DNI Designee Ratcliffe - Best Qualified

Mueller Questioned by Ratcliffe     [CBSN]

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There is quite a furor over the appointment of Representative John Ratcliffe to become the next DNI [Director of National Intelligence].

Brennan

David Ignatius, a long-time supplicant of the CIA in even its most corrupt form, calls Ratcliffe a "dangerous, demented clown."  Keep in mind that Ignatius thought Brennan, the Muslim buffoon, to be brilliant; so much for the Ignatius credibility quotient.

Clapper

He also referred to James Clapper [the guy we saw smirking at Congressional committee members as he repeatedly perjured himself] "the most successful DNI since the position was created."  So, Ignatius manages to squeeze himself into a corner, worshipping the two most egregious criminals in the Intelligence Community since Jonathan Pollard, Ana Montes, Aldrich Ames, and Kim Philby.

The Washington Post, lacking any real understanding of a professional Intelligence Community, regards  the appointment of Ratcliffe as horrendous, tagging Ratcliffe as an "inexperienced, partisan politician."

We also hear from "former Intelligence officers" who demand that the DNI be selected from the executive levels of the CIA, or, at least from the existing DNI staff, or, By Gawd, from maybe the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence [SSCI], managed by Dianne Feinstein who employed a Chinese Spy as her driver for 20 years.

Why, Ratcliffe lacks "any real experience, and worse, he likely has embraces Trump's 'Deep State' conspiracy theories about the CIA and FBI.  Goodness! Even a former "Station Chief" [aka: COS] claimed "this place is under siege."  That, of course, would presume there are any Station Chiefs with any degree of credibility these days.

Pretty much ignored is that the Intelligence Community lost virtually ALL credibility when it conspired in a combined effort to effect a coup against President-elect Trump.  And, let's not forget that Ilhan Omar, a Somali, sits on our House Foreign Affairs Committee - with a Top Secret Clearance.

So, before we comment on Mr Ratcliffe's selection, we refer you to the ABOUT section on our blog site so you can grasp a bit about our background, and why we feel entitled to weigh in on this topic, and to give our full endorsement to Mr Rattcliffe as the new DNI.
----

After the dust of  9-11 had settled, we sat down with President Reagan's Attorney General, Ed Meese, and laid the groundwork for the new position of the DNI.






Until 9-11 [and for a while after] the Intelligence Community was managed by the Director of Central Intelligence [DCI], who also was the Director of the CIA, giving that agency extraordinary power over the entire IC analyses, assessments, and operational activities. The DCI could over-rule any agreements and suppress any reporting; and the CIA could take credit for any assessments or reporting by other agencies. And when its own fumbling created disastrous results, it could, and did blame other agencies for its own errors.

 If there were successes, the CIA would claim the credit, no matter which agency had succeeded; and, if there were a failure, the CIA would run to the SSCI and point a finger [usually at Military Intelligence] claiming the Military was incompetent at Intelligence matters, and CIA should control all those operations [or analyses].

Given that history of abuse, we created the position of DNI to oversee the coordination of all components of the IC, but without the power the DCI had. Initially, the concept worked. But, then, under Obama, an IC which was limited to a few thousand employees of many specialties engorged to a population of nearly a million government and contract employees, creating a bureaucracy incapable of conducting or producing viable Intelligence. Thus, Trump's disdain for his IC support. Once again, having succeeded in neutering other components of the IC [e.g., DIA], the CIA assumed control of the IC once again with the combined power of Brennan and Clapper.

In plain and simple terms, the CIA was a Bully, and a fairly incompetent one at that with a long string of Intelligence failures, fiascos, abuses, and implications of corruption. Needless to say, this bullying annoyed the other members of the IC, and we all lurked in the shadows, waiting for the opportunity to drive a wooden stake through  the heart of this almighty vampire.

CIA ignored all the Indicators and Reports

And that day came with the horrors of 9-11, an event the planning/plotting details of which were discovered and provided by FBI agents, foreign intelligence and police services [e.g., the Philippines], and indicators from commercial [Private Sector] resources.

In essence, there was a plethora of Indicators completely and totally ignored by the highly touted and self-proclaimed "Terrorism Expert" John Brennan, who, in spite of missing/ignoring all the indicators, immediately rose to prominence with George W Bush, going on to become, what else, the Director of the CIA!

This came as a stunning surprise to the entire IC, but particularly to the remaining CIA professionals who almost unanimously despised Brennan and regarded him as a complete buffoon [much as they had regarded Bob Gates, a previous Bush designee, who, in spite of a continuous history of failure at the CIA, was promoted to the position of DCI by President GHW Bush.

[We can speak pejoratively here since we were intimately familiar with the IC and had deep friendships and alliances with many CIA, DIA, NSA and FBI professionals, as well as colleagues in the Military Intelligence Services. Why, we even spent time with CIA as an operative, and at the Departments of Defense and State as a senior analyst with highly credible recognition (even from the DCI) - so we can't be accused of blowing smoke out our butt.]  We knew lots of folks (still do) throughout the IC and coordinated operations directly with the Assistant Attorney General, back before the IC became politicized and weaponized by Brennan, Clapper, Comey, and Mueller.  Given their atrocious behavior, we even wrote a blog on restructuring the IC.]

But, we have again digressed.
[Enough of slamming Brennan and Clapper; we'll spend more time on them in separate blogs.]

We worked with Ed Meese [Reagan's Attorney General] to create the DNI after 9-11 to eliminate the DCI position and to neuter the CIA's dominance of the analytical and operational community. We sought to create a lean and efficient Intelligence Community, unencumbered by bureaucratic bloating; one which could focus on creating viable operations through thorough and cooperative analyses from all elements.

Our proposed process, for example, might follow these components:
1) A CIA station might report rumors, via clandestine operatives, of coup plotting, while the Defense Attache might report comments by one or more of the military plotters.
2) CIA and DIA analysts would examine the profiles of the plotters, and establish key words for NSA to monitor in Communications Intelligence [COMINT].
3) NRO [the satellite imagery guys at the National Reconnaissance Office] could then monitor any and all military movements which might be gauged as supportive of a coup.
4) Since most coups are bloodless, we would also review Private Sector Intelligence showing commercial movements of personal goods and wealth transfers in preparation of the soon-to-be deposed leader.
5) We might even send in covert operatives to help the soon-to-be deposed leader on his way with dark means of transport.
6) And, all elements of the IC would work together on this project via the DNI o!ce where information on analyses and operations could be exchanged.

