Pentagon To Undergo First Ever Audit After Decades Of Sloppy Accounting And Missing Trillions

After decades of waste, overpayments, trillions of missing or improperly accounted for dollars, and most recently losing track of 44,000 US soldiers, the Pentagon is about to undergo its first audit in history conducted by 2,400 auditors from independent public accounting firms to conduct reviews across the Army, Navy, Air Force and more - followed by annual audits going forward. 

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis speaks with DoD Comptroller David L. Norquist, June 15, 2017

The announcement follows a May commitment by Pentagon comptroller David Norquist, who previously served as the CFO at the Department of Homeland Security when the agency performed its audit. "Starting an audit is a matter of driving change inside a bureaucracy that may resist it," Norquist told members of the Armed Services Committee at the time when pressed over whether or not he could get the job done at the DHS. 

According to the DoD release: 

The audit is massive. It will examine every aspect of the department from personnel to real property to weapons to supplies to bases. Some 2,400 auditors will fan out across the department to conduct it, Pentagon officials said.

 

"It is important that the Congress and the American people have confidence in DoD"s management of every taxpayer dollar," Norquist said. -defense.gov

The Pentagon is no stranger to criticism over serious waste and purposefully sloppy accounting.  A DoD Inspector General"s report from 2016 - which appears to be unavailable on the DoD website (but fortunately WAS archived)- found that in 2015 alone a staggering $6.5 trillion in funds was unaccounted for out of the Army"s budget, with $2.8 trillion in "wrongful adjustments" occurring in just one quarter.

In 2015, the Pentagon denied trying to shelve a study detailing $125 billion in waste created by a bloated employee counts for noncombat related work such as human resources, finance, health care management and property management. The report concluded that $125 billion could be saved by making those operations more efficient. 

On September 10th, 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced that "According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," after a Pentagon whistleblower set off a probe. A day later, the September 11th attacks happened and the accounting scandal was quickly forgotten.

And twenty years before that, DoD analyst Franklin C. Spinney exposed what he called "accounting games," saying "Those numbers are pie in the sky. The books are cooked routinely year after year." In a 2002 testimony before the House Committee on Government Reform, Spinney laid out the DoD"s accounting quagmire of un-auditable books and budget projections which don"t match reality. 

Franklin Spinney, 2002

Finally, those of us old enough to remember the 80"s, let"s not forget the bombshell report on overpayments the Pentagon made for simple items, such as $37 screws, $7,622 coffee makers, and $640 toilet seats which Sen. William Roth Jr (R-DE) was able to whittle down to $200. 

The announcement of the audit comes amid a looming government shutdown battle which was given a two-week extension last week until December 22. If this occurs, military personnel would report to work as usual, but the DoD would not pay them until the shutdown ends. 

 "I cannot emphasize too much how destructive a shutdown is," Norquist said. "We"ve talked before about the importance of maintenance on weapons systems and others, but if it"s not an excepted activity, there"ll be work stoppage on many of those maintenance functions."

With both parties standing to lose more than gain from a shutdown, that is unlikely to happen. Meanwhile, with decades of lost confidence in the Pentagon"s accounting practices, we eagerly await the results of this "massive" audit to see exactly how much dirt - and where - previous administrations have swept under the rug.

Propaganda, Confrontation, And Profit

Authored by Brian Cloughley via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

The waves, the artificial tides of anti-Russian propaganda continue to beat upon the ears and eyes of Western citizens, spurred by Washington politicians and bureaucrats whose motives vary from deviously duplicitous to blatantly commercial.

It is no coincidence that there has been vastly increased expenditure on US weaponry by Eastern European countries.

Complementing the weapons’ build-up, which is so sustaining and lucrative for the US industrial-military complex, the naval, air and ground forces of the US-NATO military alliance continue operations ever closer to Russia’s borders.

Shares and dividends in US arms manufacturing companies have rocketed, in a most satisfactory spinoff from Washington’s policy of global confrontation, and the Congressional Research Service (CRS) records that “arms sales are recognized widely as an important instrument of state power. States have many incentives to export arms. These include enhancing the security of allies or partners; constraining the behaviour of adversaries; using the prospect of arms transfers as leverage on governments’ internal or external behaviour; and creating the economics of scale necessary to support a domestic arms industry.”

