Saturday, February 25, 2017

Trump’s World of Intrigue: Twists and Turns of the Michael Flynn Resignation                                            ~hehe ... the whack~in wars ...
President Trump is at war with the Deep State ...

The Deep State is not “deep”. The Shadow Government is not hidden. The criminality is out in the open like never before, and it is all aimed at Trump. 


Donald Trump
With Donald Trump, nothing is as it seems.
The Michael Flynn episode exemplifies the elusive, unpredictable and deadly nature of the high stakes conflict that continues to unfold.
What is obvious and beyond question is that President Trump is at war with the Deep State in all of its forms, including significant factions of the American intelligence and law enforcement community, the mainstream media (largely controlled by the CIA), and virtually the entire political establishment. Trump is clearly viewed as an existential threat to their criminal enterprise. This apparatus, on every level, is engaged in a coup d’etat.
What is not clear, and extremely difficult to assess, is the nature of Trump’s response to his enemies. Also not clear is the internal state of his administration.
Foes as well as allies have been kept off balance.
Flynn: the lightning rod
Michael Flynn was central to the Trump foreign policy.
Flynn headed the Defense Intelligence Agency under Obama, and brought a wealth of inside knowledge of the intelligence community to his brief, action-packed stint as national security adviser. Flynn, a registered Democrat, is an outspoken critic of the Obama/Clinton foreign policy, and of the CIA’s deliberate use of Al-Qaeda/ISIS/Al-Nusra terrorists in Syria. He sought major reforms to the politicized intelligence community. He pushed for better relations with Russia, and sought to expose and undo the Obama administration’s dealings with Iran.
The controversial Flynn is a hero to the Trump support base. He is for “locking up” Hillary Clinton, and “draining the swamp”.
Trump respects Flynn, and seemed to have no issues with Flynn’s combative style. He was controversial during his tenure under Obama before he joined Trump, and controversial during the campaign and throughout the election. Trump tapped Flynn as national security adviser instead of another cabinet post, to save Flynn from having to go through a brutal congressional approval (that he likely would not have passed).
What changed?
A curious resignation
The Flynn episode has been described as a cover-up without a crime.
Flynn broke no laws. He was cleared by the FBI, as detailed in this Washington Post article. (The Washington Post is among the leading anti-Trump organs.) Flynn acted appropriately and within his authority as the incoming national security adviser, and did not (as opposition propaganda claims) negotiate sanctions while on the phone with the Russian ambassador.
Transcripts bear this out.
Trump himself has repeatedly maintained that Flynn did his job. Why was Flynn asked to resign?
According to the official White House line, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were not pleased with the manner of Flynn’s communication.
Was Flynn’s resignation merely a matter of internal protocol? A chemistry problem or power struggle within the Trump inner circle? If so, what was the nature of this internal problem, and why wasn’t it handled internally?
Who and what forced a dramatic and publicly damaging scandal?
“Blood in the water”
As succinctly described by Julian Assange of WikiLeaks, “an amazing battle for dominance is playing out between the elected US government and the intelligence community that considers itself to be the “permanent government”. The Flynn ouster was the result of a “destabilization campaign by US spies, Democrats and press”.
In the view of the Deep State, a major victory was achieved with Flynn’s ouster, which decapitated the Trump administration even before it has even been fully formed. Trump lost a key member of his inner circle, and the rest will soon fall. Trump has shown grave weakness, and this weakness will be attacked with relish and severe violence.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the intelligence community is withholding intelligence information from Trump. (Trump and his ODNI deny this.)  Obama loyalists in particular is working against him.
According to Glenn Greenwald, the Deep State leakers who exposed Flynn committed felonies to get at him. The Deep State is now even more emboldened and empowered.
In the words of former congressman Dennis Kucinich, “something wrong is going on here with the intelligence community, which “wants to reignite the Cold War between the United States and Russia so that military, industrial and intelligence axis can cash in”. “Wake up America!”
According to Bloomberg’s Eli Lake, the Flynn episode was a “political assassination”, in which Trump “caved to his bureaucratic and political opposition”.
CNN (the voice of the CIA and the political establishment) has declared that the network will not let go of the Flynn/Russian narrative. Obviously it will be mined for material towards a growing impeachment effort by the Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans.
One by one, the CIA/media can simply scandalize every member of the Trump cabinet, and Trump himself, until finally Trump himself is removed.
There is “blood in the water”.  Like piranha, Trump’s foes are in a frenzy.
But is Trump, in fact, “on the ropes”? Or did Trump pull a Muhammad Ali “rope a dope”?
Tables turned
Following a full day of media onslaught, Trump took to Twitter.  He quickly set up a news conference , during which he publicly reversed the narrative in aggressive fashion.
Leaks are the real story.
Trump: the real story is the illegal leaks (Zero Hedge)
Leaks. Not Flynn, not problems within the administration, not “Russia”.
“The leaks are real. The news is fake.”
Was it a sting operation?
The intriguing speculation, not reported in the mainstream media, is that the entire Flynn scenario could have been an elaborate sting operation, a trap set by Trump deliberately to expose leakers, as part of a larger operation being directed against Deep State.
This operation, in turn, is part of the “draining the swamp” agenda; the long awaited sweeping cleanup campaign to flush out the political establishment.
There are several accounts also argue persuasively that it was a sting operation:
