Usa Thread

[unit731]

(CNN)Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN.

 

 

LINK

[Flashermac]

Makes you wonder what the Russkies have hacked from the Pentagon.

 

 

[waerth]

Actually it is not shocking at all. Every intelligence agency in the world will try to gather as much compromising material about people they might want to blackmail in the future as possible. And the Russians have always been one of the best.

 

There is no doubt there is a file somewhere in the NKVD quarters with Trump's name on it and with material in it. We can all know looking at Trump's past and his OWN admissions that there will be plenty of material in there that would place him in an embarrassing spotlight. I guess US intelligence will have the same on Russian figures.

[Flashermac]

All of this is unsubstantiated, but the anti-Trump folks glomped onto it like a hungry dog to a pork chop. It may well be true, but still ... is it too much to ask that they prove it?

 

p.s. I wonder what they have on Slick Willy. J. Edgar Hoover had so much dirt on LBJ and other politicians that they had to let him stay on as long as he wanted, even after the manditory retirement age.

 

 

[Coss]

Yep sounds to good to be true. But Donald's not even in yet and he's starting to look like he might not make the distance.

 

"Russians? Fake News, Lovely Folk. Security Briefings? I don't need no security briefings.

 

a week later after a security briefing

 

Russians did it. CNN terrible organisation, get out of my press conference, No, No, not you and not you - terrible organisation."

 

I can't wait for his second Press Conference, or maybe they'll keep him in the back room.

[bust]

I watched a bit of Obama's final speech. Gotta say he's impressive. Comes across as intelligent and articulate and yes I know I am not an Amerikan but sometimes a distant observation is more objective.

 

Trump on the other

 

[Flashermac]

Democrats Hope "Mad Dog" Will Calm Trump Down

 

 

President-elect Donald Trump has aroused considerable concern among Democrats by nominating a secretary of energy who thinks the Department of Energy shouldn't exist, a secretary of labor who opposes raising the minimum wage, a secretary of state who's been cozy with Russia, and an attorney general who has had to spend an awful lot of time convincing people he's not a racist.

 

Which made it all the more striking when a Trump Cabinet nominee got a friendly—and even laudatory—reception from the minority party in the Senate when he appeared for a confirmation hearing on Thursday. Retired Gen. James Mattis, up for secretary of defense, requires a congressional waiver to join the Cabinet because he's been out of the military for fewer than seven years. But Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee appeared eager to grant him that waiver, in part because they see Mattis, nicknamed "Mad Dog," as a moderating force on Trump's far-right inner circle.

 

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the top Democrat on the committee, told the retired Marine Corps general that "many have supported the waiver legislation in your confirmation because they believe you will be, to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, 'the saucer that cools the coffee.'"

 

Even Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who voted against the waiver, told Mattis, "If there were ever a case for a waiver of that principle, it is you, in this moment in our history. I believe that your appreciation for the costs of war in blood, treasure, and lives and the impact on veterans afterward will enable you to be a check on rash and potentially ill-considered use of military force by a president-elect who perhaps lacks that same appreciation."

 

Mattis' thoughts on Russia and NATO helped keep his three-hour confirmation hearing relatively conflict-free, unlike those earlier this week for attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions and secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson. Trump has been liberal in his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin and has called NATO—the military alliance formed in response to threats from the Soviet Union—"obsolete." Mattis called NATO "the most successful military alliance in modern world history, maybe ever," and he was willing to castigate Putin and discuss Russian threats to US interests. "The most important thing is that we recognize the reality of what we deal with with Mr. Putin," he told the committee, "and we recognize that he is trying to break the North Atlantic alliance, and that we take the integrated steps—diplomatic, economic, military, and the alliance steps—to defend ourselves where we must."

 

Mattis said he agrees with Trump that the United States should engage Russia and identify areas of cooperation, but that we have to be realistic. "Russia has chosen to be a strategic competitor," said Mattis, who was removed from his military post in 2013 after the Obama administration felt he was too hawkish on Iran. "They're an adversary in key areas. I'm all for engagement, but we also have to recognize reality and what Russia is up to. And there's decreasing areas where we can engage cooperatively and increasing areas where we're going to have to confront Russia."

 

He added, "I would not have taken this job if I didn't believe the president-elect was open to my advice on this or any other matter."

 

Advocates of women in the military have expressed concern that Mattis could roll back rules allowing women to serve in combat roles. Mattis co-edited the 2016 book Warriors & Citizens: American Views of Our Military, in which he wrote that "an uninformed public is permitting political leaders to impose an accretion of social conventions that are diminishing the combat power of our military." But on Thursday, he said, "I have no plan to oppose women in any aspect of our military," and he later added that he had no issues with gays serving openly.

 

"Frankly, senator," he said, "I've never cared much about two consenting adults and who they go to bed with."

 

 

http://www.motherjon...attis-democrats

[unit731]

Yep sounds to good to be true. But Donald's not even in yet and he's starting to look like he might not make the distance.

 

 

Bet some right now are making contingency plans for the new President Pence !

[Flashermac]

Trump might just get bored and resign. Wouldn't be that surprising. After all, he's proved he could win it. Isn't that all he really cared about? Doing the job is too much work.

[Flashermac]

After a war on leaks, Obama makes a U-turn, commutes Chelsea Manning’s sentence

 

 

WASHINGTON - With barely 72 hours left in office, President Barack Obama Tuesday did an abrupt U-turn on his years-long assault on government leaks and showed leniency toward two military figures who’d helped make public highly sensitive secrets.

 

Both Democrats and Republicans said they were bewildered – even angered – by Obama’s commutation of the 35-year prison term of Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence specialist who turned over some 700,000 classified and sensitive diplomatic documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.

