FBI/DOJ Likely to Throw the CIA and Clapper Under the Bus by Larry C Johnson

Larry Johnson-5x7

Law Enforcement versus the Intel Community. That’s the battle we will likely see unleashed when the Horowitz report comes out next week. The New York Times came out Saturday with info clearly leaked from DOJ that can be summarized simply–the FBI was relying on the intel community (products from the CIA and NSA) under the leadership of Jim Clapper. If they relied on bad, unverified information it ain’t their fault. They trusted the spies.

Let us start with a reminder of how damn corrupt the NY Times and its reporters are. Consider this paragraph penned by Adam Goldman and William Rashbaum:

Closely overseen by Mr. Barr, Mr. Durham and his investigators have sought help from governments in countries that figure into right-wing attacks and unfounded conspiracy theories about the Russia investigation, stirring criticism that they are trying to deliver Mr. Trump a political victory rather than conducting an independent review.

“Unfounded conspiracy theories?” What a damn joke. The facts of a conspiracy to take out Donald Trump or cripple him are very clear. Robert Mueller and Jim Comey lied when they claimed that Joseph Mifsud, who tried to entrap George Papdopoulus in London, was a Russian agent. Nope. He worked for western intelligence. Unless Comey and DOJ have a document or documents from the CIA or NSA stating that Mifsud worked for the Russians, they have no where to hide. Plus, prosecutor John Durham now has Mifsud’s blackberries. What do you think is the likelihood that Mifsud was in communication with FBI or CIA or MI6 personnel? Very likely.


Then there is Stefan Halper, who played a key role in a sophisticated counterintelligence operation that involved the FBI, the CIA British Intelligence and the media. The ultimate target was Donald Trump. Halper’s part of the operation focused on using an innocent woman who had the misfortune of being born in Russia, Svetlana Lokhova, to destroy General Michael Flynn. Halper and Mifsud both were involved in targeting General Michael Flynn. Not a conspiracy?

Halper’s nefarious activities included manufacturing and publishing numerous false and defamatory statements. Halper, for example, falsely claimed that Svetlana Lokhova  was a “Russian spy” and a traitor to her country. He also circulated the lie that Lokhova had an affair with General Flynn on the orders of Russian intelligence. Not content to use the unwitting Svetlana as a weapon against General Flynn, Stefan Halper also acted with malice to destroy Svetlana Lokhova’s  professional career and business by asserting that she was not a real academic and that her research was provided by Russian intelligence on the orders of Vladimir Putin.

Thanks to Robert Mueller we have clear evidence of a conspiracy against Trump. Mueller’s investigation of Trump “collusion” with Russia prior to the 2016 Presidential election focused on eight cases:

Proposed Trump Tower Project in Moscow—

George Papadopolous—

Carter Page—

Dimitri Simes—

Veselnetskya Meeting at Trump Tower (June 16, 2016)

Events at the Republican Convention

Post-Convention Contacts with Russian Ambassador Kislyak

Paul Manafort

One simple fact emerges–six of the eight cases or incidents of alleged Trump Campaign interaction with the Russians investigated by the Mueller team, the pitch to “collude” with the Russian Government or Putin originated with FBI informants, MI-6 assets or people paid by Fusion GPS, not Trump or his people. There is not a single instance where Donald Trump or any member of his campaign team initiated contact with the Russians for the purpose of gaining derogatory information on Hillary or obtaining support to boost the Trump campaign. Not one.

Simply put, Trump and his campaign were the target of an elaborate, wide ranging covert action designed to entrap him and members of his team as an agent of Russia.

We do not need to say anything about Dmitri Simes, who was unfairly smeared by even being named as target in the investigation. And the “non” events at the Republican Convention, pure nonsense.

The other six cases “investigated” my Mueller and his team of clowns are damning.

THE PROPOSED TRUMP TOWER PROJECT IN MOSCOW, according to Mueller’s report, originated with an FBI Informant–Felix Sater. Mueller was downright dishonest in failing to identify Sater as an FBI informant. Sater was not just a private entrepreneur looking to make some coin. He was a fully signed up FBI informant. Sater’s status as an FBI snitch was first exposed in 2012. Sater also was a boyhood chum of Michael Cohen, the target being baited in this operation. Another inconvenient fact excluded from the Mueller report is that one of Mueller’s Chief Prosecutors, Andrew Weissman, signed the deal with Felix Sater in December 1998 that put Sater into the FBI Informant business.

All suggestions for meeting with the Russian Government, including Putin, originated with Felix Sater. The use of Sater on this particular project started in September 2015.

