Tag: russian ambassador
#EndorseThis: Colbert Declassifies The Trump White House

#EndorseThis: Colbert Declassifies The Trump White House

Somehow, Stephen Colbert can always find the brighter side of our national woe. Bad as it is that Trump disclosed highly classified national security data to the Russians, there is good news too: “He found the leaker!”

Meanwhile the continuing fiasco of the president’s decision to fire James Comey has revealed secret taping in the Trump White House, at least according to those @realDonaldTrump tweets. (Of course, those tweets are as likely to be true as anything else uttered by Trump, meaning not too likely.) For press secretary Sean Spicer that requires covering up, obfuscating, and stonewalling Watergate-style, which is horrifying as White House conduct — and comedy gold for Colbert.

“The president has made it clear what his position is,” Spicer repeated over and over again as he refused to answer press questions about the tapes that Trump had cited to threaten Comey. But no! objects Colbert. “We know he’s screwing the country but he hasn’t made it clear what the position is. Is it missionary? Is it doggy-style?”

Those Watergate analogies can only take Stephen just so far, but he’s going there.

Justice Department Reportedly Warned Trump On Flynn

Justice Department Reportedly Warned Trump On Flynn

By Steve Holland and Emily Stephenson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Justice Department warned the White House weeks ago that national security adviser Michael Flynn could be vulnerable to blackmail for contacts with Russian officials before President Donald Trump took power, a U.S. official said on Monday.

Trump is evaluating the situation surrounding Flynn and talking to Vice President Mike Pence about it, Trump’s spokesman said, in a pointed refusal to make a public show of support for his embattled aide.

The U.S. official confirmed a Washington Post report that Sally Yates, the then-acting U.S. attorney general, told the White House late last month that she believed Flynn had misled them about the nature of his communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

She said Flynn might have put himself into a compromising position, possibly leaving himself vulnerable to blackmail, the official said. Yates was later fired for opposing Trump’s temporary entry ban for people from seven mostly Muslim nations.

Flynn had told Pence he had not discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with Russian officials in the weeks before Trump took office on Jan. 20, prompting Pence to defend him in subsequent television interviews.

In recent days, Flynn has acknowledged he might have discussed sanctions with the Russians but could not remember with 100 percent certainty, which officials said had upset Pence, who felt he had been misled.

Officials said Flynn apologized to Pence twice, including in person on Friday.

“The president is evaluating the situation. He is speaking to … Vice President Pence relative to the conversation the vice president had with General Flynn and also speaking to various other people about what he considers the single most important subject there is, our national security,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said.

Flynn, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general, was an early supporter of Trump and shares his interest in shaking up the establishment in Washington. He has frequently raised eyebrows among Washington’s foreign policy establishment for trying to persuade Trump to warm up U.S. relations with Russia.

Top White House officials have been reviewing Flynn’s contacts with the Russians and whether he discussed the possibility of lifting U.S. sanctions on Russia once Trump took office.

That would potentially be in violation of a law banning private citizens from engaging in foreign policy, known as the Logan Act.

“He’s not out of the woods,” said a U.S. official who is familiar with the transcripts of intercepted communications between Flynn and the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, in late December.

This official said Flynn “did discuss sanctions.”

While Flynn did not make any promises about lifting them, he did indicate that sanctions imposed by President Barack Obama on Russia for its Ukraine incursion “would not necessarily carry over to an administration seeking to improve relations between the U.S. and Russia,” the official said.

An hour before Spicer read his statement, Kellyanne Conway, one of Trump’s closest aides, had told reporters that Flynn had the full confidence of the president.

It was notable, however, that Trump did not use the opportunity of a joint news conference with visiting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday to make a public show of support for Flynn.

Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer told reporters he wanted an independent investigation of Flynn’s discussions with the Russians.

“His security clearance ought to be withdrawn until that independent investigation is completed. And if he has violated any law or ethical precept, he ought to be fired,” Schumer said.

Flynn was going about his business despite the cloud hanging over him, participating in national security meetings.

He was at Trump’s side at the president’s Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida on Saturday when word reached the presidential entourage that North Korea had launched a ballistic missile at the same time Trump was hosting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

While Trump left Flynn’s status pending, he appeared to close the door on another source of speculation, as to whether Priebus might be replaced.

Appearing briefly before reporters in the West Wing of the White House, Trump said Priebus was doing a “great job.”