The CRS notes that arms deals “are often a key component in Congress’s approach to advancing US foreign policy objectives,” which is especially notable around the Baltic and throughout the Middle East, where US wars have created a bonanza for US weapons makers — and for the politicians whom the manufacturers reward so generously for their support. (Additionally, in 2017 arms manufacturers spent $93,937,493 on lobbying Congress.)

Some countries, however, do not wish to purchase US weaponry, and they are automatically categorised as being influenced by Russia, which is blamed for all that has gone wrong in America over the past couple of years. This classification is especially notable in the Central Asian Republics.

The US military’s Central Command (Centcom) states that its “area of responsibility spans more than 4 million square miles and is populated by more than 550 million people from 22 ethnic groups, speaking 18 languages... and confessing [sic] multiple religions which transect national borders. The demographics create opportunities for tension and rivalry.” Centcom is deeply engaged in the US wars in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, and supports Saudi Arabia in its war on Yemen, and the extent of its influence in the Pentagon’s self-allotted geographical Area of Responsibility is intriguing, to say the least. Some of its priorities were revealed in March 2017 by the Commander of this enormous military realm, General Joseph Votel, in testimony to the Armed Services Committee of the House of Representatives in Washington.

General Votel’s description of US self-allocated “responsibilities” was astonishing in its imperialistic arrogance.

As Commander of Centcom, General Votel gave the Armed Services Committee a colourful tour of his territory, describing nations in terms ranging from condescendingly supportive to patently insolent, and he devoted much time to describing relations with countries abutting Russia, Iran and China, which nations, he declared, are trying “to limit US influence in the sub-region.” That “sub-region” includes many countries immediately on the borders of Russia, Iran and China, and averaging 7,000 miles (11,000 kilometres) from Washington.

CENTCOM countries (coloured)

First he dealt with Kazakhstan with which the US has its “most advanced military relationship in Central Asia” in furtherance of which Washington is “making notable progress... despite enduring Russian influence.” It is obviously unacceptable to the Pentagon that Russia wishes to maintain cordial relations with a country with which it has a border of 6,800 kilometres. Then General Votel went into fantasyland by claiming that “Kazakhstan remains the most significant regional contributor to Afghan stability...” which even the members of the Congressional Committee would have realised is spurious nonsense.

But more nonsense was to follow, with General Votel referring to Kyrgyzstan in patronising terms usually associated with a Viceroy or other colonial master of a region that Votel describes as “widely characterized by pervasive instability and conflict,” which he failed to note were caused by the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He told the Committee that Kyrgyzstan “sees political pressure from its larger, more powerful neighbours, including Russia, hosting a small Russian airbase outside the capital, Bishkek. Despite ongoing challenges in our bilateral and security cooperation, we continue to seek opportunities to improve our mil-to-mil relationship.” He did not explain why Kyrgyzstan should be expected to embrace a military alliance with United States Central Command, but Viceroys don’t have to provide explanations.

Votel then moved to consider Tajikistan with which “our mil-to-mil relationship is deepening despite Moscow’s enduring ties and the presence of the military base near Tajikistan’s capital of Dushanbe, Russia’s largest military base outside of its borders.” Not only this, says Votel, but China (having a 400 Kilometre border with Tajikistan) has had the temerity to have “initiated a much stronger military cooperation partnership with Tajikistan, adding further complexity to Tajikistan’s multi-faceted approach to security cooperation.”

No: China hasn’t added any complexity to Tajikistan’s circumstances. What has complicated their relations is the fact that Afghanistan is in a state of chaos, following the US invasion of 2001, and drugs and terrorists cross the border (1,300 kilometres long) from Afghanistan into Tajikistan, which is trying to protect itself. During its sixteen years of war in Afghanistan there has been no attempt by the United States to secure that border.

