In this memo, VIPS tells the news media that the revocation of John Brennan’s security clearance is falsely being portrayed as an assault on the freedom of speech of the deeply flawed, former CIA director.
August 29, 2018
TO: The Media
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
SUBJECT: Support for Brennan Far From “Unanimous”
As former members of the intelligence community, we feel compelled to add our voice to the public debate surrounding President Trump’s revocation of former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance. This action is being falsely portrayed as an assault on Mr. Brennan’s right to free speech.
We note that some of our former colleagues, a number of whom have held prominent intelligence posts, joined the protest against the President’s actions — a phenomenon that provides stark reminder that the United States intelligence community is not a monolith but rather a collection of diverse individuals with a range of opinions on many issues, including what is right and wrong, We the undersigned veteran intelligence professionals agree with President Trump’s decision to strip Mr. Brennan of his clearance.
We also note with irony that several of the former officials protesting the President’s action have themselves been associated with significant misconduct. David Petraeus, who was convicted of sharing highly classified material with his mistress/biographer, is a case in point. As experienced intelligence officers, we believe security clearances should be granted as a sacred trust and not simply a permanent entitlement that comes with a high level job.
Anyone who has read VIPS memos knows we have often expressed opposition to this President’s actions — as we have to those of previous Presidents — on important substantive issues when the intelligence was faulty.
The issue for us is broader than the clearances of Mr. Brennan. We are appalled by the willful misreading by pundits and much of the media of the nature of security clearances. They are certainly not a constitutionally protected right, but a highly conditional privilege. Its granting comes with personal acceptance of restrictions on speech and association: among other things obligating one-time holders to a lifetime pre-publication review of writings that rely on information acquired in performing their official duties.
All of us signed secrecy agreements and accepted the burden of holding a clearance. We surrendered a part of our assumed right to free speech in service of our country’s welfare and safety. Those of us under cover kept secrets from family and friends. We no longer associated freely with foreign nationals; an active clearance carries the requirement to report contacts with them.
Moreover, security classification is provided by Executive Branch authority and is expressed with orders that are subject to change at the will of the current president (the exception to this being the so-called “Q” clearance established by law to protect nuclear weapons secrets, though this is also subject to presidential authority in granting or withdrawing clearance). Federal judges do not have automatic security clearances. Nor do members of Congress. They have access to secret information by virtue of their constitutional office and a presumed “need to know” in order to do their job.
Once a person separates from the intelligence community they can continue to hold a clearance provided they are employed as a contractor working on specific classified programs. There is simply no basis in law entitling anyone to permanent clearance. This includes John Brennan. It goes without saying that individuals who are granted continued clearance out of courtesy to their former high position remain accountable in their conduct, and that the Executive can revoke such clearances at will.
Mr. Brennan’s own record is clearly tarnished. When he was Chief of Station in Saudi Arabia prior to and after the bombing of Khobar Towers in June of 1996, rather than uphold the integrity of existing intelligence he went along with the decision to avoid creating problems with the Saudis. After the attack (which was carried out by Saudi elements linked to Bin Laden and Al Qaeda), Brennan helped push the meme that the culprits were Iran and Hezbollah.
As head of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center in 2003, Mr. Brennan failed to give the State Department complete statistics for terrorist attacks. The initial publication of “Patterns of Global Terrorism” in April 2004 touted a decline in terrorist attacks in 2003 as vindication of Bush Administration policies. The publication later had to be recalled and revised when it was discovered that the CIA had left out a month and a half of data. John Brennan was in charge of that process. Instead of receiving a reprimand, however, he ended up being promoted.
Mr. Brennan has assumed the role of passive spectator in building the fraudulent case to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He has claimed only vague awareness of the CIA’s so-called “enhanced interrogation” program. Physical records tell a different story. Brennan was “cc-ed” on “a minimum of 50 memos” dealing with waterboarding and other torture techniques. Senator Saxbe Chambliss noted that Brennan’s boss, A. B. “Buzzy” Krongard, told the Wall Street Journal that Mr. Brennan had a role in setting the parameters of the program and “helping to seek Justice Department approval for the techniques.”
Mr. Brennan also attempted to cover up the truth about the CIA torture. Senator Mark Udall denounced his actions in a floor speech on December 10, 2014, the day after the Senate Intelligence Committee published the Executive Summary of the conclusions of its four-year investigation of CIA torture based on original CIA documents. The investigation not only revealed almost unbelievably heinous practices, but also demonstrated that senior CIA officials were untruthful in claiming that “enhanced” techniques produced actionable intelligence that could not have been obtained by traditional interrogation practices. With strong support from President Obama, Brennan, who was the CIA Director, aggressively fought publication of the Senate report. Here’s Senator Udall:
“The CIA has lied to its overseers and the public, destroyed and tried to hold back evidence, spied on the Senate, made false charges against our staff, and lied about torture and the results of torture. And no one has been held to account. … There are right now people serving at high-level positions at the agency who approved, directed, or committed acts related to the CIA’s detention and interrogation program.”