GEORGE PAPADOPOLOUS. Papadopolous was targeted by British and U.S. intelligence starting in late December 2015, when he is offered out of the blue a job with the London Centre of International Law and Practice Limited (LCILP) , which has all the hallmarks of a British intelligence front. It is Joseph Mifsud, working for LCILP, who introduces the idea of meeting Putin following a lunch with George in London.

And it is Mifsud who raises the possibility of getting dirt on Hillary. During Papadopolous’ next meeting with Mifsud, George writes that Mifsud:

leaned across the table in a conspiratorial manner. The Russians have “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, he tells me. “Emails of Clinton,” he says. “They have thousands of emails.”

More than three weeks before the alleged Russian hack of the DNC, Mifsud is peddling the story that the Russians have Clinton’s emails. Conspiracy?

CARTER PAGE. The section of the Mueller report that deals with Carter Page is a total travesty. Mueller and his team, for example, initially misrepresent Page’s status with the Trump campaign–he is described as “working” for the campaign, which implies a paid position, when he was in fact only a volunteer foreign policy advisor. Mueller also paints Page’s prior experience and work in Russia as evidence that Page was being used by Russian intelligence, but says nothing about the fact that Page was being regularly debriefed by the CIA and the FBI during the same period. In other words, Page was cooperating with US intelligence and law enforcement. But this fact is omitted in the Mueller report. The Christopher Steele dossier was used as “corroborating” intel to justify what was an illegal FISA warrant. The FBI lied about the veracity of that dossier. Conspiracy?

TRUMP TOWER MEETING (JUNE 9, 2016). This is another glaring example of a plant designed to entrap the Trump team. Mueller, once again, presents a very disingenuous account:

On June 9, 2016, senior representatives of the Trump Campaign met in Trump Tower with a Russian attorney expecting to receive derogatory information about Hillary Clinton from the Russian government. The meeting was proposed to Donald Trump Jr. in an email from Robert Goldstone, at the request of his then-client Emin Agalarov, the son of Russian real-estate developer Aras Agalarov.

The real problem is with what Mueller does not say and did not investigate. Mueller conveniently declines to mention the fact that Veselnitskaya was working closely with the firm Hillary Clinton hired to produce the Steele Dossier. Even the corrupt NBC News got these damning facts about Veselnitskaya on the record:

The information that a Russian lawyer brought with her when she met Donald Trump Jr. in June 2016 stemmed from research conducted by Fusion GPS, the same firm that compiled the infamous Trump dossier, according to the lawyer and a source familiar with the matter.

In an interview with NBC News, Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya says she first received the supposedly incriminating information she brought to Trump Tower — describing alleged tax evasion and donations to Democrats — from Glenn Simpson, the Fusion GPS owner, who had been hired to conduct research in a New York federal court case.

Unfounded Conspiracy?

PAUL MANAFORT. If Paul Manafort had rebuffed Trump’s offer to run his campaign, he would be walking free today and still buying expensive suits and evading taxes along with his Clinton buddy, Greg Craig. Instead, he became another target for DOJ and intel community and the DNC, which were desperate to portray Trump as a tool of the Kremlin. Thanks to John Solomon of The Hill, we now know the impetus to target Manafort came from the DNC:

The boomerang from the Democratic Party’s failed attempt to connect Donald Trumpto Russia’s 2016 election meddling is picking up speed, and its flight path crosses right through Moscow’s pesky neighbor, Ukraine. That is where there is growing evidence a foreign power was asked, and in some cases tried, to help Hillary Clinton.

In its most detailed account yet, Ukraine’s embassy in Washington says a Democratic National Committee insider during the 2016 election solicited dirt on Donald Trump’s campaign chairman and even tried to enlist the country’s president to help.

In written answers to questions, Ambassador Valeriy Chaly’s office says DNC contractor Alexandra Chalupa sought information from the Ukrainian government on Paul Manafort’s dealings inside the country, in hopes of forcing the issue before Congress.

Manafort was not colluding, but the Clinton campaign and the Obama Administration were colluding with Ukraine.

GENERAL MICHAEL FLYNN. This is the biggest travesty. Flynn was being targeted by the intel community with the full collaboration of the FBI. Thanks to his new attorney, the Honey Badger Sidney Powell, there is an avalanche of evidence showing prosecutorial misconduct and an unjustified, coordinated effort by the Obama team to frame Flynn as catering to the Russians. It is a lie and that will be fully exposed in the coming weeks.