None of these countries wants to be forced into a military pact with the United States, and Turkmenistan (border with Afghanistan 750 kilometres) has made it clear it doesn’t want to be aligned with anyone. But General Votel states that its “UN-recognized policy of ‘positive neutrality’ presents a challenge with respect to US engagement.” No matter what is desired by Turkmenistan, it seems, there must always be a way for the United States Central Command to establish military relations and, as General Votel told the Defence Committee, “we are encouraged somewhat by Turkmenistan’s expressed interest in increased mil-to-mil engagement with the US within the limits of their ‘positive neutrality’ policy.”

In the minds (to use the word loosely) of General Votel and his kind, it doesn’t matter if a country wants nothing whatever to do with the United States’ military machine, and wants very much to be left alone to get on with things without any interference. Adoption of such a policy by any nation presents a “challenge” and the United States, which in this region is overseen by General Votel’s Central Command, is determined to seek military “engagement” irrespective of what is desired by governments. Arms sales would swiftly follow.

Votel’s tour of his area of responsibility covered Afghanistan, about which his most absurd assertion  was “I believe what Russia is attempting to do is they are attempting to be an influential party in this part of the world. I think it is fair to assume they may be providing some sort of support to [the Taliban] in terms of weapons or other things that may be there.”

There was not a shred of evidence provided, but the Committee accepted the pronouncement. Obviously if an allegation is made about Russia it doesn’t matter if it is false. It must be believed. But unfortunately for the imperial Votel and his deferential audience, a person with some sense of truth and balance came up two months later with a statement rubbishing Votel’s unfounded and provocative accusation. In May the Director of the US Defence Intelligence Agency told a Senate Committee that “We have seen indication that [Russia] offered some level of support [to the Taliban], but I have not seen real physical evidence of weapons or money being transferred.” The mainstream media gave no publicity to the truth, and continue to blame Russia for all the ills that befall the US Empire, at home and overseas.

The state of affairs was summed up admirably by Jacob Hornberger of the Future of Freedom Foundation on December 4 when he wrote that “Central to any national-security state is the need for official enemies, ones that are used to frighten and agitate the citizenry. If there are no official enemies, the American citizenry might begin asking some discomforting questions: What do we need a national-security state for? Why not abolish the CIA and dismantle the military-industrial complex and the NSA. Why can’t we have our limited-government, constitutional republic back?”

The Motto of the Pentagon’s Central Command is “Prepare, Pursue, Prevail.” and the Central Asian Republics would be well-advised to bear in mind these threats and think hard about the underlying motif of the US military-industrial complex which is “Propagandise, Provoke, Profit.”

Trump Safe? McCain Rejects Call To Impeach Trump

And just like that, Trump may have avoided near certain political doom.

As news was breaking that the DOJ had named a Special Counsel for the Russia probe, a move that will substantially ease political tensions on the Hill (and is a move which the administration would almost certainly not have allowed if it had anything material to hide), another major hurdle for Trump dissolved this afternoon, when one of the biggest "risk-factors" behind a potential Trump impeachment was removed.

Recall that in its initial analysis of the biggest risk factor facing Trump, Height Securities" Peter Cohn said to keep a close eye on just one republican: John McCain.

Cutting to the chase, Cohn writes that ending Trump’s viability as president "depends on Republicans turning against him", as impeachment proceedings can only begin with the majority party, and the 25th Amendment (allowing for president’s removal when unable to discharge powers/duties of his office) can only be invoked by Congress and/or vice president, majority of Cabinet.

What will Height be closely watching to see if the Trump drama enters a potentially terminal phase: the main catalyst is whether Sen. John McCain, chairman of Armed Services Committee, begins calling for Trump’s resignation, as U.S. national security issues may increase concern among Republican voters.

And while earlier today, one GOP Rep. Justin Amash already suggested that if the FBI memo story is true, impeachment would be appropriate, in the clearest sign yet that Trump may be safe after all, the Washington Examiner reported that John McCain said that calls from congressional Democrats to impeach President Trump are not “rational” adding that “I don’t think very many people take that very seriously,” he said Wednesday.

“All I can do is judge the situation as it is. Every day, we are surprised by some other twist and turn of this issue so I can only respond now and now I do not think that is a rational approach.”

Earlier in the day, Democratic representative Al Green called for Trump’s impeachment on the House floor Wednesday, accusing the president of obstruction of justice.

