Exclusive: Washington’s foreign policy hot shots are flexing their rhetorical, warmongering muscles to impress Hillary Clinton, including ex-CIA acting director Morell who calls for killing Russians and Iranians, notes ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern.
By Ray McGovern
Perhaps former CIA acting director Michael Morell’s shamefully provocative rhetoric toward Russia and Iran will prove too unhinged even for Hillary Clinton. It appears equally likely that it will succeed in earning him a senior job in a possible Clinton administration, so it behooves us to have a closer look at Morell’s record.
My initial reaction of disbelief and anger was the same as that of my VIPS colleague, Larry Johnson, and the points Larry made about Morell’s behavior in the Benghazi caper, Iran, Syria, needlessly baiting nuclear-armed Russia, and how to put a “scare” into Bashar al-Assad give ample support to Larry’s characterization of Morell’s comments as “reckless and vapid.” What follows is an attempt to round out the picture on the ambitious 57-year-old Morell.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaking with supporters at a campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona, March 21, 2016. (Photo by Gage Skidmore)
I suppose we need to start with Morell telling PBS/CBS interviewer Charlie Rose on Aug. 8 that he (Morell) wanted to “make the Iranians pay a price in Syria. … make the Russians pay a price in Syria.”
Rose: “We make them pay the price by killing Russians?”
Morell: “Yeah.”
Rose: “And killing Iranians?”
Morell: “Yes … You don’t tell the world about it. … But you make sure they know it in Moscow and Tehran.”
You might ask what excellent adventure earned Morell his latest appearance with Charlie Rose? It was a highly unusual Aug. 5 New York Times op-ed titled “I ran the C.I.A. Now I’m Endorsing Hillary Clinton.”
Peabody award winner Rose — having made no secret of how much he admires the glib, smooth-talking Morell — performed true to form. Indeed, he has interviewed him every other month, on average, over the past two years, while Morell has been a national security analyst for CBS.
This interview, though, is a must for those interested in gauging the caliber of bureaucrats who have bubbled to the top of the CIA since the disastrous tenure of George Tenet (sorry, the interview goes on and on for 46 minutes).
A Heavy Duty
Such interviews are a burden for unreconstructed, fact-based analysts of the old school. In a word, they are required to watch them, just as they must plow through the turgid prose of “tell-it-all” memoirs. But due diligence can sometimes harvest an occasional grain of wheat among the chaff.
President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney receive an Oval Office briefing from CIA Director George Tenet. Also present is Chief of Staff Andy Card (on right). (White House photo)
For example, George W. Bush’s memoir, Decision Points, included a passage the former president seems to have written himself. Was Bush relieved to learn, just 15 months before he left office, the “high-confidence,” unanimous judgment of the U.S. intelligence community that Iran had stopped working on a nuclear weapon in 2003 and had not resumed work on such weapons? No way!
In his memoir, he complains bitterly that this judgment in that key 2007 National Intelligence Estimate “tied my hands on the military side. … After the NIE, how could I possibly explain using the military to destroy the nuclear facilities of a country the intelligence community said had no active nuclear weapons program?” No, I am not making this up. He wrote that.
In another sometimes inadvertently revealing memoir, At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA, CIA Director George Tenet described Michael Morell, whom he picked to be CIA’s briefer of President George W. Bush, in these terms: “Wiry, youthful looking, and extremely bright, Mike speaks in staccato-like bursts that get to the bottom line very quickly. He and George Bush hit it off almost immediately. Mike was the perfect guy for us to have by the commander-in-chief’s side.”
Wonder what Morell was telling Bush about those “weapons of mass destruction in Iraq” and the alleged ties between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. Was Morell winking at Bush the same way Tenet winked at the head of British intelligence on July 20, 2002, telling him that “the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy” of invading Iraq?
High on Morell
Not surprisingly, Tenet speaks well of his protégé and former executive assistant Morell. But he also reveals that Morell “coordinated the CIA review” of Secretary of State Colin Powell’s infamous Feb. 5, 2003 speech to the United Nations – a dubious distinction if there ever was one.
So Morell reviewed the “intelligence” that went into Powell’s thoroughly deceptive account of the Iraqi threat! Powell later called that dramatic speech, which wowed Washington’s media and foreign policy elites and was used to browbeat the few remaining dissenters into silence, a “blot” on his record.
In Morell’s own memoir, The Great War of Our Time, Morell apologized to former Secretary of State Powell for the bogus CIA intelligence that found its way into Powell’s address. Morell told CBS: “I thought it important to do so because … he went out there and made this case, and we were wrong.”
It is sad to have to remind folks almost 14 years later that the “intelligence” was not “mistaken;” it was fraudulent from the get-go. Announcing on June 5, 2008, the bipartisan conclusions from a five-year study by the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Jay Rockefeller described the intelligence conjured up to “justify” war on Iraq as “uncorroborated, contradicted, or even non-existent.”
It strains credulity beyond the breaking point to think that Michael Morell was unaware of the fraudulent nature of the WMD propaganda campaign. Yet, like all too many others, he kept quiet and got promoted.
Out of Harm’s Way
For services rendered, Tenet rescued Morell from the center of the storm, so to speak, sending him to a plum posting in London, leaving the hapless Stu Cohen holding the bag. Cohen had been acting director of the National Intelligence Council and nominal manager of the infamous Oct. 1, 2002 National Intelligence Estimate warning about Iraq’s [non-existent] WMD.
Former CIA deputy director Michael Morell.
Cohen made a valiant attempt to defend the indefensible in late November 2003, and was still holding out some hope that WMD would be found. He noted, however, “If we eventually are proved wrong — that is, that there were no weapons of mass destruction and the WMD programs were dormant or abandoned – the American people will be told the truth …” And then Stu disappeared into the woodwork.
