Remember the crocodile tears over Susan Rice's unmasking?

[Mormolyce]

We now know why Susan Rice requested to 'unmask' the names of Trump associates

Former national security adviser Susan Rice told the House Intelligence Committee that she “unmasked” the names of President Donald Trump’s associates because she wanted to find out why the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates visited Trump Tower in New York last year without notifying the US government, CNN reported on Wednesday.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, UAE’s crown prince, travelled to New York during the transition period in December 2016 and reportedly met with former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.

According to CNN, the Obama administration felt “misled” by the UAE, which was why Rice requested that Trump associates’ names be unmasked.

A senior Middle East official acknowledged to CNN that the UAE did not inform the US of the crown prince’s visit in advance but denied that the UAE had misled the Obama administration. The official said that the December Trump Tower meeting was merely part of an effort to build a relationship with the incoming administration.

The crown prince’s trip to New York came shortly before the UAE brokered a January 11 meeting between a Trump associate and a Russian close to President Vladimir Putin in the Seychelles islands to create a back channel of communication between Trump and Russia.

UAE officials reportedly facilitated the meeting in the hopes of encouraging Russia to distance itself from Iran, a major Kremlin ally. The Trump administration has often expressed its scepticism of Iran, and Trump on the campaign trail frequently derided the 2015 nuclear deal Iran reached with the US and five world powers.

News of Rice’s unmasking request first emerged in April, when Bloomberg reported that Rice had tried to learn the identities of several Trump transition team members whose communications with foreign officials were picked up as part of the US’ routine intelligence-gathering operations.

According to Bloomberg, documents showing that Rice made the unmasking requests were uncovered by the National Security Council’s former senior director for intelligence, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, who was fired by national security adviser H.R. McMaster in July. Cohen-Watnick was involved in providing documents related to the incidental surveillance of members of Trump’s transition team to House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes in March.

Although Nunes recused himself from his committee’s investigation, he subpoenaed the National Security Agency, the CIA, and the FBI in May — without telling his Democratic colleagues — for intelligence documents containing details of any unmasking requests made by Obama administration officials and the former CIA director to learn the names of Trump associates who communicated with foreign officials.

Trump and his allies have painted Rice’s unmasking requests as inappropriate and political in nature, but Rice told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell in April that allegations she unmasked Trump associates for political reasons were “absolutely false.”

Further, national security experts agree that Rice’s reported requests to identify which Trump associates were speaking with foreign officials before he was inaugurated were neither unusual nor against the law.

“The identities of US persons may be released under two circumstances: 1) the identity is needed to make sense of the intercept; 2) if a crime is involved in the conversation,” Robert Deitz, a former senior counselor to the CIA director and former general counsel at the National Security Agency, told Business Insider in an earlier interview.

Members of the House Intelligence Committee appear to concur with that assessment.

“I didn’t hear anything to believe that she did anything illegal,” Republican Florida Rep. Tom Rooney told CNN of Rice’s testimony.

South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, who is one of the lawmakers spearheading the House investigation, told the Daily Caller “nothing that came up in her interview that led me to conclude” that she made inappropriate unmasking requests.

“She was a good witness, answered all our questions,” Rep. Mike Conaway, the Texas Republican who took over leading the House Russia investigation after Nunes stepped down, told CNN. “I’m not aware of any reason to bring her back.”

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/s...17-9?r=US&IR=T

Turns out she was unmasking those people who attended a secret meeting with a UAE royal aimed at setting up a back channel of communication between Russia and the Trump campaign. Apparently the UAE did this as a favour to Russia in hopes of regional political gains.

So much for that line of spin.

[Shalcker]

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/s...17-9?r=US&IR=T

Turns out she was unmasking those people who attended a secret meeting with a UAE royal aimed at setting up a back channel of communication between Russia and the Trump campaign. Apparently the UAE did this as a favour to Russia in hopes of regional political gains.

So much for that line of spin.

Back channel between Russia and Trump through freaking UAE?

...are you seriously going to believe that?

More like UAE talks to anyone about their Iran problem.

[LaserSharkDFB]

Back channel between Russia and Trump through freaking UAE?

...are you seriously going to believe that?

More like UAE talks to anyone about their Iran problem.

The crown prince’s trip to New York came shortly before the UAE brokered a January 11 meeting between a Trump associate and a Russian close to President Vladimir Putin in the Seychelles islands to create a back channel of communication between Trump and Russia.

Yes. That's exactly what they did. The UAE wouldn't need to come to America unannounced to complain about Iran; they came to Trump Tower to arrange the Jan 11 meeting. Your Russian apologetics don't work when there's a pretty straight line of evidence. First the Prince breaks protocol by coming to the US unannounced, sneaks over to Trump Tower and talks to the top conspirators. Then shortly afterwards they host a meeting off American soil between a Trump guy and one of Putin's stooges. It's like a badly written spy novel, which is pretty much a hallmark of the entire Trump administration.

[Mormolyce]

Back channel between Russia and Trump through freaking UAE?

...are you seriously going to believe that?

More like UAE talks to anyone about their Iran problem.

Did you even rea...

Oh it's Shalcker.

[Shalcker]

Did you even rea...

Oh it's Shalcker.

Seriously, thinking that we'll use UAE as go-between is as ridiculous as it gets.

Highly depends on which "Trump associate" and which "person close to Putin" it was, obviously; those "connections" are quite often strained beyond believable in media.

Edit: Wait, it is actually old news from April...

From supposed "Trump side" it was freaking Blackwater founder Eric Prince...

yeah, right, totally the guy Russians would trust to be go-between. /s

[Deleted]

Seriously, thinking that we'll use UAE as go-between is as ridiculous as it gets.