“I rise today, Mr. Speaker, to call for the impeachment of the President of the United States of America for obstruction of justice,” he said. “There is a belief in this country that no one is above the law. And that includes the President of the United States of America.”

While Democrats urging Trump’s impeachment had new energy following a bombshell report about Trump on Tuesday, ultimately it was all up to getting Republicans behind the push, and it was in this context that JPM said "a Trump impeachment was very, very unlikely."

Trump - impeachment very, very unlikely and regardless it wouldn"t be positive. There is a lot of talk about Trump impeachment and how a President Pence could be a positive. It is way, way too early to begin having the impeachment conversation. Impeachment is much more a political (instead of a legal) process and w/the GOP controlling both chambers and Trump"s popularity in the party being (relatively) healthy the political dynamics don"t signal impeachment. That could change in Jan "19 assuming Republicans lose either the House or Senate in Nov ’18 but if that happens the whole pro-growth agenda would grind to a halt. The impeachment bar is very, very high (no president ever has been removed from office as a result of impeachment; two had articles of impeachment brought up in the House before being acquitted in the Senate; one resigned before going through the process). The daily scandals obviously don’t help Trump’s political capital but market expectations for legislative action are already very low.

JPM said this before McCain had made his position clear. Now that the Arizona Senator has also voiced his support of Trump (we ignore Putin"s offer to present a transcript of the conversation with Lavrov, exonerating Trump) any likelihood of a Trump impeachment, absent some stunning finding by the Special Counsel, is materially lower (if not gone altogether), for the foreseeable future.

Trump Impeachment Odds Soar By 50% After NYT Report

A few hours before the Comey memo news broke, we posted "Height Securities Begins Contemplating "Impeachment": Here"s What To Look For", and as expected, starkly adverse news such as this was one of the catalysts.

Predictably it did not take long after the NYT story hit, for impeachment calls to hit a crescendo. First it was CNN"s Wolf Blitzer who brought up the possibility of impeaching President Trump in an interview with Independent Senator Angus King.

"If these allegations, Senator, are true are we getting closer and closer to the possibility of yet another impeachment process?" Blitzer asked.

"Reluctantly, Wolf, I have to say yes simply because obstruction of justice is such a serious offense," King responded.

That was just the beginning.

Shortly thereafter, a group of President Trump"s most outspoken critics seized the Comey controversy to make a very early push for impeachment. 

According to Fox News, the latest call came from Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, who released a statement suggesting Comey’s ouster from atop the FBI was an obstruction of the investigation “of the president’s campaign ties to Russian influence in his 2016 presidential election.” He said Trump has committed acts that “amount to intimidation and obstruction.”

“Our mantra should be I.T.N—Impeach Trump Now,” Green wrote in an email, which included a line in red pushing those who received the email to “forward this email to others who may be interested.”

Green joined other Democratic lawmakers like Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who has been discussing impeachment for months. Waters took to Twitter in April saying that she would “fight every day until he’s impeached.” She later denied calling for impeachment, but on Thursday renewed her push during an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes.

“I’ve said all along that he will lead us to impeachment, and he’s doing just that,” Waters said on MSNBC. “We’re fiddling while Rome is burning. This president needs to be impeached.”

Others Democratic lawmakers who have brought up the topic of impeachment include Reps. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., who told a local news station last week that Democrats were “actually pretty close to considering impeachment,” and Mark Pocan, D-Wis., who said on local radio that if there was an “impeachment clock,” Comey’s ouster would have moved it an “hour closer.”  

Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., also joined the discussion, tweeting last week that “Impeachment will happen if a handful of Republicans in Congress join Dems to put country above party. Or in 2019 after Dems win the House.”

This echoes what Heights" Peter Cohn said in his note earlier, when he wrote that a Trump impeachment "depends on Republicans turning against him", as impeachment proceedings can only begin with the majority party, and the 25th Amendment (allowing for president’s removal when unable to discharge powers/duties of his office) can only be invoked by Congress and/or vice president, majority of Cabinet.

What will Height be closely watching to see if the Trump drama enters a potentially terminal phase: the main catalyst is whether Sen. John McCain, chairman of Armed Services Committee, begins calling for Trump’s resignation, as U.S. national security issues may increase concern among Republican voters.

