President Donald Trump, joined by Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Vice President Mike Pence, Senior Advisor Steve Bannon, Communications Director Sean Spicer and then national security advisor Michael Flynn, speaks by phone with Russia's president Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office. (photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Trump
Campaign Had at Least 18 Undisclosed Contacts With Russians
By Ned Parker, Jonathan
Landay and Warren Strobel, Reuters
18 May 17
Michael
Flynn and other advisers to Donald Trump’s campaign were in contact with
Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least 18 calls and emails
during the last seven months of the 2016 presidential race, current and former
U.S. officials familiar with the exchanges told Reuters.
The
previously undisclosed interactions form part of the record now being reviewed
by FBI and congressional investigators probing Russian interference in the U.S.
presidential election and contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
Six of
the previously undisclosed contacts described to Reuters were phone calls
between Sergei Kislyak, Russia's ambassador to the United States, and Trump
advisers, including Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, three
current and former officials said.
Conversations
between Flynn and Kislyak accelerated after the Nov. 8 vote as the two
discussed establishing a back channel for communication between Trump and
Russian President Vladimir Putin that could bypass the U.S. national security
bureaucracy, which both sides considered hostile to improved relations, four
current U.S. officials said.
In
January, the Trump White House initially denied any contacts with Russian
officials during the 2016 campaign. The White House and advisers to the
campaign have since confirmed four meetings between Kislyak and Trump advisers
during that time.
The
people who described the contacts to Reuters said they had seen no evidence of
wrongdoing or collusion between the campaign and Russia in the communications
reviewed so far. But the disclosure could increase the pressure on Trump and
his aides to provide the FBI and Congress with a full account of interactions
with Russian officials and others with links to the Kremlin during and
immediately after the 2016 election.
The
White House did not respond to requests for comment. Flynn's lawyer declined to
comment. In Moscow, a Russian foreign ministry official declined to comment on
the contacts and referred Reuters to the Trump administration.
Separately,
a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Washington said: “We do not comment on
our daily contacts with the local interlocutors.”
The 18
calls and electronic messages took place between April and November 2016 as
hackers engaged in what U.S. intelligence concluded in January was part of a
Kremlin campaign to discredit the vote and influence the outcome of the
election in favor of Trump over his Democratic challenger, former secretary of
state Hillary Clinton.
Those
discussions focused on mending U.S.-Russian economic relations strained by
sanctions imposed on Moscow, cooperating in fighting Islamic State in Syria and
containing a more assertive China, the sources said.
Members
of the Senate and House intelligence committees have gone to the CIA and the
National Security Agency to review transcripts and other documents related to
contacts between Trump campaign advisers and associates and Russian officials
and others with links to Putin, people with knowledge of those investigations
told Reuters.
The
U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday it had appointed former FBI Director
Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate alleged Russian meddling in
the U.S. presidential campaign and possible collusion between Trump’s campaign
and Russia. Mueller will now take charge of the FBI investigation that began
last July. Trump and his aides have repeatedly denied any collusion with
Russia.
'It's
Rare'
In
addition to the six phone calls involving Kislyak, the communications described
to Reuters involved another 12 calls, emails or text messages between Russian
officials or people considered to be close to Putin and Trump campaign
advisers.
One of
those contacts was by Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian oligarch and politician,
according to one person with detailed knowledge of the exchange and two others
familiar with the issue.
It was
not clear with whom Medvedchuk was in contact within the Trump campaign but the
themes included U.S.-Russia cooperation, the sources said. Putin is godfather
to Medvedchuk’s daughter.
Medvedchuk
denied having any contact with anyone in the Trump campaign.
"I
am not acquainted with any of Donald Trump's close associates, therefore no
such conversation could have taken place," he said in an email to Reuters.
In the
conversations during the campaign, Russian officials emphasized a pragmatic,
business-style approach and stressed to Trump associates that they could make
deals by focusing on common economic and other interests and leaving
contentious issues aside, the sources said.
Veterans
of previous election campaigns said some contact with foreign officials during
a campaign was not unusual, but the number of interactions between Trump aides
and Russian officials and others with links to Putin was exceptional.
“It’s
rare to have that many phone calls to foreign officials, especially to a country
we consider an adversary or a hostile power,” Richard Armitage, a Republican
and former deputy secretary of state, told Reuters.
