentenced in January

More than two years after former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn’s guilty plea, there is finally a date set for Flynn’s sentencing. On January 28, 2020, almost three years to the date after committing the crime for which he’s charged, Flynn will be sentenced. Flynn was charged with “willfully and knowingly [making] false, fictitious and fraudulent statements and representations” to the FBI regarding his conversations with Russian ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak in 2017.

The sentencing has been delayed due to Flynn’s defense lawyers claiming prosecutors violated a rule requiring them to disclose evidence to defendants that could exonerate him. Flynn repeatedly requested to compel prosecutors to turn over additional evidence that he claims would cause the charge against him to be dismissed. Judge Emmet Sullivan, the federal judge assigned to the trial, said on Monday that the defense team failed to establish a single violation by the prosecution.

Sullivan said in his ruling in the U.S. District Court in D.C., Flynn’s lawyers “failed to explain” how most of the information that had not already been turned over to them is relevant to the crime to which Flynn admitted under oath on December 1, 2017. Sullivan also noted he had ethical concerns with the legal brief submitted by Flynn’s defense team as part of the motions for evidence because it “lifted verbatim portions from a source without attribution.

Now that we finally have a sentencing date for Michael Flynn, he can finally put a bow on what has been a very long couple of years for Michael Flynn and his family. While much of the trouble started shortly after leaving the DIA and forming an independent lobby group, the real trouble began in December 2016.

December, 2016

Flynn became part of the federal investigation known as Crossfire Hurricane, which was later taken over by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, after the FBI intercepted communications between Flynn and then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The matter was immediately folded into the FBI’s probe into Russian election interference into the 2016 election. The reason the communication was significant is because it took place on the same day the Obama administration unveiled sanctions against Russia for election-related hacking.

The very next day, December 30, 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he wouldn’t retaliate against the United States for the sanctions, then boasted about inviting U.S. embassy children to a Christmas party. A move the was praised by then-president-elect Donald Trump over Twitter.

January, 2017

In January of 2017, Donald Trump made a statement to the media claiming that no member of his cabinet had any communication with Russia during the campaign. The very next day, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius first reported the story about Flynn’s communication with Kislyak, raising questions in the public about what was discussed during the conversation.

On January 13, future White House Press Secretary and White House Communications Director Sean Spicer was asked about the call. Spicer claimed there was no discussion about the sanctions during the call to Ambassador Kislyak, and that the point of the call was to schedule a post-inauguration meeting between Trump and Putin.

On January 15, Mike Pence said on Face the Nation, “It was strictly coincidental that they had a conversation. They did not discuss anything having to do with the United States’ decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia.”

On January 21, Flynn was first questioned by the FBI about his call to Kislyak as part of the larger Russia probe, where Flynn denied the subject of the phone call being related to sanctions. Only days later, Sean Spicer was questioned again about Flynn’s call to the ambassador, where he said Flynn reassured him the previous night that the subject of the phone call had nothing to do with sanctions. The only subjects of the call included a plane crash over the weekend, the exchanging of holiday greetings, a possible conference in Syria, and, again, setting up a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.

On January 26, 2017, then-acting Attorney General Sally Yates informed White House Counsel Don McGahn of everything she knew about the call, and said she felt Flynn was “essentially blackmailed by the Russians.” Yates later told a Senate judiciary subcommittee, “We believed that Gen. Flynn was compromised with respect to the Russians.” The administration allegedly started an internal investigation that very day. Yates was fired from the administration days later on January 30. The reason for her dismissal was allegedly her refusal to work with or support Donald Trump on his “Muslim ban.”

February, 2017

A week and a half later, The Washington Post reported that according to current and former U.S. officials – likely Yates – that Flynn did discuss sanctions on the call with the Russian ambassador. The next day on February 10, a spokesperson told NBC News that Flynn “can’t be 100 percent sure” about whether or not he talked about sanctions, but he doesn’t remember doing so. At this point, Trump all but gave away his knowledge of the real subject of the call by putting distance between Flynn and himself. “I don’t know about it. I haven’t seen it. What report is that?” Trump said to reporters.

On February 13, 2017, Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway said in an NBC interview that Flynn had the full confidence of the president. Hours later, Flynn resigned from his position in the Trump cabinet, saying he “inadvertently briefed Vice President Mike Pence and others with incomplete information regarding his phone calls with the Russian ambassador.”

March, 2017

On March 9, 2017, Flynn retroactively registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent, disclosing $530,000 worth of lobbying money he was paid to help Turkish interests in the United States. This is because after leaving the DIA, Flynn formed the Flynn Intel Group. During 2015 and 2016, Flynn developed a relationship with with Ekim Alptekin, and Turkish businessman with deep ties to the Kremlin, and was hired to lobby on behalf of Turkish interests. It is believed his ties to Turkish interests played a part in Flynn advising President Trump not to use U.S. dollars to help arm Kurds in Syria due to their long-standing conflict with Turkey. We all know how that turned out earlier this year for the Northern Syrians.

Soon after, documents were released by the House Oversight Committee that Flynn was paid $45,000 plus perks by the state-sponsored Russian television network RT, or Russian Television, to speak at an anniversary gala in December of 2015. A gala also attended by then Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein.

May, 2017

The Senate Intelligence Committee soon requested testimony from Flynn. Flynn’s defense team requested immunity in exchange for Flynn’s testimony, but the request was denied by the committee. On May 11, Flynn was officially subpoenaed by the committee, requesting documents relevant to its investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. One week later, Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein officially appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to oversee the investigation into Russian interference. Soon after, Flynn’s attorneys refused to comply with the Senate Intelligence Committee subpoena, citing Flynn’s Fifth Amendment right to not incriminate himself.

September, 2017

In September of 2017, Flynn’s son also became a part of the probe into Russian election interference because of his role in his father’s Flynn Intel Group and its ties to Kremlin-connected business associates. This, of course, became part of the investigation after the elder Flynn filed with the Justice Department and disclosed his business ties.