According to a detailed analysis (citing Russian intelligence sources), the Flynn episode was “canary trap”—classic spycraft– set up in advance by Trump and Flynn, in coordination with the FBI and other branches of intelligence and law enforcement, to expose and catch leakers and corrupt media figures working on behalf of the Deep State:
Flynn was concurrently running operations targeting major international drug trafficking networks connected to the CIA, Islamic militants, and the Clintons.
Robin Townley, a Flynn aide who was engaged in this operation, was suddenly denied security clearance by the CIA, despite Townley previously having had security clearance for years.
The CIA created the Flynn/Russia scandal as retaliation.
According to the above account, it is believed or rumored that Flynn and his team remain operational, working in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. This suggests that Flynn’s was not really “fired”, but moved to a more covert role, for practical reasons.
The official US Treasury sanction about the most recent case against the network of Samark Jose Lopez Bello headed by Flynn, dated February 13, 2017, can be seen here:
The Flynn trap/operation is not over (the media has not stopped tossing around purposely leaked material). It may not be the only sting operation that the Trump administration has in the works.
According to Jack Posobiec of Citizens for Trump, and a strong Trump supporter, Trump successfully used sting operations throughout his presidential campaign and the election. In Posobiec’s view, the story of Trump’s plan to use the National Guard to round up immigrants was intentionally planted. The Associated Press has been caught with this trap.
Further evidence of a massive cleanup campaign—the long awaited “swamp draining”— includes the “bloodbath” firing of 7th floor State Department officials by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and the dismissal of numerous staff employees, allegedly for failing to pass background checks.
Craig Deare, senior NSC official, was just fired for expressing opinions counter to Trump’s agenda.
Yemen
Flynn’s role behind the Yemen raid could also have triggered CIA retaliation. This high-risk operation resulted in the death of 14 Al-Qaeda militants (including top operational personnel), 25 civilians, and Navy Seal William “Ryan” Owens, and the wounding of six US soldiers.
Although details remain cloaked, the Yemen raid appears to have pitted Special Forces/Navy Seals against Al-Qaeda. Given the fact that Al-Qaeda is a CIA front, the firefight was essentially, the Trump military-intelligence team against the CIA itself.
The target appears to have been tipped off, resulting in the Special Forces/Seal team meeting with fierce resistance. (Did the CIA tip off its own assets in Yemen?)
Although heavily criticized by mainstream media as “botched” and a “disaster”, the administration saw it as a “huge success” that achieved its main objective, which was intelligence documents to aid future anti-terror campaigns.. The Seal team came away with a “treasure trove” of intelligence on computer drives, cell phones and files.
Did Flynn and his team act on the intelligence contained in the files?  Did this further infuriate the CIA, adding impetus to the campaign against him?
The pedophilia connection 
To add to the bizarre nature of the Flynn ouster, there is a connection to pedophilia, or Pizzagate.
In the wake of Flynn’s ouster, Hillary Clinton could not resist posting a nasty comment on Twitter, and reposting a nasty tweet from her functionary, Philippe Reines:
Dear Mike Flynn and Mike Flynn Jr, What goes around COMET around. And given your pizza obsession… jobs.dominos.com/dominoscareer...
Hillary Clinton: Philippe’s got his own way of saying things, but he has a point about the real consequences of fake news…
What is she referring to? In November 2016, Flynn expressed support for the New York Police Department’s investigation of email evidence of Hillary Clinton’s possible involvement in “money laundering and sex crimes with children”. His son, Michael G. Flynn (the elder Flynn’s son and top aide to his father) also expressed support for these investigations.
The John Podesta emails exposed by Wikileaks has exposed what appears to be significant evidence of the high level pedophilia network of the Washington establishment, and more specifically, the part of a network involving Podesta and Clinton/Democratic Party operatives, pizza chains across the country, and in particular, Comet Ping-Pong and Pizza in Washington DC. Numerous independent investigators have continued to doggedly pursue this evidence, despite fierce and malicious political cover-up and severe backlash.
Clinton could have chosen to stay silent on the matter. But she could not resist jabbing at Flynn—not over “Russia”, not about Trump, but Pizzagate.
Why did she go out of her way to call attention to this?
Flynn suffered “real consequences” for something that is “not real”?
Turmoil in the Trump inner circle: conflicting views
Despite continuous warnings of Trump loyalists, Trump has surrounded himself with what would appear to be enemies: Republican neocons and NeverTrumpers. He has filled the “swamp” more than he has “drained” it.
Does Trump believe co-opting and winning over the establishment puts him in a more powerful position? How does he weigh this calculation against the desires of his anti-globalist/anti-establishment base?
There is disagreement even among Trump’s base as to what is going on. The loss of Flynn was a major blow. Trump is surrounded by neocons, led by Pence. Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway are the last remaining Trump loyalists in the inner circle.
Has the Trump administration been penetrated and compromised?
Chief of staff Reince Priebus, former RNC chairman, is viewed by an increasing number of Trump loyalists as the main inside threat. According to Breitbart, Priebus is the key mole. He is accused of purposely not rolling out executive orders, slowing down confirmation of cabinet nominees, and doing nothing about a network of Obama “sleeper cells” as they continue to subvert the administration. Trump, according to Breitbart coverage, has been actively  working to replace Priebus.
Pence and Priebus drive the decision to oust Flynn according to Fox News, over the objections of Bannon and Conway, who believed Flynn should have stayed on.
According to Jerome Corsi of Infowars, Priebus is not only a mole, but the “chief leaker”, and should be next to go.
Mike Cernovich as well as Alex Jones and Roger Stone all see Priebus as a threat. Priebus’ allegiance is to the Republican neocons, and he is actively working against Trump.
