By: Susan Yoshihara, Senior Fellow
The purpose of appointing inspectors general is to ensure no one is above the law. Instead of guarding this public trust, State Department IG Steve Linick weaponized it.
By: Neil W. McCabe, Senior Fellow
The Cambridge University academic portrayed in the mainstream media as retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn’s Russian mistress and spy recruiter caught in the web of fake news and the Russian Collusion Hoax.
The Cambridge University academic portrayed in the mainstream media as retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn’s Russian mistress and spy recruiter told the Star Newspapers about her ordeal—caught in the web of fake news and the Russian Collusion Hoax.
“In April 2016, the Obama administration renewed General Flynn’s security clearance—it was a top secret/sci, sensitive compartmentalized information, it is the highest clearance there is—so all is fine but, then suddenly in August 2016, the FBI start secretly investigating him for being a Russian spy—that is why they needed me to be his recruiter,’ said Svetlana Lokhova, a former By-Fellow of Cambridge’s Churchill College.
Margot Cleveland wrote for The Federalist: “This honey pot storyline originated with Lokhova’s mentor at Cambridge, the official MI5 historian, Professor Christopher Andrew, when on February 19, 2017, Andrew penned an article for the London Sunday Times, “Impulsive General Misha Shoots Himself in the Foot.”
The Times article is no longer available, but Cleveland continued: “That article portrayed the unnamed Lokhova’s brief meeting with Flynn during a dinner event two years prior at Cambridge as the beginning of a compromising relationship between Flynn and a Russian spy.”
Luke Harding, one of the earliest and most prolific advocates of the Russian Collusion Hoax, wrote about the meeting in March 31, 2017 edition of The Guardian:
Flynn’s erratic conduct had troubled US intelligence officials for some time, multiple sources have told the Guardian.
One concern involved an encounter with a Russian-British graduate student, Svetlana Lokhova, whom Flynn met on a trip to Cambridge in February 2014.
At the time, Flynn was one of the top US spies and the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), which provides information to the Pentagon about the military strengths and intentions of other states and terrorist groups.
In his book, Collusion: Secret meetings, dirty money, and how Russia helped Donald Trump win, Harding quotes from email traffic between Lokhova and Flynn that he obtained access to and mischievously wrote: “In his emails, Flynn signed off in an unusual way for a U.S. spy. He called himself ‘General Misha.’ Misha is the Russian equivalent of Michael.”
Lokhova said she was shocked when reporters started calling her about her relationship with Flynn, but she now sees the connection between this false narrative with the events of August 2016.
“I have no idea what the trigger was, but it is clear that in August there was a significant pickup in activity,” she said. In August, the Trump campaign did not collapse like conventional wisdom predicted after the Republican National Convention in July.
“On Aug. 10, the FBI opened up counter intelligence investigations on Carter Page, George Papadopoulos and Paul Manafort, but not General Flynn,” said the authoress of the book “The Spy Who Changed History” about master Russian spy Stanislav Shumovsky, who traveled the U.S. in the 1930s stealing military and industrial secrets.
“Something happened. We know from the Horowitz report that Stefan Halper then met with the FBI on the 11th and 12th, Thursday and Friday,” she said. “Monday is the 15th and that is the day Strzok sends the text to Page about the insurance policy discussed in McCabe’s office—and on the 16th, they open the shocking counter intelligence investigation into General Flynn. It is an unprecedented step to do such a thing on a former head of a U.S. intelligence agency.”
Flynn stepped down as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in August 2014 after clashing with President Barack Obama and his team. At the same time, he retired from the Army ending a 33-year career, mostly in military intelligence.
Strzok texts Page about ‘insurance policy’ day before FBI opens Flynn inquest
The full Strzok text read: “I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way he gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.” Andrew G. McCabe was the deputy director of the FBI. Lisa Page was an attorney working for McCabe and Peter Strzok was an FBI agent working closely with Page.
Halper is a long-time U.S. political and intelligence operative and the former son-in-law of Ray S. Cline, who rose to become deputy director of the CIA. In 2015 and 2016, the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment awarded Halper contracts for research projects, and in the context of those projects he interacted with both Page and Papadopoulos. In the same timeframe, Halper was on and FBI contract to infiltrate the Trump campaign. Halper is, himself, a life fellow at Cambridge’s Magdalene College.
Lokhova said she places the blame for her unwitting involvement in the scandal at the feet of Halper, so much so that soon she will file a motion with the Fourth Circuit to continue her lawsuit against the Cambridge don and NBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.