October, 2017

A little more than a month later, Former CIA Director James Woolsey was interviewed by federal agents working on behalf of Special Counsel Mueller, into allegations that Flynn had discussed the illegal removal of a Turkish cleric from the United States. Mueller found that both Flynn and his son were to be paid upwards of $15 million to deliver Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric living in the U.S., to Turkey for prosecution. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had previously pressed the U.S. government to extradite him, but neither administration involved would cooperate with the request, as Gulen would become another political prisoner of the Turkish government.

Bureau agents learned of a December 2016 meeting at the 21 Club in New York, where Flynn and Turkish government representatives discussed removing Gulen by essentially kidnapping him, then flying him via private jet to the Turkish prison island of Imrali. This was according to at least four individuals the FBI interviewed about the meeting, as well as the plan moving forward.

November, 2017

On November 10, five days after federal investigators concluded the evidence was sufficient to bring charges against Flynn and his son, federal investigators began to examine whether Flynn’s meeting with Turkish representatives also included a possible quid pro quo deal with Turkey where he would be paid secretly through his organization to carry out directives from the Turkish capital of Ankara while in the White House. In the meantime, Mueller continued to investigate the Flynn Intel Group and its failure to proactively disclose its work with foreign governments. As of November 22, Iranian-American Bijan Kian became a subject of the investigation due to ties with the group.

Kian was later found guilty by a jury for illegally acting as a foreign agent, and conspiring to keep his and the Flynn Intel Group’s work hidden from the Justice Department. The verdict was thrown out by the judge in the trial, however, citing insufficient evidence.

December, 2017

On December 1, 2017, Flynn finally entered a guilty plea on the charge of providing false information to the FBI in regards to his communication with Russia, bringing a very small part of a very large investigation to an end. It should be noted that Special Counsel Robert Mueller did recommend Flynn be given a light sentence because of his long-term cooperation during the Russia investigation, where Flynn apparently provided very valuable information to federal authorities. Updates soon to come after Flynn’s sentencing hearing.

Additional Reading: https://www.stripes.com/news/us/michael-flynn-s-sentencing-set-after-judge-rejects-his-attacks-on-the-fbi-justice-department-1.611431 https://www.axios.com/mueller-russia-investigation-timeline-indictments-70433acd-9ef7-424d-aa01-b962ae5c9647.html https://www.vox.com/2018/12/4/18124615/michael-flynn-mueller-sentencing-memo-cooperation https://www.vox.com/2018/12/4/18124615/michael-flynn-mueller-sentencing-memo-cooperation https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/16/judge-to-sentence-former-trump-aide-michael-flynn-in-january.html https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mike-flynn-timeline-his-rise-fall-russia-call-n720671 https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/24/politics/bijan-kian-verdict-thrown-out/index.html

China and the CIA

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Why is China Winning the War Against U.S. Intelligence?

China is the world’s most populous country with a population of 1,420,062,000 citizens as of early 2019. The size of their population is dwarfed, however, by the size of their government. China is known to have an overreaching democratic dictatorship government, ruled by the communist party, whose constitution guarantees them exorbitant power over its citizens, including, but not limited to, their ability to limit even the number of children allowed per family.

With a government this overreaching, you would expect the Chinese government to be very intrusive to its own citizens, as well as foreign governments, with all of the wealth necessary to build a very one of the world’s largest national security establishments. Within this apparatus are several of the world’s most powerful and secretive clandestine agencies. Namely one: The Ministry of State Security or MSS.

It’s certainly nothing new for governments around the world to feel the presence of the agency, with increasing power and efficacy, as they did with the PLA prior. Over the last decade, though, the United States has been the priority target of China’s MSS, with increased hacking, civilian spy recruitment, and even recruitment within government agencies.

In January of 2018, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a naturalized U.S. citizen and former CIA officer, was arrested at New York’s JFK International airport. At the time, Lee was in possession of several hand-written notes containing classified information, including the locations of covert facilities and operational meeting locations,the names and phone numbers of foreign assets and covert CIA employees, and even operational notes from asset meetings. In may of this year, Lee was sentenced to 19 years in prison after being convicted of one count of conspiracy to deliver national defense information to aid a foreign government and two counts of unlawfully retaining documents related to national defense.

Lee worked for the CIA from 1994 – 2007. Lee moved to Hong Kong after leaving the CIA, where he worked for Japan Tobacco International, a company formed in 1999 when Japan Tobacco Inc. purchased the international operations of R.J. Reynolds. In 2010, while working for the firm, Lee was approached by Chinese officials and offered an undisclosed sum of money to provide U.S. intelligence information, as well as sensitive company information to Chinese authorities. Shortly afterward, the Hong Kong company for whom he worked suspected Lee of sharing information regarding the company’s investigation into counterfeiting and smuggling. A former manager of Lee’s had this to say to the South China Morning Post in 2018:

“While at the time we could not prove it, we suspected he was leaking the details of our investigations into counterfeiting and smuggling – including those conducted in cooperation with Western law enforcement agencies and targeting highly sophisticated organised crime syndicates and North Korea – to the mainland authorities. Several of the shipments of counterfeits purchased as part of the investigations were seized by the Chinese authorities or simply disappeared, and one of our contract investigators was arrested and imprisoned in China.”

After his termination from the company in 2012, Lee moved his family back to the United States. The family, while seeking permanent residence, frequented hotels in Virginia and Hawaii. Due to the association between Lee’s former employer and Western law enforcement, U.S. authorities were made aware of Lee’s dealings with Chinese authorities, which raised red flags because of Lee’s former association with the CIA.

Lee quickly came under investigation by federal law enforcement, and in time, during a search of the family’s hotel room, authorities found several day planners and a thumb drive containing sensitive and classified information that Lee had apparently compiled while still at the agency. While this is a crime on its own due to the agreement Lee had signed with the CIA upon his hire, this raised extra suspicions of federal law enforcement, the NSA, and the CIA. This is because of the time-frame between Lee moving to Hong Kong, to the time he returned to the United States – an important span of time for the United States Intelligence Community. Between 2010 – 2012, up to 20 CIA assets were imprisoned or killed by Chinese authorities, which was the worst intelligence disaster the United States had seen since the Aldrich Ames incident in the 1980s.

