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FBI Director Confirms Investigation of Russia’s Meddling in US Election, Including Any Links to Trump Campaign

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For the first time, the director of the FBI publicly revealed Monday that the bureau is conducting a counterintelligence investigation of the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the presidential election and whether there was any coordination between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

“I have been authorized by the Department of Justice to confirm that the FBI, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts,” FBI Director James Comey said during testimony before the House Intelligence Committee.

“As with any counterintelligence investigation, this will also include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed.”

Comey said the bureau decided to go against convention and publicize the existence of an ongoing FBI investigation because it considers the Russia probe to be an “unusual circumstance” that “is in the public interest.”

Comey and National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers, who also testified before the House committee, said they stand by a report the intelligence community issued in January that concluded with “high confidence” that “Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S presidential election.”

The report said the Russians had deployed computer hackers to undermine the presidential campaign, with the goal of harming Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton while boosting the candidacy of Republican nominee Donald Trump.

“Putin hated Clinton so much that the flip side is he had a clear preference for the person she was running against,” Comey said at Monday’s hearing.

The House and Senate intelligence committees are conducting separate investigations into Russia’s actions during the presidential campaign.

Comey and Rogers confirmed the Russian effort did not succeed in affecting actual vote tallies.

The White House sought to focus on this detail, although Comey and Rogers acknowledged they could not determine whether Russia’s actions had any influence on voters’ decisions.

“Following this testimony it’s clear that nothing has changed,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said during his daily press briefing Monday. “The president is happy that they are pursuing the facts in this.”

Spicer predicted the FBI probe will “vindicate” the Trump team.

He referred to statements by former acting CIA Director Michael Morell and James Clapper, President Barack Obama’s director of national intelligence, that they have seen no evidence of collusion between Trump associates and Russia.

Comey said the FBI investigation into Russia’s actions, and possible ties between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and Moscow, began in July—months before Election Day.

The FBI director would not say whether investigators are probing the actions of Trump himself.

Nor would Comey say how long the FBI’s investigation may last.

The New York Times and other media organizations have reported that some of Trump’s associates were in repeated contact with Russian officials and others close to Putin during the presidential campaign.

Comey and Rogers also testified that their respective agencies have “no information” and “no evidence” to support Trump’s claims via Twitter that his predecessor, Obama, ordered surveillance of Trump Tower toward the end of the campaign.

“The answer is the same for the DOJ and all its components,” Comey said, emphasizing that “no one individual” in the U.S., including the president, can direct electronic surveillance without approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA). “The department has no information that supports those tweets [by Trump].”

Comey declined to say whether any government officials requested an application for surveillance of Trump or any of his associates with the FISA court.

Republican lawmakers at Monday’s hearing mostly focused their questions on their concerns over a proliferation of government leaks of classified material that have distracted and angered the Trump administration.

Last month, Trump said he had directed the Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation into leaks, to find their source.

Comey on Monday did not confirm the existence of such an investigation. He and Rogers condemned the practice of leaking, noting that such unauthorized disclosures have been more frequent in recent months.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., asked Comey: “Unauthorized dissemination is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison?”

“Yes, as it should be,” Comey said. “It’s a serious, serious crime.”

Gowdy alleged during the hearing that Obama administration officials were behind the leaks, which among other things, included classified intercepts of calls between Michael T. Flynn, Trump’s choice for national security adviser, and Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, weeks before Trump took office. Flynn resigned as national security adviser after the White House determined he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations.

Comey said he is particularly worried about “an unusually active” stream of recent leaks because, he said, the leakers are revealing incomplete intelligence.

“A lot of it is dead wrong,” Comey said. “Often times, [the leaked information] doesn’t come from people who know the secrets, but people who heard about it. That’s why the information is often wrong.”

As Republicans and Democrats on the Intelligence Committee took different approaches to their questioning, Comey and Rogers stressed the serious implications of Russia’s campaign to undermine Western democracies.

The intelligence leaders said they expect Russia to continue to try to meddle in upcoming European elections—including campaigns in France and Germany—and that Moscow could target the U.S. again.

