![](\"https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2019.04\/thumbnail\/5cbb808adda4c844198b4606.JPG\")
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The Mueller report didn\u2019t just clear President Donald Trump of colluding with Russia, the New York Times said, it handed Russia\u2019s Vladimir Putin the \u201cultimate victory.\u201d If you thought otherwise, blame secret Soviet mind games.<\/p>\n
In a New York Times op-ed<\/a>, former FBI agent-turned CNN analyst Asha Rangappa argues that by conflating the terms \u201ccollusion\u201d<\/em> and \u201cconspiracy,\u201d<\/em> Attorney General William Barr performed a bizarre Soviet trick on the American public, giving Putin his \u201cultimate victory.\u201d<\/em> \u00a0<\/p>\n The trick, Rangappa explains, is called \u2018Reflexive Control,\u2019 a \u201cuniquely Russian\u201d<\/em> concept that, put simply, involves drip-feeding an audience carefully-prepared words to make them reach the conclusion you want them to. That\u2019s basically what PR is \u2013 only this time it\u2019s \u201cRussian\u201d<\/em> and, therefore, bad.<\/p>\n Are you completely confused about the difference between \u201ccollusion\u201d and \u201cconspiracy\u201d? If so, congratulations \u2013 you\u2019re a victim of an information warfare tactic called \u201creflexive control,\u201d as I explain here https:\/\/t.co\/mvtSdxaOEt<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) April 19, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n See, Rangappa makes the case that even though the Mueller report \u201cdid not establish that the Trump Campaign coordinated with the Russian government,\u201d<\/em> the real collusion is still spelled out in its pages.<\/p>\n She argues that the contacts between the Trump campaign and a rotating cast of Russian businessmen and fixers \u2013 which Mueller deemed not to constitute a criminal conspiracy \u2013 are nevertheless \u201ccollusion,\u201d<\/em> because sneaky Russian intelligence operations are undetectable and \u201cnot the stuff of which criminal prosecutions are made.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Except Mueller is a prosecutor, and his report from the outset interprets \u2018collusion\u2019 as \u2018conspiracy,\u2019 an actual criminal offense. In Mueller\u2019s 2017 appointment letter<\/a>, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein authorized Mueller to investigate \u201cany links and\/or coordination\u201d<\/em> between the Trump campaign and Russia in the runup to the 2016 election, with a view to a criminal prosecution. \u2018Collusion\u2019 has simply become a stand-in word for these links.<\/p>\n Was CNN practising \u201creflex<\/em>ive control\u201d<\/em> when it dropped non-stop \u201ccollusion bombshells\u201d<\/em> over the last two years? Was the New York Times using Soviet mind games when it pondered \u201cIs this the collusion we were waiting for?\u201d<\/em> And was Hillary Clinton somehow doing the Kremlin\u2019s bidding when she told USA Today she was \u201cconvinced\u201d<\/em> that \u201cthere was collusion\u201d<\/em> between Trump and Russia?<\/p>\n That much is unanswered.<\/p>\n To fully ram home the point that there\u2019s Kremlin malevolence afoot, the New York Times\u2019 graphics department, clearly out of ideas after a busy two years, slapped a giant hammer and sickle atop the article. Russia has not been a communist state for 27 years, but when your only frame of reference is James Bond movies, it\u2019ll make the point.<\/p>\n After all this time, the NYT is still publishing columns about Trump\/Russia featuring the hammer-and-sickle. Really, what’s there to say anymore? These people are simply beyond reason pic.twitter.com\/r8Iz0D4MFA<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Michael Tracey (@mtracey) April 20, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Hi @nytimes<\/a>, just letting you know that Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. There are people aged 27, who have children of their own, who weren\u2019t even alive then. Perhaps time to let it go? pic.twitter.com\/tt9xSjTWQ7<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Bryan MacDonald (@27khv) April 20, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Of course, being a former FBI agent, Rangappa also warns that Barr\u2019s use of the word \u201cspying\u201d<\/em> to describe the FBI\u2019s eavesdropping<\/a> on Trump campaign aide Carter Page is another example of reflexive control. She\u2019d rather we use the cuddly term \u201celectronic surveillance based on probable cause.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Trump, meanwhile, has vowed to get to the bottom of whether there was \u201cprobable cause\u201d<\/em> backing up the FBI\u2019s spying, sorry, \u201csurveillance.\u201d<\/em> By all currently available information, the FISA warrant allowing the FBI to do so was obtained on the back of some shaky evidence; namely the notorious and unverified \u2018Steele Dossier,\u2019 a collection of anti-Trump gossip compiled by a former British spy, sorry, \u201cintelligence agent,\u201d<\/em> on behalf of the Clinton campaign.<\/p>\n In the meantime, Rangappa wants the average American to stay vigilant to Barr\u2019s KGB hypno-waves, finishing with a stark warning:<\/p>\n \u201cIf we don\u2019t, Mr. Putin has certainly won.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n
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