In fact, the process actually worked like that, briefly.  

We originally envisioned the DNI to occupy a rather small building near the White House which had served as a place for representatives of the IC to meet and coordinate issues and operations around the world.  Gradually, however, it expanded into a bloated empire of hundreds of thousands of bureaucratic entities incapable of coordination, much less creating actionable Intelligence.

Saddam Hussein

The politicization and bloating of the process began under George W Bush, whose primary goal was to create a smokescreen disguising his 9-11 attack as the basis for our new international war adventures throughout the Middle East, disposing of Saddam Hussein, our long-time Middle East ally and stabilizer [albeit brutal].  

[See Rick Francona's book: Ally to Adversary, which examines the bewildering process by which Saddam was transitioned from our Ally to the basis for the Gulf War and Operation Desert Storm.]

And then, the IC was directed to create the basis for the endless war in Afghanistan to track down Osama bin Laden and kill him - a simple enough task in the old days with a few teams of lightly armed Special Forces operatives.  

But, the Bush and Obama Administrations expanded both the Military and the IC into massive, expensive, and incoherent bureaucracies, while destroying the competency of both entities. 

[Unfortunately for The Swamp, particularly IC executives, modern technology is now revealing that 9-11 was a Bush ruse which cost the lives of thousands of people for the amusement and profit of a select group of Deep State puppet-masters; they've been identified and will find their way to Gitmo for trial, and likely execution. The professional investigators of 9-11 can no longer be dismissed as "Truthers" or Conspiracy Theorists with Tin Foil caps since forensic science now includes highly technical resources to discount the official versions with detailed revelations of the events and participants.]

But, we've digressed again.

When the Deep State positioned Obama in the Oval Office, it became important to create Intelligence Estimates [NIE] which lent credence to the Global War on Terrorism and justified the bloating of the IC from as few as 10,000 analysts and operatives to nearly a million government employees and private contractors, destroying any hope of processing any level of intelligence through hundreds of layers of indecisive and incompetent, but well-paid bureaucrats.

The Plan was to make the system so convoluted that no one could understand it, or its products.

When Trump took office, he was faced with nonsensical IC smoke and mirrors briefings which  had no bearing on reality. 

Thus, Trump's disdain for, and refusal to accept his IC support. 

He preferred to get his Intelligence assessments from the Private Sector -- which had hired the professionals from the IC and given them the resources and facilities to conduct Intelligence as we had envisioned the DNI to operate.

Clapper and Brennan recognized the Handwriting on the Wall, indicating their power positions and commercial contracts, post retirement, were in jeopardy, at which point they attempted to stage a coup with the amateurish resources they had at hand. 

And, we are now witnessing the unravelling of that process.

So, now, we return to the origin of this tale.

What about Mr Ratcliff's qualifications, or lack thereof, to become the DNI.
[We list his Committee participation below]

Briefly, as we've noted, the DNI position is not one of power over the IC, but is precisely limited in that respect. 

In fact, the DNI, by charter, is limited to only MANAGE the IC and to coordinate the functions of the components of the IC as the Chief Executive Officer [CEO] of a large corporation would manage all the components of a large company. Just as the corporate CEO need not be a programmer to manage an Google, or an engineer to manage Bechtel, the DNI needs only management skills, and a legal mind since much of what the IC does require a legal review. 

Judge William Webster
No Intelligence Background
Before Appointment

Keep in mind, the IC currently consists of highly technical resources [NSA, NRO, NGA], along with HUMINT [clandestine, covert, and open source operations]. 

You will never find any executive skilled in all those specialties, but, recall that Jack Welch managed General Electric and increase the company's value by 4,000%.

Ross Perot managed EDS, leading it to become one of the most successful companies in US history.. 

The skills of Welch and Perot consisted of directing capable executives who, in turn, managed highly technical components -- much the same as the DNI would direct the executives in charge of the various Intelligence agencies which comprise the IC.

Perhaps the best and most respected Director was  Judge William Webster who successfully managed not only the FBI, but later became the Director of Central Intelligence -- as a lawyer/jurist - NOT an Intelligence specialist.

Mr Ratcliffe is a manager, so, like Webster, he won't favor one agency over another in his management process.  As an attorney, he can recognize all the elements of a good legal brief

as it would pertain to clandestine or covert operations; and, he would be the most capable executive of listening to the heads of the specialty units of NSA, NRO, NGA, DEA, FBI, DIA, and the Military Services and evaluating their assessments and/or their proposed courses of actions as they would merge into achieving an ultimate goal, or operation.

So, we suspect Mr Ratcliffe can manage the Intelligence Community in an equally common sense manner, even if he is not an Intelligence technician.

----------

Ed Notes:
Congressman Ratcliffe's assignments on Capitol Hill

House Committee Assignments

• House Intelligence Committee 
  • Strategic Technologies and Advanced Research Subcommittee
  • Intelligence and Modernization Readiness Subcommittee
• House Judiciary Committee
  • Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security (Ranking Member)
  • Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet
• House Committee on Homeland Security
  • Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Innovation
  • Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security
• House Ethics Committee

Trump Pulls Troops Out of Syria and Afghanistan

Mattis, a superb combat warrior, disagrees with a  superb strategist
They're both right! 

We may take a bit of flack from pseudo-hawks and NeoCons, but we support Trump's decision 100%.

Old Military and Intelligence guys have wondered at the rationale of keeping our troops in the Middle East.
Saddam is dead,
Osama bin Laden is still dead.

We have no stake in the Middle East other than to assist governments to stabilize, which does not include the massive presence of Central Command Forces. Nor does it require keeping massive US Military forces in Europe under the European Command -- a relic of the Cold War. Let the Europeans fund and populate NATO; we're tired of taking their lip and funding their exquisite tastes.

As necessary, we have the capability of transporting a fully equipped combat division, with combat support aircraft from the US to a crisis site within hours via our Transportation Command's  C-5 and
C-17 cargo planes.  We can deploy supersonic bombers and fighters from the US to arrive over the Middle East with minimal flight time with maximized combat effectiveness.