“They’ll be back,” Comey said. “They’ll be back in 2020, they may be back in 2018 [for the midterm elections]. One of the lessons they may draw from this is that they were successful.” (For more from the author of “FBI Director Confirms Investigation of Russia’s Meddling in US Election, Including Any Links to Trump Campaign” please click HERE)

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Trump Administration Sends Strong Signal to Russia by Indicting Hackers

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Of all the security threats facing the U.S. today, cyber threats are among the most pernicious. Thankfully, the administration is taking some concrete steps to confront them.

Last week, the Justice Department indicted four individuals on charges relating back to the 2016 hack into Yahoo’s network that compromised at least 500 million user accounts. Of those indicted, two are officers of the Russian Federal Security Service, an agency very similar in function to the United States’ FBI.

According to remarks made by acting Assistant Attorney General Mary McCord, the Russian officers “protected, directed, facilitated, and paid criminal hackers to collect information through computer intrusions in the United States.”

The hackers that worked with the Russian officers have also been indicted on numerous charges. One hacker has been apprehended in Canada, while the other hacker and the two Russian officers are in Russia, where they are safe because the United States does not have an extradition treaty with Russia.

Though these three individuals in Russia cannot be prosecuted in the United States, the indictment charges against them are not useless. The decision by the administration to bring these charges sends a strong message to other nation-states about committing cyberattacks on private companies in the United States.

Private companies such as Yahoo already face a daunting challenge in defending themselves from cyber criminals and hacktivists. But when these cyberattacks come from nation-states, the defenses of a private company are outmatched.

The U.S. government has a responsibility to protect U.S. companies and other domestic computer networks from nation-state hackers, and it has a myriad of tools at its disposal to punish and deter such cyber aggressors.

These tools include the legal charges we saw last week, as well as charges the U.S. brought against five members of the Chinese Liberation Army in 2013 following their cyber espionage against businesses in the United States.

By using legal charges to combat cyber aggression, the United States shows that it is serious about protecting its interests and its companies, and has the evidence to prove other nations are acting maliciously.

Other options to respond to cyber aggression include leveling sanctions against offending nation-states.

A recent example of this came last fall following the hacks on the Democratic National Convention. In response to these hacks, the Obama administration enacted sanctions against five Russian intelligence agencies and three Russian companies, which froze assets and halted transactions and travel between those Russian companies and the United States.

Visa, commercial, and financial restrictions, diplomatic condemnations, actions in international organizations such as the World Trade Organization, and other strategic responses to hacking should all be on the table.

The Trump administration has set a strong precedent by indicting the two Russian Federal Security Service officers and the two hackers that worked with them. But this is just a first step.

Further steps will need to be taken to improve the U.S. deterrence posture against nations who would engage in cyber aggression against the United States. (For more from the author of “Trump Administration Sends Strong Signal to Russia by Indicting Hackers” please click HERE)

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On the Brink of World War: Russia Deploys Special Forces to Help Libyan Faction Take Control of Country

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Emerging reports from Western mainstream outlets are now provoking a flurry of accusations and denials from Western, Russian, and African states regarding the allegation that Russia has deployed Special Forces troops to Western Egypt in support of one of the Libyan factions vying for control of the country.

The initial reports came on March 14 from Reuters, citing diplomatic sources from both the U.S. and Egypt. These alleged officials are claiming that any Russian deployment is likely part of an attempt to support Khalif Haftar, the Libyan militia commander who was dealt a blow by an attack on March 3 by the Benghazi Defence Brigades (BDB) on oil ports that his forces controlled.

Speaking on conditions of anonymity, the U.S. officials said the United States has observed what they believe to be Russian Special Forces and drones about 60 miles away from the Libyan side of the Egypt-Libya border, at Sidi Barrani.

Reuters also reported that its Egyptian sources provided more detail, stating that a 22 member Russian Special Forces unit had been deployed but the sources did not discuss the mission of the unit. They also said that Russia also used a base farther east in Marsa Matrouh in February.

An Egyptian Army spokesman, Tamer al-Rifai, denied that any Russian unit was on Egyptian soil.

“There is no foreign soldier from any foreign country on Egyptian soil. This is a matter of sovereignty,” he said.