In October 2003, the 1,200-member “Iraq Survey Group” commissioned by Tenet to find those elusive WMD in Iraq had already reported that six months of intensive work had turned up no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. By then, the U.S.-sponsored search for WMD had already cost $300 million, with the final bill expected to top $1 billion.
In Morell’s The Great War of Our Time, he writes, “In the summer of 2003 I became CIA’s senior focal point for liaison with the analytic community in the United Kingdom.” He notes that one of the “dominant” issues, until he left the U.K. in early 2006, was “Iraq, namely our failure to find weapons of mass destruction.” (It was a PR problem; Prime Minister Tony Blair and Morell’s opposite numbers in British intelligence were fully complicit in the “dodgy-dossier” type of intelligence.)
When the storm subsided, Morell came back from London to bigger and better things. He was appointed the CIA’s first associate deputy director from 2006 to 2008, and then director for intelligence until moving up to become CIA’s deputy director (and twice acting director) from 2010 until 2013.
Reading his book and watching him respond to those softball pitches from Charlie Rose on Monday, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that glibness, vacuousness and ambition can get you to the very top of U.S. intelligence in the Twenty-first Century – and can also make you a devoted fan of whoever is likely to be the next President.
‘Wisdom’ on China
For those who did not make it to the very end in watching the most recent Michael-and-Charlie show, here is an example of what Morell and Rose both seem to consider trenchant analysis. Addressing the issue of U.S. relations with China, Morell described the following as a main “negative:”
![U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry listens to Russian President Vladimir Putin in a meeting room at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, at the outset of a bilateral meeting on July 14, 2016. [State Department Photo]](https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/28029406880_95fca7320d_k.jpg)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry listens to Russian President Vladimir Putin in a meeting room at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, at the outset of a bilateral meeting on July 14, 2016. [State Department Photo]
Those who got to the end of Morell’s book had already been able to assimilate that wisdom on page 325:
“The negative side [regarding relations with China] includes the fact that … each country needs to prepare for war against each other (because our militaries are in close proximity to each other). Each plans for such a war, each trains for it, and each must equip its forces with the modern weaponry to fight it [leading] to tension in the relationship. …”
Well, Morell is at least consistent. More telling, this gibberish is music to the ears of those whom Pope Francis, speaking to Congress last September, referred to as the “blood-drenched” arms traders. Morell seems to be counting on his deep insights being music to the ears of Hillary Clinton, as well.
As for Morell’s claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin is somehow controlling Donald Trump, well, even Charlie Rose had stomach problems with that and with Morell’s “explanation.” In the Times op-ed, Morell wrote: “In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation.”
Let the bizarre-ness of that claim sink in, since it is professionally impossible to recruit an agent who is unwitting of being an agent, since an agent is someone who follows instructions from a control officer.
However, since Morell apparently has no evidence that Trump was “recruited,” which would make the Republican presidential nominee essentially a traitor, he throws in the caveat “unwitting.” Such an ugly charge is on par with Trump’s recent hyperbolic claim that President Obama was the “founder” of ISIS.
Looking back at Morell’s record, it was not hard to see all this coming, as Morell rose higher and higher in a system that rewards deserving sycophants. I addressed this five years ago in an article titled “Rise of Another CIA Yes Man.” That piece elicited many interesting comments from senior intelligence officers who knew Morell personally; some of those comments are tucked into the end of the article.
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. He served as a CIA analyst from the administration of John Kennedy to that of George H.W. Bush, and prepared the President’s Daily Brief for Nixon, Ford, and Reagan. He is a member of the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
Putin has directly and unabashedly warned NATO and U.S. forces about ABM encroachment into Russian front line theater defenses. The ability to quickly convert our weapon systems to nuclear tipped short and medium range ballistic missiles is a direct threat to Russian homeland security. Putin’s FINAL WARNING can be found here: @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPJi302nCCk.. Within five minutes of launching, these same missile batteries can hit crucial Russian military defenses. In my opinion, Putin and Xi have already agreed, if Clinton is sure to win, they will attack us, out-of-the-blue, and all of human history will be terminated over the course of a few days.
The neocons have been handed their rear end in Syria and Puttin keeps on outclassing them. If they think that Russia is like Iraq thet are fools.
Maybe the Russians will have a 52 deck of cards with their pictures on it dustributed around the world as those responsible for WW3.
Thank you Ray for the article,
If newspapers had a budget these days many of the people in the US would have better news than what drivels out of one person, and is then quoted throughout the nation as a supposed fact. Although money drives the bus, it is now driving the private jets and yachts. Welcome to the modern history of William Randolph Hearst. Higgins would probably not exist in his current form if more intelligent people were employed. I assume that as a given.
As for Morell, one less ‘L’ and he would be a mushroom and people may actually enjoy the experience of frying him up.
Is war and death really an ambition one learns in school and some military academy somewhere? Kill, Kill, Kill. What a world view.
In short though, I do wonder where people like Morell and Breedlove gestate. Since I was media and had to listen to talking heads until my own fell off, I was also surprised to hear, during the Iraq war, a general reacting to the many stories of almost 2,000 dead US soldiers in Iraq (before there were 2,000). His answer was ” It’s just a number, stop making it an issue” With that response my past experiences with the Pentagon came full face, as it was ‘Nam all over again. He said one of the most unfortunate things a person/human could say. (I don’t provide links in this invasive world, but the fact of his statement is real and he did say it.)
Breedlove is of the same cloth, using their pawns for their “games” as if it give them another medal or feather. Morell should be tossed out on his ear, and made a private in the front lines at the very least.
I’ll end with this: have you seen the propaganda commercials the military does for big events like the Super Bowl? Look closely. Large units of military hardware flying in, and all the troops are carrying AID packages. I don’t deny these things happen, but as far as I know, Russia is the only country yet who has flown in aid to Aleppo, and are now in the hundreds of aid convoys to Eastern Ukraine. Where are these stories Mr Morell? Where are Mr Morells’ stories of the mega US aid packages to keep people from starving? He has none.