Any fair reporter with half a brain would see these events as pointing to a conspiracy. But not the liars at the New York Times. But the Times does tip us off to the upcoming mad scramble for life boats. It will it the FBI and DOJ against the DNI, the CIA and NSA. According to the Times:

It is not clear how many people Mr. Durham’s team has interviewed outside of the F.B.I. His investigators have questioned officials in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence but apparently have yet to interview C.I.A. personnel, people familiar with the review said. Mr. Durham would probably want to speak with Gina Haspel, the agency’s director, who ran its London station when the Australians passed along the explosive information about Russia’s offer of political dirt.

There is no abiding affection between the FBI and the CIA. They mix like oil and water. In theory the FBI only traffics in “evidence.” The CIA deals primarily with well-sourced rumors. But the CIA will argue they were offering their best judgement, not a factual conclusion. Brennan and Clapper will insist they were not in a position to determine the “truth” of what they were reporting. It is “intel” not evidence.

The Horowitz report will not deal with the CIA and NSA directly. Horowitz can only point out that the FBI folks insisted that they were relying on the intel community and had no reason not to trust them. This is likely to get ugly and do not be surprised to see the intel folks try to throw the FBI under the bus and vice versa. Grab the popcorn.

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61 Responses to FBI/DOJ Likely to Throw the CIA and Clapper Under the Bus by Larry C Johnson

  1. turcopolier says:

    LJ
    They should squeeze Clapper. When he has been shown the instruments of torture he will squeal like the human piggy in “Deliverance.”

  2. jonst says:

    I agree 100%, Clapper can be flipped.

  3. jonst says:

    You seem to have faith Larry, and I am not offering this sarcastically, that the Misfud Blackberries still have relevant data on them. I would be very surprised, (albeit pleasantly so) and disappointed, if MI6 was that sloopy.

  4. Jack says:

    Larry
    Thanks for keeping on this story.
    While I don’t have much confidence in Barr & Durham actually indicting Brennan, Clapper, Comey, et al, nor do I believe that they’ll lay out in clear terms the collusion between law enforcement, intelligence, corporate media, political operatives, foreign governments and intelligence agencies to frame a presidential candidate & campaign, I hope that some of these putschists will be made to pay at least a modest amount of their personal gains through their media and consulting gigs. As David Habakkuk has noted I hope the defamation lawsuit by Ed Butowsky is successful and that is then used as a template by others to go after all those complicit in this travesty.
    What I find despicable is the hypocrisy and moralizing tone of all these smear merchants. These same characters now smearing Tulsi Gabbard using the same tropes. But even more, my utter disgust is with all the DC cocktail circuit propagandists in the media who are no longer even pretending.
    I’m too old to see this happen, but my hope is that future generations will see the complete destruction of the political duopoly and the media-intelligence propaganda complex. They’ve been such a destructive force over the past five decades.

  5. eakens says:

    It’s going to be a full court press to get Trump out of office if we are expecting things to start shaking loose in weeks.

  6. MP98 says:

    Anyone know who Durham is using as investigators?
    Not the FBI,I hope.

  7. Diana C says:

    This may seem a silly comment, but I really appreciate your calling out the “media-intelligence propaganda complex.”
    I taught journalism and was the adviser of a large high school newspaper. In our state, high school newspapers did not need to provide our paper to school administration for “prior review” before we published. Our state was one of only three states in the nation that gave high school newspapers that right–not to ask administration for approval before we sent the paper to the printers.
    I did my best to instill in my student reporters the rules of good journalism procedure in reporting and opinion writing. On several occasions we were called in about stories the administration would have preferred we hadn’t printed—or at least they would have preferred that we didn’t give the other side of the story from their point of view.
    We have a huge number of high school newspapers that now print only fluff and don’t even try to print news or opinion pieces. Reporters have grown up feeling they can print gossip and provide only one-sided opinions.
    Newspapers have gone out of business all over the country.
    So, we are left with the old papers from the East Coast that are in bed with “sources that supply only the information the powerful want printed and that express only the opinions that the powerful provide.
    That whole situation has bled into television news channels so completely now that the younger generations have no idea what the “fourth estate” should really be.
    It all makes me very sad for our country and for the future of my grandchildren.
    I am losing hope that the other three “estates” will find a way to do what they were put in place to do. Perhaps our only hope is in the judicial branch at this point, but that can easily be corrupted, too, as we’ve seen on several occasions.

