Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

Jeff-

Heh, well again...there's not one person here who's remotely claiming Trump broke the law by ordering his administration give Kushner security clearance. Trump can give Kanye West top security clearance, against the advice of the intelligence agencies, his Chief of Staff, and the White House Counsel, and be perfectly within his rights under the law if he wants

However, I'm not also going to say "well unless it's illegal, why should anyone care?".

[froot loops]

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

I guess that settles the matter. Good talk.

[froot loops]

Jeff-

Heh, well again...there's not one person here who's remotely claiming Trump broke the law by ordering his administration give Kushner security clearance. Trump can give Kanye West top security clearance, against the advice of the intelligence agencies, his Chief of Staff, and the White House Counsel, and be perfectly within his rights under the law if he wants

However, I'm not also going to say "well unless it's illegal, why should anyone care?".

He could give Chairman Un clearance as a token of love.

[CGVT]

Screenshot 2019-02-28 at 8.07.30 PM.png

[froot loops]

You would think the law and order types like Jeff and Kapture would be interested in why Kushner would be denied clearance. There are normally good reasons why they deny it. Money laundering might be an issue for starters.

[Jeff Buchanan]

My posts aren't about defending Trump's behavior in this matter. They're about the insignificance of it in the big picture.

Shocking news ..... Trump orders Kelley to give Kushner a TS clearance then lies about ordering Kelley to do it. I don't care and I find it silly that Trump haters think it's a big deal. Hello ..... it's not.

There are some Trump activities that rate the big deal moniker. This is not one of them.



.

[Jeff Buchanan]

You would think the law and order types like Jeff and Kapture would be interested in why Kushner would be denied clearance. There are normally good reasons why they deny it. Money laundering might be an issue for starters.

I'm not the least bit interested. The security clearance application process is subject to a good deal of subjective scrutiny from some low level processor who might note you once farted in public and thought that was something that could be used against you. More knowledgeable and sensible persons deciding to grant or not to grant a security clearance are more likely to apply common sense in the process.

At Kushner's level, I'd think there's a good deal of politics involved because, "knowledge is power." It wouldn't surprise me that political enemies of the Trump's stuck their noses into this and tried to make a play to neuter Kushner. That's probably a better story or could be. Whatever .... this kind of shit goes on all the time in the military that I'm familiar with. In DC, security clearances are outward badges of power and authority. The more programs you are read into the more you know and the more you can hold that over others that don't. Somebody probably didn't want Kushner to have that.

[Ghengis Jon]

That's reasonable. I think it would be far more interesting to know on what grounds it was recommended to be denied. I also wonder what security level was actually granted. "Top Secret" is typically used as a generic phrase rather than the actual designation. I wonder if there was blowback because it was a SAP access? That level is appropriate to the President's inner circle. But that philosophy is based on the unfounded assumption that the President is not a Russian asset surrounded by shallow grifters. If it is "only" a top secret clearance, I wouldn't worry so much. Higher than that, I'm concerned. What were the denial reasons? Association with mob figures or expunged financial convictions is a different thresh hold than being say a loud mouthed drunkard. Both have their own threat levels. This appears to b e little more than a "he's family, give him access" incident. But that's assuming the best case, not the worst.

Just out of curiosity Jeff, what security level are combat jet jockies given? I would imagine a C-130 cargo monkey has a different access than a stealth pilot, based on the equipment. I had a TS cert because of access to nuclear weapons. You flew some fun toys...what access were you given - as a pilot - not a desk jockey?

[CGVT]

I carried a Secret clearance through out my career. I had to get a Top Secret clearance when I was Officer in Charge of the Coast Guard Station in Burlington VT when I was involved with the spooks and had to go to their meetings when the G8(or whatever number it was) Summit was held in Montreal.

[Jeff Buchanan]

........Just out of curiosity Jeff, what security level are combat jet jockies given? I would imagine a C-130 cargo monkey has a different access than a stealth pilot, based on the equipment. I had a TS cert because of access to nuclear weapons. You flew some fun toys...what access were you given - as a pilot - not a desk jockey?

The minute I was assigned to the training squadron for the EA6B, I was processed for and received a TS clearance. That's because the aircraft jamming capabilities were TS and the intelligence regarding air defense systems that were our targets were TS.

As time went on and I became involved in planning employment of the aircraft's capabilities in various real world scenarios, I was read into (means granted access to) SCI programs that pertained. The EA6B also had some "black program" capabilities meaning it had capabilities that you wouldn't find in Janes, "US Military Aircraft." These were SAP (Special Access Programs). So, I had "need to know" access there to deploy and operate them.

As well the EA6B is part of the NRO (National Reconnaissance Office) programs that links to the NSA (National Security Agency). In the later years of my career when I commanded the EA6B Squadron, I had another level of SCI access to the wide ranging national reconnaissance effort both tactical (like our aircraft) and strategic (SR71, Satellite imagery and Signals Intel) ..... the joke about these kinds of programs at the time was that the US had the "overhead" capability (satellites) to determine what Khadafi had for dinner after he took his morning shit.

It's no secret that during the Reagan administration in 1986 the US military conducted a coordinated air, land and sea based attack on Lybia in response to the German discotheque bombing thought to be carried out at Khadafi's direction. I was involved in the planning for this operation (Eldorado Canyon). The amount of stuff we knew about Khadafi, his habits, his routines, where he traveled and how he traveled including his body doubles was astounding. Some of that was from Human Intel (Humint) but most of it was NSA derived imagery and sigint. This was the first time my jaw dropped regarding US Intelligence capabilities. And, oh, he was the target despite subsequent hi-level US denials.

BTW, Marines on the ground laser targeted Khadafi's residence allowing Navy A6s launched from USN carriers to drop Laser Guided Bombs (LGBs) into it . Three or more of the LGBs got through and went right into Mohamar's bedroom. During the raid, Khadafi was seen fleeing the building when he was told his residence was being targeted. He left his family there and one of his family members was allegedly killed.

[AlabamAlum]

Here is a pic of jeff in his plane:

[iam416]

Goddamn, Buchanan. For what I can only attribute to self-hatred, masochism or an unrelenting desire to envy death, I always read your walls of text. And today, after centuries of enduring your seemingly endless ode to the bloviations of the daft you finally pay it off with some real ass fascinating shit. Well done!

[froot loops]

I think this is a Kinsley Gaffe but with LePage it may not be.

[crashcourse]

you know we seem to be recycling all of trumps bombshell moments

really seems like we;'ve had this kirschner top secret clearance moments a couple times

the 35000 dollar payoff to stormy was well know.

but the coup d eta is the fact that me buchanen CGVT etc have all had secret clearances--top secret for me and buchanen. they give them away like wiz gives it away to john deere road salesman at his local ymca bar

[Jeff Buchanan]

EFZ ..... this is ridiculous mountain out of mole hill shit. The morning news round-ups on all the major networks today were filled up with breathless reporters talking about Kushner's TS clearance and the circumstances surrounding him getting that clearance.

I actually think Trump is correct in complaining that breaking this story while he was conducting a summit with NK's Un was dirty tricks. I may not particularly like DJT but how does the nation benefit from this kind of disclosure?