Flynn in major trouble for speaking to Russia about sanctions

TSA is a ****.

Of course he welched. TSA is an abreviation of TheSannityAnnex. Same name, same user.

Clear cut welching.

lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by djohn2oo8

TSA is lying on an SF 86 a felony? Bet your account right now.

---

I'll take your word it's a felony but that wasn't the ELE bet you are trying to squirm out of.

Will Jeff Sessions be charged for that felony? Bet your account right now you pussy.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ducks

See all break rules

---

The Trump Organization Says It's 'Not Practical' to Comply With the Emoluments Clause

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics...nments/527997/

What parts of the constitution is it ok for Trump to ignore?

djohn2oo8 :rollin

:lmao just kill your account now djohn you're finished :lmao

Cool he can just log out and start posting as dj08

:lmao

djohn2oo8 what are your thoughts on your boy John Schindler aka @ 20committee's dick pics?

Remember John Schindler, the conservative talking head, retired NSA spook, and Naval War College professor who briefly went incognito after screenshots of (what appear to be) his penis leaked onto the Internet? While he has since reappeared on Twitter—where he first drew attention for defending domestic spying and criticizing Edward Snowden—he has refused to comment on the mysterious emails, sent to the Naval War College by an unnamed blogger, that prompted the school to place him on leave, and his penis under official investigation.

http://blackbag.gawker.com/the-crazy...dle-1610203101

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TSA

There are more facts to support this theory than the Russians colluded with Trump to steal the election.

---

"more facts".

Interesting turn of phrase.

Facts aren't like basketball scores. Not all facts are created equal.

This is the way conspiracy theorists work. They think of fact after fact after fact after fact, and throw them at the wall to see what sticks, while completely ignoring the one or two things that make their pet theory fatally flawed.

If something is falsified, its falsified. It only really takes one good fact to do that.

I realize I may be making a bit much out of a small phrase here, but thought it worth making that distinction.

I will be on the Mitch Henck show today at 5pm central to discuss Trump, Trump, Trump, and terrorism.

Please tune in live or podcast at: http://madisontalks.com/

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RandomGuy

"more facts".

Interesting turn of phrase.

Facts aren't like basketball scores. Not all facts are created equal.

This is the way conspiracy theorists work. They think of fact after fact after fact after fact, and throw them at the wall to see what sticks, while completely ignoring the one or two things that make their pet theory fatally flawed.

If something is falsified, its falsified. It only really takes one good fact to do that.

I realize I may be making a bit much out of a small phrase here, but thought it worth making that distinction.

---

This is the way Trump/Russia conspiracy theorists work. They think of fact after fact after fact after fact, and throw them at the wall to see what sticks, while completely ignoring the one or two things that make their pet theory fatally flawed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TSA

This is the way Trump/Russia conspiracy theorists work. They think of fact after fact after fact after fact, and throw them at the wall to see what sticks, while completely ignoring the one or two things that make their pet theory fatally flawed.

---

The old "I'm rubber and you're glue" schtick. You can claim it is flawed all you like. The facts will out, as they always do.

Quote:

---

WASHINGTON — Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, was paid over $65,000 by companies linked to Russia in 2015, according to a letter released on Thursday by congressional investigators.

Among the companies was a cargo airline implicated in a bribery scheme involving Russian officials at the United Nations, an American branch of a cybersecurity firm believed to have ties to Russia’s intelligence services, and RT, the Russian government’s English language TV channel, according to the letter, which was sent to Mr. Trump on Thursday by Representative Elijah E. Cummings, a Maryland Democrat. Mr. Cummings is the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

---

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/16/u...paid-trip.html

Flynn took money from Russian companies. He didn't disclose this. That much is simple and easily proven. It has the added bonus of being falsifiable, one of the key elements of "baloney" detection noted by Sagans list.

Quote:

---

The Turkish man who gave Mike Flynn a $600,000 lobbying deal just before President Donald Trump picked him to be national security adviser has business ties to Russia, including a 2009 aviation financing deal negotiated with Vladimir Putin, according to court records.

The man, Ekim Alptekin, has in recent years helped to coordinate Turkish lobbying in Washington with Dmitri “David” Zaikin, a Soviet-born former executive in Russian energy and mining companies who also has had dealings with Putin’s government, according to three people with direct knowledge of the activities.