As yes Ray, he gets promoted for keeping his mouth shut. What a pitiful ethic when the nation is in disrepair.
The media consistently fails by not accurately explaining the Russian point of view. Since they’ve been invaded more than we have, it only makes sense that they would be more worried about the West seizing on their territory. Why is Putin more popular at home than Obama is in the US? Because most of the Russian public is tired of being told they’re second class by Washington. Why is that so hard to understand?
Morell is just one of many current and former delusional CIA people. If the public dares to criticize them, instantly you get this shut your damn mouth! If it wasn’t for us, risking our butts on the line 24/7 to KEEP YOU SAFE, you’d be dead! Which of course justifies their sociopathic behavior.
Another one of the worst is ex CIA operative Bob Baer. I saw him on some progressive think tank forum. He actually said the ONLY WAY to save Iraq is to overthrow their govt. Then, install a dictator that we control. Nothing else will work. How much is CNN paying this guy to be a “national security affairs expert commentator”?
Morell’s patent dishonesty in denying any U.S. involvement in the Ukrainian coup is a huge red flag. Morell was casual and comfortable with lying about events that have been generally known for the past couple years. Maybe he forgot about the neocon dominatrix Victoria Nuland taking a victory lap around the Maidan in Kiev trying to hand out pastries to the people whose country she had helped steer towards civil war.
“Make Russia pay” – ?! Russia paid dearly in the war in Afghanistan. Iran paid dearly in the Iraq-Iran war. Perhaps Morell forgot the U.S. supplied weapons to the opposition in both those wars.
We Americans are so brain damaged that we tolerate politicians and allegedly retired “experts” to cheerlead *for unprovoked war* as if it is no big deal.
The Clinton Foundation/Clinton Global Initiative, the NWO?
What are the functions of these two entities around USA and the world at large? For those of you with time, patience and the desire to listen and independently arrive at your own conclusions for/against these two organizations, please do your own research. Additionally, listen to observations expressed by this young man. The whole video is interesting, but the part assessing the Foundation starts at about minutes (53:11) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FstO1eOE_YY
I, personally, have been wondering why MSM is obsessed with making sure Hillary Clinton becomes POTUS by its determination to make her the untouchable candidate!
Obama might of not created Daesh but the 2o12 DIA report notes that it was enabled. More reports also show from the recent Clinton Hitler in drag wikileaks cables that Qadaafi’e arms were being sent to Syria for that specific reason.Further more when Nato started running sorti’s in Syria it just so happenend that Daesh doubled the size of their conquest and Idlib also fell to the hands of Al -Nusra. So in around about way yes Obama did create Daesh. He ain’t no fool. Copious amount of corroborating evidence shows the hands of Brithish,French and US secret services as being major players in Daesh and Al Qaeda. Only naive sheeple would deny such facts.
I might add the recent failed coup d’etat in Turkey shows the hand of CIA and Nato complicity. The antlantacist r so brazen and blatant with their covert ops it ain’t covert anymore..
Docius in Fondem. Their is also evidence with the recent events in Aleppo that IDF,British, Us French, and German intelligence coordinating the takfiri offensive. Russian intel confirms it and has the evidence to boot. Iranians also confirm this as well. The difference between Iran and Russia they r a class act when it comes to secret services un like the antlantacist , as I mentioned their ops aint covert any more blatant and brazen. IE; Lavarov as opposed to Mr Skull and Bones himself Kerry.
There is no “Skull and Bones” conspiracy. The reason is obvious – it consists of TEENAGERS.
I’ve always found Charlie Rose to be a bit of a neo-con. PBS in general is fairly conservative, Judy Woodruff of the News Hour also has neo-con tendencies. I like Rose’s interviews with actors and scientists, but his political interviews are biased.
In the same way German concentration guards weren’t picked for their kind treatment of inmates or their abhorrence of violence CIA goons aren’t chosen for their dedication to the objectives of peace and harmony. They are selected for their mindless brutality and complete lack of empathy.
In a psychopathic pyramid the cornerstones are chosen for their blind adherence to the task of keeping the pyramidion in place whatever it takes. The bureaucratic structure that binds everyone together is staffed by passive aggressive types who leech off the system, sucking it dry. Their role is to snitch on one another to keep precarious order, and to ensure nobody more competent is allowed to take their place. They must make absolutely sure their fellows are as incompetent, or even less competent, than they themselves are. The Western banking system serves as a prime example of a fully working psychopathic pyramid on the verge of collapse.
Like mortal infections, once in place the psychpathic pyramid either ignores the deteriiorating state of its host or fails to notice it.
Unlike real pyramids, psychopathic pyramids cannot be built to last for thousands of years.
Another insane Ziocon war monger who belongs in jail.
On September 11, 2001, Michael Morell was with President George W. Bush at an elementary school in Florida as the CIA’s daily briefer.
In 2015, Morell was interviewed by Rupert Murdoch’s sockpuppet VICE News at the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California.
Morell bloviated about “the new era of terrorism”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h28iyKm2vho
I wonder if Morell is any relation to Hitler’s doctor, Theodor Morell? This may be an unfair question, but the nature of his statement begs that question. The fact that he is a chief “national security” spokesman for the harpy and is advocating extra-legal terrorism reveals the contempt of her campaign for the rule of law and common decency. Her role in supporting terrorist takeovers in Libya and Syria is documented. The Benghazi thing is as a result of her not adequately protecting her buddy, ambassador Stevens, in Libya, whose real job was to move Libyan weapons to the jihadi thugs designated by her and her acolytes to take over Syria. We still do not know the extent of Saudi support and bribery for the Clinton foundation, and Hillary’s main squeeze, Huma Abedin, has been implicated as having Saudi sympathies. The miasma of death and corruption emanating from the Clintons and their campaign is palpable. Should they succeed, the last vestiges of legitimacy will be rent from the yankee imperium.
