Opposition to retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s pick for national security adviser, is spreading across Washington’s national security establishment. “You want the national security adviser to be a calming more than an exciting influence,” said Gen. Michael Hayden, former head of the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, at a luncheon on Wednesday held at the Fort Myers Officers’ Club. “Mike tweets more than his boss.”
Twitter is a source of ongoing controversy, both for Flynn himself and one of his sons, Michael Flynn Jr., who has used his account to propagate the “PizzaGate” conspiracy theory, which posits that Comet Ping Pong, a Washington pizzeria, is a den of nefarious Democratic activity. After a man who claimed to be investigating PizzaGate fired a gun at Comet Ping Pong on Sunday, the Trump transition fired Michael Jr.
The elder Flynn has kept his distance from PizzaGate. But, as Hayden suggested, his own Twitter rants are even less statesman-like than those of the president-elect. On Twitter, Flynn has asserted that “Fear of Muslims is RATIONAL,” and claimed that Democratic Party emails contain evidence of “Sex Crimes w Children” and occult “#SpiritCooking.”
“You can’t be considered credible if you’re trafficking in bad information,” said David Rothkopf, CEO and editor of Foreign Policy, who once served in the National Security Council and wrote a book on its history. “Calling Islam a cancer is bad information. Trafficking in fake news, that’s bad information.”
“I’m watching a clown show,” said Philip Mudd, a former CIA and senior FBI official, on Tuesday. Mudd criticized Flynn for his behavior at the Republican National Convention, where he led the crowd in anti-Hillary Clinton “lock her up” chants. “I want to see a transition from a campaign to reality,” Mudd said. “I’m not seeing it yet.”
The willingness of key establishment figures to speak out against Flynn is unusual in official Washington, which tends to perpetuate itself through a culture of understatement and accommodation. As Trump’s national security adviser, Flynn would be the president’s main link to the Principals Committee, the main organ for setting foreign policy and responding to crises within the White House. The appointment does not go through the Senate confirmation process.
Past presidents have chosen national security advisers with stronger backgrounds in strategy and policy, such as Colin Powell and Brent Scowcroft.
Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who had previously endorsed Trump’s choice of Flynn, told NBC on Thursday that the was “extremely uneasy” about the Flynn family’s tweets, which “border on being demented.”
Hayden, who also voiced qualms about Flynn, spoke at a luncheon held by a group of former overseas defense attachés, some of whom would have worked under Flynn when he led the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency. Hayden expressed broader concerns about the number of high-level military and intelligence staff — Flynn among them — who have left the outgoing administration on bad terms and then sought out jobs with the incoming one. He called it “a bleeding over of the hyper-partisanship of Washington into our community. That is really, really bad.”
During the campaign, Hayden pushed back against the plausibility of Trump’s promise to bring back waterboarding. He was among a group of former officials who signed a letter in August stating that Trump is “not qualified” to be president and would be “dangerous” and “reckless” in office. The incoming Trump administration, Hayden suggested on Thursday, knows less about the world than some of its predecessors. “National security looks different from the Oval Office than it did from a hotel room in Iowa,” he said. “People like us then begin to push against this less well-informed — not less well-intentioned — but less well-informed view of the world. It just seems to me that the incoming administration has a higher a priori knowledge set than the average administration coming in.”
Flynn has also drawn criticism for the private company he founded after leaving government in 2014, Flynn Intel Group. One of the company’s clients is a Turkish businessman who has been linked to the country’s autocratic president; its other clients have not been disclosed.
Most of the company’s homepage disappeared earlier this month.
Top photo: Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn delivers a speech on the first day of the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2016, at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.
Hmm
When discussing “national security ” one should , I think , first consider :
1—-Where the walls of defence should be located e.g.
( cont’d)
a) Taiwan , b) Mexico , c) The Alamo , d) Toledo (Ohio)
2—-What particular type of malignancies are to be stopped
a) Drugs , b) Weapons , c) Anti-Status-Quo ideologies
3—-The means used to defend
a) Fear-Mongering , b) Non-Fatal weapons , c) Nukes
I’m sure whoever is chosen will give the “proper” advice .
LOL!!!!!
Flynn was picked as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency by Obama by the way. I think it is becoming even more clear that Trump isn’t playing ball with the foreign policy elites and military industrial complex hacks who control this country along with 65-70% of the budget. And now they are willing to destroy what’s left of the country’s faith in the democratic process to get their way. They have good people on the left so lathered up that are engaging in straight up McCarthy-esque red baiting on their Facebook feeds while attacking the man the other 50% of the people just voted for in the general election. They are really bugging out. Reid, the Generals, Langley, Foggy bottom (who also tried to wage a revolt last year because Obama wouldn’t start a war in Syria) , Boris Johnson even. Glad we elected him.