Deputy Chief of Staff Katie Walsh has been identified as a possible leaker and is under investigation.
On a February 19 appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, Priebus placed all of the blame on Flynn. Flynn is characterized as dishonest.
The threat of Pence
Vice President Mike Pence is not only a Republican neocon, but specifically a Bush neocon. Pence recently attended the Super Bowl with George H.W. Bush, fawning over the man he claims to idolize. What did Pence discuss with Poppy Bush the arch-criminal, and the leader of the crime apparatus that has not wavered in its desire  to have Trump destroyed?
Pence supports all things Bush. His is the profile of a Trump enemy. He supported the Patriot Act, the Iraq War, is pro-torture (opposes the closing of Guantanamo Bay), and supports war in the Middle East and is hawkish on Russia. He supported the toppling of Libya, and thanked Hillary Clinton for doing it. He supports globalization and free trade, supported NAFTA and CAFTA. He is a corporatist who opposes banking and campaign finance reforms, who praised the criminal Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United case that made corporations people. He and Trump have openly disagreed on Russia—differences that the administration has casually dismissed.
Pence wanted Flynn out. Does Pence call the Trump foreign policy shots? Was Pence against Flynn’s covert operations? Does Pence override Tillerson, Mattis, etc.?
In a February 18 speech at the Munich Security Conference, Pence boasted that the US would be “unwavering” in its commitment to NATO and would “stand with Europe”. He also issued threats towards Russia: “Know this: the US will continue to hold Russia accountable!”
This bellicose establishment stance reverses Trump’s rhetoric (which was echoed by Flynn) calling for better relations with Russia, and antagonism towards NATO, which Trump had called “obsolete”. Pence’s view is in sharp contrast to Trump’s frustration that better relations with Moscow are being undermined by the anti-Russia propaganda. But here is his vice president, spewing this propaganda.
Is the Trump-Pence contradiction a “good cop/bad cop” ruse, or is there genuine conflict going on?
Pence is ideally placed to do to Trump what George H.W. Bush did to Ronald Reagan, or what Lyndon B.Johnson did to John F. Kennedy. If Trump is removed from office, Bush-loving, Russia-bashing Pence becomes president.
(And who would a President Pence want as his vice president? Jeb Bush?)
A former CIA operative’s explosive view 
In an explosive interview on the Alex Jones Show, former CIA operative Robert David Steele issued the following opinions:
  • The NSA has been spying on citizens, while the CIA has been leaking, and both are part of a coup d’état.
  • Reince Priebus is “the Judas in the White House”, enabling and covering up pedophilia.
  • (Note: in a previous interview for RT, Steele also named Priebus as part of CIA penetration of Trump.)
  • Julian Assange “can take down the Republican Party and Priebus specifically”.
  • Having investigated pedophilia for over a decade, Steele stated that “pedophilia is an acquired taste for Democrats”, and that the likes of John Podesta are “pedophilia lite” compared to the Republicans, the banking elite, and the Saudis.
  • Pedophilia is the Achilles Heel of the system, and “Trump has figured that out”.
  • Corporate foundations and their anarchists are planning massive anarchy and rioting to begin in the spring and into the summer, including a huge event in Washington DC in May.
Specifically in regards to Michael Flynn:
  • “Flynn got in trouble because he became too arrogant and tried to tell Mattis and Tillerson what to do.”
  • But the reason he was fired, according to Steele, was that Flynn was set to expose a list of Washington pedophiles. One of the names on his list was ”Mike Pence’s best friend”.
Steele did not name Pence’s friend. Who was it?
All is well according to Trump
The Trump administration has steadfastly dismissed all criticisms and all suspicions about his cabinet.
In his news conference of February 16, Trump maintained that his administration was “running like a fine-tuned machine” and that there is “zero chaos”. He also repeated his high confidence in Reince Priebus, who is “doing a phenomenal job”.
In his latest Twitter, Trump posted:
“Don’t believe the main stream (fake news) media. The White House is running VERY WELL. I inherited a mess and am in the process of fixing it.”
Trump continued his attack on the media in a February 19 rally.
According to The Hill, Bannon is outraged at accusations that he and Priebus are in any way at odds, and objects to the view being put forth by Breitbart, his former publication.
Former intelligence operative Steve Pieczenik dismisses the Flynn ouster as a routine, pragmatic move. According to Pieczenik, all personnel are eventually “disposable”. He believes that Flynn was never meant to be in the cabinet for very long. In his view, the controversy is exaggerated.
Senator Paul Ryan, leader of the establishment Republicans and considered a bitter NeverTrumper enemy by Trump loyalists, is making conciliatory noises, as if he is on board with Trump.
Ryan’s interview on Fox with Sean Hannity is the first in which he has sounded positively jovial about the Trump agenda. When asked by Hannity about the fact that Ryan and Trump are considered adversarial, Ryan brushed it off as “the past”. Why is Ryan suddenly conciliatory?
Who now replaces Flynn as Trump’s national security adviser? Another neocon.
The list narrows down to three candidates: current acting national security adviser Keith Kellogg, Army strategist H.R. McMaster, and the maniacal former George W. Bush UN Ambassador John Bolton.
Robert Harward (Lockheed Martin, former George W. Bush NSC official) turned down the job after he demanded his own staff (Trump refused to fire remnants of the Flynn team, including K.T. McFarland).
Towards the unexpected
 The Deep State is not “deep”. The Shadow Government is not hidden. The criminality is out in the open like never before, and it is all aimed at Trump.
Open, “government-sponsored” publicly-encouraged sedition and treason. Open calls for a coup d’etat. Open calls for anarchy, domestic terrorism, and mass hysteria.
Is Trump in danger, or is he in control? Is he in the process of being subverted and toppled, or is he successfully waging a war of deception and surprise?
We have entered uncharted territory, with the future of humanity at stake.
Everything in play. Nothing is clear.

