Durham’s ‘Clues’: Pentagon contractors, CrowdStrike, Georgia, and the IP addresses

Paul Sperry had an article at Real Clear Investigations on 7 October in which he reported that John Durham’s investigation of the federal government’s handling of “Russiagate” is focusing on Pentagon contractors.  Like the “speaking indictment” of Michael Sussmann, this framing of where Durham’s headed functions to shift perceptions somewhat, shedding new light on old information.

Like so much of the “new light,” the investigative pathways prompted by what has recently come out cause us to look further back and see the fresh likelihood of connections between the familiar events of Spygate/Russiagate and earlier events.

This treatment will not be at all comprehensive.  It’s a collection of such potential links, assembled in the last few weeks and presented in complete sentences as a marker, rather than as a finished analysis or theory.  Basically, these are research notes.  I want to get them out there as a service.

Rather than attempting to weave them as a story, I’m trusting readers to know the basic outline and recognize why dates and events are significant.  There has been prior work on all of the points here:  nothing is entirely new, as I think dedicated followers of the problem set are aware.  Hyperlinks will take you to more extended discussions and analyses.

Here is the grab-bag of interesting points, in no particular order.

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USS Mount Whitney, USS Taylor both in Black Sea ports

USS Taylor in Samsun, Turkey. (Image credit: 6n1k.com.tr via Bosphorus Naval News; links in text.)

The U.S. warships in the Black Sea continue to be nowhere near Ukraine, except in the sense of being closer to Ukraine than they would be if they were in port in Spain.

USS Taylor (FFG-50), the frigate, which was last heard of running her propeller aground

Russian troop deployments in the south

There are differing opinions about the exact nature of the reported deployment of Russian troops to Syria.  Some of the reporting appears to be circular, and Business Insider has picked apart the original language of a RIA Novosti report in Russian to conclude that the “Russian troops” amount to no more than an anti-terrorism security detachment for the Russian fleet tanker RFS Iman (a Black Sea-based ship deployed for support to Russia’s Horn of Africa antipiracy task force).

It’s hard to say: Iman by herself couldn’t transport very many troops into Syria (a detachment of infantry, maybe, if they were really miserable, sleeping on deck and in passageways, during the few days’ transit), but Iman is an unlikely platform for transporting Russian troops anyway.  If Russia puts a substantial number of troops in Syria,

Are Russia and China ready to play a new Great Game?

In all the discussion of the sanctions on Iran and what effect they’re having, analysts have forgotten a major factor.  The US, Iran, and Europe aren’t the only geopolitical actors in the world.  We don’t operate in a sealed vacuum in which the interests and intentions of others have no meaning.  And from the perspective of these others – especially Russia, China, and India – what the US is doing with sanctions could well be the beginning of an attempt to destabilize Iran on their doorstep.

The strategic drivers

Once Iran is destabilized, the picture gets murkier from the standpoint of a great Asian power.