Бессмертие Мюллера

[tijd.livejournal.com]

Значительная веха Рашагейта: назначен специальный прокурор, о котором так долго говорили знающие люди.

The Justice Department appointed Robert S. Mueller III, a former F.B.I. director, as special counsel on Wednesday to oversee the investigation into ties between President Trump’s campaign and Russian officials, dramatically raising the legal and political stakes in an affair that has threatened to engulf Mr. Trump’s four-month-old presidency.
The decision by the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, came after a cascade of damaging developments for Mr. Trump in recent days, including his abrupt dismissal of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and the subsequent disclosure that Mr. Trump asked Mr. Comey to drop the investigation of his former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/us/politics/robert-mueller-special-counsel-russia-investigation.html

Мюллер, многолетний директор ФБР, - фигура максимально возможного калибра. Такую пушку не будут выкатывать, чтобы палить по воробьям. Это подтверждает ранее высказанное предположение о странностях в поведение Коми: "через несколько месяцев интенсивного секретного расследования в сети ФБР попала крупная рыба".



Пока что внимание приковано к пресловутому Флинну. New York Times сообщает, что команде Трампа было известно о том, что Флинн находится под федеральным расследованием, по крайней мере с начала января. Тем не менее он без всяких проблем получил назначение на пост Советника по национальной безопасности и таким образом доступ к самым главным секретам страны.

Michael T. Flynn told President Trump’s transition team weeks before the inauguration that he was under federal investigation for secretly working as a paid lobbyist for Turkey during the campaign, according to two people familiar with the case. Despite this warning, which came about a month after the Justice Department notified Mr. Flynn of the inquiry, Mr. Trump made Mr. Flynn his national security adviser. The job gave Mr. Flynn access to the president and nearly every secret held by American intelligence agencies.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/us/politics/michael-flynn-donald-trump-national-security-adviser.html

Reuters сообщает о многочисленных ранее неизвестных контактах Флинна с российскими представителями с целью наладить секретный канал связи между Трампом и Путиным в обход американских спецслужб.

Michael Flynn and other advisers to Donald Trump’s campaign were in contact with Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least 18 calls and emails during the last seven months of the 2016 presidential race, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the exchanges told Reuters. <...> Conversations between Flynn and Kislyak accelerated after the Nov. 8 vote as the two discussed establishing a back channel for communication between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that could bypass the U.S. national security bureaucracy, which both sides considered hostile to improved relations, four current U.S. officials said.
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN18E106

У прокурора Мюллера будут, что расследовать.

Информационная война

[tijd.livejournal.com]

Редкое явление - обложка "Time" без единого слова, но с самодостаточной картинкой.

Заглавная статья красочно описывает информационную войну, развязанную российскими троллями и ботами в социальных сетях во время выборов 2016.

Like many a good spy tale, the story of how the U.S. learned its democracy could be hacked started with loose lips. In May 2016, a Russian military intelligence officer bragged to a colleague that his organization, known as the GRU, was getting ready to pay Clinton back for what President Vladimir Putin believed was an influence operation she had run against him five years earlier as Secretary of State. The GRU, he said, was going to cause chaos in the upcoming U.S. election. <...> For now, investigators have added the names of specific trolls and botnets to their wall charts in the offices of intelligence and law-enforcement agencies. They say the best way to compete with the Russian model is by having a better message. "It requires critical thinkers and people who have a more powerful vision" than the cynical Russian view, says former NSA deputy Inglis. And what message is powerful enough to take on the firehose of falsehoods that Russia is deploying in targeted, effective ways across a range of new media? One good place to start: telling the truth.
http://time.com/4783932/inside-russia-social-media-war-america/



В других, но как бы связанных новостях - смерть легендарного Роджера Эйлса, создателя и до недавнего времени бессменного руководителя Fox News. Канал Fox News, а также созданные Эйлсом персонажи вроде радиокомментатора Раша Лимбо создали адскую машину правой пропаганды, без которой нельзя себе представить современную республиканскую политику.

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