About Those “Nuclear Secrets”

[EndtheMadnessNow]

The Biden Department of Justice follows a contemptible practice: when questioned by reporters, it declines to comment, and then leaks its preferred spin to friendly news outlets. DOJ/FBI is up to its old tricks with the latest leak to its mouthpiece, the Washington Post.

DOJ is fighting a propaganda war over its raid on Donald Trump’s house, and so far it has not obviously been winning. Hence the current leak, headlined by the Post “Material on foreign nation’s nuclear capabilities seized at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.”

A document describing a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities, was found by FBI agents who searched former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and private club last month, according to people familiar with the matter…

The leakers.

…underscoring concerns among U.S. intelligence officials about classified material stashed in the Florida property.

The Post’s story discloses that only a handful of classified documents–“more than 100”–were found in the Mar-a-Lago raid. But DOJ claims that a few of them were really important. There isn’t much more about the nuclear document:

It was in this last batch of government secrets, the people familiar with the matter said, that the information about a foreign government’s nuclear-defense readiness was found. These people did not identify the foreign government in question, say where at Mar-a-Lago the document was found or offer additional details about one of the Justice Department’s most sensitive national security investigations.

It is impossible to tell from such breathless reporting whether the “nuclear document” has any significance at all. Consider me skeptical. More:

Among the 100-plus classified documents taken in August, some were marked “HCS,” a category of highly classified government information that refers to “HUMINT Control Systems,” which are systems used to protect intelligence gathered from secret human sources, according to a court filing. A partially unsealed affidavit said documents found in the boxes that were sent to the National Archives in January related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. There was also material that was never meant to be shared with foreign nations.

Of course there is zero reason to think that Trump had any intention of sharing information with foreign nations, and in any event he could have done so, if so inclined, regardless of pieces of paper in his basement. DOJ suggests that security issues are involved:

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is conducting a risk assessment, to determine how much potential harm was posed by the removal from government custody of hundreds of classified documents.

I will hazard a wild guess that the “potential harm” of Trump keeping papers in his basement was zero.

Which leaves open, of course, the question why Trump wanted these papers in his basement in the first place. Why not just send them to the National Archives as he did with the other materials he initially took from the White House? To my knowledge, Trump has not even hinted at an answer to this question.

It is possible that something important is going on here. Possibly there were papers at Mar-a-Lago that were actually significant, and possibly there is some reason to think that their presence there was somehow a hazard. And perhaps Trump is playing some kind of deep game in which his possession of that handful of boxes is important, for reasons we cannot even guess.

But I very much doubt it. I suspect we are witnessing a performance by two parties who, while superficially opposed, share a common interest. Joe Biden and his minions, like Merrick Garland, desperately want to make Donald Trump the focus of the midterm elections. (Thus, obviously, Biden’s notorious Nuremberg speech.) If the midterms are a referendum on Joe Biden, as they should be, the Democrats are in desperate trouble. On the other hand, if the midterms are a referendum on the out-of-office Donald Trump–a bizarre concept, but stay with it for a moment–the Democrats can do pretty well.

There is one other person who also would like to see the midterms turn into a referendum on Donald Trump. That is, of course, Trump. I think the likelihood that Trump has a good reason for keeping 10 or 15 boxes of miscellaneous records in his basement, after having returned 15 other boxes to the Archives months ago, is negligible. I suspect that Trump and Biden are collaborating in what both want–the elevation of a faux controversy over a few boxes of White House files into an election-defining battle.

To the extent that the midterms are shaped by controversy over the Mar-a-Lago raid, rather than Joe Biden’s record, the winners will be Joe Biden, Donald Trump and the Democrats. The losers will be the Republican Party and the American people.

Power Line Blog

[BIAD]

I will hazard a wild guess that the “potential harm” of Trump keeping papers in his basement was zero...

I still wonder what was in those letters handed-out to the Clintons and others at Bush's funeral and whether
it had a connection to what the FBI were looking for at Mar-La-Lago residence.

[Michigan Swamp Buck]

The spin is great on that article IMO.

The "tells" that stand out for me most were the following.

The "more than 100" classified documents, that can range from 101 documents to as many as 199, were then referred to as "hundreds" of documents that could go from 200 to as high as 999.

Also, the most sensitive document involved a "foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities". Although this was classified, it may have been information available to the public already. Otherwise it has some other information that was highly classified. Perhaps it's because of our defensive counter measures that may have been in the document. Being so highly classified, I see no reason to mention anything about what that information may be except for some political agenda.

Those two things alone make me suspicious of the veracity of this report and makes me lean toward it being a propaganda piece.

[Snarl]

The spin is great on that article IMO.

The "tells" that stand out for me most were the following.

