Interesting article out from Ronan Farrow and Adam Entous at the New Yorker today.
Here’s what looks like a counter-punch which pundits and some of those listed think is a conspiracy theory linked to Sebastian Gorka, and Black Cube which names several former Obama administrators as formulating an ‘Echo Chamber,’ who’s specific aim is to undermine T’s foreign policies and any attempt to undermine Obamacare/ACA. They wrote a memo concerning this former Obama group as being conspirators against the current T admin.
In early 2017, some of Donald Trump’s advisers concluded that they faced a sophisticated threat responsible for “coordinated attacks” on the new Administration. They circulated a memo, titled “The Echo Chamber,” which read like a U.S. military-intelligence officer’s analysis of a foreign-insurgent network. Instead of being about enemies in a distant war zone, however, the network described in the memo consisted of former aides to President Barack Obama.
The memo claimed that the “communications infrastructure” that the Obama White House used to “sell Obamacare and the Iran Deal to the public” had been moved to the private sector, now that the former aides were out of government. It called the network the Echo Chamber and accused its members of mounting a coördinated effort “to undermine President Trump’s foreign policy” through organized attacks in the press against Trump and his advisers. “These are the Obama loyalists who are probably among those coordinating the daily/weekly battle rhythm,” the memo said, adding that they likely operated a “virtual war room.” The memo lists Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national-security adviser to President Obama, as “likely the brain behind this operation” and Colin Kahl, Vice-President Joe Biden’s former national-security adviser, as its “likely ops chief.” Rhodes and Kahl both said in interviews that the allegations are false and no such organization exists.
Those who are listed (and some are podcasters)
Suggests that they are the “brains behind the organization”
Ben Rhodes - former deputy national-security adviser to President Obama (Co-Head)
Colin Kahl, Vice-President Joe Biden’s former national-security adviser (Co-Head)
Black Cube also assembled a list of six additional journalists and commentators it described as being “close to Rhodes vessels of his message.”
“Likely operative group”
Jake Sullivan, a former adviser to Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden,
Ned Price - former CIA analyst
Jon Finer - Senior Advisor to Deputy National Security Advisor Antony Blinken
Jon Favreau - Obama Speachwriter
Tommy Vietor - Nat Security
Dan Pfeiffer - former Obama campaigner and advisor to Obama
Both the memo and Black Cube documents reference attacks in the press on Sebastian Gorka, a former deputy assistant to President Trump. In a section titled “Gorka Allegations,” the Black Cube documents reference allegations that he was anti-Semitic and affiliated with Nazi groups, which Rhodes mentioned in a tweet on one occasion. (Gorka has disputed the allegations.) The memo identifies the former Obama Administration officials purported to be in the Echo Chamber as “the people who would be behind coordinated attacks such as the one against Seb Gorka.” Later, it cites an article Kahl wrote in Foreign Policy, which questioned whether Gorka had a top-secret security clearance.
The memo also claims that other former Obama Administration officials are part of the Echo Chamber. Jake Sullivan, a former adviser to Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, is identified as one of the leaders of the Echo Chamber. The former Obama Administration officials Tommy Vietor, Ned Price, Jon Favreau, Jon Finer, and Dan Pfeiffer are all listed as “likely operations officers.” Many of those former officials have publicly criticized Trump’s foreign policies, but Rhodes and Kahl said there was no “Echo Chamber,” “network,” “ops chief,” or “virtual war room.” In a statement, Rhodes described the memo as “a bizarre effort to validate ‘deep state’ conspiracy theories” and said that, “given Trump’s many efforts to intimidate and malign his critics, it’s worth asking how his White House and outside enablers acted on this strange memo.” In an e-mail, Kahl added that “the NSC’s role is to staff the President and coordinate the interagency on foreign affairs. It is not the NSC’s role to conduct military-style network analysis of domestic opponents.”
