Foreign Policy

Syrian war crimes, Russian complicity, and the U.S. response

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Last week, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, announced a major shift in U.S. Policy towards Syria: U.S. priority on Syria no longer focused on ‘getting Assad out’:

The United States’ diplomatic policy on Syria for now is no longer focused on making the war-torn country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, leave power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said on Thursday, in a departure from the Obama administration’s initial and public stance on Assad’s fate.

The view of the Trump administration is also at odds with European powers, who insist Assad must step down. The shift drew a strong rebuke from at least two Republican senators.

“You pick and choose your battles and when we’re looking at this, it’s about changing up priorities and our priority is no longer to sit there and focus on getting Assad out,” U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told a small group of reporters.

“Do we think he’s a hindrance? Yes. Are we going to sit there and focus on getting him out? No,” she said. “What we are going to focus on is putting the pressure in there so that we can start to make a change in Syria.”

In Ankara on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Assad’s longer-term status “will be decided by the Syrian people.

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The Trump-Putin campaign investigation: ‘too many coincidences to be coincidences’

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Jennifer Rubin, the Washington Post’s conservative blogger teases her post, “Too many coincidences to be coincidences.” The big Russia questions loom even larger.

Charles Blow, the New York Times liberal columnist writes, Dwindling Odds of Coincidence: “The journalistic caution in me keeps having to write that these could all be coincidences, but the journalistic instinct has learned long ago that coincidence is the albino alligator of political reality: It exists, but is exceedingly rare.”

Right and left agree, there are simply “too many coincidences to be coincidences.” And those coincidences keep multiplying.

Over the weekend the Times reported that former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn Failed to Disclose Income From Russia-Linked Entities:

Michael T. Flynn, the national security adviser who was forced out of the job in February, failed to list payments from Russia-linked entities on the first of two financial disclosure forms released Saturday by the Trump administration.

The first form, which he signed in February, does not directly mention a paid speech he gave in Moscow, as well as other payments from companies linked to Russia. The second, an amended version, lists the names of the companies that made the payments under a section for any nongovernment compensation that exceeds $5,000 “in a year.” That list appears to include all of the work that Mr. Flynn, a retired three-star Army general, has done since leaving the military in 2014, without providing compensation figures for any of it.

No reason was given for the discrepancy between the two forms.

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Senate Intelligence Committee hearing: Russia’s ‘active measures’ are ongoing

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The Senate Intelligence Committee held its first hearing on Russian interference in the U.S. election on Thursday. The committee heard from a series of expert witnesses on Russia’s use of “active measures” and manipulating social media with “fake news” (propaganda) and “bots,” and an army of trolls to influence media narratives and voters.

One of the more compelling witnesses was former FBI special agent Clint Watts, who testified that “part of the reason active measures worked in this U.S. election is because the Commander-in-Chief [Trump] has used Russian active measures at times, against his opponents.” Think Progress reports, Former FBI agent details how Trump and Russia team up to weaponize fake news:

During the first public Senate Intelligence Committee hearing about Russia’s meddling in the presidential election on Thursday, former FBI special agent Clint Watts explained how Russia and the Trump campaign team up to weaponize fake news.

Asked by Rep. James Lankford (R-OK) about why Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to make more of an effort to interfere in the 2016 presidential election than in years past, Watts, who is now a a fellow at George Washington University’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security, said, “the answer is very simple and it’s what nobody is really saying in this room.”

“Which is, part of the reason active measures have worked in this U.S. election is because the Commander-in-Chief [Trump] has used Russian active measures at times, against his opponents,” Watts continued.

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Michael Flynn seeks an immunity deal for his testimony

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Last week I posted about Friday’s edition of Don Lemon CNN Tonight, in which CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem discussed the possibility in a panel discussion that former national security adviser Mike Flynn has cut a deal with the FBI and is now informing on his old boss. CNN analyst: Sources say Mike Flynn may have turned on Trump and become a witness for the FBI.

Kayyem may have been a bit premature with her analysis, but the Wall Street Journal (pay firewall) confirmed on Thursday that Mike Flynn Offers to Testify in Exchange for Immunity: “Mike Flynn, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, has told the Federal Bureau of Investigation and congressional officials investigating the Trump campaign’s potential ties to Russia that he is willing to be interviewed in exchange for a grant of immunity from prosecution, according to officials with knowledge of the matter.”

The Washington Post picks up the Journal’s reporting. Flynn offers to cooperate with congressional probe in exchange for immunity:

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn has offered to cooperate with congressional investigators in exchange for immunity from prosecution, a suggestion that has been met with initial skepticism, according to people familiar with the matter.

“General Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit,’’ Flynn’s attorney, Robert Kelner, said in a statement Thursday evening. “Out of respect for the committees, we will not comment right now on the details of discussions between counsel for General Flynn and the House and Senate intelligence committees, other than to confirm that those discussions have taken place. But it is important to acknowledge the circumstances in which those discussions are occurring.’’

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Nunes’ leakers revealed – he coordinated with the White House (Updated)

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Rep. Devin Nunes, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has a history of cultivating independent sources inside the intelligence community (otherwise known as “leakers.”) These are not “whistleblowers” as he would falsely have you believe. If these individuals were true whistleblowers he would follow the law and give his sources whistleblower status and legal protection, and call them to testify before the House Intelligence Committee. Nunes has no intention of ever doing this.

This helps to explain Nunes’ cloak and dagger visit to the White House “grounds” the evening before he called his extraordinary press conference in which he disclosed classified information and claimed that Trump transition members were “unmasked” in lawful “incidental surveillance” of foreign persons last week.

Nunes promised to share the intelligence reports he reviewed with his fellow House Intelligence Committee members, something he has yet to do, but he refused to disclose the identity of his sources (leakers) who provided him with the intelligence reports on the White House “grounds.”

Both Nunes and the White House have denied that there was any coordination between the White House and his extraordinary press conference last week. That denial is now falling apart.

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