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Op-Ed: When Espionage Pays, Chelsea Manning Steps Out for Vogue

Vogue Magazine recently did a feature including a photo shoot by Annie Leibovitz on Chelsea Manning, who they’re touting as a hero. “Chelsea Manning Changed the Course of History. Now She’s Focusing on Herself” and it is eye-opening and would be comical if it weren’t so serious. Hero? Hardly, she’s fortunate she’s not still in Leavenworth where she was serving her sentence.

For those of you who don’t remember who Chelsea Manning is, back in 2009 the then Bradley Manning, a specialist in the U.S. Army was stationed in Baghdad. He leaked thousands of documents to Wikileaks in 2010 after trying to approach both the Washington Post and the New York Times to turn over classified documents.

After being rebuffed by both the Post and Times, he began to correspond with Wikileaks on social media on both the IRC and Jabber platforms.

The entire story began in January 2010, Manning downloaded 400,000 documents in what later became the Iraq War Logs. Just three days later, he downloaded an additional 91,000 documents which were referred to as the Afghanistan War Logs. Manning then burned them to a CD which was labeled “Lady Gaga” which would get thru any cursory security inspection. He then downloaded the documents to his personal computer.

The next day, Manning wrote to the Washington Post offering to turn over the classified documents with a message that was later recovered.

Items of historical significance of two wars Iraq and Afghanistan Significant Activity, Sigacts, between 0001 January 2004 and 2359 31 December 2009 extracts from CSV documents from Department of Defense and CDNE database.
These items have already been sanitized of any source identifying information.
You might need to sit on this information for 90 to 180 days to best send and distribute such a large amount of data to a large audience and protect the source.
This is one of the most significant documents of our time removing the fog of war and revealing the true nature of 21st century asymmetric warfare.
Have a good day.
Manning, January 9, 2010″

Manning then copied the documents to an SD card in his camera which he planned on taking with him back to the United States on leave. While back in the US, he contacted a Post reporter who didn’t seem interested. The Times didn’t return a phone call so Manning then sought out Wikileaks. He then transmitted all of the documents to Wikileaks on February 3, via the TOR platform.

After returning to Iraq, Manning didn’t know if Wikileaks had received the original 500,000 documents but sent them a diplomatic cable from the US Embassy in Reykjavik, Iceland which was posted on their website immediately. He then posted two videos, one, an airstrike in Baghdad and the other from Afghanistan. Later over a two-week period between late March and early April 2010, Manning downloaded 250,000 diplomatic cables and uploaded them to Wikileaks’ Dropbox. During this time he was actively chatting with someone he believed to be Julian Assange.

In late April, Manning sent a letter to his direct line supervisor, MSG Paul Adkins stating that he was suffering from gender disorder and included a picture of himself dressed as a woman. Adkins kept the information private and didn’t discuss nor share any information within the chain of command for fear that the picture would end up being disseminated in the unit.

Manning was busted from Specialist to PFC after he had an altercation with a female member of his unit and punched the other soldier, Specialist Jihrleah Showman in the face. Manning began a series of chats online with a known hacker Adrian Lamo and admitted being the person behind the leaks. Lamo thought that the leaks that Manning had admitted to were endangering lives and went to the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division or CID.

Manning was arrested by CID on May 27, 2010. After return to the US, he was held at the Quantico, Marine Corps base. On Feb. 28, 2013, Manning pleaded guilty to 10 of the charges he was facing. Manning’s trial began on June 3, 2013. Manning was convicted on July 30, on 17 of the 22 charges, including five counts of espionage and theft, and an amended version of four other charges; however, he was acquitted of aiding the enemy. Manning was sentenced to 21-35 years in prison at Ft. Leavenworth, KS, reduced to PVT, E-1. forfeiture of all pay and allowances and given a dishonorable discharge.

Manning made a statement to the court prior to sentencing saying,

I am sorry that my actions hurt people. I’m sorry that they hurt the United States. I am sorry for the unintended consequences of my actions. When I made these decisions I believed I was going to help people, not hurt people. … At the time of my decisions, I was dealing with a lot of issues.”- Manning

On January 26, 2017, President Obama commuted all but four months of Manning’s sentence. During his time in prison, Manning came out fully as a transgender and was now referred to she.