  8. blue peacock says:

    Steve Bannon says President Donald Trump will be impeached in six weeks……
    Bannon says House Speaker ‘Nancy Pelosi is very focused,’ about getting the process of impeachment started, and that even if Trump manages to avoid being removed from office, there are even greater threats waiting as the 2020 presidential election approaches……
    ‘The problem we have is that the president needs a team around him and somebody has got to step up and make a play. Trump can’t do everything,’ Bannon said. ‘There is just no coordination with the team.
    ‘The fake news and witch hunt stuff is not working.’
    Bannon urged Trump to ‘augment the legal team’ and cited that what helped the administration during Robert Mueller probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election ‘was bifurcation of the White House Counsel’s office. You need … a team put together than can focus on [impeachment] 24/7’.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7593483/Steve-Bannon-says-Trump-impeached-six-weeks-Nancy-Pelosi-focused.html
    As Rep. Al Green said if they can’t impeach Trump, he’ll get re-elected.
    https://twitter.com/BParsonPNW/status/1185936579337936896?s=20
    What’s the over/under on 20 GOP senators voting to convict?

  9. casey says:

    Mr. Larry:
    Very nice job indeed of explaining the various players involved in this complex, black comedy of treason and sedition. And while the prospect of Clapper being made to squeal like Ned Beatty has a powerful appeal, it is mighty hard for me to see how indictments come down, even with squealing. That photo of Comey in the pleasant reading nook in his home — with children’s toys in the foreground, no less! — in that NYT preemptive puff piece tells me that the media will draw and quarter anyone how dares so much as write any one of the cabal a speeding ticket.

  10. Flavius says:

    Excellent summary. Taken together, the combination of actors is very comparable to a Mafia family. The question is how to bring justice to this malignant political enterprise as such, and where – in what venue? The binding element is obsessive Trump hate which however censurable and professionally incompetent, is not a crime. Among the Democrats in Congress it is a virtue. The reason they pursue impeachment so virulently is to distract from the investigation of the government racket that coalesced to first deny him office, and then to bring him down, actually to preempt it or geld it. If there are violations to be found here and there among the players and within the agencies both at home and abroad, I can’t envision a criminal charge that comprehends all the individual acts that interrelate with respect to a common objective but that were not mutually devised and agreed upon. For example, how does one get from the malignant John Brennan, who is likely the origin of the scheme, through Jim Comey and the cabal of FBI bureaucrats, who were reduced to rank incompetency by their sanctimonious hubris, to Robert Mueller and his crew, relentless, overbearing, over reaching, abusive, destructive. They should all be brought into the same dock. It’s really too bad that this political racket that combined ad hoc, almost willy nilly to meet the circumstances, and continues to mutate, seems destined to play out as politics – bad for the country. It is hard, frankly, to see 40:years after Watergate, small potatoes in comparison, that the structure of government in Washington was susceptible of such pervasive corruption.

  11. blue peacock says:

    Larry,
    It seems that the DOJ/FBI and the CIA/DNI will play political football to justify their exoneration. Reminiscent of several DOJ inquiries recently wherein a DOJ/FBI official is not indicted while the inquiry showed law breaking. Just like Comey’s exoneration justification for Hillary’s classified information breaches.
    I can see how Barr/Durham can say DOJ/FBI had reason to believe that the CIA/DNI information was accurate and would have been derelict if they didn’t investigate allegations of a foreign government interfering in a presidential election. Consequently we will not indict the coup plotters. That would of course require them to whitewash the points you have so cogently made of the many entrapment efforts by law enforcement & counter-intelligence that would lead to a clear conclusion of a conspiracy.
    The real question is how much heat can Barr take? If he concludes and presents evidence of a conspiracy, that would necessitate the the take down of not just CIA/DNI/FBI/DOJ but also MI6, Australian & Italian intelligence among others as well as several elite media figures. Barr must be thinking about the media firestorm as the corrupt MSM will be going all out hysterical and attacking him personally and accusing him of carrying Trump’s water.
    Since we are heading towards some kind of constitutional crisis with Nancy intent on impeachment and many of the establishment GOP like Romney itching to vote to convict in the Senate, I would very much like to hear your opinion/speculation if Barr would be willing to go down with the ship or would prefer to let Trump stew on his own and hang in with the Deep State apparatus to keep his wheels greased? What we see is the intensity of calculation around personal gain in our nation’s capital and the major money centers. The NBA & Lebron being recent classic examples. It would appear that honor and principle have long left the station.

  12. different clue says:

    I was going to have said that . . . here’s hoping the bus driver drives the bus real nice and slow, back and forth over Mister Clapper’s hands and feet, over and over again.
    But this suggestion is obviously better, and one hopes that the Clintonite embeds and Obamacrat agents inside the relevant parts of government can be kept away from this process so they can’t interfere in the ” been shown the instruments of torture” process.