Mr. Brennan is now publicly insisting that Russia meddled in the 2016 election. What, however, was CIA Director Brennan saying when the alleged Russian meddling was taking place? Did he warn President Obama? Did he warn the leaders of the Congress? According to press reports Mr. Brennan did brief Democrat Senator Harry Reid on ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government and Reid then wrote FBI Director James Comey demanding an investigation. However, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee has said he was not given the same briefing as Senator Reid. Introducing the weight of national intelligence into partisan politics, as Mr. Brennan appears to have done in his official capacity, is forbidden activity.
We have all held clearances and deeply believe in the importance of intelligence officers conducting themselves with professional integrity, particularly with regard to remaining unentangled in party politics. VIPS is comprised of men and women of highly diverse political views, from Republican to Democrat to Independent. We agree on one thing: when a professional intelligence officer obtains classified information they accept an obligation to appropriately report facts without regard to political leanings. This is not about being a Democrat or a Republican. It is about doing the job of unbiased intelligence analysis. That is why VIPS has, over the years, written memos challenging the intelligence basis for policies and decisions of George W. Bush and Barack Obama as well as Donald Trump.
For the Steering Group, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity:
William Binney, Technical Director, NSA; co-founder, SIGINT Automation Research Center (ret.)
Richard H. Black, Senator of Virginia, 13th District; Colonel US Army (ret.); Former Chief, Criminal Law Division, Office of the Judge Advocate General, the Pentagon (associate VIPS)
Fred Costello (former Russian Linguist, USAF, Berlin Kan Op, TS/SCI revoked in 2001) (associate VIPS)
Philip Giraldi, CIA, Operations Officer (ret.)
Larry C. Johnson, former CIA and State Department Counter Terrorism officer
John Kiriakou, Former CIA Counterterrorism Officer and former senior investigator, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Karen Kwiatkowski, former Lt. Col., US Air Force (ret.), at Office of Secretary of Defense watching the manufacture of lies on Iraq, 2001-2003
Clement J. Laniewski, LTC, USA (ret) (associate VIPS)
Edward Loomis, NSA, Cryptologic Computer Scientist (ret.)
Ray McGovern, former US Army infantry/intelligence officer & CIA analyst (ret.)
Elizabeth Murray, Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Near East, CIA and National Intelligence Council (ret.)
Todd E. Pierce, MAJ, US Army Judge Advocate (ret.)
Coleen Rowley, FBI Special Agent and former Minneapolis Division Legal Counsel (ret.)
Scott Ritter, former MAJ., USMC, former UN Weapon Inspector, Iraq
Kirk Wiebe, former Senior Analyst, SIGINT Automation Research Center, NSA
Sarah G. Wilton, Intelligence Officer, DIA (ret.); Commander, US Naval Reserve (ret.)
Lawrence Wilkerson, Colonel (USA, ret.), Distinguished Visiting Professor of Government and Public Police at the College of William and Mary (associate VIPS)
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) is made up of former intelligence officers, diplomats, military officers and congressional staffers. The organization, founded in 2002, was among the first critics of Washington’s justifications for launching a war against Iraq. VIPS advocates a US foreign and national security policy based on genuine national interests rather than contrived threats promoted for largely political reasons. An archive of VIPS memoranda is available at Consortiumnews.com.
The uproar about yanking security clearance has a lot to do with threatening the gravy train of consulting and contractor work that DC Swamp Things are addicted to. Those clearances keep them inside a special club of looters and profiteers… and the haves don’t want to be cast among the have-nots.
I agree with every single well expressed thoughtful point that you have made. However my overiding object to the Presidents action is simply that not single ne of them had anything to do with the revocation. In fact I have a feeling our President is not even aware of any of them. He was revoked because he has spoken out against the madness
Is it not Trump? Do we not know Trump? Can we expect anything wise, caring and productive from Trump? I did not think so. This is why I wrote the following poem as a dedication to him and those who have suffered from him.
The president
What can we expect of,
-the heir to Frederick?
– (He was a great pimp!)
“Trump” is true son
-to man who in “Gold Rush”
-settled, found footstep
-in north of Canada;
– (in city of Dawson)
-harvested lot of wealth
-and fathered son “Donald”.
This is the fortune that
-has led son to Dark-House!
Donald is real son
-to father who killed sun
-in lives of girls, women
-in need, working men
– (in Moonlight and Sunlight
-all around the clock…)
Dad trapped the women
-he managed brothel …
Brothel!
