Another shoe dropping: Erik Prince advised Trump transition team on intel, then met w/ Putin aide

[MelissaB]

Blackwater Founder Erik Prince Said to Have Advised Trump Team
by Keri Geiger
and Michael Riley
April 18, 2017, 5:00 AM EDT

...snip

According to people familiar with his activities, Prince entered Trump Tower through the back, like others who wanted to avoid the media spotlight, and huddled with members of the president-elect’s team to discuss intelligence and security issues. The conversations provide a glimpse of Prince’s relationship with an administration that’s distanced itself from him since the Washington Post reported earlier this month that Prince had met with a top aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Seychelles in January.

That island encounter was the latest in a series of conversations between Trump advisers and Russians that have come to light as U.S. investigators probe allegations that Russia interfered with the presidential election.

snip

Yet over a two to three month period around the election, Prince met several times with top aides as the incoming government took shape, offering ideas on how to fight terror and restructure the country’s major intelligence agencies, according to information provided by five people familiar with the meetings. Among those he conferred with was Flynn, a member of the transition team who joined the administration and was later dismissed, some of the people said. He discussed possible government appointees with people in the private sector, one person said. Prince himself told several people that while he was not offering his advice in any official capacity, his role was significant.

Acela Trip

The meetings occurred in Trump Tower, the administration’s transition office in Washington and elsewhere, according to people familiar with them. In one informal discussion in late November, Prince spoke openly with two members of Trump’s transition team on a train bound from New York to Washington. He boarded the same Acela as Kellyanne Conway and they sat together. Joining the conversation at one point was Kevin Harrington, a longtime associate of Trump adviser Peter Thiel who is now on the National Security Council. They discussed, in broad terms, major changes the incoming administration envisioned for the intelligence community, as recounted by a person on the train who overheard their conversation.

More: https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-18/blackwater-founder-erik-prince-said-to-have-advised-trump-team

[Initech]

1. I keep saying: Bannon is expendable. Erik Prince is the real brains of the operation.

Time to come out of the shadows, Erik! You can run but you can't hide!

[Kingofalldems]

2. Kick this one.

[spanone]

3. K&R...

[kentuck]

4. Is Bloomberg a reliable source?

I think so.

[malaise]

7. Very

Bet the sister was given Chief Mercenary in Education as the payoff

[leftynyc]

5. When talking about this cretin

it should ALWAYS be mentioned he's the brother of the Secy of Education.

[malaise]

8. I'd start with Chief Mercenary in Iraq n/t

[leftynyc]

9. That too

So many miscreants that are associated with this repulsive administration, it's hard to keep up without charts (and Rachel Maddow).

[calimary]

13. Or, as her department now spells it, Secretary of Educatuon.

Saw that in an officially-tweeted photo of her reading to some kids at yesterday's White House Easter Egg Roll.

[L. Coyote]

6. Why was the secret #TrumpRussia server connecting to DeVos' company? Erik Prince, of course.

There is a whole lot more to learn about why the Russian connection leads to the Prince family in Michigan.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[Raster]

17. I believe that tRump* server that supposedly did mass emailings for tRump* properties...

... was configured to be an ultra-secure, point-to-point, internet phone link that was able to avoid typical Internet information transfer protocols... highly encrypted and immune to high-level monitoring by the NSA and/or GCHQ. I believe this has been going on for several years, at least.

tRump* wasn't The Manchurian Candidate, he was The Siberian Candidate, and, I believe, an FSB/KGB asset. I believe the fake news, the bot-nets, the election malfeasance was all part of a sophisticated, synchronous plan to install tRump* as POTUS.

I also believe that there is a very real possibility that "minor hacks," --small, almost imperceptible "tweaking" of a very small percentage of voting machines and/or their tabulators further ensured that enough of the voting results was slanted to favor tRump*. The celebrating seen in Moscow on election night was indeed because tRump* had won, but more importantly the entire machine as-a-whole functioned well enough to yield a win.

