Has Putin Just Arrested Two American Spies? (Is The Wall kerfuffle a distraction from this?)

[flamingdem]

*** And Trump is about to end sanctions on Russia unilaterally (Rachel is on fire about this)

http://www.newsweek.com/has-putin-just-arrested-two-american-spies-548528

Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin, May 10, 2015, in Moscow, Russia. Russian officials may have discovered that Sergei Mikhailov and Ruslan Stoyanov were U.S. intelligence sources, Gary Schmitt writes, and were the reason (or at least one reason) why the intelligence community was as certain as it was that the Kremlin had been complicit in the Russian hacking effort. Alexander Aksakov/Getty

Or, the paper speculates, “the detention of an official who would have been in a position to engage in the election hacking in America could indicate a goodwill gesture to the United States, which has sanctioned Russia for the electoral meddling.” Either of these two scenarios could of course be true.
Related: Expelling Russian spies is not enough

However, a third possibility exists—one ignored by the Times—that Russian officials discovered that Mikhailov and Stoyanov were U.S. intelligence sources and were the reason (or at least one reason) why the intelligence community was as certain as it was that the Kremlin had been complicit in the Russian hacking effort.

[elehhhhna]

1. The big question is who in the White House give Putin the names of our spies?

So many possibilities.

[Raster]

2. Comrades Flynn or Bannon would be my guess.

[flamingdem]

3. That is chilling

If Trump did this it's prison for him.

[TexasProgresive]

4. Remember Valerie Plame and how Cheney went to prison?

Yeah, just like that didn't happen the royal 'Rump will not either.

[flamingdem]

5. Yes, certainly not now when the witnesses are in Siberia!

Sigh

[justiceischeap]

6. Let's speculate for one second

Trump was briefed before he was inaugurated about the Russian hacking. General Flynn is retired, so no security clearance. If Flynn or Bannon talked to Russia and gave them names, where did they get the names...Trump.

This has bigger consequences than Cheney and Libbey.

[flamingdem]

8. Good question

since the first US asset / spy was snagged December 6th. Who knew and when.

[TrekLuver]

10. I think if I was a spy...now forgive me I'm not sure exactly how these things work..but if I was a

spy I would of been high tailing it the fuck out of there after Nov 6. Being a spy wouldn't you kinda know or have a whiff of what is really going on with Trashbag and Putin. ?

[flamingdem]

12. They probably thought that tRump and pals wouldn't be total traitors!

But it sure looks like they are.

[TrekLuver]

13. Well then they are not very good spies because it's pretty apparent to me what a traitor he is.

And I ain't no spy.

[flamingdem]

14. Seriously

I'm guessing what's happening to them is like a very scary spy novel.

They were probably unable to escape since they were no doubt.. being spied on.

[justiceischeap]

15. From what I understand

There's a difference between a spy and an asset. A spy does serious spy shit. An asset passes on or has passed on information. Like a mall spy.

[flamingdem]

32. Lol! Mall Spy!

Mall Cop was pretty funny

[TexasProgresive]

39. What should be and what will happen are 2 very different things.

Who's going to charge any of these miscreants? Who's going to prosecute? The only way this congress will do anything to this administration is if they (the congress) fell personally betrayed by the administration.

[bdamomma]

19. would Comey be involved in this???

or indirectly.

[TrekLuver]

7. Sacrificial Lambs?

[mfcorey1]

9. Did someone in the U S, who now has access to intelligence, have

revealed their connection? Hmmmmmm! The tentacles, the tentacles.

[flamingdem]

11. The first one was nabbed right after the election

but Trump had not seen the intelligence at that point.

We need a timeline.

[tableturner]

22. Almost all of the DC press had seen the intelligence dossier, so it would be almost impossible that

Trump and his minions did not know what was in it.

[flamingdem]

24. But the names of the assets was not in the dossier

.. I don't think so anyway.

[Warpy]

16. It is. Looks like Trump is repaying his masters for their yuge favor

just before the election.

He's been in for under a week and it's already getting very bad.

Anyone overseas with any connection to the CIA needs to go to ground. Fast.

[flamingdem]

33. Anyone involved in Iraq as well

He compromised them too.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

17. If Trump's team, upon getting intelligence reports, outed those guys...

Mossad might need to fix this problem for us. Yeah, I said it.

Edit: I'm making a bunch of assumptions, of course. Time will tell...

[Rex]

29. Don't fret. Orange Shitgibbon called many times for his 2nd amendment followers

to do something about HRC, when he thought she was going to win. He set the standard and you can prove that in court.

[moondust]

18. Another possible scenario.

They may not have been U.S. moles but good Putinistas doing their jobs overseeing the hacking for Trump. Then Putin decided he didn't want to trust them anymore with so much insider knowledge and "took them out of circulation" so he wouldn't have to worry about them talking. Really nasty to nail your own guys but...that's security in a totalitarian oligarchy.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

20. True. n/t

[Rex]

27. He could just retire them to Siberia.

He is the rule of law in Russia.

[moondust]

30. Oh but Siberia has Internet, comrade.

And satellites and phones. Noisy.

Lubyanka is quiet and I'm sure they will be very, very happy and undisturbed there.

[Rex]

31. LOL!

Very undisturbed, yes good way to put it. Probably never hear from them again.

[flamingdem]

34. Get thee to Siberia

formerly loyal comrade.

We'll probably never learned what happened.

[montanacowboy]

21. If these two guys are

CIA agents, what is the CIA going to do about this?

Is that a beginning of a Russian takeover of the oountry? REmoving Sanctions comes next?

No one left at the top level of the State Department?

When does Red Dawn occur? This is pretty dam serious fucking shit.

[flamingdem]

23. Red Dawn was a great flick!

I hope that someone leaks what's going on at the CIA, must be pretty wild.

[fun n serious]

28. Yes. Is there anything our leaders can do?

I am sure they have to know..

[okieinpain]

25. kaspersky-labs-top-investigator-reportedly-arrested-in-treason-probe

https://arstechnica.com/security/2017/01/kaspersky-labs-top-investigator-reportedly-arrested-in-treason-probe/

[jmg257]

38. This article thinks the notion that Stoyanov is a US source is off...

"A much more chilling scenario, offered in this post from Lawfare Blog, is that Stoyanov was a source for US intelligence officers who ultimately concluded Russian-sponsored hacking attempted to interfere with the 2016 US presidential election. That speculation is likely off base because it doesn't fit with Kaspersky's assertion Stoyanov is being investigated for activities that predated his employment or with this claim from a fellow Kaspersky Lab researcher that Stoyanov's research never involved advanced persistent threats, the term for hacking techniques used by government-sponsored spies. People advancing the theory seem to be basing it on the timing of the arrest, which roughly coincided with the classified release of specific details said to support the US intelligence community's claims the hacking was ordered by President Vladimir Putin."

[okieinpain]

41. good point but coincidences makes me nervous. n/t.

[Rex]

26. This is a silly question, but has Trump been checked for bugs?

What did he bring back from all those trips? Does he even know? How well does he know?

The guy looks like he walks around pretty clueless all day long.

[flamingdem]

35. He's on an unsecure cell phone still

Apparently no one can stop him the way they got Obama off his Blackberry

[Rex]

37. Where are the calls for an investigation!?

Shouldn't the GOP be worried about national security? Serious question. Will anyone be shouting about this in the media?

[MFM008]

36. something is leaking

besides maggots diaper.

[DeminPennswoods]

40. TPM link

Reposting the story from TPM: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/wow-it-gets-bigger