Wednesday, November 08, 2017

Kidnapped. Plus: Sealed indictments?

Yes, Virginia: Democrat Ralph Northam won, and rather more handily than I would have thought possible. So why did I forecast a Gillespie victory ? Because I always predict that the person I don't like will win. In the grand casino of politics, you need a betting strategy, and my strategy is cynicism.

It's not a foolproof tactic, but it often works. I also predicted a Trump victory.

Flynn the abductor.
Former CIA Director James Woolsey is a reliable reactionary, so we were all a little stunned when, not long before the election, he suddenly decided to quit Team Trump. Eventually we learned the reason: Woolsey says that he witnessed Michael Flynn (Trump's former national security adviser) discuss the commission of a serious crime.

During election season, Flynn was not just a Trump adviser -- he also secretly functioned as an agent of Turkish government. He even published a rabidly pro-Erodgan editorial on election day.

The Turkish strongman fears and despises one man above all others: An exiled cleric named Fethullah Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania yet commands an impressive following in his homeland. The Gulen movement inspired a coup against Erdogan in July of 2016.

Erdogan wants Gulen extradited. Flynn's editorial supported that goal. But his support went further than that.

On September 19, 2016, Woolsey attended a meeting with Flynn. Woolsey says that he saw Flynn discuss a kidnapping.
Woolsey told the Journal that the idea was "a covert step in the dead of night to whisk this guy away."
"This guy" was, of course, Gulen. Flynn, through his lawyers, denies that any such plot was afoot.

(Does Woolsey have a motive for lying about such a thing? I strongly doubt it. I may not like Woolsey, but I can't see why he'd fib about this.)

Woolsey, we are told, was so bothered by what he heard that he quit the Trump effort and reported on the alleged kidnapping plot to none other than Joe Biden. If I understand the sequence of events correctly, Biden brought the matter to the attention of the FBI. Thus, my first question: Why haven't we heard confirmation directly from Biden?

Let's add a little moral complexity to this storyline:
Reuters, citing three people familiar with the matter, reported Thursday that Woolsey and his wife, Nancye Miller, pitched a $10 million contract to two Turkish businessmen to help discredit Gülen while Woolsey was an adviser to Donald Trump's election campaign.
Woolsey was fine with a smear campaign, but he drew the line at kidnapping. That's how right-wing politics work these days: Whitewaters are okay, but Dealey Plazas are out. 

We now know that Woolsey is working with Robert Mueller's investigation. We also know that Mueller thinks he has enough to file charges against Flynn. Many people think that Flynn has already been indicted. It seems fair to suggest that the alleged kidnapping plot will be mentioned in the indictment.

Here's my big question: Is Woolsey's testimony -- unsupported by other evidence -- sufficient for a conviction?

Imagine the tableau: A courtroom showdown in which a former CIA Director accuses a former DIA Director of plotting an abduction. It's cheesy, it's sleazy, and it'll make everyone uneasy. Yet such a thing is possible.

I have another big question. Are there "unpardonable" crimes in the Era of Trump? In preceding posts, I've repeatedly hammered home the point that Trump is shameless enough to pardon anyone of anything, if he sees no other to save his capacious hindquarters. It's pretty obvious that Manafort's lawyer is angling for the Big P. But there are three crimes which -- in my estimation -- are particularly difficult for Trump to pardon: Rape, kidnapping and murder. Even Paul Ryan might feel compelled to shout: "That's it. Show's over. We're ringing down the curtain."

So let's say the kidnapping charge falls into the "unpardonable" category. Will Flynn then cut a deal? Will he rat out Trump?

On a very related note:

Sealed indictments. Last night, the District of Columbia docket included twenty-one sealed indictments against a (presumably) smaller number of individuals. I don't know if Mueller is the one behind these indictments, but there are worse ways to bet.

9 comments:

Commander Zaius said...

Even Paul Ryan might feel compelled to shout: "That's it. Show's over.

Nice thought, but I simply don't see it. Ryan strikes me as an individual without a soul. Maybe if trump's polls fall into the low twenties, Ryan might panic but even that feels like a stretch.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of kidnapping...

"More unfortunate is that these incidents have had the unintended side effect of protecting Nugent from a far bigger character issue. In fact, in the case of Nugent, we have even come to see alleged child sexual abuse as some sort of eccentricity or harmless vice. Can you imagine anyone else who had been accused of having sex with a 12-year-old, written a song about raping a 13-year-old and adopted a 17-year-old so that he could have sex with her going on to campaign alongside all the most conservative “family values” candidates?"
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-womack/ted-nugents-jailbait-problem_b_4840060.html

Here's a New York Times article below from this year talking about Nugent visiting Trump in the White House but not mentioning claims Nugent raped underaged girls and therefore has no place standing next to the U.S. President. So a rocker who sings about raping 13 year olds and sharing the 13 year old with a cop, is standing next to a U.S. President accused of raping a 13 year old, and who is friends with a guy accused of raping 13,14,15 year olds(Epstein) and some how the media is talking about Dustin Hoffman putting his hand on the butt of a 17 year old 30 years ago? Why is that?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/20/us/politics/sarah-palin-kid-rock-ted-nugent-white-house.html

Dustin Hoffman patted a 17 year old girl on the butt in the 70s/80s in a different age of awareness on things related to sexuality, age, gender....therefore I am destroying every movie and magazine right now that has his face in it? Plus I am destroying all movies with Rob Lowe, destroying my David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones collections because all those dudes had sex with 15, 16 and 17 year olds too. How old was that Maddox girl when they were passing her around? 14? Dolly Parton was once alleged to have done something similar. So all her shit in the trash. unredeemable. How many rockers through the 50s,60s, 70s were singing about 16 year old girls? ALOT OF THEM. All of it in the trash. Same for a lot of politicians, sports stars, etc. Many of them still alive, so is the media just taking its time to getting to destroying everyone of these people in turn for doing the same thing? Because this is going to be a massive takedown. No, not going to happen.

