Section: The Intercept (USA)
Decades Ago, Paul Manafort Played a Leading Role in a Pioneering Operation to Secretly Funnel Foreign Money into U.S. Politics
Former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort was a major player in a transnational operation that was both pioneering and innovative during its time, according to court documents and interviews with key figures. This decades-old scheme may fit the same pattern investigators are probing in regard to Russian government’s influence on...
As Hurricane Harvey Winds Down, Texas Members of Congress Tour European Castle
As the Texas coast looks toward recovery amid the death and destruction wrought by Hurricane Harvey, several lawmakers from the state were at a popular tourist spot in the Czech Republic this weekend. Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, a senior Appropriations Committee member, was spotted taking a tour of Prague Castle on Saturday. Carter was seen...
What’s Worse: Trump’s Campaign Agenda or Empowering Generals and CIA Operatives to Subvert it?
During his successful 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump, for better and for worse, advocated a slew of policies that attacked the most sacred prongs of long-standing bipartisan Washington consensus. As a result, he was (and continues to be) viewed as uniquely repellent by the neoliberal and neoconservative guardians of that consensus,...
Trump’s Objections to Russia Sanctions Law Suggest He Might Trade Crimea Away
After President Donald Trump reluctantly signed a bill on Wednesday that makes it harder for him to lift sanctions on Russia, the White House issued a curious statement in his name, complaining that the new law includes “a number of clearly unconstitutional provisions.” Specifically, the president complained about sections 253 and 257 of the...
Trump Intel Chief: North Korea Learned From Libya War to “Never” Give Up Nukes
The media is now filled with headlines about North Korea’s missile test on Friday, which demonstrated that its ICBMs may be able to reach the continental U.S. What isn’t mentioned in any of these stories is how we got to this point — in particular, what Dan Coats, President Donald Trump’s Director of National Security, explained...
With New D.C. Policy Group, Dems Continue to Rehabilitate and Unify With Bush-Era Neocons
One of the most under-discussed yet consequential changes in the American political landscape is the reunion between the Democratic Party and the country’s most extreme and discredited neocons. While the rise of Donald Trump, whom neocons loathe, has accelerated this realignment, it began long before the ascension of Trump and is driven by...
Russian-American Lobbyist Paid to Fight Sanctions Was at 2016 Trump Tower Meeting
The latest revelation about the Trump campaign’s secret meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya on June 9, 2016 is that the Russian lawyer was accompanied to Trump Tower that day by Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist who was working to repeal sanctions on Russian officials implicated in human rights abuses. The presence of the...
CNN Journalists Resign: Latest Example of Media Recklessness on the Russia Threat
Three prominent CNN journalists resigned Monday night after the network was forced to retract and apologize for a story linking Trump ally Anthony Scaramucci to a Russian investment fund under Congressional investigation. That article – like so much Russia reporting from the U.S. media – was based on a single anonymous source, and now, the...
The Syrian People Have Been Betrayed By All Sides
Where do you stand on the conflict in Syria? This question has become perhaps the ultimate political and sectarian Rorschach test of our time. Are you a leftist or libertarian who opposes U.S. air strikes and waxes lyrical about the paramountcy of Syrian sovereignty and international law? Or are you a very mainstream liberal or conservative who...
A Sanders Campaign Adviser was a Russian. Vitali Shkliarov Speaks Out.
An adviser and operative for the 2016 Sanders campaign was Vitali Shkliarov, a Soviet-born citizen of Belarus. Shkliarov, who had previously worked on the 2012 Obama re-election campaign and for several other successful Democratic Party campaigns, has also become increasingly in demand as a political adviser and campaign manager in Russia,...