NASA weighs risks of adding crew to Orion spacecraft’s maiden moon flight   ~hehe OMFG WTF r ALLLLL those "UFO'S" use`in ta "fly" the fuck around UP THERE & we r ta "believe" that these fucking roman candles we's got is the ...fucking answer jeezus h fucking me ...only in A~meeery~ka kooky's ville land of the dum~dead drug filled nit wit brain dead fucks ~ ville  could "they" pull this SHIT the fuck off LOL ...fucking boo~tle rockets from the 60's ...that's the best we got ...the fucking best we's can cum  the fuck UP wit ...boo~tle rockets   ... fucking fuck me OMG  millions have seen the fucking things (UFO's) & i fucking know i only grad~u~ain'ted 249 outta 251 but fucking fuck me ...i mean FUCK LOL  boo~tle rocket's from the 60's & how much is this costing U.S. ???    ....i "wonder" can u boo~tle "swamp gas" ...Image result for pic of ufos

NASA weighs risks of adding crew to Orion spacecraft’s maiden moon flight
NASA is studying the feasibility of sending a manned crew on the maiden flight of the deep-space Orion spacecraft, which is hoped to eventually bring astronauts to Mars. A report on the matter is to be prepared by early spring.
During a media teleconference on Friday the agency revealed that it intends to have initial findings out in a “pretty polished format” in a month’s time on how workable it is to add a crew to the Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1). The mission is meant to test the Space Launch System (SLS) / Orion Spacecraft combination in a moon flyby.
The decision to consider changing the Orion mission from unmanned to manned was announced earlier this month by Robert Lightfoot, NASA's acting administrator, at the request of the Trump administration.