Problems were not over after Lee’s arrest and conviction, though. Last year, former CIA officer Kevin Mallory was arrested on charges of spying for the Chinese. Mallory was approached by a Chinese intel headhunter via LinkedIn in 2017. Chinese officials learned of Mallory’s $230,000 mortgage that was several months delinquent, along with several other delinquent bills and credit card debt. The Chinese headhunter offered to help pay off Mallory’s debt if he were to pass sensitive and classified information.

In March and April, Mallory traveled to Shanghai with the contact, Michael Yang, who claimed to work for a Chinese think tank. Mallory quickly assessed Yang to be a Chinese intelligence officer, however. At this time, Yang gave Mallory a covcom device in the form of an encrypted Samsung Galaxy smartphone to facilitate his communications with Yang. According to the FBI, Mallory used this device to transmit at least five U.S. government documents to Yang, one containing the identities of sources who had helped the U.S. government.

Mallory was sentenced in May of this year to 20 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release. Mallory’s and Lee’s sentences were not the only ones this year, though. In March of this year, former Defense Intelligence Agency officer Ron Hansen plead guilty to attempting to communicate, deliver, or transmit information involving the national defense of the United States to the People’s Republic of China.

Hansen was arrested in June of 2018 while en route to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. He was scheduled to board a flight to China while in possession of classified military information he had planned to sell to agents of a Chinese intelligence service. As Hansen admitted, in early 2014, Chinese intelligence targeted him for recruitment, after which time he started meeting with them in China on a regular basis. During the first of these meetings, the agents outlined precisely what kind of information they would consider valuable to Chinese intelligence. Hansen then offered to deliver the information for a some of money that added up to hundreds of thousands of dollars between May 24, 2016 and June 2, 2018.

While Hansen previously had clearance for highly classified information, after leaving the agency, however, he lost his clearance, as most do. Hansen used his relationship with a DIA case officer who still worked for the agency, and acted as a conduit between the officer and Chinese intelligence representatives. Hansen advised the case officer how to record and transmit classified information in a manner that would avoid detection, and also advised the case officer how to hide and launder any financial compensation received for the information.

Unknown to Hansen at the time, the case officer reported Hansen’s behavior to higher-ups within the DIA, and not long after, agreed to act as a confidential source for the FBI during the investigation into Hansen. Hansen met with the case officer on June 2, 2018, and was handed documents containing sensitive and highly classified information related to national security and regional U.S. military readiness. As mentioned before, he was arrested later on that day, and the information never made it to his Chinese intelligence contacts. 

Three arrests of former CIA and DIA officers in one year for violations of the espionage act is certainly an alarming uptick. There has also been a large increase in Chinese hacking. According to CrowdStrike co-founder Dmitri Alperovitch, “We have seen [the Ministry of State Security], over the years, break into corporate organizations. They were always better technically than the PLA (People’s Liberation Army).” He continued about the recent increase in MSS hacking, “We’re seeing, on a weekly basis, intrusions into U.S. and other Western companies from Chinese actors.” This is, of course, in violation of the 2015 agreement between the U.S. and China, not to conduct cyber-enabled spying or intellectual property theft.

There has also been an uptick in the amount of non-government employees, foreign visitors, foreign nationals, and U.S. citizens accused of spying. In March of this year, Chinese businesswoman Yujing Zhang unlawfully made her way into Mar-A-Lago – President Trump’s Florida resort – carrying multiple electronics in her purse, such as encrypted thumb drives, allegedly with the intent of collecting sensitive information about President Trump and other government matters through resort computers. Zhang was not convicted of spying, as prosecutors could not prove her intent, but she was convicted of trespassing and lying to federal agents, after changing her story about why she was at the resort several times. Zhang has since been reported after receiving time served on an eight-month sentence of incarceration.

As recently as September of this year, two Chinese diplomats were expelled to the Chinese Embassy in Washington after trespassing onto a sensitive military base in Virginia. This is the first incident of its kind since 1987. It is believed by officials that at least one of the two diplomats was an intelligence officer working under diplomatic cover. The diplomats, accompanied by their wives attempted entry at the base’s checkpoint. Due to lack of clearance, they were instructed to enter, turn around, and leave, but the diplomats ignored instructions and continued onto the base. They were then pursued by military personnel, but continued to evade authorities until their path was blocked by firetrucks. Due to diplomatic immunity, charges were not filed, but the individuals have officially been expelled to their embassy. Steps were also taken to vastly increase restrictions on Chinese diplomats in October. Chinese diplomats must now provide previous notice before meeting with state or local officials, and before visiting educational and research institutions. China has since claimed the incident was a misunderstanding, and the expulsion of the diplomats is a mistake on behalf of the U.S.

Also in September, naturalized U.S. citizen and California resident, Xuehua Peng was taken into custody after an FBI sting that lasted more than two years. Peng, who went by Edward, was charged with acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government. Peng allegedly worked as an intermediary passing classified information and collecting payments between intelligence agents. Peng used a classical spy tactic known as dead-drops – a tactic where information, money or other products are left at one of multiple predetermined locations which are usually marked by something as a signal, such as a chalk line or discreet symbol of some kind. The agent that communicated with Peng on behalf of the MSS was a double agent working for the FBI, and collected evidence on Peng for over two years. Peng has not yet been convicted, but the officials allege the evidence collected by the FBI during the investigation is irrefutable.

These are only a few cases from 2019 alone, and one must wonder, as President Trump’s trade war with China continues to escalate, how far will China go to spy on U.S. and other Western companies and governments. Even if China and the U.S. have reached a small deal providing some relief on Chinese tariffs, we remain economic competitors on the global scale, and who knows what sanctions may happen as a result of China’s current crackdown on Hong Kong. In a time when Russia is running vast networks of disinformation campaigns and pumping millions of illegal dollars into political campaigns, the uptick in Chinese spying is more than alarming.

