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Trump hired Israeli intel firm to gather info on Americans


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I originally posted this in the Trump Foreign Policy thread, but I thought it was substantial & disturbing enough to warrant its own thread.

 

This administration paid foreign PIs to try to collect essentially opposition research on the political opponents (Obama diplomats) in an effort to boost their own foreign policy.

 

Seems insane even given where we're at now. Imagine the headline "Obama paid British firm to collect info Bush knew there were no WMDs in Iraq." It just seems shady as all hell to target other Americans that way, regardless of your motives, because you disagree with their politics. 

 

Interestingly, this same firm was apparently used to suppress bad Harvey Weinstein news from getting out.

 

Quote

People in the Trump camp contacted private investigators in May last year to “get dirt” on Ben Rhodes, who had been one of Barack Obama’s top national security advisers, and Colin Kahl, deputy assistant to Obama, as part of an elaborate attempt to discredit the deal.
 

The extraordinary revelations come days before Trump’s 12 May deadline to either scrap or continue to abide by the international deal limiting Iran’s nuclear programme.


Jack Straw, who as foreign secretary was involved in earlier efforts to restrict Iranian weapons, said: “These are extraordinary and appalling allegations but which also illustrate a high level of desperation by Trump and [the Israeli prime minister] Benjamin Netanyahu, not so much to discredit the deal but to undermine those around it.”
 

One former high-ranking British diplomat with wide experience of negotiating international peace agreements, requesting anonymity, said: “It’s bloody outrageous to do this. The whole point of negotiations is to not play dirty tricks like this.”
 

Sources said that officials linked to Trump’s team contacted investigators days after Trump visited Tel Aviv a year ago, his first foreign tour as US president. Trump promised Netanyahu that Iran would never have nuclear weapons and suggested that the Iranians thought they could “do what they want” since negotiating the nuclear deal in 2015. A source with details of the “dirty tricks campaign” said: “The idea was that people acting for Trump would discredit those who were pivotal in selling the deal, making it easier to pull out of it.”

 

 

Here's a thread from one of the two people targeted about a likely attempt to gain info on his family:

 

 

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2 hours ago, VectorVictor said:

The silence from the MAGA crowd on this is deafening. 

 

 

2 hours ago, NM11046 said:

That's cuz they don't read and it isn't being yelled about by Breitbart or Fox.

 

Fox News' top story right now.  There's nothing about Trump investigating American citizens on their front page.

 

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You know, nothing surprises me anymore.  That is sad.  I expect bad behavior from Team Trump.   I'm sure Hannity will lead off his show on "where is the DOJ investigation into the Clinton Foundation and emails?"  And there will be crickets on this story.   Trump is taking partisan politics to a new and dangerous level and his supporters, who can only see to the end of their noses, don't see the constitutional issues at play here.  

 

The bold below from the article caught my attention. 

1. Part of the Russian investigation centers around whether Trump and Trump Corp benefited personally & politically by the Russian election tampering.  Those missing IRS Tax Returns that Trump has never shown the public (I wonder if they are still under audit by his IRS:dunno?) might show how much he has benefited from deal making with Russia.

2. Sensitive intelligence:  Mr Trump has  shared sensitive intelligence to Russian diplomats during their WH visit. 

 

All this begs the question: Who does Trump work for?  USA, Israel, Russia, Himself (ultimate answer)
 

Quote

 

According to incendiary documents seen by the Observer, investigators contracted by the private intelligence agency were told to dig into the personal lives and political careers of Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, and Kahl, a national security adviser to the former vice-president Joe Biden. Among other things they were looking at personal relationships, any involvement with Iran-friendly lobbyists, and if they had benefited personally or politically from the peace deal.

Investigators were also apparently told to contact prominent Iranian Americans as well as pro-deal journalists – from the New York Times, MSNBC television, the Atlantic, Vox website and Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper among others – who had frequent contact with Rhodes and Kahl in an attempt to establish whether they had violated any protocols by sharing sensitive intelligence.

 

 

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1 hour ago, TonyStalloni said:

Hey....the gloves were removed quite a long time ago and it is a bare knuckle fist fight now.  There pretty much are no rules anymore.  

 

You're OK with this? 

 

Meaning, you're OK with a Democrat doing this in the future because you're giving a Republican a pass on it now?

 

This isn't the America I was raised to believe in.  How does someone get this warped?

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8 hours ago, knapplc said:

 

You're OK with this? 

 

Meaning, you're OK with a Democrat doing this in the future because you're giving a Republican a pass on it now?

 

This isn't the America I was raised to believe in.  How does someone get this warped?

I don't know where you think I'm ok with this just because this is what I'm observing.  Please don't jump to conclusions because I usually take the conservative side.  It just seems to me like all the rules of engagement are being tossed in the trash and all sides are going nuclear.  It just feels to me that politics has gone from a boxing match to bare knuckles to a knife fight to pistols and every round escalates.

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2 minutes ago, TonyStalloni said:

I don't know where you think I'm ok with this just because this is what I'm observing.  Please don't jump to conclusions because I usually take the conservative side.  It just seems to me like all the rules of engagement are being tossed in the trash and all sides are going nuclear.  

Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a President that wouldn’t foster this type of atmosphere?

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14 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a President that wouldn’t foster this type of atmosphere?

It would also be nice if former Secy of State Kerry wouldn't negotiate and collude with Iran in secret like he is still the man.  It goes both ways and it isn't acceptable by either party. 

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31 minutes ago, TonyStalloni said:

I don't know where you think I'm ok with this just because this is what I'm observing.

 

From things like this:

 

9 minutes ago, TonyStalloni said:

It would also be nice if former Secy of State Kerry wouldn't negotiate and collude with Iran in secret like he is still the man.  

 

Equating a former Secretary of State's attempt at saving negotiated diplomacy with an administration hiring foreigners to spy on Americans is crazy-pants talk.

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25 minutes ago, TonyStalloni said:

It would also be nice if former Secy of State Kerry wouldn't negotiate and collude with Iran in secret like he is still the man.  It goes both ways and it isn't acceptable by either party. 

 

Trump was elected to be the leader of our country.  Since then, he has been nothing but an incompetent immature imbecile.  It's not "leading" when you take credit for everything good (even though you had nothing to do with it) and blame everyone else for everything bad (even though you are a big part of the problem) and then make up grade school names for everyone that he thinks is being mean to him.

 

 

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