On the other side of the debate, Dennis Kucinich, former Ohio congressman and a Fox News contributor who called for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney over the decision to go to war in Iraq, told Fox News that this is only an option “after exhausting a number of other options.”

“It is destructive to America to proceed with an impeachment at this stage of the presidency,” Kucinich said. “This is not the first thing you reach for, because when the first big move a party makes is towards impeachment, it’s very difficult for the American people to conclude that it is anything but a partisan issue.”

* * *

In order to impeach the president of the United States, the House of Representatives must have the support of the majority of members. At this point, no Republicans have voiced support, or even made the suggestion to begin the impeachment process.

However, the market is starting to look two steps ahead, and according to PredicIt, Trump"s odds of getting impeached in 2017 have soared from 19% to 29%, a 50% surge since the NYT story broke.

John McCain - The Rise And Fall Of An American 'Hero'

Authored by "Vaniam" via The Burning Platform blog,

This is an Arizona patriot"s unique view on John Sydney McCain

As of late, we the people of Arizona are very shocked to see what he has become. He is a caricature of a man who, around here, is about as popular as the ping-pong president. How could the people of Arizona, the state that brought you the O.K. Corral, the Grand Canyon, constitutional carry, and sunshine 360 days a year re-elect such a steaming lumpen pile?

The truth is that Arizona like many other states is really two states, Arizona the free and Arizona the slave. The free side is much how you would imagine a free and prosperous state. Resplendent and sublime examples of the master artist’s work are everywhere. The people out here are old school salt of the earth. Cowboys get along with Indians, bikers get along with hippies, liberals with conservatives. Its a place, as my venerated 77 year old neighbor once said to me, “everybody knows everybody’s business but minds their own.” People are kind and polite, willing to help a stranger.

The down side of Arizona is Maricopa county, or as we call it out here, “the late great state of Maricopa,” which is Phoenix and the metro areas surrounding the capitol. The geographic area is roughly ten percent of the land mass but over sixty percent of the human population. This creeping concrete jungle is dependent on the good grace of the rest of the state for its water and power.

As of late it seems this mini metropolis has been infected with the Soros self destructing ideals of wholly owned politicians, defective voting machines, and a spike in immigrants from places where we can’t even say their names. There is a mountain of circumstantial evidence that Maricopa county is compromised as far as elections go. Do you really believe that Sheriff Arpio lost the election to a cop who has always been pro illegal immigration? Or that local reported irregularities, in mainly democrat controlled precincts, somehow did not favor the Soros-Obama machine. I know, fake news right?

I have some pretty vivid memories of growing up in Arizona. We were still part of the wild west, all our roads and days seemed to stretch before us beyond the vast horizon. America still seemed on the ascendancy even though looking back we had probably reached our peak years before my birth. Even after watching in horror as we bugged out of Saigon and dumped our helicopters into the bottom of the ocean we still believed in hero’s.

In the early 1980’s the people of Arizona were sold on the heroism of John Sydney McCain. McCain moved to Arizona and was sold as a hero. The powers that be needed him to replace a genuine hero, Sen Barry Goldwater. Had we the people known at that time about his multiple affairs, divorcing his disabled wife, and marrying a beer heiress for her fortune and political connections, he would have never won his first race. The people of Maricopa county at that time were not soft shoe, plaid pants, neo cucks like the majority are today.

I will never forget McCain speaking to my high school during his first campaign. After his little speech it was opened up for questions. Most were along the lines of ‘do you like Coke or Pepsi best?’or some other inanities. When my turn came I stood up and asked “Will you give us your word as an officer and a gentleman that you are not now or will never be a member of the trilateral commission or any other organization which gives away American sovereignty?”(I was a political junkie even as a kid.) After being somewhat stunned at the question his answer was along the line of ‘Of course I would never do anything that goes against the constitution’ yada, yada, yada.