[L. Coyote]

22. That would not explain the timing of the communications, the regular interval every 61 minutes. $$$

It is a server in a bank on the russia end, so maybe it is a money laundering computer, set up to transfer $9,999.99 every one hour and one minute, just under the amount that requires reporting of the transfer on the American end. And if that money was financing trump's campaign, prison time. Other explanations and excuses (lies) are being floated. Yours is one of the trump lies. Read more here:

https://teapainusa.wordpress.com/2017/04/03/data-patterns-suggest-trump-towerspectrum-health-ran-a-stealth-data-machine-with-russia/

Lots of theories, but only the money laundering hypothesis accounts for the regularity and timing of the connections, ttbomk. And, recent news has Erik Prince under investigation for money laundering, Congress critters going to Cyprus to investigate money laundering, Russian mob money laundering with real estate purchases from Trump, more money laundering by Manafort, unreported, illegal payments to Bannon. All arrows seem to point to the bank being involved with money, not data, not to mention Occam's razor and the fact that it is a BANK!

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[AntiFascist]

25. As I suspected, a lot of this probably has to do with building pipelines...

The New York Times said Prince now has a $529 million contract from the UAE to create its foreign legion. It has recruited Colombians and South Africans, among others. Training is being conducted by retired American soldiers, veterans of the German and British special operations units and former officers of the French Foreign Legion.

The battalion is to put down internal revolts, defend pipelines and other infrastructure and conduct special operations missions inside and outside the UAE, the newspaper said in its Sunday edition.

http://iran-times.com/uae-prince-erik-prince-may-seize-abu-musa/

[BadgerMom]

10. Two picayune items that strike me

1. These brainiacs discuss national security in a public, unsecured environment. SMH!

2. Our intrepid MSM reporters either never figured out there was a back way into Trump Tower or are such well-behaved lap dogs that they had no problem sitting in the lobby to be hand fed the news and lists of meeting participants for the day. Actual reporting of facts is well beyond most of them at this point.

[calimary]

20. Well, they go for the low-hanging fruit. The front entrance where some of the VIPs come and go

and are seen. The REAL "goods" are often smuggled in and out through the back door.

I tried that once and scooped all the rest of the news media - local, national, and international. VERY minor, but it was still a scoop. When I was at the AP, there were many events and happenings to cover regarding Elizabeth Taylor. There were several times when she was hospitalized, a couple of them serious. One of these was at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica. Word spread that she was finally going to be released that day, after a pretty rough and lengthy stay. A news conference setting was arranged out in front of the main entrance to the hospital - podium, mics, cameras, the works. By the time I got there, reporters were already assembling. I was the radio reporter but this was one of many situations when the print-side didn't have a reporter available (busy covering other news, or short-staffed, or some such), and they'd send me to cover it for print, too, and then use my quotes and so forth.

Everybody was ready. What the AP and others usually did was prepare a write-thru and leave the opening sentence blank. That way, the background of the story was already written, researched, edited, and in place. The new lead would be popped in as soon as it happened, and BOOM, the story goes out all over everywhere (in the AP's case, on the wires into every subscribing news outlet in the world). Obits are all done that way. You prepare the background with all the research and the life-story and get it all set up in advance so that when the celebrity or VIP actually passes, you just update the top, fast-fast-fast, and it's done. Our story had been written and was all ready for the new topper - she was finally released from the hospital, expected to return home to continue her recovery, blah-blah-blah. In this case I think it was a bad flu that deteriorated into multiple infections that just complicated everything, especially in her condition with longtime recurring health problems and also, by then, her age. There had been one point in this case wherein it was speculated she was so ill that she might not make it.

So, not sure why I did it, but for some reason I felt like wandering over around the corner and down the block - to where the hospital's loading dock was. And sure enough, guess what I saw? A slick black town car with serious-looking guys in black suits. The car doors were closing. The car headed up the driveway and out, passing directly in front of me, and I could just barely make her out in the back seat. She waved at me. I immediately called the bureau where they were expecting to hear from me, and said "she's out!" BOOM! The supervisor quickly types in the new lead at the top of the story and out it goes. Scooped EVERYBODY. The reporters at the front entrance were all still waiting for the official announcement from the hospital. I had actually eyeballed her departure. Just a lucky guess, but that's how it happened!