Your opening question is idiotic, eom.
Bill Clinton married the Muslim Abedin to a junk Tweeting Jewish Weiner in July 2010.
The junk Tweeting Jewish Weiner resigned his seat in Congress in June 2011, and lost his campaign for mayor of New York City in 2013.
The Muslim Abedin and the junk Tweeting Jewish Weiner remain as married as the Clintons, and the marriage of Saudi Muslim and Israeli Jewish support and bribery for the Clinton foundation continues apace.
“Weiner […] has not worked for peace but has rather given knee-jerk support to the worst policies of the most far rightwing parties in Israel toward Palestinians. A social liberal in American terms, Weiner is so blinded by his allegiance to Israel and so studied in his ignorance of the Middle East that he has played a uniformly sinister role in that aspect of foreign policy.
Top Ten Things Anthony Weiner has Said that are Worse than Sexting
By Juan Cole
http://www.juancole.com/2011/06/top-things-anthony-weiner-has-said-that-are-worse-than-sexting.html
Mention here of Huma Abedin provokes me into pointing out that her real liability to Hill & Billary Clinton may well prove to be in the final reckoning not so much her connection with Saudi Arabia, where she spent a big chunk of her early life, but with the Gulenist sect of the Imam Fethullah Gulen — i.e., all those many, many followers in Turkey, and all those scattered & clustered in the US. For it was certainly this Huma who brokered over time a close donor/benefactor relationship between the Gulenists and the Clintons, whose campaigns and Foundation thereby benefited to the tune of millions of bucks. As probably most readers here will be well aware, the Turkish government implicates the Gulenists (along with members of the CIA, of the US military, and of NATO) as the authors of the bloody coup that never was — and I might here take the liberty of asserting that its claim has a lot more merit than, out of a widespread ignorance of modern Turkish political, cultural, religious, and social history, most in the western world are able to appreciate. In any case, to cut to the chase, this much is damn sure — that, under an Erdogan government, Turkey will never accede to any pressure whatsoever from an HRC government given Hill and Billary’s long-standing relationship with the Gulenists; and, hence, for better or worse, that NATO would likely be doomed to disintegrate, at least at its south-easternmost flank.
“Connections between Clinton and acolytes of the imam, Fethullah Gulen, could muddle the complex relationship between the U.S. and Turkey, a key NATO ally, if the former secretary of state wins the White House.
“Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has mounted an aggressive crackdown against Gulen and his followers, known as Gulenists. Erdogan, who was once allied with Gulen, has even personally asked President Obama to extradite the 74-year-old guru”
New Ties Emerge Between Clinton And Mysterious Islamic Cleric
By Chuck Ross
http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/13/new-ties-emerge-between-clinton-and-mysterious-islamic-cleric/
Get mind blown @ YouTube, hot off the griddle from Sibel Edmonds:- “Wikileaks, Hillary-Gulen Intimate Ties & How Clintons Gave Birth to Mullah Gulen’s Terrorist Network” (27 mins.)
It is with some trepidation that I disagree with someone like Ray McGovern.
But here goes.
“Perhaps former CIA acting director Michael Morell’s shamefully provocative rhetoric toward Russia and Iran will prove too unhinged even for Hillary Clinton.”
One would have to say that I consider that nothing is too unhinged for the “unhinged” next President of the USA, Clinton. Yes. She’ll fill the post as her only opposition is a man that is patently unqualified for the role, something of a buffoon. But even he could have been controlled given the right advisers and supported by public opinion. Even in America, buffoons seldom win, with the odd exception of course, Bush still not indicted for his crimes against humanity.
But as for that criminal woman, her election will see her viewing that electoral mistake by the people of the USA as a confirmation of all she represents. Israel will by virtue of her appointment, rule the world, the NWO given a free pass to do what it wants to do and the third World War will arrive within 12 months of her succession. Count on it.
A choice of bombing Iran with the US under the orders of Israel assisted by the world’s #1 purchaser of US arms and weapons, Saudi Arabia, going along for the ride and the little UAE bringing up the rear. I think they will have some difficulty to encourage France and Germany to go along, but the UK will be there, boots and all. They just can’t help themselves
So nothing is ruled out with the Clinton woman, take my word for it, plans already in place and you can count on that. No need even for a false flag or a collection of lies like WMD,
Any USA voter who considers she is the lesser of two evils is living in dreamland. There is always the chance of another blood clot, however. Down on your knees, everyone.
.
One is challenged to dispute anything stated above, Rex but I would be much more inclined to see the 30 odd NATO /US controlled missile bases surrounding Russia as the trigger for WW III, all under the command of a warlike NATO management team but dancing to a US tune who in turn are being manipulated as like a puppet by the money men in America and then from Israel.
It’s all perfectly clear.
Israel is the protagonist, no doubt about that one. What a pity it is that John Kennedy didn’t get the chance to implement an inspection schedule of the Israeli nuclear weapons program. at Dimona. Well there are Americans still alive today who know the real story there, don’t you think? Suffice to say that Kennedy’s successor, the Israeli compromised Johnson, removed that as a possibility not long after.
So all we really need to have is an “on-purpose” accident in any of those 30 sites with more to come, of course for a retaliation from Russia, justifiably so, against the warmongers of NATO / USA
One doesn’t have to be a genius to come up with many possibilities for the trigger and when added to the literally thousands of grovelling public servants anxious to please another US misfit president, the world is your oyster, and how.
Neocons by the thousands, still alive and doing their unpatriotic thing. Pseudo Americans.
Keep your eye out for the first breaking story in one of Murdoch’s publications, if Rupert is still around then, his age and personal lifestyle these days may preclude that as a possibility.
