Just kidding. Life in the “fast lane” it is not. You get a text at 8 PM from the producer asking if you can be on at 6 AM the next morning. You say “sure” because that is what you publicist told you to do. After all, you are trying to sell a book.
So, I say “yes”, iron my clothes, and get everything ready for the morning. After about five hours of restless sleep the alarm wakes you up at 4:15 AM. No lingering in bed this morning – got to get up and be awake. You can’t mess up on live TV.
The limo shows up at 4:45 AM, and you hop in with breakfast for the day: Three raw carrots and a cup of not very good instant coffee.
We arrive at the studio at 5:30 AM, just to have enough time for some makeup and to get wired for the mike. By the way, the CNN building in Atlanta is first rate, and the studios and other facilities are state of the art.
Thank goodness, this time I will be in studio right with the anchors, Victor Blackwell and Cristi Paul. The alternative is to be in a room by yourself talking to a camera. I hate that! Note that every time you see a split screen or multiple talking heads, they are in different locations all by themselves.
The topic, of course, is once again Russian spying and their alleged attempts to penetrate the Trump campaign. Well, at least this time I can contribute with some expertise. This was the case in the old Soviet Union, and there is no reason to believe it changed: When you do business with the Russian government or large Russian companies (pretty much controlled by the government), you will invariably be in contact with Russian Secret Service personnel (whether they are full time or part time volunteers). Over time, there will be a dossier about you, and some analysts and senior agents at the SVR, GRU, or FSB (successors of the KGB) will try to figure out how best to make use of what they know about the target. Very often the attempts stop at trying to influence the target in some way and feeding them false information. Direct recruitment of Americans would obviously be the ultimate target, but that is done, if at all, very carefully. After all, you do not want to alert a useful person and lose them altogether. However, if there is a “hook” (primarily money problems and a skeleton in the closet that can be used for blackmail) it will be used. Bottom line, if you do business with a dictatorial country (China, Russia, Cuba) limit your activities to business, and for God’s sake keep your nose clean to stay out of trouble.
And here is the link to the interview: http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2017/04/22/exp-ex-spy-talks-russia–trump-campaign-connections.cnn
April 22, 2017
(Original is located at jackbarsky.com)
Jack, enjoyed this post. A friend of line has been selling cellular technology to China for the past 30 years and he said that every time he shows up in country the government assigns a “guide” to go with him everywhere. As if he didn’t know his way to the local cafes by now. He’s certain they have a thick dossier on him. And cell phone service is blocked in his hotel so he has to use a hotel line. (What are those taps and scratches he hears every time he picks up the phone?) But they never discuss politics, he said. What Chinese government officials do is put their hands out. You have to grease palms all the way up the ladder.
But I think that in all this hubris about Russians interfering in our elections, one has to remember that we do the same thing. Check the recent Mellon Institute report on this online. A good example is Bill Clinton’s arranging a billion dollars for Yeltsin during the 1991 Russian campaign, and the assignment of three of Bill’s campaign operatives to help out old Boris. And that’s not counting all the elections we interfered with in Latin America, Asia and Europe. And sometimes that included intelligence and military “assistance.”
Ain’t politics grand?