What happened to General Flynn?

Once upon a time, Gen Mike Flynn was respected among natonal security circles. President Obama even placed him as his Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Now Flynn is being investigated as essentially a double agent. What caused the fall?

Some might point to his being fired by Obama about a year into his post. He resigned, forced out, due to ineffectual leadership. He was accused of being difficult to deal with and subordinates mocked him for his "Flynn facts" — "alt-facts" before the term was coined.

Flynn's criticizing of Pres Obama begins shortly after. Projection, blaming others for one's own shortcomings, apparently infected him as it has with most Republicans. That made him of like mind with Donald Trump, a long-time Obama critic who focused on irrelevancies or outright lies. (I suspect Obama warning Trump not to hire Flynn was one way to assure he'd get a job with Trump.)

Before Trump discovered him, Flynn began a career lobbying for foreign governments. His previous roles in the military and DIA probably allowed him to collect exorbitant fees. Russia and Turkey were obviously willing to pay for his expertise — but how much more than for his contacts as a lobbyist?

Special Counsel Mueller is investigating Flynn for colluding with Turkey to abduct a US resident and extradite him back to Turkey. It would be bad enough if he were to aid in this while an advisor on Trump's campaign, but his loyalty to Turkey's desires were to continue after the election, after Flynn was part of the administration. It's not a stretch to wonder about whether he shared more than his contacts with his foreign clients. His knowledge of our military and defense capabilities would also be if high value.

Am I to believe that being fired as Director of DIA was enough to turn a career US military general into what could be called a double agent? Just what the fuck happened to Gen Mike Flynn?




(Original posted on CivilLibertyRocks)