When Manning was released, she had no job, no money and few prospects. But she became a poster child for the far left as if her gender identity issues made her behavior not only ok but of the heroic variety. A GoFundMe page was set up for Manning.

My how times have quickly changed. Some of our sources report that she’s living in a very expensive area of the New York City with professional security when she steps out.

In the Vogue piece, the magazine commented on her apparel that she was wearing that they described as:

dressed with a mixture of straightforward elegance and function: a casual black sleeveless Marc Jacobs dress with playful paisley lining, a small purse from The Row, Borderline boots by Vetements x Dr. Martens”

Do a quick check online at the cost of those items. Coupled with a Tribeca apartment and a security detail and it would seem espionage against your own country does pay.

Manning isn’t a hero nor worthy of any respect for anything she did. She admitted to hurting the United States and the people she served with. But hey, these are different times we live in. Because she’s transgender, that makes it all perfectly fine with some folks. And you’d think she’s laying low these days and trying to blend into the woodwork. Most convicted felons do. But these are different times we live in.

She’s now an active social media maven, where she lectures the rest of us on how smart she is on national issues.

To quote Yakov Smirnoff… “What a country.”

Featured image courtesy of Wikipedia

Colombia Says No to US Military Intervention in Venezuela

On Sunday Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos told United States VP Mike Pence that he and other Latin American countries will not abide by President Donald Trump’s threat to use military action in Venezuela.

Pence, speaking at a joint news conference with Santos in Cartagena, didn’t rule out using military force, but kept his comments vague, not mentioning using force at all. Instead, he told Santos that the US would much prefer what he called a “peaceable” solution for Venezuela.

He said there are many options available to pressure the Maduro regime in Venezuela, including increasing economic and diplomatic pressure. Pence assured Santos that the U.S. will not stand by as Venezuela “crumbles” and slides into a dictatorship.
He said a failed state in Venezuela endangers the entire continent. Pence said Trump sent him to Latin America to marshal and consolidate regional support for the need to help the Venezuelan people.
Santos said no Latin America country would accept any form of U.S. military intervention in Venezuela and that it should never even be considered. Recalling more than a century of U.S. military action throughout Latin America, Santos said no Latin leader wants “that phantom” to reappear.

Santos said an illegal constituent assembly is killing democratic institutions in Venezuela, but while they supported US measures to pressure the government of Venezuela, they welcome peaceful solutions.

Trump imposed sanctions on the Venezuelan government and said that the US military was on the table as the situation there was a “dangerous mess”.

Pence is on a week-long tour of four Latin American countries. After his visit to Colombia which included talks with Santos on the peace accord with FARC and cocaine trafficking, the VP will make stops in Chile, Argentina, and Panama.

To read the entire article from Voice of America click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Venezuela’s Maduro Calls for a Meeting with President Trump

In a strange turn of events, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Thursday that he wants a meeting with President Donald Trump. The Socialist leader, with his country starving due to poor government policies and a bottoming out oil market is facing more and more pressure as he cracks down on opposition leaders, has reached out to the man he called a crass imperial magnate and blasts for U.S. sanctions against officials in his socialist administration.

Maduro spoke at length to the 545 members of a new, all-powerful constitutional assembly, which has given him basically a rubber stamp to operate as he pleases. However, Maduro instructed Venezuela’s foreign minister to approach the United States about arranging a meeting or phone call with Trump.

“Mr. Donald Trump, here is my hand,” the socialist president said, adding that he wants as strong a relationship with the U.S. as he has with Russia.
The remarks came shortly after Maduro forcefully warned the U.S. president that Venezuela “will never give in.”
The Trump administration has called Maduro a “dictator” and issued sanctions against him and more than two dozen other former and current officials, accusing Maduro’s government of violating human rights and undermining the country’s democracy amid an escalating political and financial crisis.
On Thursday, Credit Suisse bank banned the trading and use of Venezuelan bonds.

With the country on the brink of collapse economically and rumblings from the military that could revolt against him, Maduro is trying to salvage his hold on the country. The quickest way to do that is to get Trump to ease the sanctions and ask the United States for economic and humanitarian assistance. But with his government being accused by many with violating his own people’s human rights, the chances of that happening are pretty low at this point.

