Top Trump adviser defends Australia dealings (Flynn)

The Australian ^ | November 21, 2016 | PETER MITCHELL

[Dundee]

US president-elect Donald Trump's recently-appointed national security adviser was investigated for inappropriately sharing highly-classified intelligence with Australian forces.

Retired US three-star lieutenant general Michael Flynn, a maverick who spent more than 33 years in US Army intelligence, worked alongside Australian forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.

An outspoken believer in assisting allies on the battleground despite red tape preventing the flow of information, Lt Gen Flynn said the sharing of intelligence with Australian and British forces that left him in hot water was done "with the right permissions".

"I'm proud of that one," Lt Gen Flynn told The Washington Post.

"Accuse me of sharing intelligence in combat with our closest allies, please."

...Lt Gen Flynn has confidently defended the incident that involved passing sensitive information to Australia and Britain.

"The investigation on me was for sharing intelligence with the Brits and Australians in combat, and I'm proud of that one," Lt Gen Flynn said.

"That was substantiated because actually I did it.

"But I did it with the right permissions when you dig into the investigation."

Lt Gen Flynn said he met with Mr Trump mid-2015 and described the real estate billionaire as a "very serious guy", "good listener" and possessing similar views.

"I found him to be in line with what I believed," he told the Washington Post.

[Dundee]

"Accuse me of sharing intelligence in combat with our closest allies, please."

No wonder Obama didn't like the guy. How dare he pass on intel that could help save the lives of your allies! /s

And no wonder I'm liking this guy and his boss.

[Fai Mao]

This is one the left will leave alone. They’ll have to compare it with PIAPS sharing intelligence for profit

[HiTech RedNeck]

He got investigated but it truly DID turn out to be a nothing burger, legally.

Our illiberal left will be gnashing teeth over that one. How dare Flynn not be super simon pure?

[Savrola]

Would Flynn’s detractors prefer it if the British and Australians didn’t share their intelligence in combat with their American allies?

It wasn’t a one way street, I’m sure.

[kingu]

So, investigated and cleared, I assume. For some unusual reason, that last part isn’t included.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Had a facebook exchange with a friend named Mattis this morning, regarding the naming of Gen. Mattis as SECDEF. He said “ If he gets in the rest of the world will shit their pants.”

I replied,

“I don’t want the rest of the world to soil itself. I want the U.S. to be viewed as a reliable and welcoming ally and a mortally dangerous foe. When this perception is widespread the U.S. will have many allies and few foes.

“Right now, the U.S. is a laughingstock, and that will not change overnight.”

Carry on.

[Gay State Conservative]

Unless there's something dastardly about Australia's government or Armed Forces that I'm unaware of (highly unlikely,IMO) it's hard to imagine us sharing info with them being even slightly inappropriate.

[drop 50 and fire for effect]

Australia and the U.K. are “Five Eye” nations (US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom). We have 70 plus year history of sharing intelligence at the SECRET and TOP SECRET levels with these countries. The universe of information the U.K. and Australia are privy to dwarfs what they are not.

I am trying to figure out what information re Afghanistan the intel community would not want then to know about. The only NOFORN (not releasable to foreign nations) I saw while deployed dealt with politically sensitive matters (where our policy and theirs diverged) not intel related matters.

We keep a lot secret from them solely because allied military officers would be duty bound to report it, and allied leaders do not want to know so they have plausible deniability in case US actions have domestic blowback.

[Engedi]

Yep, unlike Hillary in wikileak’s email disclosing Amb Stephens schedule on her private unsecured server then the guy ends up dead.

[Theoria]

One of our main points is that we spy on their citizens and they spy on us. Thus, we ‘share’ it.

[DoughtyOne]

Look at what the Left to a man, was willing to forgive Hillary Clinton.

Then remind me what standing any of them have to carp about anyone at all.

[JoeFromSidney]

I refuse to be shocked. When I was a student at the Air War College, there were several foreign officers (Brit, Canadian, Australian) in my group. We dealt with classified information almost daily (mostly NATO), so of course it was shared with the foreign officers. If you're working with somebody on a common project that involves classified information, there's no way to avoid sharing it with them.

[Mollypitcher1]

Remember the Aussie Coast Watchers!