Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Kapture1]

Justin Castreau of Canada seems to be in the sort of trouble the dems have been desperate to find Trump in

[Jeff Buchanan]

Whoa nellie, Trump ordered John Kelly to grant Jared Kushner top secret security clearance over the objection of the intelligence agencies and White House Counsel, Don McGahn.

Kelley was so troubled by the demand that he penned a memo at the time to clarify that that the clearance was being granted solely under order from the President.

I don't think this is anything more than Trump flexing his presidential muscles, sticking his chin out and saying, I'm in charge here ..... nothing new or startling, actually.

A TS clearance, while nothing to be trifled with when authorizing such access, isn't that big of a deal. In the WH, people that have a TS clearance are generally going to have access to some level of security briefings and intra-departmental communications that the president gets on a regular basis. Kind of routine.

Most sensitive stuff, though, is compartmentalized (e.g., SCI = Sensitive Compartmented Information or SAP = special access program). For access, there has to be an established "need to know" before access is given to this level of compartmentalized information. I'm not sure Kushner would get that sort of thing and I'm not even sure Trump could authorize it and I actually doubt he understands it. Maybe that's what Kelley was worried about and if so, he should have been. But intel types a lot smarter than The Donald could easily slow play him on this and he would be none the wiser.

For example, the NSA gathers a shit ton of electronic intell that includes coms. NSA analysts put together a collated report when something important is going on like intercepts indicating an attempt on the life of a foreign head of state is emerging. Kushner has no need to know that and it's going to be classified as TS, SCI (then a code word like UMBRA and there are hundreds of these code words applying to specific, compartmentalized programs or information) "eyes only" for Trump. If Turmp demanded Kushner see it, the owners of that info would provide a watered down TS version of it.

[froot loops]

Again, if it was no big deal then Trump would have freely admitted that he ordered it to flex his presidential muscles. In fact he denied he had anything to do with Kushner's security clearance as late as last month.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I don't think this is anything more than Trump flexing his presidential muscles, sticking his chin out and saying, I'm in charge here ..... nothing new or startling, actually.

A TS clearance, while nothing to be trifled with when authorizing such access, isn't that big of a deal. In the WH, people that have a TS clearance are generally going to have access to some level of security briefings and intra-departmental communications that the president gets on a regular basis. Kind of routine.

Most sensitive stuff, though, is compartmentalized (e.g., SCI = Sensitive Compartmented Information or SAP = special access program). For access, there has to be an established "need to know" before access is given to this level of compartmentalized information. I'm not sure Kushner would get that sort of thing and I'm not even sure Trump could authorize it and I actually doubt he understands it. Maybe that's what Kelley was worried about and if so, he should have been. But intel types a lot smarter than The Donald could easily slow play him on this and he would be none the wiser.

For example, the NSA gathers a shit ton of electronic intell that includes coms. NSA analysts put together a collated report when something important is going on like intercepts indicating an attempt on the life of a foreign head of state is emerging. Kushner has no need to know that and it's going to be classified as TS, SCI (then a code word like UMBRA and there are hundreds of these code words applying to specific, compartmentalized programs or information) "eyes only" for Trump. If Turmp demanded Kushner see it, the owners of that info would provide a watered down TS version of it.

Are you aware of other examples of Presidents forcibly ordering top secret security clearance be granted to relatives against the advice of their intelligence agencies, the White House Counsel, and their Chief of Staff? Did Jimmy Carter insist that Billy Carter be allowed into the Situation Room or something?

[froot loops]

Where in the world did I say congress could increase or decrease a sentence. Duh, no shit. If you lie to congress you can get another additional charge.

Like I was saying, although this is a little dubious.

[Hannibal]

[Dr. Strangelove]

Ha, well I agree with you there. Many of Trump's worst decisions in the past 3 years can be traced back to Kushner from firing Comey to hiring Manafort.

But that said, Steve Bannon is the source of a lot of that and he despises Kushner by all accounts.

But hey, looking forward to Middle East peace.

[Kapture1]

Are you aware of other examples of Presidents forcibly ordering top secret security clearance be granted to relatives against the advice of their intelligence agencies, the White House Counsel, and their Chief of Staff? Did Jimmy Carter insist that Billy Carter be allowed into the Situation Room or something?

presidents aren't required to follow ADVICE of intelligence agencies, particularly from agencies that were actively seeking to remove him from office because the top echelon didn't like him.

[Dr. Strangelove]

presidents aren't required to follow ADVICE of intelligence agencies, particularly from agencies that were actively seeking to remove him from office because the heads didn't like him.

Well yeah. No duh Presidents aren't legally required to obey their Chiefs of Staff. I still think that if Obama had ordered intelligence agencies to allow his grifter relatives access to top security documents it might've caused a stir or been regarded as unseemly.

But our magnificent President has proven to be an impeccable judge of character (Cohen was a mulligan), so who am I to judge?

[Dr. Strangelove]

[Dr. Strangelove]

[froot loops]

Nobody said they are required to follow recommendations, but why the continual lies?

[Jeff Buchanan]

Are you aware of other examples of Presidents forcibly ordering top secret security clearance be granted to relatives against the advice of their intelligence agencies, the White House Counsel, and their Chief of Staff? Did Jimmy Carter insist that Billy Carter be allowed into the Situation Room or something?

No...... "forcibly?" Really? He told Kelley to do it and most likely without a gun to his head.

Look, this is small potatoes and I really don't care about this silly shit. We know Trump lies and is a bully. Nothing to see here with regard to Kushner and his TS clearance

You want to talk about crimes being committed by the president? I'm pretty sure there will be substantial evidence that Trump committed them......and that has more to do with his business dealings, his income taxes and his campaign. So what if he told his then COS to do X, Y or Z. That was my point.

Now, if we want to discuss crimes, the likelihood that Trump committed them, the capacity of an elected executive to act in the best interests of the nation having done so and whether or not prosecutors will indict a sitting President, that's worth discussing. Whether Trump ordered Kelley to grant a TS clearance to Kushner is way down the list of reasonable things to get upset about.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Nobody said they are required to follow recommendations, but why the continual lies?

You're actually asking for an answer to that question? Trump lies. Well established fact.

[iam416]