We should learn from history [an odd idea, now, isn't it?]

We've been involved in these faux wars for decades, the purpose of which always remains vague - other than to support the Military-Industrial Complex -- as detailed by General/POTUS Eisenhower.

As the Soviet Empire was crumbling, we sat with Bill Clark, then the Assistant Secretary of the Army [General Mark Clark's son] as he bemoaned the future/demise of the Military without a defined enemy.

Specifically, without a definable enemy, we would have no reason to maintain a large, standing Military; and if a new global crisis arose, how could we mobilize in time to meet that crisis?

We've spent a few years in combat in a variety of countries, supposedly to "defend our country", only to learn the enemies we fought were once our friends, and our current friends were once our enemies.

Worse, we learned our "leaders" [e.g., Kissinger, Bush-1, W, Robert Gates, Obama, Billary] were the actual enemy we've come to know as the Deep State, all leading us into senseless wars.

After we [personally] were able to defeat the insurgency in Northeast Thailand, we gloated until we learned the insurgency had been sponsored by the Chinese who coopted the anti-government movement protesting the government's confiscation of farmlands in order to build a hydro-electric dam, funded by our very own Agency for International Development [USAID].  The dam construction devastated famers by claiming their fertile land and relegating this once prosperous group to generations of poverty and government subsidies.

But, the "greater good" prevailed as the region received electricity -- although few could use it.

That revelation in 1974, got us to thinking about our major Military commitments.

China and Vietnam [Ho Chi Minh] were some of our greatest supporters in WW2, establishing OSS spy networks (which we inherited during the Vietnam War) and recovering our downed pilots; but now, that enemy, Japan - the invading force, is our close ally in the Pacific, and China is now our enemy.

Ho Chi Minh worked in England and in France, and on the docks in Baltimore, so he was fluent in English as well as the US culture.

He led the movement for independence from France and formed the Indochinese Communist Party, and following WW2, sought Eisenhower's support for Vietnam's independence - which Ike declined.

LBJ initiated the war with North Vietnam by sending our warships into their territorial waters, drawing fire, thus convincing Congressional hawks to declare war.

As it turns out, the Tonkin Gulf Resolution was drafted a full six months before the attacks on US vessels occurred.

While we valiantly fought that war until 1975, Henry Kissinger, without the knowledge of Nixon, was selling us out to the Chinese in 1972, in exchange for a trade agreement.

But, throughout that war, we were often reminded of the heroin trade, via the Golden Triangle, through US Military transport, to the US.  Some folks are convinced that trade was sponsored or conducted by the CIA.

Iraq, for decades before we invaded to depose Saddam, was our closest Middle East Arab Ally [see our colleague, #Rick Francona's book "Ally to Adversary"], as well as our principal oil supplier.

Dick Cheney's Defense Contractors made a fortune exploiting the war -- and our soldiers, and we then had a generation of soldiers succumb to the Gulf War Syndrome [attributed to the oil vapor from burning wells, or, depleted uranium munitions, but in fact, derived from the Anthrax vaccine immunizations in 1990 by order of the Department of Defense on all Army troops who "might" be deployed to Iraq -- Bush's friends in the Pharmaceutical Industry profited mightily from that requirement -- even though it had not been through more than one (incomplete) trial.

Theoretically, the US would use oil sales from Iraq to pay for that war, but, in the end, the oil fields went under the control of other countries, and the US got not a cent!  On the other hand, US Defense contractors made fortunes.

Estimates by Reuters put the estimated total cost of the Iraq War at more than $5.6 Trillion.  
The war killed an estimated 150,000 Iraqi civilians, with unconfirmed estimates ranging up to 600,000, including security forces, insurgents, journalists, and humanitarian workers!  Bush demonstrated US power by publicly executing Saddam by hanging him, by the neck, until dead.
[Rumor has it that W faced that same sentence in Gitmo in December, 2018]

The social impact in Iraq included the reinvigoration of Islamic militants, reversal of women's rights, and a weakened an already precarious healthcare system.  The multi-billion reconstruction effort was regarded a failure as most of the monies spent on security was lost to waste or fraud.

Keep in mind that the basis of George W Bush's invasion of Iraq was based on his announcement that Saddam Hussein held "Weapons of Mass Destruction" [WMD] a claim discounted by Rick Francona who was/is an expert on the region and acted as General Schwartzkopf's personal Arabic interpreter and Intelligence Advisor.

Schwartzkopf, opposed by Dick Cheney later became critical of the rationale behind the war once he learned the "WMD" claim was fraudulent and handed in his retirement papers rather than remain on Active Duty.  No evidence was ever substantiated of WMDs in Iraq.

Our legacy in Iraq was, perhaps, to create the subsequent regional terrorist factions which represent our current global threat.

The Afghans were our closest allies in their battles against the Soviets, as we helped create and aided the Mujahiden; but, there were even allegations that the CIA created Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, via Operation Cyclone, -- and then, once the Soviets were defeated, we abandoned our Afghan colleagues, allowing religious zealots to control the Taliban who were then dubbed terrorists; they're now our enemy because bin Laden was reportedly hiding out in Afghanistan.

In spite of the Special Operations assault on bin Laden's Pakistan hideout and his assassination, he has been repeatedly reported in sightings vacationing in the Caribbean with his family.

The faux assassination of bin Laden was conducted by Admiral McRaven's Special Operations units under the guise of Operation Neptune Spear as a public relations event for then-POTUS Obama.  McRaven reportedly was one of the flag rank officers who signed on to Obama's requirement that they agreed to fire on US Civilians if so ordered.

Contrary to all Intelligence protocols, bin Laden was killed and his [supposedly his] mutilated body was dumped in the ocean, sparking Muslim outrage throughout the world, and leaving professional Intelligence officers bewildered that he was not taken captive [he was unarmed] and interrogated to obtain his knowledge of regional and global terrorist groups.

Notably, SEAL Team Six, the lead on the bin Laden assault, later suffered 38 casualties, to include 15 participants of the bin Laden raid when their Chinook helicopter was shot down on August 6, 2011IN [Extortion 17] -- not long after members of the Team lampooned Obama as in Clint Eastwood's Empty Chair soliloquy.