Flynn
Fired
Beyond
Medvedchuk and Kislyak, the identities of the other Putin-linked participants
in the contacts remain classified and the names of Trump advisers other than
Flynn have been “masked” in intelligence reports on the contacts because of
legal protections on their privacy as American citizens. However, officials can
request that they be revealed for intelligence purposes.
U.S.
and allied intelligence and law enforcement agencies routinely monitor
communications and movements of Russian officials.
After
Vice President Mike Pence and others had denied in January that Trump campaign
representatives had any contact with Russian officials, the White House later
confirmed that Kislyak had met twice with then-Senator Jeff Sessions, who later
became attorney general.
Kislyak
also attended an event in April where Trump said he would seek better relations
with Russia. Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, also
attended that event in Washington. In addition, Kislyak met with two other
Trump campaign advisers in July on the sidelines of the Republican convention.
Trump
fired Flynn in February after it became clear that he had falsely characterized
the nature of phone conversations with Kislyak in late December - after the
Nov. 8 election and just after the Obama administration announced new sanctions
on Russia. Flynn offered to testify to Congress in return for immunity from
prosecution but his offer was turned down by the House intelligence committee.
#####
A military officer stands near the entrance to Camp VI at the U.S. military
prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2013. Abu Zubaydah remains imprisoned at
Guantanamo. (photo: Joe Raedle/Getty)
US
Government Attempts to Prevent Abu Zubaydah From Testifying
By Joseph Hickman, Reader
Supported News
18 May 17
On
May 19, 2017, Guantanamo detainee Abu Zubaydah is scheduled to speak for the
first time in a courtroom at Guantanamo Bay. According to Abu Zubaydah's
attorney, the prosecution is attempting to stop him from testifying by
presenting evidence claiming he is biased against the United States. The evidence
the prosecution will be presenting is a videotape that Abu Zubaydah made of
himself in October 2001 during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. In the video
Zubaydah speaks extremely critically about the United States.
According
to Abu Zubaydah's attorney Mark Denbeaux, "the Government stacked the
deck. We stipulated to bias against the U.S., but the court is giving virtual
free reign to the prosecution in search of proving bias— while extremely
limiting my client’s ability to respond meaningfully about his experience.
Faced with overwhelming evidence that they tortured the wrong man, the
Government wanted to cherry-pick statements to paint a picture of prejudice
under this cloak of “bias” without telling the whole story. We invaded this
man’s country, waterboarded him 83 times and tortured him for 4 years in secret
prisons where he lost an eye. The CIA officially directed that he be silenced
as long as he lived, forever and without fail. And if that wasn't enough, if he
died while in CIA custody they ordered his body cremated—assuring his silence
even beyond the grave. Of course he’s biased."
Abu
Zubaydah was captured by the CIA in Pakistan in on March 28, 2003. Immediately
after his capture, US government officials made the announcement that Abu
Zubaydah was a top lieutenant in the Al-Qaeda organization and number three in
their chain of command. Abu Zubaydah spent the next three and a half years in
CIA custody, moved around to several top-secret locations around the world.
During that time he was subject to several of the CIA's newly created “enhanced
interrogation techniques” including being confined to a small box that he
barely fit into for hours at a time, isolation for long periods of time,
sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation, and being waterboarded 83 times.
After
being tortured for three and a half years in CIA custody, on September 9, 2006
he was moved to Guantanamo Bay Cuba, and put in the custody of the Department
of Defense. By 2007 the U.S. government had changed their accusations to say Abu
Zubaydah was never a member of Al-Qaeda. Yet he still remains in Guantanamo
today, and has never been charged with a crime, or given the right of due
process.
Abu
Zubaydah is hoping to be heard for the first time since his capture in a
Military Commissions pre-trial hearing over the treatment of a fellow detainee
Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who claims he has been subjected to psychological torture
at Guantanamo's Camp 7 where all the so called "high value detainees"
are housed. Al-Shibh claims disturbing sounds and vibrations are purposely
directed into his cell done to disturb his sleep. Abu Zubaydah is scheduled to
testify about the sights, sounds and smells in the secret camp, but because of
the unusual evidence that may be presented against Abu Zubaydah, and how it is
presented by the prosecution, Zubaydah may be advised by his attorney not to
testify.
"Joseph
Hickman is a former Gitmo guard and freelance journalist. He is also the author
of the upcoming book 'The Convenient Terrorist: Two Whistleblowers' Stories of
Torture, Terror, Secret Wars, and CIA Lies." Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JosephHickman0”
C 2015 Reader Supported News
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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