I moved the story up front-I went a little long on this piece-but me thinks the “conspiracy instincts are strong in this one…..”
Just somewhat precious, special and not at all puzzling to see this-and I think you can file under the “things that are not going to clarify soon” category….
Cofer Black-Very likely you have never heard of this guy who-unlike my last name-even people who have known me for years are like-nope-doesn’t ring a bell-this guy stands out in a crowd. I always think of a few folks with “action” or ideal cover names—Like LCDR Nick Buck-who was a Navy guy working NAVY JSIPS/DCGS integration at the NRO…great action-Jackson type name and all the jokes about buck passing…
When I was working some contract activity with the agency on a project or two or three over the years–my first impression early on was -this is not a very good cover name cause you can’t forget it-its too memorable-rolls off the tongue too easily-unlike Arthur Thomas, Mike or Jack Smith, Joe Adams, Billy Jones–I did not believe it was his real name-still don’t.
He has been referred to as an “serial consultant” since his retirement in 2005 but was definitely somewhat of a program or “money guy” over the years and it sent warning bells, chimes and alarms when it emerged that he had “also” been hired by murky Ukraine elements linked with Burisma…but that didn’t come out until a scant maybe 3 years ago-under the “OBTW” category, page 24 in the “around the world section,” foreign notes, bottom of the left page, inside column like a footnote… My wife mentioned it and I was like-Cofer flipping Black? In Ukraine??? No way!!!
Sometimes these types are put in place to do things (in the Who Tommy vernacular, “Fiddle About,”) sometimes to look after things, and sometimes to collect dirt on things for a rainy day….
Government is kind of funny about the way they handle money-contracting-think of the Navy and ship construction-tens and hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of refurbishments—I forget the cost or figure-but the USS Constitution was in dry dock in Boston while I was in school up there in August 2016–and we were joking that you could buy 50 of them for what they were spending on the maintenance…but not for unique-classic ships like that one…the hull is so thick and strong the Brits shots would bounce off the sides (“Old Ironsides.”) An original cannon or two is in the Massachusetts’ First Corps of Cadets Museum in Boston.
All to say that there are Contract Officers, CO Technical Representatives, and then there are the folks who hold the “Warrants“-the agency representative with the legal, statutory authorization to expend government-taxpayer dollars on “schtuff“—if you do enough business involving enough money-the process necks down to the govt folks responsible for the dollar amounts involved-below 10M, above 10M to infinity and beyond….a handful of folks across the community wielding the “Warrants.“
His appearance in Ukraine involved Counter-Terrorism or the opposite, shenanigans-or money issues….All conspiracy theories-of course-but Black’s appearance in Ukraine is interesting when you look through the lens of the amazing period when the US-Obama-ran a coup to overthrow a Putin aligned leader, as Victoria Nuland “the mohron” was leading the Color Revolution for Obama’s State Dept forward in Ukraine in fall 2013-spring 2014.
Kind of like having AOC on the bomb squad, rabble rousing against the Putin sympatico-but duly elected in a US State Dept certified Ukraine election-Yanukovych. I was still a working stiff inside the wire but somewhat marveling at how this information operation unfolded, culminating in Yanukovych fleeing to Moscow.
Marveling at it because of the chain of events that saw Bush-the US-do absolutely nothing when Putin spanked Georgia like a red headed stepchild-and wondering what Putin’s reaction was going to be. We didn’t have long to wait as an infuriated Putin moved on Crimea to protect shipping lanes to the Med-and then somewhat set up camp on the border of Ukraine.
With Ukraine like the mouse in the cage rapping on the glass-“Hey, there is a rather large snake in here,” but the effort had all the hallmarks of an agency operation under the banner of our State Dept led by the public face of Nuland.
But who was the info ops insider-spreading money, marshalling forces, rabbling the rousers-it had to be an “insider“-cause it sure as hell wasn’t Nuland, in spite of her coverage-passing out cookies on the front lines…
It wasn’t the first time there were problems with a Yanukovych election. But this was truly a poke in Putin’s eye, particularly from a president who had transmitted a conciliatory message via Russian President Medvedev that he would have “more flexibility after the US election.” Putin did not react well or take it lying down.