Loading 38 SEALs aboard a chopper in a combat zone strains credulity, but, apparently, the orders came down from McRaven -- an officer we all respected until too many of these incidents surfaced, and he has recently become a highly vocal critic of President Trump.

The chopper was allegedly shot down by a Surface to Air [SAM/MANPAD]


But, why are we in Afghanistan now?

Most experts remain bewildered, other than the US now tacitly protects the poppy/heroin trade.

And, we learned that ISIS, our Enemy-du-Jour, has been led and funded by senior officers of our closest Mid-East Allies, apparently so we would have an officially recognized enemy.

Later, we learned that Benghazi was all about covering up Hillary's arms deals with ISIS and al Qaeda by overthrowing Qadafi and transferring the contents of Libyan armories to al Qaeda -- who just might be tempted use those weapons against US forces.


Of late, we received from an anonymous donor, the complete [unclassified] war-plan designed by [former General] Wesley Clark [Clinton's protege and commander of the Military raid on Waco] in which Clark planned a war between Ukraine and Russia, into which US forces would be inserted and engaged.
[It was difficult to determine who would have been the enemy in that war, but US engagement would guarantee profits for our Defense Contractors.]

In Central America, a grouping of 'banana republics" and a hotbed of corruption, the US built up the Southern Command [SouthCom] headquarters from a Military retirement vacationland to a highly energized and blossoming combat command, focused on defeating the communist threat to Nicaragua, which Jimmy Carter had turned over to the Sandinistas by pulling support from the "evil despot", Somoza - [a West Point graduate] and allowing communist Daniel Ortega to come to power and who then ushered in the Cubans and Soviets -- who presented The Threat.

We were assigned as the Special Intelligence Advisor to SouthCom, a thinly staffed regional headquarters which could respond to any regional crisis, and watched it mushroom into a bloated, top heavy bureaucracy which justified its existence by toppling our host and ally, Noriega with a massive invasion, built a huge Military force in Honduras and El Salvador, created a war zone in El Salvador, and essentially destabilized an entire sub-continent by becoming the common enemy of all, and a seeming ally of the Drug Cartels, thanks to Bush-1, Clinton, Bush-2, and Obama.

The US militarized El Salvador, Honduras, and Costa Rica, and headquartered Army and Air Force bases in each country, and supported Panama's Noriega as a "benevolent despot", who profited by accepting payments from the KGB, the CIA, Army Intelligence, -- and the Chinese.

[We managed HUMINT programs in CentAm following a by-name request by the CIA DDO-LA [D Clarridge] and the former DCI [V Walters] to restructure both the CIA and the Military Intelligence HUMINT operations in Latin America]

Noriega was also a drug runner and arms dealer; but, then we created an intelligence program that revealed that Noriega was not just a tin-horn dictator, but masterminded a global network of hundreds of front companies through which he moved drugs, arms, and laundered money -- a sophisticated network CIA/Deep State coveted, so Noriega was declared evil, and the US invaded Panama, and the CIA took control of all the Noriega Front Companies to carry on their global, Black enterprises.

But, all that is hidden in the background, and Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria are sort of enemy strongholds, but, we're not sure who are the good guys, or the bad guys.

So, now, who will the US have to identify and combat "The "Threat"?
Afghanistan for another 10 or 15 years? or Syria, for another 10 years!

We have the highly skilled and specialized Special Forces [the Special Operations Commmand (SOCOM) designed for insertion into hostile zones to address "Terrorists".

We have a Cyber Command which theoretically can combat hacking by all our Cyber enemies, and even the Russians, if we can admit that the US targets the successor to the USSR
[the Cyber Command apparently includes Spookdblog as an enemy since they have bombarded our residences with impulse waves, hacked our cell-phones and texted Clapper's threats to us, along with excerpts of our highly classified Officer Evaluation Reports (OER)-- just to let us know they could do it.]

Notably, there are several other Unified Commands [AfriCom, SouthCom, Strategic Command, etc.,] which serve no purpose other than to create command slots for unnecessary generals and bureaucrats, and to fund NATO.

But, let's not forget the Defense contractors who provide that expensive support for our Military forces deployed in those regions. The massive expansion of our Military and Intelligence organizations under Bush and Obama have created a huge financial burden, and a bloated Military hierarchy unseen in the history of the US -- even at the peak of World War 2.

These Commands waste manpower and equipment, and create the scenarios for regional wars - usually backing the wrong elements; they augment their forces by deploying National Guard units from the US at great expense. It's time to rethink our Military from top to bottom.

Do we need to remain in Afghanistan or Syria?

Lots of senior Military officers will state adamantly that the US must live up to its commitments in both areas of operation [AO].  But, precisely what commitment is there?

1) Afghanistan: 
After 17 years, our accomplishments consist of:
   a) Trillions of dollars spent,
   b) Deployment of countless National Guard units in six month deployments barely long enough
        to familiarize them with the environment before coming under attack,
    c) Countless suicides during, and after deployments, abominable leadership, massive
        post-deployment illnesses,
    d) Assassination of US personnel by Afghan allies, and
    e) Absolutely no positive results other than protecting Poppy fields for local drug lords,
    f) Bad guys control most of the country and the Afghan Government [our Ally] controls
        a few acres
    g) Most Afghans regard us as their enemy

2) Syria:
We've only been engaged in Syria for seven years, since 2011, and here's a list of accomplishments:
   a) Roughly 500,00 people are dead
   b) Dozens of countries are involved
   c)  Many [exact number unknown] terrorist groups are involved -- on both sides
   d)  Syrian President Assad is backed by Iran and Russia [our current "enemies"] and Pakistan
   c)  Opposition to Assad includes
        (1) hundreds of "militias" from an estimated 85 countries,
        (2) Syrian Democratic Forces [Kurdish-led coalition of Arab and Kurdish Militias],
              (a) led by the Kurdish Worker's Party (PKK)
              (b) regarded by the US and the UK as a Terrorist group although the US provides
                   them air support against ISIS]
              (c) BUT, Turkey fights the Kurds fearing they will use a victory to declare an independent
                    state along the border
        (3) Miscellaneous Arabs, Sunnis, Christians, Druze, and Kurds],
        (4) Islamic extremists -- some of which have been declared terrorists,
              including the Syrian version of al Qaeda [armed by Hillary from Libyan
              military warehouses]
        (5) ISIS- supposedly local Islamic extremists, although manpower derives from a variety
              of countries including Canada, the US, Australia, Israel, the UK, Iraq, etc.
        (6) Official backing by outside nations includes the US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Turkey
       

Mr Trump has stated he will pull out of Syria, but, given the complexities listed above, he faces a great deal of opposition from Allies, the Democrats, the Pentagon, the GOP, and all those who anticipate profiting from the continuation of this conflict.

