by George Rasley
Monday’s Trump – Putin Summit news conference brought out a new level of craziness in the anti-Trump Democrats, self-appointed foreign policy experts in the media and their fellow travelers among #NeverTrump Republicans.
What seems to have enraged President Trump’s opponents the most is that their attempt to hijack the summit to focus on the phony charges that President Trump colluded with the Russians to win the 2016 election failed, and that Trump and Putin focused on important bilateral issues, such as nuclear weapons, the denuclearization of North Korea, the war in Syria, and energy trade between Russia and Western Europe.
What’s more, the establishment media’s self-appointed foreign policy experts completely ignored one of the most important points in the joint news conference; Putin’s announcement that the Russian government submitted to the United States a note with a number of specific suggestions on fine-tuning “the dialogue on strategic stability and global security and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”
Even more interesting was Putin’s comment that, “It’s a dangerous situation with a global American anti-missile defense system, it’s the implementation issues with the INF treaty. And, of course, the agenda of non-placement of weapons in space.”
Translation: Putin is spooked by Trump’s announcements that the United States is proceeding with our missile defense system and establishing a Space Force.
Yet, the media and anti-Trump politicians in both parties would like to make the Summit out to be some kind of failure for Trump because it didn’t focus on their phony Russian collusion narrative.
One of the crazier moments of the news conference was when Putin schooled the media on the legal framework by which Robert Mueller could move forward with his charges against the 12 Russians named in the recently announced indictment:
We have enacting (sic) an existing agreement between the United States of America and the Russian Federation, an existing treaty that dates back to 1999. The Mutual Assistance on Criminal Cases. This treaty is in full effect. It works quite efficiently…
So, this treaty has specific legal procedures we can offer the appropriate commission headed by Special Attorney Mueller. He can use this treaty as a solid foundation and send a formal – an official request to us so that we would interrogate – we want to hold a questioning of these individuals who he believes are privy to some crimes. And our law enforcement are perfectly able to do this questioning and send the appropriate materials to the United States.
Moreover, we can meet you halfway. We can make another step. We can actually permit official representatives of the United States, including the members of this very commission headed by Mr. Mueller – we can let them into the country and they will be present at this questioning.
But in this case, there is a – there’s another condition. This kind of effort should be a mutual one. Then we would expect that the Americans would reciprocate, and that they would question officials, including the officers of law enforcement and intelligence service of the United States, whom we believe are – who have something to do with illegal actions on the territory of Russia, and we have to – to request the presence of our law enforcement.
Putin’s comments showed just how crazy the caterwauling about Trump’s refusal to make Robert Mueller’s indictment of 12 Russian military officers the focus of the Summit really is.
Mueller could invoke the Mutual Assistance on Criminal Cases treaty, but it is highly unusual to indict in absentia the uniformed officers of a rival country for carrying out their duties, especially if those duties are of an intelligence nature.
Robert Mueller knows that, and the self-appointed foreign policy experts on TV should know it, but in their rush to pillory Donald Trump they are perfectly willing to spread the crazy idea that Trump was somehow being weak by following years of international practice.
Imagine for a moment if President Trump had bowed to the demands of those criticizing him, what would prevent Putin from going through the organization chart of the CIA, the DIA or the NSA and inviting a Russian court to indict American military officers or government officials involved in covert intelligence operations against Russia?
What would prevent Putin from inviting a Russian court to issue indictments for murder against American military officers and enlisted ranks involved in operations in Syria that killed Russian nationals?
We know such operations have resulted in the deaths of Russians, yet no state of war exists between Russia and the United States that would, in international law, justify their killing.
Nor does a state of war exist between the United States and Syria, what would prevent the Syrians from indicting Americans involved in our operations there?
What Democrats, Trump critics like Senator John McCain, and Witch Hunters like Robert Mueller wanted President Trump to do would jeopardize the lives and safety of American military and intelligence officers around the world and make international relations infinitely more complex and difficult.
As we said yesterday, Obama Cybersecurity Failures Are The Real 2016 Election Story.
Trump played the Summit with Putin well when he said, “As president, I cannot make decisions on foreign policy in a futile effort to appease partisan critics, or the media, or Democrats who want to do nothing but resist and obstruct.“
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George Rasley is editor of Richard Viguerie’s ConservativeHQ.com and is a veteran of over 300 political campaigns. A member of American MENSA, he served on the staff of Vice President Dan Quayle, as Director of Policy and Communication for Congressman Adam Putnam (FL-12) then Vice Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, and as spokesman for Rep. Mac Thornberry now-Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
