The Plot to Hack America

General Michal Flynn. In 2015, retired Army General and former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Michael Flynn, attended a Russia Today (RT) anniversary gala, where he sat at a table with Vladimir Putin. Since retiring from the Pentagon, Flynn has become a regular contributor for RT, the state-sponsored and Kremlin-controlled news outlet. Flynn has been critical in recent years of President Obama’s foreign policy, especially during Hillary Clinton’s term as Secretary of State. He was forced to retire after clashes within the intelligence community over his vision for the DIA.

Most surprisingly, Flynn has also expressed desires to develop a stronger relationship with Russia and has been an adviser to Donald Trump and his 2016 Presidential campaign on matters of national security. Flynn accompanied Trump on his CIA intelligence briefings before the election.

According to Flynn’s writings, Russia is a potential ally against an “Enemy Alliance,” whose members include Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, and… ISIS. Nowhere in his writings does he identify Russia for facilitating the destabilization of Syrian civil war or meddling elsewhere. In fact, General Flynn is proud of his associations with Russia. In an Interview with the Washington Post’s national security writer Dana Priest, he bragged about being the only U.S. officer allowed into the headquarters of Russian Military Intelligence, the GRU.

Flynn does not see the relationship with Russia as adversarial, but necessary to fight Islamic extremism. When asked him about that:

PRIEST: You saw the relationship with Russia as potentially good for the U.S.?

FLYNN: No. No. I saw the relation with Russia as necessary to the U.S., for the interests of the U.S. We worked very closely with them on the Sochi Olympics. We were working closely with them on the Iranian nuclear deal. We beat Hitler because of our relationship with the Russians, so anybody that looks on it as anything but a relationship that’s required for mutual supporting interests, including ISIS, …that’s really where I’m at with Russia. We have a problem with radical Islamism and I actually think that we could work together with them against this enemy. They have a worse problem than we do.⁴⁶

When the subject of a former Director of military intelligence being a paid pundit on Russian state TV, he took a hands-off approach; it wasn’t his fault, it was his agent’s.

PRIEST: Tell me about the RT [state-run Russian Television] relationship?

FLYNN: I was asked by my speaker’s bureau, LAI. I do public speaking. It was in Russia. It was a paid speaking opportunity. I get paid so much. The speaker’s bureau got paid so much, based on our contract.

PRIEST: Can you tell me how much you got for that?

FLYNN: No.⁴⁷

Priest asked him about why he went on Russian Television, which is a propaganda mouthpiece for the Kremlin.