T. Belman. Consider one more possibility namely that Obama/Clinton are creating a false flag to enable them to steal the election. Perhaps all this discord and blaming the Russians for hacking and claiming Trump is in cahoots, is to set the stage for a coup of sorts. Stay tuned.
Election interference stokes fears of November 8 chaos; Little hope for new Syria talks as Russia expands military presence.
WASHINGTON – Relations between Moscow and Washington are on a precipitous decline, as Russia attempts to assert itself as a resurgent world power in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Deploying nuclear-tipped long-range missiles in its Baltic enclave in Kaliningrad and anti-aircraft batteries across Syria, threatening military partnerships with Cuba and Egypt and dispensing with a 16-year-old US-Russia nuclear agreement, the Kremlin and the country’s president, Vladimir Putin, appear to be preparing the nation for prolonged conflict with the West.
Decades of cold war between Soviet Russia and the United States never featured such a brazen attempt at disrupting the government of the other as we are witnessing today, say US intelligence agencies, which last week formally accused Moscow of attempting to interfere in America’s already-turbulent presidential election.
Their analyses point to a multi-pronged Russian attack on the Democratic Party, the campaign of its nominee, Hillary Clinton, and vulnerable state and local election systems.
This includes a contractor for Florida’s election system, according to the FBI, which has warned that the information of tens of thousands of voters may have been stolen. Given the extent of the coordinated, well-executed attack, “only Russia’s seniormost officials could have authorized these activities,” James Clapper, US director of national intelligence, said in a statement.
Russia’s decision to increase its military presence in Kaliningrad has spooked the Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia – members of NATO and the most likely battlegrounds for a test of the military alliance by Moscow.
Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has said he would pause before coming to their defense if they don’t pay their full membership fee of 2% of GDP. He also has questioned the value and necessity of the NATO alliance itself.
Trump, whose advisers have extensive Kremlin ties and whose family had significant investments in Russia (according to his son, Donald Trump Jr., in 2008) says he would seek to improve ties with the Russian government as president.
Yet an improvement of ties, in Trump’s view, may simply mean acquiescence to Moscow on a host of fronts, from the Baltics to Syria, where Russia is now under investigation for war crimes due to its air assault against civilian targets in the city of Aleppo.
Trump said last week that Aleppo – the starved holdout of a rebellion against nominal Syrian president Bashar Assad– has “basically fallen” and should be abandoned. Syria is no longer Syrian, but Russian and Iranian, he said on a debate stage with Clinton, who shook her head in disapproval.
Negotiations restarted on Saturday on the Syrian crisis in Lausanne, Switzerland, where US Secretary of State John Kerry hoped to get regional powers – Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, Jordan and Egypt – on the same page. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov threw cold water on the meetings at the start, saying he has “no special expectations” for the summit.
Given its stated interest in expanding its sphere of influence, once again, into Eastern Europe and the Middle East – actions that Trump has not opposed, and appears willing to facilitate – Democratic leadership and US intelligence officials fear they are witnessing a concerted Russian effort to interfere in the US election to his benefit.
But they see other motivations as well. Russia has long sought to undermine American confidence in its democratic system of government, and sowing doubt through its own hacking of that system furthers that goal. Moscow sees Trump – who has for months warned that the election may be rigged – reinforcing their efforts by his own volition.
A third motivation may be forward- thinking, as Putin faces the prospects of a turbulent election of his own in 2017-18, the centennial of the Russian Revolution. Fearful of mass protests over Russia’s economic decline – prompted by unparalleled inequality and aggravated by international sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine – Putin has consolidated homeland security, police and counter-terrorism forces into one National Guard answerable only to him.
He has given this new force the legal ability to fire on crowds using live ammunition without warning, and search and seize private property without warrant.
Putin’s foreign policy is unified by his opposition to democratic uprisings – in Syria, in Ukraine and historically in Eastern Europe, where protests for liberal democratic governance unshackled from Russia nations historically in its sphere of influence.