  13. akaPatience says:

    I guess we’ll find out before too long if the colonel’s analogy to The Raft of the Medusa from a while back ends up being applicable to the conspirators or if, as in the examples of Comey’s and McCabe’s book deals, as well as Brennan’s, Clapper’s and McCabe’s gigs as TV pundits prove that crime really does pay.
    Why do I anticipate crowd funding as a means to bribe these malefactors and to control the narrative? It worked for the goofy woman who smeared Judge Kavanaugh. Didn’t she end up with nearly a million dollars? This development is a dangerous and shameful trend that can too easily thwart truth and justice.

  14. Eureka Springs says:

    Oct 8 on CNN. Looks like Clapper’s claiming he’s was just following Obama’s orders.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CuO0i9xNY0

  15. Terry says:

    Pardon me if you reported on and I missed it, I am wondering about your thoughts on the Occionero affair. A serious coup attempt if true.
    In this case Italian intelligence was going to plant evidence for the FBI to find.
    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/09/exclusive-obamas-deep-state-ties-to-italians-and-their-attempts-to-set-up-trump-are-finally-coming-to-light/

  16. Jim Ticehurst says:

    Well..Well…My Best Wishes to General Flynn..for complete Exoneration..Let it Be..Skywalker…This is the perfect Month..Oktober..for all The Spooks..Vampires ..Weird Wolfs..Witches..Warlocks..and Wackos.Conjured Up By Barack Obama..and The Clintions..with atheir Cigars.. .in The Crypts around Washington D.C. to Be Brought to Light..Squeeling..Howling..Moaning..and Groaning..Exorcised My Mr. Barr..and Mr.Durham..and Staffs…
    All in the Anticipation That Hillary The Red Clinton would be Elected as The Queen of the Castle..With Full Power from the Dark Side..and that She would list Her New Address…As 1600 TRANSYLVANIA AVE..

  17. JerseyJeffersonian says:

    I commend IN THE STRONGEST POSSIBLE TERMS this post at Conservative Tree House. Senate Select Comm. On Intelligence implicated: https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/10/20/durhams-trail-leading-to-ssci-ali-watkins-never-slept-with-james-wolfe-it-was-a-cover-story/#more-174163

  18. Factotum says:

    Don’t take any free helicopter rides, Clapper.

  19. Factotum says:

    The deep cynic in me wonders if the FBI and/or the CIA have manufactured or real dirt on enough GOP Senate votes to force this impeachment.
    Is that why the Democrats are acting so smug, even without facts against Trump. Or are they and the media, including FOX news just gaslighting.

  20. Factotum says:

    The big government unions very much wanted Clinton to win. Just like they wanted Obama to win. Those big public sector union bosses hold a lot of power and ability to move the deep state.
    If you think Jimmy Hoffa played dirty with the private sector unions, why not the public sector union bosses and henchment at SEIU, AFT and AFSCME, ETC? Are they angels and exactly how much skin do they have in taking Trump down.
    Millions of public sector union members and billions of dollars are at stake – all concentrating on a single purpose – get rid of Trump and get their hands back on the taxpayer checkbook. Game of Thrones.

  21. Barr’s recent secret meeting with Rupert Murdoch, who has monopoly on media in Australia, indicates that
    the DOJ has found unsavory acts committed by Australia’s Downer who is connected to Murdoch’s media outlets, and James Murdoch’s wife who worked for Clinton Foundation which Downer was deeply involved with and donated to. Its likely Barr is colluding with Rupert Murdoch on how to spin all of this. Meanwhile Barr has waived all criminal prosecutions the OIG has recommended including all of the FBI and DOJ folks that unlawfully accepted gifts/tickets (bribes) from CNN and Fox. Of course Barr is terribly conflicted because he was a Director of CNN (thru TimeWarner) in 2016 until early 2019 when all the bribes were being paid, thus he has criminal liability himself and should have already recused himself. Indeed, if Barr was meeting with Rupert Murdoch he was obligated to interview Murdoch in regards to Murdoch’s knowledge of the criminal systemic tickets/gifts being offered to FBI/DOJ folks….But that didn’t happen at the secret meeting or else it wouldn’t have been a secret meeting 1:1 at Murdoch’s home….

  22. walrus says:

    I have a sickening feeling that Clapper needs a reliable body guard right now. If the Clintons believe he is going to sing he won’t live long enough to testify. “Heart attack” will be the cause.