If McCain was ever a maverick looking out for the peoples’ interests this illusion came to an end once he went to the senate. He immediately started to hang out with some of the earliest known swamp creatures. Receiving over one million dollars from land swindlers who cost taxpayers over three billion dollars (in 1980’s dollars) in what many experts claim led the southwest United States into a major recession. It also cost thousands of retires their life savings which they thought were safe in real estate backed bonds. This was the beginning of the long swath of destruction that the not so honorable gentleman from Virginia continues to leave in his wake, without a clue (or a care) for the people of this world he harms.

Doddering old fool or criminally insane madman?

Insanity or madness can be described as becoming a danger to oneself or others. We can certainly prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that McCain is a danger to others. Just ask the relatives of the tens of thousands dead from the endless wars, or the relatives of the 6000 plus American KIAs in the last fifteen years. As far as being a danger to himself we may never know unless and until some brave hacker shows us how John spends his spare time. McCain has done America dirty in so many ways over the decades. We need an encyclopedia to document it all. So we will just go over some of the more egregious recent examples.

During the last government shut down Obama closed memorials and parks that belong to we the people. This was done as a mean spirited, vindictive maneuver that especially hurt WW2 vets coming to DC to see the new memorial dedicated to them. These men, who are almost all gone, were denied what to them what would have been a great honor. Some lowly park rangers put up puny little show gates for the media, that denied access to the veterans. Despite his office being hammered with calls telling him to fix this, McCain refused to do the honorable thing. He did nothing. He couldn’t be bothered. Had he shown up and demanded the veterans be allowed in he would have done a thing of a truly non partisan nature, and in some ways been heroic. Now the stain of this incident will follow him the rest of his days.

The Phoenix VA is the worst in the country. As the senior Senator on the Armed Services Committee, McCain bears full responsibility for this. Again if he had acted as an honorable man, made sure more people were fired not just given their golden government parachutes we might be going in the right direction to fix this deplorable situation. It has been 6 to 12 years (depending on your perspective) since the problems with the VA began to come to light. The waiting lists still exist. Men and women who picked up the phone when Uncle Sam called them up are still second fiddle to a self feeding, self promoting parasitic bureaucracy.

It is well documented that McCain and his little buddy have armed and funded ISIS. Many pictures of them exist yucking it up with those who would do us harm. As if we didn’t have enough enemies already it seems we need more. All in the name of full spectrum dominance by our deep state uni-party.

Presently McCain is trying to force us into an unnecessary confrontation with the Russian federation. McCain also wants war with China, North Korea, Syria, Iran, and Ukraine. McCain seems to have no concern, compassion or remorse for the tens of thousands of deaths he has been responsible for. This madness has gotten out of hand. It has created an endless loop of more death, destruction, collateral damage, and rapefuges. Throw in some reconstruction projects for his cronies a little global insecurity and a dash of ignominy on our once highly esteemed fighting forces and it becomes clear why the whole world hates us.

In light of McCain’s 35 years of “service,” after 16 years and over 6,000 military deaths from these endless wars, it might just be time to rethink our strategy. If the New York Don can keep landing blows against the fake media, as he wins a few more hearts and minds, at some point the governor of the universe may once again see America as worthy of the eternal blessings of liberty, then divine providence will enable us to smite this vile depravity known as the deep state uni-party.

McCain needs to go to all 152 homes in Arizona who have lost loved ones in the endless wars. Starting at my friends house, his 22 year old son was killed by an IED near Taji Iraq in 2006.McCain should kneel and grovel in each darkened doorway with his face down buns up, begging forgiveness from the families of his victims.

Seriously dude 35 years is a long time. Any “good work’ you might have done at one time has long since been nullified by the endless war years. If you haven’t achieved whatever it was you originally set out to do, at 80 years old you never will.. If you haven’t amassed all the filthy lucre your family will need after your gone I am afraid you are out of luck.

Russian Ambassador At The Center Of The Sessions' Scandal Visited Obama White House 22 Times

Sergey Kislyak

Russia"s ambassador to the U.S. has found himself thrust into the spotlight this week after the revelation that he twice spoke with Attorney General Jeff Sessions during the 2016 presidential campaign—contacts Sessions didn"t mention when asked about them under oath during his confirmation hearing.

Sergey Kislyak, Moscow"s soft-spoken ambassador to the U.S. who assumed his post in 2008, has gained significant notoriety following his conversations with several of President Trump"s associates.

