Apparently Mike Flynn and Jared Kushner wanted to set up a secret communications link using equipment at the Russian embassy although Russian non-governmental parties may have been involved …
What Jared Kushner wanted with secret communication using the Russians’ equipment is a matter of conjecture, but we now see a variety of matters on which IC surveillance would have not been welcome in terms of espionage / treason.
These were not “back-channels” as they bypassed intermediaries and one’s own IC resources by colluding with countries that have hostile intentions, even to using the foreign country’s facilities.
Ultimately it’s still about the lifted Russian sanctions, giving Putin and his oilgarchs a massive financial windfall and all kinds of kickbacks for which Americans?
Several people came up with the idea for a hotline. They included Harvard professor Thomas Schelling, who had worked on nuclear war policy for the Defense Department previously. Schelling credited the pop fiction novel Red Alert (the basis of the film Dr. Strangelove) with making governments more aware of the benefit of direct communication between the superpowers. In addition, Parade magazine editor Jess Gorkin personally badgered 1960 presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, and buttonholed the Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev during a U.S. visit to adopt the idea. During this period Gerard C. Smith, as head of the State Department Policy Planning Staff, proposed direct communication links between Moscow and Washington. Objections from others in the State Department, the U.S. military, and the Kremlin delayed introduction. The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis made the hotline a priority. During the standoff, official diplomatic messages typically took six hours to deliver; unofficial channels, such as via television network correspondents, had to be used too as they were quicker.
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Russian ambassador told Moscow that Kushner wanted secret communications channel with Kremlin – The Washington Post https://t.co/7g5cRipHek
Been trying to think of a legitimate reason why a Trump official would want a secret line to Putin that FBI/NSA couldn’t monitor. I can’t. https://t.co/uKR5OkNzvH
â Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) May 27, 2017
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NEW: Kushner oversaw data operations for the campaign. You know, the one where Russians helped them with data. https://t.co/tyEkYBb9Hh
A semi-hostile foreign government, controlled by a former KGB strongman and his inner-circle kleptocrats, weaponized the use of social media, disinformation and malicious hacking to interfere with our presidential election. And suspicion is mounting that the winning candidate, along with many of his closest advisers, may have criminally collaborated with this foreign government in that endeavor. Likewise, this winning candidate apparently has deep yet undisclosed financial ties, including possible money-laundering scams, with this foreign government and its various wealthy plutocrats…
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Another CIA vet: If you do what Kushner reportedly did, “you are, in the eyes of the FBI and CIA, a traitor.” https://t.co/FdUCmgGE1f
â Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) May 27, 2017
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Don’t forget, Kushner pushed to fire Lewandowski/replace him w Manafort, fire Christie at transition & replace him w Pence, & to fire Comey
As long as he doesn’t have one of those convenient heart attacks, falls from a window moving a piano, polonium salted fish & vodka aspic. https://t.co/Y5XLlbIE5v
â Resistance Justice (@justiceputnam) May 27, 2017