To read the entire article from Time click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Trump’s Advisors Taking Longer Than Expected With Afghanistan Plan

The Trump administration’s plan for Afghanistan as well as their policy toward Pakistan is taking “longer than originally announced and intended,” said Laurel Miller, the former U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Miller said to the media that, “there are no easy answers, there are no easy solutions. After 16 years, a lot of different approaches have been tried or at least considered,” this week in an interview with Voice of America (VOA). She added that President Trump and his security team may be finding that they need more time to establish a new way forward, she said.

News reports yesterday were stating that Trump was extremely disappointed in both the lack of a plan and the conduct of the General John Nicolson the commander in charge of the troops in Afghanistan and was actively considering having him replaced.

Miller, a Rand corporation foreign policy expert, served as the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, or SRAP, for nine months, until June 23 of this year.
The idea of replacing military troops and government employees with a team of private contractors wouldn’t be practical, Miller said. For one thing, she said, it’s unlikely that the Kabul government would accept the idea.
Additionally, there are legal issues regarding what contractors can and can’t do for the U.S. government, while hiring companies to do the government’s work often isn’t cost effective. But her key concern is that bringing in contractors wouldn’t necessarily bring new success.

Simply reducing the number of troops in Afghanistan would only be effective if done gradually Miller said. The coalition will have to support the stability of the of the Afghan government, the economy will have to be fixed. Simply withdrawing the troops now and leaving the Afghans to weather the storm alone will simply result in chaos. And it sends an all-too-familiar message in the region that the US will not see issues through, which will weaken the US image for other countries and potential allies.

To read the entire article from The Voice of America, click here:

Photo courtesy DOD

The Public’s Need to Know Doesn’t Include Names of Covert Operatives

Last month, the New York Times incredibly posted the name of the Central Intelligence Agency’s, (CIA) top operative overseeing the agency’s efforts in Iran. The Times justified its outing of this undercover and career CIA agent and his role within the agency by saying it was necessary since the agent is “leading an important new administration initiative against Iran.”

Does this sound remotely correct, even in today’s skewed view of journalistic integrity? And yet very little is being said about what is a clear-cut case of endangering this man’s life as well as his family’s.

The CIA goes to great lengths to protect their people’s identities from unauthorized disclosure. And for a very good reason. Outing the undercover agent as the New York Times did immediately puts his or her life in danger and blows the lid on whatever cover operation he was operating under.

The Times stated that despite the CIA’s request not to publish the name, editors decided to publish because the individual is “a senior official who runs operations from Langley, not out in the field. He is the architect of the drone program, one of the government’s most significant paramilitary programs. The American public has a right to know who is making life-or-death decisions in its name.”

That is the flimsiest excuse that we’ve heard and the American public doesn’t have the right to know who the undercover operative is. Does the public need to know that the government is using a drone program to find and target terrorist leaders? Yes absolutely. But we don’t need to know who the man’s identity is that is running the program nor the man or woman operating the drone.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo said the decision to publish the operative’s name was “unconscionable” during a question and answer session at the Aspen Security Forum.

The NY Times said in their piece in which they outed the agent, named Michael D’Andrea that Iran is “one of the hardest targets” for the CIA to keep tabs on.

“The agency has extremely limited access to the country — no American embassy is open to provide diplomatic cover — and Iran’s intelligence services have spent nearly four decades trying to counter American espionage and covert operations,” the Times added.

So apparently it will be now even harder to penetrate the Iranian apparatus due to the Times reckless action, which indeed puts D’Andrea’s life in danger. But the main question is why? Why did the NY Times jeopardize the entire CIA-Iran operation and this agent’s life? Could politics be a reason to out the man to a nation who is the leading state sponsor of terrorism? Yes indeed.

The government of President Trump has been more than clear that they intend to pursue a much harder line against Tehran than the previous administration of President Obama. The Obama government sought to normalize relations with Tehran by giving it billions of dollars to the Iranians, trading terrorists for hostages, and blessing its nuclear program that Tehran made clear in the past would be used against Israel all the while excoriating the US in the media.

