Remember that time when Donald J. Trump stood in front of the memorial wall at CIA headquarters and gave a rambling self-congratulatory speech about how great he did in the election and said basically eight words about the ultimate sacrifice given by those with the intelligence services in support of America?
Today he’s on the warpath over our Intel services and their leaking the truth about him and his campaign and their unexplained regular contacts with members of Russian intelligence during the election and transition, but the fact is that the intelligence services of our allies have discovered the exact same thing and more.
As part of intelligence operations being conducted against the United States for the last seven months, at least one Western European ally intercepted a series of communications before the inauguration between advisers associated with President Donald Trump and Russian government officials, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation.
The sources said the interceptions include at least one contact between former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and a Russian official based in the United States. It could not be confirmed whether this involved the telephone call with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that has led to Flynn’s resignation, or additional communications. The sources said the intercepted communications are not just limited to telephone calls: The foreign agency is also gathering electronic and human source information on Trump’s overseas business partners, at least some of whom the intelligence services now consider to be agents of their respective governments. These operations are being conducted out of concerns that Russia is seeking to manipulate its relationships with Trump administration officials as part of a long-term plan to destabilize the NATO alliance
And of course, there’s more.
Rather than being concerned with his own internal vulnerabilities, the President is almost entirely focused on Who. Is. Leaking.
Trump called on the "failing" New York Times to apologize, presumably for its reporting earlier in the week based on leaks from members of his administration.
He also complained about "low-life leakers" and the "FAKE NEWS media," whom Trump accused of making up stories and "sources" but said was "more effective than the discredited Democrats."
Before his election victory, Trump often praised Wikileaks for publishing hacked emails from members of Hillary Clinton's campaign.
His love affair with leaks took a turn for the ironic in October when the New York Times published a bombshell report based on Trump's leaked tax returns suggesting that he may have avoided paying federal income taxes for 18 years.
Yes, Trump used to love leaks, even when the information was gained illegally when it was about Hillary Clinton and being filtered by Russian intelligence through Wikileaks. He wasn’t concerned with the law, in fact he encouraged the Russians to hack and/or release even more information.
But now that it’s about the phone calls and text messages by his staff he suddenly has a problem with it? Ok, sure, that’s not glass like transparently craven at all.
Trump may have problems that go far beyond local leaks.
We tend to be concerned about how Trump’s bromance with Putin may impact the U.S., but it seems Europe and the Balic states pretty much have their hair on fire over it.
Moreover, a Baltic nation is gathering intelligence on officials in the Trump White House and executives with the president’s company, the Trump Organization, out of concern that an American policy shift toward Russia could endanger its sovereignty, according to a third person with direct ties to that nation’s government.
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These operations reflect a serious breakdown in the long-standing faith in the direction of American policy by some of the country’s most important allies. Worse, the United States is now in a situation that may be unprecedented—where European governments know more about what is going on in the executive branch than any elected American official. To date, the Republican-controlled Congress has declined to conduct hearings to investigate the links between Trump’s overseas business partners and foreign governments, or the activities between Russia and officials in the Trump campaign and administration—the very areas being examined by the intelligence services of at least two American allies.
Some details about Trump’s business partners were passed to the American government months ago. For example, long before the president’s inauguration, German electronic surveillance determined that the father of Trump’s Azerbaijani business partner is a government official who laundered money for the Iranian military; that information was shared with the CIA, according to a European source with direct knowledge of the situation.
Of equal concern to our allies is Trump’s business partner in the Philippines, who is also the special representative to Washington of that country’s president, Rodrigo Duterte. This government official, Jose E.B. Antonio, is the head of Century Properties, which in turn is a partner with the president’s business in the construction of Trump Tower at Century City in Makati, Philippines. According to people with direct knowledge of the situation, a European intelligence service has obtained the contracts and other legal documents in the deal between the Trump Organization and Antonio. That deal has already resulted in large payments to Trump’s business, with millions of dollars more on the way–all coming from an agent of the Philippine president.
Because Trump has refused to release his tax returns, our GOP congress refuses to investigate him, and the FBI won’t publicly state if they are investigating we’re in a situation where foreign intelligence services are more aware of our President’s international business entanglements and links to foreign governments — including the Kremlin — than we are here in America.