Flynn being a loose cannon and opportunist does not mean everything he says should be discredited: Forget pizzagate for a moment and have a look at the buried history of pedophilia in NATO nations, a Republican White House and god knows where else:
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/The_Pedophocracy
The Intercept should generate some gonads, look into the suppressed facts, particularly the censored Discovery Channel/Yorkshire TV documentary “Conspiracy of Silence.” Pedophilia at the top is not ‘fake news’
based on the rogues gallery of those who don’t like him, it appears that Flynn is a good choice. I agree with Angel Scott, below.
AGREED! And The Intercept seems heavy on the liberal opinion
side–i.e lying propagandists–except for the fake news expose.
Now I like Flynn even more.
What if there is something to these allegations? I have studied them thoroughly and it at least calls for an investigation, not a dismissal with prejudice.
Look for yourself before you trust, “top security figures.” How right have they been for the past couple decades?
dcpizzagate.wordpress then a dot com.
And even if it is wrong, it is still an opportunity to launch an anti-trafficking operation.
http://www.fairus.org/issue/human-trafficking-exploitation-of-illegal-aliens
Based on Mr. Flynn’s jaw shape, he might perhaps be having a cocain issue. For someone with a clearer profile of that kind, just google image : “pechenard”
The funniest thing about this article is that Mattis, who Mattahias Schwartz referred to as Mattis is exactly what Trump is not, a soldier-scholar who knows something of the wider world. is the real military industrial insider, with his board positions on General Dynamics and Theranos, a fact which this author chose not to discuss in this article:
https://theintercept.com/2016/12/01/can-gen-james-mattis-a-soldiers-soldier-teach-a-draft-dodging-tax-cheat-about-war/
Really, who do you think you are fooling? Omidyar Network is obviously a USAID-CIA public-private partnership, is the take-home message. No wonder the WaPo left The Intercept off its “Fake News List” – this kind of garbage is boilerplate U.S. State Department propaganda. What a farce.
Actually, I did discuss Theranos in the article to which you refer.
Hello Photosymbiosis,
You’re no wack job and your contribution here has value. T
Not including the Intercept on the PropOrNot list definitely seemed “off” to me. The Guardian, Washington Post, New York Times, Greenwald, Scahill, Devereaux, Gallagher, Froomkin, Fang,Marquis-Boire, Lee, Gelman, Bamford, Schneirer didn’t make thePropOrNot list either and they all had access to the all or some portion of the Snowden Archive.
Anybody giving voice to Snowdens disclosures by PropOrNot (D) illogic would necessarily be providing aid and comfort to Americas enemies up to and including Vlad the Bad.
Has First Look filed any FOIA requests? Have they had spent dime one in court?
The expectation that a pathological liar (Mr. Trump) would appoint a sane individual to the post of National Security Advisor is not sane. Those of us in the rational and sane community are not surprised in the least bit.
No there are no top experts who oppose Flynn
Flynn is the top expert
Remember when he warned Obama against creating the Islamic State in Eastern Syria?
Did he warn Bush not to put out of Iraq?
Yes, Bush and Obama’s middle east policy was very bad at every stage
That’s we why voted them out of power and put the people who have been right in their place
It would be interesting and useful to have Jeremy Scahill’s views on Flynn. He was very familiar with McChrystal, who also was an “outsider” in the Obama regime’s military activities, albeit it a rather nasty one, and his machinations with JSOC. Scahill might have some further meaningful input on how Flynn fit in with that, and the trustworthiness of various sources of info on Flynn’s current beliefs/actions.
Perhaps there is such info from Scahill on TI. If so, and someone could direct me there, that would be very helpful.
I believe you are way too young to be judging responses from older and more experienced men and women. Your picture reveals someone about 18 but then it may be old or you may just be very slow to age. In any case it seems silly to me for people to get so riled up over Twitter Comments.
Humbug. And quite ageist too…
Hi William, I’m just a few years shy of 40. Thanks for the compliment–you made my weekend.
Generals are not leaders . . . they are followers – following orders. It raises questions of who is actually giving the orders, and why. WAR based on lies. . . Viet Nam . . . Korea ( Gulf of Thompkins). . . . Iran . . .IRAQ – the war of terror go anywhere – kill anyone -the sanitary war of DRONES – Guantanamo – Torture – there are no secret prisons- – – – I.E.D.’s & W.M.D.’s Mission Accomplished . . . PERPETUAL WAR…… You do not see any mentions of PEACE….