American accusations of Russian interference in this presidential election set up a narrative that allows Putin next year to level similar charges against the United States, Russia experts warn.
Russian officials have touted its role in the US election as “flattery” and its actions in Syria and Eastern Europe as evidence of its relevance.
“It’s flattering, of course, to get this kind of attention,” Lavrov said last week, “for a ‘regional power,’ as President Obama called us some time ago.”
Putin also suggested that Russia’s actions had the effect of elevating its profile on the world stage: “Let us not forget that we bear special responsibility as the two largest nuclear powers for maintaining international peace and security at the global level.”
Russian state-run media is taking cues from its leadership, running increasingly militaristic segments on the state of relations. One channel, NTV, suggested all citizens identify their nearest bomb shelters, suggesting the possibility of impending nuclear conflict.
In an interview with three journalists over the weekend, Moscow’s envoy to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, said relations with Washington are at their lowest point since 1973.
“It’s kind of a fundamental lack of respect and lack of in-depth discussions,” Churkin said, adding: “If the change of administration is going to help, that’s fine.”
We have a lot more to lose than the Russians given the comparative dependence on networked systems. What is more, the case against official Russia has not yet been proven, at least in public. I trust the ambiguous pronouncements of DHS about as much as I trust the political appointees at Justice and the FBI.
Now every inefficient operator in the nation of inefficiency and lack of regard for safety concerns will have the excuse that his power station failed because of US operations and/or his train derailed because of US meddling in the control system.
The Soviet administrative bureaucracy was notorious for creating excuses and scapegoats for failure. This characteristic existed in the culture well before the Soviet Union. After the fall of the Soviet Union, we employed every former Soviet intelligence agent [and all approached were willing to work for us]. Much to our surprise in Russia,East Germany and every other former Soviet satellite parents informed upon children, children informed upon parents; teachers informed upon students; students informed upon teachers. Etc.
NBC News: Obama Administration Plans Cyber Attack ‘Message’ to Moscow
The Obama administration is considering launching a covert cyber attack against Russia to retaliate for the country’s alleged interference in this year’s presidential election, according to intelligence officials, with Vice President Joe Biden saying Friday that the White House is “sending a message” to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Current and former intelligence officials, said to have direct knowledge of the plans, told NBC News in an an exclusive that the CIA has already been asked to deliver options for an operation to “embarrass” Putin and other Russian leaders.
They did not say what the CIA is planning, but told NBC that the agency has been selecting targets and making other preparations. Also, the agency has gathered documents to expose Putin’s tactics, the network said.
On Friday, Biden dismissed suggestions that the White House has failed to respond to Russia’s interference, telling NBC’s Chuck Todd that “we’re sending a message,” and “we have the capacity to do it.”
“He’ll know it and it will be at the time of our choosing and under the circumstances that have the greatest impact,” said Biden, adding that he hopes the public will not know.
However, retired Gen. Jack Keane, now a Fox News military analyst, says he doubts Russia is afraid of Biden’s words or the potential threat of a cyber attack, as “we’ve never responded in kind to any provocation by the Russians, not to the annexation of Crimea, the expansion into Ukraine, military incursion in Syria, bombing the CIA-backed Syrian moderate rebels, the recent horrific war crimes committed against the Syrian people.”
Russia, he told Fox News, is working in its own national interests.
“What the Russians want is a return to the world stage as a global power,” said Keane. “They want to be taken seriously. They have serious economic and domestic problems at home. They’re camouflaging some of that by a lot of the incidents that Putin is creating on that world stage. What it really comes down to is he really wants power. He’s interested in forcing eventually the collapse of NATO. As much as he can humiliate and embarrass the United States, that is to his advantage because it weakens our relationships with our allies.”
The Department of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence last week released a statement charging Russia with directing attacks that exposed hacked emails in an attempt to interfere with the presidential election. The statement was Washington’s first official accusation against Moscow.
In the past, U.S. officials said any cyber attacks on important U.S. institutions would prompt a response, which could take the form of diplomatic or economic sanctions, or possibly cyber measures.