Essentially, Trump is removing his "Boots-On-The-Ground" units and still maintaining a protective shield by creating a "No-Fly-Zone" in the Northeast of Syria which is rich in Agriculture, Water, and Energy resources - the target of all the Bad Guys.

The US can remove its primary units deployed by Obama, but tactically, can still respond, as needed from other Middle East areas, or,  from the US with Special Operations units and A-10 Warthogs, the close-air support aircraft Obama was intent on eliminating.

Assuming the reports of satellite enabled weaponry [Star Wars], bad guys [if accurately identified] could be targeted and blasted into oblivion in seconds using the Directed Energy Weapons developed back in the 1970s, or lasers developed during the 1960s, now significantly enhanced, with targeting via sophisticated technology developed since then.

In the ancient words of Walt Kelly's POGO,

"We have met the enemy, and he is US!"

Trump has an uphill battle to fix this.

Brennan -- No Credentials

John, now here's what I want you to say next about Trump. 

We offer another guest post by a respected writer with the 

expertise for critical comment.

Charles Faddis is a retired CIA operations and case officer, and 
the author of “Beyond Repair: The Decline And Fall Of The CIA“.

AN OPEN LETTER TO MR. BRENNAN 
By Charles Faddis 
Published in andmagazine.com [July 24, 2018] 

Obama and his CIA Director John Brennan

Dear Mr. Brennan,

I understand that you are a political opponent of the current President of the United States.

I understand that you are an American citizen, and you have the right to freedom of speech.

I encourage you to utilize that right. I encourage you to speak your mind.

I encourage you, as I do all Americans, to be heard.

I implore you, however, to cease and desist from continuing to attempt to portray yourself in the public media as some sort of impartial critic concerned only with the fate of the republic.

I beg you to stop attempting to portray yourself as some sort of wise, all-knowing intelligence professional with deep knowledge of national security issues and no political inclinations whatsoever.




None of this is true!

You were never a spy.

You were never a case officer.

You never ran operations or recruited sources or worked the streets abroad.

You have no idea whatsoever of the true nature of the business of human intelligence.

You have never been in harm’s way.

You have never heard a shot fired in anger.


You were, for a short while, an intelligence analyst.
In that capacity, it was your job to produce finished intelligence based on basic intelligence provided to you by others.

The work of intelligence analysts is important; however in truth you never truly mastered this trade either. In your capacity as an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency, while still a junior officer, you were designated to brief the President of the United States who was, at that time, Bill Clinton.

As the presidential briefer, it was your job to read to the President, each morning, finished intelligence, written by others, based on intelligence collected by yet other individuals.
Period.

While serving as presidential briefer, you established a personal relationship with then President Bill Clinton.
End of story.

Everything that has transpired in your professional career since has been based on your personal relationship with the former President, his wife, Hillary, and their key associates.

Your connection to President Obama was, in fact, based on you having established yourself by the time he came to office as a reliable, highly political Democratic Party functionary.

All of your commentary in the public sphere is on behalf of your political patrons. 
It is no more impartial analysis than would be the comments of a paid press spokesman or attorney. You are speaking each and every time directly on behalf of political forces hostile to this President.

You are, in fact, currently on the payroll of both NBC and MSNBC, two of the networks most vocally opposed to President Trump and his agenda.

There is no impartiality in your comments.
Your assessments are not based on some sober judgment of what is best for this nation.
They are based exclusively on what you believe to be in the best interests of the politicians with whom you have long since allied yourself.

It should be noted that not only are you, most decidedly, not apolitical, but that you have been associated during your career with some of the greatest foreign policy disasters in recent American history.

As CIA Director for Barack Obama you:

1) Presided over the Iran nuclear deal, which allowed Iran to escape from decades of containment and set the Middle East on fire.

2) Watched while Russia annexed Crimea and then reestablished itself as a hostile force in the Middle East.

3) Dithered and tinkered with organizational wiring diagrams at CIA Headquarters while China annexed and fortified the entire South China Sea.




The extent to which you are tied directly to the Clintons, Barack Obama and the Democrat Party is clearly evident in the emotional nature of your recent commentary.

Ever since President Trump was elected, there has been a concerted effort to delegitimize him and destabilize him. This has been an unprecedented attempt to undermine the stability of the Republic in order to achieve partisan political advantage.

You and your patrons have been complicit in this effort and at its very heart.

Now as the Mueller investigation collapses of its own weight and the extent of this conspiracy is beginning to become clear you are in evident panic.

You should be.

You are free to do as you wish politically.
Stop representing to the American people that there is anything else at play.

You abandoned any hope of being a true intelligence professional decades ago and became a political hack.
Say so!

Meanwhile, Senator Rand Paul’s assessment of you stands:


“John Brennan started out his adulthood by voting for the Communist Party presidential candidate. He’s now ending his career by showing himself to be the most biased, bigoted, over-the-top, hyperbolic sort of unhinged director the CIA ever had.”

-----------



Ed Note:
Having served with the CIA as a Case Officer, a guerrilla advisor, and as Regional Intelligence Advisor in Asia (1970-74), and having received, among other forms of recognition, the DCI Exceptional Intelligence Analyst  Award, we feel qualified to add a few comments on Mr Brennan, based on both personal knowledge as well as feedback from colleagues in the CIA, DIA, FBI, DEA, and other IC agencies.

1) Mr Brennan first came to our attention when we observed him as the analyst at CIA's Terrorist Desk, which, at that time, was the lowest and least respected position in the analytical chain. He was then, as now, regarded as a simpleton, but, in that position, no one felt he could do harm.  His co-workers had nothing positive to say about him.  We all assumed he was a protected entity as his incompetence demanded he be fired, much the same as Bob Gates was viewed during his early years at CIA.

2) Dysfunctional and incompetent as an analyst, Brennan was inexplicably bumped up as an assistant briefer at the White House, again, presumably a position in which he could do no harm.

