Con artist ineptitude on full display

[someoneyouknow]

“We were not informed by the Russians that their official photographer was dual-hatted and would be releasing the photographs on the state news agency,” the administration official said.

So says the con artist regime who admits they were "misled" about the status of a Russian photographer. Officially they were supposed to be Lavrov's personal photographer. In reality they were being paid by TASS, the official, government-sponsored news agency in Russia.

Even better, the photographer was given unprecedented access to the Oval Office where, possibly, a listening device was installed because of the carelessness and ineptitude of the con artist.

Responding to a question posed online about whether it was a sound decision to allow the photographer into the Oval Office, [former deputy CIA director David S.] Cohen replied on Twitter: “No it was not.” He declined to elaborate when reached by phone.

Other former intelligence officials also described the access granted to the photographer as a potentially serious security lapse, noting that standard screening for White House visitors would not necessarily detect a sophisticated espionage device.

Lavrov met the con artist and asked, as payback for helping him win the election, if two Russian properties could be given back. These properties are being held as punishment for Russia's collusion with the con artist during the presidential election.

Lavrov also showed mock surprise when informed former FBI director Comey had been fired. "He was fired? How were we supposed to know this?" Lavrov then smirked and took the con artist by the elbow and led him away to discuss their future plans.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/presence-of-russian-photographer-in-oval-office-raises-alarms/ar-BBAYRJi?li=BBnbcA1&srcref=rss

 

[sr71plt]

Can those still supporting this con artist be any more stupid?

 

[The_Trouvere]

Can those still supporting this con artist be any more stupid?

Trump's supporters are either poor and desparate whites who hope he delivers on his unrealistic and insincere promises to bring back well paying factory and mine jobs, or they are selfish whites who look hope for tax cuts, and do not care about the deficit they complained about when Obama was president.

The poorly educated people Trump pretends to love are so ignorant that they do not know that factory and mine jobs only became desirable because of Democratic reforms.

 

[someoneyouknow]

UPDATE

"They tricked us," an angry White House official said.

"That's the problem with the Russians -- they lie," the official added.
. . .
In response to the White House official's complaint that the White House was "tricked," former Obama administration national security adviser Susan Rice said on Twitter: "No kidding!"

Being conned by a better con artist, after they helped you get elected, is true to the phrase, "There's a sucker born every minute."


http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/politics/oval-office-photos-donald-trump-russians/index.html

 

[Carnal_Flower]

The Oval Office could very well be bugged as we speak.

UPDATE

"They tricked us," an angry White House official said.

"That's the problem with the Russians -- they lie," the official added.
. . .
In response to the White House official's complaint that the White House was "tricked," former Obama administration national security adviser Susan Rice said on Twitter: "No kidding!"

Being conned by a better con artist, after they helped you get elected, is true to the phrase, "There's a sucker born every minute."


http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/politics/oval-office-photos-donald-trump-russians/index.html

 

[Hard_Rom]

Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador

President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said that Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State. The information Trump relayed had been provided by a U.S. partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U.S. government, officials said.

Officials expressed concern with Trump’s handling of sensitive information as well as his grasp of the potential consequences. Exposure of an intelligence stream that has provided critical insight into the Islamic State, they said, could hinder the United States’ and its allies’ ability to detect future threats.

In his meeting with Lavrov, Trump seemed to be boasting about his inside knowledge of the looming threat. Trump went off script and began describing details about an Islamic State terrorist threat. U.S. officials said that the National Security Council continues to prepare multi-page briefings for Trump to guide him through conversations with foreign leaders but that he has insisted that the guidance be distilled to a single page of bullet points, and often ignores those.

At a more fundamental level, the information wasn’t the United States’ to provide to others. Under the rules of espionage, governments — and even individual agencies — are given significant control over whether and how the information they gather is disseminated even after it has been shared. Violating that practice undercuts trust considered essential to sharing secrets. The officials declined to identify the ally, but said it is one that has previously voiced frustration with Washington’s inability to safeguard sensitive information related to Iraq and Syria.


http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/polit...r-and-ambassador/ar-BBBaGdi?OCID=ansmsnnews11

 

[Carnal_Flower]

The Deep State strikes back!!

Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador

President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said that Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State. The information Trump relayed had been provided by a U.S. partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U.S. government, officials said.

Officials expressed concern with Trump’s handling of sensitive information as well as his grasp of the potential consequences. Exposure of an intelligence stream that has provided critical insight into the Islamic State, they said, could hinder the United States’ and its allies’ ability to detect future threats.

In his meeting with Lavrov, Trump seemed to be boasting about his inside knowledge of the looming threat. Trump went off script and began describing details about an Islamic State terrorist threat. U.S. officials said that the National Security Council continues to prepare multi-page briefings for Trump to guide him through conversations with foreign leaders but that he has insisted that the guidance be distilled to a single page of bullet points, and often ignores those.