NEVER.. VOLUNTEER.. and the all volunteer military. Question Authority your life depends on it
You may say I’m crazy – but think of what I’ve said . . . WHO is giving the orders when we have WARS BASED ON LIES. . . To blindly follow whatever orders given sounds like Nazi Germany and the excuse of just following orders. . . You do have to question authority. “In high school algebra – I was given a 70 – and told it was a gift? But my test results – never had anything less than a 90 . . . a mix up with the student sitting next to me – I had the tests to prove it. . . question authority – – – a teacher stood up and pronounced Lee Harvey Oswald guilty in direct opposition to our laws – innocent until proven guilty in a court of law – he was executed before the trial therefore could not be found guilty – question authority. . . that is what this country’s freedom is about – and why we have it
I don’t know too much about Mr. Flynn, but all the right people are criticizing him. He might bomb the odd pizzeria in Washington DC, but he seems a lot more sane than the average general.
All the right people, eh?
As a point of reference, who would be Mr. Greenwald’s favorite national security advisor?
Edward Snowden ?
A person that has definitely come forward to defend the security of the 99% as opposed to jaded Trump/Clinton/Bezos/Bush ,,ETC bunch .
The MSM continues to ignore issues that people care about like PizzaGate, while doubling down the status quo Washington Consensus and Identity Politics.
Trump should have his AG (Jeff Sessions) put together a task force on child trafficking. That would deal with it fairly quickly. And that is the difference between a Trump administration a what we have currently. Deal with the problems. Don’t just sneer at people an call them Deplorables.
The MSM keeps saying Pizzagate isn’t real because the alleged perpetrators are of such high morals and pussiant nature that they are above reproach and the peasants should not dare to question them. That it is ridiculous to even consider such things. Well, people used to feel the same way about the Catholic Church. Nobody does now though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VABSoHYQr6k
The MSM ignores it (but far from completely) because that “theory” has been completely debunked (I wonder why the MSM are ignoring the Flat Earthists?): we know where it originated, what motivates it and how it propagated. End of ridiculous story.
Let the alter-nutzies continue to run with it, until they get predictably tired of it too… Another month, methinks.
The Pizzeria place may be debunked but the child sex thing has been on Bill’s calendar for ever. Ask Huma, Hillary’s best bud, why she stuck with Wiener until he sexted naked pics while their child was on the bed. (glad he’s finally getting treatment for sex addiction …)
I view the Pizza joint story like the IBM Selectric from Karl Rove; take a true story and paste it to a false locale.
Once again wildly connecting dots without any discernable connection, Nuffy.
Huma ? HRC ? Bill
Keep on believing though…
There’s so much dirt on the Clinton’s that it’s counter-productive to make up stories with a sexual bent.
And like the Rather story, there’s no conclusive evidence to back up the covertly intricate yet somewhat plausible conspiracy theory, but a startling number of people take it seriously anyway?
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/01/10000-refugee-children-missing-europe-160131164555450.html
My only qualms about this story concern how The Intercept has elevated people of questionable judgement to figures of authority. Most noteworthy among these is Michael Hayden, who has been instrumental in every stage of the perversion of individual privacy rights, and whose agency recommended murdering people on the basis of SIGINT alone.
I think it is entirely fitting that Michael Flynn be the National Security Advisor to President Trump. That way, our allies will labor under no delusions concerning either the competence or intent of the US government. The less they trust us, the less they cooperate with us, the better.
But then, can you think of a better basis for cold blooded murder, than SIGINT…?
Why is TI spreading fake news from Washington’s national security establishment?
Why are you making up fake comments?
Ti is not “spreading fake news.” It’s publishing sensible information about an unhinged General Flynn and the manifestly preposterous (but malignant) Pizzagate garbage, among other things.
The national security establishment lacks standing to criticize others for pushing bullshit and falsehoods. But they so happen to be spot on in this instance.
Really, one of the sources being relied on here by Matthias Schwartz is the real clown:
Mudd was directly involved with all the CIA lies about WMDs in Iraq, as this story makes clear:
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2004/05/path-to-war200405
So why is the Intercept regurgitating CNN propaganda from a Iraq War-era CIA talking head with a record of being either entirely wrong or, more likely, entirely dishonest about the Iraqi WMD programs? Because the pro-American Empire establishment, well represented at the Intercept on issues ranging from Ukraine to Syria, is opposed to disruptive independent viewpoints that don’t follow the party line. Mudd can be relied on to spew whatever propaganda has been called on by “government leaders”, hence he gets his CNN position. It’s a classic case of embedded government propaganda in the corporate media circus – and he’s just another clown, reading his lines.