Maybe the New York Times and FBI soon to team up to expose to poor highly stressed out Americans watching all their institutions gettin wrecked, how all of those shitty drug lords running South American states allow sex with 13 year olds, in their countries, so the U.S. Media and FBI is going to call them out and bust these countries. Or go after the UK government for legally allowing sex with 16 year olds. So by USA standards all of UK is a nation of pedos. The whole entire United Kingdom. Or maybe go after Trumps BFF Russia for being CHILD ABUSSR WORLD CENTRAL HQ #1 if you believe all of the NGO reports. Trump Ex-Soviet state mobster buddies who traffic in drugs and underage girls. Or the businessmen being video taped with Eastern Euro underage girls at Epsteins New York and Florida Apartments? New York Times will bust it all open!

NOooo... NONE OF THAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN.... What will happen is USA is going to keep chewing away at itself while the rest of the world gets a good laugh. Specifically the Left Coast is up for sacrifice by the U.S. establishment to show something is being done about the rampant mass Pedo outbreak in Hollywood and measures are being taken to contain that shit so it doesn't spread to more respectable sectors like New York and South Florida.

In Murica... You can send 16 year olds off to die and kill other children in a war you lied about, profit off it, go sell books on the New York Times best seller list about it... But GAWD HELP YOU IF YOUR HAND STRAYS AND TOUCHES THE BUTT OF A 17 YEAR OLD 30 YEARS AGO!!! The New York Times will jump your ass and wreck your shit like Donald Trump at a Jeffrey Epstein Underage Elite "Massage" Party!!!

nemdam said...

I predicted a Gillespie win because with the tightening polls, I thought Donna Brazile was going to put him over the top just like Wikileaks and Comey did to Trump in 2016. But wow am I glad to be wrong! Democrats dominated everywhere.

Mr Mike said...

Did Mueller hold off on making arrests so as not to be accused of throwing the election?
How far did Flynn go with the kidnapping idea for it to become a criminal conspiracy?

Unknown said...

Teenage boys writing rock songs about teen-age girls is not pedophilia.

http://www.covertbookreport.com/ said...

It's not nice to kidnap someone who is being protected by the CIA's Graham Fuller...

Anonymous said...

Mr. Mike: I was thinking the same thing about Mueller--holding off with any other unsealed indictments so as not to taint another election.

Nemdam: I felt somewhat relieved after Periello said that Donna B.'s book was simply not an issue on the campaign trail. Brazile might have kicked up her book sales but she's wrecked her reputation in Democratic circles. Amazing how many people are willing to sell their souls these days!

My mood changed yesterday when I read about turnout. It's not rocket science--when Dems turn out en masse we win. If all we'd listened to was the shade the MSM threw, we would have been encouraged to stay home. Or hang ourselves. Time to turn off the damn TV, methinks.

Meanwhile my laugh of the morning was listening to Andrea Mitchell claim she called the Dem victory/wave.

Liar, liar, pants on fire!!

Peggysue

Anonymous said...

Enheduanna when these classic rockers were passing around a 14/15 year old Lori Maddox in the mid 70s they were in their 20s and 30s. Ted Nugent was not a teenager when he was singing about raping a 13 year old and sharing her with a cop. Everyone knows that. People understand if you start going after Los Angeles/Nashville/UK musicians who had sex with 15/16/17 year olds in the 60s, 70s and 80s they are going to unspool a whole generation of entertainers and their will be a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth as everyone throws out there entire Classic Rock and Country Music collections and calls for Napster and SoundCloud, Apple to remove all the their music for all eternity. Which is exactly why it hasn't happened. So the outrage is compartmentalized..... Some people are winners on this and some people are losers.... the media and political frenzy is after the low hanging fruit. How many times has DrudgeReport done a story on Ted Nugent and 13 year old girls? I bet the answer is ZERO. I say grab a bag of popcorn and sit back and watch this insane shitshow unspool itself.


Anonymous said...

"When it comes to rock’s Top 10 Jailbait Songs, some artists are all talk, and others actually walked that walk. Like Ted Nugent, who didn’t just sing about underage girls: When he was 30, he became the legal guardian of a 17-year-old so they could be together. It's also not too hard to imagine that legendary Lotharios like Gene Simmons and Mick Jagger are probably singing from experience. While several of these odes to forbidden fruit come across like barroom bragging, others serve as cautionary tales. Let’s just hope that none of them give Nugent any ideas."
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/jailbait-songs/

While USSA spirals out of its collective fucking mind failing to find a way to understand and re-integrate its past mistakes, USSR laughing its ass off.