  23. turcopolier says:

    walrus
    Prison flu would be another possibility if he is held in NY City.

  24. oldman22 says:

    OT but timely
    John Helmer says
    Taking into account that the so-called withdrawal of US ground forces is westward to a base across the Iraqi border, al-Tanf is preserved, the USAF will operate over the eastern half of the Turkish zone — https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-syria-security-turkey-usa-graham/syria-critic-lindsey-graham-reverses-stance-says-trumps-policy-could-succeed-idUKKBN1WZ0J2 — and the Arab media are reporting the intention to hold the oil fields and prevent Syrian sovereignty, this is the real Trump-Erdogan plan: https://twitter.com/bears_with/status/1186193192187764736

  25. smoke says:

    “I would be very surprised, (albeit pleasantly so) and disappointed, if MI6 was that sloppy.”
    Reminds me of something a British tv commenter said shortly after the 7/7/05 London bombings. The story coming out was a jumble of confusion, and included the reports that one or more of the accused bombers were on various countries’ watch lists and that Israeli P.M. Netanyahu, who was visiting in London, had been warned by Mossad not to go out of his hotel that morning. Said this commenter, either something was wrong in the bombing story or “the level of incompetence was unusually high, even for the security services.”
    British services clearly seem to have had a role in the machinations against Trump. If the design was to tie up the Trump administration in knots for 4 years, then maybe not so incompetent.
    Better not to get caught, of course, but what penalty are they likely to suffer? If Trump is gone in a year, and if, in the meantime, the FBI and the CIA are cannibalizing one another, there won’t be much chance to get around to British services. The U.S.security services could even decide to make the Brits the scapegoat, which might cause the least harm to all the guilty parties.

  26. different clue says:

    Well, even if they ( in the House) CAN impeach Trump, if they ( in the House) can’t secure a conviction and removal from the Senate; Trump may still get re-elected.
    Part of the spirit of the campaign would be: “Trump 2020! Because F-ck You Twice.”

  27. different clue says:

    Your theory may well be correct, in whole or in part . . . but a question of terminology occurs to me.
    How is it that Union Leaders become “Union Bosses”, whereas Business Bosses become ” Business Leaders”?

  28. jonst says:

    I’m waiting Col, for stories that reflect poorly (as the Left would see it, he already looks pretty poor to me and has for a long time) on Clapper beginning to appear in the once friendly (to him) media. That will be a significant clue the worm is turning.

  29. oldman22 says:

    the fat lady has not sung
    quote
    . The principal mission for the handful of U.S. troops that stay would be to keep Syria’s oil fields, which are mostly in Kurdish-held territory, out of Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s hands. The decision would also allow U.S. troops to keep a toehold in the counterterrorism fight against the Islamic State, and maintain a relationship with the Syrian Kurds as they negotiate a shaky ceasefire with Turkey
    https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/21/trump-weighs-leaving-skeleton-force-in-northeast-syria/

  30. Thanks for your work on this; I will give it all the publicity I can.

  31. Factotum says:

    Trump will not be gone in a year. So any unraveling with be complete with another four years. This will not stitched over. You can count on it. Trump is on to the game. So are the voters.

  32. Factotum says:

    From IndependentSentinnel.com: When it rains, it pours.
    “On Monday Judicial Watch founder Tom Fitton stated that he now has smoking gun documents that show Obama and Clinton were aware arms were going to Syria through Benghazi. They were also warned about the rise of ISIS. If you will remember, Hillary insisted on deposing Gaddafi and destroying Libya.
    Benghazi was a base for illegal arms running to Syria from Libya. Hillary Clinton lied about knowledge of the arms shipments under oath, which is a crime.
    Fitton believes this may be why General Flynn was so desperately targeted by the Obama Deep State…….”

  33. Paul says:

    In the end, the CIA is way too corrupt to be cleansed or securely managed, and it might even be shut down, according to some. It could well happen.

  34. Factotum says:

    Here is the difference: Leaders produce things. Bosses take things.

  35. Factotum says:

    Legacy of Ashes concluded: CIA is an agency in search of a mission. RX: close it down. It was a creation of WWII and the need for wartime intelligence. Nothing but a house of bungles today. According to the author. Sounds good in theory but fails in execution. Too many times. According to the author. Any rebuttals?

