Mariehamn Bugs

I'm off on my travels once again in a couple of hours - this time for a business meeting on a little Finnish island in the Baltic called Aland; specifically to its capital, Mariehamn.

Bugger of a place to get to; I  have to fly to Amsterdam, then Stockholm and then Mariehamn and it's going to take me all day. Once there I have a couple of meetings  on Wednesday and then can't get out again till early Thursday morning, following the same track back and returning home Thursday evening. A good chance to check it out, however, as a possible holiday destination and I'm quite looking forward to visiting somewhere I've never been before.

All this furore about Trump Towers being bugged - here's my conspiracy theory. Now, this is what we are being told:

1. Something spooked Trump into believing his offices were bugged - so some conversation got out that couldn't have been heard by any 3rd parties, unless the conversation was subject to an intercept.
2. Official sources say no-one bugged his office - in any case, Obama could not have bugged a US citizen without a federal judge's approval, for which he must have just cause.

Assuming Trump isn't just lying (hard to believe for a person the Washington Post has tracked as lying, on average, 4.5 times a day), for 1 and 2 above to remain logically consistent, it's eminently feasible that the object of the bugging was not Trump Towers, but the Russian Embassy or a Russian diplomat, which would be a legit surveillance target, and Trump or his cronies were possibly heard on that intercept but, crucially, at the other end of a bugged phone line. That would also chime with the Justice Department not saying anything, as they don't want blow the gaff to the Russians they're tapping. Trump just possibly jumped to the wrong conclusion - to his cost - believing his people were the object of the intercept, whereas they were an unexpected casualty and bonus catch.

We can but wait and see what plays out and whether it comes back to bite  him in the bum as part of the law of unintended consequences.