She would not discuss the lawsuit in any way, but she did say that Halper was the one who told the FBI and reporters that at a February 2014 dinner at Cambridge University, Flynn, still leading DIA, met Lokhova, that Halper further falsely claimed the general and the academic became lovers.
“He told them he was an eyewitness and saw General Flynn and I leave together in a taxi,” she said. “It is just not true. Halper was not at the event. My husband came and picked me up and he left with his security detail. It is so crazy. The reporters ignored that General Flynn met his wife with he was 14 and that I am a mother.”
Flynn speaks at RT dinner in Moscow
The narrative continued that Flynn had no idea that Lokhova was a Russian agent and to further entrap Flynn, she gave him money and invited him to the infamous Dec. 10, 2015 Moscow dinner to celebrate the 10th anniversary of RT, a Russian state-owned broadcaster. At the dinner, General Flynn sat at the same table as Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Then, at RT dinner, the Russians confront General Flynn with kompromat,” Lokhova said. “They always use the word ‘kompromat’ to make is sound authentic, but no Russian ever uses this word.”
The bogus story goes that the Russians presented Flynn with the evidence of the payments and the relationship with Lokhova, they were able to flip him to work for them, she said.
Lokhova also said that part of the absurdity of the so-called confrontation at the RT dinner, where Flynn was supposed to be turned into her intelligence asset was that General Flynn was paid to give a attend and give remarks through his Washington speakers bureau that handled all of his engagements.
Flynn’s bureau was Leading Authorities Inc, or LAI, the same bureau that represents McCabe, the former FBI deputy director.
“The speakers bureau was the one pushing it and asking the Russians for more money than they wanted to pay,” she said. “If the Russians really wanted Flynn in Moscow for a nefarious reason , surely they would have paid him anything, instead of arguing over the fee?” Also, contrary to media reports, Flynn’s legal team put out a statement detailing who the general briefed DIA before and after the RT dinner.
The British citizen said she was nothing to do with the RT dinner, but she said the photo of Flynn and Putin sitting together is another deception.
“There was a woman sitting between Flynn and Putin and when she got up, someone took a picture,” she said. In the photo run by the Associated Press, the back of the empty chair between the two men is visible. “Flynn speaks no Russian. Putin speaks no English. The idea that they had any conversation is impossible.”
Now, that the truth about the attacks on Flynn and Trump and his campaign staffers is coming to the fore, the academic said she is still fighting to clear her name and rebuild her shattered life.
“The people going after Flynn always talk about the same three incidents: payments from the Russian government in 2015, the RT dinner and his affair with me,” she said.
All three pieces of the Flynn-Russia narrative are deceptions, but the FBI needed the affair as the predicate to go after a man, who had just been cleared with the government’s highest clearance less than five months prior, she said.
Lokhova’s new book about her ordeal
Lokhova has written a book “SpyGate Exposed” about her experiences at the heart of the Russian Collusion Hoax and how the FBI, CIA and the media all conspired to destroy Flynn and rig the 2016 campaign and attempt to topple the administration of President Donald Trump.
This article was published in The Tennessee Star
By: Shana Forta, VP of Operation
Everyone has their own favorite part of the Superbowl. Some people eagerly await the Game, the commercials, or the half time show. Halftime at the Superbowl is generally borderline family friendly fare for the millions of fans watching during their yearly ritual of watching the Super Bowl with family and friends. Admittedly in years past there have been ‘wardrobe malfunctions’ involving Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake. However, as bad it was, we were not mired in the investigations into sexual abuse by actor Bill Cosby, Hollywood director Harvey Weinstein, and Jeffrey Epstein.
Perturbed that Beyoncé and Jay Z did not stand for the National Anthem, my expectations for the half time show were quickly dashed when I realized that the NFL had failed miserably, allowing cheap sexual messages of bare skin and provocative dancing to take over the screen. What seemed missing to me was the loud and echoing message from the global #Me too movement, the one that highlights the rampant sexual abuse that is de rigueur and seemingly so prevalent in the entertainment business. Surely, TV executives haven’t lived with their heads in the sand during the past year and know just how important messaging is to the youth of this country? It seems like they are saying to do as I say, but not as I do.