This unusual arrangement, in which Alptekin and Zaikin have helped steer Turkish lobbying through various groups since at least 2015, raises questions about both the agenda of the two men and the source of the funds used to pay the lobbyists.

Although Turkey is a NATO ally, its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has grown increasingly authoritarian and friendly with Putin. And the hiring of Flynn by Alptekin came at a time when Flynn was working for Trump’s campaign and Putin’s government was under investigation for interfering with the U.S. election.

---

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/0...-russia-237550

Further Flynn got a LOT of money to Lobby for Turkey.

Quote:

---

President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn wrote an op-ed on Election Day calling for the U.S. to kick out an anti-government Turkish cleric without disclosing he was being paid by a firm linked to the Turkish government, according to documents newly filed with the Justice Department.

POLITICO reported in November that Flynn's consulting firm, Flynn Intel Group, was lobbying for a Dutch consulting firm with ties to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The new documents confirm that Flynn lobbied for the Turkish-linked firm, Inovo BV, before and immediately after the election. They also reveal that Flynn’s firm secretly met with the Turkish foreign and energy ministers in New York less than two months before the election. According to Inovo’s founder, Kamil Ekim Alptekin, the meeting was with Flynn himself.

---

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/0...-turkey-235843

So, Flynn pushed for US policies that Turkey's government wanted after having been given money, by... Turkish interests.


Nasty thing that conflict of interest, isn't it?

Even if an action may otherwise be innocuous, you create an environment where these kinds of questions destroy your credibility.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RandomGuy

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/0...-turkey-235843

So, Flynn pushed for US policies that Turkey's government wanted after having been given money, by... Turkish interests.


Nasty thing that conflict of interest, isn't it?

Even if an action may otherwise be innocuous, you create an environment where these kinds of questions destroy your credibility.

---

Flynn was corrupted by Turks who used Russian money.

Flynn, for his part has dissembled on the subject.

Quote:

---

Flynn’s lawyer, Robert Kelner, declined to comment. In a filing with the Justice Department, Flynn said he relied on assurances from Alptekin that he was not directly or indirectly funded by a foreign government. But shifting explanations and a web of business ties raise questions about the arrangement.

Flynn has offered evolving accounts of his lobbying work for Alptekin. In September, Flynn reported his client as a Dutch shell company owned by Alptekin. After being forced to leave the White House — reportedly because he lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations during the transition with the Russian ambassador — Flynn filed new paperwork in March acknowledging that his lobbying work “principally benefitted” the Turkish government.

---

"I promise I am not funded by a foreign government".

Okaaay.

Quote:

---

But Alptekin acknowledged that he has attended events and met with leaders of the Turkish Heritage Organization, a Washington-based group of Turkish-Americans loyal to Erdogan. The organization was started when Zaikin asked a Washington-based international political consultant named John Moreira to help set it up, Moreira told POLITICO.

Asked why Zaikin — who is not Turkish and has no apparent ties to Turkey — would be organizing a Turkish heritage organization, Moreira said he thought Zaikin had Turkish friends and business associates.

“I don’t know who David was working for. He just asked me to do this,” Moreira said.

---

I would point out that Russia has been courting Turkey (despite the shoot-down of the fighter), as a way to weaken NATO, a very high Putin priority.

This smacks of a quid-pro-quo.
Russia to Turkey: "I will help you get the policies you want from the US"
Turkey: "Why thank you very much, I am now in your favor".

It is a fact that the Russian government wants to get rid of NATO, and is doing whatever is in its power to weaken the organization.

Start here with an OP-ed piece that pretty clearly outlines what the Russians think:
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/389685-br...ty-trump-nato/
'NATO, an American-made mechanism for geopolitical control of Europe'

I have read dozens of articles on this, and their own position is crystal clear.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by boutons_deux

Flynn was corrupted by Turks who used Russian money.

---

Quote:

---

Asked why Zaikin — who is not Turkish and has no apparent ties to Turkey — would be organizing a Turkish heritage organization, Moreira said he thought Zaikin had Turkish friends and business associates.

---

Dimitri Zaikin wasn't even Turkish.

WASHINGTON — When Special Agent Adrian Hawkins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation called the Democratic National Committee in September 2015 to pass along some troubling news about its computer network, he was transferred, naturally, to the help desk.