The original mission was to launch an unmanned Orion craft around the moon and back in 2019 before launching a manned mission around 2021.
Astronauts experience a simulated launch to deep space on our @NASA_Orion spacecraft & powerful @NASA_SLS rocket: http://go.nasa.gov/2lDEOjK 
If a crew is carried on the first integrated flight of NASA’s SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, it will coincide with the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 - the US’s first manned mission to land on the moon.
William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator of NASA’s Human Explorations and Operations Mission Directorate in Washington and William Hill, deputy associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development in Washington fielded questions from the press about this historic possibility but made it clear that they received no specific guidance on schedule or budget.
IMAGE

NASA is calling on team members not directly associated with the Orion program for assistance on the feasibility study.
The study will look at the opportunities it could present to accelerate the effort of the first crewed flight and how much time and funding this would take.
The priority is to ensure it can be done while limiting the potential risks to the crew’s safety, according to NASA.
“It will not necessarily be a standalone study,” the administrators said, noting that regardless of the decision they still have an exciting mission ahead. “There’s benefits either way.”
Orion is built to take astronauts farther into the solar system than ever before and is intended to help NASA prepare for missions to Mars. Its first test flight took place in 2014, but it used the Delta IV Heavy rocket rather than the Space Launch System as the launch vehicle.

A PERSPECTIVE ON AMBASSADOR CHURKIN’S DEATH FROM SPUTNIK…                    ~ hehe the "whack~in" war IS heat~in UP & folks how long do ya think ole Putin is gonna put up wit ...this     4 "he" starts ..."whack~in" ...back HUH ??? 
Image result for funny mafia pictures