There are no neocons or liberal interventionists seeking inspection of the Israeli nuclear program.
They do not wish to “pay a price”.
ILLEGAL: U.S. AID TO CLANDESTINE NUCLEAR POWER (ISRAEL)
Abe, please share news of lawsuit filed by Grant Smith, director of the Institute for Research: Middle East Policy (IRMEP) challenging US “aid” to Israel. Was this case even reported in MSM?
http://mondoweiss.net/2016/08/lawsuit-clandestine-nuclear/
Lawsuit aims to block U.S. foreign aid to Israel as clandestine nuclear power –
http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/08/10/on-eve-of-aid-boost-researcher-flags-israels-clandestine-nukes.htm
” U.S. aid to Israel violates a long-standing ban on giving foreign aid to clandestine nuclear powers, the director of a Middle East policy nonprofit claims in a federal complaint.”
Let’s remember that the whole “whack Russia” and keep NATO alive madness began under Bill Clinton, egged on by the #2 at State, Strobe Talbot, who gave Victoria Nuland her start in her rise to Regime Changer. Seems very likely that Hillary would continue Bill’s effort. “The Russians Are Coming!”
Well, maybe a little nuclear winter will help her do something about global warming, as there are no signs that she actually has any intention of reining in the fossil fuel powers.
What is the difference between killing Russians in Syria now and what the US did to the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980’s?! Morell is not that brilliant, he is just picking from the same toolbox………..The US does not come up with new stuff when it comes to playing its dirty games……here are some keywords:
– Containment.
– Proxy Wars.
– Coups to overthrow governments.
– Assassinations.
– Economic Hitmen.
– Outright invasions, if all of the above fail………..
The United States is so very rich with sentient, erudite, intelligent, incisive, conscientious, and honest-to-goodness folk — I have in mind any number whom I get to see regularly on rt.com, therealnews.com, http://www.democracynow.org, and TheYoungTurks (TYT) such as, coming right off the top of my head: Phyllis Bennis, Bill Black, Jill Stein, Michael Hudson, Rosario Dawson, Glenn Greenwald, Lori Wallach, Edward Harrison, Abby Martin, Jesse Ventura, Amy Goodman, Max Blumenthal, Nomi Prins, Cornell West, Ana Kasparian, Stephen Cohen, Jesslyn Radack, Chris Hedges, et cetera. How then can it be that the nation’s destiny has fallen into the hands of a bunch of treacherous ignoramuses, morons, liars, and incorrigible maniacs — the likes of Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Dianne Feinstein, James Clapper, Deborah Wasserman Schultz, Michael Morell, et cetera? And this by far from the first time: cf. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, etc., just to start with. This is all so deeply depressing — even to me, speaking as a foreigner.
Geoffrey de Galles, could we both assume that without all those bad Americans you have mentioned within your comment are the reason why these good Americans you sight exist? I’m not making a justification for America having such creeps as you named hold such high public positions is a good thing, but what I’am inferring is without these sorry excuses for human beings, well then there would be no reason to have an equalizing voice to rebut these right wing nut jobs.
America’s media has produced Americans who are either brainwashed with the media’s 24/7 propaganda, or the many other turned off Americans who are just fed up with the whole system, and quit trying. This years presidential election showed proof that there are many independent minded Americans who are just flat out tired of the business as usual crowd which prevails inside our American government.
Most of us Americans are just like you. Where there is a problem, is where there are Americans who don’t see any resemblance to you what so ever, and that’s where we all go down the slippery slope. Yes, America has too many of it’s citizens who think that we are the indispensable exceptional ones. Just remember there are quite a few of us others who only want to wish you, and all the rest of the people on this planet, all the very best this life as to offer.
Wouldn’t it be nice if one day all of us Americans could get together with the rest of the world’s population, and for once and for all rid our governments of these creepy warmongers who hurt so many a long their way?
Thanks so much JT for the rejoinder, which I greatly appreciate. Mind, my comment was essentially an open lament that all the scumbags & douchebags, rather than all the honest-to-goodness, should, by now for so very long, have had the upper hand. I am 68 and have long, long been a misanthrope, but always so in the hope of an epiphany — to have to realize that humanity is not such a bad lot, after all. The way things are going, though, I guess I shall just have to die disappointed. — Thanks again for your thoughts in the sincere hope that your own optimism will one day cash out, even if by then I shall be long dead & gone.
That makes two of us. Take care my friend.
The ultimate cause of the right wing revolution against democracy in the US, is that the US failure to regulate economic power ensured that the bully boy, who rises in business due to his lack of moral restraint, inability to satisfy his greed, and lust to tyrannize others, controls the mass media and elections, and thereby the government. But the cause goes further back to the ascendancy of commercial interests in Europe resulting in colonialism. And of course back to human selfishness as the driving force of the disaster we call world history.
The surprise is that the US Constitutional Convention could not see the consequences of its failure to protect the institutions of democracy from economic concentrations. They were busy with other considerations, and there were no economic concentrations then, beyond small ships and their own plantations.
That the exuberantly emerging middle class of 1870-1930 did not see the problem, or did not have the courage to organize opposition, is not surprising because they were already under the economic tyranny of the workplace, and the press was already largely controlled by oligarchy. Labor organization was already militantly opposed, and the power to halt the right wing revolution by economic power was already absent.