  36. Jeanna Green says:

    What worries me, is it is already proven that the DNC & the whole Dem. Party has the MSM & social Media in their back pocket & the media could care less that their viewers are screaming for the truth & not just their fake crap they keep putting out. Why are they allowed after its been proven, to continue to lie & miss inform the American people.
    How can their attacks & lies be allowed to cont. against a sitting President. I don’t care who it is, their lies should get their stations closed down. They can not stand behind their Constitutional 1st amendment right. They are lies. Not their voice, just their weapon. SHOULD NEVER BE ALLOWED TO CONTINUE!! Break up to big of britches companies who abuse their power, just like get rid of Politicians who do the same!

  37. turcopolier says:

    Jeanna Green
    Do not post comments more than once. They are individually moderated.

  38. I agree. The CIA needs to be dismantled.

  39. j says:

    It’s interesting how Brennan is connected to the Brit private intel business Haklyut & Company, the same Haklyut that put the sim cards in Mifsud’s phones.
    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/10/mifsuds-phones-obtained-by-durham-have-uk-sim-cards-tying-them-to-the-uk-and-back-to-john-brennan/

  40. jonst says:

    Trump may, or may not, be “gone in a year”. But if he is “gone” I fully believe a lot of angry supporters will be around, and perhaps, predominate, by a slight majority. Trumpism, absent Trump, may turn out to be stronger than Trump, given the burden of the latter’s personality and ‘working habits’. The Dems might be unpleasantly surprised by all this.

  41. Factotum says:

    Unmaksing the “Whistle-Leaker” and his past associations? https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1184854506435239937.html

  42. Factotum says:

    As the “whistle-leaker” saga unfolds to a group of young Obama pajama boys and girls, the question must be asked: is misguided young idealism as sinister as craven old lust for power?
    Do two wrongs make a rightous virtue-signaling?

  43. Jim Ticehurst says:

    Larry and Factotum…Do You think all Aspects of CIA should be dismantled..?Both the Intelligence gathering and Operations.. Covert and Overt..? Do you think The United States ?has to many Organizations in The IC Now…Would you Consolidate any of them.??? …After the Prospective Dismantle of CIA..My Concerns about todays CIA Is that it was Very Easy to Plant this New Garden back in the OSS Days and Without The type of Proper Vetting …And in Rapidly became a Very Elegible Political Tool..As did FBI..Now ..It has Bad Produce…and..lots of Weeds…Worms..and Moles..They even shut down Counrer Intel Operations and Staff in the last Two decades..when they have been needed the Most..We all see who is Winning the Propognda Game..Right Now.They even Now Control The Print Media…and Bought out Our Local Newspaper…they are Still..The Master.Planters….and We..The People..Have Been Mushrooms..And Larry..I hope you get back on TV..Any Opportunity you Can..

  44. Procopius says:

    I saw a comment this morning concerning the FTFNYT, but it would apply to all the East Coast papers: “Caged birds refuse to shit on it, and fresh fish wrapped in it wriggle free to escape.”

  45. Procopius says:

    Even if they do impeach him, he’s not going to get convicted in the Senate, and it will probably gain him a lot of votes. The FTFNYT misquotation of what Hillary actually said about Tulsi is going to hurt the Democrats, too, especially the “centrist” ones.

  46. Diana C says:

    I like that saying.
    When I taught research writing, one of the sources that students could check for what was being said in regard to issues in the past (since many students picked topics that required they find contemporary news reports in regard to their issues) was the NYT. Almost every research library has copies of that rag from its beginning.
    As far as I could tell, the NYT has always been worthless for anything but lining birdcages or wrapping fresh fish.
    Maybe if those birds and the fish get their way, the NYT will finally die away, as it should have long ago.

  47. Tom says:

    they are notoriously sloppy, forever leaving laptops with sensitive intel in pubs, on train seats, etc. – in every terror attack it always turns out they were aware of the terrorists. they couldn’t foresee the obvious fall of the ussr, when any moscow cabbie could have told them it was imminent – not surprising considering they’re only a branch office of the cia.

  48. Factotum says:

    I think foreign intelligence gathering is very important. Like to see more of it. That is the issue – too many failures, outright bungles and what now appears to be dangerous subterfuge. Can it be reformed or does it need to be dismantled entirely and restarted with a new verifiable mission with truly sufficient internal controls.
    In today’s “transparent” universe, how much intelligence can now be obtained electronically, versus boots on the ground and calculated honey traps. Final analysis of present system is now in the hands of the Executive Branch and the attendant IG and/or special counsel reports.
    Who spies on the spies. Will what will soon be emerging be a case study for an “intelligence” agency run amok?
    What would you like to see? What did you think of “Legacy of Ashes” – was that a disgruntled hit job or a neutral analysis from within?

