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Carter Page, Useful Idiot
h/t Instapundit[AmericanThinker] As someone who has followed Russia for four decades, I perceive Carter Page as a bit of a naif. Our assessments of Russian foreign policy, by all accounts, are diametrically opposed, and Page’s inclusion, along with Mike Flynn, on the Trump campaign’s foreign-policy team gave me yet another reason not to vote for The Donald. With all due respect for Page’s native intelligence and high level of education, he comes across as what Lenin pithily called a "useful idiot." ...Indicative of this attitude is the surreptitiously taped characterization of Page by the Russian intelligence operative who vetted him in 2013 for possible recruitment: "I think he is an idiot." Apparently, however, Page didn’t even qualify as a useful one‐the operative decided he was not even worth recruiting. This assessment should be borne in mind, since Trump’s detractors, to the contrary, have decided that Page is extremely useful indeed, albeit in an entirely different way. ...Make no mistake: If the account in the Steele dossier were true, it would represent a quantum leap in Russian risk-taking with regard to manipulation of foreign elections. Things like hacking and leaking, or planting slanted stories, are low-cost, low-risk activities impossible to trace back to senior Russian officialdom. However, if the Russian leadership were taking the gamble of personal involvement in such a high-risk scheme, would it trust a man whom their own intelligence services had assessed as worthless? ...It’s hardly a secret that, for a broad swath of the U.S. political classes and the American press, the removal of Trump has become the Holy Grail, the goal to which all other things must be subordinated. In this sacred endeavor, Carter Page is useful in ways that even the most cynical Russian handlers could hardly have imagined. And if his dignity and reputation must be utterly trashed in the process‐well, so much the worse for Page. Mind you, the ruling elites would do anything to undermine political opponents, not just in USA. Right now chief legal authority in Israel decides whether Israel's PM should stand trial for receiving a gift of cigars. Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2018-02-15 |
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