The "Professor"

There is no longer any doubt that the FBI used an operative to attempt to penetrate on the Trump campaign during his presidential run (the FBI admitted as much in a conveniently leaked document to the New York Times). There is also no longer any doubt that a concerted intelligence operation focusing on Trump began in 2016 while the presidential campaign was underway. Since this explosive information came out (consider for a moment how Democrats would react if Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton has suffered the same thing), there has been a concerted effort to normalize and quash it.

The campaign is being conducted by the Democrat's trained hamsters in the media. The intent is to normalize what is, in all likelihood, the biggest political scandal in United States history. The hamsters at the Washington Post, used the audacious headline, "If the FBI used an Informant, It wasn't to Go After Trump. It was to Protect Him."

Yeah ... riiiight. I suppose that Trump's absolutely justified characterization of the vicious Latino gang, MS-13, wasn't to criticize the gang, but to give them a path for a better future. OMG!! The hamsters have literally crossed over into self-caricature.

But it continues. Here are the trained hamsters at the Washington Post, a once repected journalistic source (my comments are in indented italics), describing the FBI spying on Trump:

For years, the professor has provided information to the FBI and the CIA, according to people familiar with the matter. He aided the Russia investigation both before and after special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s appointment in May 2017, according to people with knowledge of his activities ...

So ... we use the "professor" label, rather than a name (more on that in a moment) not so much to identify the man/woman, but to soften his activities ... after all ... professors are harmless academics, right?

The FBI plant first met with Carter Page, a Trump campaign aide. Here's a excerpt from WaPo:

Page and the FBI informant stayed in touch after the conference, meeting several times in the Washington area, Page said. Page said he did not recall exactly what the two men discussed.

“You are asking me about conversations I had almost two years ago,” he [Page] said. “We had extensive discussions. We talked about a bunch of different foreign-policy-related topics. For me to try and remember every nuance of every conversation is impossible.”

Interesting technique here. The hamsters sort of put the person who was spied upon on trail. First, the hamsters ask Page ... not the 'professor' about the conversation, and when Page says he can't remember every detail, there's the subtle implication that he is hiding something. Remember, Page was the target of the FBI via the professor.

Later in their apologia, the WaPo hamsters write this about a young, unpaid assistant, George Papadopoulos to the Trump campaign:

“Please pardon my sudden intrusion just before the Labor Day weekend,” the professor wrote to Papadopoulos in a message described to The Post.

He said he was leading a project examining relations between Turkey and the European Union. He offered to pay Papadopoulos $3,000 to write a paper about the oil fields off the coast of Turkey, Israel and Cyprus, “a topic on which you are a recognized expert.”

It is a long-standing practice of intelligence operatives to try to develop a source by first offering the target money for innocuous research or writing.

The professor invited Papadopoulos to come to London later that month to discuss the paper, offering to pay the costs of his travel. “I understand that this is rather sudden but thought given your expertise, it might be of interest to you,” he wrote.

Papadopoulos accepted. While in London, he met for drinks with a woman who identified herself as the professor’s assistant, before meeting on Sept. 15 with the professor at the Traveler’s Club, a 200-year-old private club that is a favorite of foreign diplomats stationed in London, according to the emails described to The Post.

After Papadopoulos returned to the United States and sent his research document, the professor responded: “Enjoyed your paper. Just what we wanted. $3,000 wired to your account. Pls confirm receipt.”

It's worth noting that the hamsters do not comment on any of this and simply end the piece ... the implicit bribery, the subterfuge, not to mention the impropriety of it all. After all, it's Trump, and that justifies any means necessary.

Like the New York Times piece on Crossfire Hurricane, the writing is matter of fact, bland even. Activities that would have created screams of outrage if perpetrated agains a Democratic candidate are implicitly defined as "long standing practice." The spy is framed as a benign, studious investigator. He "reached out" to a Trump operative. The "professor was a good soldier who "for years ... provided information to the FBI and the CIA, according to people familiar with the matter." Nothing to worry about here, just another case for "the professor.

And then, of course, the coup de grace, that the "professor's name cannot be revealed* because ... "following warnings from U.S. intelligence officials that exposing him could endanger him or his contacts." Conveeeenient! The only people endangered here are senior appointees of the Obama administration.

It's also interesting that the WaPo hamsters don't ask the really important questions, not to mention answering them:

1. Given the obvious sensitivity of the professor's actvities, who in the Obama administration authorized it?
2. How was he/she compensationed for his/her spying and how much as she/he paid? Was it US taxpayer money?
3. What was done with the intelligence he/she gathered? Who was on the distribution list?
4. Was the legality of the spying run by DoJ lawyers and who among them said it was lawful?

Ooops! None of that is the least bit important, at least as far as the hamsters are concerned. This is just routine stuff. Nothing more to see here ... move on.

UPDATE:
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* The conservative Daily Caller reports:

Two months before the 2016 election, George Papadopoulos received a strange request for a meeting in London, one of several the young Trump adviser would be offered — and he would accept — during the presidential campaign.

The meeting request, which has not been reported until now, came from Stefan Halper, a foreign policy expert and Cambridge professor with connections to the CIA and its British counterpart, MI6.

Halper’s September 2016 outreach to Papadopoulos wasn’t his only contact with Trump campaign members. The 73-year-old professor, a veteran of three Republican administrations, met with two other campaign advisers, The Daily Caller News Foundation learned.

Papadopoulos now questions Halper’s motivation for contacting him, according to a source familiar with Papadopoulos’s thinking. That’s not just because of the randomness of the initial inquiry but because of questions Halper is said to have asked during their face-to-face meetings in London.

According to a source with knowledge of the meeting, Halper asked Papadopoulos: “George, you know about hacking the emails from Russia, right?”

Hmmm. I guess "the professor," if in fact Halper is the guy, was either fishing or leading his target. Stay classy, FBI.