That string of non sequiturs doesn’t change the fact that what I wrote is true.
-Mona- pinch hits with this
The locale may be “preposterous” but Clintons have always associated with people who have short eyes.
Bill was impeached because he couldn’t keep it in his pants. He was sued because he couldn’t keep it in his pants. Hillary has been the good wife since the 80s, having little to say about bill’s trips with the serial pedophile Epstein (just imagine what Dershowitz was able to muzzle).
Hilary is the enemy of women and young children the world over. Why would she be any different in DC?
You are an antisemitic, unhinged person with a negative fixation on me, to whom I usually do not substantively reply. Nor shall I do so now.
I cannot make you do so, but I request that you ignore me.
“Are all these people ‘in on it’, Nuffy? ”
I do not know who is in on it or not:
Semites are not a race so an anti-semite cannot exist. It’s like calling me an anti-catholic or an ignorant. ouch ..
You are attacking always someone who has bumped your moral compass as it spins wildly.
It’s in your every keystroke so I expect your wretched lies will continue. You got bounced after you libeled an identifiable person. It’s one thing to slam anonymous handles but you did it to a real person.
Epstein is a horrible degenerate, of course. And The Derp the lowest of the lowest in a profession that should already inspire little respect (bar many notable exceptions, of course). But how does that make The Derp a participant in Epstein’s debauchery?
Wiki:
Are all these people ‘in on it’, Nuffy? All sharing the “Lolita Express”? Or is it only the Clintons that deserve your ire?
Louis Theroux was a friend of Jimmy Saville (no doubt quite a few notches up on the ‘hierarchy of evil’, compared to Epstein), yet genuinely disn’t know of Saville’s perversity. What do you make of that? Guilty by association?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-37517619 (Theroux-Saville)
“Or is it only the Clintons that deserve your ire?”
Huma and Anthony as best friends of Hillary. Hillary has been running interference for Bill’s debauchery for decades.
Pizzagate is how Karl Rove would fix a sex story.
All powerful people have sex scandals in their closets. It is “preposterous” to not suspect some kind of sex scandal.
(the Dems thought so surely Hillary was in like Flynn that they were as sloppy with their sex servicing as they were with email)
And the Dersh was Epstein’s lawyer when Epstein was convicted.
You cannot dismiss a sex scandal as preposterous; yes the pizza joint is not part of it. That’s why it was slammed; to discredit the entire idea of a sex service run by DNC/Clinton backers.
You did read the Editor’s Note at the top of your link, right?
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect the withdrawal of Virginia Roberts Guiffre’s allegations against Alan Dershowitz and the striking of the allegations from the court record by a federal judge.
Right?
Like all victims; give them enough money + threaten their family =charges withdrawn when the rich are involved.
Who said sex scandals are exclusive to the rich, -Mona-? You fill in many a blank with your imagination riding atop your moral compass.
I call BS on that. Sexual deviance knows no boundaries of class, gender or religious affiliation.
Sure, genius.
This article does not mention some of the more disturbing statements of Flynn. His linking AQ and IS with Iran and Russia is ignorant at best.
That said, Flynn is far superior than most of his critics. He is willing to target terrorists in Syria rather than find them. He treats IS as the preeminent threat it is, rather than Russia. He views Libya and Iraq as disasters. In short, he is far more trustworthy than the “establishment.”
Zzzzzz get back to RT. Though why you’re bothering with this site is beyond me. I suppose the price of oil has gone up so the budget is healthy.
Would you care to explain why you believe Iraq and Libya were tremendous successes? Or do you simply lack the intellectual capacity to do more than accuse people with whom you disagree of being Putin shills?
I do not watch RT. Besides, there is strong evidence that, contrary to the Propornot smears, RT is the one repeating (often without crediting(!)) reports from non-mainstream media outlets. (See Moon of Alabama’s recent reports.)
It is worth noting that the excellent Mark Ames has documented how Propornot has ties to Ukrainian fascists, and that another source for the WaPo smear was a think tank founded by Nazis who backed eugenics, and were in favor of a nuclear first strike on the USSR.
appointment of military to cabinet positions is for possible need for military cooperation to move illegal invaders out of America. Mexicans are not israelis and America is not Palestine.
new law
the AMERICAN SOVEREIGNTY ACT
No person who has citizenship in a country other than the United States of America may hold a public office or a publicly appointed position or be a CEO of any company that provides a public utility.