Highly depends on which "Trump associate" and which "person close to Putin" it was, obviously; those "connections" are quite often strained beyond believable in media.

Edit: Wait, it is actually old news from April...

From supposed "Trump side" it was freaking Blackwater founder Eric Prince...

yeah, right, totally the guy Russians would trust to be go-between. /s

You are at least tireless in defending your nonsense, I'll give you that.

[Shalcker]

You are at least tireless in defending your nonsense, I'll give you that.

Which part exactly do you see as "nonsense" though?

[Felya]

Which part exactly do you see as "nonsense" though?

Uhm... your very first post.

[Deleted]

Which part exactly do you see as "nonsense" though?

The part where Trump didnt collude with the russians to hack the election.

[Felya]

The part where Trump didnt collude with the russians to hack the election.

Neither of you read the article before defending Trump.

[Shalcker]

Uhm... your very first post.

Again, do you seriously believe UAE would be used as Russian intermediary? You skipped this question.

I'm not sure even if Trump personally would meet Putin that he could offer anything that would threaten Russian alliance with Iran at this point, and that is explicitly UAE aim as stated in your article.

[Felya]

Again, do you seriously believe UAE would be used as Russian intermediary? You skipped this question.

I'm not sure even if Trump personally would meet Putin that he could offer anything that would threaten Russian alliance with Iran at this point, and that is explicitly UAE aim as stated in your article.

Yes, because... it happened... I don't think anyone is questioning that you would deny such a thing.

[Shalcker]

Yes, because... it happened... I don't think anyone is questioning that you would deny such a thing.

Perhaps we're thinking about different things as "intermediary" then.

What exactly do you think UAE was intermediary of in this case?

To me it looks like both meetings are linked by UAE's desire to limit Russia-Iran cooperation; and so they meet with both sides and try to arrange it.

There is no "Russian collusion" angle to it; there is potential collusion with UAE though, and, well, Trump has already supported UAE and Saudi Arabia side in spat with Quatar...

[Endus]

Perhaps we're thinking about different things as "intermediary" then.

What exactly do you think UAE was intermediary of in this case?

To me it looks like both meetings are linked by UAE's desire to limit Russia-Iran cooperation; and so they meet with both sides and try to arrange it.

There is no "Russian collusion" angle to it; there is potential collusion with UAE though, and, well, Trump has already supported UAE and Saudi Arabia side in spat with Quatar...

Nobody's arguing that the UAE wouldn't have their own interests in this. Those aren't relevant.

What's relevant is that they helped arrange a back channel between the Trump campaign and Russian delegates. Why do I think the UAE was involved? So there was no direct connection between the Trump campaign and Russia, which was far more likely to get noticed.

You're focusing entirely on the intermediary relationship, and ignoring the contact that intermediary enabled, and there's no justification for that.

An intermediary is just a go-between.

Rhonda: "Uma, go tell Allison I hate her face."
Allison: "That bitch. Uma, tell Rhonda she's a cuntbag whore."

Uma's the "intermediary". That's all it takes. She may have her own reasons for getting involved, but the feud between Rhonda and Allison is still the main story.

[Breccia]

Uma's the "intermediary". That's all it takes. She may have her own reasons for getting involved, but the feud between Rhonda and Allison is still the main story.

It kinds sounds like Uma is Rob Godstone, the person who introduced Trump Jr. to the Russian lawyer. Nobody cares about Goldstone.

[Edge-]

So is this what a nothingburger looks like? Because it seems like the hysteria over Susan Rice sure was a nothingburger.

[Shalcker]

Nobody's arguing that the UAE wouldn't have their own interests in this. Those aren't relevant.

What's relevant is that they helped arrange a back channel between the Trump campaign and Russian delegates. Why do I think the UAE was involved? So there was no direct connection between the Trump campaign and Russia, which was far more likely to get noticed.

You're focusing entirely on the intermediary relationship, and ignoring the contact that intermediary enabled, and there's no justification for that.

No justification for contact between freaking Eric Prince, founder of Blackwater, and some unnamed Russian at tropical resort?

Are you seriously telling that?

I see UAE justification - "Trump doesn't like Iran, we don't like Iran, Russians seem to like Iran, maybe Trump can offer them something to switch sides or curb Iran in some other way".

I don't see where are Trump's or Russian interest here though.

Uma's the "intermediary". That's all it takes. She may have her own reasons for getting involved, but the feud between Rhonda and Allison is still the main story.

Here is Erik Prince take on that meeting from this August.

"I had business meeting with Middle East guys, and they said 'you should meet this guy' who was some kind of fund manager they had done business with, so i had a beer with him, not even a vodka, and it lasted for a few minutes and that was it.
No talk about sanctions, not talk about Trump campaign, nothing."

Now you might not believe him, but to me connection doesn't seem to be strong enough.

[Breccia]

"I had business meeting with Middle East guys, and they said 'you should meet this guy' who was some kind of fund manager they had done business with, so i had a beer with him, not even a vodka, and it lasted for a few minutes and that was it.
No talk about sanctions, not talk about Trump campaign, nothing."

Wow. That sounds a lot like one of the excuses Trump Jr. gave about the Russian meeting!

[Shalcker]

Wow. That sounds a lot like one of the excuses Trump Jr. gave about the Russian meeting!

But Eric Prince "connection" to Trump is... being brother of Betsy DeVos? And contributing to Trump campaign?

Is there anything more?

[Arvei]

People still don't have Shalcker on ignore? Bah, who am I kidding? You lose too much entertainment value by doing that.