We live in the most tolerant and women friendly country in the world. Yet it appears that the openly tolerant are actually intolerant and that sexual innuendo and female objectification is alive and well and helps to sell time for ads. In fact what transpired last night highlights how out of touch the organizers of the Superbowl must be to allow this raunchy and provocative show to go ahead: Jennifer Lopez making her entrance sashaying and cavorting off a stripper pole; she goes on to tear off her skirt to showcase her ripped abs and toned legs. She is 50. I get it. Show some modesty and self – respect Jennifer.
In the age of the #MeToo movement, it seems incredibly hypocritical to tell our young and impressionable youth, that it’s okay to act provocatively on screen in front of millions of people, to wear skimpy clothing that seem to get more skimpy as the song is progressing, but yet don’t behave like we do, because doing so may just get you into trouble. Either we objectify women, or we don’t. We can’t have our cake and eat it. Seems like a tremendously mixed message, and one that we as the adults in this country, are sending to our youth. Enough is enough.
By: Ehud Elam, Senior Fellow
The Iranian regime is at a low point. This evil empire of the Middle East is in trouble due to several reasons, both political and economic.
Those who seek to topple the Iranian regime should seize the opportunity to tighten the net around Iran. It is in the interest of the United States and its allies, including those in the Middle East such as Israel and the Arab states. Getting rid of the Iranian regime will serve the Iranian people, as well. The anti-Iranian coalition has to initiate and increase steps against the Iranian regime.
In recent weeks there has been unrest in both Lebanon and Iraq.
Some of the protesters are supposed to be on Iran’s side since they are Shiites. (Iran is mostly Shiite, unlike most of the Arab states.) The protesters demand improvements to their quality of life by adding jobs and fixing public services. They also oppose Iran’s intervention in their country. They go against their own governments, which in both Lebanon and Iraq are heavily influenced by Iran and its allies. The demonstrations, therefore, are another part of the struggle against Iran. The anti-Iranian coalition needs to be cautious here in order not to allow Iran and its partners to argue that the unrest is planned by other states.
Nevertheless, those who just want a better life and wish to reduce Iran’s grip on their country should receive aid.
There were protests in Iran itself in recent years. The Iranian regime had managed to survive the recent wave of protests that occurred in November. More than 300 Iranian civilians were killed by the Iranian regime during the crackdown.
It shows how desperate the Iranian regime has become. The next wave of demonstrations against it might be stronger than the last one. The anti-Iranian coalition has to support the protesters, yet be careful not to give an excuse to the Iranian regime to present demonstrations against it as a Western plot.
The Iranian regime has not done enough to provide basic needs to its people. The 1979 revolution promised a lot for the Iranian people but failed to deliver. In spite of Iran’s potential and its vast oil fields, many of the people there are struggling to make ends meet. This is because the regime is corrupt and ineffective.
Furthermore, the regime prefers to pour its money into adventures in the Middle East.
Iran is involved in several wars in the region, supporting its allies in countries such as Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon. The cost to Iran has been more than $20 billion in Syria alone. Iran sees that as necessary for its national security but so far this approach certainly has not paid off for the Iranian people.
This policy is executed at the expense of raising the living standards of the Iranian people. Iran’s strategy also brought heavy sanctions against it that crippled its economy and caused more suffering to its people. It is causing enormous resentment against the Iranian regime. Iran is digging its own grave.
The Iranian regime has high ambitions: to be the superpower of the Middle East.
Therefore, Iran gives its protégés not just money but also weapons and advisers. Sometimes, Iran even sends its own troops to fight in places like Syria. All that effort demonstrates how eager Iran is to expand — regardless of the cost for many in the region, including many Iranians. The anti-Iranian coalition has to be strong and united so it can block and contain Iran. It will weaken Iran and buy time until the regime there collapses.
Iran is striving to build nuclear weapons. This project has been going on for several decades now and it is very expensive, another example for Iran’s willingness to ignore the needs of its people in favor of other goals.
Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons in order to have enough military strength to do whatever it wants. Iran has breached the 2015 nuclear agreement that is supposed to limit its nuclear capabilities. If the country actually tries to produce the bomb, it must be stopped by the anti-Iranian coalition. All the options have to be on the table, including the military one.
The Iranian regime is doomed to fail; it is only a matter of time considering the country’s foreign and domestic policy. The huge cost of corruption, poor management of domestic affairs and eagerness to take over the Middle East will eventually bring it down. Meanwhile, the economic pressure on Iran is growing. The anti-Iranian coalition must continue.
This article was originally published as an Op-Ed in The Western Journal on 20 December 2019.