Additional Reading: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-cia-officer-sentenced-prison-espionage https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-intelligence-officer-convicted-attempted-espionage-sentenced-10-years-federal-prison https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/former-cia-officer-pleads-guilty-conspiracy-commit-espionage https://www.cyberscoop.com/ministry-of-state-security-china-hacking-department-of-justice-indictment/ https://www.cyberscoop.com/ministry-of-state-security-china-hacking-department-of-justice-indictment/ https://abcnews.go.com/US/fbi-employee-arrested-allegedly-acting-secret-chinese-agent/story?id=41045611

A Pattern of Attacks

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Deep State Conspiracies and Trump’s On-Going Grudge Against the United States Intelligence Community

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

John 8:32

I’m not a religious person. I leave that sort of thing to the theologians. However, the quote above cannot be questioned as a positive biblical quote. This quote is not only important to the theologians or the religious of the world, but it’s also important to the men and women who serve their country as part of the Central Intelligence Agency, as the CIA’s motto, carved into a wall at the George H.W. Bush Center for Intelligence in Langley, Virginia.

It would appear this quote would be contrary to everything the CIA stands for. Isn’t the CIA a super secret organization of spies that perform crazy experiments on people against their will, torture U.S. citizens, and spy on/overthrow foreign governments left and right to meet the American goal of world domination? Isn’t that where all of the aliens are hidden, along with all of Hillary Clinton’s spooky emails that reveal her secret identity as an evil space lizard? Well, until recently, it was only the movies or low resolution conspiracy documentaries on Youtube. This has unfortunately changed.

President Donald J. Trump has a long history of not only criticizing the I.C. for their inability to prosecute his political rivals’ so-called scandals involving deleted emails or alleged conspiracies at foreign embassies. He has also gone as far as spreading deep state conspiracy theories alleging bias against him, and outlandish CIA plots to remove him from office.

This behavior continued through this very week, months after Donald Trump instructed his own Justice Department to investigate the FBI for alleged political bias against him before and during the Trump-Russia probe, as part of a deep state conspiracy against him. If you’d like to read more about this, I wrote extensively on this earlier in the week. Read it here.

After the report was made public this week, Donald Trump continues to spread misinformation about contents and conclusions of the report, no matter what the Inspector General himself says about his office’s conclusions, or what the Director of the FBI says in response to the report. This behavior indicates that President Trump is intent on continuing to spread these Alex Jones-esque deep state conspiracy theories. Unfortunately, his base is comprised of so many of these lifelong Info Wars subscribers, and they eat this sort of things up. As if he could say the world is flat and the moon landing was a fake, and his base would cheer him even harder.

One must wonder where it ends. Likely the only way to find the answer to that question is the figure out where it began. President Trump has always had a penchant for the conspiratorial beliefs. Whether it was questioning Ted Cruz’s father’s involvement in the JFK assassination, claiming Justice Antonin Scalia was found with a pillow on his face, and trying to point to Democrats in an assassination plot, or even going as far back as bringing the Obama Birther movement from the outer reaches of the internet, to popular online forums such as Twitter.

Alex Jones During a Broadcast on Infowars.com

Why wouldn’t President Trump be hostile toward the USIC while believing in conspiracy theories like these? He has also been known to tune into, and even call into Info Wars. A webcast that has been known to spread such nonsense as the 9/11 attacks being an inside job, the existence of a secret resort where all world leaders meet once per year for orgies and human sacrifice, and even accusing the CIA of putting chemicals in the water that turn straight frogs into homosexuals. I’m really not making this up.

What do you think tap water is? It’s a gay bomb, baby. And I’m not saying people didn’t naturally have homosexual feelings. I’m not even getting into it, quite frankly. I mean, give me a break. Do you think I’m like, oh, shocked by it, so I’m up here bashing it because I don’t like gay people? I don’t like ’em putting chemicals in the water that turn the freakin’ frogs gay! Do you understand that? I’m sick of being social engineered, it’s not funny!

“Alex Jones Gay Bomb Rant”, October 16 2015

Unfortunately, Alex Jones’ conspiracy theories aren’t all comical. Alex is known for accusing survivors of school shootings of being crisis actors, and even spreading conspiracies about businesses running pedophile rings for high-ranking politicians in their basements. While the latter might sound comical, this very business was the victim of a shooting in December of 2016, perpetrated by a man who believed in the conspiracy theory spread by Jones to enough of a degree to kill over it.

This is a very dangerous precedent that is harmful to the American people in the hands of a popular internet personality, but it is far more dangerous in the hands of a President with a cult-like following. Just imagine if Donald Trump were to tweet something tomorrow that would perpetuate the 9/11 conspiracy. How long would it take before former President George W. Bush required enhanced police security, such as those men and women who testified in November’s impeachment inquiries after receiving death threats and being doxed online?

This, however, is little more dangerous than things President Trump has said and done in the past. It would follow his pattern of dishonesty against those who serve to protect our nation. It would be consistent with Donald Trump’s claim that Barack Obama should not be president because he was not born in the United States. A claim that moved the goal posts well into the ocean in their continuing demand for more and more evidence of Obama’s place of birth, even after the long-form birth certificate was put on a giant screen at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

President Trump has touted even more dangerous conspiracy theories over the years. In 2016 during a presidential debate, Donald Trump said to host Jake Tapper, ” “We had so many instances, people that work for me, just the other day, 2 years old, a beautiful child, went to have the vaccine and came back and a week later got a tremendous fever, got very, very sick, now is autistic,” The idea that vaccines are to blame for autism is long-debunked by every federal and state health organization in the United States, and in every other first world country. Yet these dangerous hypotheses, after bing repeated enough to an audience that seeks out boogiemen, have led to the return of Whooping Cough, Measles, Mumps, Tuberculosis, etc…

Donald Trump is a known climate change denialist, and has gone as far to publicly harass children online out of his hostility toward the science. Donald Trump has never had a great relationships with science, however. In a 1992 interview with New York Magazine, Donald Trump openly denied the validity of the scientific studies that ruled on the dangers of asbestos.

President Trump has gone as far as accuse others of murder in repeating conspiracy theories. Donald Trump has used the hashtag #ClintonBodyCount on several occasions. A hashtag that is in reference to a conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton was somehow behind the death of DNC employee Seth Rich and the suicide of Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster. This wasn’t the only time, of course. In November of 2017, Donald Trump tweeted, “So now that Matt Lauer is gone when will the Fake News practitioners at NBC be terminating the contract of Phil Griffin? And will they terminate low ratings Joe Scarborough based on the ‘unsolved mystery’ that took place in Florida years ago? Investigate!” A tweet in reference to yet another conspiracy theory that Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough murdered intern Lori Klausutis, while he was a Congressman for Florida’s First District.