Shortly thereafter Paul Manafort emerged-and I should say re-emerged. Manafort had been in republican politics forrrreverrrr, from Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush to the Dole campaign. For those paying attention at home, Manafort ran afoul of the US political “intelligentsia-” for lack of a better term (US Royalty-from an entitled sense?-) when he signed on to advise and support some unsavory characters, from Ukraine President Yanukovych, Philippines Dictator Marcos, Zaire Dictator Seko and Angolan Guerrilla leader Savimbi.
One of the “little” details that Manafort failed to attend to over the years was the often-overlooked matter of registering as a foreign agent (FARA) with the US government-until he was under federal indictment in 2017.
In 2015 but really early 2016-in a very public way-just like Roger Stone-they both have been in politics, campaigns with republicans–their entire adult life-Stone also since the Nixon era—but Manafort was rumored as a potential campaign advisor for the Trump campaign.
And most people bought into the barrage of outrage trumpeted by the left that ensued accompanying that rumor-–“FARA” violations, supporting the wrong side in Ukraine-funded by the Oligarchs-the broadside blast emanating from the Obama Administration-DOJ-FBI-and the DNC-but mainly the NSC with Rice and the inner WH council, supported by the LSMBTGA.
With contributions from relatively little to unknown Dem operatives like Alexandra Chalupa-Ukrainian American–and folks like Sean Misko-who would end up on Adam Schiff’s staff during the impeachment of Trump for the Ukraine phone call-as well as his colleague Abigail Grace, and Brennan CIA Obama-holdover/ plant Eric Ciaramella, as well as an US Army-Ukrainian American LTC Vindeman-Fiona Hill, and others on the inside of the WH somewhat informal “Ukraine Task Force.”
Which somewhat blurred the lines between Ukraine support and going after the Bad Orange Man and his campaign team, in particular Manafort, outlined in the above article by Paul Sperry.
What Manafort had going for him-or against him-depending on whether you swing red or blue in these matters-is he was connected with the Ukraine govt and heavy hitting Russian and Ukraine Oligarchs-he knew inside deals, storylines and where bodies were buried-and by whom-and was well aware of the US government and Obama administration shenanigans in Ukraine-that had been ongoing this entire century since Obama the Senator was introduced to the “scheme” in a trip early-on with Chris Dodd, among others.
Can you say Bio-Labs? Remember when it wasn’t a thing-then it might have been a thing-but not US run-then it was a thing, the US was involved-but only like 19 of them-and it is routine, humma, humma. And then Nuland and Senator Rubio had an amazing exchange in congress that talked about the labs that are in Ukraine-and it was spread by the LSMBTGA as an “it depends on what the word “is, er, Bio-Lab” means…but yes there is some US funding and how routine and normal it all was-in Ukraine on the Russian border…hmmm…Russian disinformation, humma, humma…
Meanwhile the FBI was pressed by the WH-NSC-Ukraine Team-that they were part of-to reopen the case they had closed after an investigation on Manafort-nothing there-but all of a sudden there was a puzzling out of the blue meeting with Russians that happened in Trump Tower that was billed as a solicitation of “dirt/kompromat” on Hillary that turned out to be innocuous nickel and dime Magnitsky Act discussions-about freer travel and less restriction on Russians-particularly Oligarchs…
But Manafort was “compromised” in a tale that was intensified through the echo chamber of pundits and the LSMBTGA-outed as a Russian collaborator-particularly by Congressman Schiff. In spite of the FBI investigation into his foreign lobbying efforts having already been dropped-surprise-it was reopened-and he was raided out of the blue by an FBI SWAT Team-a grave danger to America somehow-and he was put in solitary confinement, and prison while awaiting trial-hit with a gag order-one of the apparently most dangerous seventy-somethings in America.
What was his crime-Bueler? FARA violations-the default go to IRS evasion? Recall that out of the blue from Ukraine-after a fire in an area that was holding the residue of Ukraine investigation records into-among other things- Burisma malfeasance-a book keeping file was saved-nearly ~800 pages-and it bizarrely documented the money that Manafort had been paid to support the apparently corrupt Ukraine regime—an astounding find-and evidence of a real dumb butt on the Ukraine side who went to the trouble of documenting under the table transactions to buy influence-or a very suspicious lucky charm-like find at just the right time–I wonder what Cofer Black and his colleagues were up to during this time???
Part two to follow
7 June 2023
LSMBTGA: Lamestream media echo chamber (LMEC-L) social media (SM) big tech tyrants (BT,) government (G) and academia (A)
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