Russiagate: The Russian Bounty Ruckus Rolls On

The Ruckus over the NYT's (and now the rest of the MSM) attempt to promote a story that Trump either overlooked, or through some mysterious bureaucratic process suppressed reports that the Russians are paying a bounty for American heads in Afghanistan continues. Fox, Rep. Jim Banks: Russian bounties to Taliban story may be putting US lives at risk — here's how

I serve on the House Armed Services Committee, so I track the Russian threat very closely. We also follow the China threat and the Iran threat closely, as well as a dozen other areas of interest to American national security. I desperately want to know about our adversary’s malign activity in Afghanistan and every inch of the globe. If our troops are in harm’s way, members of the House Armed Services Committee need to know that.

We rely on the intelligence community to do their jobs and vet intelligence for us. There are a lot of rumors floating around globally. If we acted on all of them, it’d be unwise. That’s why we are patient and require hard, confirmed intelligence vetted by the intelligence community before we act.

As an American and a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, I’m disgusted that Trump’s detractors would put American lives in harm’s way just to try and score political points ahead of the 2020 election.

Now the intelligence community’s hands are tied. They can’t follow up on this intelligence and learn more about the Russian operation in Afghanistan, which leaves our troops stationed there in danger. Worse, everyone from National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien to Central Intelligence Agency Gina Haspel is now having to turn their entire attention into explaining the nuances of our national security processes to the media.

And for what? The real irony — no one believes in this hoax anymore. The Russian-collusion narrative has been dispelled time and again. The House and Senate Intelligence committees said there was no evidence of collusion. The intelligence community said there was no collusion. Bob Mueller said there was no collusion.
. . .
No doubt, Russia is smugly sitting back and watching Democrats do their work for them. Russia wins when we are divided. In 2016, they used Facebook ads to generate outrage and pit Americans against one another. In 2020, thanks to the New York Times, Russia is being given another platform to interfere in this election. This is the real scandal, and anyone serious about stopping Russia’s malign activities in the United States will help us stop it.

WaEx,  'You undermine our country's safety': Kayleigh McEnany condemns intelligence community leaks, But here, watch Kayleigh do it, courtesy of sundance at CTH:



Mollie Hemingway at Da Fed, Media Are Playing Games Yet Again With Anonymous Russia Leaks

It is worth noting that the three New York Times reporters — Charlie Savage, Eric Schmitt, and Michael Schwirtz — also played key roles in disseminating the Russia collusion hoax, in which anonymous intelligence officials worked with co-conspirators in the media for years to put out a false and defamatory narrative that President Donald Trump had colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election or was otherwise compromised. The New York Times was one of the biggest outlets engaged in the Russia hoax. The reporters even include some of their previous Russia collusion hoax spin, and omit key facts about Trump’s actions against Russia, in their bounty story.

Literally nothing about the political media’s use of anonymous sources to spread republic-damaging disinformation in recent years should lead anyone to treat further anonymously sourced reports with any deference. Yet the entire corporate media establishment immediately ran wild with the story and used it to suggest it was further evidence that Trump was an agent of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The story dominated cable news over the weekend and into the following week.
. . .
It turned out that key details of the story were disputed by on-the-record sources. When the White House press secretary said neither Trump nor Vice President Mike Pence had even been briefed on this intelligence, reporters tried a new line of attack. . . .Yet the frenzy from the media continued, almost as if coordinated as part of an operation.

Because it was. AllahPundit at Hot Air gleefully reports how Biden is trolling Trump on the subject, Biden On Russian Bounties Story: Trump Doesn’t Seem To Be “Cognitively Aware” Of What’s Going On, which is almost amusing coming from a man who can't string a sentence together without getting lost.

Sundance on The Insufferable and Political Media Stupidity Around “The Russian Bounty” Narrative…

Setting aside for the moment that nothing claimed by media or the DNC political operatives in/around capitol hill has any substantive intelligence to prove the claim, let’s first look at the underlying premise: ‘Russians are paying the Taliban to kill American soldiers.’

First, obviously these same voices need to ignore that in 2010 Iran was paying insurgent fighters in multiple fields of combat including Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, to kill Americans. Those well-documented examples must be overlooked because despite the overwhelming evidence the Obama administration paid Iran over $170 billion in cash and entered a nuclear deal with them. Once again, in order to retain their left-wing political position the media must pretend not to know things.

Reverberations from the Flynn matter continue. Ace reacts to Sidney Powell reports that Brennan was using billions for off-the-books operations,  Sydney Powell: Obama and John Brennan Prosecuted Michael Flynn Because Flynn Knew About the "Billions of Dollars" in Off-the-Books Operations They Were Running, and Planned an Audit  "When Sydney Powell says things, they tend to wind up being proven true."

