"Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan, a Barack Obama friend and protégé as well as a current paid contributor for NBC and MSNBC, has blasted President Donald Trump for congratulating President Vladimir Putin over his victory in recent Russian national elections. He said that the U.S. President is “afraid of the president of Russia” and that the Kremlin “may have something on him personally. The fact that he has had this fawning attitude toward Mr. Putin …continues to say to me that he does have something to fear and something very serious to fear.”"
It is an indication of how low we have sunk as a nation that a possible war criminal like Brennan can feel free to use his former official status as a bully pulpit to claim that someone is a foreign spy without any real pushback or objection from the talking heads and billionaire manipulators that unfortunately run our country. If Trump is actually being blackmailed, as Brennan implies, what evidence is there for that? One might reasonably conclude that Brennan and his associates are actually angry because Trump has had the temerity to try to improve relations with Russia." Giraldi
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I have known both Brennan and Giraldi for a long time. They are examples of the worst (Brennan) and the best (Giraldi) that the CIA has produced although I will remind that Giraldi started in the Army and was lured to Langley when already a well known and respected person in the intelligence community.
Brennan, at the beginning of his career was judged by CIA to be unsuited to be a field man and was made an analyst. I first knew him when I was Defense Attache in Jiddah and he was attached to Alan Fiers office. It was clear to me from the beginning that he was someone whom you should not trust or turn your back on.
Giraldi here lays out the case for Brennan's turpitude. Let Sessions act on this! Let him act! pl
Presumably Brennan can shoot off his mouth with his opinion. I have read things that made me wonder if there were a connection between some Russians and Mr. Trump, or certain members of his family, or his campaign. But at this point such claims are mere conjecture. Supposedly this is why we have an investigation by Mr. Mueller. Maybe at some point we will have concrete facts. So for the time being we have opinions without proof.
But as opinions go this does not strike me as outlandish as the claims that Barack Obama was not a natural born citizen. This was objectively verifiable. Why did the birth announcement appear in the two Honolulu papers? The truth on this matter was known, or knowable, from the beginning of Obama’s political career. So to go about claiming he was not a citizen meant that one was: 1. Illiterate (possible); 2. Ignorant of objective reality; 3. a liar.
I am waiting for some report from the investigation, for documents that we can examine, something to move this beyond conjecture. And for anyone harboring suspicion about the birth records check here: http://www.staradvertiser.com/2011/04/23/breaking-news/obamas-isle-birth-is-easily-verified-but-few-check/
Colonel, you need to change that attitude if you want to get on the media gravy train! I’m old enough to remember when the media would actually dare to bring on a commenter who questioned the official story…
Colonel,
Yes, John Brennan needs to be investigated. So, does the rest of the political appointees who have tried to toss the 2016 election into the trash and negate the Constitution. The heart of the problem is the thrashing about of a failing hegemon. Even neo-con Max Boot wrote “Anyone who favors a ‘war of choice’ against a nuclear-armed state belongs in a psychiatric ward”. Governments across the West must be cleansed and rule by consent of the governed restored.
The Salisbury England poisoning highlights the problem. If this was state sponsored nerve gas attack, it is an act of war. The march to war with Russia without any proof is insane.
The truth is our only hope of avoiding a catastrophe.
Off-topic, but perhaps not really since Brennan is one of those deeply involved in Russiagate, which has led to the Skripal case and the expulsion of Russian diplomats. Sy Hersh, in the infamous audio tape, specifically fingered Brennan as the man behind Russiagate. I can’t wait for his “long form journalism” report on the issue that he’s working on.
Maria Zakharova, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, appears on Russian TV (with English subtitles) and points out that the US and the UK appear to have pressured the EU into supporting the UK over the Skripal case – while the UK is going to Brexit soon leaving the UK “stuck in their solidarity”. She also all but lays the Skripal poisoning at the feet of the UK’s chemical weapons facility at Porton Down as well as the US without actually saying so.
Maria Zakharova: West is Launching an All-Out Anti-Russian Campaign
http://thesaker.is/maria-zakharova-west-is-launching-an-all-out-anti-russian-campaign/
The interviewer brings up an important point: How is Russia going to defend itself against these accusations when the UK is totally controlling all the evidence of what happened to Skripal and the US, EU and the media are all in lockstep? Zakharova didn’t really have an answer. There’s no way to prove a negative unless one somehow gets insider information and can reveal it without appearing to be a biased observer. Nothing Russia says will be believed.
There are several problem with investigating Brennan.
1. That will undermines further the US political system (which already is weakened by this slash and burn anti-Trump complain, or color revolution, if you wish) and might open a can of worms.
2. Who might be able to do it. Definitely not Trump Justice Department. Brennan was a really big player in Obama administration and probably was behind Nulandgate (UNZ comment):
3. Brennan probably is the key person behind Russiagate and color revolution against Trump that still is running unabated. And that means that he has influential friends in high places. Including UK.
UNZ has several insightful comments on the topic. Here is one:
This whole mess of collusion and meddling by the Russians is obvious rubbish. I don’t think the Russians could ask for anything more than an opportunity to find people in positions of power within the USG to collude with, since it would be the gold standard of owning that person or persons, ad infinitum.
