General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTom Nichols on the Steele Dossier. Really good thread!
Link to tweet
Tom Nichols
@RadioFreeTom
Before we head into #impeachment, here's a quick revisiting of the Steele Dossier. None of you will like it. And remember, I was among those who said it should not have been public. (I am leaving aside whether the FBI should have relied on any it. That's Horowitz's call.) /1
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1210289161741197312.html
You call a spook to get oppo, you get what spooks produce: a harvesting of everything they can find, public and private, true or false. Raw product includes things like "A guy overheard at a cocktail party at Embassy X said this after three Manhattans." That's a spook's job. /2
It will also include stuff that the spook knows - and that experienced analysts know - was put there by the bad guys as disinfo. This is actually useful: It tells you what the bad guys know about your search, and it gives you some insight into how they'd rather mislead you. /3
Normally, a file like this gets sent to analysts, who then go into multiple modes of verification: Internal review, asking for more from the field, checking against stuff known from other sources (including stuff the field might not have), putting out calls to other sources. /4
No one would take such a file, and say: "Well, if this here spook wrote it, it's true." Steele himself knew much of it wasn't true, but it's not the collector's job to weed that out. Collection and analysis are different. (In oppo firms, they're too close, but that's the biz.) /5
But Steele had heard enough to want to alert U.S. authorities. Because even if he couldn't verify each story, he'd heard enough to make him worried. (That's kind of like the "chatter" issue before terrorism. Not exact analogy, but too much info at all is a sign.) /6
Steele could tell that Trump and his coterie were jungled up with the Russians. Which parts he could prove, and which he couldn't, were less important than the realization that the Russians and the candidate were way, way too close. Dangerously so. /7
Put another way, think of how people are investigated for clearances. If you're in hock, have lots of creepy associates, and people who shouldn't know you personally have stories about you - even if some of them are off the wall - it's going to jam up that clearance. Rightly. /8
Steele pushed the panic button on Trump because only an idiot *wouldn't* have done so. Personally, I think the FBI would have been nuts not to move on it. And as Mueller noted, there was no proof of a conspiracy, but plenty of evidence of intentional and desired collusion. /9
It was wrong of Buzzfeed to publish the file. If you've ever been investigated for anything, you have a similar file, full of stuff that might or might not be true. Shouldn't be public. But USG takes a "whole person" approach to investigations, and so did Steele. Rightly. /10
And it was way wrong of Maddow to play Nancy Drew with the file, because she has no background in either intelligence or Russian affairs. She did her usual thing of jacking up her audience to think they were uncovering SPECTRE or something, and I said so at the time. /11
But in the end, the reality is that the entire Trump circle, including the President, is far too connected to Russia, and imo, compromised by Russian intelligence (mostly through knowledge of Trump's finances.) I said that over a year ago here:
What Jonathan Chait Gets Right About Trump and Russia
Thirty years of contacts with Russia are hard to dismiss as a series of disconnected events.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/07/10/trump-russia-jonathan-chait-218966
/12
This is a level of Russian infestation that - in a better time in our country - would never have been tolerated. The GOP has used the dumbassery around the Steele file to wear us down and eat what's left of the patriotism of a lot of people. Shame on them - and shame on us. /13
None of these tweets - duh - represent the view of the U.S. government. They are my view that Steele did the right thing, but that we have become a country tolerant of traitorous, scummy conduct on the part of an entire political party.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. /14x
Leith
(7,802 posts)There's a hell of a lot of smoke, but no probably fire. Maybe a few hot coals. Move on. Nothing to see here.
NewJeffCT
(56,827 posts)seems pretty damning to me
Buckeyeblue
(5,491 posts)What I get is this: don't believe all of the stories in the dossier but some of them are told to be intentionally false, which is actually a sign that there is something more. But the overall red flag is that Trump is too close to Russia. And that is a problem.
stopdiggin
(11,089 posts)what I heard here -- Steele report was a hodge-podge of true, false and supposition (and no one should have ever assumed differently). And he had every reason in the world to pull the fire alarm.
(and, in fact, he wasn't the only one to do so.)
YessirAtsaFact
(2,064 posts)Some smoke is coming from legit wildfires
Some smoke is from fires set for Steele to find
Some smoke is just a smoke bomb
Bottom line is that Trumps campaign and Trump himself were way too close to Russia. The FBI had to investigate.