The fact that the intelligence communities spend billions without the public's knowledge or consent is, well, not shocking.

But I wonder what purposes Obama and Brennan were using billions of US dollars.

Maybe paying hundreds of millions or even billions to the Iranian regime and its top staffers?

and Stacey Lennox at PJ Media reacts as Sidney Powell Drops a Bomb or Two on the Glaring Problems With the Flynn Case, with the interview she gave to ET that I posted yesterday.

As far as the Flynn case, she is ready to take it to a second crack at SCOTUS if that’s what it takes.

“We are going to continue this fight however long it takes and wherever it goes.”

Stay tuned, as it seems very likely we will be learning more either through the disposition of the Flynn case or through the Durham investigation.

From Liz Vaughn at Red State, IRS Whistleblower Explains Why No One in the FBI or the DOJ Spoke up for General Flynn. Not all whistleblowers are created equal.

. . . sources familiar with the Durham investigation told Fox News that John Durham had reviewed the Flynn documents and was disturbed that no whistleblowers came forward early on. Considering that there were more than a few officials who had to be aware of what was going on, including support staff, Mr. Durham found it remarkable that no one spoke up “at the onset.” One would think he might have learned by now that the only use members of the deep state have for whistleblowing is when it can be used as a weapon against the right. I posted on this story here.

The next day, I received an email from one of my readers who said he could easily answer Mr. Durham’s question. It’s because “No one in the FBI or the DOJ wanted to engage in a futile suicide mission that would put them and their families through years of hell, cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars, and put their pensions at risk, all so that their information could be ignored.”

William Henck knows, because he lived it.

Mr. Henck’s story is the polar opposite of alleged whistleblower Eric Ciaramella’s, whose bogus complaint to then-Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson last August triggered President Trump’s impeachment. Not only did my reader not receive the kid-glove treatment Ciaramella did, he was terminated from his position as an IRS attorney after 30 years of service.

In November 2017, Mr. Henck was forced out for being a whistleblower. During his career at the IRS, he reported the bullying of World War II veterans, evidence of a cover-up in the Lois Lerner (or Tea Party) case, and the improper giveaway of literally billions of dollars to taxpayers represented by sketchy Washington lobbyists.

Judicial Watch harks back to an old scandal, Judicial Watch: DOJ Records Reveal Obama White House Effort to ‘Evolve’ Explanation of Benghazi Terrorist Attack

Additionally, Rhodes says to Sullivan and other redacted officials:

At least you’re only a liar. Could be worse – we’re liars and also allegedly leakers. So you’ve got that going for you, which is something.
Sullivan replies: “We’re only lying footsoldiers [sic]. You’re lying masterminds. That’s cooler.”
A redacted official replies to Sullivan: “I prefer that we go by henchmen. Has more of a Marvel comic sinisterness to it. There should be a cable show where all the guests, and the anchor, have to wear polygraphs. Or, when there’s a dispute between source, the aggrieved parties take a poly, with some neutral third party rendering judgment. The Biggest Liar.”
Rhodes says to Sullivan: “I’d like to go on television and tell everybody what I think…. Look at it this way. I[t] could be worse. You could be a career bureaucrat whose greatest thrill in life is leaking half-truths, self-justifications and outright lies to the likes of Eli Lake, Kim Dozier, and whoever picks up the phone at Fox News.”

Judicial Watch previously uncovered that on September 14 Rhodes and other Obama administration officials were attempting to orchestrate a campaign to “reinforce” President Obama and to portray the Benghazi consulate terrorist attack as being “rooted in an Internet video, and not a failure of policy.” Also included were numerous emails sent during the assault on the Benghazi diplomatic facility. The contemporaneous and dramatic emails describe the assault as an “attack:”
. . .
“Joking about being called ‘liars’ after being caught lying about the Benghazi terrorist attack says a lot about the Obama-Clinton team’s contempt for the rule of law and those four innocent Americans murdered in Libya September 11, 2012,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The documents also show that Ben Rhodes, the Obama White House official who created the false story for Susan Rice to use on Benghazi, was planning to orchestrate again an ‘evolving’ explanation about the Benghazi attack by the Intelligence Community in time for then-President Obama’s reelection.”

Ace:  Robert Barnes: "I Guarantee" The DOJ Will Sue John Bolton Civilly and Confiscate His Profits from His Book, But I Also Have a "Strong Hunch" Bolton Won't Care, Because He's Being Paid by a "Foreign Government" as a "Consultant" To Hurt Trump

More: Bolton is changing his story about alleged Russian bounties. First he never heard of them, then he smelled an opportunity, and remembered briefing Trump about the bounties he previously had no memory of.

Funny what people say when they're  not under oath.