The Plot to Hack America

PRIEST: Have you appeared on RT regularly?

FLYNN: I appear on Al Jazeera, Sky News, Arabia, RT. I don’t get paid a dime. I have no media contracts…. [I am interviewed] on CNN, Fox…

PRIEST: Why would you go on RT, they’re state run?

FLYNN: Well, what’s CNN?

PRIEST: Well, it’s not run by the state. You’re rolling your eyes.

FLYNN: Well, what’s MSNBC? I mean, come on… what’s Al Jazeera? What’s Sky News Arabia? I have been asked by multiple organizations to be a [paid] contributor but I don’t want to be.

PRIEST: Because you don’t want to be hamstrung?

FLYNN: That’s right. I want to be able to speak freely about what I believe. There’s a lot of people who would actually like to be able to do that but, for whatever reason, they can’t…. I feel pretty passionate about what’s happening to the country.⁴⁸

The most disturbing optics for Flynn is how he was invited to the Russian Television tenth anniversary gala in Moscow. Flynn was seated at the right hand of Vladimir Putin. When asked how he felt being sat next to Putin himself, in a position of favor he said he didn’t have any problem sitting next to the world’s nuclear armed autocrat—it was all about him getting paid.

Flynn’s acceptance of money from RT, speaking his mind in forums he feels are less state controlled than “MSNBC” and “CNN” and visual association (certainly in the eyes of the Russian leadership and people) raised the eyebrows of not just the national security elite of the United States, but practitioners in the U.S. intelligence community. Some wondered if Flynn was not adopting the same method of speaking out the way that Edward Snowden did, by using the national platform of a former communist autocrat as his shield from criticism.

Some members in counterintelligence said that twenty years ago this would have resulted in an extensive investigation to see if his “tail was dirty,” a euphemism indicating that he was being handled without his knowledge, due to cash inducements. One could easily apply the MICE recruitment principle to his behaviors when added with his complete distain for President Obama and admiration for Putin, and come up with an interesting profile that might make the GRU want to do more for him than serve coffee.

Though Flynn said he was standing up for the principles of the United States, to the Russian public, having the Director of Defense Intelligence seated at the right hand of the most powerful ex-Director of the KGB implied that the old spymaster had him under Putin’s “Roof”… in America it would translate to “He’s my bitch.”

Putin’s Strategy to Compromise an American Election

The revelations of the Kremlin Crew’s proximity to Putin and Moscow are stunning in their depth. They reveal how easily some Americans will accept money to work against their own national interest whether in business, government, or propaganda. Precisely as the KGB had discerned over seventy years ago. They also show how easily money and business relations are now the new currency of former and current Russian intelligence officers. Such riches would surely be issued with invisible strings, allowing the FSB to gain access to the highest level players in a new American administration.

These pro-Russian players apparently were so close to Trump that they could literally be chosen as his campaign manager and placed at essentially at arm’s length to a potential President. At best their ties are tenuous and ill-advised, at worst they could be the grounds for an FBI espionage investigation. That remains to be seen.

If Trump’s acolytes did have real ties to Russia’s center of power, and if they were successful in electing Trump, they would be in a position to handle a potential President’s most intimate secrets. They would also be able to advance Russia’s objectives, desires, and activities—fully in-line with their own personal fortunes—above America’s interests, with the full force of the Oval Office.