10/29/19: If Trump was relatively happy
on Monday – not counting getting booed at the World Series – he was likely to
end up in a funk by lunchtime Tuesday.
____________________
“Our partnership is rooted in the idea that free citizens should be able to exercise their democratic rights, choose their own destiny, and live in peace.”
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman
____________________
Late last night we learned that Lt. Colonel Alexander S. Vindman was planning to go before the House Intelligence Committee. Even if you’re following all the testimony in the impeachment inquiry (those portions which have leaked), Vindman’s name may be new to you.
Yes. Yes. We know the leaks have almost all come from the Democratic side.
We know.
We also know, if Republicans had good information to leak,
Rep. Devin Nunes would be on the phone, leaking to reporters and the White
House like an octogenarian gentleman with weak bladder control.
*
IN A PREPARED STATEMENT to lawmakers, already provided to the “Fake News” folks at The New York Times, Vindman appears ready to fire at least two torpedoes into the hull of the already-listing U.S.S. Trump.
Lt. Col. Vindman is an immigrant. He and his family came to the United States as refugees when he was three. He grew up here and joined the U.S. Army. Vindman has served his adopted country for twenty years. He did a combat tour in Iraq and collected a Purple Heart after an IED exploded nearby.
According to the Times, he will lay out his background in his prepared remarks:
My family fled the Soviet Union
when I was three and a half years old. Upon arriving in New York City in 1979,
my father worked multiple jobs to support us, all the while learning English at
night. He stressed to us the importance of fully integrating into our adopted
country. For many years, life was quite difficult. In spite of our challenging
beginnings, my family worked to build its own American dream. I have a deep
appreciation for American values and ideals and the power of freedom [emphasis
added, unless otherwise noted].
I am a patriot, and it is my
sacred duty and honor to advance and defend OUR country, irrespective of party
or politics.
As we have long since learned, any man (or woman) who believes in duty and honor is unlikely to be a friend of Donald J. Trump. So, we should expect to see Press Lacky Grisham come marching out in front of the cameras once again, to describe another war hero as “human scum.” That was the label she and her boss plastered on Ambassador Bill Taylor last week, a man who served as a combat officer and was wounded during the Vietnam War.
 |
Taylor, right, shed blood for this country. No bone spurs for him. |
“For over twenty years,” Lt. Col. Vindman plans to say, he served his country in “a non-partisan manner.” He has “done so with the utmost respect and professionalism for both Republican and Democratic administrations.”
He is prepared to describe communications involving top Trump administration figures and representatives of Ukraine. Vindman was listening on the crucial July 25 call between Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky. Vindman will tell lawmakers he is “not the whistleblower.” Nor does he feel comfortable venturing a guess who that person might be.
Like that mysterious whistleblower, however, he will say he
had grave concerns on more than one occasion, regarding President Trump’s
actions and those of his political pals. Like Dr. Fiona Hill, who has already
testified and launched a torpedo of her own, Vindman was a member of the
National Security Council. In that position he had first-hand knowledge of what
was going on inside the White House.
“Since 2008,” he is prepared to say,
Russia has manifested an overtly
aggressive foreign policy, leveraging military power and employing hybrid
warfare to achieve its objectives of regional hegemony and global influence.
Absent a deterrent to dissuade Russia from such aggression, there is an
increased risk of further confrontations with the West. In this situation, a
strong and independent Ukraine is critical to U.S. national security
interests because Ukraine is a frontline state and a bulwark against
Russian aggression.
President Trump’s defenders have insisted since the start of the impeachment inquiry that he did nothing wrong. They have claimed he held up military aid to our ally out of concern about corruption in Ukraine.
Colonel Vindman will not support that construct:
In spite of being under assault from Russia for more than five years, Ukraine has taken major steps towards integrating with the West. The U.S. government policy community’s view is that the election of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy [alternate spelling] and the promise of reforms to eliminate corruption will lock in Ukraine’s Western-leaning trajectory, and allow Ukraine to realize its dream of a vibrant democracy and economic prosperity.
“Outside influencers promoting a false narrative.”
Vindman will tell members of the House Intelligence Committee that he joined the NSC in July 2018. In an apparent slap at Rudy Giuliani, he will explain that by spring of this year, he,
became aware of outside influencers
promoting a false narrative of Ukraine inconsistent with the consensus views of
the interagency [that is, U.S. intelligence services]. This narrative was
harmful to U.S. government policy. While my interagency colleagues and I were
becoming increasingly optimistic on Ukraine’s prospects, this alternative
narrative undermined U.S. government efforts to expand cooperation with
Ukraine.