What’s worse is Donald Trumjp’s history of rhetoric against Muslims in America and abroad. In November of 2017, Donald Trump tweeted three videos in the hopes of selectively verifying his anti-Muslim sentiments. The videos showed Muslims in Europe committing assaults on citizens and vandalism against “Christian icons.”

Donald Trump’s retweet of propaganda videos posted by members of Britain First, a known anti-Muslim organization.

After the propaganda videos were shared by Donald Trump, he was made aware of the origins of the videos, and the reputation of the group sharing them, which led to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defending the president by saying the “origins of the videos doesn’t matter.”

After a history of repeating and popularizing conspiracy theories, no matter the consequences, it is no wonder President Trump has such little respect for the Intelligence Community. In fact, only days after his inauguration, Donald Trump’s actions displays just how much respect he has for the IC during a speech at the George H.W. Bush Center for Intelligence.

When President Trump stood in front of the CIA’s memorial wall in January of 2017, he spent the entirety of his speech bragging about himself, verbalizing a fictional narrative of a “landslide election,” and dishonestly exaggerating the size of his inauguration crowd. A series of blatantly lies in front of a wall of stars that individually represent men or women who died in the line of duty as members of the CIA. This was an act of disrespect that led to CIA employees leaving flowers at the wall weeks afterward, as a form of protest, apologizing to those lost for allowing President Trump to disgrace their names and legacies.

Such disrespect for our Intelligence Community at the very beginning of his term set the stage for a presidency wherein the IC is consistently held in contempt by the White House, and even many of the president’s appointees within the State Department. And never in my life have I seen a president with such little respect for the men and women who serve tirelessly to keep safe and preserve the freedoms we take for granted every day in the United States of America.

Republicans and the IG Report

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Media Bias and the Review of “Four” (One) FISA Application(s) and Other Aspects of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane Investigation

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) appreciates the OIG’s crucial independent oversight role and the thoroughness and professionalism your office brought to this work. The Report’s findings and recommendations represent constructive criticism that will make us stronger as an organization. We also appreciate the Report’s recognition that the FBI cooperated fully with this review and provided broad and timely access to all information requested by the OIG, including highly classified and sensitive material involving national security.

The Report concludes that the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation and related investigations of certain individuals were opened in 2016 for an authorized purpose and with adequate factual predication. The Report also details instances in which certain FBI personnel, at times during the 2016-2017 period reviewed by the OIG, did not comply with existing policies, neglected to exercise appropriate diligence, or otherwise failed to meet the standard of conduct that the FBI expects of its employees — and that our country expects of the FBI. We are vested with significant authorities, and it is our obligation as public servants to ensure that these authorities are exercised with objectivity and integrity. Anything less falls short of the FBI’s duty to the American people.”

– Director Christopher Wray to Inspector General Horowitz

If the quote above confuses you, it may be because of the president’s, William Barr’s and the right-wing media’s representation of the investigation performed by the Inspector General’s office into the initial opening of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation into possible Trump-Russia connections. A report that has been mischaracterized to insinuate the FBI’s investigation was based in left-wing bias, and was influenced by then-president Barack Obama. This, of course, couldn’t be further from the truth.

In multiple areas of the report, the findings clearly state that there was no wrong-doing or bias involved in the opening of the investigation. Also, judging by the results of the long-term investigation (over 40 indictments, many of whom members of Trump’s cabinet) one could say the investigation was obviously necessary. Yet, the media doesn’t seem to mention much of that. Here are some quotes from the actual report that you can download from this site in the Important Documents of 2019 tab.

“Crossfire Hurricane was opened as a Full Investigation and all of the senior FBI officials who participated in discussions about whether to open a case 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 National Committee’s (DNC) emails, created a counterintelligence 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 t he risk that “if someone on the campaign was engaged with the Russians, he/she would very likely change his/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.”

Page iii of the Executive Summary of the Report

Moving ahead a few pages, the report repeats its conclusion of there being no evidence of political bias in the opening of Crossfire Hurricane and the investigations into four individuals related to the Trump campaign.

“As discussed in Chapter Ten, we determined that, during the 2016 presidential campaign, the Crossfire Hurricane team tasked several CHSs, which resulted in multiple interactions with Carter Page and George Papadopoulos, both before and after they were affiliated with the Trump campaign, and one with a high-level Trump campaign official who was not a subject of the investigation. All of these CHS interactions were consensually monitored and recorded by the FBI. As noted above, under Department and FBI policy, the use of a CHS to conduct consensual monitoring is a matter of investigative judgment that, absent certain circumstances, can be authorized by a first-line supervisor (a supervisory special agent). We determined that the CHS operations conducted during Crossfire Hurricane received the necessary FBI approvals, and that AD Priestap knew about, and approved of, all of the Crossfire Hurricane CHS operations, even in circumstances where a first-level supervisory special agent could have approved the operations. We found no evidence that the FBI used CHSs or UCEs to interact with members of the Trump campaign prior to the opening of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. After the opening of the investigation, we found no evidence that the FBI placed any CHSs or UCEs within the Trump campaign or tasked any CHSs or UCEs to report on the Trump campaign. Finally, we also found no documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivations influenced the FBI’s decision to use CHSs or UCEs to interact with Trump campaign officials in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.”

Pages xvi – xvii of the Executive Summary

One must wonder, then, how did William Barr come to the conclusion he insisted upon during his summary of the report? We’re not even through the Executive Summary at this point, and we’ve already read twice that the Office of the Inspector General found no evidence of bias or wrong-doing when opening the investigation. Including his, and the right-wing media’s characterization of the initiation of the investigation essentially being a propaganda piece orchestrated by the Obama Administration, and the Clinton campaign. Here’s how the report details the reasons for the opening of the investigation:

“At the time the Crossfire Hurricane investigation was opened in July 2016, the U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC), which includes the FBI, was aware of Russian efforts to interfere with the 2016 U.S. elections. The Russian efforts included cyber intrusions into various political organizations, including the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). Throughout spring and early summer 2016, the FBI became aware of specific cyber intrusions for which the Russian government was responsible, through ongoing investigations into Russian hacking operations conducted by the FBI’s Cyber Division and the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division (CD).

