Posted on 02/09/2018 4:20:17 PM PST by springwater13
After months of secret negotiations, a shadowy Russian bilked American spies out of $100,000 last year, promising to deliver stolen National Security Agency cyberweapons in a deal that he insisted would also include compromising material on President Trump, according to American and European intelligence officials.
The cash, delivered in a suitcase to a Berlin hotel room in September, was intended as the first installment of a $1 million payout, according to American officials, the Russian and communications reviewed by The New York Times. The theft of the secret hacking tools had been devastating to the N.S.A., and the agency was struggling to get a full inventory of what was missing.
Several American intelligence officials said they made clear that they did not want the Trump material from the Russian — who was suspected of having murky ties to Russian intelligence and to Eastern European cybercriminals. He claimed the information would link the president and his associates to Russia. But instead of providing the hacking tools, the Russian produced unverified and possibly fabricated information involving Mr. Trump and others, including bank records, emails and purported Russian intelligence data.
The United States intelligence officials said they cut off the deal because they were wary of being entangled in a Russian operation to create discord inside the American government. They were also fearful of political fallout in Washington if they were seen to be buying scurrilous information on the president.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Does the article say they they didn't occur before last year?
Ping
NYT changed the title: “U.S. Spies, Seeking to Retrieve Cyberweapons, Paid Russian Peddling Trump Secrets”
NSA thugs were trying to buy dirt on Trump because the ‘intelligence’ services were attempting a coup against the American people and our right to choose our own leader with free elections.
Anyone involved with trying to overthrow a duly elected President should be tried for treason.
bttt
Why does this story sound like a complete and total fabrication?
—
Bingo. This story is nothing but a pathetic attempt to create a backstory to cover how the FBI paid for opo research on Trump. Now they making the claim of making the payment for an inventory of missing hacking software, but those crafty Russians delivered Trump opo documents instead! Give me a break.
First, it would be of zero value to get an inventory of stollen hacking tools. They’ve been stollen. They’re all stollen. What you’re going to trust the Russians who ostensibly stole them to tell you what they stole?
The real tell in this article that it is a fake is the notice supposedly given to the Russians to not provide opo research on Trump. Why would that come up in a conversation on an inventory of stollen hacking tools?
“Fifteen months into a wide-ranging investigation by the National Security Agency’s counterintelligence arm, known as Q GROUP (Emphasis mine), and the F.B.I., officials still do not know whether the N.S.A. is the victim of a brilliantly executed hack, with Russia as the most likely perpetrator, an insider’s leak, or both. Three employees have been arrested since 2015 for taking classified files, but there is fear that one or more leakers may still be in place.
“And there is broad agreement that the damage from the Shadow Brokers already far exceeds the harm to American intelligence done by Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor who fled with four laptops of classified material in 2013.” — “Security Breach and Spilled Secrets Have Shaken the N.S.A. to Its Core” New York Times 11/12/17
“Instead of providing the hacking tools, the Russian produced unverified and possibly fabricated information involving Mr. Trump and others, including bank records, emails and purported Russian intelligence data. The United States intelligence officials said ... they were ... fearful of political fallout in Washington if they were seen to be buying scurrilous information on the president.”
“American spies are not the only ones who have dealt with Russians claiming to have secrets to sell. Cody Shearer, an American political operative with ties to the Democratic Party*, has been crisscrossing Eastern Europe for more than six months to secure the purported kompromat from a different Russian, said people familiar with the efforts, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid damaging their relationship with him.
“Reached by phone late last year, Mr. Shearer would say only that his work was ‘a big deal — you know what it is, and you shouldn’t be asking about it.’ He then hung up.” — ”American Spies Paid $100,000 to Russian Who Wanted to Sell Material on Trump” New York Times 02/09/18
*Should say, “ ... with ties to Hillary Clinton and Sidney Blumenthal.”
Your tax dollars at work.
Yeah, I believe that... They were trying to buy back software that had been stolen. No interest in the Trump dirt at all.
Okay Yuri. I will back you up. My name is Orge. Last name Putin. I am a 7th cousin of the Czar in Moscow. I work for the Moscow Streetsweepers Association. I can be contacted at my 7th cousin’s mailing address in Moscow. I will back you in your plan to be a Russian citizen. You owe me 100,000 rubles or $1.95 in American money.
Watch Sasha Cohen a lot to get the accent right. Careful, though. Some US intelligence people know Russian. Better to prank and then scam Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi.
It’s in the NY Times. The only reason anyone would leak it is that it makes it sound as if the IC is backing off anything anti-Trump for fear of repercussions. The IC would not want it known that they were successfully played for fools twice. So this is not a leak, it’s fake news.
You’re right- it does have his stench to it. Either that or the now-novelist Valerie ghost wrote his NYT op ed, too.
They all need to fired and they need to lose their pentions
Stollen > a traditional German fruit-and-nut-filled pastry
see https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/christmas-stollen-recipe
Stolen > ripped off
:-)
Looks like the Intercept also published this info in sync with the NYT...and today it’s been dropped from Gizmodo:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3631046/posts
Comey writes this way, too. Remember the weird tale about hiding in the curtains...
I think the intel guys picked the nytimes so that Trump would be sure to read this section.
“The episode ended this year with American spies chasing the Russian out of Western Europe, warning him not to return if he valued his freedom, the American businessman said. The Trump material was left with the American, who has secured it in Europe.”
Are they still employed? Are they being prosecuted? No Democrat would EVER go through this kind of illegal chicanery?
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