Oldest Living CIA Agent Says Russia Probably Targeted Trump Decades Ago

[Roland99]

Oldest Living CIA Agent Says Russia Probably Targeted Trump Decades Ago
https://www.thedailybeast.com/oldest-living-cia-agent-says-russia-probably-targeted-trump-decades-ago

Sichel’s early 1946 report on the methods the Soviets were using to coopt the eastern German political parties was the first detailed examination of the phenomenon, one soon emulated in the other Eastern European nations under their military control. Once they comprised a sizeable minority in the government, the communist-led coalitions would then start taking control of key ministries, notably the police and internal security services, until they could take over outright. One of the ultimate beneficiaries of this approach, a Hungarian communist leader named Matyas Rakosi, called it “salami tactics,” the process of joining the existing political system and then slicing away at it until there was nothing left.

In this regard, one revelation in the Senate Intelligence Committee report stood out to Sichel. Contrary to most previous assumptions, Senate investigators found that the Russian intelligence campaign to gain influence with the Republican party began well before Trump emerged as a viable candidate, in keeping with Vladimir Putin’s scheme to help thwart a Hillary Clinton presidency however he could. This fit with the pattern the old CIA hand had seen in Eastern Europe.

...

This found echo in the years prior to 2016 in the series of ties that Putin, an old KGB man himself, fostered with right-wing political figures and fringe groups across the breadth of Europe. However much those ties may have appeared to run counter to Putin’s open nostalgia for the good old days of Soviet communist rule, they shared the common ground of ultra-nationalism.

This paid great dividends for the Russian ruler, for these same nationalist groups were at the forefront in their respective countries in calling for the dissolution or weakening of NATO and the European Union, two long-term Putin goals. For the same reason, the Russian leadership could only have been thrilled by Trump’s steady climb toward the Republican nomination. Far more than with any other Republican running for president, Trump’s xenophobic, America First rhetoric dovetailed with Putin’s own version, while Trump’s promise of a diminished American role on the global stage was the stuff of Russian fantasy. Little wonder that Putin’s minions would do anything in their power to help propel the hotel magnate and reality show host into the White House.

Probably explains Ron Johnson's utter love of Russia

[dalton99a]

1. Kick

[soothsayer]

2. At least 4 decades

https://www.sutori.com/story/timeline-you-might-be-interested-in--pTTyLH39r7FsRtF51JZi4BVt

[mitch96]

3. The KGB tried to recruit Adele Stevenson in his bid to go against Eisenhower.

Offered him buckets of money and also to trash Ike. Stevenson said no and went right to the FBi and Ike... The KGB just kept fishing till they hooked one. This tactic is not new..
m

[lagomorph777]

4. Now Putin completely controls the Russiapublican Party.

[JHB]

5. Getting "marching orders straight from Moscow" is a Republican gig now

[Hortensis]

7. This. Not completely, but they targeted the GOP before.

[Celerity]

6. Peter Sichel (98yo now, btw) is the founder of Blue Nun wines as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sichel

Peter Max F. Sichel (born September 12, 1922) is a German American wine merchant, who created the success of the Blue Nun wine brand, for a while the largest international wine brand in the world.

He was born in Mainz in 1922, where his grandfather's family wine business, H. Sichel Söhne had been established. He was educated in Germany and then in 1935 was sent to be educated in England. He was at St Cyprian's School and Stowe School. While he was at school in England, his parents escaped from Nazi Germany on a ruse, and the family settled in France. The firm had offices in London and Bordeaux, and at the start of World War II, while he was apprenticed to the Bordeaux firm, he was interned as he was German. He escaped to the USA via Spain and worked as a US Office of Strategic Services, running agents in Germany for which he was given the Distinguished Intelligence Medal. Shortly after the War, he was sent to Berlin to head the secret Strategic Services Unit. He reported in early 1946 on the methods the Soviets were using to control the political parties in the Russian sector of Germany (which became East Germany).

Sichel continued to work for the Central Intelligence Agency in Berlin, Washington and Hong Kong until 1960, when he left, saying "I left because the CIA did things I didn’t like, such as send people into the Ukraine to work in fabricated resistance groups. They were potentially being sent to their deaths. I made a huge fuss." He took over the family wine import business in New York, which he dissolved, instead dealing with Schieffelin, then a large drinks company. At this time, wine was taking off as a drink in America, overtaking fortified wine, and he advertised Blue Nun as a wine you can drink "right through the meal", using widespread advertising. At its peak in the 1980s, annual sales in the US reached 1.25 million cases.

Sichel has often appeared on television in Germany as a witness to the immediate post-war years in Berlin when he was head of the CIA in Berlin, and wrote several books on German wine and a guide to wine. He became chairman of the German parent company in 1984. By the 1990s, the Sichel company was sold to another German company, Langguth, and Peter had arranged sale of part of the Schieffelin company to LVMH. He was president of the International Wine and Spirit Competition in 1991. Until 2006 he owned the Bordeaux Château Fourcas-Hosten in Listrac, which he sold to Hermès. He is the father of the late filmmaker Alex Sichel and the screenwriter Sylvia Sichel.

[Vogon_Glory]

8. Silly Liberals Still Think That Being A Tool Of The Kremlin

Is A Very Bad Thing—a bumper sticker I was tempted to have printed.

My late uncle was a West Pointer, a Republican, and a Cold Warrior. He’d have been outraged by Trump’s behavior, and that of such enablers like RoJo as well.

[themaguffin]

9. That has definitely been noted before, like, as far back as the 80s.

[blm]

10. Spreading this to other sites.