"The ICA's blockbuster finding was presented to the public as the consensus view of the nation's intelligence community. As events have unfolded, however, it now seems apparent that the report was largely the work of one agency, the CIA, and overseen by one man, then-Director John Brennan, who closely directed its drafting and publication with a small group of hand-picked analysts.
Nearly three years later, as the public awaits answers from two Justice Department inquiries into the Trump-Russia probe’s origins, and as impeachment hearings catalyzed by a Brennan-hired anti-Trump CIA analyst unfold in Congress, it is clear that Brennan’s role in propagating the collusion narrative went far beyond his work on the ICA. A close review of facts that have slowly come to light reveals that he was a central architect and promoter of the conspiracy theory from its inception. The record shows that:
- Contrary to a general impression that the FBI launched the Trump-Russia conspiracy probe, Brennan pushed it to the bureau – breaking with CIA tradition by intruding into domestic politics: the 2016 presidential election. He also supplied suggestive but ultimately false information to counterintelligence investigators and other U.S. officials.
- Leveraging his close proximity to President Obama, Brennan sounded the alarm about alleged Russian interference to the White House, and was tasked with managing the U.S. intelligence community's response.
- While some FBI officials expressed skepticism about the Trump/Russia narrative as they hunted down investigative leads, Brennan stood out for insisting on its veracity.
- To substantiate his claims, Brennan relied on a Kremlin informant who was later found to be a mid-level official with limited access to Putin’s inner circle.
- Circumventing normal protocol for congressional briefings, Brennan supplied then-Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid with incendiary Trump-Russia innuendo that Reid amplified in a pair of public letters late in the election campaign.
- After Trump's unexpected victory, Brennan oversaw the hasty production of the tenuous Intelligence Community Assessment.
- Departing from his predecessors’ usual practice of staying above the political fray after leaving office, Brennan has worked as a prominent analyst for MSNBC, where he has used his authority as a former guardian of the nation’s top secrets to launch vitriolic attacks on a sitting president, accusing Trump of "treasonous" conduct." realclearinvestigations
—————-
I know that Horowitz can't indict but he can forward recommendations to a prosecutor with indictment authority. Would a Grand Jury in the Democratic Party stronghold of Washington, DC actually indict Obama era conspirators? I doubt it.
The process should be moved to other venues.
I have a side bet with a friend. I no longer believe that the duopoly of parties in the US will indict anyone over the matter of this article.
I hope I lose the bet. pl
Colonel,
Here are transcripts by NSC personal where LTC Vindman ‘judgement’ is seriously questioned. Was Vindman the NSC unauthorized/illegal leak? Will DoD take appropriate UCMJ action against Vindman?
https://intelligence.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?documentid=849
Look at NSC official Tim Morrison account on Vindman ‘judgement ‘ and serious questions as to Vindman accessing unauthorized items.
They sure got Flynn Cohen Manifort and Stone quickly.Giuliani associates were indicted to open up another front.
Pity people that desperately need to be held accountable wil not be so.
That is how the rule of law fails.
“Forget it, Cicero, it’s Chinatown.” Not with a bang, but a whimper.
Sadly, agree you will win that bet, which begs a question: Can the ship be turned around at this very late stage in the game?
Sorry to post twice, but, on a related note, George Elliason appears to show that the so-called whistleblower inside information, upon which the impeachment is progressing, is based on not even hearsay, but a Tweet:
https://thesaker.is/adam-schiff-whistleblower-impeachment-based-on-a-tweet-from-poland/
Well, I am certainly saddened by this state of affairs.
It appears that the barn doors have been left totally opened for a complete free for all for anyone who wants to to and has the money, the un-elected position, and the friends to take over the workings of the U.S. government. Rule of law and rule of reason be damned.
Let’s hope that by some miracle this coming election will be such that the people recognize what has happened and will provide a strong message to those who feel they have a right to rule from the offices of their unelected positions.
“I no longer believe that the duopoly of parties in the US will indict anyone over the matter of this article.”
Sir,
I’m afraid you will be proven correct.
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
THE SECOND COMING
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
………
( Is the world now ripe for Kayne West!?!)
