US spies withholding intel from White House because they know Russia is listening: report

[DonViejo]

Source: RawStory



DAVID FERGUSON
12 FEB 2017 AT 22:11 ET

U.S. intelligence operatives are withholding sensitive information from the White House for the first time in history because they believe that Russia will find out anything they tell Pres. Donald Trump and his aides.

The New York Observer — which is owned by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner — reported Sunday that the intelligence community (IC) is “pushing back” against an administration it believes is incompetent, dishonest, leaky and “penetrated by the Kremlin.”

“Our Intelligence Community is so worried by the unprecedented problems of the Trump administration — not only do senior officials possess troubling ties to the Kremlin, there are nagging questions about basic competence regarding Team Trump — that it is beginning to withhold intelligence from a White House which our spies do not trust,” wrote former analyst for the National Security Agency Jack R. Schindler.

Not only has Trump gone out of his way to discredit the nation’s spy agencies, his main national security guru, Gen. Mike Flynn either appears to by lying about his conversations with the Russian government about U.S. sanctions or can’t remember breaking the law.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/us-spies-withholding-intel-from-white-house-because-they-know-russia-is-listening-report/

[Achilleaze]

1. the republican cabal is "penetrated by the Kremlin"

That sucks. Being a republican traitor to America totally sucks.

disgusting.

[Zoonart]

3. I think the US Intel community...

knows the whole scope of this . I think they have the goods and are just waiting for the opening to spring the trap.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson famously said, “If you shoot at a king you must kill him.

[titaniumsalute]

7. Who do you think leaked the Flynn calls??

Yup those pesky spy agencies. They know everything. They also hate Trump mostly because he has really talked about ignoring their hard work. I'm not a huge fan of the massive amounts of money for espionage, but frankly I'm sure it has helped thwart numerous attacks and wars over the years.

[cab67]

24. The time to spring the trap was before the inauguration.

The longer Lord Dampnut remains in office, the more damage he causes.

[Me.]

27. Love The Emerson Quote

[tenorly]

23. By the Kremlin, by exiled Nazis, by banksters, by narcos

The GOP is being penetrated by more miscreants than Melania in her modeling days.

[forgotmylogin]

32. 45 is a liability.

[pnwmom]

2. Kushner is no longer the publisher of the Observer, though the editor is still

a Trump supporter and Rudy G. associate.

[DK504]

4. Nothing to see here

move along, nothing to see. There's only a soy in the Oval Office, move along, this is normal.

When will the Joint Chief's of Staff refuse to give him intelligence and refuse to complete thier orders becasue his decisions are so dangerous for our troops?

[Raster]

10. soy in the Oval Office... tofu? tamari? tempeh? miso?

I kid, I kid.

[turbinetree]

5. I just gotta ask..............if and when this "guy" gets brought before the public to be forced

out, what does the public think of a man that said "yes" to be his second in charge "running mate" ----would you trust him also?

Me no, because he said "yes", what is he doing now?

[csziggy]

9. At this point Pence HAS to know - he's complicit either way

Either he has known the involvement with the Russians all along and approved of it before he accepted the VP position, or he found out later -maybe as the rest of us did - and is willing to go along to maintain his personal power and the GOP's power.

Either way, Pence is complicit.

Wait - there is the other possibility: that he is too stupid to know or understand what the meaning of the intel is. But that would be counter to everything I have read about Pence. He is not a stupid person.

[turbinetree]

12. I wouldn't trust this "guy" with anything, he is just as dangerous

[csziggy]

15. From a political standpoint Pence worries me more.

Trump is ham fisted and does not understand how to work with Congress - and Congress is already gearing up to fight some of Trump's stuff.

Pence has been in politics for a long time and knows how to get things done by hiding the extremism of what he is doing. So long as Trump is doing things that Pence is OK with - blocking immigration, etc. - Pence will let it go. But I believe that if Trump really gets dangerously out of hand, Pence will be happy to try to get Trump out and then PENCE will run roughshod over anyone to get his own agenda accomplished.

[AnOldFriend]

21. But Pence won't do lasting damage

Trump is an existential threat to the US system. His contempt for the rule of law is pushing us toward a line beyond which we cannot return. Pence at least would respect the courts.

[csziggy]

33. Trump is a threat to the world - Pence is a threat to everyone's rights

They are both fascists in their own way - Trump is a corporate fascist while Pence is a Christian fascist. While Trump is so stupid he thinks threatening use of nuclear weapons is a good idea, I could see Pence think that using them would help advance an end times agenda. Personally I don't see a whole lot of difference between the two.

As a woman I think they both equally threaten women's rights. While I am old enough that the limitations on the right to choice and self control of women's will hurt me I have five nieces that will be significantly affected. One in particular is fighting for women's rights abroad and the re-instatement of the Mexico City Policy (no US funds for any organization that provides abortions to refugee women no matter what their circumstances) will hurt her efforts to a very deep extent.

Trump put the Mexico City Policy back into effect in his first few days - Pence would not lift it.

There are a lot of things that Trump and Pence agree on that would be the same as that - they don't like something for different reasons but the effect is the same.

