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4 Nov, 24 tweets, 8 min read
Igor Danchenko, the primary source of the Steele "dossier", has been arrested on as-yet-undisclosed charges as part of the investigation into how "Russiagate" got going. Another Democratic Party-connected lawyer has been charged with lying to the FBI. washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
The indictment of Igor Danchenko for two counts of lying to the FBI. Danchenko was the primary source used by Christopher Steele in compiling his "dossier" claiming collusion between Trump and Russia.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
From the Danchenko indictment: "the FBI relied substantially on the Company Reports ['Steele Dossier'] in these FISA applications to assert probable cause that Advisor-1 [Carter Page] was a witting agent of the Russian Federation."
Igor Danchenko, the main Steele "dossier" source, lied to the FBI about information from Charles Dolan ("PR Executive-1"), a senior Democratic Party operative, and interactions with Sergei Millian ("Chamber President-1"), then-president of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce ImageImage
Democratic Party operative Charles Dolan ("PR Executive-1") said in June 2016 he thought Christopher Steele's primary source for the "dossier", Igor Danchenko, was an FSB [Russian intelligence] officer. Dolan was also one of Steele's sources. Image
Numerous people used by Christopher Steele as sources for his "dossier", including Charles Dolan and "Organizer-1", had closely coordinated with the Russian Embassy in the U.S. (i.e. with Putin's intelligence services) ahead of a conference they staged in Moscow in October 2016. Image
More on the Russian "diplomatic" (intelligence) milieu in which many of the Steele "dossier" sources were moving.

Curiously, no reference here to "golden showers" or any of the rest of it. Interesting to know who invented that. Image
Igor Danchenko, the Steele "dossier" main source, was drawing from "Russian Sub-Source-1" [Olga Galkina (I think)], who gave Hillary Clinton a signed book at one stage, and with "PR Executive-1" [Charles Dolan], all of whom were in close contact with the Russian government. Image
Interesting example of how information went into Steele's "dossier": Charles Dolan provided information on Manafort that he claimed was from a "GOP friend" to Igor Danchenko, who then passed it to Steele, except that Dolan lied; he had got it from news reports.
The indictment later implies Danchenko invented the lurid Moscow hotel details, with Dolan and "Organizer-1" saying "the staff member did not mention any sexual or salacious activity." Though Danchenko says he told Steele this was "rumor and speculation".
The indictment makes clear how intimately involved Democratic Party operative Charles Dolan was in gathering information with Igor Danchenko that later went into the Steele "dossier". Danchenko himself described Dolan to the FBI as "a bit naive in his ... liking of Russia."
The Steele "dossier" claimed Mikhail Kalugin was withdrawn from Russia's US Embassy "on short notice because Moscow feared his heavy involvement in the US presidential election operation". In fact, Charles Dolan had been told on 31 May 2016 Kalugin would be withdrawn in September
Igor Danchenko lied to the FBI, telling them they were the first people he had told that he was working for Christopher Steele, but he had in fact told Charles Dolan and Olga Galkina [both of them very close to the Russian intelligence services] "and others" long before. Image
As the FBI correctly points out, it matters a great deal whether Danchenko's friends and contacts knew he was working for Steele because it affects the likelihood that his sources were contaminated with disinformation from the Russian intelligence services Image
Danchenko was the source for the Steele "dossier" claim of a "well-developed conspiracy of co-operation" between Trump and Putin, and Danchenko claimed this was from an anonymous telephone call. Danchenko later said he thought it was Sergei Millian. There was no such call.
CORRECTION: Danchenko is charged with five counts of lying to the FBI
Without explicitly saying so, the Danchenko indictment confirms that the Russian authorities were well aware of what Steele was up to and were in close contact with his primary sources
From the Danchenko indictment, it does look as if Steele was a dupe rather than someone intentionally participating in a Russian disinformation campaign. One can see why he was alarmed at the Russian interference; he was just looking in the wrong direction
Still think this applies
Experts like Christopher Andrew long ago warned that the Steele "dossier" was laced with Russian disinformation
Just a few months after the Steele "dossier" went public, @20committee pointed out that it bore every sign of being a Russian provocation observer.com/2017/10/fact-v…
This is a really quite embarrassing effort to defend Igor Danchenko and by extension the Steele "dossier" ("key elements" of which are claimed to have been "corroborated") as victims of a partisan witch-hunt. theguardian.com/us-news/2021/n…
Danchenko indictment has "permanently discredited the Steele Dossier" given "Durham's revelations about how dubiously it was assembled. … Was it also a Russian deception operation? That's unanswerable at present … but it seems rather likely that it was". topsecretumbra.substack.com/p/the-unpleasa…
Danchenko's indictment "undermines one of the central claims in the initial coverage of the [Steele] dossier — that it was well-sourced Kremlin intelligence from a respected professional. … [M]uch of it was rumor conveyed in part by a Democratic partisan" bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

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7 Nov
A man who was recruited, basically abducted into, the Mojahedeen-e-Khalq (#MEK) as a child explains how they illegally transferred kids to Europe, keeping them imprisoned in the cult, and then moved them back to Saddam's Iraq in the 1990s, sometimes using them as child soldiers.