Just as important, where is the proof the Russians hacked the DNC computers (hat tip always to LJ) – since Roger Stone was banned from getting this information by the judge who just sent him away for life.
CROWDSTRIKE’s role in the Democrat impeachment smokescreen needs to keep moving forward because, it is not going away. Democrats refusal to even mention it, let alone their obsession trying to relentless label nameless CROWDSTRIKE as a loony, right wing conspiracy theory simply does not pass the smell test.
Particularly since Schiff does his very best to deep six even mention of Trump’s requested Ukraine CROWDSTRIKE investigation. https://illicitinfo.com/?p=13576
Deep state CROWDSTRIKE collusion is starting to walk like a duck, quack like a duck and look like a duck.
You’re correct.
The Republicrats in the swamp – when push comes to shove – have each other’s backs.
One set of laws for them, another for the masses they rule and make no mistake – we are not governed, we are ruled.
if you are right pl then the duopoly IS thelma and louise and the rest of us (nation) constitute the car!
Great analogy, ha!
Seems everyone here is down. The Slime mold’s job is to kill all virtuous passion in the populace, and they do a damn good job.
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
Truer words…
If we don’t arise like lions, a seriously dystopian future awaits. Which is an exceedingly melancholy reality, considering we are on the cusp of a golden age driven by a Fusion Energy new economic platform, a quantum upshift of productivity and energy-intensive industrial applications. Ending global poverty. Ending the very reason for war.
The fact that even the disgraced former DDFBI Andy McCabe, who’s four documented, acts of Perjury, two of which were Recorded. Statements which involve a press leak, irrelevant to any issue of the Russia-Trump collusion myth. Has still not been Indicted, should give us all cause for alarm…
We appear to be on the Slippery slope toward Mob Rule over law and order…
This quote from Thursday’s article in Politico, says it best.
“This is not a hard case,” U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton said. “I was a good prosecutor for a long time. Deciding whether or not you’re going to charge someone with false statements or perjury is not that hard, factually or legally — maybe politically, but not factually or legally.”
Sundance suggests that FBI Inspector General Horowitz’s report is really being delayed so that the Deep State can push through FISC Court reauthorization — before we have an opportunity to learn how the current law has been so horribly abused with a multitude of 4th Amendment violations and so on.
Unfortunately, much as Republicans regret Fisc abuses by Democrats, this illegitimate maneuver is so cheap and tempting that even they don’t really want to let it die. In short, the DUOPOLY will ensure continuance.
The future is not just continuation of the present, but reaction to it.
Two weeks ago I thought I head a different tune. Why the change?
As I said then and say now: Bob Barr did not come to bury the Deep State, but to save it.
The imperial republic is tottering, and the liberal dispensation of the past three hundred years that informed it is collapsing, a victim of internal subversion and pathological egalitarianism.
What will replace it? No one knows.
But the future will probably be like the past: tribal, ethnic, sectarian and vicious.
There is no going back. And the only way out is through.
So attack in two directions.
Shatter left-neoliberalism by provoking the worst ant-white and anti-Semitic tendencies present in the emerging nonwhite left.
Liquidate its controlled opposition (AKA American conservatism) by attacking its fronts men as the corporate golems and Zio-shills that they are.
The goal is to eliminate the middle ground and force the gutless middle to choose between the globalists and us, and to make the price of an unwise choice steep, public, and permanent.
It’d sure be nice if we could get some MAGA candidates for congress going. Right now, Trump’s all alone in Washington; not much hope of getting any part of his agenda passed.
I read the RCP article by Aaron Mate referenced above and while it was compelling, it practically made the infamous Peter Strzok, in its brief mention of him, seem like an innocent bystander. It focused on the CIA as though the FBI wasn’t its eager and willing partner, and yet it was the FBI that paid Christopher Steele, the FBI that obtained FISA warrants to spy, the FBI that took out Gen. Flynn, the FBI that lied to the new POTUS, the FBI that led to the appointment of SC Mueller, etc., etc.
Is the FBI playing dumb now as a defense, pretending it was duped by the CIA to engage in so much nefarious activity?
