ThunderHorse
Verified Military
Or rather, what does Putin have on McCain. I mean the dude cheated on his first wife, mother of his children who stood by him, not truly know if he was dead or not. Is he the Manchurian Candidate?
The Trump Presidency
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TLDR20
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Or maybe we actually look hard at Trump.
John McCain so badly needs to be put out to pasture. I've never liked McCain, ever, POW status set aside, he probably is one of the biggest war mongering politicians we have in this country.
ThunderHorse
Verified Military
What's there to look at? I knew he was a schmuck, but he was better than his opponent.
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John McCain, the warmongering liberal Republican. Who did he endorse for the presidency?
He needs to retire.
True the Vote WAS under congressional investigation in 2012 for alleged voter suppression efforts. While the amount of visits by those various agencies seems a little excessive to a lay person like me, it's part of an investigation. Now, we had talked about voter suppression a few months back and there was definitely some disagreement on either side. But in this case, which concerned an Ohio offshoot of True the Vote, it seems pretty deliberate: Ohio voters face challenges from tea party groups
That article is reportedly the genesis of the congressional investigation, and it include juicy quotes like this one:
If you want to blame someone, blame Elijah Cummings, not Obama. Believe it or not, he's not the mastermind behind every devilish government action of the last eight years.
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I never mentioned Obama, or that he may be a mastermind behind a devlish gov't action...
... but now that you mention it...
Looks like our Trump haters here got played as well.
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Whoops.
You do realize these are from a private entity, not an accredited gov't intelligence officer- right?
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Truth be told, I've not spent more than 5 minutes looking at this, so no, I did not know. My anti-Trump family members have been filling my email box with this shit all day long.
You've given me better info that I've been able to find online today, so I am going with, "yes", it is bullshit.
Thankyou, @Etype .
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I'm not sure if it is or not; but, I am sure that its not any type of official US report and not done in a US reporting format.
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I guess that is what I meant my saying it's bullshit. Thanks again.
Next up I need to figure out if I am supposed to be "mad" at John McCain.
To add -
My BS Detector goes into overdrive when the first quote I read is this:
'I did what any citizen should do. <McCain said>I received sensitive information and handed it to the FBI,' he told CNN
It's not like they're right all the time either though...just to be cynical.
Be pissed at McCain for not passing the data to Trump.
I believe he figured Comey would pass it on allowing it to be used against Trump.
ThunderHorse
Verified Military
Okay, I should probably lay out some facts about this thing. It's pretty complex and if you don't carefully read it then you might miss something.
-This report is the result of opposition research that was commissioned by Republicans last year. It is unclear as to why it was not used during the campaign.
-The report was produced by a retired British CI guy. According to IC sources cited in the Guardian article, he has reportedly reliably in the past, which is why this report is getting any play at all. He also apparently has a strong Russian source network
-It is not an official IC document, hence the unconventional markings and language used.
-The report was actually presented to the FBI twice:
a. The first time was during the summer last year. The author of the report was so alarmed by what he learned during the opposition research that he sent it directly to the FBI. It is unknown how widely it was distributed
b. The second time was John McCain, who learned of the existence of the report, "...separately by an intermediary from a western allied state." He sent a representative to talk with the author of the report, and was sufficiently convinced of the veracity of the information to arrange a direct meeting with Director Comey in early December. Note that this is after the election.
-This is an important detail related to point A: Sometime last year, the FBI sought FISA warrants to monitor four members of the Trump campaign staff who reportedly had ties to Russia's Alfa Bank (also mentioned in the opposition research, thought incorrectly cited as "Alpha Group"). After some hemming and hawing, the warrants were granted in October, but it is not known what came of the taps.
-Last week, the report was briefed to both Obama and President-Elect Trump by DNI Clapper, FBI Director Comey, CIA Director Brennan, and NSA Director Admiral Rogers. So it is known (and presumably in the process of being vetted) by the major heads of the IC.
Hopefully this clears up some confusion.
-This report is the result of opposition research that was commissioned by Republicans last year. It is unclear as to why it was not used during the campaign.
-The report was produced by a retired British CI guy. According to IC sources cited in the Guardian article, he has reportedly reliably in the past, which is why this report is getting any play at all. He also apparently has a strong Russian source network
-It is not an official IC document, hence the unconventional markings and language used.
-The report was actually presented to the FBI twice:
a. The first time was during the summer last year. The author of the report was so alarmed by what he learned during the opposition research that he sent it directly to the FBI. It is unknown how widely it was distributed
b. The second time was John McCain, who learned of the existence of the report, "...separately by an intermediary from a western allied state." He sent a representative to talk with the author of the report, and was sufficiently convinced of the veracity of the information to arrange a direct meeting with Director Comey in early December. Note that this is after the election.
-This is an important detail related to point A: Sometime last year, the FBI sought FISA warrants to monitor four members of the Trump campaign staff who reportedly had ties to Russia's Alfa Bank (also mentioned in the opposition research, thought incorrectly cited as "Alpha Group"). After some hemming and hawing, the warrants were granted in October, but it is not known what came of the taps.
-Last week, the report was briefed to both Obama and President-Elect Trump by DNI Clapper, FBI Director Comey, CIA Director Brennan, and NSA Director Admiral Rogers. So it is known (and presumably in the process of being vetted) by the major heads of the IC.
Hopefully this clears up some confusion.
Weren't you saying how accredited gov't intelligence folks were full of shit like 24 hours ago? And yes, the details of those unverified reports are very likely bullshit. There may be some ties to Russia, some ongoing relationships between the Trump campaign, and there is almost certainly a file in the Kremlin on the PE with some unflattering stuff but accusations of essentially being a sleeper agent are on par with SEN McCain being a Manchurian candidate thanks to his time as a POW.
Unless the PE makes that accusation on twitter - then it's a fact and if you disagree with it you're a whinny liberal bitch who is tearing our country apart.
Just one thing about 'reporting reliably.' In the HUMINT/CI world that means accurately relaying information - not necessarily that the information proved correct.
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You're right, but the description comes from a journalist who is probably not spun up on the nuances of intelligence language. That's not to say that this guy is an A1 super duper source extraordinaire, but I imagine that his information accuracy is also probably pretty good.
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