I think that people here get correct the picture.Dand wrote:OK, I understand. We're on the same page more than I thought. No puppet, no puppet.
The real question here is how this mess will effect Trump's cabinet and it's working relationship with the intelligence services and the military. Now if Trump simply disregards the whole thing and would approach Russian in extremely friendly terms, the issue won't go away. Now some Mattis or Pompeo have no problem, but especially some Flynn might have a somewhat problem here. With Tillerson of course the question is if he is a Secretary of State for the US or a Secretary of State for Exxon and Exxon's interests in Russia. Future CIA chief Pompeo for example, a veteran of the military-industrial complex and the congress, has been in the Senate Intelligence Committee doesn't have a pro-Russia problem:
See here.But unlike Trump and Flynn, Pompeo is also hawkish on Russia, putting him much more in sync with most of the nation’s top military brass who see Russia as America’s top national security threat, but potentially at odds with his new boss.
Trump has expressed a desire to work with Russia in Syria to fight ISIS. But Pompeo has called the notion that Russia’s goal in Syria is to defeat ISIS “a fundamentally false narrative” and suggested that Russia’s real goal is trying to establish a foothold in the Middle East.
Mike Pompeo
Yet the cabinet picks, the political heads of departments are just one thing. The biggest worry is this "storm in a glass or water" morphs into a general dysfunctional relationship between the White House and the intelligence services. Naturally the media typically makes this a bigger problem and the Democrats will try to use this to their advantage.
See hereThe simmering distrust between Donald Trump and U.S. intelligence agencies escalated into open antagonism Saturday after the president-elect mocked a CIA report that Russian operatives had intervened in the U.S. presidential election to help him win. The growing tensions set up a potential showdown between Trump and the nation’s top intelligence officials during what some of those officials describe as the most complex threat environment in decades.
U.S. intelligence officials described mounting concern and confusion about how to proceed in an administration so openly hostile to their function and role. “I don’t know what the end game is here,” a senior U.S. intelligence official said. “After Jan. 20,” the official said, referring to Inauguration Day, “we’re in uncharted territory.”
Through the working relationship and with actual Trump policies emerging this might improve. Interesting thing is that if it would have been Hillary Clinton assembling her cabinet now, there would be a same kind of problem with Hillary and the FBI.