Posted on 09/10/2019 6:43:56 AM PDT by Red Badger
The CIA extracted a longtime Kremlin asset from Russia in 2017 because of concerns that media reports would put him at risk, according to a New York Times report.
The story undercuts a key aspect of a report that CNN published earlier Monday about the CIA operation.
CNN’s Jim Sciutto reported that the CIA extracted the asset due in part to concerns about President Donald Trump’s handling of classified information. Sciutto, who served in the Obama administration, reported that the Russian source was removed soon after Trump met with Russian government officials in the Oval Office in May 2017. U.S. officials became concerned after that meeting that Trump and some in his administration might somehow reveal details about intelligence operations.
But according to The Times, the CIA offered to extract the asset in 2016, well before Trump took office.
The mole rejected the initial offer for exfiltration, but ultimately agreed to leave Russia in 2017, after the CIA raised concerns about increased media scrutiny of the sources the U.S. intelligence community used to determine that Russia meddled in the 2016 election. (RELATED: CNN Analyst Questions Report That CIA Extracted Russian Spy Due To Concerns About Trump)
“But former intelligence officials said there was no public evidence that Mr. Trump directly endangered the source, and other current American officials insisted that media scrutiny of the agency’s sources alone was the impetus for the extraction,” The Times story reads.
“The news reporting in the spring and summer of 2017 convinced United States government officials that they had to update and revive their extraction plan, according to people familiar the matter.”
Several news reports in 2016 and 2017 referred to a covert source who provided information about Russian efforts to meddle in the 2016 election. NBC News reported on Dec. 14, 2016 that Russian assets provided intelligence that Vladimir Putin directed the efforts to hack Democrats.
The day after the report, then-FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok wrote in a text message that he believed other U.S. agencies had leaked information for political reasons.
“Think our sisters have begun leaking like mad. Scorned and worried and political, they’re kicking in to overdrive,” Strzok wrote.
The Washington Post published a story on June 23, 2017 that referred to the source.
According to The Times, the CIA recruited the source decades ago, and has cultivated him during his rise up through the Russian government. The source ended up as a mid-level government official, who had access to high levels of the Kremlin. The source was not in President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, but saw the Russian president regularly.
NBC News reported that the source is living in the Washington, D.C., area under his true name.
Sciutto appeared on CNN shortly after The Times report broke. He acknowledge the new reporting that media requests were the catalyst for the exfiltration effort, but he maintained that The Times story confirmed his own reporting.
The media is corrupt, period.
WHAT?? The NYT is blaming the media, NOT Trump? Do my eyes deceive me this morning?
So, the Fake News traitors did it, *not* PDJT. It’s called projection, folks.
Blind pigs and squirrels....................
Yeah sure. LOL. The entire story is pure BS. There was no spy, no spy extracted, etc.
This is another lame attempt to prove the CIA really knew all along that Trump was the beneficiary of Russia getting him elected. Why, this spy PROVES it.
In reality, it was all the Steele group/Brit intel/CIA/FBI launching a 5 eyes coup attempt. This story is part of the cleanup attempt.
Fake news.
The Clinton rule, now the Democrat and deep state rule, “Accuse your opponents of the crimes you have committed, thus innoculating yourself from any scrutiny”
BTW, if you want to watch a pretty good spy show, catch “The Spy” on Netflix. It’s the story of the Mossad’s premier spy in the 60s.
WHAT?? The NYT is blaming the media, NOT Trump? Do my eyes deceive me this morning?
Is this the onion in disguise?
The news media would gladly out a mole/spy if they thought Trump would take the blame. In an instant.
They (media) made V.Plame a martyr when they thought Bush outed her. That torch was held up for a long time, and only after the truth was revealed was it allowed to extinguish.
These are not good people.
Yes your eyes DO deceive you.
This is the NYT reporting that;
The CIA all along had a mole who proves the whole Russia/Trump thing. The more also proves that Russia “hacked” the DNC servers. (note, to this date only Crowdstrike has seen them. No police, no FBI, nobody)
Then the CIA had to extract him, because the US media was risking exposing him.
So the NYT is saying, “shame on us, the CIA who knew Trump was a placed there by Russia, wanted to leave their source, but we irresponsibly ruined their patriotic operation”.
Total Bullsquirt. There was no mole. There was no Russian source. The entire thing was created in Steele;s office with his associate Skirpol giving it “Russian” flavor. Then CIA/Brit intel attacked Skirpol with Fentanyl and claimed it was a Russian nerve gas attack.
The NYT is merely advancing the CIA/Brit intel/FBI damage control cover story after the coup was exposed.
“They (media) made V.Plame a martyr when they thought Bush outed her. “
They knew who outed her. And Plame was basically a nothing anyway. They act like she was Jason Bourne. It’s laughable.
But the idiots in New Mexico are about to elect her to Congress.
Thanks!
“U.S. officials became concerned after that meeting that Trump and some in his administration might somehow reveal details about intelligence operations.”
This very statement in their cover story propaganda piece reveals how for gone this country really is. It assumes that the intel community should quite naturally conduct operations hidden from the President, and that the President is viewed as a security threat.
This is the very definition of a police state.
Imagine explaining to Adams, Jefferson, Washington, or Madison.. a US government agency that is allowed an unlimited budget, and that can ignore congress and the president. And in fact, can spy on them, undermine them and remove them. This agency SETS national policy, and attacks any elected president that opposes their preferred policy.
JFK.............................
BBC just did this story and that fat idiot from BBC blamed Trump through the whole story
What a load of Bravo Sierra from the NYTs.
Right after the Mueller report the NYT admitted that the Steele Dossier (lies) was probably the result of Russian Disinformation. The NYT now says that Putin wanted Trump as president. If that was correct why would Putin be behind the Russian disinformation in the Steele Dossier?
The New York Times lies if it advances their political leanings. They lie and know they are lying.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.