Kislyak began making headlines early last month after revelations that, despite denials, Trump"s first national security adviser Michael Flynn spoke with him about sanctions before Trump took office. Flynn resigned after reports that he misled Vice President Pence about his conversations with the diplomat.

Then the The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Sessions, then an Alabama senator, spoke twice with the Russian envoy.

Sessions, who maintained Thursday he didn"t speak to the Russian official in his capacity as a surrogate of Trump"s campaign, announced that he would recuse himself from Department of Justice investigations involving Russia"s intervention in the 2016 presidential election.

Shortly after his press conference, the New York Times reported that Kislyak had met with Trump"s son-in-law and top adviser Jared Kushner, along with Flynn, in December. And USA Today reported that he had met with two other former Trump foreign policy campaign aides — J.D. Gordon and Carter Page —  in Cleveland as that city hosted the Republican National Convention last summer.

In a Thursday press conference, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described Kislyak"s frequent meetings with Trump associates as just part of his job.

"I will reveal a military secret: diplomats work, and their work consists of making contacts within their assigned country," Zakharova said. "This is written everywhere. If they do not make contacts and do not participate in talks, then they are not diplomats." 

Former U.S. ambassador to Russia John Beyrle described Kislyak as a low-profile diplomat to ABC News.

“He likes to operate behind the scenes,” Beyrle said.

“He’s a professional diplomat, not a politician. I’m sure he’s surprised to have acquired such notoriety recently. I"m sure he’s probably not enjoying his time in the limelight."

The Russian diplomat was born in 1950 and studied nuclear physics in Moscow before joining the Soviet foreign service in the 1970s.

From 1981 to 2008, Kislyak held numerous high-ranking positions within the Soviet and Russian Foreign Ministry, including his post as ambassador to Belgium and Russia"s representative to NATO. His term as the Russian ambassador reportedly ends this spring.

"You"re never confused about what country he"s representing here ... he does it fantastically well" said former U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, while introducing Kislyak at a lecture event in November.

McFaul described the Russian envoy as "effective and experienced," while noting that Kislyak had held "all the most important jobs in the Foreign Ministry — except one."

Trump allies" contacts with the Russian official have drawn intense scrutiny following the intelligence community"s assessment that Russia spearheaded a hacking campaign to help Trump win the 2016 election.

Still, Beyrle said, "It’s frankly not odd in the least for him to have met Jeff Sessions, a senior senator on the Armed Services Committee, up on Capitol Hill ... To call him a spy is to misunderstand what a diplomat, even a Russian diplomat, does."

Kislyak has attended a number of Trump events, most recently his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, where he was pictured on on the House floor. An NBC News producer reported that there were nearly 100 seats reserved for the diplomatic corps. 

The Russian ambassador also attended one of Trump"s foreign policy speeches in April 2016 and was slated to attend his inauguration in January, with a Russian embassy spokesman describing his invitation as common, according to The Daily Beast.

Kislyak also frequently comments on the state of relations between U.S. and Russia, urging for improvement in bilateral ties.

"The quality of the relations today is very deplorable," Kislyak said while delivering a speech at The Economic Club in January. "The quality of these relations today, in my view, is the worst after the end of the Cold War."

When asked about his conversation with Flynn, Kislyak said he was "disappointed" that they were intercepted by the U.S. intelligence, but added that he would not comment on the conversation.

"We have a policy of not commenting on our daily conversations with our interlocutors, because if everything that we discuss is going to be discussed then publicly, who is then going to be interested in talking to me?" he said.

Some Russian officials hope Trump"s broader policy of friendship toward Moscow will withstand the current political storm in Washington.

A top Russian senator lauded Trump on Wednesday for not mentioning "vicious nonsense" about Russia during his speech to Congress.

"Trump"s performance in Congress stood out due to self-restraint, balanced tone and absence of vicious nonsense toward Russia that was common for [former President] Obama," Alexey Pushkov said.