3) Alarm bells began going off when the professional Intelligence Community noticed he was was providing the Print Media opinion pieces on Intelligence - while a member of the Intelligence Community!  This was a first, and an appalling breach of security as well as ethics for any officer still active in the IC.

4) Still, he toadied up to Bill Clinton, who recognized Brennan as a "useful idiot", and potential tool for the future.

5) When W arrived on the scene as the new POTUS, he recognized Brennan  as a very useful tool, particularly in endorsing the bogus 9/11 scenario, pointing fingers at the IC for its failure.  Not mentioned was the fact that the precise details of the attack had surfaced in a police raid in the Philippines as well as by several other elements of the IC -- and all reports were stifled.  But, Brennan was quite willing to toady up to Bush in recounting the official version of the "attack" on the Twin Towers, in spite of the challenges to the story by highly experienced engineers who viewed the destruction of the Twin Towers as a carefully constructed "implosion".

6) And, like Bob Gates, he was well rewarded, and, without operational experience or CIA backing,  Brennan was appointed as the Chief of Station in Saudi Arabia, coordinating with the Saudi Intelligence on US Intelligence, and ignoring the threat of the Muslim Brotherhood throughout the Middle East.

7) Although young toadies feel Brennan had some credibility, experienced professionals felt that Brennan had been emplaced from Day One by the Deep State to ascend to the highest level of the CIA in order to bolster as "Intelligence Community Fact" whatever nonsense was proposed by other IC leaders.  

Notably, both Brennan and Clapper became documented perjurers while serving in their appointive positions. 

We understand both their names are on several of the 50,000+ sealed indictments which will be served up in September.  

We trust they will be comfortable in their Gitmo cells.

Time to Restructure the Intelligence Community?

[The link to this story has now been removed from the Internet]

General [ret] Mike Flynn has run up enormous legal bills defending himself against the Democrats' and Media onslaught which accused him of collusion with the Russians, bordering on Treason.

This campaign against him consisted of baseless accusations which alluded to his past international business dealings which were not illegal in his status as a private sector businessman, nor were such discussions illegal in his role as a National Security Advisor since such discussions are, and always have been, de rigueur in a diplomatic/national security scenario; or even in a Presidential Campaign scenario [Mitt Romney met with both UK and Russian Intelligence representatives in his Presidential campaign, and the Media was fully knowledgeable of those meetings -- but said nothing.

I promise to lie through my teeth
I'm protected by Hillary!

Brennan feared Flynn would recommend the dissolution of the CIA's Directorate of Operations [DO] as it had morphed into a covert, rogue "nation changing" tool of the New World Order [i.e., A Global Government], and had downgraded and essentially eliminated its Clandestine Service [NCS].   

The reformulated NCS became a rudderless, unsupervised covert operation, often using Military SpecOps units to carry out CIA missions which were unsanctioned [e.g., Benghazi], leaving many of our soldiers dead in foreign countries; the standard excuse used for these deaths was that they had committed suicide.


DIA's Clandestine Service [DCS] had displaced CIA's Clandestine Service and recruited and deployed officers with superior educations, training, Military background, and sophistication -- while CIA's case officers and Station Chiefs left a great deal, including integrity, to be desired [evidenced by Benghazi].  Brennan, an analyst, was assigned as a Station Chief as a checkmark to becoming Director of the CIA.  He was regarded by field agents as a bumbling idiot, matching his reputation as a an analyst -- but, he served Bush and Obama well as their puppet.

Perjury is in my nature, so screw you, Congressman!
I'm protected by Hillary!

 Clapper is/has been regarded as a sleaze, as we've noted in the past regarding his role as US Pacific Command J2 where he blocked our efforts at identification and recovery of US POWs still held in Vietnam during the 1980s; he nearly destroyed DIA's analysis capability as he reorganized the independent analysis divisions, abused his position as DNI Director and weaponized the DNI into a political tool, using NSA and other IC resources to undermine Flynn and Trump, and Conservative politicians using blackmail and threats against families to achieve their goals. Congress demanded his resignation based on his blatant perjury during his testimony before Congressional Committees [he did not resign until the end of the Obama Administration.  

Clapper continues to manage companies with Intelligence Community agencies which have non-compete contracts, and obscure IDIQ contracts -- all of which need to be investigated, and perhaps terminated.  We highly recommend all these contracts be terminated, and the companies and their officers/employees have their security clearances terminated -- with full disbarment from any contact with any member of the Intelligence Community.

[Following 9/11, we established the DNI [Directorate of National Intelligence] to eliminate and replace the DCI [Directorate of Central Intelligence]  since the DCI was also the Director of CIA and controlled all the IC; too much power in a single seat.] 

Both Clapper and Brennan need to be brought up on a variety of charges, not the least of which would Treason.

Illegal "Wire Taps"

Confirming that Obama ordered the NSA to spy on Trump

Editorial Update: 12-31-2020

This post was originally created with reference to the accusations made against the newly inaugurated President Trump.  At that time, having worked with the NSA for many years using their capabilities against foreign targets, we questioned these accusations, as did our colleagues from the NSA from years earlier since our recollections of NSA were of rigid adherence to legal restrictions; and deviance from those restrictions was incomprehensible.  

We did not, however, question the accusations against CIA or FBI, since we had worked alongside/inside both agencies and knew full well what criminal activity of which they were/are fully capable.

In retrospect, we witnessed, piecemeal, the crumbling of any semblance of morality in the Intelligence Community, until every accusation made against IC leadership and operatives was clearly displayed - and is now being used as evidence sufficient to completely gut the IC - to the applause of American Citizenry.

We could never imagine that our colleagues in the IC, the LEC, or DOD would join in an anti-Constitutional Coup against the President of the United States, in essence, against the Constitution and everything the US stands for.  

Now, we can not only imagine it, we have massive amounts of evidence proving these actions.

The only resolution is to put on trial all those involved, and to execute the ring-leaders for Treason.  Lower echelons must be sentenced to long prison terms, and all their assets must be seized.  The penalties for such coup activity must be so severe that the blood will run cold through the veins of those who might plan such an endeavor in the future.