#pt: When the man (امین گل مریم) was transferred to the #MEK camp in Saddam's Iraq in March 2001, at 15-years-old, he was informed that even friendships with women were banned. His mother, whom he saw once per year, was cold with him. MEK asked everyone to spy on everyone else.
#pt: At the #MEK camp in Saddam's Iraq, daily self-criticism/struggle sessions were held. Any signs of criticism of the leader, Masud Rajavi, were picked up on and shamed. Members had to confess any sexual thoughts they had or if they masturbated publicly.
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24 Oct
Avrom Sutzkever was sworn in as a witness at the Nuremberg Trials on 27 FEB 1946. Sutzkever was the only Jew to testify, despite the centrality of the Holocaust to the charge-sheet, and he had to testify in Russian (he was a Soviet witness), despite wanting to speak in Yiddish.
Sutzkever had said ten days earlier: "I want to speak in Yiddish … I wish to speak in the language of the people whom the accused attempted to exterminate. I wish to speak our mameloshn [mother tongue]. … May my language triumph at Nuremberg"
Sutzkever had been in Lithuania when the Soviets took it over with a Nazi green-light and was still there and interred in a ghetto when Stalin's allies betrayed him before he was ready. Sutzkever escaped in 1943, reached Soviet lines, and became a Partisan.
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24 Oct
"It seems strangely difficult for some to realize that here in Asia is where the Communist conspirators have elected to make their play for global conquest … There is no substitute for victory" - letter from Douglas MacArthur, read on the floor of the House, 5 April 1951
MacArthur was entirely correct that Truman's Europe-focused strategy and his limited war aims in Korea misunderstood the Communist menace. Shame MacArthur was not heeded.
See also
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22 Oct
"Many of the NKVD ... personnel decorated during the [Second World] War received their medals not for valor against the enemy, but for crimes against humanity", including deporting entire nations within the Soviet Union and terrorising captive populations into submission.
"The Sword and the Shield", p. 102
Soviet official history gave a lot of credit to spies like the Rote Kapelle (Red Orchestra) for their success on the Eastern Front, but the real turning point was after the Rote Kapelle was rolled up by the Nazis, and came about due to British and American SIGINT passed to Moscow ImageImage
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29 Sep
#Russia's civil war was to all intents and purposes over by autumn 1919, though the main phase of fighting only ended a year later. A pocket of resistance against the Bolsheviks held out until June 1923, however <Thread>
The defeat of #Denikin's offensive on Moscow in the west and #Kolchak's offensive from the east in late 1919 ended any serious threat to the Bolsheviks. Kolchak was murdered in FEB 1920 and the remnants of Denikin's Army, now under #Wrangel, evacuated from Crimea in NOV 1920.
In Sept. 1921, Yakutia rose in revolt and a Volunteer Army commander, Mikhail Korobeinikov took the lead, expanding the pocket, and in March 1922 announced the establishment of an interim administration, the "Provisional Yakut Regional People's Government".
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28 Sep
During the trial of the final #Nazi defendant at Nuremberg, Hans Fritzsche, the #Soviet prosecutor brought up Fritzsche's radio broadcast justifying the attack on Poland. Fritzsche responded: it had been "a matter of great satisfaction" that the Soviet press said the same thing.
#pt: from Francine Hirsch's wonderful book, "Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg" (2020), pp. 322-23.
Hans Fritzsche was only on trial at Nuremberg in the first place because the Soviets demanded it as a substitute for Goebbels. Everyone understood that Fritzsche just did not measure up in terms of responsibility to the other Nazis being tried.
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