This article needs a translation: “Michael Flynn is not going along with the Deep State establishment view on the Middle East, particularly with respect to relations with Saudi Arabia and Israel, so he must be ejected from power.”
Their problem with Flynn is pretty obvious: he doesn’t support propaganda narratives, but rather wants accurate intelligence to base decisions on. Those who doubt this should read his 2010 report on Afghanistan:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/AfghanistanMGFlynn_Jan2010.pdf
This is not what American Empire promoters want to hear, and that’s nothing new in such circles. There are dozens of examples of this kind of thing; for example, corporate media owners didn’t want to hear that Hillary Clinton was in danger of losing to Donald Trump, so all the media PR monkeys delivered what their bosses wanted: positive news about Hillary Clinton’s assured victory. Similarly, after the Iraq invasion in 2003, GW Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld didn’t want to hear about widespread Iraqi opposition to the occupation, so all their underlings fed them positive news about Iraqi support for the Bremer CPA – which was nonsense, as events in 2005 and 2006 showed.
This is how megalomaniacal idiots behave – they surround themselves with yes-men and cheerleaders who are rewarded with promotions for telling positive narratives. The most extreme example is of probably Hitler, who in the last days of World War II refused to listen to anyone who told him the Soviet Red Army was going to overrun Berlin.
This is why Trump should definitely keep Flynn in place; Flynn is almost guaranteed to tell him uncomfortable truths that establishment yes-men and yes-women would never dare to mention, for fear of a negative response. If only Obama had someone like that advising him on Libya, he might have refused to go along with Hillary Clinton’s idiotic plans for regime change, and been spared the debacle that ensued.
“If only Obama had someone like that advising him on Libya”
Oh, absolutely! Someone as naive and full of shit as Michael Pizzagate Flynn could have provided amazing “inside” details on Libya, like maybe a child sex ring being run out of MSNBC that the media won’t touch!…. Clearly, anyone who doesn’t think a clueless, Alex Jonesian shitgibbon like Flynn should be in a position of national security is in the tank for “Deep Establishment” who don’t even know that Sandy Hook was a False Flag!
100% agree.
This is not what American Empire promoters want to hear… Flynn is almost guaranteed to tell him uncomfortable truths that establishment yes-men and yes-women would never dare to mention, for fear of a negative response.
Hellary was wallstreet’s yes-man.
btw – heard&read here&there that wmd media cannot figure out what DT’s formula is. So, for all those who are not familiar with real economics and are instead engrossed in foreign policy bullsheet, here it is..
“Cut the BS and LET’S DO BUSINESS.”
real simple.
You do realize that Flynn was a key subordinate of Stanley McChrystal in Afghanistan right? Last time I checked, that means he literally was part of the team advising Obama on Afghanistan, including on the troop surge which Obama approved. Around 2009, Flynn had requested and was granted additional Predator drones and other spy planes in Afghanistan. When he wrote that report you linked to, he was a Major General and then was promoted to Lt. General.
I don’t think you know much about Flynn based on your comments. You say “This is not what American Empire promoters want to hear…” but Flynn is an imperialist guy who claims that “there is no substitute for American power.” As for advising Obama, after getting shitcanned at the DIA, Flynn criticized Obama’s ISIS plan in Iraq and Syria because it wasn’t interventionist enough! He said “he sad fact is that we have to put troops on the ground” and not rely on air attacks. As for Syria:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/27/ex-pentagon-spy-chief-blasts-white-house-paralyzed-by-radical-islam.html
You say he plans to tell uncomfortable truths but in reality he lately has been echoing rightwing hawks, especially on the Islamic State:
This is downright cliche.
Furthermore, he doubles down on the GWB-era “global war on terrorism” speak. He thinks that part of the reasons for our failures are because we don’t “accept and face the reality that … we are in a global war with a radical and violent form of the Islamic religion, and it is irresponsible and dangerous to deny it.” Sigh And Flynn was wrong! The Obama strategy against ISIL is working! They are clearly being weakened to the point that they may revert back to just plain terrorists instead of maintaining their quasi-state ambitions.
Then you have Flynn’s comments on the Iran deal:
This is standard right-wing hawk talk. You seem to see virtue in Flynn’s outspokenness, but just because you’re the loudest person in the room doesn’t make you right.
