Trump’ Spy, Putin’s Ally?
General Michal Flynn. In 2015, retired Army General and former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Michael Flynn, attended a Russia Today (RT) anniversary gala, where he sat at a table with Vladimir Putin. Since retiring from the Pentagon, Flynn has become a regular contributor for RT, the state-sponsored and Kremlin-controlled news outlet. Flynn has been critical in recent years of President Obama’s foreign policy, especially during Hillary Clinton’s term as Secretary of State. He was forced to retire after clashes within the intelligence community over his vision for the DIA.
Most surprisingly, Flynn has also expressed desires to develop a stronger relationship with Russia and has been an adviser to Donald Trump and his 2016 Presidential campaign on matters of national security. Flynn accompanied Trump on his CIA intelligence briefings before the election.
According to Flynn’s writings, Russia is a potential ally against an “Enemy Alliance,” whose members include Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, and… ISIS. Nowhere in his writings does he identify Russia for facilitating the destabilization of Syrian civil war or meddling elsewhere. In fact, General Flynn is proud of his associations with Russia. In an Interview with the Washington Post’s national security writer Dana Priest, he bragged about being the only U.S. officer allowed into the headquarters of Russian Military Intelligence, the GRU.
Flynn does not see the relationship with Russia as adversarial, but necessary to fight Islamic extremism. When asked him about that:
PRIEST: You saw the relationship with Russia as potentially good for the U.S.?
FLYNN: No. No. I saw the relation with Russia as necessary to the U.S., for the interests of the U.S. We worked very closely with them on the Sochi Olympics. We were working closely with them on the Iranian nuclear deal. We beat Hitler because of our relationship with the Russians, so anybody that looks on it as anything but a relationship that’s required for mutual supporting interests, including ISIS, …that’s really where I’m at with Russia. We have a problem with radical Islamism and I actually think that we could work together with them against this enemy. They have a worse problem than we do.46
When the subject of a former Director of military intelligence being a paid pundit on Russian state TV, he took a hands-off approach; it wasn’t his fault, it was his agent’s.
PRIEST: Tell me about the RT [state-run Russian Television] relationship?
FLYNN: I was asked by my speaker’s bureau, LAI. I do public speaking. It was in Russia. It was a paid speaking opportunity. I get paid so much. The speaker’s bureau got paid so much, based on our contract.
PRIEST: Can you tell me how much you got for that?
FLYNN: No.47
Priest asked him about why he went on Russian Television, which is a propaganda mouthpiece for the Kremlin.
PRIEST: Have you appeared on RT regularly?
FLYNN: I appear on Al Jazeera, Sky News, Arabia, RT. I don’t get paid a dime. I have no media contracts…. [I am interviewed] on CNN, Fox…
PRIEST: Why would you go on RT, they’re state run?
FLYNN: Well, what’s CNN?
PRIEST: Well, it’s not run by the state. You’re rolling your eyes.
FLYNN: Well, what’s MSNBC? I mean, come on… what’s Al Jazeera? What’s Sky News Arabia? I have been asked by multiple organizations to be a [paid] contributor but I don’t want to be.
PRIEST: Because you don’t want to be hamstrung?
FLYNN: That’s right. I want to be able to speak freely about what I believe. There’s a lot of people who would actually like to be able to do that but, for whatever reason, they can’t…. I feel pretty passionate about what’s happening to the country.48
The most disturbing optics for Flynn is how he was invited to the Russian Television tenth anniversary gala in Moscow. Flynn was seated at the right hand of Vladimir Putin. When asked how he felt being sat next to Putin himself, in a position of favor he said he didn’t have any problem sitting next to the world’s nuclear armed autocrat—it was all about him getting paid.
Flynn’s acceptance of money from RT, speaking his mind in forums he feels are less state controlled than “MSNBC” and “CNN” and visual association (certainly in the eyes of the Russian leadership and people) raised the eyebrows of not just the national security elite of the United States, but practitioners in the U.S. intelligence community. Some wondered if Flynn was not adopting the same method of speaking out the way that Edward Snowden did, by using the national platform of a former communist autocrat as his shield from criticism.
Some members in counterintelligence said that twenty years ago this would have resulted in an extensive investigation to see if his “tail was dirty,” a euphemism indicating that he was being handled without his knowledge, due to cash inducements. One could easily apply the MICE recruitment principle to his behaviors when added with his complete distain for President Obama and admiration for Putin, and come up with an interesting profile that might make the GRU want to do more for him than serve coffee.
Though Flynn said he was standing up for the principles of the United States, to the Russian public, having the Director of Defense Intelligence seated at the right hand of the most powerful ex-Director of the KGB implied that the old spymaster had him under Putin’s “Roof”… in America it would translate to “He’s my bitch.”
Putin’s Strategy to Compromise an American Election
The revelations of the Kremlin Crew’s proximity to Putin and Moscow are stunning in their depth. They reveal how easily some Americans will accept money to work against their own national interest whether in business, government, or propaganda. Precisely as the KGB had discerned over seventy years ago. They also show how easily money and business relations are now the new currency of former and current Russian intelligence officers. Such riches would surely be issued with invisible strings, allowing the FSB to gain access to the highest level players in a new American administration.
These pro-Russian players apparently were so close to Trump that they could literally be chosen as his campaign manager and placed at essentially at arm’s length to a potential President. At best their ties are tenuous and ill-advised, at worst they could be the grounds for an FBI espionage investigation. That remains to be seen.
If Trump’s acolytes did have real ties to Russia’s center of power, and if they were successful in electing Trump, they would be in a position to handle a potential President’s most intimate secrets. They would also be able to advance Russia’s objectives, desires, and activities—fully in-line with their own personal fortunes—above America’s interests, with the full force of the Oval Office.
In the framework of the conflict between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian President Vladimir Putin, angered by U.S. intrusion in his wars in Georgia, Syria, Ukraine, the military seizure of Crimea, and pressures on NATO allies Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, Putin may be unleashing Trump’s challenge as a way to exact revenge on the United States. Putin Biographer Masha Gessen, author of Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin told CNN, “There’s a really aggressive posture to both men. Putin respects fighters and he respects aggression and he doesn’t respect sort of calm and deliberation… He wants a manly adversary. He wants somebody he can understand.”49 Putin would also want a President of the United States who would work with Putin to attain Russia’s goals above all. Trump’s bluster and bravado is breezily transparent. He is exactly as they taught in KGB schooclass="underline" An egoist, a liar, but talented –he knows the mind of the wrestling loving, under educated, authoritarian admiring white male populous. This is raw material Vladimir could use. Trump would just need to be coddled, supported, flattered, and indirectly tasked by the oligarchy and the conservative Americans who see Russia as a model for American authoritarianism. It would not be hard to believe that Trump could be convinced he could reestablish U.S.–Russian relations. In Putin’s favor, of course. Trump wants money and Russia has money, prestige, and the kind of women Trump likes. Trump’s worldview on subjects are dear to Russia’s heart, including a hands-off policy on the former occupied nations of Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania; as well as tough talk about not supporting NATO. These would all be hallmarks of Trump’s campaign, almost as if Putin himself had written these goals. Needless to say Putin did not have to—everyone who works for him and who desires Russian cash understands that these are the political minimums to even start to discuss any arrangement with the East.