AP Explains: Kushner and the back story of back channels
This article was written by the AP, and republished by MSN. So if you're going to call it fake news, please back it up by explaining why it's fake news. It does a good job (at least for me) of explaining back channels and it even discusses Obama's back channels with Iran which were used to set up the early stages of the nuclear deal he did with them. Of interesting note was the quote by Richard Moss (a professor at the US Naval War College), that back channels can be an effective tool, but that they work best when they supplement traditional diplomacy rather than supplant it. So for me, my issue isn't that back channels exist. It's that Trump's son-in-law (a guy hired because his father-in-law became commander in chief) was the one setting it up and also that it was recommended (by either him or the Russians, not sure which) that they use Russia's personal channels back to Moscow. I don't think either of those things are appropriate, especially given Kushner's previous business deals with Russia.