The United States military declined to comment on the situation.

The Russian Defense ministry, however, strongly denied the allegations with the spokesman for the agency, Igor Konashenkov stating that “Certain western mass media have been stirring up the public for years with such false information from anonymous sources.”

Andrei Kasov, the First Deputy Head of the Defense Committee in the Lower House of the Russian Parliament, Aguila Saleh Issa, called the accusations “fake news.”

The Guardian quotes the Libyan President of the House of Representatives as having told RIA Novosti that the Russians were assisting Haftar in other ways. “We asked the Russian government to help us with training the soldiers in our armed forces and the repair of military equipment by Russian specialists because the majority of our officers studied in Russia and many speak the Russian language and know how to use Russian equipment. They promised to help us in the fight against terrorism,” he said.

These reports may be real as Russia has met with Haftar before and it has showed interest in aiding the Haftar faction in Libya. Indeed, Russia has also shown signs of interest in disrupting the plans of the Western powers in Libya. Oil, geopolitical positioning, and influence all play a role in any Russian decisions to become involved in North Africa.

However, the information reported by Reuters has yet to be independently verified and the Western corporate press is well known to peddle official State Department and Deep State narratives for political and geopolitical purposes. Thus, it may also be the “fake news” typical of Western mainstream outlets designed to gin up yet more hysteria and fear over Russia’s “expansionism” and “spread of empire across the globe” so erroneously claimed by Russophobes and warmongers in the mainstream media and pro-war left.

In this regard, only time will tell. (For more from the author of “On the Brink of World War: Russia Deploys Special Forces to Help Libyan Faction Take Control of Country” please click HERE)

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Senate Judiciary Demands All Records on FBI Plan to Pay British Ex-Spy Who Made ‘Russia Dossier’ on Trump

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Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to FBI Director James Comey demanding that his agency turn over all records of its reported plan to pay the British ex-spy — who compiled a salacious and unsubstantiated dossier on Donald Trump just prior to the election – to continue investigating the president.

The “Russia Dossier,” which claimed that Trump engaged in perverted sex acts in a Moscow hotel and allegedly was in collusion with the Russians, was published by the online site Buzzfeed. The disturbing allegations in the document were not substantiated. Famed author and Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward called the dossier a “garbage document.”

In his letter to FBI Director Comey, Chairman Grassley notes that the Washington Post “reported that the FBI reached an agreement a few weeks before the Presidential election to pay the author of the unsubstantiated dossier alleging a conspiracy between President Trump and the Russians, Christopher Steele, to continue investigating Mr. Trump.”

“The article claimed that the FBI was aware Mr. Steele was creating these memos as part of the work for an opposition research firm connected to Hillary Clinton,” said Grassley.

“The idea that the FBI and associates of the Clinton campaign would pay Mr. Steele to investigate the Republican nominee for President in the run-up to the election raises further questions about the FBI’s independence from politics, as well as the Obama administration’s use of law enforcement and intelligence agencies for political ends,” said Grassley. (Read more from “Senate Judiciary Demands All Records on FBI Plan to Pay British Ex-Spy Who Made ‘Russia Dossier’ on Trump” HERE)

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US Authorities Are Refusing to Reveal What Led to Death of Russian Ambassador to the UN

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New York City officials, wishing not to be identified and only speaking under the condition of anonymity, revealed the Russian Ambassador to the United Nations (UN), Vitaly Churkin, suffered from a heart attack when he collapsed in his office last month in New York. An autopsy was performed, presumably a result of his diplomatic status, yet the underlying cause of the heart attack is being withheld.

Exactly what caused the ambassador’s death is known, but according to the Associated Press (AP), those who are in the know, aren’t allowed to say. “An autopsy was performed on Churkin last month, but the death required further study. The additional tests had been completed, but Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the city’s medical examiner, said the city’s Law Department told the office not to release any further information ‘to comply with international law and protocol,’” writes the AP.