Roland99
(53,342 posts)Proud Liberal Dem
(24,353 posts)but why not?
xxqqqzme
(14,887 posts)Buzzfeed and Rachel, I'm getting investigation and verification of the gathered intelligence becomes more complicated and difficult.
LisaM
(27,758 posts)That seems to be a common disinformation tactic.
I agree about Rachel Maddow always acting as if she's on the verge of exposing something huge, and then never delivering. I like her, but that circuitous story-telling and connecting the dots - and endless repetition of the same phrases - made her show absolutely unwatchable for me. If I watch MSNBC, it's Brian Williams, because he gets real experts and then listens to what they tell him, instead of asking leading questions.
cab67
(2,962 posts)NASA puts all kinds of images online, including some she took.
Unprocessed images are used by every sort of crackpot to demonstrate all kinds of crackpottery. She gave up dealing with the quack who thought one of the pictures she took showed the vertebral column of a whale on the surface of Mars.
Remember the face at Cydonia on Mars? Same thing. Inadequately processed images, in the digital hands of conspiracy theorists, can cause a lot of havoc.
Its the same with raw intel. People trained to work with it are better placed to figure out what it means.
cab67
(2,962 posts)I dont agree with every bit of his book, The Death of Expertise, but he makes excellent points and its worth reading.
ChiTownDenny
(747 posts)Trump's call with Zelensky was perfect?
Leith
(7,802 posts)Oh, heck, no. I'm surprised that someone would even ask me that.
cab67
(2,962 posts)Sounds like hes saying theres plenty of fire, but the file was even smokier, and the people who rushed into the smoke looking for fires werent trained for the task.
Ninga
(8,266 posts)OnDoutside
(19,906 posts)Ninga
(8,266 posts)OnDoutside
(19,906 posts)Having a final opinion.
Ninga
(8,266 posts)NoMoreRepugs
(9,257 posts)POTUS and the frickin Russians intersected, a whole bunch. We arent talking about a Congressman from Bumfuck, Idaho - this is the POTUS - so hell yes u pull every fire alarm in the building.
OnDoutside
(19,906 posts)was very responsible with the dossier, and was at pains to downplay some aspects of it, and realistic about most of it. She also pointed out that it was not a dossier but a series of intelligence memos. Nicholls should refrain from casting shit until the full unredacted Mueller report is released under the next Democratic president.
katmondoo
(6,454 posts)They were friends???
cab67
(2,962 posts)I dont agree with every bit of his book, The Death of Expertise, but he makes excellent points and its worth reading.
He comes across as someone with whom one could have stimulating discussions that dont devolve into shouting matches.
MartyTheGreek
(562 posts)Dossier made it sound like a complete researched package. Even Steele himself said at may be about 80% accurate.
If I recall either 4 of 7 or 5 of 7, key points in the document were correct. There were meetings at TT. There was a TT Moscow deal in the works, rusky oligarch money laundering, one or two more things. One thing not found is the pee tape but so what!
Like the poster above said, we still don't know what's redacted in the Mueller report. We know that it's enough, that he hand selected a political hack as AG and he did not do his job to uphold the law of the land but this will all come out eventually.
This guy is using too many personal pronouns. He's hurt about something, saying I told you so.
CaptainTruth
(6,546 posts)Not sure why, I never insult folks who are on our side, but sometimes I do challenge their analysis with a different perspective &/or additional facts. I've discovered that some prominent people seem to want to believe they're always right & don't take kindly to having their conclusions challenged, & apparently Tom is one of them.
mackdaddy
(1,520 posts)There was never anything wrong with that. The FBI and intelligence agencies know these are just RAW reports and just a starting point into a real investigation. It was never intended as the final "These are the absolute exact facts" statements.
But the series of reports do point to a very damning situation that Russia was interfering in our elections and Trump at a minimum was very happy and accepting of that interference. And Steele was absolutely right to try to get this to our counter-intelligence people.
As far as I can tell the significant majority (well over half) of the points made in Steele's series of reports have been proven true. And none of this was generally know outside of covert FBI investigations during the second half of 2016.
But, it was made public. Personally I do not see anything wrong with Maddow trying to further investigate the Steele reports. They are out there, so why not?
Who could now argue that Trump is NOT Putin's pet at this point? As the speaker says "With Trump, all roads lead to Putin!"
Kurt V.
(5,624 posts)hughee99
(16,113 posts)As any part of a FISA warrant.
gibraltar72
(7,486 posts)Of Republicans to start it?