At a more fundamental level, the information wasn’t the United States’ to provide to others. Under the rules of espionage, governments — and even individual agencies — are given significant control over whether and how the information they gather is disseminated even after it has been shared. Violating that practice undercuts trust considered essential to sharing secrets. The officials declined to identify the ally, but said it is one that has previously voiced frustration with Washington’s inability to safeguard sensitive information related to Iraq and Syria.


http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/polit...r-and-ambassador/ar-BBBaGdi?OCID=ansmsnnews11

 

[Hard_Rom]

Russian foreign intelligence doesn't need to bug the Oval Office. All they have to do is put a mic in front of the orange fool and wait for him to go off script blowing his own horn. Be a shame for American soldiers, intelligence agents or 5Eyes personnel to die due to his big mouth.

 

[someoneyouknow]

Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador

You beat me to it. Had to go shopping or it would have been up earlier. Here is the entire article from the source:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-revealed-highly-classified-information-to-russian-foreign-minister-and-ambassador/2017/05/15/530c172a-3960-11e7-9e48-c4f199710b69_story.html?utm_term=.3a35a90dd457

This is my favorite part:

“This is code-word information,” said a U.S. official familiar with the matter, using terminology that refers to one of the highest classification levels used by American spy agencies. Trump “revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies.”​

 

[Wrong Element]

The blurting out of classified info is bad. This is more comical because no real damage done, but it shows how totally out of their depth these idiots are:


We got a call Friday from a reader named Paul Redmond that The Post had accidentally published Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’s private cell phone number.

A story about President Trump’s bodyguard Keith Schiller, Redmond said, was accompanied by a photograph of the two of them walking on White House grounds. The bodyguard was holding a stack of papers, and, according to the caller, on the outside of those papers was a yellow sticky note that said “Jim, Mad Dog, Mattis” and had a phone number.

This of course sounds impossible. Way more care than that is taken around the president, right? The Secret Service is good at secrecy, generally. So I thanked the guy for the call and dubiously pulled up the photo in question. With the monitor turned 90 degrees and the photo blown up, indeed, I could make out a number and what might be “Jim, Mad Dog, Mattis,” if you have better eyesight than mine even when I squint.

I called. I got the voice mail. It was him.

Yes, of course, the president’s bodyguard — the guy famous for punching someone outside of Trump Tower, the guy who according to the story has the president’s complete trust — is employing the yellow sticky note system of information security.




https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2017/05/15/when-president-trumps-bodyguard-revealed-jim-mattiss-private-cellphone-number/?utm_term=.8929ee14f7f0

 

[phrodeau]

From Trump's Liberty College commencement speech:

…the kind of barbarity we're seeing today and we've been witnessing over the last number of years and I just want to tell you as your president, we are doing very, very well in countering it, so you just hang in there. Things are going along very, very well. You'll be hearing a lot about it next week from our generals. Things are going along very, very well.

You can tell he wants everyone to know that he has a secret.

 

[phrodeau]

https://twitter.com/EliotACohen/status/864230521093730304

Eliot A Cohen‏ @EliotACohen 5h5 hours ago

This is appalling. If accidental, it would be a firing offense for anyone else. If deliberate, it would be treason.

How about that? Exactly what they said about Hillary's e-mails.

 

[Wrong Element]

From last July:

Paul RyanVerified account @SpeakerRyan
It's simple: Individuals who are ‘extremely careless’ w/ classified info should be denied further access to it.

 

[Phelia]

The blurting out of classified info is bad. This is more comical because no real damage done, but it shows how totally out of their depth these idiots are:


We got a call Friday from a reader named Paul Redmond that The Post had accidentally published Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’s private cell phone number.

A story about President Trump’s bodyguard Keith Schiller, Redmond said, was accompanied by a photograph of the two of them walking on White House grounds. The bodyguard was holding a stack of papers, and, according to the caller, on the outside of those papers was a yellow sticky note that said “Jim, Mad Dog, Mattis” and had a phone number.

This of course sounds impossible. Way more care than that is taken around the president, right? The Secret Service is good at secrecy, generally. So I thanked the guy for the call and dubiously pulled up the photo in question. With the monitor turned 90 degrees and the photo blown up, indeed, I could make out a number and what might be “Jim, Mad Dog, Mattis,” if you have better eyesight than mine even when I squint.

I called. I got the voice mail. It was him.

Yes, of course, the president’s bodyguard — the guy famous for punching someone outside of Trump Tower, the guy who according to the story has the president’s complete trust — is employing the yellow sticky note system of information security.




https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2017/05/15/when-president-trumps-bodyguard-revealed-jim-mattiss-private-cellphone-number/?utm_term=.8929ee14f7f0

Holy shit.