As The Free Thought Project reported earlier, Churkin was highly critical of his U.S. and U.K. counterparts who preferred escalation of the Syrian conflict over measures which would produce a peaceful resolution to the Middle East’s latest international conflict, which may serve as the stage to World War III. Churkin’s obituary, first reported by The Guardian, indicated the ambassador, “hated the moralising tone of his US, British and French counterparts on the UN security council who, he felt, were not only hypocritical but were playing to the global gallery and aiming to score rhetorical points instead of looking for compromises that could lead to the resolution of differences. This applied particularly to the war in Syria, about which western governments tabled resolutions.”

Churkin was one of 7 Russian diplomats identified by The Free Thought Project who’d died mysteriously since the presidential election of 2016. And while his official cause of death is a heart attack, the factors leading up to it are still shrouded in mystery. Were there any substances in his system which would have caused his death? Was he taking heart medications? Who would have wanted he and the other six diplomats dead? These questions and more remain unanswered, even as NYC officials, who wish to remain in the dark, are reassuring the Russian official’s death was not a result of foul play.

UN officials are running interference in an apparent attempt explain away whey they’re unable to release the cause of death. James Donovan, minister counselor for host country affairs for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, told the AP in a statement, “The United States insists on the dignified handling of the remains of our diplomatic personnel who pass away abroad (including in Russia) and works to prevent unnecessary disclosures regarding the circumstances of their deaths.” Nonetheless, more questions remain.

The U.S. State Department is also involved in keeping the details of Churkin’s death a closely guarded state secret. The federal agency, “asked the city in writing on Feb. 24 not to reveal the autopsy results because Churkin’s diplomatic immunity survives his death,” writes the AP.

Later on March 1, the State Department sent another letter to the city revealing Russian officials were very concerned with the proceedings of the autopsy and subsequent discussions with the media about Churkin’s medical history, something they should not have done. Even Donovan penned a letter to NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office of International Affairs, expressing concern over the city’s discussions of Churkin’s medical history.

For those seeking fodder for conspiracy theories, it must be noted that Churkin was a member of the UN Security Council. It consists of “China, France, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and ten non-permanent members elected for two-year terms,” according to the UN website. Discussions at the security council are often heated and contentious. Just two weeks before his death, Churkin made international headlines when he quoted from the US Constitution after being lambasted by a recently appointed member to the council, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.

Haley passionately called for Russia to return Crimea to the Ukraine and promised, “Until Russia and the separatists it supports respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, this crisis will continue.” After the meeting adjourned, Churkin told reporters, “In this regard, one cannot forget the remarkable historical words that are found in the constitution of the United States: ‘We the people’…The people of Crimea quite clearly expressed their will in a referendum.” Not shrinking away from cries for Russia to leave the Ukraine and return Crimea to the sovereign country, Churkin told reporters the UK should first return the Malvinas islands which are claimed by Argentina, Gibraltar claimed by the Spanish, and the “annexed part of Cyprus which you turned into a huge military base.” (For more from the author of “US Authorities Are Refusing to Reveal What Led to Death of Russian Ambassador to the UN” please click HERE)

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Putin Spokesman: Russian Ambassador Also Met With Clinton Advisors

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The spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin turned the tables Sunday by saying that the Russian ambassador to the U.S. also met with people connected to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, not just Trump advisers.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, told CNN GPS host Fareed Zakaria that Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak met with “people working in think tanks advising Hillary or advising people working for Hillary,” The Hill reports.

Peskov stressed that part of Kislyak’s job entails talking to officials and advisers on both sides of the aisle.

“Well, if you look at some people connected with Hillary Clinton during her campaign, you would probably see that he had lots of meetings of that kind,” Peskov said. “There are lots of specialists in politology, people working in think tanks advising Hillary or advising people working for Hillary.”

Yet, according to Peskov, none of these meetings constituted an attempt to influence the electoral process. (Read more from “Putin Spokesman: Russian Ambassador Also Met With Clinton Advisors” HERE)

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Deep State War? 7 Russian Officials Murdered or Found Dead Since Election Day

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Russian diplomats seem to be an endangered species, as seven officials have been found dead under mysterious or unexplained circumstances just since Election Day, and — although any link remains as yet unprovable — the deaths certainly provoke a number of questions.

1. Sergei Krivov:

First is the perplexing case of Sergei Krivov — disputably a consular duty commander at the Russian Consulate in Manhattan — died on November 8, Election Day, under perhaps the most problematic circumstances of any of the deaths listed.