I suppose it’s too much to ask for people to read Flynn’s 2010 report, so here’s one quote:
This kind of approach, though, can result in “high-level decision-makers” hearing things they don’t want to hear – like the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld neocons on Iraq, who didn’t want to hear that the Iraqi people would never accept client state status of the kind designed by Paul Bremer. Or, like the Hillary Clinton – State Department plan for Afghanistan, i.e. TAPI, the Turkemenistan-Afganistan-Pakistan-India pipeline plan that dates back to Unocal & Bridas in the late 1990s?
See this, for the latter story:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2016/09/09/chinas-new-silk-road-picks-up-where-hillary-clintons-flopped-in-afghanistan/
And yes, somebody should have honestly assessed what Libya would turn into after Gaddafi was overthrown, and told Obama not to do it. For that, you need honest “disruptive” people like Flynn around to call bullshit when needed. Any idiot can see that Obama’s foreign policy record would have been far better off if he’d vetoed the NATO attack on Libya; Obama himself called it his biggest mistake, and yes, Hillary Clinton and her team were the biggest cheerleaders for that.
LOL, that passage is irrelevant to my points, but I’ll respond anyways.
The contents may have been unique to the Afghanistan intelligence collection apparatus, but it’s foundation is basically COIN strategy as implemented by Petraeus in Iraq circa 2007-2008, with a DIA-twist. In other words: get to know the populace personally, understand the tribal leaders and power dynamics, get your analysts out of the air-conditioned units and into the field, embed analysts with the soldiers, blah blah.
This isn’t to say that the report is bad or wrong, but you are holding it out to be some type of unique document that demonstrates a willingness to “tell uncomfortable truths,” which it isn’t. That report was mostly controversial because Flynn published it outside of formal government channels, via the Center for a New American Security.
Disruptive behavior and being a loud provocateur does not give one insightful or prescient views. You seem to suggest that if Flynn was empowered circa 2011, he would have prevented the Libya decision. A nice counterfactual exercise that is baseless. You are just repeating how Flynn sees himself: as a maverick, an atypical square peg in a round hole who tells the hard truth! If this is the case, why is he so predictable now!?
He promotes “tough-minded diplomacy” like the neocons and the strategies of a Cold Warrior. He is a fan of American exceptionalism. Flynn is one of the biggest Islamic State and “Radical Islam” fear-mongers out there. He makes it seem like ISIS is a bunch of evil geniuses on the way to dominating the world when in reality they are political ignoramuses that are holding onto what remains of their Iraqi territory by their grimy fingertips. He proudly claims he “is not a devotee of so-called political correctness” as if that means jack squat in the real world. He calls for an Islamic Reformation. He doubles down on the global war on terror. One moment Russia is an “ally of radical Islamists” and the next moment he is hanging out with Putin during a paid speech at an RT gala. He supported Trump’s Muslim entry ban. He didn’t rule out torture. The co-author of his book is an anti-Iranian neocon. His rhetoric is embarrassing; for example, from a WP piece on him:
As for Flynn’s getting fired from DIA, Colin Powell’s leaked e-mails provide some interesting insight:
I still think he’s a far saner person than the likes of Ashton Carter and many other establishment members of the military-industrial complex. That’s not saying much, true, but those crazy idiots were leading us into WWIII with Russia; I’d rather have someone in charge who is paranoid about ISIS and radical Islamic terror groups than someone who thinks Russia is the greater threat and that ISIS can be a useful proxy force for regime change games.
Seems to have them all in a bit of a spin and their insults are hardly cutting to the core. “Excitable”, “Tweets a Lot”, “Clown Show” is a lot better than “Murderous Assassins”, “War Criminals”, “Terrorist Backers”, “Traitors” and “Instigators and Operators of a Fully Global Spying Network”.
He’s Poacher turned Gamekeeper (well, probably more Poacher turned Lake Dynamiter). Here’s a bunch of people who have had it all their own way since 9-11 now getting VERY nervous; got to respect Flynn just for that. And for The Rest of Us (TM) to have any chance of regaining some sort of say in this terrible mess I would much rather they were at each others’ throats making mistakes in public than all cosy in some dark and nefarious place causing havoc.
Trump’s appointments and his own personal activity are a threat to the stability of the US and the World at large. One can only hope that he will be impeached or crash and burn by his own physical accord, as a result of stuffing his face with McDonald’s burgers, fries, and diet coke. That, added to his regular intake of coke.
100% horse barf.
It doesn’t matter how he plays with those spies, only with the KGB — which history records as the final victor of the Cold War.