What happened to General Flynn?

[Panich52]

Once upon a time, Gen Mike Flynn was respected among natonal security circles. President Obama even placed him as his Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Now Flynn is being investigated as essentially a double agent. What caused the fall?

Some might point to his being fired by Obama about a year into his post. He resigned, forced out, due to ineffectual leadership. He was accused of being difficult to deal with and subordinates mocked him for his "Flynn facts" — "alt-facts" before the term was coined.

Flynn's criticizing of Pres Obama begins shortly after. Projection, blaming others for one's own shortcomings, apparently infected him as it has with most Republicans. That made him of like mind with Donald Trump, a long-time Obama critic who focused on irrelevancies or outright lies. (I suspect Obama warning Trump not to hire Flynn was one way to assure he'd get a job with Trump.)

Before Trump discovered him, Flynn began a career lobbying for foreign governments. His previous roles in the military and DIA probably allowed him to collect exorbitant fees. Russia and Turkey were obviously willing to pay for his expertise — but how much more than for his contacts as a lobbyist?

Special Counsel Mueller is investigating Flynn for colluding with Turkey to abduct a US resident and extradite him back to Turkey. It would be bad enough if he were to aid in this while an advisor on Trump's campaign, but his loyalty to Turkey's desires were to continue after the election, after Flynn was part of the administration. It's not a stretch to wonder about whether he shared more than his contacts with his foreign clients. His knowledge of our military and defense capabilities would also be if high value.

Am I to believe that being fired as Director of DIA was enough to turn a career US military general into what could be called a double agent? Just what the fuck happened to Gen Mike Flynn?




(Original posted on CivilLibertyRocks)

[marylandblue]

1. Emperor Palpatine seduced him to the Dark Side

[Iggo]

2. Bitterness over hitting the ceiling of a military career? Not that surprising.

[H2O Man]

3. Recommended.

Thanks for this.

The pathology was always there, though it was generally dormant within the structure of the military. It began to show up in the later years of service. Being canned created a situation where the pathology went into full bloom.

[Panich52]

7. Seems he hid it well.

Maybe less strict chain of command in DIA was too much for a general.

[matt819]

4. Double agent

Double agent suggests that he’s working for both sides but is loyal only to one. Not here. After he left USg employment he worked only for himself and in the process engaged in illegal and possibly treasonous activities.

[Panich52]

8. 'Double agent' was 1st term that came to mind. Should

have just stuck w/ 'traitor '

[guillaumeb]

5. Money. Flynn was respected, but he is not rich.

Obviously Flynn has his own priorities.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. He probably wasn't a good person to start out with, but as a military officer

he probably was constrained somewhat in his behavior by the military structure and ethos. In the military services, as in any other organization of humans, people who want to get ahead figure out how to work within the organization's system and use its structures and operations to their advantage. As long as Flynn was a member of the Army he behaved himself according to the Army's rules because he knew that's how he could get ahead, and as an officer he was very successful. Obama appointed him as DIA in 2012, and in that capacity he was the primary military intelligence advisor to the Secretary of Defense - which meant that for the first time he had to work under a civilian hierarchy. As DIA he was said to be a chaotic and difficult manager who regularly disagreed with other leaders of the intelligence community and who took extreme and Islamophobic positions on how to deal with terrorism, and he was finally forced out of that job in 2014.

It is very likely that his underlying assholishness finally bubbled to the surface due to being fired from the DIA job, and what he did afterwards was motivated at least in part by bitterness and revenge.

It's a classic Russian intelligence move to recruit or suborn people who are some combination of bitter, narcissistic and/or greedy. Flynn seems to be all of those things.

[Panich52]

9. Good points. While ripe f/ Russian gleaning, what prompted

Turkey's interest?