Found unconscious and unresponsive on the floor inside the consulate, Krivov suffered blunt force trauma to the head — initially reported as received in a fall from the roof of the building — and passed away before emergency services could reach the scene.

Consular officials quickly backtracked that Krivov died after plunging over the building, instead insisting he’d suffered a heart attack — but the diplomat’s lack of a paper trail, and ambiguity from officials about his career position, make the death appear to be far from ordinary.

“That position is no ordinary security guard,” reported BuzzFeed on Krivov’s ambiguous role at the consulate. “According to other public Russian-language descriptions of the duty commander position, Krivov would have been in charge of, among other things, ‘prevention of sabotage’ and suppression of ‘attempts of secret intrusion’ into the consulate.

“In other words, it was Krivov’s job to make sure US intelligence agencies didn’t have ears in the building.”

2. Andrey Karlov:

On December 19, Russian Ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, met his fate while giving a speech at an art exhibit in Ankara, when Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş — an off-duty Turkish riot police officer — fired several shots from behind, fatally wounding the diplomat and injuring several others.

Altıntaş proceeded to declare jihad and implored the terrified, small crowd of attendees and press, “Do not forget Aleppo, do not forget Syria!”

It was later revealed Altıntaş had used his law enforcement identification to enter the gallery; but at the time, Russian President Vladimir Putin railed against the attacker, thin security allowing him to enter the exhibit, “Russia Through Turks’ Eyes,” without issue, and the possible implications for resolving the conflict in Syria, stating,

This murder is clearly a provocation aimed at undermining the improvement and normalization of Russian-Turkish relations, as well as undermining the peace process in Syria promoted by Russia, Turkey, Iran and other countries interested in settling the conflict in Syria.

3. Petr Polshikov:

At some point on the same day — and prior to the brazen assassination of Karlov — Petr Polshikov, a senior diplomat in the Latin America division at the Russian foreign ministry, died in his Moscow apartment of a gunshot wound to the head. An announcement of the suspicious death did not become public until a few hours after Altıntaş shocked the world in Ankara.

Detailed information on Polshikov’s untimely demise remains difficult to obtain, but reports at the time alleged authorities found two bullet shells on the scene and a firearm under a sink in the bathroom.

4. Oleg Erovinkin:

Ex-KGB chief, Oleg Erovinkin — believed to have assisted former British spy, Christopher Steele, with a lurid dossier alleging explicit acts by President Donald Trump — was found dead in his black Lexus on December 29.

Erovinkin had been close to Igor Sechin, a former deputy prime minister and now head of State-owned oil company, Rosneft, and had acted as a key liaison between Sechin and Putin.

Although validity of the contents of that dossier have been called into serious question, Erovinkin’s alleged involvement in compiling the information makes his death dubious by nature. An investigation is ongoing.

5. Andrey Malanin:

Despite living alone on a tightly-guarded street, Andrey Malanin — head of the consular section at Russia’s embassy in Athens — was “found on the floor of his bedroom by a member of the embassy’s staff with no evidence of a break-in, the official said on condition of anonymity,” Reuters reported January 9.

Authorities also told Reuters there were no indications Malanin had been murdered, but homicide officials are investigating the death due to his status as a diplomat.

6. Aleksandr Kadakin:

On January 26, Russian ambassador to India, 67-year-old Aleksandr Kadakin — who had served in the position since 2009 and spent over two decades as a diplomat — died in New Delhi, ostensibly from heart failure.

Although it appeared the man’s death was unrelated to the others and had been natural, the timing in conjunction with Karlov, Polshikov, Erovinkin, and Malanin raised some eyebrows.

7. Vitaly Churkin:

Then, last week, Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, died one day before his 65th birthday in New York City — reportedly of a heart failure.

According to the New York Times on February 20, “The Russian government said he died suddenly but did not specify a cause. The New York City police said there were no indications of foul play.”

However, Pravda reported, “According to ABS-CBN, a post-mortem examination of Churkin’s body showed the presence of poison in his kidneys. Allegedly, the diplomat had had late supper, at around midnight, hours before his death. Perpetrators could have added an unknown substance in his food.”