The United States should attack Russia’s ability to censor Internet traffic, while exposing Putin’s financial dealings, Retired Admiral James Stavridis told NBC News’ Cynthia McFadden, as “it’s well known that there’s great deal of offshore money moved outside of Russia from oligarchs” and the revelations would be “embarrassing.”
Sean Kanuck, a former intelligence officer said it would be dangerous to accuse Russia of wrongdoing without following that up with action.
However, CIA officers who worked on Russian intelligence said the White House has often asked for covert action options, but then has abandoned the ideas over poltical decisions.
“If someone has decided, ‘We’ve had enough of the Russians,’ there is a lot we can do,” one of the officials said, including reminding Russia that two can play its game.
Meanwhile, experts, including former CIA deputy director Michael Morell, said they doubt the United States will attack Russia’s networks.
“We don’t want to set a precedent for other countries to do it as well, including against us,” Morell said. “My own view is that our response shouldn’t be covert — it should overt, for everybody to see.”
The officials told NBC the Obama administration is still weighing its options, whether to respond with measures such as cyber attacks or through economic sanctions. Meanwhile, the potential cyber operation is being prepared by a team with the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence, documents indicate.
*****
Clinton Foundation Ethics Breach ?
Hacked emails published by Wikileaks this week appear to show Qatar pledging to donate $1 million to Hillary Clinton’s family’s charitable foundation, despite her promise to curb new donations by foreign governments while U.S. secretary of state.
In an email from 2012, a senior official from the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation informs colleagues that a planned donation by Qatar’s government to mark Bill Clinton’s birthday came up in a meeting he had with the Gulf state’s ambassador in Washington.
The ambassador said that he asked “to see WJC ‘for five minutes’ in NYC, to present $1 million check that Qatar promised for WJC’s birthday in 2011,” Amitabh Desai, the foundation official, writes in his email, using the former U.S. president’s initials.
Hillary Clinton, who is the Democratic nominee for the Nov. 8 presidential election, served as secretary of state from 2009 until 2013.
The hacked email is among thousands published over the last week by the pro-transparency group Wikileaks from the account of John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Clinton’s campaign has been embarrassed by this and similar recent hacking attacks on other Democratic Party officials, some of which appear to show Clinton and her aides saying things in private that contradict their public positions. Her spokesmen have not disputed the authenticity of the hacked emails.
The foundation’s website lists the State of Qatar as having given at least that amount. There is no date listed for the donation. A spokesman for the foundation declined to confirm the donation.
Hillary Clinton promised the U.S. government that while she served as secretary of state the foundation would not accept new funding from foreign governments without seeking clearance from the State Department’s ethics office.
The agreement was designed to dispel concerns that U.S. foreign policy could be swayed by donations to the foundation.
The State Department has said it cannot cite any instances of its ethics officials reviewing or approving new donations from foreign governments to the foundation while Clinton served as the country’s top diplomat from 2009 until 2013.
“You would need to ask the Foundation whether there were additional matters that it should have submitted for State Department review,” the department said in a statement.
The ethics agreement allowed foreign governments that already supported foundation projects to continue while Clinton was at the State Department. However, if one of those governments wanted to “increase materially its commitment,” then the foundation was required to ask the department first.
Last year at least seven other foreign governments made new donations to the foundation without the State Department being informed, partly, foundation officials said, because of “oversights.”
President Barack Obama is campaigning for Clinton to be elected his successor, and the White House has repeatedly declined to discuss the breaches of the agreement Clinton signed with Obama’s administration.
Question: Does Putin favor Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump in the forthcoming election?
Answer:Definitely Hillary Clinton.
From actual Clinton actions including :the acceptance (by Obama and Clinton) of Putin’s aggressive intervention in Ukraine; the Iranian deal which permits Russia to sell advanced weaponry to Iran and receive hard currency (furnished by the United States); the strategy of co-opting with Russia and bringing Russia into the Middle East as a major player (as discussed in Obama’s Syria Policy Striptease Tony Badran The Tablet September 21, 2016 ) it is clear that Putin P had sufficient first-hand experience with Hillary Clinton to believe that the parameters and trendiness established by Barack Obama will continue under a Clinton administration. . On the other hand ,Donald Trump is an unknown quantity who might actually follow the advice provided by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Question: What are some of the hallmarks of the Obama strategic approach?
