Let’s reserve judgment on the Guardian’s intriguing but thinly sourced story that Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort met with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. The role of the Ecuadorian intelligence service and spy agencies in the story is key but unclear. But all that is rather beside the point. The case that Assange was an agent in...
Category: United States
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Hear No Evil: White House Barred Haspel from Senate Briefing on Saudi Arabia
President Trump didn’t want CIA director Gina Haspel to brief U.S. Senators on the agency’s assessment of the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. “We were told during this briefing that it was the direction of the White House that she not attend,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told reporters after the briefing. “I cannot recall a briefing...
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Troubled Trump Threatens More FISA Disclosures
Amid damaging revelations from the guilty plea of his former personal lawyer, President Trump responded with a threat to reveal information about the special prosecutor’s investigation. Such bluster is a familiar Trump tactic. The right-wing The Daily Caller picked up on Trump’s intentions a couple of weeks ago. “Declassification, we’re looking at very seriously,” Trump told reporters...
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The Guardian’s Assange-Manafort Story: Bombshell or Bust?
The Guardian’s sensational story that Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort met with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is still unconfirmed by other news organizations. It is a tantalizing story but is it true? The fact that other news organizations have not been able to confirm it quickly makes the question more urgent as time passes. If...
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Haspel Out of Step With Trump’s Embrace of the Notorious MBS
The CIA and Gina Haspel loom as an obstacle to President Trump’s Saudi rescue mission. The White House wants to exonerate Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi . This is not only because MbS has a tender filial bond with Jared Kushner, but also because the president and his cabinet want...