I would not hold my breath with Sessions.
Do you consider Putin to be a “possible war criminal?”
likbez
If we stop CIA covert actions (directed by WH) will Russia stop its covert actions? pl
YES, YES, YES YES!!!
Let’s find the Department of Corrections finest orange jumpsuits tailor to fit Brennan for the last suit he’ll ever wear!
Peter VE
Any relations to the maker of wondrous bronze and copper lamps? I own one. I bought it with the money CNN paid me for years. Should I send back those monies and those paid me by CBS and PBS for years? I decided around 2005 that the money was not worth the degradation. Ten years later (2015) I decided that I no longer could justify helping the government as a role player in national war game exercises or as an expert witness in federal court cases. I then asked to be relieved of the burden of security clearances, (clearances in which I had been briefed of game scenarios and classified exhibits only) Should I send back my fees? pl
Thomas Kleeman
You seem to have missed the fact that Phil’s post is about Brennan, not Obama. pl
Dave
No more than any number of Americans starting with Lemay. pl
I thoroughly agree. Get Mueller started. Plus, don’t limit the investigation to Russiagate. Look back at those financial conflicts in the past.
Steve
Funny. He doesn’t look like an analyst.
More like a dull witted brute with barely controlled base impulses. He lacks the spark of intelligence in eyes that is unmistakable in Giraldi’s.
Yes! Investigate him. I hope Admiral Rogers is willing to participate.
Colonel,
I propose a Hudna, wherein the DIA coordinates with the GRU/SVR, ALL mutually agreeded to items. Then the DIA can shove it down Langley’s throat, and let them chew on that crow for a while. IMO there is little to no respect for CIA by the other side, so it’d be a waste of time holding a chair for them at the negotiation table.
I am flattened that view me as an expert on those topics but I do not know much about either CIA or Russia.
But IMHO right now the situation looks like a prewar situation. So all bets are off.
Also it is not clear how CIA can stop its covert operation. A leopard can’t change its spots.
Russia still is weakened by economic rape of 1991-2000 and by neoliberalism. So this is a country with pretty low standard of living and a mass of internal problems. In many respects it is still a third world country (and under Yeltsin it was a vassal of the USA, with all negative consequences of such a position.)
Also I think the level of penetration of CIA into Russia intelligence services after Yeltsin years remains very high (look at Skripal case; he essentially sold the whole Russian intelligence network for $100K ).
Being a weaker party Russia will probably thread very carefully in the current situation and try to avoid any moves that increase the level of confrontation. that includes covert operations. False flag operation with Skripal poisoning, which run so smoothly and became so damaging for Russia tells them a lot about what dangerous, treacherous and ruthless enemy they face (and this not only Perfidious Albion in this particular case), and the corresponding level of danger.
They need time to recover to the economic rape, say another ten to twenty year. So it is not in their interests to rock the boat.
Here is what Beebe — the CIA’s former head of Russia analysis — noted on the topic ( http://nationalinterest.org/feature/stumbling-war-russia-25089?page=2 )
So there is a kind of Melian Dialogue (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Melos#The_Melian_Dialogue ‘the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must.’) between the USA and Russia right now and Russia’s position is not that strong. West already squeezed them and this process started in full force around 2014, not now:
The key here is “the absence of an attractive international ideology on the Russian side.” So while the crisis of neoliberalism hit the USA (and led to election of Trump, which Brennan faction of CIA is trying to depose), it simultaneously, but in a different way weakened Russia too.
And Putin attempt to play a weaker hand as equal might not succeed in a long run.
Dear Colonel,
And more to the point, will Israel? They seem to wag the dog into trouble more than the Ruskies manage these days?
The crux of Phil Giraldi’s call for the investigation of Brennan centers on the intelligence provided by allied intel services concerning contact between Russian officials and some of Trump’s people. Did the allies share this kind of information as standard practice or did Brennan somehow induce them to collect and report it? I agree that this question would fall within the scope of Mueller’s investigation. Whether Mueller investigates the provenance of this allied intelligence is unknown. I hope he has already done so. If Brennan really thought those contacts between Russian officials and Trump’s people posed a potential CI risk, he would have been derelict if he did not pursue the matter. After all, three Russian intelligence officers were already convicted of trying to recruit Page who became one of Trump’s people.
Beyond L’Affaire Russe, there is much that needs to be investigated concerning the CIA’s capture-kill MO during the entire GWOT era. Brennan was in the thick of that, but that is not a subject for Mueller.
Not in comparison to Obama & Hillary or Bill & Madeline or Dubya & Cheney. They would fit the definition of “war criminal” to a T. Even LBJ. Relative to our crew Putin seems very much a statesman. Suggest you watch the Oliver Stone interview. What he has done for Russia is truly commendable.