Last Thursday during my News and Views from the Nefarium   I pointed out that others are beginning to pick up on the "pattern" that seems to be emerging with the deaths of highly placed Russian officials or ambassadors. I suggested that we were looking at a full scale "mafia" war taking place, with one "family" taking out the "soldiers", in this case, diplomats and other highly placed officials, of the other. Citing an article of Adam Garrie that appeared on the website Global Research, I pointed out that this site, while not officially tied to the Russian government nor any of its media organs, does take a more or less consistent pro-Russian point of view. Because it appeared on such a site, I suggested that if Russia suspected a pattern to these deaths, it would signal this via its official organs, and that, if the activity continued, a response would eventually be made.
As I've said on many occasions, two can play the covert operations game. I suggested, however, that this response would come in the form of highlighting western covert operations activities.
Well... no sooner said than done, for in this week's pile of emails, I found the following stories shared by Mr. D.S.M. First, there was a short message of condolences to Mr. Churkin's family and to the Russian government from President Trump:
However, a much more thought-provoking article appeared in Russia's Sputnik online magazine, indicating that Mr. Churkin had apparently, as early as 2015, been involved in the investigation of - sit down for this one - human organ trafficking rings in Kosovo:
I cite almost the entirety of the Sputnik article:
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Last month, the West urged Kosovo to create a court to look into the matter after the allegations of organ harvesting were first mentioned in a 2010 report to the Council of Europe.
According to the document, perpetrators killed Serb captives to remove and sell their organs during the war.
"There have been delays in establishing the Special Court to investigate the crime carried out by the KLA including the trade in human organs," Churkin said.
Now it does not take much "high octane speculation" nor "high octane imagination" to see how this connection might spill over into a whole range of connections to similar brewing and simmering scandals in the news, such as child trafficking, Pizzagate, sex trafficking, human trafficking, organ harvesting, abortion mills... you name it. If indeed Mr. Churkin was mentioning such things in 2015, then it was with the knowledge and perhaps even the instruction of the Russian government itself. This implies, in its turn, that the Russian government was investigating such things on an international scale.
If this "reading between the lines" is correct, then Russia was sending messages via its principal ambassador to the world's principal international body, the U.N., and doing so prior to the current scandals concerning such things that have emerged in the American, Canadian, British, and other western press. One is thus tempted to view Churkin's death with an even more jaundiced eye, and to suspect that perhaps his untimely death was engineered as a warning by those parties conducting such activities for the Russians to "back off," which, of course, I highly doubt they will do.
Within this context, it is perhaps significant that one of the Presidential Executive Orders which was issued by President Trump shortly after the confirmation of Mr. Sessions to the post of Attorney General, explicitly mentions international human trafficking in its main text:
Interestingly enough, as all of this is occurring, many members sent me the following story in which it appears the Russian government is officially getting into the "infowars" game, and specifically labeling various articles in the Western press as "Fake News":
As the reader will have noted, this is the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. Surprisingly, the following article links to a Santa Monica Observer article which the Russian website says is "Fake News":
However, one wonders exactly why the Russian government has so labeled the article: is it because it raises the question of the pattern of deaths of high Russian officials? Or is it because of something else? Personally, I find this suspicious, because as I pointed out in last Thursday's News and Views from the Nefarium, the same pattern was discussed on the Global Research website, which, again, while not being an official media organ of the Russian government, does have a consistent pro-Russian point of view. All one is told on the Foreign Ministry website is that the Santa Monica Observer article "puts forward information that does not correspond to reality." One is left to guess what this information is, according to the Foreign Ministry.
I suspect, however, that here as elsewhere, one must parse the statement carefully: "information" would imply that there are details within the article that the Russian government disputes. But perhaps what is not being disputed is the overall pattern itself.
Whatever one may suspect here, three things seem clear: (1) Churkin appeared to be familiar with Russian government investigations of human trafficking organizations and, as a diplomat, would have had the sanction of his government to raise the issue in the context of Kosovo; (2) the people running such organizations would therefore have a motive to remove him; and (3) the Trump administration itself, per its executive order, has explicitly stated that such organizations exist and that said organizations are international in extent and organization. In this context, it would seem that the Russian government, in qualifying the Churkin article as "Fake News" and stating that it contains "information" not corresponding to "reality" might be referring to the tangential details concerning Churkin's love life and the places and circumstances of his death. For the moment, we don't know. But for the moment, there is I would aver a larger context from which the event might be viewed, and that is the whole emerging issue of human trafficking and the international organizations conducting it.                                 

Four Dead Russian Diplomats in Three Months

 
putin

NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE NEFARIUM FEB 23, 2017https://gizadeathstar.com/2017/02/news-views-nefarium-feb-23-2017/

Dead Russian diplomats: others are noticing the pattern now:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/four-dead-russian-diplomats-in-three-months/5576055
Vitaly Churkin was one of the wisest voices in international diplomacy.  His voice will no longer echo in the halls of the United Nations. Articulate, polite yet commanding, wise yet affable, he oversaw some of Russia’s and the world’s most important events in a position he occupied since 2006.
Churkin had to face a great deal of hostile criticism from both the Bush and Obama administrations during his time at the UN, but he always did so with grace. He never failed to explain the Russian position with the utmost clarity.
Standing next to some of his colleagues, he often looked like a titan in a room full of school children.
His death, a day before his 65th birthday, is a tragedy first and foremost for his family, friends and colleagues. It is also a deeply sad day for the cause of justice, international law and all of the principles of the UN Charter which Churkin admirably upheld in the face of great obstacles.
His death however raises many uncomfortable questions…
Here are 5 things that must be considered:

