So I was curious how our fellow “patriots” over at places like Breitbart are handling the revelation that in an act of hubris and/or incompetence the White House resident blurted out “code word” classified Intel to the Russian Foreign Minister and Ambassador?
Well, for starters, they don’t blame Trump, they blame the dreaded Deep State for telling us anything about it at all:
Deep State Leaks Highly Classified Info to Washington Post to Smear President Trump
Current and former U.S. officials, supposedly concerned that President Trump had shared some “highly classified information” with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador to the U.S. last week, leaked that information to the Washington Post in an article published Monday.
However, the report admits that it is “unlikely” Trump broke any laws.
“As president, Trump has broad authority to declassify government secrets, making it unlikely that his disclosures broke the law,” the report said.
In addition, his national security adviser, who was at the meeting, told the Post nothing was shared that was not already publicly known.
1) Regardless of the “Deep State” the WaPo report specifically didn’t reveal the classified details of the information that Trump gave the Russians, only that he gave classified information to Russians. Also Kremlin News reported it too, and they didn’t need the “Deep State” because they were in the room at the time.
2) Trump may not have violated “the law”, but he very well may have violated the Constitution by failing to be faithful to his oath of office to “faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States’ and to ‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States’ to the best of his ability,” Also this could be considered dereliction of duty if not Treason, since by recent accounts (er, tweets) it appears to have been deliberate.
3) Yes, the President has the ability to declassify information, but this wasn’t a “declassification” because if it was then — well — we would be able to see and hear those details now, not just the Russians in the room at the time.
4) An item may be publicly known, but normally classified information is protected by refusing to “confirm or deny” it even when it’s public. Trump actively confirmed this, so the fact others had reported it already is moot from the “revealed classified data” stand point.
5) Gen. McMaster claims that Trump’s revelations were “wholly appropriate” but at the same time that “he wasn’t even briefed on the source(s) of that information”, so he really didn’t even know the potential impact of what he was revealing on that source, did he? I wonder how they feel about their information being shared with the Russians without their being consulted and how likely are they — or others — to share their information with us in the future?
We do have an answer to that question, and it’s “not great”.
A senior European intelligence official told the Associated Press that his country might stop sharing information with the United States if it confirms that President Donald Trump shared classified details with Russian officials.
Such sharing "could be a risk for our sources," the official said.
Thanks Drumpf.
And that’s just for starters.
Ok, so when they aren’t blowing off the President violating his oath and potentially committing treason by blaming the “Deep State” — even though according to Erick Erickson, the leaker in this case was a Trump Supporter — they’re basically flashing shiny balls in front of our eyes in order to blind and distract.
Like basically blaming the entire Wikileaks emails disclosures on a murdered DNC Staffer.
FOX REPORT: SETH RICH ‘LEAKED THOUSANDS OF EMAILS TO WIKILEAKS’… FBI HAS THEIR CORRESPONDENCE…
The Democratic National Committee staffer who was gunned down on July 10 on a Washington, D.C., street last July just steps from his home had leaked thousands of internal emails to WikiLeaks, law enforcement sources told Fox News.
A federal investigator who reviewed an FBI forensic report detailing the contents of DNC staffer Seth Rich’s computer generated within 96 hours after his murder, said Rich made contact with Wikileaks through Gavin MacFadyen [pictured: bottom right], a now-deceased American investigative reporter, documentary filmmaker, and director of WikiLeaks who was living in London at the time.
Yeah, but when you actually click on the Foxnews link they provided it also says this:
The family of the Democratic National Committee staffer who was gunned down on July 10 on a Washington, D.C., blasted reports that he was a source of thousands of emails leaked to WikiLeaks.
...
But a spokesman for Rich's family on Tuesday said Wheeler was not authorized to speak for the family and called assertions Seth Rich sent emails to WikiLeaks "unsubstantiated." Brad Bauman said even if purported emails were to surface, it would not necessarily mean Rich had helped WikiLeaks.
"Even if tomorrow, an email was found, it is not a high enough bar of evidence to prove any interactions as emails can be altered and we've seen that those interested in pushing conspiracies will stop at nothing to do so," Bauman said. "We are a family who is committed to facts, not fake evidence that surfaces every few months to fill the void and distract law enforcement and the general public from finding Seth's murderers."
The allegation that he sent “some” emails to Wikileaks is not proof he hacked the DNC and gave them all their emails. If we’re to believe merely being in contact with Wikileaks or Guccifer 2.0 was a crime — Roger Stone would already be beneath a Supermax.
Oh, and when all else fails there’s always the golden oldie “Obama did it too”: FLASHBACK: OBAMA ADMIN BLURTED OUT CLASSIFIED INTEL ON BIN LADEN RAID — AND PEOPLE DIED
Democrats and the mainstream media are hyping allegations that President Donald Trump revealed classified information to the Russian foreign minister as “the most serious breach of national security” by any president.
Former CIA Director Leon Panetta, for example, told CNN on Tuesday that Trump “cannot just say whatever the hell he wants and expect it doesn’t carry consequences.”
Panetta should know, because it was his loose talk after the Osama bin Laden raid that exposed a Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, who helped locate the Al Qaeda leader. As a result, Afridi was imprisoned on fabricated charges and will live under fear of assassination for the rest of his life.
Yeah, I don't really recall President Panetta. And nobody “died” because of this, well nobody beside Bin Laden that is.
