John Schindler: Spy Clouds Hang Over Trump's Inauguration

[highplainsdem]

http://observer.com/2017/01/spy-clouds-hang-over-trumps-inauguration/

Now the whole case has been blown wide open again with yesterday’s bombshell McClatchy report that the IC has been looking into possible ties of, as the McClatchy report put it, “a few Americans who were affiliated with Trump’s campaign or his business empire” to individuals “from Russia and other former Soviet nations.” This has supposedly happened at least since the spring, months before Steele shared his dossier with anyone in Washington. In particular, a specially created IC working group, comprised of representatives from the FBI, CIA, NSA, and the Departments of Justice and Treasury, looked into clandestine Russian money that may have been sent to finance the Trump campaign.

In other words, the Steele report is hardly more than a cover mechanism for the real IC investigation, which knew everything that was true in that dossier already – and presumably knows what’s not true as well. The IC working group found sufficient information on Trump’s secret ties to Putin to get a Federal court to issue warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which gives them access to phone calls, emails, and bank accounts which may be tainted by connections to foreign spies.

Team Trump refused comment on the McClatchy story. Since the Senate Intelligence Committee will be conducting an investigation into Trump’s Russian links, including subpoena powers and full access to what the IC knows, the president-elect may have a great deal to worry about. The clearest sign of Trump’s concern is that, almost 24 hours after the report appeared, he hasn’t taken to Twitter to denounce or mock it. His uncharacteristic silence indicates serious trouble in the Trump camp.

Neither are the Senate and the IC all that Trump has to worry about. Several European intelligence agencies have watched the new president’s clandestine ties to Putin with interest and alarm. For small countries close to Russia, the prospect of an American president colluding with the Kremlin is terrifying. What they know was hinted at in a tweet by Harri Ohra-aho, in response to an all-caps claim tweeted by Trump: “I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA – NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!” Ohra-aho’s response, which translates as “Lord, give me patience, AND NOW!” is important mainly because the tweeter is a two-star general serving as the chief of Finnish military intelligence.

Plenty of intelligence services know parts of the truth about our 45th president’s potentially unsavory ties to Moscow. Starting tomorrow, Trump will try hard to shut down IC inquiries, but he cannot curtail the Senate investigation and doesn’t have any power to silence worried allies and partners who consider him a threat to their countries.

Like Schindler, I thought that tweet from Finland's head of military intelligence was very telling:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028477118

We can hope that the patience of these foreign intelligence services will wear thin soon, and we'll find out what they know about Trump and Putin.

[matt819]

1. So much potential fallout from this

I can see the intelligence community withholding intel from the PDB and other high-level briefings.

Then there's the follow-on that Flynn et al will circumvent the conventional channels within the IC to get intel on Russia that might otherwise be withheld from him.

Then there's the potential splits within the IC between pro-trump and anti-trump camps.

Then there's the reluctance by friendly foreign intelligence services worldwide to provide intel to the US under long-standing intel sharing arrangements. This potentially shuts the door on intel from the Canadians (stop chuckling), British, Australians, French, and Germans, to say nothing of liaison arrangements with scores of other intel services. I'm not sure you could measure the impact, but I can see this happening. The biggest fear, of course, is that the drumpfenfuhrer's administration would leak intel to the Russians.

[skylucy]

2. Wow. Will this hit the msm after Trump is Pres? Is that what the msm is waiting for?

[tavernier]

3. Absolutely.

The entire focus on the msm this week is to create a party atmosphere for the inauguration.