1.  A Macabre Pattern Has Emerged

Beginning in 2015, there were several deaths within the Russian Diplomatic corps and a special Russian Presidential adviser.
–LESIN
First there was Russia’s RT founder and special adviser to President Putin, Mikhail Lesin. He died in November of 2015 in his hotel room. Reports said that he appeared discombobulated during his last sighting before he died. Later it emerged that he died of a blunt head trauma. Drinking was blamed, but many questions were left unanswered.
–MALANIN
Earlier last month, Andrei Malanin, a Senior Russian Diplomat to Greece was found dead in his bathroom. The causes of death remain unknown.
–KADAKIN
Just last month, Russia’s Ambassador to India, Alexander Kadakin, an always prestigious role, died of a heart attack, although no one was aware of any previous health issues.
–KARLOV
In December of last year Russia’s Ambassador to Turkey was assassinated by a lone jihadi gunmen in an art gallery.  There was no effective security as the killer simply walked up to Ambassador Andrei Karlov and shot him multiple times in the back.
–CHURKIN
Vitaly Chirkin is the highest profile member of Russia’s diplomatic corps to die in recent years.

2. A Motive For Foul Play?

Each of the recently deceased Russian Ambassadors were high profile targets for miscreants and criminals, whether state actors, mercenaries or fanatics.
Lesin was a instrumental in the creation of RT, a news outlet which has come under constant attack from the western establishment.
Malanin had overseen a period of warming fraternal relations between Greece and Russia at a time when Greece is feeling increasingly alienated from both the EU and NATO.
Karlov is said to be responsible for helping to facilitate the rapprochement between Presidents Erdogan and Putin.
Kadakin oversaw a period of renewed tensions between India and Pakistan at a time when Russia was trying to continue its good relations with India whilst building good relations with Pakistan.
On the 31st of December, 2016, Churkin’s resolution on a ceasefire in Syria passed in the UN Security Council after months of deadlock. The resolution is still in force.
Anyone who wanted to derail the diplomatic successes that the aforementioned men achieved for Russia would have a clear motive to extract vengeance.

3. Who Stands To Gain?

In the matter of Karlov, any derailment of restored Russo-Turkish relations would be good for those happy for Turkey to continue her support of jihadists in Syria rather than moving towards accepting a Russian and indeed Iranian brokered peace process which respects the sovereignty of Syria as Russia and Iran always have, but Turkey has not.
In the case of Lesin, anyone wanting ‘vengeance’ for RT’s popularity would be able to say that a kind of former media boss was taken down.
For Malanin, many fear that if ‘Grexit’ happens, Russia will become an increasingly important partner for Greece. The EU would not like one of its vassal states enjoying fruitful relations with Russia, a country still under sanctions from Brussels.
For Kadakin, it is a matter of interest for those wanting Pakistan to continue favouring western powers and not wanting Russia to be able to mediate in conflict resolutions between New Delhi and Islamabad.
Churkin had come to dominate the UN in ways that his counterparts on the Security Council simply could not. No one really stood a chance in a debate with Churkin. His absence leaves open the possibility for a power vacuum that would makes other peoples’ jobs easier.

4. Where The Deaths Took Place

Each death took place on foreign soil. Mr. Karlov’s killing in particular, exposed the weakness of his security contingent. If security was that weak in a comparatively volatile place like Turkey, it goes without saying that security in states considered more politically stable would be even more lax.
Again it must be said that a non-biased detective might say that the only pattern which has emerged is that many people in the Russian diplomatic corps and related institutions have heart attacks. Maybe they eat fatty foods every day and drink and smoke too much. But if this was this case, why are the heart attacks all on foreign soil?
If all of the former Ambassadors except Karlov were really in bad health, is it really just a coincidence that none of these men had a health scare on Russian soil? Again, a pattern has emerged.

5. The Ethics of Speculation?

Many will say that it is too early to suspect foul play. Indeed, I must make it clear that this is simply speculation based on a pattern of tragic and at times unexplained events, combined with the objective reality that because of Russia’s recently elevated profile as a born-again geopolitical superpower, Russia is a bigger target for international criminals than it was in the broken 1990s or the more quiet early 2000s.
When such events happen, one’s duty is to speculate so that better health and  safety precautions are taken to ensure the wellbeing of Russia’s important diplomats. Furthermore, if foul play is a factor, it means that such seemingly unrelated events must be investigated more thoroughly.
Russia has historically suffered from invasion, revolution and more recently from immense international pressure. The Russian people, like Russia’s ambassadors are entitled to the peace and long lives deserved by any member of a country that has suffered for too long.

WATCH: President Trump Listening Session on Domestic and International Human Trafficking (2/23/2017)