“One of the participants in the operation against Mr. McMaster, Barbara Ledeen, said she was brought on by someone ‘with access to McMaster’s calendar.’”
Does she still work for @ChuckGrassley/Senate Judiciary comm GOP?
“When confronted with details about her involvement in the McMaster operation, Ledeen insisted that she was merely a messenger...she passed the message to a man she believed to be a Project Veritas operative.” The plan was to try to honeytrap the then US national security advisor
piece further down reports that Ledeen retired from the Senate this year.
Would the FBI ever investigate something like this? a bunch of US operatives trying to entrap the US national security advisor with a woman they were paying for that purpose?
“One woman living at the house, Anna Khait, was part of several operations against various targets, including a State Dept employee.” nytimes.com/2021/05/13/us/…
Re NYT Barbara Ledeen/Project Veritas orchestrating op v McMaster, this shows Barbara Ledeen writing Flynn’s then attorney Robert Kelner in Dec. 2018 passing message from Derek Harvey. Flynn’s attorney reported the message to DOJ & said not responding
The reported Ledeen-involved operation to entrap & remove the US national security advisor McMaster occurred just a few months before Giuliani involved operation to remove the US ambassador to Ukraine, reportedly under current investigation, & which led to Trump’s 1st impeachment
And which is reportedly being investigated to see if it was secretly conducted on behalf of unidentified paid foreign interests
Looks like Khait deleted the tweet of her and Patrick Byrne among a group together on Sunday. Here are screenshots of the tweet and the photo. Remembered this morning that Byrne reportedly also had a relationship with Russian agent Butina and reportedly reported on it to FBI.
This is one of the striking findings of the polls seen last few days.
A majority of Americans do not think the war with Iran makes them or the world safer, but less safe. (And 1/5 thinks it makes no difference.)
(one of the big differences between American and Israeli public opinion on the Iran war.) For a majority of Americans, it is not just that they don’t want to do it. They don’t think it advances security.)
Reuters/Ipsos (4-day poll completed 3/23):
46% of respondents think war on Iran will make U.S. less safe;
Only 26% said it would make country safer;
rest said no effect.
Sarah Rogers has used her State Dept platform primarily to try to boost the far right AfD party in Germany and far right parties in UK, in seeming alignment with Elon Musk and other anti EU regulation tech bros. She has shown minimal interest in free speech in places like Iran
Here was one of her more startling State Department posts on Twitter, discussing “‘Jewish’ NGO tentacles,” “rapist hordes,” in a State Dept post that quote tweeted an account called the National Socialists of Tik Tok.
More from her recent TL, almost entirely focused on promoting anti EU far right parties and organizations in Europe and free speech for neo Nazi adjacent types.
🧵This is a lie, the mediator, “Persian Gulf diplomat” has said. “I can categorically state that this is inaccurate. He was explaining that all of this material can all go away should we have a deal and Iran can be relieved from sanctions.” ms.now/news/exclusive…x.com/acyn/status/20…
I reported, and it is a serious issue, that Witkoff and Kushner DID NOT UNDERSTAND the Iranian proposal or nuclear issues and continue not to understand. diplomatic.substack.com/p/was-diplomac…
You need to understand your opponent, you need to bring experts to help explain what you don’t know. Both on Iran & nuke issues. Kushner and Witkoff DID NOT UNDERSTAND an offer that may not have been good enough but was serious. It is like they had a 50% translation diplomatic.substack.com/p/was-diplomac…
🧵Powerful Star Tribune editorial: Minnesota is under siege:
“What we are witnessing is the storming of the state by the federal government.
Fraud investigation and immigration enforcement in Minnesota have become a pretext for a sweeping federal show of force that bears little relationship to the problem it claims to address.”
“It is indiscriminate. Noncitizen immigrants without legal status make up roughly 1.5% of Minnesota’s population — less than half the national average. Nothing about that figure justifies the scale, posture or tactics now widely deployed.
“The fatal shooting of 37yo Renee Good, an American citizen..., by an ICE agent on Jan. 7 brought into brutal focus what many communities had already bn experiencing: an enforcement strategy that erodes trust & often puts innocent people & lawful protesters in extreme danger.
👀🧵 “Rubio was scheduled to attend peace talks with Ukrainian officials in Switzerland, but Witkoff had set off early in what some officials saw as a bid to beat him to the punch…, Witkoff did not communicate his travel plans to Rubio & other State Dep. officials, the 3 sources said, in what they perceived as a move to allow Witkoff to negotiate with Ukraine in a way he saw fit.
“It was not the first time U.S. officials had seen Witkoff’s actions as an attempt to make an end-run around Rubio. …latest example of a long-running rift between the two senior figures…with sharply different views about how to end the war in Ukraine and how much the U.S. should trust Russia’s promises.”
“Late last month, days after the Geneva talks, Witkoff arranged a meeting with Ukrainian officials in Florida. Rubio became aware of the planned session only when the Ukrainians asked his team about it, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the incident.”
US official on talks with Ukraine says US willing to submit security package for Senate ratification.
Another US official says they have beefed up the security guarantees package but warns the guarantees will not be on the table forever. eg pressure on Ukraine to take it sooner
Second US official: “…details on security guarantees we are not ready to provide yet. They will come out soon. Think you will find everyone is happy with them.”