In the meantime, we must rebuild our country, eliminating at least 75% of our existing bureaucracy and government unions. We must also consider eliminating both Houses of Congress, and holding new elections.  Last, sad to say, we must dismantle the Supreme Court, restaff the Justices, and perhaps place Justice Roberts on trial for, among other issues, Child Trafficking.

At the end of this post is a Trailer from the "fictional" movie: Enemy of the State.

In reality, it was extraordinarily accurate - including the demise of Clapper.

---------------------------------------Original Post-------------------------------------

We are publishing Mark Levin's summary of the illegal wiretaps as the basis for our additional commentary of the rationale for the actions of all parties.  

In short, it was clear at the time of these incidents that Mr Obama was doing all in his power to eliminate Mr Trump as a candidate, and, as the election grew closer, Mr Obama pulled out all the stops to prevent Mr Trump from winning the election.  

In so doing, Mr Obama and his Intelligence Community henchmen committed a series of illegal actions which eventually will be the basis for their arrest and prosecution.

Notably, in hindsight following the election, we have seen Mr Obama forming a self-declared Shadow Government, sponsoring violent "protests" which appear to be financed by George Soros.  Additionally, Wall Street [led b CitiBank] has so far paid Obama over $400,000 for a "speech", and it is rumored there will be another $400,000 payment coming soon for still another "speech".

As for the motivations of Mr Trump, he followed the path of all of his predecessors of both Parties in strategizing his campaign and communicating legally with all those foreign and US elements who would be impacted by both the election as well as the new Administration.

Mr Trump and was eventually made aware of the technical capabilities of illegal surveillance by NSA, and established safeguards accordingly.

[Our Editorial Comments are added in red]

Mark Levin provides this astute summary of the "illegal wiretaps"

1. June 2016: 
FISA request denied. 
The Obama administration files a request with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) to monitor communications involving Donald Trump and several advisers. 
The request, uncharacteristically, is denied.

Reason:  Trump's communications had no, repeat NO bearing on National Security, and the surveillance was clearly political, and thus illegal.


2. July 2016: 
The Russia joke. 
Wikileaks releases emails from the Democratic National Committee that show an effort to prevent Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) from winning the DNC presidential nomination. 
In a press conference, 

Donald Trump refers to Hillary Clinton’s own missing emails, joking: 
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing.” 
That remark becomes the basis for accusations by Clinton and the media that Trump invited further hacking by Russia.

Fact: The accusations were nonsense, and it was clear Trump joked about this event just as most informed Americans joke about NSA eavesdropping since it has been widely publicized by Edward Snowden, to include Methods and Sources [which were never intended to be used against US citizens.  

The NSA programs were patently illegal, and both the NSA Director and the Director of National Intelligence can still be arrested, tried, and convicted of National Security Laws, in spite of the effort by Congress and the White House to retroactively make such actions legal.


3. October 2016: 
Podesta emails. 
Wikileaks releases the emails of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, rolling out batches every day until the election, creating new mini-scandals. 

The Clinton campaign accuses Trump and the Russians of collaboration.

FACT:  There was, in no sense of the word, collusion between Trump and the Russians -- as there clearly was between Hillary and the Russians, to include her illegal sale of 20% the US uranium reserves while she was Secretary of State.
     a)  General Flynn's discussions with the Russian Ambassador were solely to 
           establish a dialog and to assure the Russians that Obama was clearly trying
           to create a crisis with his saber-rattling; however, Flynn reassured the Russian
           Ambassador that Trump regarded Obama as an idiot, and there would be no
           risk of war with Trump as President.  
      b) Flynn ws well within his rights as Trump's selected National Security Advisor 
           to conduct such discussions, as had occurred in every campaign of either 
           Party since the Cold War.

      c)  [Spookdblog, in his capacity as a senior Intelligence official met routinely with

           USSR counterparts to alleviate their concerns of potential "NATO aggression."  He served

           in the senior Intelligence capacity in NATO Able Archer Exercises in 1976 and 1983, 

           passing along warnings to USAF General Peroots that the Soviets were interpreting

          Able Archer 83 actions as the precursor to a NATO nuclear attack on the USSR - noting 

          the activation of the Soviet "Command Train", the activation of which was only conducted 

          as a final preparation for an immediate War.  

                         --  Peroots then encouraged an immediate termination of the exercise.  ]

4. October 2016: 
New FISA request. 
The Obama administration submits a new, narrow request to the FISA court, now focused on a computer server in Trump Tower suspected of links to Russian banks. 
Still, NO evidence is found 

— but Andrew McCarthy at the National Review notes that the wiretaps continue, ostensibly for national security reasons. 

FACT:  The Obama administration was now monitoring an opposing presidential campaign using the high-tech surveillance powers of the federal intelligence services.  

This was not the traditional tapping of phone systems by the FBI; instead, it was the employment of sophisticated collection of all information on Trump targeting all forms of communication, AND via electronic and imagery surveillance.  That was patently illegal under all aspects of the National Security Act.


5. January 2017: 

BuzzFedBen lost all credibility by being Obama's stooge

Buzzfeed released CNN reports, a supposed intelligence “dossier” compiled by "a foreign former British spy."

It purports to show continuous contact between Russia and the Trump campaign, and says that the Russians have compromising information about Trump. 
None of the allegations could be verified and some are proven false. 
Several media outlets claim that they had been aware of the dossier for months and that it had been circulating in Washington.

FACT: The dossier was proven to have been created at CIA under the direction of then-CIA Director Brennan


6. January 2017: 
Obama expands NSA sharing. 
Michael Walsh later notes, and as the New York Times reports, 
the outgoing Obama Administration 
“...expanded the power of the National Security Agency to share globally intercepted personal communications with the government’s 16 other intelligence agencies before applying privacy protections.” 

These new powers, and reduced protections, could make it easier for intelligence on private citizens to be circulated and/or improperly or leaked.

FACT: This action technically legitimized the actions of NSA's illegal surveillance of US citizens, making prosecution of Obama and his Intelligence henchmen difficult, but, not altogether impossible under the National Security Act of 1947. 


7. January 2017: 
The New York Times reports monitoring of Trump:
On the eve of Inauguration Day, that several agencies — the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Treasury Department are monitoring several associates of the Trump campaign suspected of Russian ties. 

