By Brandon Turbeville

Only a day after an apparent micro-coup conducted by elements within the CIA and U.S. intelligence apparatus, it appears that, if the CIA’s goal was to convince President Donald Trump that moves toward rapprochement with Russia would not be tolerated and that forces greater than Trump are in control of U.S. policy, that mission has been accomplished.

Despite a campaign of seemingly more rational foreign policy promises not to start World War Three, on the evening of February 14, mainstream headlines announced that Trump is now claiming that Crimea was “taken” by Russia and that Russia should give the region back to Ukraine.

“President Trump has made it very clear that he expects the Russian government to deescalate violence in the Ukraine and return Crimea,” said White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Tuesday. Trump then later tweeted on Wednesday, February 15, “Crimea was TAKEN by Russia during the Obama Administration. Was Obama too soft on Russia?”

As is typical, senile warmonger John McCain, who is well-known for abandoning U.S. POWs in Vietnam and supporting every single military action ever put on the table including supporting actual terrorists, joined in a chorus of war fervor, urging Trump to “let’s take a different course together: give defensive lethal assistance to #Ukraine & keep sanctions on #Russia.”

Trump’s rhetoric on the campaign, mere hinting at the fact that the United States under a Trump administration might consider removing the idiotic and aggressive sanctions put in place under Obama, are now directly at odds with his behavior and decisions as President.

Russia is not backing down either, having called on Trump to live up to his more sensible rhetoric on the campaign trail regarding peace and a sane relationship with Russia. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman, Maria Zhakarova, also stated that the question of Crimea will simply not be discussed and is not open for debate. “Crimea is part of the Russian Federation,” she said.

Russian officials also denied the paranoid conspiracy theories of leftist commentators and mainstream media pundits regarding the alleged collusion between Trump’s team and Russian intelligence.

A clear intelligence operation, the Michael Flynn ouster has either provided justification for Trump’s sharp left?/right? imperialist turn against Russia or it was simply a message sent by the intelligence community that Trump has clearly received. If the incident was the former, we are witnessing clever theater being played at a level of complexity heretofore unseen in American politics. If it is the latter, however, Trump must immediately begin to get his intelligence apparatus under control, possibly by indictments of any individuals involved in the monitoring and leaking of Flynn’s phone call. Indeed, these rogue actors should be given all the comforts of Chelsea Manning’s vacated cell.

Brandon Turbeville – article archive here – is an author out of Florence, South Carolina. He has a Bachelor’s Degree from Francis Marion University and is the author of eight books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1 and volume 2, and The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria, The Difference It Makes: 36 Reasons Hillary Clinton Should Never Be President and Resisting The Empire: The Plan To Destroy Syria And How The Future Of The World Depends On The Outcome. Turbeville has published over 700 articles dealing on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s podcast Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.