Some of the same conspiracy theories expressed in the memo appear in internal documents from an Israeli private-intelligence firm that mounted a covert effort to collect damaging information about aides to President Obama who had advocated for the Iran deal. In May, 2017, that firm, provided its operatives with instructions and other briefing materials that included the same ideas and names discussed in the memo. The Black Cube documents obtained by The New Yorker referred to Rhodes and Kahl, arguing that they were using allies in the media to undermine the Trump Administration. Whether those behind the memo had any connection to Black Cube’s work remains unclear. The allegations against Rhodes and Kahl appeared in articles published by Breitbart and other conservative Web sites in 2016 and 2017, fuelled by a May, 2016, in which Rhodes was quoted using the phrase “echo chamber” to describe his and other officials’ advocacy for the Iran nuclear deal.
A profile of Rhodes compiled by Black Cube quotes the Times Magazine story. (In a recent memoir, Rhodes said, “all I was describing was the most routine aspect of communications work. Briefing people. Disseminating fact sheets.”)Conspiracy theories of this kind appear to have thrived in the Trump White House, which was divided into factions that often used media leaks to undermine their rivals and compete for influence with the President. Those in the White House and on the National Security Council staff who aligned themselves with, who left to serve as Trump’s chief strategist, perceived former Obama Administration officials and so-called holdovers (career professionals who remained in the White House after Trump’s Inauguration) as obstacles to advancing their agenda and potential sources of leaks aimed at undermining them. In private meetings, Bannon’s allies in the power struggle, some of whom had military backgrounds, said they were eager to fight back.The Black Cube documents show a similar focus on the lines of communication between Obama-era officials and the press. The firm compiled a list of nine reporters and commentators it claimed were part of the Echo Chamber, including The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, the New York Times’ Max Fisher, and NBC News’s Andrea Mitchell.
Fisher is described as having “heavily advocated” for the Iran deal and “placed himself at the service of Rhodes’ ‘Eco-chamber,’ ” while Mitchell is at one point identified as being a “vessel for Rhodes’ ‘eco-chamber.’ ” The reporters disputed that characterization. “It’s my first time hearing of this, and it’s obviously ridiculous,” Mitchell said. Fisher, who described the effort as “weird and misguided,” said, “I don't really understand what they were hoping to accomplish.” In an e-mail, Goldberg added, “This is one of the stupider conspiracy theories circulating through a city currently drowning in stupid conspiracy theories.”Black Cube also assembled a list of six additional journalists and commentators it described as being “close to Rhodes vessels of his message.” Operatives approached targeted individuals to elicit potentially damaging statements about Rhodes and Kahl. At least one of those conversations, with a commentator on the list, Trita Parsi, was secretly recorded. Operatives also used false identities and front companies to try to dupe targets, including Rhodes’s and Kahl’s wives, into unwittingly sharing information.Both the memo and Black Cube documents reference attacks in the press on, a former deputy assistant to President Trump.
Feb 26, 2020 Right-wing conspiracy theorists see coronavirus as a plot against Trump The president's supporters believe the 'deep state' is hyping the disease to.
In a section titled “Gorka Allegations,” the Black Cube documents reference allegations that he was anti-Semitic and affiliated with Nazi groups, which Rhodes mentioned in a tweet on one occasion. (Gorka has disputed the allegations.) The memo identifies the former Obama Administration officials purported to be in the Echo Chamber as “the people who would be behind coordinated attacks such as the one against Seb Gorka.” Later, it cites an article Kahl wrote in Foreign Policy, which questioned whether Gorka had a top-secret security clearance.
The memo also claims that other former Obama Administration officials are part of the Echo Chamber., a former adviser to Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, is identified as one of the leaders of the Echo Chamber. Likely Leadership: Responsible for higher-level strategy and higher-level fundraising. Probably also responsible for senior-level political outreach with major Democrat donors (e.g., Tom Nides and Alan Solow) and members of Congress.Ben Rhodes. Likely the brain behind this operation.-Former Deputy NSA for Strat Comms.-Wife Ann Norris is PDAS for legislative affairs in the State Dept.Jake Sullivan.
Former NSA to VP Biden; now on the faculty at Yale.-Was foreign policy chief to Hillary Clinton's campaign.-Was director of policy planning for Clinton at State Dept.-With Ben Rhodes, co-authored the Benghazi talking points.Likely Operations Officers: These are the ones who are probably among those coordinating the daily/weekly battle rhythm—i.e., the “War Room.” These are the ones who are likely reaching out to reporters to plant stories and then using a comms infrastructure to amplify those stories on listservs and in social media. These are the people who would be behind coordinated attacks such as the one against Seb Gorka. These people have also had very close working and personal relationships going back to the Obama campaign of 2007-2008. Tommy Vietor and Jon Favreau were roommates in DC during the Obama admin, for example.Colin Kahl (likely ops chief). Former NSA to VP Biden. Now on the faculty at Georgetown.
The author of the dossier, Christopher Steele, had developed long-standing relationships with senior State Department officials, including Nuland. “Between 2014 and 2016, Steele authored more than a hundred reports on Russia and Ukraine. These were written for a private client but shared widely within the State Department and sent up to Secretary of State John Kerry and to Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, who was in charge of the U.S. Response to the Ukraine crisis.”To understand better how the dossier’s spurious charges were spread around the Obama administration, Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of State for communications between Nuland and employees of Fusion GPS, as well as top ranking Department of Justice, FBI, and State Department officials.Judicial Watch sued because the State Department failed to respond to our November 1, 2018, FOIA request ((No. They are seeking. Professor Joseph MifsudMr.
Christopher SteeleMr. Glenn SimpsonMrs. Nellie OhrFormer CIA Director John BrennanFormer Undersecretary of State Patrick KennedyFormer Attorney General Loretta LynchDeputy Attorney General Rod RosensteinFormer Acting Attorney General Sally YatesFormer Assistant Attorney General John P. Steele passed two to four pages of short points of what he was finding. And our immediate reaction to that was, this is not in our purview. This needs to go to the FBI if there is any concern here that one candidate or the election as a whole might be influenced by the Russian Federation. That’s something for the FBI to investigate.
And that was our reaction when we saw this. It’s not our – our – we can’t evaluate this.Nuland “green lit” the initial meeting about the anti-Trump dossier between Christopher Steele and FBI agent Michael Gaeta. Quoting from David Corn and Michael Isikoff’s book Russian Roulette, “The FBI checked with Victoria Nuland’s office at the State Department: Do you support this meeting? Nuland, having found Steele’s reports on Ukraine to have been generally credible, gave the green light.”Judicial Watch intends to find out how far the Deep State was willing to go in their effort to discredit then-candidate Donald Trump. There clearly was an Obama administration no-holds-barred attempt to clear the path to the presidency for Hillary Clinton. Judicial Watch’s FOIA lawsuits have already shown the Obama State Department was corruptly targeting President Trump.Judicial Watch already exposed elements of the plot when we released of heavily redacted State Department documents containing classified information that was provided to Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and outspoken critic of President Donald Trump. The documents show Russian political interference in elections and politics in countries across Europe.And then they more heavily redacted State documents showing classified information was desperately sent to multiple U.S.
Senators by the Obama administration immediately prior to President Donald Trump’s inauguration. The documents reveal that among those receiving the classified documents were Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Sen.
Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Sen. Robert Corker (R-TN).Please if you're having issues with commenting.