His message was brief, if alarming. At least one computer system belonging to the D.N.C. had been compromised by hackers federal investigators had named “the Dukes,” a cyberespionage team linked to the Russian government.

The F.B.I. knew it well: The bureau had spent the last few years trying to kick the Dukes out of the unclassified email systems of the White House, the State Department and even the Joint Chiefs of Staff, one of the government’s best-protected networks.

Yared Tamene, the tech-support contractor at the D.N.C. who fielded the call, was no expert in cyberattacks. His first moves were to check Google for “the Dukes” and conduct a cursory search of the D.N.C. computer system logs to look for hints of such a cyberintrusion. By his own account, he did not look too hard even after Special Agent Hawkins called back repeatedly over the next several weeks — in part because he wasn’t certain the caller was a real F.B.I. agent and not an impostor.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RandomGuy

Doesn't sound like Hawkins was relying on Crowdstrikes after action report.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/u...ction-dnc.html

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by boutons_deux

Flynn was corrupted by Turks who used Russian money.

---

Quote:

---

In the 2000s, Zaikin was an executive in Russia’s oil industry at a time when Putin was consolidating control over the country’s mineral wealth to the financial benefit of himself and the circle of oligarchs who are his key supporters and associates.

As chairman and CEO of a company called Siberian Energy Group, Zaikin obtained mineral interests and exploration licenses in Russia’s Kurgan province, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

---

Zaikin wasn't even Turkish.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Article detailing Flynn's involvement on behalf of Turkish interests

Alptekin acknowledged ETIRC’s negotiations with the bank chaired by Putin, but said he never interacted with any Russian officials. There are no Russians involved in the new company, he said.

Today, that company, known as EA Group, markets Eclipse jets in Turkey, Russia and the Middle East, according to its website. But Alptekin, in his POLITICO interview, said he lost the license to market the jets in Russia because he failed to sell any.

The company also has an arms-dealing division, focusing on Turkey and the Middle East. Alptekin said he sold video surveillance equipment for Turkish police helicopters and declined to discuss his other deals. He said the arms division isn’t active currently.

In his Justice Department filings, Flynn said the lobbying work he did for Alptekin focused on pressuring the U.S. to hand over Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric living in Pennsylvania whom Erdogan claims is trying to overthrow him.

The lobbying work that Alptekin and Zaikin helped organize on behalf of Turkish groups also focused on Gulen.

---

Quote:

---

Zaikin did not sign checks or contracts — the K Street firms were hired through the Turkish Heritage Organization and another nonprofit called the Turkish Institute for Progress, according to lobbying disclosure records. Zaikin also asked Moreira to help set up the Turkish Institute for Progress, Moreira said.

But the firms sometimes sent invoices to one of Zaikin’s companies, Key Elements Group in London, according to people with direct knowledge of the dealings. Zaikin dissolved the company in December, according to British corporate records.

---

Dissolved in December. Almost as if he is covering his tracks. I wonder what document I read recently stated that the Russians started covering their tracks?

RandomGuy I asked for proof of Trump/Russian collusion not Mike Flynn's lobbying efforts.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RandomGuy

WASHINGTON — When Special Agent Adrian Hawkins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation called the Democratic National Committee in September 2015 to pass along some troubling news about its computer network, he was transferred, naturally, to the help desk.

His message was brief, if alarming. At least one computer system belonging to the D.N.C. had been compromised by hackers federal investigators had named “the Dukes,” a cyberespionage team linked to the Russian government.

The F.B.I. knew it well: The bureau had spent the last few years trying to kick the Dukes out of the unclassified email systems of the White House, the State Department and even the Joint Chiefs of Staff, one of the government’s best-protected networks.

Yared Tamene, the tech-support contractor at the D.N.C. who fielded the call, was no expert in cyberattacks. His first moves were to check Google for “the Dukes” and conduct a cursory search of the D.N.C. computer system logs to look for hints of such a cyberintrusion. By his own account, he did not look too hard even after Special Agent Hawkins called back repeatedly over the next several weeks — in part because he wasn’t certain the caller was a real F.B.I. agent and not an impostor.

