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Originally Posted by u crank
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So, basically, you are using another Far-Right op-ed piece to back up another Far-right op-ed piece?...
Let's take a look at the Craig Murray piece. Firstly, the piece is dated 11 Jan 2017, three (3) full months before the
New Yorker piece. I'm going to take a wild guess you still haven't actually read the
New Yorker piece at all, just did a Google search for keywords to support your opinion of the opinion of the opinion; the reason I highly suspect this is a fact is because the
New Yorker article covers some of the issues raised by Murray. I chose this passage because Murray, himself, apparently deemed it so vitally important a point, he actually bold printed his point and it is the only such emphasis in his article:
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There is of course an extra level of venial inaccuracy here because unlike an MI6 officer, Steele himself was then flogging the information for cash. Nobody in the mainstream media has asked the most important question of all. What was the charlatan Christopher Steele paid for this dossier?
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This is the danger, when dealing with developing news, in using, as a source, something that predates current situations without first affirming its current accuracy. The highly bold-faced question is answered in the
New Yorker as follows:
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In the spring of 2016, Orbis Business Intelligence—a small investigative-research firm that Steele and a partner had founded, in 2009, after leaving M.I.6, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service—had agreed to do opposition research on Trump’s murky relationship with Russia. Under the arrangement, Orbis was a subcontractor working for Fusion GPS, a private research firm in Washington. Fusion, in turn, had been contracted by a law firm, Perkins Coie, which represented both Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Several months after Steele signed the deal, he learned that, through this chain, his research was being jointly subsidized by the Clinton campaign and the D.N.C. In all, Steele was paid a hundred and sixty-eight thousand dollars for his work.
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(Please Note: The bold type and italics are mine and not in the original article.)
If you're going to offer a rebuttal, at least try to make sure your cites are current...
I just want to also quote this little gem from the Murray piece:
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2) Hillary Clinton is so stupid and unaware that she held compromising conversations over telephone lines whilst in Russia itself.
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Need it be pointed out that in several instances members of the Trump campaign and the current Trump administration have themselves been upended by being "so stupid and unaware" that they "held compromising conversations" and exchanged emails while discussing their activities related to highly questionable Russia-involved matters, up to and including Trump Jr., Manafort, and Kushner? Granted, thus far, no one in the Trump circle has exhibited any great deal of brain power, but it is apparent stupidity know no political affiliation, yet another good reason I do not subscribe to any political party...
I would also like to address another one of Murray's assertions:
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Michael Cohen has now stated he has never been to Prague in his life. If that is true the extremely weak credibility of the entire forgery collapses in total. What is more, contrary to the claims of the Guardian and Washington Post that the material is “unverifiable”, the veracity of it could be tested extremely easily by the most basic journalism, ie asking Mr Cohen who has produced his passport.
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I did a Google search of the phrase "Michael Cohen Prague" and found this interesting bit of information:
This Is The Inside Of Trump’s Lawyer’s Passport --
https://www.buzzfeed.com/anthonycorm...9V#.vn996M8gD7
The above article is dated 5 May 2017, published eight (8) months before Murray's screed. Apparently Murray also doesn't know how to use Google properly...
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Since the publication of an unverified 35-page dossier alleging that President Donald Trump’s associates conspired with foreign agents to help influence November’s election, one mystery has endured:
Did Trump’s longtime personal lawyer travel to Prague for a secret meeting with Russians?
Michael Cohen has repeatedly denied it. But one of his first responses in the wake of the allegations — tweeting a photograph of his passport cover — was widely criticized for failing to prove anything since it didn’t reveal the stamps inside.
So BuzzFeed News asked to see the inside pages. He said yes. We have pictures.
The passport shows Cohen has traveled the globe since 2009, the year the document was issued. There is no stamp showing Cohen visited the Czech Republic.
“Nope. Never been,” he said in an interview on Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal reported in January that he had visited Prague once before, in 2001.
The stamps indicate he traveled abroad at least four times in 2016: twice to London, once to St. Maarten, and once to Italy in July. The Italian trip is the most intriguing, because it places Cohen in what’s known as the Schengen Area: a group of 26 European countries, including the Czech Republic, that allows visitors to travel freely among them without getting any additional passport stamps.
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The article goes on to note it is possible for a US citizen to have a second passport:
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Further complicating matters is the fact that there is no way to prove, just by looking at someone’s passport, that the person does not also have a second passport, with a different set of stamps. The State Department allows second passports in some circumstances, such as when a stamp from one country would prevent a traveler from entering another. Those records are not public, a State Department official said.
Cohen denied having a second passport.
"This is my only one," he said.
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So, we have Michael Cohen's word as a measure; however, aside from the fact he is a lawyer, the standard of truth for those thus far implicated in the activities of those involved with the Trump campaign and administration is very, very low, again, even if he is a lawyer...
I'm sure whatever are the facts regarding Cohen will come out in the Special Counsel's investigations. Until then, and a subject in which Rockstar has expressed a very keen interest, Cohen has been kept busy trying to explain the somewhat convoluted NDA arrangement Trump has had with porn star Stormy Daniels:
The White House is being suspiciously coy about Stormy Daniels --
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.5e612d6972d9
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