20 = XX: Beware the double cross

As most of you know by now, the anti-Trump movement includes prominent "former" spies and/or people with close ties to Spookworld. The best-known names would be Louise Mensch and John Schindler, whose pronouncements, in recent times, have received a great deal of publicity from the left-wing media. For example, Raw Story and Democratic Underground paid very respectful attention when Schindler proclaimed that the White House is targeting journalists using "Russian intel."

Is that specific allegation true? Don't know. This post is not about the merits of that claim. I am writing now to sound a note of caution.

Former NSA man Schindler claims to represent something called the 20committee. When I first saw that name, it struck a chord -- yet I did not comprehend the historical reference until this morning, when I slapped my forehead and flashed on a truth that should have been obvious from the start.

What an idiot I was! Why didn't I see it?

The "20committee" nomenclature is an homage to a classic WWII espionage operation better known as the XX Committee. "XX" is, of course, the number 20 in Roman numerals -- but in its original incarnation, it also referred to the double cross.

British intelligence agent John Masterman set up a spectacularly effective counter-intelligence ring which took effective control of all German spies within the British isles. Many Nazi spies were doubled; others were deceived. In order to sell false information to the Third Reich, the Brits surrounded each lie with a surprisingly large coating of genuine intelligence. It was the XX committee which convinced the Nazi high command that the Allied invasion would take place at Calais, not Normandy.

If John Schindler wants us to trust him, perhaps his group (if he really does represent a group) should not have named itself after history's grandest double cross.

About a month ago, liberal websites discovered Schindler. When he said that the intelligence community sought to remove Donald Trump, when he proclaimed that Trump would "die in jail," he told us precisely what we wanted to hear. Schindler tossed steak to the starving.

Schindler made no secret of the fact that he was a Republican. At first, his conservatism buttressed his credibility, since it automatically exempted him from the commonly-heard charge that only Hillary-loving die-hards believe in the Trump/Putin connection.

But Schindler is no ordinary conservative.

He is -- or was, until recently -- an employee of Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law and loyal aide. Before he began working in the White House, Kushner owned The Observer, which published many articles in which John Schindler smeared Hillary Clinton. According to Schindler, Hillary is a demon from the deepest pits of hell -- and the email pseudoscandal was history's worst betrayal since Judas took up coin-collecting.

In short and in sum: Mere months ago -- hell, mere weeks ago -- John Schindler was trying get Donald Trump elected.

What an idiot I was! Why didn't I see it?

I had, in fact, run across Schindler's work during the campaign. I recall reading a couple of his pieces -- as much as I could tolerate before the emetic effect necessitated a dash to the john. Unfortunately, the man's name simply did not stick in my memory banks. 

(This post reveals a weakness I've tried to hide for years: My memory for names is awful. I once forgot my own middle name. Literally.) 

Here are some examples of what John Schindler was getting up to in the days when he was a toiler for Trump's son-in-law:

Hillary’s Secret Kremlin Connection Is Quickly Unraveling

Why didn't that story catch fire? There are two possibilities. Either 1) Evil George Soros controls the entire mass media worldwide, or 2) Schindler didn't have his ducks in a row.

Did NSA Try to Destroy Hillary Clinton?
Allegations are circulating that the National Security Agency may be behind the massive hack of Hillary Clinton and her party

Vladimir, thou art absolved.

FBI Data Dump Shows Clinton Is Criminal and Clueless

She was neither.

EmailGate and the Mystery of the Missing GAMMA
Hillary Clinton’s 'unclassified' email included highly classified NSA information—why didn’t the FBI mention this fact?

Because it's bullshit...? No-one can credibly argue that the FBI helped Hillary.

Why Obama Is to Blame for Russia’s SpyWar on America

Most of us would blame Putin.

During this period, Schindler also published some material on the Trump/Putin linkage, although he was hardly "the firstest with the mostest." Always remember that Schindler is an admirer of the XX Committee. Always remember that the XX Committee deliberately fed genuine intelligence to the Nazis in order to make the false information seem credible.

A not-so-famous first. Fun fact: You know who was the first writer to publish the words "Russia is covertly working on behalf of Donald Trump"? Modesty forbids. For the record, these words appeared as early as June 16, 2016:

Bottom line: I think Putin wants Trump to win.

If Hillary faces Trump in a fair fight, she stands a good chance, because Donald Trump is an unlovable fool and a national disgrace. But what if Hillary's true opponent is the intelligence apparat of a formidable foreign power?

If that is the case, she cannot win.

If you can name another writer who made that argument before that date, please share with the rest of the class. John Schindler sure as hell didn't do it.

Jeez, Louise! I could write at equal length about Louise Mensch, the other "spooked up" conservative writer who has gained fame among the anti-Trumpers. For now, let's confine ourselves to two main points:

1. Just as Schindler took a paycheck from Jared Kushner, Mensch took (takes?) a paycheck from Rupert Murdoch. There's a line from Lawrence of Arabia for every occasion, and on this occasion, that line is this: "The servant is the one who takes the money."

2. Donald Trump's instantly-infamous tweet-storm blaming Obama for wiretapping Trump Tower traces back -- ultimately -- to a piece that Louise Mensch wrote for Murdoch's right-wing "libertarian" publication Heat Street. (Fucking libertarians are fucking everywhere.) In recent days, Mensch has (truthfully) stressed that her article does not accuse Obama of wiretapping. As this WP profile notes...

In tweets on Monday, Mensch emphasized that her reporting does not back up Trump’s wiretapping claim, even though the White House cited her article to justify the allegation. She stressed that her reporting refers to a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court warrant and does not mention anything about wiretapping.

In her report, published Nov. 7, Mensch said the FBI was granted a FISA court warrant in October “giving counter-intelligence permission to examine the activities of ‘U.S. persons’ in Donald Trump’s campaign with ties to Russia.”

She cited “two separate sources with links to the counter-intelligence community” as evidence for those claims.

Her twitter feed indicates that she is quite tight with John Schindler, whose 20committee is named after history's most successful counter-intelligence operation. Is Schindler one of those two sources? If he were, would she admit it?

For that matter, can we be certain that there is a second source? (James Angleton would sometimes pretend to have multiple sources when he was just repeating Golitsyn's bullshit.) If there are two sources, how can we be certain of their independence? How do we know that her sources are not beholden to the pro-Trump faction of the intelligence community?

As I've noted in a number of previous posts, Breitbart has been spooked up for years. Go ahead and double-check that claim. I dare you to prove me wrong.

I'm still of the opinion that Donald Trump's bizarre tweets were not simply issued in a moment of madness. I'm still of the opinion that he was "but mad north-northwest." I'm still of the opinion that he said what he said as part of a larger plot to frame Obama.

An outlandish idea, you say? Before you scoff, please re-read the above section labeled "A not-so-famous first." Many who scoffed last June 16 are not scoffing now.

A short word about the CIA documents on Wikileaks. I hope to have much more to say about this important topic. For now, let us note that, ten days after Trump took office, high-placed western moles in the FSB had bags placed over their heads as they were hustled off to their presumed dooms. And now we learn that -- at roughly the same time -- Wikileaks received a massive CIA data-dump, although Assange waited until now to spill the beans.

Did Assange get that material from the Russians? Grow up. Of course he did. That's the second serious indication that someone within the Trump administration is leaking secrets to Putin.

"Twice is coincidence; three times is enemy action."

Who was it who said those words? Can't remember. I think he introduced himself as Something, James Something. Damn my memory for names...!