Looks like our intelligence people will have to rely on the Russians to know what Trump promised in his tete-a-tete with Vladimir. I wonder why Donald is not talking?
politico.com
<<Privately, sources familiar with U.S. intelligence capabilities expressed confidence that the so-called Special Collection Service scooped up not only Putin’s readout of the two-hour meeting, but what the Kremlin’s top spymasters really think about it — and how they’re spinning it to their foreign counterparts.>>
<<“Most of the questions about what happened in Helsinki — and about the risks the president created there—are skipping over a more fundamental concern: How can intel officers effectively support policy, at any level, when only the president knows what the policy is?” asks David Priess, a former CIA officer and daily White House intelligence briefer. “If, one-on-one with Putin, the president made or changed policy, and he refuses to tell anyone exactly what happened, how can the national security bureaucracy prepare the memos and talking points for future meetings to be held about those very policies?”>>
I'm not sure irony is the right word.
<<The irony of Trump himself being the one obstacle preventing them from confirming his claim conclusively — and getting a full picture of what happened in Helsinki — is not lost on current and former U.S. intelligence officials.>>
<<Instead, former NSA senior signals intelligence analyst John Schindler says it appears that “the only way they're learning about what was said in that closed-door meeting is through NSA reporting, top-secret code-word reporting, about what the Russians say was said in that meeting. And what the French foreign ministry and, insert other country here, think happened in Helsinki based on what the Russians told them.">>
Would the Russians lie? Maybe they don't need to.
<<“Obviously this is so crazy that no one thought this would happen,” Schindler said of the U.S. intelligence agencies’ scramble to figure out what, exactly, a sitting U.S. president said in a meeting with a known belligerent adversary. “The really important stuff from an intelligence viewpoint is what we collect on the meeting. But because there’s no U.S. version to check it against, the Russians could be lying about it and we wouldn’t even know.”>>
A FISA warrant on Trump because he's suspected of being a foreign agent? okay by me
<<James Bamford, author of four books on how the NSA operates, said it is indeed illegal for the NSA and CIA to intercept the communications of Americans — domestically or overseas — unless they give their express approval. The agencies also could seek a special intelligence-gathering warrant, usually by demonstrating that the people in question are acting as agents of a foreign power, as was the case with former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.>>
Slump shouldered Trump.
<<What was also alarming to some veteran American spies, they said in interviews, was Trump’s behavior – slump-shouldered and deferential to Putin, who has long boasted about his ability to manipulate rivals when left alone with them.>>
My opinion is Trump's actions are far beyond suspicious.
<<In Trump’s case, U.S. intelligence officials were especially suspicious about his insistence on privacy even before the meeting, due to his already cozy relationship with Putin despite several U.S. investigations that already had concluded that the Russian president personally approved of the Russian election campaign.>>
Pretty clear who came out on top.
<<The Russians have gone into overdrive since Helsinki, with TASS and other state-run news organizations pumping out one story after another about how Russia is moving forward on issues for which Trump offered concessions.>>
Walks like a duck, talks like a duck....
<<“We’ve let the Russians shape, publicly and privately, what was allegedly agreed to in the meeting,” said Harrell, “with no coherent ability for the U.S. to push back.”>> |