These type of big mouth, braindead redneck personalities like Morell seem to be the profile of the CIA. That’s the type of person who implements killing contract for the Clinton’s
Charlie Rose under the influence:
CIA
Michael Morell – 24 Appearances
https://charlierose.com/guests/5144
https://charlierose.com/guests/5260
David Petraeus – 10 appearances
https://charlierose.com/guests/2467
Leon Panetta – 6 appearances
https://charlierose.com/guests/226
Michael Hayden – 7 Appearances
https://charlierose.com/guests/4418
George Tenet – 1 Appearance
https://charlierose.com/guests/4393
NSA
Susan Rice – 6 Appearances
https://charlierose.com/guests/6497
Condoleeza Rice – 6 Appearances
https://charlierose.com/guests/998
Thomas Donilon – 14 Appearances
https://charlierose.com/guests/5206
Stephen Hadley – 6 Appearances
https://charlierose.com/guests/3776
Zbigniew Brzezinski – 27 Appearances
https://charlierose.com/guests/18
Henry Kissinger – 74 Appearances
https://charlierose.com/guests/131
WOW … thanks for the post.
LOL. Thanks.
Iambic couplets are not quite precocious, but sometimes the news warrants something done quick,
I’m sure that the Rose interview went just swell, Charlie’s avid proponents all fall for that schtick.
I find him atrocious, impossibly posed, pretending concern orchestrated to sell-
Limp-witted dolts should be able to tell, but surprisingly few ascertain what they smell.
I have a friend who stays right on his toes, news items much smaller than fly excrement,
Any small speck he detects and it shows, discussing the issues he’s quite eloquent.
One day he exclaimed that Kim Jung would attack, an imminent launch with the missiles on track,
He heard it on TV from old Charlie Rose, I was shocked that he bought anything from that flack.
Raytheon missile defense was at stake, and Charlie appeared to be in on the take-
Stoking up fear would help fatten the budget, defense contract profits awaited the rake.
I just couldn’t watch him with Michael Morell, having already read about those revelations-
Bated breath Charlie was under the spell cast by war crime proposals on sovereign nations.
If he had leaned closer, then Michael could smell, that look of concern emanates from a drink.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got sorrows to drown, but I’m not in the loop to a nuclear brink.
Seeing Mike’s picture, I happened to think, imagining cabinet staff attributes,
He’d get a seat between Flournoy and Nuland, Power would model her new riding boots.
Hillary might, just for giggles and toots, have a riding crop ready should incentive serve.
Mike would be wearing a saddle and bridle, decorum demands he’d wear briefs to preserve,
Maybe a tight fitting Speedo would offer advantage to someone who’s wiry and youthful.
Vacuous, vapid and glib not withstanding, I wonder if spurs and a crop make him truthful.
It’s a good thing he said, “Don’t let them know it,” the Russians could get just a little suspicious.
Michael is cunning but never would show it, he prefers OPSEC to deeds meretricious-
That doesn’t rule out a gluteal kiss, and a bridle and bit are security measures.
Wearing those he could manage state secret endeavors and still offer useful executive pleasures!
F.G. I always enjoy reading your intelligent comments, but next time please spare us the mental images you have conjured up with this comment. Hillary with a riding crop, and Morell wearing a speedo, is just too much. Now, I’m going to watch something to get my mind off of what you planted in my brain, maybe a boa swallowing a alligator would help.
Come on, Joe, I know an old Navy vet like you can handle it! I’ve seen a lot worse in fan rooms and on mess decks than that – and I’m not talking about chow here, either! Cheers!
You are right I have seen much worst. What does make me happy is that picturing Hillary and Mikey the way you did it didn’t turn me on. That’s a relief, because if it had I would have scheduled an appointment to get some therapy, that’s for sure.
Definately stay away from Bill Hicks (RIP) talkimg about Rush Libaugh then….
https://youtu.be/YxzxmQykQ4s
Dada Circus porn.
Morell will soon confess on Charlie Rose: “I’m going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”
I was surprised Mr. McGovern wrote this: “Such an ugly charge is on par with Trump’s recent hyperbolic claim that President Obama was the “founder” of ISIS.”
During the 2nd or 3rd presidential debate with Kerry, Barack Obama stated that he was following Israeli guidance on Syria. The Israelis want Syria torn up in a civil war, and have been quietly supporting the Islamists. The war itself may have been started by an attack on Syrian forces by some mercenaries. According to Cynthia McKinney, some general, I forget which, has stated that the U.S. created ISIS through a third country. Trump’s claim may be coming from Flynn and not his own imagination.
Edward you bring up an interesting aspect to where Trump gets his off the cuff talking points. Do you recall Trump’s mentioning of the ‘Dancing Arabs in the streets of New York’, were the Arabs in his version Israeli agents? Did the Donald gets this all mixed up? Actually I think when Trump does get some of his foreign policy points to an almost coherent point, I too wonder to if Trump got some of this from Flynn. My hope is that the Donald doesn’t destroy the good ideas he brings up, by having the media downplay his arguments to the point of irrelevance. Trust me, the MSM will assure they throw the baby out with the bath water, and that will be a great loss to say the least.
If you connect the dots, you’ll recall the fake story of Assad gassing his own people and Obama being ready to attack Assad for the Ziocon war mongers. However, as the story fell apart over the weekend, Obama did not attack and referred it to congress and they did nothing. Then, out of the blue we see these brand new Toyota trucks and ISIS is introduced to us and the next thing we know is a Ziocon monster named Rita Katz is finding ISIS video after video to terrorize us. The next thing people who study instead of listening to the MSM realized is the CIA was behind ISIS and their goal was still “regime change” and the overthrow of Assad. And, if Putin had not stepped in to stop the insanity, they most likely would have turned Syria in more of a failed state than they’ve already made it. So why are they doing it? Google Ziocon urban dictionary. Yep, they’re working for one thing: The Greater Israel Project and the ISIL map of the Levant is the same as the Greater Israel. So the CIA uses ISIS to create the Levant, pulls the plug on ISIS and they go away, and presto, The Greater Israel is born. Sadly they have introduced “mass migration as a weapon of war” into the equation and their insanity is spreading to Europe and Obama wants to bring thousand here too. Trump calls it a Trojan Horse.