---

https://www.secalliance.com/blog/wp-...3-Blog-V01.jpg

The “problem of attribution” in the context of Cyber is not a new one, but it receives a relatively small share of coverage. When a high-profile breach is attributed to nation-state actors, the focus is often on the potential motivations and implications of the attack. While this is a worthwhile topic, attribution of the attack itself is equally – arguably even more – important. After all, attribution forms the basic assumption underlying any discussion of why an attack occurred and what it portends. When this is applied to a state-sponsored attack, this ceases to be a matter of idle speculation and becomes one of national security or foreign policy – as evidenced by the following quote:
“We know that Russian intelligence services hacked into the DNC and we know that they arranged for a lot of those emails to be released and we know that Donald Trump has shown a very troubling willingness to back up Putin, to support Putin.”
This strangely authoritative statement from Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, was made in the wake of the DNC leaks published by WikiLeaks in July of this year.
Nation-State Actors
A number of authoritative statements of attribution have been made by reputable infosec firms such as CrowdStrike and FireEye. FireEye, in particular, attributed the attack to APT28, a group that they wrote a comprehensive threat profile about in 2014. In this report, it is stated that various targets were identified but were not included because they are “not particularly indicative of a specific sponsor’s interests.” Other firms identified a number of other unrelated targets, such as web services, energy companies and telecommunications providers.
Besides a few relatively inconclusive indicators, such as the presence of Russian language settings in malware samples, the profile of APT28 constructed in this original report relies largely on circumstantial evidence – such as the targeting of Eastern European, including Georgian, government authorities. The problem with this is, as we have already established, this report explicitly disregards targets that do not seem to indicate sponsorship by a nation-state. From the outset, the question being asked is not “who did this?” but “which nation-state did this?”. The framing of this question produces an obvious – though not necessarily correct – answer.
While attacks on Georgia, Eastern Europe and NATO seem damning when presented together, the report discards data points which do not confirm a specific narrative. This becomes more troubling in light of the fact that Mandiant (a firm owned by FireEye) asserts about the DNC hack that “the malware and associated servers are consistent with those previously used by APT 28”. If the evidence for APT28 being a Russian state-sponsored actor is, in effect, a few pieces of easily falsified metadata and some circumstantial and inconclusive evidence, we do not have anywhere near enough confidence to be able to make statements like Secretary Clinton’s.

The Burden of Proof
The underlying problem is a lack of accountability: an attribution claim might be made with strong confidence based on closed-source intelligence, but this does not change the fact that the information available to the community is inconclusive. The community as a whole can only work with the information that is available; if you ask us to accept that Russia hacked the DNC based on public intelligence of dubious conclusiveness and private intelligence that is unavailable for public review, the result is a faith-based process without accountability or transparency. Attribution claims are inherently difficult to disprove for the same reasons they are difficult to prove – and once such a claim is made by a reputable organisation, they are not responsible for how it is interpreted by the media.
Even reputable companies, such as FireEye, are not infallible; the $81 million Bangladesh bank heist of this year is proof of this. Initially attributed to North Korea because of similarities to the 2014 Sony breach, some reports now link the incident to Eastern-European gangs associated with Dridex. Attribution to a specific nation-state can easily be made by drawing parallels to previous attacks, but what do you do when an attack contains identifying characteristics from two separate threat actors? Pick one? Conclude there were two different breaches? Or provide detailed analysis with responsible terminology?
This question is easily answered when you consider the possibility that there is significant cooperation between these actors – but this is an inconvenient assessment, because it muddies the waters of attribution. If tools and software related both to the Dridex gang and North Korean actors appears in the same attack, it makes attributing either of those actors more difficult in the future – and calls into question any previous attribution to either of these groups.
Attribution is very much an art, and one that necessitates an unfortunate amount of guesswork. The impossibility of conclusively attributing an attack to a specific actor – or, in some cases, even identifying specific actors – does not mean that we should not attempt to correlate the information about attacks with each other. But it is important to only state as truth what is known to be true; discarding inconvenient data as ‘anomalous’ in nature is not only counter-productive, but dangerous. It can lead to a “house of cards” effect: if the initial assumptions are flawed, then each layer built on them is undermined.
We can counteract this simply by communicating and sharing our analyses: as much as possible, as frequently and efficiently as possible. Guesswork and speculation should be accepted – but also challenged and qualified at every opportunity. The narrative that arises from this discourse will be richer, more nuanced and ultimately more valuable to the intelligence community. Only by cultivating accountability can we replace black-box reporting with informed, critical analysis.

https://www.secalliance.com/blog/the...ity-community/