Is Donald Trump the Siberian Candidate?
Source: The Progressive
In the spy trade, players are categorized into a matrix of arcane labels: intelligence officers, case officers, agents, double agents, triple agents, witting assets, unwitting assets, access agents, influence agents, and the list goes on. The CIA devotes an entire year training its new clandestine service recruits in mastering this esoterica of espionage. By contrast, we Foreign Service officers get a mere six weeks of basic diplomatic boot camp before being shipped off to Ulaan Baatar, Cotounou, Ciudad Juarez, Warsaw, what-have-you. Foreign language and other specialized training is often tacked on. After that, it's largely on-the-job training. Lately, I'm finding that a basic knowledge of spy tradecraft to be valuable as I read the news on Donald Trump and his possible Russia entanglements.
Mother Jones investigative reporter David Corn writes that "a former senior intelligence officer for a Western country who specialized in Russian counterintelligence" told him that according to Russian sources, Moscow has sought to co-opt and bolster Trump, that "there was an established exchange of information between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin of mutual benefit." Corn's unnamed source further stated that the FBI has asked him for more information on this alleged connection.
Corn's source reported, "the Russian regime has been cultivating, supporting and assisting Trump for at least five years. Aim, endorsed by Putin, has been to encourage splits and divisions in western alliance." And Trump's "inner circle have accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin, including on his Democratic and other political rivals." Russian intelligence allegedly had "compromised" Trump during trips to Russia and had enough dirt to "blackmail him." Russian intelligence, according to the ex-spook, has maintained a file on Hillary Clinton based on "bugged conversations she had on various visits to Russia and intercepted phone calls." He told Corn the response from the FBI was "shock and horror."
It's no secret that Trump has been playing nice with Putin since he's been running for president, describing the Russian strongman as a "strong leader," being uncritical of the latter's seizure of Ukraine and intervention in Syria, describing NATO as "obsolete," and calling on Russia to hack into Hillary Clinton's emails.
And then there are Trump's pro-Russia advisors. Paul Manafort was forced to resign as campaign chairman after it was revealed that he allegedly received almost $13 million in under-the-table payments from Putin's ally in Ukraine, now exiled president Yanukovych. Advisor Carter Page resigned following revelations that he had cozy relations with members of Putin's inner circle. Trump confidant Roger Stone was reported to have an inside line with Wikileaks honcho Julian Assange who reputedly has been fed hacked emails of Clinton and her campaign chairman John Podesta by the Russians. Senior foreign policy advisor retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn has been a regular contributor to Russia's overseas propaganda organ, Russia Today and was paid to appear at an RT gala as a special guest of Putin. Flynn had been forced to resign as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency by the Obama White House.
Senator Harry Reid has declared the connections between Trump, his advisors and Russia to be "explosive."
Are they?
According to the New York Times, "law enforcement officials say that none of the investigations so far have found any conclusive or direct link between Mr. Trump and the Russian government." Seventeen U.S. intelligence agencies have attributed the email hacks to Moscow. Investigators have told the New York Times that based on the evidence they have uncovered, Russia’s direct goal is not to support the election of Mr. Trump, as many Democrats have asserted, but rather to disrupt the integrity of the political system and undermine America’s standing in the world more broadly."
Mother Jones's Corn relies on a single anonymous source for his story. That Russia's foreign intelligence agency keeps dossiers on Ms. Clinton is to be expected. This is what intel agencies do. They have a file on me, not to mention all of my colleagues who have ever had any substantive dealings with the Russian government. And, guess what? We do the same. It's SOP and the more prominent you are, the thicker the file.
Here's my take: Donald Trump is a foreign affairs lightweight and naif. His advisors are oddballs and cranks, outside the mainstream of serious foreign policy channels. They are what Lenin termed, "useful idiots," naive and gullible Westerners easily vulnerable to manipulation by professional spies and agitprops. Former acting CIA Director Michael Morell labeled Trump an "an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation." More accurately, he is an "unwitting asset," i.e., an easily manipulated de facto tool of Moscow's bidding. This potentially can be just as dangerous to our national security as damage done by a mole inside the government's national security apparatus. All it would take is for President Trump to signal to his pal Vladimir that, yes, you're free to march into the Baltic States, that NATO is now null and void. This is what a useful idiot would do.
See also --
Trump: The Anti-Diplomat
Donald Trump’s Farcical Foreign Policy