The "more than 100" classified documents, that can range from 101 documents to as many as 199, were then referred to as "hundreds" of documents that could go from 200 to as high as 999.

Also, the most sensitive document involved a "foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities". Although this was classified, it may have been information available to the public already. Otherwise it has some other information that was highly classified. Perhaps it's because of our defensive counter measures that may have been in the document. Being so highly classified, I see no reason to mention anything about what that information may be except for some political agenda.

Those two things alone make me suspicious of the veracity of this report and makes me lean toward it being a propaganda piece.

Not paying much attention to this in the media.

I agree with you that the information was probably public knowledge or at least well-known by anyone who has interest in the subject. The classification was likely derived from the general nature of protecting the source of the information. IOW, a conversation likely occurred overseas, the collector of the information was justifying paying a dinner bill, generated a field report documenting the discussion, and slapped a classification on it based on the nature of the subject. Pretty common stuff.

How classified documents wound up at Mar-a-Lago? Does anyone think Trump actually did any packing as he left The White House? People are so damned stoopid these days they'll believe anything they hear on the news. So, again, agree there's nothing more than a political agenda we're being made to look at.

Our defensive countermeasures for a nuclear attack are laffable ... and those of some foreign military cannot be described ... as the reality is: Defense against a nuclear attack is realistically impossible. Too much propaganda circulating to even begin an effort of sifting through and determining what's true and what's a lie.  That had to be one of their goals all along.

Clown World!!

[EndtheMadnessNow]

I will hazard a wild guess that the “potential harm” of Trump keeping papers in his basement was zero...

I still wonder what was in those letters handed-out to the Clintons and others at Bush's funeral and whether
it had a connection to what the FBI were looking for at Mar-La-Lago residence.

Well, as you might know, Bush was (in)famous for Thank-you notes/cards over the decades; however, given the reaction on some of the faces makes me wonder too. There might be a snap-shot of one or two of these cards buried in the Bush library, but I never looked.

[FlyingClayDisk]

The spin is great on that article IMO.

The "tells" that stand out for me most were the following.

The "more than 100" classified documents, that can range from 101 documents to as many as 199, were then referred to as "hundreds" of documents that could go from 200 to as high as 999.

Also, the most sensitive document involved a "foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities". Although this was classified, it may have been information available to the public already. Otherwise it has some other information that was highly classified. Perhaps it's because of our defensive counter measures that may have been in the document. Being so highly classified, I see no reason to mention anything about what that information may be except for some political agenda.

Those two things alone make me suspicious of the veracity of this report and makes me lean toward it being a propaganda piece.

Not paying much attention to this in the media.

I agree with you that the information was probably public knowledge or at least well-known by anyone who has interest in the subject. The classification was likely derived from the general nature of protecting the source of the information. IOW, a conversation likely occurred overseas, the collector of the information was justifying paying a dinner bill, generated a field report documenting the discussion, and slapped a classification on it based on the nature of the subject. Pretty common stuff.

How classified documents wound up at Mar-a-Lago? Does anyone think Trump actually did any packing as he left The White House? People are so damned stoopid these days they'll believe anything they hear on the news. So, again, agree there's nothing more than a political agenda we're being made to look at.

Our defensive countermeasures for a nuclear attack are laffable ... and those of some foreign military cannot be described ... as the reality is: Defense against a nuclear attack is realistically impossible. Too much propaganda circulating to even begin an effort of sifting through and determining what's true and what's a lie.  That had to be one of their goals all along.

Clown World!!

BINGO!...Clown World!

On the subject of countermeasures, yes, such a discussion is indeed laughable!  "Star Wars", back during the Reagan era, had one objective...'Spend the Soviet Union into OBLIVION!'  As such, it was one of the most effective 'counter-measures' and nuclear deterrents ever devised...and it never had to fire a single shot!

The general public are idiots anymore!  They'll believe anything the MSM says.  They somehow think Star Wars was/is real, so..."Surely it should be FAR more advanced now, right?"  WRONG!  It was never real, people!  (Not in a tactical/deploy-able sense)

Need proof?  One of the most advanced missile counter-measures systems is the Patriot system.  Defending against the lowest tech missiles imaginable, dumb SCUDs, out of Saddam's archaic arsenal, the Patriots had a whopping 9% effectiveness ratio (which stands to this day).  You read that correctly, folks...nine percent...meaning nine successes out of every one hundred attempts...9/100 ths; that's it!  Now, think about it, so now we're going to shoot down an intercontinental ballistic missile traveling at 15,000mph...with MIRVs no less?????  C'mon!  Wake Up~!

But...but...but...we shot down one of our own spy satellites, right?  LOL!  Yeah, a relatively stationary piece of space junk (albeit brand new, and a colossal waste of US taxpayer $$$), tumbling out of control...yep, sure did!  Let's compare the differences, shall we?