Today we see the Ziocon media attacking Trump like we’ve never seen anyone attacked before and, if they dispose of Trump and Hillary is their puppet, they’ll start WW3 with Russia because they’re insane and people like Mike Morrell will lead the charge. Today the USA is a CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE and Trump may be the last chance “we the people” have to get our country back from the thieves.
So is Obama the FOUNDER of ISIS? Yep! http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/video-isis-terrorist-admits-we-are-being-funded-by/
Bill,
Well said. As I read it I already “intuited” your closing issue, but it is worth repeating your whole comment:
“… glibness, vacuousness and ambition can get you to the very top of U.S. intelligence in the Twenty-first Century and in many other high offices. It worked in previous centuries so it is not surprising the 21st is no exception. This formula helps to explain the Peter Principle about people rising to their levels of incompetence – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle.”
So far, as you yourself knew, so good. But what about people who are trying to rise above their former level of incompetence? As you say,
… glibness, vacuousness and ambition can get you to the very top of U.S. intelligence in the Twenty-first Century and in many other high offices. It worked in previous centuries so it is not surprising the 21st is no exception. This formula helps to explain the Peter Principle about people rising to their levels of incompetence – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle.”
I’m thinking of why your question is relevant, even if in good fun: “We now appear to need an updated Peter Principle to explain how people continue to rise well beyond their first stages of incompetence.”
I have a real life example in mind and I know that, oftentimes, in trying to uncover some operative principle, having an example in mind helps. First, though, let’s keep the example “abstract.”
Imagine Peter teaches mathematics in high school. He does alright, but that’s about all. Now, suddenly, he gets “promoted to the junior college” because the math teacher at that level wins the lottery and quits.
Everyone, especially the students, know that Peter has been promoted beyond his level of competence. He messes up the problems he tries to solve in class, he doesn’t grade the papers in a punctual manner, and, fully aware that he’s functioning at a level of incompetence, he falls into a serious depression which only makes him less able to even function at a level of incompetence. Yet he is ambitious, enjoys the higher salary, and wonders if he can be promoted even higher.
Then it happens. The graduate school’s mathematician dies suddenly and his courses need to be covered. The only person standing is Peter. So he goes from a bad level of incompetence (say, minus 6) to a significantly worse level, a minus twelve.
This came about because he wasn’t assessed as a person with skills, but rather as a placeholder without skills but with the identify designation, “mathematician.” A placeholder was needed. There was no opportunity to examine the skills of individuals so up popped “mathematician.”
That sounds pretty good to me. Now we go from the fictitious to the incompetent. When Hillary Clinton was made Secretary of State it is obvious fairly soon that she was functioning at a level of incompetence. She screwed up every country with which she was associated. For example, she single-handedly destroyed Libya. She failed to protect an ambassador and three other Americans and they died. But she was a special kind of placeholder: woman with international experience and former first lady, or WWIEAFFL for short. We’d had a black president and so, many thought, it was time for a woman president.
While there are several women of courage and insight who could have been pushed into the public domain at the presidential level, there was a ready-to-go WWIEAFFL who also had the DNC behind her.
So there we are, the placeholder theory, and that’s why the Democrates have a candidate, Clinton, who is way above her level of incompetence and also cannot possibly win. What do you think, Bill? I think we can generalize the theory and then apply it: let “PLHD” represent “placeholder” and then insert where needed.
What do you think Bill??? Have we answered the question of how someone arises to their first level of incompetence and then, not unexpectedly, can rise to an even higher level of incompetence?
RAY RAY RAY RAY, I would like to communicate with you about a characteristic of Hillary Clinton that I have reason to believe you know more about than you realize. Would you please email me at my “Consortium email address”? I will email you back with my thoughts about the characteristic. If you do recall something of interest, we have a good topic we can work on together.
The email: [email protected]
Remember the Fields of Athenry!!!!
Are you sure these are screw ups! Maybe that’t the plan all along.
Bart: Your placeholder theory demonstrates one path for an incompetent’s progress, but human nature’s capacity for innovation means there are and will continue to be others. There is the token minority option that allows some people to move up on the organization chart because supervisors fear being accused of prejudice. I recall several instances before I retired. One of the problems with this route is that the promoted incompetent tarnishes others in his or her group where there are probably more qualified people that should be promoted.
Morell states this as if it would be a new policy. Are we pretending that rebels in N.W. Syria around Aleppo don’t have U.S. made weapons? Every single Russian helicopter (a total of at least 3), including one shot down by ISIS has been downed by a U.S. made TOW missile. These weapons have either been directly supplied by the U.S. to CIA backed ‘moderate’ rebels or indirectly by selling them to Saudi Arabia and Turkey and then distributed to radical Islamists (a favorite Republican catch phrase).
So U.S. made weapons have already killed Russians and Iranians. We have also provided support for Turkey’s continued intervention in Syria which has certainly killed even more. So what is new here.
Naked Gun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NNOrp_83RU
Despite all of the stuff that the USA has done to Russia in recent years, if the Olympics were in Moscow I KNOW that the USA Olympians would not be dis invited. It seems that it is the USA that needs a lesson in international manners, not Russia. And as far as athletic doping goes, Russia does not have a monopoly on it. In 1980 the USA boycotted the Olympics in Russia because of the Soviet Union’s occupation of Afghanistan. In 1984 the Soviet Union boycotted the Los Angeles Olympic games. It’s a shame when an athlete’s hard life work and dreams to win at the Olympics takes a back seat to petty politics!
From what I can recall of the Morell-Rose interview, Morell surmised how Vladimir Putin was smart enough to ‘play’ on Trump’s ego. That by lavishing praise upon the Donald would bring the billionaire around to become Putin’s puppet. (I don’t think Morell used the word puppet, but it was heavily implied) What Morell did state was how Russia had downed Flight MH17, and among many other crimes against humanity Putin invaded Crimea. Morell went on to explain how we should start killing Russians, Iranians, and Syrians covertly. You know, kill these people so only they would know who was behind these murders he described, but leave the general public clueless. That is where I thought of how clueless the public would be, that if one would question these murders then one would become a conspiracy nut of the first order. This guy is dangerous, and I came away after watching his interview with Rose that his interview was nothing more than a job interview for our soon to become president Queen of Chaos.