 

Obama also pardoned retired Marine Gen. James Cartwright, the former vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators when he denied that he revealed to the New York Times the existence of a highly classified campaign to cripple Iran’s nuclear program with a computer worm. The Stuxnet virus crippled Iran’s delicate nuclear equipment and was the first major use in history of a digital weapon.

 

For most of his two terms in office, Obama relentlessly sought to prosecute those who spilled government secrets, trying to deter others from following suit. Republican and Democratic critics said Tuesday’s commutation rendered that effort worthless.

 

Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, called the commutation of Manning’s sentence “ a grave mistake that I fear will encourage further acts of espionage and undermine military discipline.â€

 

Manning’s “dishonor will last forever,†McCain said.

 

The White House said Obama would issue new pardons and commutations Thursday, raising questions about the future of WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange, an Australian national who has been in refuge at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since 2012 fighting extradition to Sweden over sexual assault charges.

 

WikiLeaks last week posted a tweet saying Assange, who for years has voiced fears that Sweden would turn him over to stand trial in U.S. courts, would “agree to US extradition†if Obama offered clemency to Manning.

 

Whether Obama would issue a pardon without a conviction was uncertain, as was how it would be viewed by Republicans, who’ve developed a new-found appreciation for the Australian after his publication of leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee and the chairman of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign team undercut Clinton’s campaign.

 

“Cue hypocritical outrage from Republicans who have defended Assange role in election-related hacks,†tweeted Brian Fallon, Clinton’s former press secretary.

 

“This is just outrageous,†House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, said in a statement. “Chelsea Manning’s treachery put American lives at risk and exposed some of our nation’s most sensitive secrets.â€

 

The actions on behalf of Manning and Cartwright were included in a list of 273 pardons and commutations issued Tuesday by the White House. Manning, who has served barely seven years of her 35-year jail term, will now be freed from her cell at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on May 17.

 

Last-minute pardons have raised controversy for other presidents, most notably for President Bill Clinton, who on his final day in office pardoned Marc Rich, a fugitive on tax fraud who owed the U.S. government $48 million.

 

But there was a special feeling to Obama’s unexpected action on Manning’s behalf.

 

Washington is wracked by a sense of intrigue that perhaps goes beyond even the consternation that greeted the 2010 publication by WikiLeaks of video and documents Manning copied to a CD from a classified computer system while on duty in Iraq.

 

The national intelligence agencies are feuding with President-elect Donald Trump over the possible role of Russia in the election just past, an unverified dossier compiled by a former British spy is circulating, alleging that Russia has compromising video of Trump, and the nation’s political establishment is angrily debating whether Trump’s soft talk toward Russian President Vladimir Putin is a threat to national security.

 

That made Obama’s abrupt move to free Manning, a 29-year-old Army private from Oklahoma, seem like an especially sharp slap to the nation’s system of classifying secrets.

 

Until Tuesday, Obama had defied appeals from advocacy groups, including Amnesty International, to release Manning, who originally was known as Bradley but has been undergoing a gender transformation since he was arrested. She was convicted of multiple counts under the Espionage Act, and given the 35-year term on Aug. 21, 2013. She is serving her term in an all-male prison.

 

Manning’s leak arguably changed the course of history. Once secret State Department cables on Tunisia’s corrupt government helped ignite the Arab Spring movement, bringing dramatic and violent upheaval to six nations, at least three of which are still plunged in turmoil.

 

Tens of thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables that pulled back the veil on U.S. policies normally drawn up in private and, in some cases, showed covert support for authoritarian rulers favorable to U.S. interests.

 

Obama’s actions also raise questions about the future of Edward Snowden, the former contractor for the National Security Agency whose unauthorized revelations in 2013 showed vast surveillance by the U.S. intelligence apparatus, some of it on trusted leaders of allied nations. Snowden’s leaks also underscored how the NSA swept up telephone records within the United States in apparent violation of U.S. law. Snowden is in asylum in Moscow.

 

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest noted recently the “stark differences†between Manning and Snowden, whose supporters who have been pushing for clemency.

 

“Chelsea Manning is somebody who went through the military criminal justice process, was exposed to due process, was found guilty, was sentenced for her crimes, and she acknowledged wrongdoing,†Earnest said. “Mr. Snowden fled into the arms of an adversary, and has sought refuge in a country that most recently made a concerted effort to undermine confidence in our democracy.â€

 

“So I think the situation of these two individuals is quite different. I can’t speculate at this point about to what degree that will have an impact on the President’s consideration of clemency requests. But I know that there’s a temptation because the crimes were relatively similar to lump the two cases together. But there are some important differences, including the scale of the crimes that were committed and the consequences of their crimes.â€

 

Earnest said the “disclosures by Edward Snowden were far more serious and far more dangerous†than those of Manning.

Supporters hailed the commutation as an act of humanity.

 

“Since she was first taken into custody, Chelsea has been subjected to long stretches of solitary confinement — including for attempting suicide — and has been denied access to medically necessary health care. This move could quite literally save Chelsea’s life,†said Chase Strangio, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT Project representing Manning.

 

But politicians of both political party were united in their denunciations. Sen. Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who is the ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said the commutation was “not sending the right message.â€

 

“I’m really surprised the president took this step,†Menendez told CNN. “There are very serious consequences when you release the kind of documents as she did. … We have operatives in the field. We have interests in terms of our advocacy in countries abroad.â€

 

A Republican counterpart, Sen. Tom Cotton, who sits on the Armed Services Committee and as an Army officer served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, voiced anger.

 

“When I was leading soldiers in Afghanistan, Pvt. Manning was undermining us by leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks,†Cotton said.

 

“I don’t understand why the president would feel special compassion for someone who endangered the lives of our troops, diplomats, intelligence officers, and allies. We ought not treat a traitor like a martyr.

 

 

http://www.mcclatchy...e127061129.html