In March and May 2016, FBI field offices identified a spear phishing campaign by the Russian military intelligence agency, known as the General Staff Intelligence Directorate (GRU), targeting email addresses associated with the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign, as well as efforts to place malware on DNC and DCCC computer networks. In June and July 2016, stolen materials were released online through the fictitious personas ‘Guccifer 2.0″ and “DCLeaks.” In addition, in late July 2016, WikiLeaks released emails obtained from DNC servers as part of its “Hillary Leak Series.’

By August 2016, the USIC assessed that in the weeks leading up to the 2016 U.S. elections, Russia was considering further intelligence operations to impact or disrupt the elections. In addition to the Russian infiltration of DNC and DCCC computer systems, between March and August 2016, the FBI became aware of numerous attempts to hack into state election systems. These included confirmed access into elements of multiple state or local electoral boards using tactics, techniques, and procedures associated with Russian state-sponsored actors. 163 The FBI learned that Russian efforts also included cyber-enabled scanning and probing of election related infrastructure in several states.

It was in this context that the FBI received information on July 28, 2016, about a conversation between Papadopoulos and an official of a Friendly Foreign Government (FFG) in May 2016 during which Papadopoulos ‘suggested the Trump team had received some kind of suggestion’ from Russia that it could assist this process with the anonymous release of information during the campaign that would be damaging to candidate Clinton and President Obama. As described below, the FBI opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation 3 days after receiving this information.”

Pages 49 – 50, Chapter Three of the IG Report

I may have missed the part where it said the investigation was a fraudulent orchestration of the Obama Administration and the Clinton campaign, but I may have missed it. I’ll read on. Here’s what the court said about the related investigations into Carter Page, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, and George Papadopoulos:

“The opening EC for the Carter Page investigation stated that there was an articulable factual basis that Carter Page ‘may wittingly or unwittingly be involved in activity on behalf of the Russian Federation which may constitute a federal crime or threat to the national security.’ The EC cross-referenced the predication for Crossfire Hurricane and stated that Page was a senior foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, had extensive ties to various Russia-owned entities, and had traveled to Russia as recently as July 2016. The EC also noted that Carter Page was the subject of an open, ongoing counterintelligence investigation assigned to the FBI’s New York Field Office (NYFO), which we describe in the next section.

The opening EC for the Manafort investigation stated that there was an articulable factual basis that Manafort ‘may wittingly or unwittingly be involved in activity on behalf of the Russian Federation which may constitute a federal crime or threat to the national security.’ The EC cross-referenced the predication for Crossfire Hurricane and stated that Manafort was designated the Delegate Process and Convention Manager for the Trump campaign, was promoted to Campaign Manager for the Trump campaign, and had extensive ties to pro-Russian entities of the Ukrainian government.

The opening EC for the Papadopoulos investigation stated that there was an articulable factual basis that Papadopoulos ‘may wittingly or unwittingly be involved in activity on behalf of the Russian Federation which may constitute a federal crime or threat to the national security.’ The EC cross-referenced the predication for Crossfire Hurricane and stated that Papadopoulos was a senior foreign adviser for the Trump campaign and had ‘made statements indicating that he is knowledgeable that the Russians made a suggestion to the Trump team that they could assist the Trump campaign with an anonymous release of information during the campaign that would be damaging to the Clinton Campaign.’

The opening EC for the Flynn investigation stated that there was an articulable factual basis that Flynn ‘may wittingly or unwittingly be involved in activity on behalf of the Russian Federation which may constitute a federal crime or threat to the national security.’ The EC cross-referenced the predication for Crossfire Hurricane and stated that Flynn was an advisor to the Trump campaign, had various ties to state-affiliated entities of Russia, and traveled to Russia in December 2015.”

Page 60 of the IG Report

In the very next section of the report, it notes that Carter Page was already part of a pre-existing FBI NY field office counterintelligence investigation. As is further explained on page vi of the Executive Summary regarding the investigation into Page:

“We did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced the FBI’s decision to seek FISA authority on Carter Page”

Page vi of the Executive Summary of the IG Report

What’s worse if the media characterization that this investigation involved multiple “illegal” FISA warrants. In reality, not only were all of the FISA warrants found to be perfectly justified, but there was never more than one in the first place. The only FISA warrant into an individual involved in Crossfire Hurricane was Carter Page himself.

“On September 19, 2016, the same day that the Crossfire Hurricane team first received Steele’s election reporting, the team contacted FBI OGC again about seeking a FISA order for Page and specifically focused on Steele’s reporting in drafting the FISA request. Two days later, on September 21, the FBI OGC Unit Chief contacted the NSD 01 Unit Chief to advise him that the FBI believed it was ready to submit a formal FISA request to 01 relating to Page. Almost immediately thereafter, 01 assigned an attorney (01 Attorney) to begin preparation of the application.

Although the team also was interested in seeking FISA surveillance targeting Papadopoulos, the FBI OGC attorneys were not supportive. FBI and NSD officials told us that the Crossfire Hurricane team ultimately did not seek FISA surveillance of Papadopoulos, and we are aware of no information indicating that the team requested or seriously considered FISA surveillance of Manafort or Flynn.”

Page vi of the Executive Summary of the IG Report

Furthermore, now that the right-wing media’s claims that the investigation was politically motivated, and that the FISA warrants were unlawful have been thoroughly debunked, how about that popular claim that the Steele Dossier was the primary reason for opening the investigation in the first place? Had these commentators read past the cover, they would’ve seen this inconvenient quote from page ii of the Executive Summary:

“We did not find information in FBI or Department ECs, emails, or other documents, or through witness testimony, indicating that any information other than the FFG information was relied upon to predicate the opening of t he Crossfire Hurricane investigation. Although not mentioned in the EC, at the time, FBI officials involved in opening the investigation had reason to believe that Russia may have been connected to the Wikileaks disclosures that occurred earlier in July 2016, and were aware of information regarding Russia’s efforts to interfere with the 2016 U.S. elections. These officials, though, did not become aware of Steele’s election reporting until weeks later and we therefore determined that Steele’s reports played no role in the Crossfire Hurricane opening.”