But yes, it’s true that Panetta did mention the identity of Dr. Afridi on “60 Minutes” and his aid in testing the DNA of Osama Bin Laden to confirm his presence in the compound, but the point here is that even if that revelation may have been a misguided mistake, the information wasn’t classified. Dr. Afridi did help the CIA — once. He wasn’t an active, ongoing asset for other various efforts. His identity wasn’t “code word” classified.
That’s not really the same thing as the President personally revealing “code-word” classified level information to a third party nation without even understanding or even knowing what those sources were and what the impact on them or the damage to our relationship with all our other intelligence allies might be. No ally of ours started talking about not sharing information with us because Panetta went on “60 Minutes.”
The “people died” part of this allegation is about VP Biden.
As Jeffrey Kushner recalled in the Washington Times: “On May 3, at an event in Washington, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. did the unthinkable: He publicly revealed the identity of the special-operations unit responsible for bin Laden’s killing. His reckless action put at risk the lives of every member of SEAL Team 6.”
The response came on August 6, 2011, when the Taliban shot down a Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan, killing 30 soldiers. Among the dead: 15 members of SEAL Team 6. Years later, the fallen heroes’ families remain outraged at the Obama administration: “In releasing their identity, they put a target on their backs,” one of the fathers told U.S. News and World Report in 2013.
What Biden specifically said was this:
Admiral Jim Stavaridis is the real deal, he could tell you more about and understands the incredible, phenomenal, just almost unbelievable capacity of his Navy Seals and what they did last Sunday.
First of all Biden never gave any specifics. He didn’t even say “Seal Team 6” — just “Navy Seals”, so uh, how’s that classified exactly? And technically “Seal Team 6” is part of the mixed force of Joint Special Operations Command who actually took down Bin Laden and they aren’t just from the Navy and aren’t just Seals.
JSOC, which is headquartered at Pope Air Force Base and Fort Bragg in North Carolina, is an all-star team made up of the Army’s Delta Force, SEAL Team Six, Army Rangers and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, also known as the “Night Stalkers.” JSOC performs strike operations, reconnaissance in denied areas and special intelligence missions. More recently, JSOC added a Targeting and Analysis Center in Rosslyn, Virginia, to its list of key facilities. For much of the Bush administration, JSOC was headed by Gen. Stanley McChrystal. Its job was to hunt down and kill individuals designated as “High Value Targets.” McChrystal’s successor at JSOC, Vice Admiral William McRaven, is himself a former SEAL. The current commander of SOCOM, Admiral Eric Olson, is a former SEAL Team Six commander. McRaven was recently been tapped to replace Olson as SOCOM commander. Several Special Operations sources have described for The Nation a very close relationship between President Obama and JSOC. Some allege Obama has used them to “hit harder” than President Bush.
For the record I don’t see Admiral Stavaradis name there as if Biden was giving up a secret association between him and JSOC — he was, before retiring, apparently a Pentagon planner guy, not an Operations Guy — plus McRaven and McChrystal are both pretty well known. Where’s the connection here? What’s the “classified” part?
They’re saying that based him saying “Navy Seals” or “Stavaradis”, or something, the Taliban knew exactly which unit was in the chopper they shot down? How’d they know that exactly since JSOC uses code-words to identify themselves? Don’t you think they would have shot it down no matter who was in it? Where is the proof their JSOC security details were revealed on the ground, or that they knew it was the same specific SEAL Team 6 members Biden was talking about — who generally speaking by the way as a group are publicly known. They’re even featured in CALL OF DUTY and MODERN WARFARE videos games, so are we gonna blame EA Sports too?
And y’know who else released information about the men who killed Bin Laden? Fox News did.
Fox News is likely to take some heat for publicizing the name of the Navy SEAL Team 6 member and anonymous author of the upcoming tell-all No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama bin Laden.
Thursday morning, the network published an article by Justin Fishel that, citing “multiple sources,” identifies the author (who goes by pseudonym “Mark Owen“) to be a 36-year-old recently retired Navy SEAL from Alaska who was “one of the first men through the door” of Osama bin Laden‘s Pakistan compound the night of that fateful raid.
Not only did Fox News’ website name the SEAL, but the network also broadcast his full name Thursday morning during a report by Jennifer Griffin.
Uh, whoops!
Oh and just for the record, the President’s legal right to choose to disclose classified information also extends to the Vice President. That was part of an executive order by President Bush which he signed right around the time that Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff Scooter Libby revealed that Valerie Plame was a CIA employee which destroy her career as an classified undercover operative and damaged all cases and resources she had cultivated.
Frankly the claim that Biden is personally responsible for bringing down that Chopper is spurious, irresponsible and gohldamn ridiculous, but it does go to show that the right wing does at least understand the basics of the potential negative impact of revealing highly classified information.
Well, when Democrats are accused of doing it, that is.
Panetta made an honest mistake about an unclassified matter, he wouldn’t and didn’t do it again and he from all reports clearly regretted it and it’s unfortunate impact on Dr. Afridi. Biden didn’t do anything wrong, not compared to Fox News on the samte subject.
But the point is that in contrast to all of them Trump claims he did this stupid crap “on purpose” or “as part of a plan to reach out to the Russians” by shitting on our other trusted allies — or something.
As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism. I have been asking Director Comey & others, from the beginning of my administration, to find the LEAKERS in the intelligence community..…
He didn’t make a “mistake”, he doesn't regret it, he apparently doesn’t care that he also revealed this to RUSSIAN MEDIA, who were right there too, and he apparently doesn’t really give a shit who it may have harmed or what good will and trust it may have costs us, lastly… he’ll very probably do it again.
Doesn't that just make everyone warm and fuzzy to think about?
