Metoo said:

Also, what was Trump supposed to do with unverified and - even more importantly - unprovable claim that the Russians were paying Taliban to kill the US soldiers? Ask Putin if it is true? Publicly admonish him like Obama did about the interference before the 2016 elections (as if it worked lol)? Send the ICBMs? Activities like this are in the grey area no one talks about and for a good reason. Does anyone here think CIA never paid proxy players to harm the US opponents? What would CIA have done had they been publicly confronted with unverified and unprovable claims that they did? Apologise? Fire the operatives involved? Or - just maybe - privately chuckle and publicly deny? The world is a rough place, especially for troops stationed in war zones. The way you deal with nasty stuff like this is to recipricate - also secretly - to hurt the other guys until they stop.

I accept that there is an area of intelligence/counterintelligence operations the public do not need to know about. It is appalling that the media are discussing classified briefings and publishing the opinions of unnamed retired intelligence people dumping on the current lot. This is making the US look messed up and weak.

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vinsue said:

You trust the word of "Bloody Gina",
Trumps 6^th National Security Advisor O'Brien(counting 2 acting temps),
and best bud and 4^th Chief of Staff Meadows, (who's been there almost 4 months)
Seriously?
Why were only republican congressmen invited to yesterdays briefing about this bounty?
Circle the wagon much?
If tRump didn't know, he sure as fuck should have.
Worst administration EVER.

Putin2020!
. . .

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koods said:

The traced GRU financial transactions

You could just read the nyt stories. They’re full of details.

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Quote:

I mean, we know that the Russians have been in Afghanistan giving the Taliban funding to, you know, take out ISIS.

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Stable Genius said:

They're all valid points, but if the cat is already out of the bag then Trump and Pence are left at best looking like they're completely out of the loop.
If a report turns up showing he didn't read his own intelligence... there's nowhere to go for the pair of them except out the door.

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Metoo said:

I agree - he is probably gone anyway but I would hate to see the process take down the US intelligence capability. NYT should keep looking for his underpaid mistresses and count his days on the golf course, there is no need to destroy the country.

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Metoo said:

Trump has a very consistent negotiating strategy. He drives hard bargains but is friendly with the leaders. This makes complete sense to me - there is little to be gained by personal attacks against the decision makers. For example we had decades of demonising the NK leaders and absolutely no progress made with the substantive negotiations. Same with China trade, same with Iran, same with Afghanistan.

This may not be how you would do global politics but you have not volunteered for the job.

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koods said:

Oh come on trump attacks everyone.

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