1. Shooting a tumbling relatively stationary satellite in a known orbit with a known trajectory ~= shooting a twice-shot, mortally wounded, coyote at 10 yards.

2. Shooting down (50) incoming ICBM's, each with (10) MIRVs (for a total of (500) inbound threats) ~= Winning the Mega-Lottery, while getting laid by Margo Robbie, and getting hit by lightning, while drowning in a tidal wave in the Gobi desert...standing on one leg and (successfully) reciting the alphabet backwards!  In other words...AIN'T GONNA' HAPPEN!!!!

[Snarl]

The spin is great on that article IMO.

The "tells" that stand out for me most were the following.

The "more than 100" classified documents, that can range from 101 documents to as many as 199, were then referred to as "hundreds" of documents that could go from 200 to as high as 999.

Also, the most sensitive document involved a "foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities". Although this was classified, it may have been information available to the public already. Otherwise it has some other information that was highly classified. Perhaps it's because of our defensive counter measures that may have been in the document. Being so highly classified, I see no reason to mention anything about what that information may be except for some political agenda.

Those two things alone make me suspicious of the veracity of this report and makes me lean toward it being a propaganda piece.

Not paying much attention to this in the media.

I agree with you that the information was probably public knowledge or at least well-known by anyone who has interest in the subject. The classification was likely derived from the general nature of protecting the source of the information. IOW, a conversation likely occurred overseas, the collector of the information was justifying paying a dinner bill, generated a field report documenting the discussion, and slapped a classification on it based on the nature of the subject. Pretty common stuff.

How classified documents wound up at Mar-a-Lago? Does anyone think Trump actually did any packing as he left The White House? People are so damned stoopid these days they'll believe anything they hear on the news. So, again, agree there's nothing more than a political agenda we're being made to look at.

Our defensive countermeasures for a nuclear attack are laffable ... and those of some foreign military cannot be described ... as the reality is: Defense against a nuclear attack is realistically impossible. Too much propaganda circulating to even begin an effort of sifting through and determining what's true and what's a lie.  That had to be one of their goals all along.

Clown World!!

BINGO!...Clown World!

On the subject of countermeasures, yes, such a discussion is indeed laughable!  "Star Wars", back during the Reagan era, had one objective...'Spend the Soviet Union into OBLIVION!'  As such, it was one of the most effective 'counter-measures' and nuclear deterrents ever devised...and it never had to fire a single shot!

The general public are idiots anymore!  They'll believe anything the MSM says.  They somehow think Star Wars was/is real, so..."Surely it should be FAR more advanced now, right?"  WRONG!  It was never real, people!  (Not in a tactical/deploy-able sense)

Need proof?  One of the most advanced missile counter-measures systems is the Patriot system.  Defending against the lowest tech missiles imaginable, dumb SCUDs, out of Saddam's archaic arsenal, the Patriots had a whopping 9% effectiveness ratio (which stands to this day).  You read that correctly, folks...nine percent...meaning nine successes out of every one hundred attempts...9/100 ths; that's it!  Now, think about it, so now we're going to shoot down an intercontinental ballistic missile traveling at 15,000mph...with MIRVs no less?????  C'mon!  Wake Up~!

But...but...but...we shot down one of our own spy satellites, right?  LOL!  Yeah, a relatively stationary piece of space junk (albeit brand new, and a colossal waste of US taxpayer $$$), tumbling out of control...yep, sure did!  Let's compare the differences, shall we?

1. Shooting a tumbling relatively stationary satellite in a known orbit with a known trajectory ~= shooting a twice-shot, mortally wounded, coyote at 10 yards.

2. Shooting down (50) incoming ICBM's, each with (10) MIRVs (for a total of (500) inbound threats) ~= Winning the Mega-Lottery, while getting laid by Margo Robbie, and getting hit by lightning, while drowning in a tidal wave in the Gobi desert...standing on one leg and (successfully) reciting the alphabet backwards!  In other words...AIN'T GONNA' HAPPEN!!!!

Welllll ... I'd have to say that those advanced missile countermeasures have this ability to peer across borders.  I don't know whether knocking missiles out of the sky is what their 'real' intent is or not.  But the THAAD deployment against China raised a LOT of hackles.

Also ... I worked security on a couple of high energy SDI projects that bore fruit. I started referring to one as the phaser beam. I think they physically relocated it just because the nickname caught on.  Could've been the accidental discharge too. <hee hee> Got me a tax-payer funded trip out to the National Ignition Facility as a distraction. Very cool!!

Check your stats on MIRV re-entry speeds.  As memory serves they're at almost 50,000mph. A streak of light with just the slightest hint of an arc.