Cohen-Watnick, Flynn Hire Who Provided Nunes With "Unmasking" Docs, Removed From NSC

This is the third Flynn hire to get the boot from McMaster in a week and the sixth senior NSC officer removed since McMaster became the National Security Advisor. Looks like McMaster has been doing some house cleaning and the timeline suggests a correlation with Gen. John Kelly replacing Reince Preibus as WH Chief of Staff.

Ezra Cohen-Watnick is the 31 year-old Flynn protege who was identified as one of two administration officials involved in providing administration stooge, Rep. Devin Nunes, with documents in support of the "unmasking" narrative at a clandestine meeting on WH grounds. Prior to his coordination with Nunes to provide a distraction from the House Intel Committee's investigation — an investigation that Nunes led as chair of the committee — Cohen-Watnick had narrowly escaped the chopping block in mid-March when McMaster first sought to fire him. In his first attempt, McMaster was overruled by Trump following a last minute appeal by Bannon and Kushner.

Cohen-Watnick served as Senior Director for Intelligence.

The story was broken by Conservative Review which ironically admonished the NSC for supposed leaks.

Trump loyalist Ezra Cohen-Watnick fired from NSC, sources say

Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the senior director for intelligence on the National Security Council, has been dismissed from the White House, two senior administration officials who are not authorized to discuss personnel matters told Conservative Review on Wednesday.

Cohen-Watnick, 31, was originally brought on board by former NSC chief Gen. Michael Flynn.

National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster has, in the past, attempted to rid the council of Cohen-Watnick, but was overruled by President Trump, Steve Bannon, and Jared Kushner.

In a statement, the White House later confirmed the move:

General McMaster appreciates the good work accomplished in the NSC's Intelligence directorate under Ezra Cohen's leadership. He has determined that, at this time, a different set of experiences is best-suited to carrying that work forward. General McMaster is confident that Ezra will make many further significant contributions to national security in another position in the administration.

The other two removals in the last week where Derek Harvey, the NSC’s top official for the Middle East, another Flynn loyalist from his time at DIA, who was replaced by retired Army Col Michael Bell, a West Point grad and former NSC director of Persian Gulf affairs and Rich Higgins, a direct of strategic planning who was forced out over a memo lifted straight from the pages of Breitbart:

An NSC Staffer Is Forced Out Over a Controversial Memo

A top official of the National Security Council was fired last month after arguing in a memo that President Trump is under sustained attack from subversive forces both within and outside the government who are deploying Maoist tactics to defeat President Trump’s nationalist agenda.

His dismissal marks the latest victory by National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster in the ongoing war within Trump’s White House between those who believe that the president is under threat from dark forces plotting to undermine him, and those like McMaster who dismiss this as conspiratorial thinking.

Rich Higgins, a former Pentagon official who served in the NSC’s strategic-planning office as a director for strategic planning, was let go on July 21. Higgins’s memo describes supposed domestic and international threats to Trump’s presidency, including globalists, bankers, the “deep state,” and Islamists. The memo characterizes the Russia story as a plot to sabotage Trump’s nationalist agenda. It asserts that globalists and Islamists are seeking to destroy America. The memo also includes a set of recommendations, arguing that the problem constitutes a national-security priority.

To me it seems what we might be seeing are possible signs of Bannon's waning influence, hastened by the appointment of Kelly. I haven't checked Brietbart yet but I wouldn't be surprised to see one or more anti-McMaster pieces and depending on how anxious Bannon is, possibly even stories critical of Kelly and alleging that the staffing changes are part of a "deep state globalist coup."

To me its kind of like the Titanic's last bid to get the seating correct .

a reply to: the2ofusr1

No, it is like getting rid of good guys and replacing it with swamp people.

The door is re-opened for the possibility that Flynn was an Obama "Gladio" plant.

Trump obviously knew it and used the entire episode to "out" the swampers.

originally posted by: the2ofusr1
To me its kind of like the Titanic's last bid to get the seating correct .

And the band played on...

NYT's Glenn Thrush on Twitter:

Sources: Kelly backed firing of Kushner ally Ezra Cohen-Watnick to make it clear HR McMaster, not Jared/Bannon, has control of NSC hiring.

3:09 PM - 3 Aug 2017

a reply to: theantediluvian

Ezra Cohen-Watnick is the 31 year-old Flynn protege who was identified as one of two administration officials involved in providing administration stooge, Rep. Devin Nunes, with documents in support of the "unmasking" narrative at a clandestine meeting on WH grounds. Prior to his coordination with Nunes to provide a distraction from the House Intel Committee's investigation — an investigation that Nunes led as chair of the committee — Cohen-Watnick had narrowly escaped the chopping block in mid-March when McMaster first sought to fire him. In his first attempt, McMaster was overruled by Trump following a last minute appeal by Bannon and Kushner.

Perhaps he escaped the chopping block because Trump, Bannon and Kushner found him to be a "leaker" to their advantage.

Just an idea.