Trump Defends Flynn While Clashing With McMaster

The intelligence community does not have complete ‘eyes on’ the totality of the Iranian nuclear program, nor can it guarantee that we have identified all of Iran’s nuclear facilities and processes. LTG Michael T. Flynn

General Flynn as the Scapegoat

What is it with the hatred of General Michael T. Flynn? Fear? Is it the fact that Flynn knows far more about the enemies of freedom than anyone else in any of the past administrations all the way back to Carter? It seems obvious that the globalists on both the left and right do not want the Islamic threat exposed or eliminated, neither do they want many other facets of their existence uncovered which would totally destroy them.

Why is it that the West Wing officials all wish to jump on the bandwagon to throw Flynn under the bus? This is over the top contempt even worse than was shown for Trump during the campaign.  President Trump says Flynn is the victim of a Democrat/media-fueled “witch hunt,” and he is right, but add to the fact that many globalists surround our new President and they surely wanted rid of a man as accomplished as Flynn.

White House staffers have been anonymously telling reporters for weeks that Flynn was a bad advisor with an agenda, and comments were not confined to one faction of the White House. Two of those globalists, Vice President Mike Pence and Priebus, supported getting rid of Flynn after they alleged he misled his colleagues about conversations with the Russian ambassador.

The willingness to throw Flynn under the bus has been broadly shared, but we don’t know the real reason why, and most likely never will.  Link

The Bogus Russian Connection

We’re still getting this yada clap trap that Flynn lied to VP Pence, but I’m not buying it, and neither is anyone else. The whole Flynn/Russia connection portrayed by the media and intelligence is hogwash and everyone knows it. As Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Flynn had the highest security clearance you can get, and had every right as National Security Advisor to speak to the Russian ambassador. So why the hell was he fired?

Want to talk about real collusion with Russia, take a look at Hillary Clinton’s approval of the transfer of 20 percent of U.S. uranium to Russia and nine investors in the deal who funneled $145 million to the Clinton Foundation.  But of course, media never speaks of that Kremlin/Clinton scandal.  The progressives and the media yawned!  Link

Axed for Speaking the Truth

Obama fired the General from his position as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014, after Flynn told a congressional committee that the American people are in more danger now than just a few years ago, an uncomfortable truth Obama didn’t want the American people to hear.  When the General saw policies that were unfavorable to America, he spoke out about it, and Obama looked at Flynn as disloyal. But that’s Hussein Obama. Flynn was one of the most vocal and loyal campaigners and supporters of Trump from day one of Trump’s announcement to run.

The very same day that Clapper and Yates were to testify before the Senate subcommittee, it was leaked that Obama had whispered in Trump’s ear, “This Flynn guy? You can’t trust the guy. I wouldn’t have him in there.” And of course, Sally Yates, the former acting AG stated that General Flynn was susceptible to blackmail because of his phone call with the Russian ambassador. Well Sally, if your statement was true, all the democrats who snuggled with Sergey Kislyak are also susceptible to blackmail, but Flynn was only following orders, and he definitely had security clearances the others did not.

The hatred of General Flynn, who could have helped our President “Keep America Safe,” is beyond the pale and utterly disgusting.

After all these so-called investigations by former FBI Director Comey and Sally Yates and Clapper’s testimonies, we still have no idea who the leakers were who got this mess started.  However, we do have Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein and AG Sessions to thank for getting our President to finally tell Comey, “You’re fired!”  And for good reason!

Trump Stops Anti-Flynn Rhetoric

The President has told his staff to immediately stop feeding negatives about Flynn to the media.  It’s worth noting that the one person in the White House who is still standing by Flynn is our President.  Trump says Flynn is the victim of a “witch hunt,” and has publicly endorsed Flynn’s past request for immunity.  Sources have stated the following from our President:

  • General Flynn is a good man who served his country admirably.
  • The Russia story is “fake news” and Flynn did nothing wrong by having the conversations with the Russian ambassador.
  • When Flynn went to Russia in 2015 to deliver a paid speech and take a photo with Putin, he was acting under an Obama security clearance. This is a point the President wants to stress, and you can expect to hear the White House press team repeat it.

But why the heck was Flynn fired to begin with? There is no reason for the man to be out of a job when he supported Trump all the way through the campaign. There is nothing that General Flynn did that hasn’t been done by other NSA Directors.

Trump Disillusioned with McMaster

According to Eli Lake’s recent article in Bloomberg, Washington loves Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, and that includes Senator McCain, but the bloom is off the rose for Trump. There have been some major disagreements between the President and his rather pompous and arrogant security advisor.

The disillusionment may have first started when the General reportedly told the National Security Council staff that the label “radical Islamic terrorism” was not helpful because terrorists are “un-Islamic.” That has been his position for years. McMaster even sent memos throughout the government complaining of Trump’s usage of these words in the joint session of Congress speech.  That was Obama’s stance, but President Trump has used those very words many times. Experts on Koranic law have openly stated that the Obama-McMaster interpretation of Islamic scripture is plainly wrong.

Even more worrisome is the fact that a faction of the White House staff is convinced that McMaster is trying to trick Trump into the kind of nation building our President campaigned against. Apparently, Trump was livid when he found out that McMaster had told his South Korean counterpart that it wasn’t official policy to get them to pay for a new missile system, when Trump was trying to get them to pay their fair share.

McMaster’s Choice of NSC Staff

Remember it was former National Security Advisor Susan Rice who urged McMaster to purge the National Security Council of all Trump loyalists, and shortly after that, Steve Bannon was gone.

Back in mid-March, at the behest of Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner, NSA General McMaster had informed Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the National Security Council’s senior director for intelligence programs, that he’d be moving to another position. But Cohen-Watnick went to Bannon and Kushner—with whom he’d apparently formed an alliance while working on the president’s transition team—and according to sources, fought the move. After Trump was informed of the situation, he overruled McMaster and told Cohen-Watnick he could stay put. Cohen-Watnick was brought to the council by General Michael Flynn.

In my recent article, I told about McMaster’s choice of Valerie Jarrett’s friend, Dina Habib Powell as Deputy NSA, replacing Flynn’s choice of K.T. McFarland.  Now sources have reported that both our President and Steve Bannon have pressed McMaster to fire the Obama holdovers at the Council who were suspected of leaking to the press. And, Eli Lake’s article states that the list of names to go was compiled by Derek Harvey, a former Defense Intelligence Agency colonel who was also hired by Flynn. McMaster balked and refused to fire anyone on the list, asserting that he alone had the authority to fire and hire his staff. This certainly did not play well.

McMaster did not accompany Trump to meet with Australia’s prime minister; the outgoing deputy national security adviser, K.T. McFarland, attended instead.

Reince Priebus actually blocked McMaster this month from hiring Brigadier General Ricky Waddell as his deputy, complaining that McMaster failed to seek approval for that pick. McMaster had asked his inherited deputy to leave by May 10, but she is now expected to stay on for the time being.  This is a good thing.

Conclusion

In his book “The Field of Fight,” which I highly recommend, General Flynn prescribed four steps essential to defeating radical Islamists and their allies. The first two were: to destroy the jihadi armies, killing and capturing their leaders; and “discrediting their ideology, which requires a serious program all its own.” That is precisely right.  When Gen. Flynn was National Security Advisor, he was able to convince Mr. Trump of the necessity of fighting the ideological war. Gen. McMaster will advise against it.

President Trump is in the unenviable position of either overruling his National Security Advisor or failing to win the war.

© 2017 Kelleigh Nelson – All Rights Reserved