Other news outlets also report the existence of 
“a multiagency working group to coordinate investigations across the government,” 
though it is unclear how the news agencies found out, since the investigations would have been secret and involved classified information.  

FACT: This reveals a leak not only of unauthorized wire-tapping/electronic surveillance, but also a violation of National Security Laws, indicating, at a minimum, complicity by former President Obama in likely directing this monitoring, but what constitutes Conspiracy, which is the basis for arrest and prosecution of all involved.


8. February 2017: 
Mike Flynn scandal.

Mike Flynn

Reports emerge that the FBI intercepted a conversation in 2016 between future National Security Adviser Michael Flynn — then a private citizen — and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. 
The intercept supposedly was part of routine spying on the ambassador, not monitoring of the Trump campaign. 

The FBI transcripts reportedly show the two discussing Obama’s newly-imposed sanctions on Russia, though Flynn earlier denied discussing them. 

Sally Yates, whom Trump would later fire as acting Attorney General for insubordination, was involved in the investigation; it is believed she was responsible for releasing the classified records to the Media -- a National Security felony.. 

In the end, Flynn resigns over the charge of having misled Vice President Mike Pence  about the content of the conversation.

FACT:  Flynn was under no obligation to inform the Vice President since his chain of command would have had him report directly, and only to Trump.  The VP, an important member of the Cabinet, has never been in that chain of command, in spite of his rank and position.  

Harry Truman, Roosevelt's VP, was never privy to FDR's State Secrets and commented that his VP position was "... not worth a bucket of warm spit!".  Flynn was likely a trap established by Trump to draw out and identify his detractors, and to demonstrate that Obama and the NSA had violated the law.

[While working for Reagan via Ambassador at Large (Vernon Walters) we frequently met with foreign dignitaries at the direction of Reagan for National Security reasons.  At the direction of Mr Reagan, Vice President Bush was intentionally left out of the loop.]


9. February 2017: 
New York Times claims extensive Russian contacts. 

NYT unable to refute its own headlines

The New York Times cited “four current and former American officials” in reporting that the Trump campaign had 
“... repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials. The Trump campaign denies the claims — and the Times admits that there is “no evidence” of coordination between the campaign and the Russians".

The White House and some congressional Republicans begin to raise questions about 
illegal intelligence leaks.

FACT:  It is clear that Obama's Intelligence chiefs were actively, and illegally  communicating with the New York Times, and had created the bogus story to impugn Trump and his staff.  

The NYT was outed as fabricating this story when two editions were compared, with a two-month gap; there is no statute of limitations in this episode, and both the authors as well as the editors will be held responsible.



10. March 2017: 
The Washington Post targets Jeff Sessions. 
The Washington Post reported that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had contact twice with the Russian ambassador during the campaign 
— once at a Heritage Foundation event and once at a meeting in Sessions’ Senate office. 

Senator Schumer [D] and Putin 
[illegal meeting?]

The WaPo suggests that the two meetings contradict Sessions’ testimony at his confirmation hearings that 
he [Sessions] had no contacts with the Russians, though in context (not presented by the Post) 
it was clear Sessions meant he had no contact with the Russians in his capacity as a campaign surrogate, 
and that he was responding to claims in the “dossier” of ongoing contacts. 

In reality, during that meeting, Sessions was performing his duty as a US senator, meeting routinely with a foreign official, as all of his predecessors had done, and as Senator [D] Shumer had frequently done in his Committee capacity.

The New York Times, in covering the story, adds that the Obama White House 
“rushed to preserve” intelligence related to alleged Russian links with the Trump campaign. 

By “preserve” it really means “disseminate”: 
as officials spread evidence throughout other government agencies 
“to leave a clear trail of intelligence for government investigators” and perhaps the media as well.

In summary: 

Ex-President Obama, while in office, violated a broad number of National Security Regulations to spy on Candidate Donald Trump; he [or his Intelligence operatives] then worked with the New York Times, the Washington Post, and CNN to disclose classified information -- or to create the illusion of Intelligence documentation of purported illicit contact between Trump and/or his staff with Russians.

The Obama administration sought, and eventually obtained, authorization via the FISA Court to eavesdrop, not through wiretap, but using NSA sophisticated espionage capabilities on the Trump campaign; 

Obama's team continued monitoring, illegally, the Trump team even when no evidence of wrongdoing was found -- a violation of the National Security Act of 1947.

Obama subsequently relaxed the NSA rules to allow evidence to be shared widely within the government, virtually ensuring that the information, including the conversations of private citizens, would be leaked to the media.

All in a bid to stop or overthrow a Trump administration.

In the post-election era, we note that former CIA Director Brennan seems to have remained in contact with his minions at the CIA, illegally discussing classified information and having access to CIA and NSA Methods and Sources to further disrupt President Trump's Administration.

We refer here to a bit of history, in which the Espionage Act of 1917 was extended by the Sedition Act of 1918, which made it a crime to "... willfully utter, print, write, or publish and disloyal, profance curious, or abusive language about the form of the Government of the United States, or ... speech and expression of opinion that cast the government in a negative light, " 
or, and this is important
to "willfully urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of production."

The Sedition Act was replaced by the Smith Act of 1940 [Alien Registration Act] which set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of the US government.

The Patriot Act of 2001, was extended by President Obama in 2011 for an additional four years, never presuming the Act could be used to monitor, surveil, and prosecute himself: 

Within the Patriot Act is a provision which will likely be used against Mr Obama and Mr Soros; it's called the National Security Letter [NSL], which authorizes the FBI to search telephone, e-mail, and financial record without a court order.  

Although the NSL has been successfully challenged in various courts, and remains in legal limbo, it would be rather fitting to have this mechanism used to investigate Mr Obama, Mr Soros, Ms Jarrett, and Hillary Clinton, who likely used this mechanism against their political enemies.


Interestingly, as of 29 April 2017,  NSA officially revised its collection practices so that it is no longer actively collecting information on US citizens, but merely through collateral collection against foreign targets.  

It all sounds good, but, thanks to NSA's politicization under Obama, can we ever trust our Intelligence services again?  

Or, did we EVER trust NSA.  

Here's a trailer from 1998 [those were Clinton years] from the movie Enemy of the State. 

     Supposedly it is fiction; knowing what you know now, is it fiction or real?

[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoNT6u3mQew ]