Now That’s a good one!!
It could be the trial of the century, no doubt. …
Would the jury in such a case, in a Democratic Stronghold, as Washington DC, have to be carefully selected according to some superimposed rule beyond the general jury selection rules reigning access to classified knowledge?
Strictly there is by now enough expertise on jury selection, even specialists. In Washington D.C., as suggested, maybe the ultimate challenge. Thus I am sure a lot of experts would queue up.
Not that the result would satisfy everyone, but if you carefully select people that prove they grasp the “national interest” or are able to carry its burdons. Why not?
vig
Why not move the proceedings to the Eastern District of Virginia or to Connecticut?
You’ll win the bet, but even if you lose, the indicted will be instantly catapulted into bona fide “Hero of the Republic(R)” status as a result.
Just as the people who took the falls for the Clintons were, except 10x.
The chattering class really really detest Trump, and nothing else matters. They will happy accept aid from perjurers, torturers and entrapment artists, as long as that gets them Trump.
I detest Trump as well, but he won the election fair and square, and just because I detest the man doesn’t mean that I need to sink to the level of crackpot conspiracy theory if that justifies his removal.
Eastern District of Virginia or to Connecticut?
sorry I am an outsider on this. … Willmann may help, maybe? basic rules? … I hardly grasp my own countries juridical responsiblities, nevermind some venue curiosities. …
last time I heard the argument concerning the US it didn’t seem to be necessary based on the outcome, at least in hindsight …
and how “in the end we arrive at the beginning and know it for the first time.”
oops. failed to make sense of that thought.
Any GOP candidate facing down the well-honed Democrat mean machine is a daunting prospect.
The well-calculated legacy of the Democrat ginned-up Kavanaugh hearings – we will do and say anything to smear you, taint you and bring you down. Don’t even think of going against us because we will do the exact same thing to anyone Trump wants to bring on, or run in support of his administration.
We see the Democrat mean machine in action a lot in California to the point we now have increasingly “bye elections” where there is no opposition so the candidate does not even have to face the voters and risk even a write-in opposition vote.
The system is rigged to quickly become a one-party hegemony. They say trends start in California, so beware of the tricks they pulled out here and got away with it:
(1) term limits;
(2) jungle primaries;
(3) district elections and mandatory protected minority-majority districts;
(4) counting illegals as district resident numbers;
(5) bye election not facing a ballot;
(6) vote by mail lengthening the campaign season beyond all human endurance;
(7) vote- harvesting;
(8) same day voter registration;
(9) outlawing voter ID..
Where is the scorecard on Trump’s Oct 2016 pre-election speech. Did he call it or what- time for an accounting – three years later. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2qIXXafxCQ
I personally will settle for two new Supreme Court Justices, 150 new federal court justices and breaking up the liberal deadlock of the 9th Circuit. However, Trump’s Oct 2016 shot across the bow against the deep state remains a work in progress. However, Trump did not back off – it is clash of civilizations still going on, as we speak.
Retrospective is often the best perspective for current events.
All
I think it is important to note that the Real Clear Investigations piece which the Colonel quotes from was written by Aaron Mate. Aaron Mate is part of the new breed of independent lefty journalists that are taking on the establishment news media. He has an excellent show on a youtube channel called The Grayzone.
His cohorts Max Blumenthal, Ben Norton, Dan Cohen, and Anya Parampil have done excellent reporting on Syria and Venezuela. They are part of a burgeoning new media ecosystem which includes the other youtube channels ‘The Hill’ and ‘The Jimmy Dore Show’.
“The Slime mold’s job is to kill all virtuous passion in the populace, and they do a damn good job.”
Today this podcast appeared in my Inbox.
No Irony Alert was appended; apparently the discussants are serious in maintaining that the will of the people expressed “through digital media ” and by the electorate “threaten democracy” and “fuel deadly conflict.”
So there ARE armed militias under the control of “populists” and they have the financial wherewithal to form an army and wage war?
https://www.crisisgroup.org/europe-central-asia/war-peace
Defeating Populism
Max Blumenthal has savaged the estimable Alison Weir, author of Against Our Better Judgment and her years long campaign of speaking out against Israel’s maltreatment of Palestinians.