Churkin had been a vocal critic of hypocritical Western foreign policy, particularly concerning military actions in Syria.

An obituary in the Guardian stated Churkin “hated the moralising tone of his US, British and French counterparts on the UN security council who, he felt, were not only hypocritical but were playing to the global gallery and aiming to score rhetorical points instead of looking for compromises that could lead to the resolution of differences. This applied particularly to the war in Syria, about which western governments tabled resolutions that could lead, in the Russian view, to full-scale military intervention against the Syrian government and which they knew Churkin was bound to veto. Russia preferred to produce resolutions that criticised the Syrian army for using ‘disproportionate’ force and sought agreement on ceasefires. Churkin consulted the security council’s five permanent members on these resolutions, but chose not to provoke vetoes when he realised there was no consensus.”

What, if anything, this growing Russian diplomat body count actually means might never be fully known, but many suspect the deaths evince a methodical, covert war between the Deep State and Russia — particularly as hostilities continue mostly unabated — as a shift in power away from the ailing imperialist U.S. empire gathers speed. (For more from the author of “Deep State War? 7 Russian Officials Murdered or Found Dead Since Election Day” please click HERE)

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The Mainstream Media Treatment of Trump and Russia Smacks of Fake News

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When the main stream media rely on anonymous sources, friendly relationships with current and former government officials, and recycling previously reported stories to promote an agenda, readers are right to suspect a set up.

We expect less from outlets like the Gateway Pundit, who rely on hyper-sensationalized headlines and slanted, even made-up, stories to generate clicks to their websites. The public demands, and serious consumers of news expect, a higher standard from established newspapers and cable news operations.

Instead, we get stories that are so selective, and so coordinated, as to constitute a subtler form of fake news. At the moment, the media have latched on to anything remotely related to Russia to tarnish the Trump administration, especially in the wake of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn’s resignation as National Security Adviser.

The flood of weakly-related and even unsupported Russia stories smacks of a partisan effort to destroy the Trump administration, not an objective search for truth.

For example, CNN is still recycling reports about the evidence-starved Russian “dossier” that had been examined by the intelligence community and the press for months before Buzzfeed dumped them on its website in early January. The New York Times and CNN took Buzzfeed to task for publishing the unverified reports; but they are still being cited.

Another example is this breathless reporting of Russian cruise missiles.

The New York Times and Washington Post, along with CNN have all written similar stories about the Russian deployment of the ground-launched cruise missile known as the SSC-8, which is a violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The INF treaty was signed in 1987 by President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev of the former USSR. It bans ground-launched cruise missiles with a range between 300 and 3400 miles.

The Russians first tested the SSC-8 in 2008. President Obama’s administration declared Russia in violation of the INF treaty in 2014. Do you have any memory of that? Probably not. But suddenly, this is a front-burner issue, because it provides yet another chance to connect Russia with Donald Trump.

A third example is the Russian spy ship sighted off the U.S. eastern seaboard. How is this news? The Russians have for years deployed spy ships to America’s Atlantic coast and the Caribbean. It’s only top news because … well, you know why.

In reality, there is no “crisis” with Russia that didn’t exist before the Trump administration. There are no “new” facts relating to U.S.-Russian relations since Trump took office.

Flynn’s downfall was hurried along by leaks of highly classified information within the Trump administration of telephone intercept transcripts of a call between Flynn and the Russian ambassador. Yes, the call took place, but it now appears the details discussed on the call were innocuous. But again, the use of anonymous sources, who may have an axe to grind with Trump, and the selective reporting of details, is at best editorializing, not fair reporting.

Bloomberg reported Tuesday that there’s evidence of a pattern in the media reports:

Representative Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told me Monday that he saw the leaks about Flynn’s conversations with Kislyak as part of a pattern. “There does appear to be a well orchestrated effort to attack Flynn and others in the administration,” he said. “From the leaking of phone calls between the president and foreign leaders to what appears to be high-level FISA Court information, to the leaking of American citizens being denied security clearances, it looks like a pattern.”

