Boris Ephsteyn, Michael Flynn and Google: Just how compromised ARE we?

As noted a couple of posts down, Boris Ephsteyn -- the formerly-ubiquitous Trump surrogate and inauguration planner -- has suddenly left his White House gig, for reasons unknown. As I noted in a previous post (which is belatedly getting much attention, thanks to the Palmer Report), Epshteyn is the likeliest candidate for Source E in the Orbis dossier, otherwise known as the Steele dossier.

Source E is the primary source for the most infamous claim in that dossier -- the "watersports" business.

Ephsteyn is the only person who fits the description in the dossier. He's a Russian national close to Trump, with extensive knowledge of Russian business. He knows Moscow well. He is close to Trump's son Eric.

The dossier does not explicitly say that Source E is, in fact, a Putin operative. However, that reading is a fair one, since he certainly seems to have deep knowledge of what Russian intelligence has been up to. Read for yourself; come to your own conclusions.

Every time I've written about Ephsteyn, I've reminded readers that his wife, the former Lauren Tanick, is an executive at Google. She is fairly young; I don't know how high she has risen in the Google hierarchy. Nevertheless, there may be some reason to worry about her position within that company.

Last night, thanks to YouTube, I finally caught up with Malcolm Nance's most recent appearance on A.M. Joy. He discussed the Devin Nunes situation. Nance briefly mentioned Intelink and other classified "internets" used by the American intelligence community. Repeatedly, Nance said that Nunes could have "googled" certain names.

Is he speaking literally? I wondered. Does Google power our classified systems?

Yes it does.

• SIPRNet is the military's Secret Internet Protocol Router Network

• Intelink is a SIPRNet search engine powered by Google

• Google infrastructure powering Intelink is largest outside Google

Google has long been considered a monopoly with close ties to the U.S. government.

Now it is learned the U.S. military's powerful classified intranet is not being processed through government servers, but is being powered by Google.

We must be cautious before jumping to conclusions. As I've said: Lauren Tanick Ephsteyn may not have risen that far within her company. I've seen no evidence that she has been made privy to anything having to do with SIPRNet. Still, the linkage does worry me -- at least to a degree.

The Michael Flynn situation is far more worrying, since SIPRNet is a project of the DIA, the agency which Flynn once headed. Worse, the DIA oversees the most highly classified of our secret communications systems, the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System (JWICS, pronounced "Jay-Wicks").

Flynn's ties to Russia are known. Even Team Trump is now calling Flynn a "Russian mole."

Flynn at DIA. Ephsteyn in the White House. Just how compromised are we? Do we have any secrets left?

When I think of all the nonsense that people believed about Hillary's emails...!