 

[sr71plt]

The blurting out of classified info is bad. This is more comical because no real damage done, but it shows how totally out of their depth these idiots are:


We got a call Friday from a reader named Paul Redmond that The Post had accidentally published Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’s private cell phone number.

A story about President Trump’s bodyguard Keith Schiller, Redmond said, was accompanied by a photograph of the two of them walking on White House grounds. The bodyguard was holding a stack of papers, and, according to the caller, on the outside of those papers was a yellow sticky note that said “Jim, Mad Dog, Mattis” and had a phone number.

This of course sounds impossible. Way more care than that is taken around the president, right? The Secret Service is good at secrecy, generally. So I thanked the guy for the call and dubiously pulled up the photo in question. With the monitor turned 90 degrees and the photo blown up, indeed, I could make out a number and what might be “Jim, Mad Dog, Mattis,” if you have better eyesight than mine even when I squint.

I called. I got the voice mail. It was him.

Yes, of course, the president’s bodyguard — the guy famous for punching someone outside of Trump Tower, the guy who according to the story has the president’s complete trust — is employing the yellow sticky note system of information security.

I wonder if that was THE Paul Redmond who called that in. If so, that would be an interesting wrinkle. (http://abcnews.go.com/US/assets-key-players-takedown-cia-officer-turned-soviet/story?id=21323443)

 

[Ramone45]

The media is creaming themselves over this. It's ridiculous. While respecting freedom of the press, what about their responsibility? It's a sincere question. Their leg tingling reporting, and visceral hatred of Trump is making this worse FOR OUR COUNTRY.

 

[Wrong Element]

The media is creaming themselves over this. It's ridiculous. While respecting freedom of the press, what about their responsibility? It's a sincere question. Their leg tingling reporting, and visceral hatred of Trump is making this worse FOR OUR COUNTRY.

Trump is already paying people to lie for him. The Post is in business for itself (and for the record, they withheld a lot for their story; apparently at least someone in Washington knows how to preserve a secret).

 

[sr71plt]

The media is creaming themselves over this. It's ridiculous. While respecting freedom of the press, what about their responsibility? It's a sincere question. Their leg tingling reporting, and visceral hatred of Trump is making this worse FOR OUR COUNTRY.

Sorry, in keeping with this thread subject, the independent press is only shining light on how dangerously inept this administration is in doing business. The information Trump passed to a known Russian intelligence operative (in addition to being the Russian ambassador to the United States) in a meeting from which the U.S. press was barred but a Russian official news agency source was given entry was the shared secret from an allied intelligence organization. There was no vetting through either the U.S. intelligence agencies or the ally intelligence organization that provided the information that it was either wise or advantageous to give this information to a country that is not an ally of the United States or of the country that provided us the information. There are thirty-two ways from Sunday how this can go wrong and completely screw up intelligence networking and information gathering/sharing. And it was all done off the cuff by a crazy man to puff himself up.

Everyone, especially those who are shielding this lunatic, need to know that's the way the administration is working and take that into account on how they respond. Without the independent news coverage this would just go on and on with, somewhere close down the road, everything being in tatters and no one knowing why it happened--and what their own role in it happening was.

 

[phrodeau]

Were translators involved, or did Trump talk to the ambassador in Russian?

 

[Wrong Element]

Were translators involved, or did Trump talk to the ambassador in Russian?

I know Lavrov speaks English. I assume the ambassador does too.

 

[dan_c00000]

I know Lavrov speaks English. I assume the ambassador does too.

I'm sure they know at least one phrase in English: You us money, Donald.

 

[Ramone45]

Sorry, in keeping with this thread subject, the independent press is only shining light on how dangerously inept this administration is in doing business. The information Trump passed to a known Russian intelligence operative (in addition to being the Russian ambassador to the United States) in a meeting from which the U.S. press was barred but a Russian official news agency source was given entry was the shared secret from an allied intelligence organization. There was no vetting through either the U.S. intelligence agencies or the ally intelligence organization that provided the information that it was either wise or advantageous to give this information to a country that is not an ally of the United States or of the country that provided us the information. There are thirty-two ways from Sunday how this can go wrong and completely screw up intelligence networking and information gathering/sharing. And it was all done off the cuff by a crazy man to puff himself up.

Everyone, especially those who are shielding this lunatic, need to know that's the way the administration is working and take that into account on how they respond. Without the independent news coverage this would just go on and on with, somewhere close down the road, everything being in tatters and no one knowing why it happened--and what their own role in it happening was.

The Independent Press. Cute

 

[sr71plt]

The Independent Press. Cute

You've just complained about it not shilling for Trump--which apparently you do.

 

[RjThoughts]

Comey has receipts.

Trump is going down!

 

[sr71plt]

Comey has receipts.

Trump is going down!

Only if Comey carries through.

Somebody should tell McMasters it's time to walk away. He covered for Trump and Trump threw him into the propeller. If McMasters has any brains, he should know that's how it has been and will continue to be.