Page ii of the Executive Summary of the IG Report

So where are all of these accusations of corruption coming from? They stem from a small part of the report regarding private communications between two FBI agents involved in the investigation, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. Keep in mind, these were private communications. Being federal employees, there are many rules that one must follow in the public light, which includes not endorsing or disparaging a political candidate or party, or taking certain political stances not related to their line of work. However, these were entirely private communications, wherein there are no rules of the like. As a federal employee, you are perfectly entitled to a political opinion, in fact, one might argue your opinion to be far more valid than those of the general public because of your proximity to federal issues.

This is irrelevant, though, as I said before. These were private communications, and have now even led to a lawsuit from Lisa Page against the FBI for releasing the private communications, as there is question regarding their validity to the investigation. No matter, the report itself may be critical of the communications, it also clearly states the following:

“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 Executive Summary Review of Four FISA Applications and Other Aspects of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane Investigation 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.”

Pages iii and iv of the Executive Summary of the IG Report

In conclusion, while the IG did recommend specific new FBI policies be put in place as precaution, the report did not conclude under any terms that there was any wrong-doing involved in the opening of Crossfire Hurricane, nor in the investigations into Papadopoulos, Manafort, or Flynn, nor in the FISA warrant in the investigation into Carter Page.

Let us not forget, Paul Manafort was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison; Michael Flynn was convicted of lying to the FBI in 2017, and his sentencing was delayed so that he could further cooperate with the Mueller probe; Papadopoulos was convicted of lying to the FBI and sentenced to twelve days in prison, one year of probation,and was fined almost $10,000; and while Carter Page has not been convicted to date, he is still part of an on-going investigation as of this writing. Looking at this track record, it would be hard to create a narrative that these men were under investigation for no other reason than political motivation.

While the right-wing press is still spinning their narratives, without a single quote from the actual report, mind you, remember how important it is to seek information for yourself. You can download the complete redacted report below. The redactions are likely due to on-going investigations, much like the Mueller Report redactions were upon its first public release. See above regarding Carter Page.

ig-fbi-report-1Download

What Constitutes Election Interference?

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How the GOP Fabricated a Conspiracy Theory to Counter an Actual Conspiracy

“Foreign electoral interventions are attempts by governments, covertly or overtly, to influence elections in another country. There are many ways that nations have accomplished regime change abroad, and electoral intervention is only one of those methods.”

This is the definition given by Wikipedia to define what constitutes election interference. Notice the wording: “covertly or overtly.” This would suggest such interference would likely be performed via clandestine means, and/or cause a measurable influence in swaying an election toward one candidate. So where, I wonder, between the words covert and overt would we measure the devastating and devious effects of writing a simple op-ed?

Special Counsel Robert Mueller testifying to congress.

In July of 2016, the FBI covertly began to investigate suspicious ties between the Trump presidential campaign and Russian operatives. This was code named Crossfire Hurricane. (A catchy title if I’ve ever heard one.) Shortly after this was revealed to the public, President Donald Trump promptly dismissed FBI Director James Comey, allegedly for his handling of the investigation of Hillary Clinton and her infamous emails.

The response to Comey’s dismissal, as well as the reason given by President Trump, was prompt and reasonably critical. It appeared to be a pretty incredible coincidence that a president would fire a man who he had always claimed to admire, only after finding out about such an investigation into Donald Trump and his suspicious ties to Russia. Eight days after Comey’s unceremonious dismissal, Democratic lawmakers, as well as numerous revelations from Comey, even including allegations of obstruction of justice, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller, a very esteemed former FBI director, as Special Counsel to take over the FBI’s investigation into allegations of links and coordination between the Russian Government and associates and members of the Trump campaign.

Nearly two years, thirty-four individual indictments, three corporate indictments, eight guilty pleas and convictions (and a few more since then), the Mueller Report into Russian interference into the 2016 elections was released to the public. A report that showed beyond a shadow of a doubt that Russia had interfered in our election, had infiltrated US lobby groups, hacked Democratic campaign servers, colluded with Wikileaks to release emails, and that there had been multiple cases of campaign finance crimes. Though, very few among the GOP will admit to collusion, despite President Trump literally asking Russia for help on live television on several occasions, the evidence is far too overwhelming to deny Russian interference alone.

This brings us to our current impeachment inquiry, and drafting of articles of impeachment, though I must note, the impeachment itself is unrelated to the Russia probe. Our current impeachment proceedings involves President Trump committing the very same crime again, however, which is requesting a foreign government to dig up dirt on a rival. Yes, apparently President Trump thought he could get away with the same crime twice after his Justice Department gave him the notion that he was above the law.

This time, however, it is not Russia who Trump is imploring, but it is Ukraine. I’m sure you are all familiar with the story by now. President Trump withheld promised foreign military aid until Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky announced an investigation into Hunter Biden and his association with Burisma Holdings, which is a major Ukrainian natural gas company. While this is based on a pure conspiracy theory, this is not the conspiracy theory today’s GOP are using to counter the Russia probe findings.

No, there is a new conspiracy theory afoot. The following quote is from the December 8, 2019 edition of meet the press.

“Because Russia interfered, the media pretends nobody else did. Ukraine blatantly interfered in our election. The sitting ambassador from Ukraine wrote an op-ed blasting Donald Trump during the election season. … It’s hysterical two years ago there was article after article after article in the mainstream media about Ukrainian interference in the elections, but now, the Democrats have no evidence of a crime. No evidence of violating the law. And so suddenly Ukraine interference is treated as the media clutches their pearls, oh my goodness, you can’t say that! Last week, Chuck, you called Sen. John Kennedy basically a stooge for Putin.”

—Ted Cruz to Chuck Todd

“Meet the Press,” December 8, 2019, NBC News

The “interference” Ted Cruz is talking about is based on an op-ed written in The Hill by Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S. Valeriy Chaly. An op-ed apparently falls into the definition at the top of this article regarding election interference. Here’s the backstory.

