Flynn’s
Head Rolls. Is Trump’s Next?
By
Finian Cunningham
February
18, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- "SCF"
-
Just
three weeks into the Trump presidency, and his
political enemies in the Washington
establishment have scored big, with the forced
resignation of Trump’s National Security advisor
Michael Flynn. The establishment includes state
intelligence agencies and aligned corporate news
media, who have been gunning for Trump ever
since his shock election last November.
It’s a hugely
damaging blow to the inner circle of the Trump
White House. The US media reporting on
Flynn’s resignation this week had the
unmistakable air of victory-crowing. Like sharks
in a pool, they smell blood.
Flynn had
to go after the Washington Post and
others reported that he wasn’t telling the truth
about phone calls he had been holding with
Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the
transition to the Trump administration. Flynn
hadn’t denied the calls in late December, but he
had maintained that the subject of US sanctions
on Russia were not discussed.
Persistently the US media did not give up on the
charges against Flynn, which shows that their
confidence on the subject was underwritten by
intelligence sources. Or put another way, this
was an intelligence-led witch-hunt which was
based on the illegal disclosure of private
information.
Flynn had
told the US Vice President Mike Pence that
sanctions were not discussed and that the
conversation with the Russian diplomat was only
about seasonal pleasantries and making
arrangements about a forthcoming phone call
between President Trump and Russian counterpart
Vladimir Putin – that call was finally made on
January 28.
Pence
stood by Flynn initially, telling media outlets
that there was nothing untoward in the phone
calls.
Legally, a
private US citizen – which Flynn was at that
stage before Trump became inaugurated on January
10 – is not permitted to talk about government
policy with a foreign state in a presumptive
official capacity.
Apparently
now, as it turns out, sanctions were discussed
between Flynn and Kislyak, according to FBI
investigators and US officials quoted by the
Washington Post. Russia has refused to
comment on the nature of the phone calls.
What was
Flynn thinking of? At one stage during the Obama
administration, he had served as head of the
Defense Intelligence Agency – one of the 16 US
federal spy organizations. It seems incredible
that given his expertise in matters of US state
surveillance practice, Flynn could have been so
reckless as to hold phone conversations with
Russia’s top diplomat in Washington on national
security issues outside of his then remit.
|
Not For Profit - For Global
Justice
|
Especially
considering too that Flynn was shortly about to
assume office as a senior national security
advisor to the new president, Donald Trump, who
was already under intense media scrutiny over
his alleged links to Russia.
Not only
hold phone conversations, but as seems likely,
Flynn broached the subject of how US sanctions
levied by Obama might be lifted under the Trump
administration. For Flynn not to realize that
every word would be tapped by US intelligence
seems an incredible lapse of judgment on his
part.
The
suspect phone contact occurred at the time Obama
sanctioned several Russian diplomats over
allegations that Russian hackers had interfered
in the presidential elections. Those allegations
of Russian state-sponsored hacking have never
been proven.
The way the Washington
Post tells
it, US intelligence officials were surprised
when Russian President Vladimir Putin did not
reciprocate with Obama’s sanctions announced on
December 29, instead choosing to respond by
wishing Americans a Happy Christmas.
According
to the Post, US intelligence began
searching for a possible explanation for Putin’s
unexpected response, and they found their
putative answer in Flynn’s call to the Russian
ambassador. It is claimed that Flynn indicated
to the Russian diplomat that the new sanctions
imposed by the outgoing Obama administration
would be duly reversed by Trump.
It seems
more plausible, however, that the US
intelligence agents did not engage in some
retrospective random search for a mole, but
rather they had Flynn in their sights all along,
having listened into this phone call with the
Russian ambassador.
And as the
Washington Post pointedly noted this week, Trump
promptly praised Putin for not taking
retaliatory action to Obama’s sanctions.
The
inference here is that Flynn was acting as
mediator with the Russians under instruction
from Trump.
«The current and
former officials said that although they
believed that [Vice President] Pence was misled
about the contents of Flynn’s communications
with the Russian ambassador, they couldn’t rule
out that Flynn was acting with the knowledge of
others in the transition», reports the
Washington Post.
Trump’s
administration had already caused deep
consternation among the Washington establishment
of State Department, foreign policy think-tanks,
intelligence-military apparatus and aligned
corporate news media. Trump’s avowed intentions
of normalizing relations with Russia before and
after his election on November 8 have collided
with Washington’s long-term geo-strategic agenda
of fomenting hostility with Moscow.
The forced
resignation of Michael Flynn, who was an
influential advocate in the Trump White House
for normalizing relations with Russia, can be
seen as a much-desired blow against Trump over
Russia – inflicted by the US Deep State
operatives.
There
seems little doubt that Flynn was set up in a
sting operation. The only wonder is that he
seemed to walk right into the trap.
It seems
very likely that having procured Flynn’s scalp,
the political enemies of Trump will not stop
there. The big prize is Trump himself and his
ousting from the presidency through impeachment
on charges of conspiring with an enemy state.
All the
hoopla over Flynn in the US media is just the
beginning of a campaign to finger Trump as the
person who gave him clearance to illicitly
contact the Russians.
A soft
coup against Trump by the US Deep State has been
speculated for some time now, especially over
his «friendly» Russia policy being at odds with
the powers-that-be who are hellbent on hostility
towards Moscow. And it seems that incompetence
within the Trump administration is playing
straight into that agenda to oust him from the
White House.