  49. different clue says:

    ( oooo looky! My little hypothetical slogan has showed up in someone’s comment on Naked Capitalism!)
    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
    jeremyharrison
    October 22, 2019 at 7:27 am
    Great line in the comments of the Sic Semper Tyrannis piece:
    Slogan for the upcoming election – “Trump 2020! Because f- you twice.”
    Reply ↓
    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
    Me so prideful . . . if that slogan becomes an informal battle standard of enough Trump supporters that the FSM can’t pretend they don’t hear it, that might possibly be me having a politicultural impact. ( Well, a mere layman without power has to dream . . . )

  50. different clue says:

    Blogs themselves can become a much slower and more leisurely form of Social Media . . . a Parallel Social Media, if one wills. And as well controlled and focused as the BlogMaster makes them and the blog posters care to keep them.
    A slow steady migration of people disappointed in certain aspects of the MSSM ( Main Stream Social Media) could slowly enhance the reach and power of the DSM ( Dissident Social Media) till it reaches a tipping point.

  51. different clue says:

    If misguided young idealism is what helps the craven old lust for power achieve the power it lusts for, then it can be just as damaging; whether sinister or not.
    After all, what do the millions of Pink Pussy Hat Jonestown Clinties really gain from their Jonestown loyalty to the Clinton political mafia family? And yet they give it some of its remaining power.

  52. Factotum says:

    They gain public union organizing networking and keeping the flame alive. Those pink kitties in fact were teacher union members and nurses union members. When we spend $700 billion dollars annually on public education, you can bet there is a reason to keep them organized, angry and stealth as to their real motives. That is a lot of OPM going to just one public sector union – the behemoth teachers union – primarlly female. Ergo “womens rights” and women’s ginned up grievances.

  53. Factotum says:

    True dat. We are the people we have been waiting for.

  54. Factotum says:

    Agree. Trump was the man of the hour that ran ahead of the movement, that had already formed — starting with the Tea Party and push back against the absurdity of Occupy movement. And fake news – MSM overlooks how key they have been to all they now rail against.

  55. Jim Ticehurst says:

    Factotum…Thank you for the response..I think The Author of “Legacy of Ashes”…..has written it like he has experienced it over a Long Period of time..Domestic and Foreign….With Qualifications….All of His Books get good reviews…and are good Insight for People interested in these Matters..I Like that he Wrote about Aldrich Ames…and even the Nixon Book…Those were bad times for a Weak President …..I saw it happen.. The United States..and all Americans…The government and our Intel Communitys..Paid the Price…and IMO…We Have never Recovered…We have had Far to Many FUBARS.Lost to many Assets..Are Way behind The Curve.. .and I Believe the AG Investigation will Bring it to Light..Top Down…POTUS…To The Gruners in the Outhouses..Every thing needs to Be Sanitized…If we have any Chance of Survial…or Competing..In Todays World..There is No First..Second..or Third..Just Winners..and Losers..

  56. j2 says:

    Mr Johnson,
    How is it possible that either agency can throw the other under the bus?
    All aforementioned agencies had to know, perhaps only in one small group, but all knew.
    Peter Strzok was FBI, on loan to CIA, during much of this time. Strzok was a major contributor to the Dec 2016 JAR and the Jan 2017 ICA reports.
    Bruce Ohr is DOJ, transmitting 302s from contacts with Steele (and others?), and wife Nellie Ohr’s Fusion GPS reports to Strzok and perhaps others, all FBI.
    Clapper was overseeing all agencies. Unless Clapper truly is an imbecile, which cannot be ruled out, Clapper had to know of most, if not all, the goings-on.
    Have seen no one address Strzok’s dual FBI/CIA role, not even Sundance, and this loose thread, among many others, bothers me.
    Thanks again to the Colonel for tolerating the intrusion. Hope the eyes are recovering well, Sir.
    All the best.

  57. Duke says:

    It’s that piece of shit Brennan that I want to see put in Jail. Although, Clapper is only marginally less odorous than Brennan.
    If Americans are ever to trust and even like their FBI, CIA and DOJ, several of the conspirators therein need to be jailed for the attempted coupe of President Trump.
    Some day in the future, a renewed Hollywood will make intriguing movies about this political time period in America’s history.
    Trump is St. George, slaying the dragon.

  58. Duke says:

    I want to see Brennan sweat and then go to jail. I think Brennan will flip first. Any bets?

  59. Mark Matis says:

    Execute them ALL for their treason. Then put their heads on pikes around the Beltway. Pour encourager les autres!!!

  60. Fred says:

    Mark,
    A trial before an impartial judge and jury comes first. Nice hyperbole though.

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