[BostonCard]

In the early days of the war, even some reporters were getting scoops from high level FSB operatives. I think even we were leaking that we were getting info from high level sources, but that could have been an attempt to sow distrust. Still a number of high level intelligence and defense administrators have been put under house arrest, so it may be true (or the ruse may have worked well).

BC

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Make it four. Bush the first was in that category IMHO. I exclude Trump only because I don't think he had an opinion on Intelligence collection and undoubtedly thought our relations with Russia were "perfect". Intelligence collection is not mutually exclusive of better relations. It often fosters it, as we find out our opponent isn't 10 feet tall and actually has no plan to invade our country.

your statement seems to be a very generous read given Trump's distaste for the intelligence community overall.  may be true on the collection but almost certainly wrong on the analytic part of intel.

Sorry, my post wasn't clear. The last two sentences were not intended to relate to Trump. They were oriented to the idea that a reset to better relations as sought and desired by the previous four presidents did not preclude a commitment to significant intelligence collection at the same time. The fact they all elected (some more than others) to not make such a commitment was IMHO regrettable. Trump would think it unnecessary since relations were "perfect".

We infamously tapped Angela Merkel’s phone, so yeah.  OTOH, once discovered it didn’t exactly lead to a strengthening of ties, so I think the moral of the story is spying on your friends is fine, getting caught is not.

BC

[BostonCard]

In the early days of the war, even some reporters were getting scoops from high level FSB operatives. I think even we were leaking that we were getting info from high level sources, but that could have been an attempt to sow distrust. Still a number of high level intelligence and defense administrators have been put under house arrest, so it may be true (or the ruse may have worked well).

BC

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Make it four. Bush the first was in that category IMHO. I exclude Trump only because I don't think he had an opinion on Intelligence collection and undoubtedly thought our relations with Russia were "perfect". Intelligence collection is not mutually exclusive of better relations. It often fosters it, as we find out our opponent isn't 10 feet tall and actually has no plan to invade our country.

your statement seems to be a very generous read given Trump's distaste for the intelligence community overall.  may be true on the collection but almost certainly wrong on the analytic part of intel.

Sorry, my post wasn't clear. The last two sentences were not intended to relate to Trump. They were oriented to the idea that a reset to better relations as sought and desired by the previous four presidents did not preclude a commitment to significant intelligence collection at the same time. The fact they all elected (some more than others) to not make such a commitment was IMHO regrettable. Trump would think it unnecessary since relations were "perfect".

We infamously tapped Angela Merkel’s phone, so yeah.  OTOH, once discovered it didn’t exactly lead to a strengthening of ties, so I think the moral of the story is spying on your friends is fine, getting caught is not.

BC