In 2014, Russia invaded, occupied, and annexed Crimea from Ukraine. As a result of Russia’s military actions, the United States, and most NATO countries denounced the military action of Russian president Vladimir Putin, and also refused to recognize Russia’s annexation of the peninsula. While most of the world stood in agreement in denouncing Russia, then candidate Donald Trump had a different view of the situation altogether. He said he would consider recognizing Crimea as a Russian territory. This was only one of many public statements from then candidate Trump in support of Russia and president Vladimir Putin.

This led to an op-ed being written in The Hill where Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., Valeriy Chaly, where she criticized then candidate Trump for his unwavering support of Russia, as well as Russia’s initiatives across the world. An op-ed that would profoundly prophetic in light of President Trump’s actions since taking the oath of office.

This brings us up to date. This past October White House acting Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, said in defense of President Trump’s withholding of promised and approved Ukrainian military support, that President Trump was actually withholding the financial support until Ukraine investigated its own election interference in the 2016 election. Mulvaney, of course, later walked that statement back, but unfortunately it stuck as a talking point for the GOP.

During the November impeachment inquiries, multiple GOP members of the House Intelligence Committee continued bringing up the Ukrainian election interference, all the while their only example is the op-ed spoken about above. Apparently, when grasping at straws, you grab whatever tiny one you can and just keep repeating and repeating until people believe this op-ed probably only read by political junkies, (not a whole lot of kids walking around quoting articles from The Hill) somehow swayed an entire election. Even though the candidate the op-ed criticized still obtained the office, even after losing by three million votes, but that’s a whole different piece altogether.

This has led to several other conspiracy theories on the Alex Jones tinfoil hat level, being touted by elected officials, such as the accusation that Ukraine is hiding all of Hillary’s “missing emails” or that they are conspiring to rig the 2020 elections in Biden’s favor, as if they have the same resources as Russia. Or even that one of the most respected and celebrated anti-corruption ambassadors in history was removed from her post because of massive corruption and political collusion. An ambassador conveniently removed not long after President Trump took office. It’s almost as if she would’ve stood in the way of something.

In the end, I suppose Ambassador Chaly should feel honored that her op-ed critical of candidate Trump could’ve been such a literary masterpiece it nearly swayed an entire election. She should feel very proud that merely criticizing a candidate’s support for a hostile foreign leader (not just to the Ukraine, but the U.S. as well) could’ve made such a vast dent in candidate Trump’s electoral victory However, I can think of very few ways to describe such a notion that could be said in a piece I’d like to keep PG. In fact, the article was very well-written and well-devised, and I wish I could piece together pros in any of my secondary languages the way that she does. However, it wasn’t going to inspire a revolution against a candidate who was already unpopular, even according to Fox News polls. So, I think it’s safe to refer to this defense as, well, I guess we’ll just go ahead and call it Malarkey.

Money in Politics, Climate Change, and Student Debt…

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A Eulogy to Berkley Bedell

If you’re wondering what the three topics in the title have in common, it’s not just the three topics on the list of every House and Senate Democrat this year; they were also the three most important matters for Berkley Bedell (D-IA) who passed away today after a stroke earlier this week.

Berkley passed away today after a lifetime public service. He served as the U.S. Representative for Iowa’s 6th district from 1975 to 1987. This was after starting a successful business known as Berkley Fly Co.

In 1974, Berkley defeated Wiley Mayne to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, a Democrat in a state that, at the time, had little time for people with non-Republican ideals.

He was known for his support of representative democracy and his own populist style (unfamiliar from today’s populist governing methods). He was known to hold town halls and let his constituents vote on motions to decide what he would do in congress. As a result, he passed bills based on issues important to his constituents, such as issues related to tariffs, waterway usage fees, and production constraints.

Representative Bedell will forever be remembered for representing the people of his district the way government intended. You and your family are in our thoughts.

The Articles’ Architect

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How One of Trump’s First Appointees Set Impeachment in Motion

Weeks before the whistle-blower’s complaint against Donald Trump’s now infamous Ukraine call became public, the complaint was reviewed by not only members of the CIA, but also by CIA general counsel, and Trump appointee, Courtney Simmons Elwood. Elwood, as well as other senior officials who had reviewed the complaint, concluded that there indeed was a crime committed during the phone call, leading to Elwood officially filing a criminal referral.

Courtney Simmons Elwood
General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency

Before her nomination, Elwood served as a clerk for Chief Justice William Rehnquist in 1995, then for Judge J. Michael Luttig on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Afterward, she joined the firm of Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick. Simmons was appointed by the Trump administration in March of 2017, and confirmed by the senate on June 6th of that year, after a 67-33 vote. A vote that split heavily down party lines, with only 16 of her 67 yea votes coming from Democrats.

On August 14, 2019 Elwood filed a criminal referral with the Justice Department. along with general counsel at the National Security Council, John Eisenberg. The belief of the two, and others in the I.C. was that a crime had absolutely been committed by President Donald Trump in his coercion of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, by withholding promised military aid until an investigation was announced by the Ukrainians into the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, his son, Hunter Biden.

Not long after the August 14 call to the Justice Department, Acting Director of National Intelligence and Inspector General for the Intelligence Community, Joseph Maguire, who had only just assumed the role, referred his own allegations to the Justice Department, expressing the very same concerns as Elwood and Eisenberg.

The Justice Department’s determination into the referral made by Elwood, Eisenberg, Maguire, and numerous other high ranking and senior members of the I.C., was that no crime had been committed. The referrals made were based on federal laws prohibiting “contribution, donation of money, or other things of value” from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election. The Justice Departments determination was that an investigation did not count as a contribution, monetary donation, or other thing of value, because it was not quantifiable.

As is evident by the impeachment inquiries of November, and this week’s approval from the House of Representatives to draft articles of impeachment, Elwood’s actions helped to put into motion the impeachment of President Donald Trump. Since the initial report, several other facts have come to light implicating President Donald Trump, and several others, including House Intelligence Committee member, Devin Nunes (R-CA).

As of this writing, the articles of impeachment are in the process of being drafted, and have not yet reached the Senate Judiciary Committee.