Here is a link to all of Morell’s Charlie Rose interviews;
https://charlierose.com/guests/5144
I have watched this man on CBS, how he talks, what he says, his body language and came to the confusion he is a mental case. Would you imagine man like this will have the power to make decisions and act against humanity? He is worse than an animal, and needs to be thrown in a cage. That should have been done a long time ago by holding him responsible for all the mystery Iraqi people had to go through; we destroyed that country and keep annihilating the ME. What is wrong with us? Are we nuts? Why we the American people are so passive?
I know how you feel. What I saw was a man applying for the job of CIA Director. His body language that you referred to Peter, was a man screaming out, ‘Hillary can you hear me’. What I can’t understand is how convert his kill plan can remain convert, since he brought it up on national tv. In fact, could Morell have ruined his chances with Hillary, by his sounding so demented. Either way, our government diplomatic corp is over staffed with nuts like Morell, and that’s not good.
We are passive due to the lack of a military draft and of an Endless War surtax.
Bart your comment is timely for me, since I just finished reading Andrew J Bacevish book ‘Breach of Trust’ (the short title). Your comment falls within the perimeters of what Bacevich talks about. It would be good if every American would serve a couple years in some capacity for our government. There is to much of a disconnect in it’s present form.
What do you expect? The Ziocon war mongers have turned the USA into a criminal enterprise. If Killery beats Trump, it will get even worse.
… glibness, vacuousness and ambition can get you to the very top of U.S. intelligence in the Twenty-first Century
and in many other high offices. It worked in previous centuries so it is not surprising the 21st is no exception. This formula helps to explain the Peter Principle about people rising to their levels of incompetence – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle.
We now appear to need an updated Peter Principle to explain how people continue to rise well beyond their first stages of incompetence.
Speaking of sychophants, Morell’s dual tenure as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency bookended the illustrious service of a certain ass-kissing little chickenshit.
America is all in with Al-Qaeda thanks to yet another CIA Yes Man.
It’s my belief ISIS would cease to exist if we got rid of the CIA.
The problem is the CIA, and intell in general, along with DEA, are their own shadow governments and profiteers.
They have operations that make them self funding. CIA owns many companies, and the DEA has a monopoly on world drug trafficking.
Powell later called that dramatic speech, which wowed Washington’s media and foreign policy elites and was used to browbeat the few remaining dissenters into silence, a “blot” on his record.
Christopher Hitchens held the opinion that Colin Powell was the most over-rated man in Washington, so it is a good bet Powell has lots more “blots” on his record beginning with his role in the My Lai report, if not sooner.
Exactly, Bill. Thanks for the reminder…
Powell was also Casper Weinberger’s # 1 aide … and nothing got to Weinberger that didn’t go through Powell … ie … he was up to his neck in the Iran/Contra scandal too … read the Walsh Report on Iran/Contra.
The Neocon Times has a fluff job about both Morell and Clinton.
Yeah, I’ll bet that’s exactly what they did. Nerf balls tossed by 2-year-olds would have been harder hitting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/12/opinion/q-a-michael-j-morell-on-his-clinton-endorsement.html?_r=0
Years ago a relative won a small color TV in a dealer’s contest. When he went to pick it up, the man there remarked they’d had to draw nearly a dozen time before they found a ‘winner’ who had purchased something there. That would be about the level of the question selections of the Neocon Times.
This lowers the Times to the level of “Der Stuermer”, the Nazi rag whose editor was convicted of war crimes in Nuremberg. They’ve gone beyond Pravda, which,though propandistic, did not, as far as I remember, advocate devious murders as Morell’s statement does.
The CIA needs to have their funding cut .. they may be OBSOLETE .. we don’t need them overthrowing governments.
The CIA has always been surplus to requirements – a dangerous, potentially lethal “luxury” that the USA cannot afford. Even President Eisenhower, on whose watch the CIA was first created, felt that it was most unwise to give an “intelligence” agency the right and the wherewithal to conduct “operations”. Hardly any other nation has ever combined those two entirely separate functions within a single organization, for very good reasons. But as the CIA was largely founded by bankers and lawyers (under the sterling guidance of the lovely Dulles bothers) it probably was a tail that wagged the US government from the very start. Eisenhower was doubtful about it, and his successor Kennedy decided to abolish it. And we know what happened to him.
“Even President Eisenhower, on whose watch the CIA was first created, . . .”
The CIA was started in 1947 with the passage of the National Security Act, under President Harry Truman. Truman later regretted this decision!
http://fredoneverything.org/hillary-trump-and-war-with-russia-the-goddamdest-stupid-idea-i-have-ever-heard-and-i-have-lived-in-washington/
What goes around, comes around.
Other agencies also have the sycophancy problem, and in fact both demagogue candidates are sycophants like Morrell, the tools of oligarchy seeking power via campaign bribes via Israel via US aid, to betray the People of the US at their own expense. This is the ancient racket of right wing tyranny, to create waves of fear and ride them to power, posing as false protectors and accusing their opponents of disloyalty. The AIPAC oligarchy owns them all and wins both ways, claiming that Trump is an agent of Putin even while Trumpeting that Obama sin laden founded ISIS, just as it wins by arming Al Qaeda, subverting Turkey, and claiming that the only secular government of the region “must go” to secure Democracy™, meaning more thefts for Israel.
All of this has destroyed democracy in the US, and ruined its security at its own expense, all in the name of the flag and bigshots beyond the clouds. Long live war by economic power.