Answer:
Obama has perfected the sequenced rolled out White House directed “echo chamber” chamber” which includes prominent members of the US foreign policy establishment; prominent members of the media and selected academics. The goal at which they have been very successful is to control public perception. See (1) David Samuels (The Aspiring Novelist Who Became Obama’s Foreign-Policy Guru – How Ben Rhodes rewrote the rules of diplomacy for the digital age, New York Times,May 5, 2016 );(2) Jay Solomon(The Iran Wars -New Light on the Dark Story of the Iran Deal,); (3) Tony Badran(Obama’s Syria Policy Striptease The Tablet September 21, 2016 ). All provide detailed, specific accounts of these Obama administration spin campaign activities.
The US military leadership has been shut out on North Korea, China, the Iran deal, Syria, etc. This was highlighted unanimously by the Joint Chiefs recently in their testimony before Congress where they expressly stated their concerns with ( and opposition) to administration policies.
The White House intentionally forestalls action by promising to act decisively…. and then by doing nothing allows the window of opportunity to close…. and then states that now it is too late. Examples include the forestalling of Israel destroying Iran’s nuclear capability and the forestalling of the arming of the non-Islamist opponents of the Assad regime.
Question: What does this portend for Israel?
The Obama administration has been willing to tolerate nearly 500,000 civilian deaths in Syria and the creation of millions of homeless refugees.
The administration has been willing to turn a blind eye to Palestinian terrorism.
The administration has signaled to Israel’s enemies that US support of Israel is tenuous ( the White House stopped resupplying to Israel while Israel was under attack from Hamas in Gaza. The administration shut down Ben-Gurion airport when a stray missile landed quite a distance from the airport thus signaling to the enemies of Israel that Israel would be vulnerable should any halfhearted attack take place in the future. Etc.)
The administration believes that they have neutralized any American Jewish opposition by creating J St. and by what appears to be a takeover of the Anti-Defamation League.
Further, the memo of understanding with Israel actually undercuts on-going and future joint Israeli American development efforts by phasing in the requirement that all expenditures must be made in the United States.
This limitation on Israel coupled with the increase in resources provided to Iran to purchase advanced offensive and defensive weapons and the flow of these funds to proxies enables Hezbollah to increase their anti Israel missile force to 150,000 missiles with improved warheads and guidance .
The provision of hard currency to Iran enables Iran to increase its support of terrorism throughout the world and to further penetrate Africa and South America. See The Iran Wars, Jay Solomon…plus (4) New Light on the Dark Story of the Iran Deal A chat with the author of “The Iran Wars.”SEP 03, 2016 | By LEE SMITH.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7EAU-iNxEw
Mr. Trump must confront that suspicion harshly and up front. Sternly warning all suspects in the US about even remotely trying it. Suspicions about such a conspiracy to commit high treason must be explored.
It is not longer a case of the corrupt entourage associated with Mr. Hussein and the Clintons orchestrating a few ladies to claim having been molested. Dime a dozen jobs.
False flag war conspiracies are serious, critical National Security subject. Lets remember that the suspects did exactly that against Libya’s government.
During my work at a relatively important level with Uncle Sam’s Department of Defense, Military Avionics Programs, we underwent specialized guidance sessions regarding the ever perambulating ladies of occasion who were sometimes working for competitors or outright part of data pillaging systems operated by other countries.
Anyone violating the stern directives on that or violating in any way the Federal Laws and Military regulations related to documentation access and distribution, would be fast facing serious consequences.
Mrs. Clinton at unison with Mr. Hussein intentionally constructed a system to bypass laws and the Constitution itself. Further reason to suspect that element as well.
So, for such individuals fabricating a war for personal gain is not far fetched.
Fun times…