One publication recently cited D’Andrea’s portrayal in the film “Zero Dark Thirty” as a possible motive. In the film, he’s described only as “The Wolf” and is reportedly a hawk on the subject of Iran.

We’ve seen and read some talk that the talk of the danger to D’Andrea is negligible. That is hogwash. If there is any doubt as to Iran and their proxies Hezbollah’s threat, look no further than the case of Bill Buckley. Buckley was a former Army Green Beret and the Station Chief for the CIA in Beirut. He took over in 1983 and was in the process of building a new network of agents after the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983.

He was kidnapped by Hezbollah in 1984 and was tortured for 15 months. Hezbollah even sent a videotape of a torture session where Buckley, drooling, at times incoherent and rambling, admitted his CIA activities. His agents were quickly killed off in Beirut and Buckley was killed in captivity in June 1985.

In 2011 the US broke up an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to Washington by placing a bomb in a Georgetown restaurant where the Ambassador was to dine. D’Andrea is now the face of the operation going against the leading state sponsor of terrorism who already tried to plant a bomb in our nation’s capital. Is that dangerous enough?

Right after he was outed, a “Tehran blog” ran a picture of D’Andrea and a woman who was purported to be his wife. She’s a Muslim and D’Andrea met and married her while on another overseas assignment and converted to Islam in order to marry her. The not-so-subtle hint was that he and his family are now wanted by the Iranians.

The Times flimsy story also mentioned that D’Andrea’s name had already been outed back in 2015 as the head of the drone program. Well, they also deserve that dubious honor as well.

There will always be the invisible line between the public’s right to know about their government’s operations and the need for secrecy in the shadows for an intelligence organization to conduct operations.

The public’s right to know never supersedes the importance of protecting sources and methods. The lives of the intelligence operatives who work in the shadows should never be put in danger already more than they are, just by the very nature of their work. The men and women who are covert operatives of our government risk their lives daily for the people of the United States.

Risking their lives by publishing their names is unconscionable and no amount of ridiculous excuses is ever warranted when their veil of secrecy is involved. Doing so only weakens us as a nation and strengthens our enemies. Let’s hope that this foolhardy and dangerous action by the NY Times is never repeated. But something tells me that we will.

Photo Courtesy: CIA

Iraq, Iran Sign Pact to Boost Military Cooperation

In a move that is bound to concern Washington, Iran and Iraq signed a pact on Sunday to step up military cooperation and the fight against “terrorism and extremism”, according to official Iranian news agencies.

At a time when the US has repeatedly voiced its intentions to limit the influence of Tehran in the region and elsewhere, this can’t be looked upon as anything but bad news.

Iranian Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan and his Iraqi counterpart Erfan al-Hiyali signed a memorandum of understanding which also covered border security, logistics and training, the official news agency IRNA reported.
“Extending cooperation and exchanging experiences in fighting terrorism and extremism, border security, and educational, logistical, technical and military support are among the provisions of this memorandum,” IRNA reported after the signing of the accord in Tehran.
Iran-Iraq ties have improved since Iran’s long-time enemy Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003 and an Iraqi government led by Shi’ite Muslims came to power. Iran is mostly a Shi’ite nation.
U.S. President Donald Trump has voiced concern over what he sees as growing Iranian influence in conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Iraq, where it is aligned with Shi’ite fighters.
Tensions between Iran and the United States have heightened since the election of Trump, who has often accused Tehran of backing militant groups and destabilizing the region.
Earlier this month, Trump said that new threats were emerging from “rogue regimes like North Korea, Iran and Syria and the governments that finance and support them”.

The US has frequently accused Iran of arming insurgent groups in Iraq, something Tehran has denied. The new pact between the two countries which includes border security will be an area to watch in the coming months. This will be included in the growing list of issues the Trump administration will have to deal with.

To read the entire article from Reuters click here:

File Photo courtesy DOD

US Treasury Department Levies More Sanctions on Iran

The U.S. Treasury Department levied fresh sanctions against Iran despite a statement from President Trump that Tehran’s government was acting in compliance with the Nuclear deal they signed with the Obama Administration in 2015. These newest sanctions are directly related to Iran’s ballistic-missile program.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated 16 entities and individuals for what it said was “engaging in support of illicit Iranian actors or transnational criminal activity.”

