By Philip Giraldi
It is ironic
that the Robert Mueller investigation into possible collusion between the
Russian government and the Donald Trump campaign continues to turn up nothing
while the evidence of Israeli interference in the U.S. political system
continues to surface without any outrage being expressed by either the media or
American politicians.
The most
recent revelation concerns a payment of $10,000 given to former
Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos in an Israeli hotel room in July
2017. A self-described Israeli businessman named Charles Tawil provided the
money at the meeting, which was set up after Tawil flew to the Greek island
Mykonos, where he met Papadopoulos and invited him to come to Israel to discuss
some possible business relating to an oil and gas project in the Aegean Sea.
Papadopoulos had met Tawil through an Israeli “political strategist” David
Ha’ivri, who is a hard-line Israeli settler with close ties to the government
of Benjamin Netanyahu. Papadopoulos agree to do so, leaving his wife Simona in
Greece.
Papadopoulos took the money as a
retainer and signed a contract for additional consulting services at $10,000
per month before he returned to Greece, where he gave the money to an attorney
friend to hold. He shortly thereafter flew to Dulles International Airport near
Washington, where he was arrested on May 27th and charged with giving false
statements to the FBI. He was convicted in October and is due to be sentenced
next week.
In an email, Ha’ivri explained how
“We discussed potential consultancy work for business in the Aegean, Cyprus and
Middle East focusing on business related to gas and petroleum infrastructure
because of Charles’ network of contacts and George’s specialization. The
retainer would go firstly to cover [George’s] needs as he said that he had
financial problems.”
Ha’ivri also described how the
agreement quickly fell apart due to Papadopoulos’ “immaturity.” He concluded
that “After that the whole story fell apart. Charles left back to Washington
and the story was over.”
In an interview, Simona Papadopoulos identified several
“shady characters” who she said approached her husband during and after the
2016 presidential campaign. She mentioned “someone we met in Mykonos, an
Israeli person who flew to Mykonos to discuss business.” Papadopoulos was also
approached by a number of other suspicious individuals who clearly were seeking
to establish some kind of relationship with him, to include a Maltese named
Joseph Mifsud, who might have had a Russian energy company connection; Sergei
Millian, an alleged source for the notorious Steele dossier; and an FBI
informant named Stefan Halper.
Tawil, who does not come up on
normal records searches, is on Linkedin with zero biographical information. He
claims to be the consultant for a company called Gestomar located in Silver
Spring Maryland, which does not appear to exist. Papadopoulos reportedly
believed him to be an Israeli spy and revealed the details of
the contact to Robert Mueller, who appears to have done nothing with the
information.
The approach to George Papadopoulos
was typical spy tradecraft for recruiting a source. Papadopoulos was in financial
difficulties, the agreement was to serve as a consultant for an unknown company
by an individual using a cover name, and it was apparently presumed that the
new spy would be able to report on details coming from inside the still-forming
Trump government. Papadopoulos was introduced to the Mossad officer Tawil by
Ha’ivri, who is well known in political circles and therefore credible and
non-threatening. This is, of course, largely speculation but one has to wonder
why the possible Israeli attempt to spy on the new Trump Administration has
been so ignored.
In an earlier manifestation of Israelgate,
former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn also was eventually forced
to admit that he had lied to the FBI about what was said during two telephone
conversations with then Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak.
The two phone calls in question
include absolutely nothing about possible collusion with Russia to change the
outcome of the U.S. election, which allegedly was the raison d’etre behind the
creation of Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel office in the first place. Both
took place more than a month after the election and both were initiated by the
Americans involved.
The first phone call to Kislyak, on
December 22nd, was made by Flynn at the direction of Jared Kushner, who in turn
had been approached by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu had
learned that the Obama Administrating was going to abstain on a United Nations
vote condemning the Israeli settlements policy, meaning that for the first time
in years a U.N. resolution critical of Israel would pass without drawing a U.S.
veto. Kushner, acting for Netanyahu, asked Flynn to contact each delegate from
the various countries on the Security Council to delay or kill the resolution.
Flynn agreed to do so, which included a call to the Russians. Kislyak took the
call but did not agree to veto Security Council Resolution 2334, which passed
unanimously on December 23rd.
Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner the
White House’s point man on the Middle East. He and his family have extensive
ties both to Israel and to Netanyahu personally, to include
Netanyahu’s staying at the Kushner family home in New York. The Kushner Family
Foundation has funded some of Israel’s illegal settlements and also a number of
conservative political groups in that country. Jared has served as a director
of that foundation and it is reported that he failed to disclose the
relationship when he filled out his background investigation sheet for a
security clearance. All of which suggests that if you are looking for possible
foreign government collusion with the Trumpsters, look no further.
Kushner was, in fact, trying to
clandestinely reverse a decision made by the legally constituted American
government and he was doing so on behalf of Netanyahu. He asked the soon-to-be
National Security Advisor to get the Russians to undermine and subvert what was
being done by the still-in-power U.S. government in Washington headed by
President Barack Obama. In legal terms, this could be construed as a
“conspiracy against the United States” that the Mueller investigation has
exploited against former Trump associate Paul Manafort.
Together the Papadopoulos and Flynn
tales suggest that it was Israel, not Russia, that sought to both collude with
and even spy on the Trump Administration, which should surprise no one.
Unfortunately, in spite of the evidence, the possibility that the
“interference” will ever be subject to any Congressional investigation remains
extremely unlikely.
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