Grayzone may go a bit further than establishment media, and perhaps a bit farther on issues involving Palestine than, say, Phil Weiss at Mondoweiss, but there are still lines that are not to be crossed by the reporters at Grayzone.
What is the point of indictments when the CIA/NSA/FBI can and will be perceived to be able to blackmail each juror? The “chilling effect” is real and it will prevent successful prosecution of any but sacrificial deep state actors.
After what has been done to Trump associates, he is politically radioactive. No one will want to be part of his team and subject themselves to the tender ministrations of the FBI.
The reward of the good life, is the good life itself all the sudden makes even more sense. Picturing now J Edgar Hoover and LBJ laughing over secret files on every member of Congress at the time. You do not exaggerate, walrus.
But how can we prevent this being only one-way Democrat street? Their manipulation of language, repetition of talking points, media exclusives and ginned-up events have stunned me of late. Luckily there in fact is more media transparency only because of the open internet. Which is also closing in.
I have long wondered why MSM wanted to go to bed with the Democrats so eagerly – most likely because the one-way street of inside gossip only flows from loose Democrat lips. .
Recent media interview with Jordan, who lambasted the ABC reporter who tried to box him into a corner over a “secret hearing” transcript that had not been made public -and the hearing was less than 24 hours prior. Democrat loose lips gave someone a free scoop for some reason and luckily Jordan swatted this breach right back at her.
Quite honestly female reporters need gynocological swab testing before they go live with any breaking news stories from now on. What did they do to get that story first.
Yes, I noticed all of those things as I read that article. It made the article look like a “limited hangout” to me. Trimmers were never my favorites.
I don’t think that Grayzone goes “a bit further” than establishment media. They go a lot further.
This Grazyone video from a few days ago (Aaron Mate interviews Ali Abunimah of The Electronic Intifada) is titled “Israel’s relentless violence on Gaza met by global silence”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o16CV4BTuU0
Or from the back cover of Blumenthal’s book Goliath:
‘As Blumenthal reveals, Israel has become a country where right-wing leaders like Avigdor Lieberman and Bibi Netanyahu are sacrificing democracy on the altar of their power politics; where the loyal opposition largely and passively stands aside and watches the organized assault on civil liberties; where state-funded Orthodox rabbis publish books that provide instructions on how and when to kill Gentiles; where half of Jewish youth declare their refusal to sit in a classroom with an Arab; and where mob violence targets Palestinians and African asylum seekers scapegoated by leading government officials as “demographic threats.”‘
Walrus,
What was done to Justice Gorsuch was politics by the left meant to keep him off the supreme court, warn the republicans not to support others like him, and warn the rest of us to stfu and do what we are told. Brennan and company are worse and may also include Obama and a number of his backers in and out of his administration. And Epstein didn’t kill himself.
From RedState – DECEMBER 11 – MARK YOUR CALENDAR: The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Dec. 11 to examine the findings from a Justice Department inspector general’s investigation into the FBI’s alleged abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court during the Trump investigation, the committee said Monday.
“If this was a legit up, then so be it. But if this was somebody’s unilateral wet dream, then that somebody is going to prison.”
— NSA director in Enemy of the State
(Will Smith/Gene Hackman, 1998)
rjj –
From another of those quartets:
“And what there is to conquer
By strength and submission, has already been discovered
Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope
To emulate — but there is no competition —
There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions
That seem unpropitious.”
Can the Constitution be refreshed without patriots’ & tyrants’ blood? Can the eye of Mordor stop popular resistance?
Eliot was, of course, writing in England, at the outset of WWII.
Is the FBI playing dumb now as a defense, pretending it was duped by the CIA to engage in so much nefarious activity?
18 November 2019 at 03:12 AM
VERY GOOD!!
Agree completely.
” No one will want to be part of his team and subject themselves to the tender ministrations of the FBI”.
That would certainly be true for persons having nothing between their belt buckle and their backbone.
“Can the Constitution be refreshed without patriots’ & tyrants’ blood? Can the eye of Mordor stop popular resistance?”