What Trump Should Do to Oust McCain

Via The Daily Bell

John McCain Becomes Critic in Chief of the Trump Administration ... Senator John McCain has long had a reputation as a political maverick. But with the rise of a president who has vowed to shatter the old order, Mr. McCain has emerged as an outspoken defender of longstanding Republican verities on foreign policy and as one of his party’s most biting critics of the new commander in chief. - New York Times

Why doesn"t President Trump just confront McCain on his denials that captured troops were left behind in Vietnam? That would be one way to go after McCain and the idea that he is an honorable man. What kind of individual argues for 50 years that there are no prisoners in Vietnam post-war when there probably were at least a thousand or more?

For decades, McCain has been in the forefront of denying that Hanoi had prisoners it hadn"t released at the end of the war. Hanoi actually kept these troops as bargaining chips subject to further negotiations that never occurred. Now, with both Hanoi and Washington denying such left-behind troops, their chances of their freedom has dwindled to virtually nothing.

Sydney Schanberg back in 2010 wrote what is perhaps the most convincingly argued article for additional POWs retained by Hanoi after the end of the war. It has well over ten points developed in detail rebutting McCain"s claims.

Schanberg has been a journalist for nearly 50 years. The 1984 movie “The Killing Fields,” was based on his book The Death and Life of Dith Pran. In 1975, Schanberg was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting “at great risk.” He is also the recipient of two George Polk awards, two Overseas Press Club awards, and the Sigma Delta Chi prize for distinguished journalism.

More from the McCain article at the beginning of this story:

Newly re-elected to a six-year term and eager to wield the megaphone that comes with the chairmanship of the powerful Armed Services Committee, Mr. McCain has repeatedly pushed back on the White House’s national security policies in its first weeks.

In a star turn at a security conference in Munich on Friday, he delivered a forceful critique of President Trump’s “America First” vision before a receptive audience of experts and allied officials worried about American drift from a seven-decade-old Western alliance.

“Make no mistake, my friends, these are dangerous times,” Mr. McCain said. “But you should not count America out, and we should not count each other out.”

“In many respects, this administration is in disarray, and they’ve got a lot of work to do,” he said.

This is the sort of rhetoric that McCain has been disseminating since Trump got into office. He also challenged Mr. Trump on the issues that media is “the enemy of the American people.” On many subjects he comes down opposite to Trump.

This wouldn"t be so bad if Trump"s positions were horrible. But some of his positions are very good if you believer with Trump that globalists ought not to take over America. Overall, Trump abuses the presidency as much as previous presidents by taking powers that don"t belong to him. But in trying tov beat back globalist interference he has been better than any president since Reagan.

Right now McCain is the bigger problem because he so obviously believes in much of the globalist agenda. There is little he rejects though he doesn"t come right out and say he is an explicit endorser. But he is.

Trump could rebut McCain in a number of ways but the most convincing might indeed be via the prisoner issue. Many prisoners were probably left behind in Vietnam though many have probably died by now.

In 1990, Col. Millard Peck, a decorated infantry veteran of Vietnam then working at the DIA as chief of the Asia Division for Current Intelligence, asked for the job of chief of the DIA’s Special Office for Prisoners of War and Missing in Action. His reason for seeking the transfer, which was not a promotion, was that he had heard from officials throughout the Pentagon that the POW/MIA office had been turned into a waste-disposal unit for getting rid of unwanted evidence about live prisoners—a “black hole,” these officials called it.

Peck explained all this in his telling resignation letter of Feb. 12, 1991, eight months after he had taken the job. He said he viewed it as “sort of a holy crusade” to restore the integrity of the office but was defeated by the Pentagon machine. The four-page, single-spaced letter was scathing, describing the putative search for missing men as “a cover-up.”

Schanberg is right to raise the issues of the POW"s and McCain is wrong to continue his coverup. On the other hand, there are complicating issues. McCain himself was a POW and quickly and exhaustively cooperated with his captors. There may be personal issues as to why McCain does not want captives returned. He has termed the idea of POWs a "conspiracy theory."

Conclusion: McCain obviously has deep anger issues regarding POWs. He is also an advocate of globalism. He is consistently on the wrong side of issues as they occur on the biggest questions of the day. Whatever else Trump does or doesn"t do, taking on McCain and effectively removing some of his power would be a big favor. There likely will be an explosion between these two sooner or later, if only because McCain is so angry.

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