What to Make of the Intelligence Failure Over the Steele Dossier?

At the time (January 13, 2007), I expected the intelligence community to reach the same conclusion as I that the Steele Dossier was pure garbage. All that would be required was for them to observe general rules of intelligence collection. I was wrong then. To my alarm, the FBI was taking the fake dossier seriously. We are still waiting for some kind of disavowal of the dossier from our masters of intelligence.

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Authoritative Putin Think Tank Could Not Choose Between Clinton and Trump

A Reuter’s exclusive cites seven anonymous “informed sources” with access to the “confidential” reports of the Moscow-based Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS). Reuters claims that these reports “provided the framework and rationale” for the Kremlin’s “intensive effort …. to swing the 2016 U.S. presidential election to Donald Trump and undermine voters’ faith in the American electoral system.” My own reading of RISS published reports (in Russian) finds that RISS’s experts were ambiguous on which candidate to favor, despite the US intelligence community’s conclusion” that “Putin, his advisers, and the Russian Government developed a clear preference [my italics] for President-elect Trump over Secretary Clinton,”

Putin’s spokesman denied the Reuters claims during a regular press briefing and cautioned that “seven anonymous sources are not worth one real one.”

RISS is indeed an authoritative Russian think tank, headed by top security veterans and staffed by qualified senior researchers. RISS maintains an active working paper and publication series and has its own TV interview network. RISS’s evaluation of candidates Clinton and Trump could therefore provide a glimpse into Putin’s own thinking.    

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CBS' 'Face The Nation' Downplays Henry Kissinger's Doubts That Russia Sought To Elect Trump

Dr. Kissinger: “I can’t quite understand what their purpose would be because in all the polls Hillary was far ahead, and they could not have had information on the polls that others didn’t have.  And then to antagonize the president-to-be by getting into an open support of the opponent doesn’t make any sense to me.  They were hacking, but the use they allegedly made of this hacking eludes me.”


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The 'Putin Directed The Leaks' Story Is Less Than It Appears

he NBC report intimates that our spies and intelligence officials know Putin’s innermost thoughts on matters of great importance, such as his preferences on the next US President. If so, NBC’s sources know more than Russian officials, pundits, oppositionists, and media about what Putin, isolated in in his Moscow suburban palace, is up to. Few officials seem to know how the Putin kleptocracy works. Is it a one-man show or is it run by a Kremlin Politburo?

As to linking Putin to a specific nefarious act, efforts by western intelligence and investigative press to link Putin to murders of renegade reporters, ex KGB turncoats, and notable political figures (Boris Nemtsov) have failed, but somehow NBC informants have been able to find almost “inconvertible evidence” of Putin’s personal involvement in the US election. His personal involvement may have been simply to sit back and enjoy the show.

As I have written on numerous occasions, the WikiLeaks disclosures have been a godsend for Putin to “show corruption in American politics,” as the NBC “bombshell” now claims. After surviving a much-criticized parliamentary election, the Kremlin media could regale the Russian public with US press accounts of a rigged election, conspiracies against the peoples’ candidate, Bernie Sanders, the riches of Soros, Goldman Sachs, and the Saudi princes determining the outcome, and the Clintons growing rich from their political connections. Putin could now ask: Who gives these Clintons the right to criticize me? What more was sweet revenge against Hillary Clinton could Putin ask for?

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The Battle Over Russian Hacking Is Over The Legitimacy Of The Trump Presidency

Trump has resisted pressure to agree that Russia was behind the hacks and was trying to get him elected.  Trump’s political instincts are again serving him well. If he were to endorse the leaked intelligence community’s “high level of confidence” not only in the hacking but also in its intent, he would be signing on to the illegitimate President narrative the Democrats are pushing.


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Hillary Clinton's Corrupt Dealings Have Given Putin A Massive Propaganda Victory

Putin’s propagandists are waiting for the election results, as are American voters, to tell them whether Americans are turned off by Washington DC, Inc. or will follow Clinton’s misdirection – the oldest trick in the magician’s bag. In any case, Putin is the winner no matter who wins the US election. The next time the West wants to reprimand him for his repressive electoral tricks, he’ll simply remind his critics of the DNC Wikileaks. If critics complain about the enrichment of his inner circle, he only need rehash the antics of the Clinton Foundation. If we complain about his state-run media, Putin need only talk about the cozy relationship between the mainstream media and the Democratic Party. Vladimir Putin will be a satisfied man next Tuesday.

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Why Historians Must Use Wikileaks To Write The History of the 2016 Election

Wikileaks is playing a prominent, if under reported, role, in the 2016 American presidential election. Few understand the importance of Wikileaks in the eventual writing of the history of presidential politics.

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Clinton’s E-mails: The Gift That Keeps on Giving to Vladimir Putin

So far, none of Hillary’s “personal” e-mails have been released. If they are in the possession of Russia or other hostile powers, they may be released before the election, if the hostile powers consider that could change the election result. Or the hostile power may decide to hold the 33,000 e-mails for a drip-drip release throughout a Clinton presidency. This Chinese water torture would weaken Clinton, make her the subject of congressional investigations and Freedom of Information requests. A Putin could perhaps have what he wants — a severely weakened Hillary Clinton as U.S. president. He might enjoy that more than a Trump presidency.


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Wikileaks Fails To Deliver An October Surprise As Hillary Says To Worry About Putin's Meddling

The massive email cache that Hillary ordered destroyed almost a year ago remains one of the last great mysteries of her email scandal. These very documents may be in the possession of foreign powers, and may contain harmful, embarrassing, or incriminating materials that have thepotential to alter the outcome of the 2016 election or her conduct as US President. My analysis suggests that emails concerning the Clinton Foundation were automatically classified as “personal.” “Inner sanctum” emails exchanged among clintonmail.com users were likely classified as “personal” as well. Both categories would have been destroyed when the 33,000 personal emails were wiped clean. There is no evidence that any of them have been recovered by forensic means.


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Calm Down, Brexit Will Not Be A Catastrophe

The consensus appears to be that Putin’s Russia will benefit from Brexit’s uncertainty and confusion, but the EU reaction to Putin’s foreign adventures has not been effective and coordinated so far. How Putin fares depends much more on inner German and French politics than on the EU. The Brexit battle resembles the unfolding U.S. election campaign. Hillary Clinton represents the Brussels-type internationalist establishment, and Donald Trump represents the nationalist/populist interests of those who feel over-regulated, dominated, and lectured down to by the political class.

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