You question here makes me shiver.
To me the “tyrant” is the oh-so-cool choom smoking Obama, whose minions have kept our country in turmoil after he left office. I remember the Roman columns in my city after his election. He had won with strong support from Soros’ capital (the eye of Modor) and took orders, it seemed to me, from the Bilderberg group of high rollers wanting power over the world without concern for countries and their governments and their laws that might give voice to lowly people.
I hope the MAGA hat wearing crowds (our form of Hibbits) grow and grow in number as the election approaches so that the Democrats see that they will seem like spoiled toddlers who only want what they want, no matter how absurd their wishes are. (That is unlikely, though, because toddlers have little ability to see beyond their immediate desires–no self-reflection.)
Have I interpreted your question correctly?
Who can be the elves and the dwarfs and the men who join the Hobbits? Does Trump have it in him to be Gandalf?
Egalitarianism is not the problem. Rather, we live in a de facto oligarchy.
Don’t believe me? Note how US policies remain the same, no matter who wins the elections.
Based on what?
Huber apparently has been assigned to investigate the Clinton Foundation- a report due shortly too (which is badly bleeding red ink several years in a row after Clinton lost).
No wonder Clinton is hinting she will run again – anything to goose up re-newed donations for her influence peddling scheme. No wonder she is in fact this time pimping out her daughter in her latest book tour – the money will be safe with us, folks. Even if I get sent to the slammer, Chelsea knows enough to carry on the family traditions.
Factotum mentioned Crowdstrike. Many are under the impression that the crowdstrike “server” Trump mentioned in his typical fragmentary, herky-jerky style in the Zelensky call, must mean the DNC email server. But I’ve heard it suggested he was actually referring to a different Ukrainian server, also managed by Crowdstrike, related to another hokey Russian hacking claim: a Ukrainian army missile system that was allegedly hacked by the Russians. See “Fancy Bear” artillery hack. Not sure if that really was what Trump was talking about but others out there might know.
This is enough for me.
https://gilad.online/writings/2015/7/3/max-blumenthal-on-alison-weir
jdhawkins
How about some commentary on this? Are you that lazy?
So Blumenthal is an anti-zionist, Alison Weir is a critic of Israeli government policy, and Blumenthal is critical of Weir. Big deal.
The Colonel is critical of Bernie and I like Bernie – that doesn’t mean that I have to stop respecting the Colonel just because I disagree with him on some issues. One of the lamentable shortcomings of some of those on the left is that they want to fight with each other about relatively trivial disagreements. This only benefits the Borg.
And if I was thoroughly paranoid I would think that this whole Blumenthal vs Weir thing is being amplified by an IO operation designed to sow discord among critics of Israel.
jd hawkins,
A blog post by a British Jazz artist from four years ago? How wonderfully insightful.
” How wonderfully insightful”.
Well Fred… I guess some folks are just a little more perceptive than me. Sorry ’bout that. Have a good’un.
“….I would think that this whole Blumenthal vs Weir thing is being amplified by an IO operation designed to sow discord among critics of Israel”.
I made a [two word] reply to someone’s comment!!
YOU are the one making “BIG DEAL’ of this.
“Are you that lazy”?
No, colonel, not a’tall. Don’t have a lazy bone in my body. BUT – I do have Extreme challenges of the body, but less of the mind, (much, much slower organizing thoughts etc.) but NO challenge regarding Spirit… it’s not the dog in the fight, but the fight in the dog.
No, I’m not a DAV, but I do consider myself a ‘DAP’ (disabled American Patriot – without pay – but Cost aplenty) Quite like (but not There Yet) the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier… so to speak.
I have sixty five years of Active Service… starting a the age of ten in Bristol, PA … and [it] will NOT end before I’m dead, down in the woods of central MS.
Alison Weir says “If Americans only Knew”… doesn’t know the half of [it].
Don’t drink the cool-aid and fo sho DON’T Breathe the Fort Detrick Bio-cocktail.
Thomas Paine could have put out several pamphlets in the time it took me to reply.
That’s IT, and Tally Ho – hopefully.