Lt. Col. Vindman was one of several members of the NSC who listened to an earlier, April 21, 2019, call between the two presidents. Vindman will say that that call went well. President Trump expressed a desire to work with President Zelenskyy and “extended an invitation to visit the White House.”
In May, the colonel was one of several NSC members to attend Zelensky’s inauguration. The U.S. delegation came away impressed. Zelensky and his top aides seemed committed to cleaning up corruption and anxious to build a stronger relationship with the United States.
On July 10, however, signs of serious trouble emerged.
[That day] Oleksandr Danylyuk,
the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council for Ukraine, visited
Washington, D.C. for a meeting with National Security Advisor Bolton.
Ambassadors Volker and Sondland also attended, along with Energy Secretary Rick
Perry. The meeting proceeded well until the Ukrainians broached the subject of
a meeting between the two presidents. The Ukrainians saw this meeting as
critically important in order to solidify the support of their most important
international partner. Amb. Sondland started to speak about Ukraine
delivering specific investigations in order to secure the meeting with the
President, at which time Ambassador Bolton cut the meeting short.
Following this meeting, there was a scheduled debriefing during which Amb. Sondland emphasized the importance that Ukraine deliver the investigations into the 2016 election, the Bidens, and Burisma [the Ukrainian company for which Hunter Biden had worked]. I stated to Amb. Sondland that his statements were inappropriate, that the request to investigate Biden and his son had nothing to do with national security, and that such investigations were not something the NSC was going to get involved in or push.
“This would all undermine U.S. national security.”
Dr. Hill entered the room and broached similar concerns. She, Bolton and Vindman were deeply troubled. Alarm grew exponentially with the call of July 25. Vindman will testify that he listened, as did colleagues from the NSC and the office of the Vice President.
“As the transcript is in the public record, we are all aware of what was said,” his prepared remarks will note.
If the transcript is in the public record – and it’s a call memorandum, not a verbatim record of what was said – the reaction of patriots like Lt. Col. Vindman is what should shake Trump fans.
I was concerned by the call. I
did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a
U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S.
government’s support of Ukraine. I realized that if Ukraine pursued an
investigation into the Bidens and Burisma, it would likely be interpreted as a
partisan play which would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing the bipartisan
support it has thus far maintained. This would all undermine U.S. national
security.
He will end his prepared marks with this:
The United States and Ukraine
are and must remain strategic partners, working together to realize the shared
vision of a stable, prosperous, and democratic Ukraine that is integrated into
the Euro-Atlantic community. Our partnership is rooted in the idea that free
citizens should be able to exercise their democratic rights, choose their own
destiny, and live in peace.
The colonel will then take questions from lawmakers and
respond to the best of his recollection for as long they would like him to
stay.
*
IN OTHER WORDS, Vindman is expected to lay out the case that you could choose to work with the “free citizens” of Ukraine. You could support an ally that served as a bulwark, an ally that was fighting off the aggression of a dangerous Russian state. You could provide military aid and bolster U.S. security at the same time.
Or you could do what the President of the United States did. Donald John Trump made it clear he wanted the Ukrainians to investigate Joe Biden and his son. He expected them to get it done if they wanted a meeting and military aid. He was pressing our ally to help him win election again.
That’s the torpedo that should sink the U.S.S. Trump.
It’s “Russia, if you’re listening,” with a 2020 twist.
BLOGGER’S NOTE: As it turns out, Vindman resigns from the
U.S. Army in July 2020, after a promotion his superiors agree he earned is
blocked by the president and some of his tools. Vindman’s crime? Testifying
truthfully, during these hearings, to the best of his knowledge, under oath.
Again, let’s be absolutely clear: Lt. Col.
Vindman’s superiors said he had earned a promotion; but the president wanted to
f**k with another decorated war hero.
For no apparent reason, other than kinship, Lt.
Col. Eugene Vindman’s earned promotion is also blocked by then-President Trump,
but he sticks with the U.S. Army, and his promotion is eventually reinstated.
That’s who Trump really is. Interested only in what and who serves his needs. A serial liar. Vindictive. And no real patriot at all.