(Additional reporting by John Walcott; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Peter Cooney)

IMAGE: National Security Adviser Michael Flynn delivers a statement at the White House, February 1, 2017.  REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Russian Ambassador To Turkey Shot Dead In Ankara Gallery

Russian Ambassador To Turkey Shot Dead In Ankara Gallery

By Tuvan Gumrukcu and Umit Bektas

ANKARA (Reuters) – The Russian ambassador to Turkey was shot in the back and killed as he gave a speech at an Ankara art gallery on Monday by an off-duty police officer who shouted “Don’t forget Aleppo” and “Allahu Akbar” as he opened fire.

The Russian foreign ministry confirmed the death of envoy Andrei Karlov, calling it a “terrorist act”. Relations between Moscow and Ankara have long been strained over the conflict in Syria, with the two support opposing sides in the war.

Russia is an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and its air strikes helped Syrian forces end rebel resistance last week in the northern city of Aleppo. Turkey, which seeks Assad’s ouster, has been repairing ties with Moscow after shooting down a Russian warplane over Syria last year.

The Ankara mayor said on Twitter the gunman as a 22-year-old police officer. Two security sources told Reuters he was not on duty at the time.

The attacker was smartly dressed in black suit and tie and stood, alone, behind the ambassador as he made a speech at the art exhibition, a person at the scene told Reuters.

“He took out his gun and shot the ambassador from behind. We saw him lying on the floor and then we ran out,” said the witness, who asked not to be identified. People took refuge in adjoining rooms as the shooting continued.

A video showed the attacker shouting: “Don’t forget Aleppo, don’t forget Syria!” and “Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest) as screams rang out. He paced about and shouted as he held the gun in one hand and waved the other in the air.

A Reuters cameraman at the scene said gunfire rang out for some time after the attack. Turkey’s Anadolu news agency said the gunman had been “neutralized”, apparently killed.

Another photograph showed four people the ambassador lying on the floor.

“We regard this as a terrorist act,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. “Terrorism will not win and we will fight against it decisively.”

It was not clear whether the gunman was a lone operator, driven perhaps by popular discontent over Russian action in Syria or affiliated to a group like Islamic State, which has carried out a string of bomb attacks in Turkey in the last year.

Since a failed coup in July, President Tayyip Erdogan has been purging the police of supporters of an exiled cleric and former ally, Fethullah Gulen, whom he characterizes as the chief terrorist threat to Turkey.

U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

Erdogan contacted Russian President Vladimir Putin to brief him on the shooting, a Turkish official said. It was not immediately clear if Erdogan would release a statement later.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was due to meet with his Russian and Iranian counterparts in Russia on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Syria. Officials said the meeting would still go on, despite the attack.

Turkey’s foreign ministry said it would not allow the attack to cast a shadow over Ankara’s relations with Moscow.

“The attack comes at a bad time: Moscow and Ankara have only recently restored diplomatic ties after Turkey downed a Russian aircraft in November 2015,” the Stratfor think-tank said.

“Though the attack will strain relations between the two countries, it is not likely to rupture them altogether.”

The U.S. State Department, involved in diplomatic contacts with Russia in an attempt to resolve a refugee crisis unfolding around the city of Aleppo, condemned the attack.

Tensions have escalated in recent weeks as Russian-backed Syrian forces have fought for control of the eastern part of Aleppo, triggering a stream of refugees.

Turkey has been hit by multiple bomb attacks that have been claimed by Kurdish militants, and beat back an attempted coup in July, where rogue soldiers commandeered tanks, warplanes and helicopters in attempt to overthrow the parliament.

Since then, the government has launched a sweeping crackdown on the judiciary, police and civil service in attempt to root out the coup plotters. The involvement of a police officer in Monday’s attack could raise questions for Ereogan about a force denuded now of a number of senior and rank-and-file officers.

(Additional reporting by Orhan Coskun, Nevzat Devranoglu, Tulay Karadeniz, Ercan Gurses and Gulsen Solaker in Ankara; Humeyra Pamuk and Ece Toksabay in Istanbul; Andrew Osborn and Andrey Ostroukh in Moscow; Writing by Daren Butler and David Dolan; editing by Ralph Boulton and Mark Trevelyan)

IMAGE: Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov accompanies Russian President Vladimir Putin in Istanbul, October 2016. REUTERS/Osman Orsal