The sanctions target seven entities and five individuals for supporting Iran’s military or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC); also targeted: an Iran-based transnational criminal organization and three associated persons. Those targeted include a Chinese national, four Chinese companies, and a Turkish firm. Iran’s testing and development of ballistic missiles, the U.S. State Department said in a separate statement, is “in direct defiance of UN Security Council Resolution 2231,” which endorsed the nuclear agreement.
The State Departments’ statement included: The three networks designated today supported Iran’s military procurement or the IRGC through the development of unmanned aerial vehicles and military equipment for the IRGC, the production and maintenance of fast attack boats for the IRGC-Navy, or the procurement of electronic components for entities that support Iran’s military.
The transnational criminal organization designated today, along with two Iranian businessmen and an associated entity, orchestrated the theft of U.S. and western software programs which, at times, were sold to the Government of Iran.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the actions “send a strong signal that the United States cannot and will not tolerate Iran’s provocative and destabilizing behavior.”
The move comes a day after Trump certified that Iran was complying with the nuclear agreement it signed with the U.S. and other world powers. Trump, as a presidential candidate, had called the deal “the worst” ever and had vowed to walk away from it. Under the law, the administration must inform Congress every 90 days whether Iran is still complying with the agreement, under which it agreed to freeze its nuclear program in return for the lifting of some international sanctions. This is the second time the Trump administration has certified that Iran is in compliance.

The message from the Trump administration seems to be that Iran is on notice, that even if they comply with the terms of the nuclear deal, that the US will not look the other way in other activities that the Iranians are conducting.

To read the entire article from The Atlantic click here:

Photo courtesy The White House

Trump Arrives in Paris for Bastille Day, CT Talks

U.S. President Donald Trump will attempt to mend some fences with the French as he arrived in Paris today. Trump a year ago characterized Paris as an unsafe city due to terrorism will mark the French national holiday, Bastille Day, hold counter-terrorism talks with French President Emmanuel Macron and mark the US’ 100^th anniversary of entering World War I.

The president left Washington on Wednesday evening and arrived in Paris at 9 a.m. local time. He’s scheduled to meet with Macron and French military leaders later today before issuing a statement to the press.

Before departing the U.S., the president gave several interviews at the White House, including an extended conversation with Pat Robertson of the Christian Broadcasting Network, a prominent figure in conservative political and religious circles.
A year ago Trump described Paris as “so, so, so out of control, so dangerous,” because of terrorists operating there. More recently he suggested that Islamic State attacks in Paris had diminished its standing as a world-class destination.
As he pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 international Paris accord to control greenhouse gas emissions, Trump said he was elected to represent “Pittsburgh, not Paris.” Nevertheless, he subsequently accepted President Macron’s invitation to attend the country’s annual mid-July celebrations.
During his two-day visit, Trump will meet with Macron, whose political fortunes have soared this year. The U.S. president also will lunch with military officials, tour the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte and join in Bastille Day celebrations Friday.
The two leaders are scheduled to meet Thursday before speaking to reporters.
On Friday, Trump and his wife, Melania, will attend the annual Bastille Day parade, which will include both French and U.S. military personnel.

There is hope in some circles that the Trump visit will mend some fences between the allies who fought two world wars together after the president’s criticism of the city and the government during the 2016 election.

To read the entire article from Voice of America click here:

Photo courtesy White House

With ISIS Defeat Looming in Syria, Iraq, US Strategy Has to Define Next Step

American-backed ground forces are poised to recapture Mosul in Iraq and Raqqah in Syria, the Islamic State’s de facto capitals. But while U.S. commanders are confident they soon will vanquish the militant group from its self-declared caliphate after three years of fighting, Washington has not defined a strategy in the next step for stabilizing the region.

The Trump administration faces key decisions about safe zones, reconstruction, governmental control in the area, easing sectarian tensions and commitment of U.S. troops among other considerations.