Then I walked back up to the hospital entrance and set up to cover the news conference that would soon follow. It was kinda neat to see some of the reporters on their cell phones, getting the notice from their newsrooms that AP had just said she's been released, and to ask this or that. (Teeheehee - that was me! AAAAAAAhhh!!!)

But the REALLY coolest thing was when I got back to the bureau and saw the long print-side write-thru that had gone out on the wire, breaking the news. They'd given me the byline.

That was an AMAZING day.

[BadgerMom]

28. Congrats!

That's a great story, memory and victory. We need some of those instincts in today's press corps!

[DK504]

11. Nothing to see here - move along.

Listen to the mercenary rather than 17 spy agencies. He's an idiot, a traitor and a collaborator .

"He wasn't paid."

That doesn't stop him from being an advisor. Fucking traitors.

[mzteaze]

21. But....

It oddly makes sense.

Trump's entire platform was based on his being an outsider to the government, so his consulting lots of non government advisors like Prince fits. But, here's the pear shaped, idiot logic factor - we now know that Trump is easily swayed in one direction or the other by smooth talking & lots of pictures. His stunning lack of knowledge on a variety of subjects leaves him open to being easily swayed to any set of "facts" that sounds good to him, even if it's ultimately truly fact-free.

[Control-Z]

31. His stunning lack of knowledge

on a variety of most subjects...

[ck4829]

27. +1. "He wasn't paid" is completely meaningless

Trump said he wouldn't take a salary, but he is bleeding the local economy dry when he visits his Florida lair. Talk about a cost.

[Raster]

12. Oh goody, just what we need... Erik Prince giving "security" advice....

... new-age vampire Peter Thiel heading for his New Zealand hidey-hole in 5... 4... 3... 2...

[90-percent]

14. "....but THEIR GOD says; Avenge the crusades."

If they give academy awards for war profiteering, Erik would have to buy out an industrial park just to house the trophies.

But it's OK, he's carrying out GOD'S WILL. With a little more panache than Jim Jones or David Koresh. But from the same trainwreck of thought. My memories fuzzy - did Blackwater mercenaries drop Iraqi's out of helicopters, or just gun them down in the streets? Bet Erik's just itching to get back into the multi billion dollar war crimes industrial complex. And when he does it, this admin will be proud of him and the orange sub human will get a 3% poll bump for two days.

Lifetime solitary confinement with daily water boarding would be an appropriate fate for this moral monster. And his sis in an adjacent cell.

And what do you know? Frank Zappa wrote a song about that!

-90%

[retrowire]

15. Another shoe?!

How many feet does this thing have?!?!

[Fast Walker 52]

18. it's a centipede!

hopefully not a millipede.

[Blue_Tires]

16. Are there any NON-pieces of shit in Trump's extended circle?

It's a literal rogues gallery, worse than Reagan's...

[Ligyron]

19. I'm certainly no fan of Trump or Prince but I see nothing illegal reported here.

What am I missing?

[dalton99a]

23. Kick.

[ck4829]

24. Kick

[Eliot Rosewater]

26. NO depth they wont sink to, what an absolute sickening bunch.

[Cheviteau]

29. Huh?

Trump's operation got brains? Who Knew? Seriously, this whole investigation is moving at a snail's pace it seems. I want to see some indictments, articles of impeachments and such.

[LaydeeBug]

30. How many fucking shoes need to drop?

I think this is all diversion to run down the clock and further an extremist right wing agenda

[wishstar]

32. Trump & Co. distanced themselves again from another secretive advisor with Russian connections

Familiar pattern of Trump & Co. downplaying or denying relationship with Prince when in fact he met numerous times with campaign officials around election and then in January met with top Putin aide in secretive Sychelles meeting.

[YOHABLO]

33. It's all too much to synthesize. So many vile entities a play here.

[L. Coyote]

34. K & R

[solara]

35. How many shoes need to be dropped

Before we have enough to kick trump's ass out of the WH?

[img][/img]

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

36. K & R