Thank you for that comment about Gerald! I have been reading his columns for sometime, but not able to perfectly judge his expertise and objectivity.
likbiz
Skripal was recruited by the British, not CIA. He was a GRU officer and would have had a very limited idea of what FSB and SVR were doing. “Also it is not clear how CIA can stop its covert operation. A leopard can’t change its spots” CIA has among its tasks the conduct of covert operations. That is statutorily authorized and directed. The CIA is an instrument of US government. The Congress can delete covert action from among CIA’s authorized tasks whenever it wishes to do so just as it deprived CIA of many other functions in the IC reforms that that followed 9/11 but you don’t know anything about that. You are a wordier james. pl
Dirk Van Erp was my grandfather’s second cousin. Keep the lamp! I wish I had one. Dirk’s grandfather, also named Dirk, is said to have the round trip to Moscow in 1812, whilst my grandfather’s grandfather (Dirk’s brother Johannes) died in Spain in 1808, in the service of the little Corporal.
I assumed that the media did not want an objective observer any longer, and that’s why I no longer heard you on the radio. The lack of balance in our media’s charge to war with Russia is appalling. At least there are some relatively sane places on the web to balance out the propaganda stream, including this one.
Likbez – the Melians didn’t have the bomb. If we are to accept a “Melian dialogue” world then any country with any sense must equip itself with nuclear weapons. And if the same Hobbesian approach is to prevail internally then I’d better start measuring out the front garden for a Howitzer.
I’ll go with the Rule of Law. In fact the Rule of Common Sense would do at present. Here’s Boris Johnson flouting the latter:-
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/putins-sinister-threats-and-lies-extend-far-beyond-his-own-country-article-by-boris-johnson
Seriously, I’m not that happy with a government in which such as Mr Johnson are the best we can do for statesmen. Nor, I would imagine, are you very happy when such a man as is featured in the Colonel’s article above can have such influence in the States. I don’t see this as a battle between us and the Russians, though it’s always prudent to take precautions. I see it as a battle between us and our ruling elites.
They’re out of control at the moment but both Trump/Sanders 2016 and Brexit showed that very many of us are aware of that and would like to get them back under control. That’s a feeling that seems to be growing in Continental Europe too.
It may look very much like a losing battle just now, but it’s one that needs to be won. If it’s not we can forget about threats, real or imagined, from any foreign power. It’s our own ruling elites that will do for us.
TTG
The way I interpreted Phil Giraldi’s note is that these were not independent intel reports from Estonia, the Dutch and others, but Brennan instigating these European agencies to fabricate intelligence. Seems similar to Steele being used to launder Fusion GPS fabrication as intel.
At this point we don’t know what the facts are and Mueller is not only highly compromised himself but seems uninterested in investigating the provenance of all these “intel” reports and dossiers and what role if any Brennan, Clapper, Comey, Susan Rice, Samantha Power, et al, played in all this.
I would have had much more confidence in the special counsel if someone like Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed. But a borgist, swamp rat like Mueller??
> “The CIA is an instrument of US government.”
I would respectfully disagree. My impression is that the internal dynamic of development of such a large and well financed intelligence service as CIA is directed toward “liberation” from any civil control.
And at some point the tail start wagging the dog. At this point we have national security state and this transition is permanent and can’t be reversed.
So at some point CIA became the government, not “an instrument of US government.” And Church Committee stated this explicitly and tried (unsuccessfully) to curb the level of influence on CIA on the US society.
Looks like existence of powerful intelligence agencies is incompatible with the idea of democratic society. At some pint it become the Big Brother. Welcome to 1984 distopia or some variation of it.
I hope Sy Hersh is avoiding cars these days: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hastings_(journalist)
“I don’t see this as a battle between us and the Russians, though it’s always prudent to take precautions. I see it as a battle between us and our ruling elites.”
Exactly. But that also goes a long way towards explaining why those selfsame elites would see advantage in starting a row with the Russians at this time: they want us to redirect our wrath outwards at a foreign ‘enemy’, rather than upwards at its proper target–those corrupt elites.
likbez
Paranoid fantasy. have you ever worked in the US government? I am going to ban you as a useless distraction. pl
TTG
It looks like DOJ IG Horowitz is going to initiate a review of the Carter Page FISA warrant process. Maybe we’ll find out the role of Fusion GPS, Steele, Comey and others in this surveillance. And what if any surveillance of the Trump campaign took place and the evidence that caused the DOJ and FBI to that.
A Melian dialogue is indeed what we have, North Korea first took Seoul hostage and then proceeded to take Japan hostage too. US objects to being taken hostage by them and thus we are going to have the Trump-Une meeting to prevent that.
TTG at #18
…Beyond L’Affaire Russe, there is much that needs to be investigated concerning the CIA’s capture-kill MO during the entire GWOT era. Brennan was in the thick of that, but that is not a subject for Mueller…
TTG, I think you are on something – Mueller is totally confused in the web of deceits so that he actually might stumble on Brennan’s knowledge how the Russian oligarch Mikhail Lesin died in Washington D.C., and the web of deceits will get ever bigger and more confusing, as seen in the diagram within the article in this link
https://www.buzzfeed.com/tomwarren/secrets-of-the-spy-in-the-bag?utm_term=.dwR69KKQg#.utw5KBB97