Nor has the Trump administration set policy for how it will confront forces from Iran and Russia, the two outside powers that arguably gained the most in the bitter conflict — and that now are hoping to collect the spoils and expand their influence.
Iran, in particular, is pushing to secure a land corridor from its western border across Iraq and Syria and up to Lebanon, where it supports Hezbollah militants, giving it a far larger foothold in the turbulent region.
“Right now everyone is positioned” for routing Islamic State “without having the rules of the road,” said Michael Yaffe, a former State Department envoy for the Middle East who is now vice president of the Middle East and Africa center at the U.S. Institute of Peace. “That’s a dangerous situation.”
The risk of a broader confrontation was clear in recent weeks when a U.S. F/A-18 shot down a Syrian fighter jet for the first time in the multi-sided six-year war, provoking an angry response from Russia, which supports Syrian President Bashar Assad.
U.S. warplanes also destroyed two Iranian-made drone aircraft, although it’s not clear who was flying them. The Pentagon said all the attacks were in self-defense as the aircraft approached or fired on American forces or U.S.-backed Syrian fighters.
“What I worry about is the muddled mess scenario,” said Ilan Goldenberg, a former senior State Department official who now heads the Middle East program at the nonpartisan Center for a New American Security. “When you start shooting down planes and running into each other, it quickly goes up the escalation ladder.”
U.S. commanders say thousands of American troops should stay in Iraq to bolster the Iraqi army, which collapsed and fled when the militants first arrived on pickup trucks in 2014, three years after President Obama withdrew most U.S. troops from the country.
A tougher challenge lies in Syria, where the U.S. military has not been invited by the government and has no large fixed bases. The Pentagon has deployed hundreds of special operations forces and conventional troops to support the Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition of Kurdish and Arab rebel groups that oppose Assad.
If the U.S. military pulls out, it could give a green light to Assad and Iran’s forces to turn their firepower on the U.S.-backed militias, potentially a nightmare scenario.
Pressure is growing on Capitol Hill for the White House to articulate a longer-term strategy for when the Islamic State threat has been neutralized.

Routing the Islamic State out of those countries is the first step but there are other concerns once that is accomplished. Hezbollah which has sided with Assad’s forces in the civil war is emboldened now and is pushing to escalate the war by attacking Israel. There will be no easy answers for Washington as peace and stability in the region will be very hard to come by.

To read the entire article from The Los Angeles Times click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Nikki Haley Tells Congress that Iran Would Supply Nukes to Terrorists

America’s top diplomat at the United Nations, Nikki Haley told members of Congress on Tuesday that the government of President Trump is worried that Iran will not only give nuclear weapons to terror groups but do so with tacit Russia approval.

That bit of news is something that has some Republicans in the House asking if a regime change something that may be considered.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley told a House Appropriations subcommittee that she believes the Iran nuclear agreement reached under the Obama administration will only “delay something that’s going to happen,” which is Iran’s achievement of a nuclear weapon. She said that poses the risk that Iran could share that technology with terrorist groups it supports.
“They’re going to continue their nuclear capabilities and we just gave them a lot of money to do it with,” she said. “And my concern is they are associating with are all the groups we’re trying to defeat.”
“So, not only did we give that capability to Iran, we are now giving it to those terrorist organizations we’re trying to defeat,” she added.
Haley told lawmakers that Iran has escalated its support for a pair of terrorist organizations on the borders of Israel, aided by the influx of money that followed the easing of sanctions under the Iranian nuclear agreement. She conceded that Iran is not committing “any violations” of the nuclear deal, but said the regime is defying international resolutions against the development of ballistic missiles designed to carry nuclear weapons.
Haley added that her efforts to rally international opposition to Iran are hamstrung by Russia’s willingness to block U.N. Security Council resolutions censuring Iran. “Yes, we would love to sanction Iran; and, yes we will continue to be loud about it; and, yes, Russia will veto it,” she said.

Although President Trump has stated that the Iran is abiding by the agreement made with the US, he’s considering scrapping the deal that President Obama made with Iran. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson notified members of Congress and stated that Iran is still a leader in state-sponsored terrorism. And he added that the administration is looking into whether the pact is vital to US security interests.

To read the entire article from the Washington Examiner click here:

Photos courtesy White House