On the other hand, Pence would be sure that any executive orders he writes go through the proper vetting and are thus less vulnerable to being overturned by the courts - that makes Pence more dangerous in my eyes.

[NewRedDawn]

40. Pence is both.

Both Corporate & Christo Fascist.

[Hortensis]

39. Also have to disagree, AnOldFriend. Pence seems to

personify a fusion of authoritarian Christian reconstructionism and business fascism. I believe Pence, and the very dangerous and extreme forces behind him, are even bigger existential threats to our liberal democratic systems than 45's incoherent impossible-to-harness goulash of maybeism. That they've gotten this far with him makes me wonder if they're somehow blackmailing him into compliance.

Pence has emotional and intellectual (what there is of it) commitment to destroying the principles our nation was established on, and he doesn't have to be smarter than he is. He's not too stupid to know what he's doing and who he's doing it with, he comes across well in front of cameras, and the people he serves will hire all the brains needed.

Now, 45 could get us all blown up, a whole different kind of threat.

[riversedge]

18. If Flynn goes down, he is vindictive and will squeal-so everybody is protecting everybody-at this

point. Wonder how long it will last.

[turbinetree]

20. Agreed, and we the people need answers and to keep the pressure on Congress and Senate

they will be held accountable, I for one do like like Manchurian candidates running this country and his lackeys, they can try and run and hide on this, but when information is coming out that the dossier from the former MI6 agent is coming to be true, then these traitorous team has an problem a very big problem.............

----------------none at all

[not fooled]

25. Pence thinks he can lie

if he's doing god's work. That's how all these so-called Xtians rationalize bearing false witness.

Bunch of phonies.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

29. And for him, doing god's work means taking away human rights

From people that make gawd angry.

Those sinful women, gay people, brown people, poor people and sick people make Mikey's best friend, jeeezus tattle to his father, who can't wait to unleash furious anger upon them.

[onetexan]

6. So my reasoning in tying this back to the orange idiot is this

If the president's job is first and foremost to protect the nation, yet he is so ignorant of the value of intel from our intelligence agents and refuses to work with them, he's essentially abdicating his responsibility as president. In doing so he is a clear and present danger to our national security given he leaves us vulnerable to attacks. That to me constitutes grounds for impeachment.

[Friend or Foe]

8. So, if this was "fake news" being delivered by one of Drumph's top advisors.

And Drumph said it was fake news.

Would that make it real?

[riversedge]

14. nah, Trump thinks it is real this time and has threatened to waterboard them!

[tavernier]

11. Good.

While the fox is in the henhouse, our guard dogs don't need to lead him to all the chickens in the yard.

[riversedge]

13. Intell officials know Trump et al have big mouths and will use it for political gain. We are in

dangerous territory.

[Deb]

16. U.S. intelligence treating GOP Leadership as Russian spy ring

Where is the rank and file GOP? Are they denying it?

[flamingdem]

19. IMO the rank and file GOP are as guilty as the Trump cabal

if they continue to be silent

[BlancheSplanchnik]

30. We all knew the rank and file GOP was dangerous long ago.

Relieved that at least the international intel knows enough to protect us.

[matt819]

22. Think about this for a minute

It looks like the US intelligence community increasingly coming to the conclusion that Flynn is a Russian agent. Witting, unwitting, whatever. The former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, who was fired, might have been a Russian mole.

Think about the investigation into what might have been shared with the Russians by Flynn and his cohorts. First, when was Flynn turned? Let's just go with the time he became the DIA director in 2012. Fired in 2014. That two years of current intelligence - on everything. Everything. North Korea, China, Germany, France, the former Soviet republics. Everything. To say nothing of the inside workings of the DIA, personalities, existing assets. Did I say this before? Everything!

Nah. Could never happen. That would be like saying the Russians have an asset in the form of the US president. Nah. Could. . . Whoops!

[not fooled]

26. Maybe it's all about the oil

so Flynn can rationalize that he's just trying to facilitate commerce by helping US oil interests collude with the Russkies.

So, in his mind, no treason.

[matt819]

34. Rationalization

I used to be an intelligence officer. For sources, rationalization is the key. That, and money. It's still spying.

[lark]

28. I'm hoping this is the first chapter in his undoing.

Will the CIA come through and tell the nation that it's so-called president is a traitor and is on the take to Russia and is really one of their assets?

[Mr.Bill]

31. Another angle could be

that the intelligence people see this a s great opportunity to feed false info to the Russians. When the jig is up the intel people will blow the lid off and go after Trump and his crew.

The only thing I hope is when they go to arrest him, they arrest everyone in sight.

[lagomorph777]

35. I'm betting that the agencies will feed him disinformation

so they can track its flow to Putin. Such disinfo would have to be carefully crafted:

(1) It would have to be credible - not difficult when the audience is so credulous.
(2) It would have to be something that would trigger some kind of Putin response.
(3) It would have to not result in negative consequences for American security.

[world wide wally]

36. So basically, we are a ship at sea without a captain

[BumRushDaShow]

37. The (civil servant) "crew" below decks

know how to run the ship.

[R B Garr]

38. Scary shit! Why are we putting up with this?!

Can you imagine if a Democrat was so thick with Russia that our national intel infrastructure couldn't work? This is beyond outrageous.