This confluence of government leaks, anonymous sources, hyper-sensational headlines, and unsupported stories does nothing to contradict Trump’s accusations that the media is engaged in reporting “fake news.” If the media don’t want the Trump administration to treat them as the opposition, then they need to quit playing the role of opposition so blatantly. (For more from the author of “The Mainstream Media Treatment of Trump and Russia Smacks of Fake News” please click HERE)

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Moscow Issues Its First Nuclear Challenge to Trump

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Almost right out of the gate, the Trump administration is facing its first arms control challenge from Moscow.

Russia has reportedly deployed its new cruise missile in an apparent violation of the Reagan-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, in effect since 1988.

The treaty prohibits the possession of ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. Russia’s ground-launched SSC-8 cruise missile has been under development and testing for several years.

Russia initially violated the treaty by testing the missile during Barack Obama’s presidency. Despite becoming aware of this apparent violation, the Obama administration did not take any forceful action to bring Russia back into compliance with the treaty, merely sending President Vladimir Putin a letter of concern in July of 2014.

The Obama administration was less than forthcoming in discussing challenges that the treaty violation poses for the United States and its allies. The State Department’s annual compliance reports prior to July 2014 wrongly led Americans to believe there was no reason for concern over the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, even though the missile has reportedly been tested as early as 2008.

The Trump administration must do better.

The missile range limit of 500 kilometers is significant for U.S. allies in Europe situated close to the Russian borders and to Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave that borders Poland and Lithuania. The presence of Russian intermediate-range missiles would considerably complicate any U.S. efforts to defend its allies in the Baltics and Central and Eastern Europe should Russia decide to violate their territorial integrity.

Such a scenario is not as far-fetched as it might seem. Russia has a recent history of violating other nations’ sovereignty and territorial integrity. It also periodically issues nuclear threats against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies and conducts military exercises that simulate nuclear strikes against Poland.

Gen. Philip Breedlove, commander of Supreme Allied Command Europe and of U.S. European Command, said NATO allies are “concerned” over the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty issue and argued that violations “can’t go unanswered.”

For its part, Russia accuses the United States of Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty violations. But Russian accusations are baseless. U.S. missile defense systems do not violate the treaty because the treaty itself contains an exception for them.

Neither do U.S. drones violate the treaty, as they are simply not mentioned by the treaty at all.

The Trump administration has a range of options to respond to the Russian treaty violations. Purely diplomatic measures to address the violation first begun during the Obama administration may not be sufficient.

Historically, arms control tends to limit how the United States learns about military systems and their interactions in a broader context. This is why terminating the treaty is a viable option.

Currently, Moscow is doing whatever it deems necessary to its strategic interest regardless of the treaty, while the United States continues to abide by it. The administration should not ponder any future arms control initiatives and nuclear weapons reduction agreements at least until this issue is resolved. (For more from the author of “Moscow Issues Its First Nuclear Challenge to Trump” please click HERE)

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Russia Sends Spy Ship Near US Coast, Deploys Banned Missiles at Home, Officials Say

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A Russian spy ship was spotted patrolling off the East Coast of the United States on Tuesday morning, the first such instance during the Trump administration — and the same day it was learned the Kremlin had secretly deployed controversial cruise missiles inside Russia and flew within 200 yards of a U.S. Navy destroyer, U.S. officials told Fox News.

The Russian ship was in international waters, 70 miles off the coast of Delaware and heading north at 10 knots, according to one official. The U.S. territory line is 12 nautical miles.

It was not immediately clear where the ship is headed.

Later Tuesday, a U.S. official confirmed to Fox News that Russia had deployed ground-launched cruise missiles to two locations inside the country in December. The New York Times first reported that the Obama administration had previously seen the missiles — then in a testing phase — as a violation of a 1987 treaty between the U.S. and Russia that banned ground-launched intermediate-range missiles.

But Russia has pressed ahead with its program, apparently testing a Trump administration which has sought better ties with Moscow — but is also fresh off the loss of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who resigned Monday night in the wake of a scandal surrounding his communications with Russia. (Read more from “Russia Sends Spy Ship Near US Coast, Deploys Banned Missiles at Home, Officials Say” HERE)

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