Brothel!
Brothel!
Judgment is far harder
-on son of “Whores’-Master”
-who follows father’s way
-with young girls as pageants.
Son worked with media
– “Faked-News”, advertised
-for showing pageants, gals.
Father, son, did same thing
-sold bodies of ladies…
– (To mankind it is shame!)
Shame! Shame! Shame!
Shame! Shame! Shame!
Their way to make fortune
-has remained all the same;
– (lie, steal and abuse
-the needy, hardworking.)
Bullies are brutal; faith to them is a filth.
Blood of shelter-less is food of vampires.
Liar is a fox in sneaking, a wolf in stealing!
Poor are we, world, nations
-to be caught, enslaved…
-by Trump’s examples!
They grow among us
-as cancer tumors;
-are nothing but virus…
Pharmacists and doctors
-please make the vaccine
-send microbe into bin;
-kill this germ and save us.
Time has shown that many
-make fortune and money
-by cheating and lying…
Rockefeller, Python’s head,
-dealt in oil and weapons
-just to add to his wealth;
-he cared-less for people!
– (Chaco-War is sample!)
Those who sell others for
-making wealth and fortune
-are nothing but virus…
Hey doctors, good people
-please come together
-dress wound, disinfect.
Somebody deserves credit for these drawings – superb!
I absolutely agree!
Trump himself is the most incurable and serious victim of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
There were a rampant leaks of classified information about the white house internal decisions during Trump’s first year in office. People would have always assumed it was white house staffers that had leaked. Now we might think it was intelligent communities who have the top security clearance that did those dirty works to endanger the national securities
Has anyone analyzed the documents Reality Winner leaked from the NSA for their veracity.
In my opinion, based solely on the sullied reputation of the various “security agencies,” Reality Winner was a dupe and a scapegoat. It would not surprise me if she was “fed” the documents she “leaked” in order to fuel the witch hunt of Russiagate that has turned this nation inside out for the past two years, thanks to none other than Hillary Clinton who needed a way to justify her humiliating loss – even if it brought the world to the brink of WW3.
Yes. The date of her leak was aligned with the date of Comey’s testimony before Congress.
This story should be sent to everyone on you email list. It proves Brennan is a hypocrite. Is it not true Obama was informed of the Russia debacle? Brennan is attempting to keep his credibility in tact, and like every other CIA or FBI director TELLS us what they want us to know and the rest is denied.
This one has a recent and excellent take on Brennan, Hayden, and Clapper by Branko Marcetic:
From Criminals to Heroes
Is it just me or is this group the only ones in the US who make sense any more? Good awareness around the prudence to keep your mouth shut, rather than being a freedom of speech infraction.
Somehow the absolving of Hillary seems to have set the stage for all sorts of liberal interpretations of security issues. The inability of psychopaths to manifest empathy leaves them poorly suited to understand the need for protecting subordinates. Perhaps this also plays a role in the popularity of the false flag paradigm.
If we can’t actually prosecute criminality at some point there should at least be a magic number of immediate associate’s suicides that sees one given a parachute to a less lethal realm of responsibility. Obtuse way of saying when you kill all your political enemies, you should be shown the door, not a crown of jewels.
I concur! I really enjoyed VIPS Bill Binney’s interview on the Jimmy Dore Show (on YouTube). Bill’s sanity is refreshing.
Now, if only we could recruit a few, current, intelligence professionals who have some courage to speak up.
Thanks, VIPS, hope your efforts don’t go unnoticed. F. G., hilarious and brilliant! I hope you’ve got them all collected for publication. Made my day! My how the bugs are crawling out of the rugs.
The rugs have needed cleaning for many decades. There is a sincere growing discontent in this country the likes of which I have not seen in my 73 years. We are going to end up in the streets again the likes of which will make the 60’s – 70’s mild in comparison unless some top people in our government of both political parties are prosecuted for their many ongoing crimes. A free people can only tolerate so much before taking action.
Bravo.
I hope this memo receives wide distribution.
I am sending it to my own tiny email list.
The idea that revoking a security clearance has anything to do with freedom of speech is insane.
It is also ironic, given the genuine incursions into citizens’ freedom of speech and expression and right to post and read what they want online and in social media.
Brennan is a horrible person. How can anyone on the so-called left associate with or support him?
The “left’s” defense of Brennan is a good measure of the seriousness of Trump Derangement Syndrome. As is the reflexive lauding of the unpleasant mental and moral squirt John McCain. Actually, the two look as though they might have been separated at birth. Uncannily similar.
I tend to agree with the term used by novelist James Lee Burke that describes such people as Brennan, McCain, and Clinton: “morally retarded”. Such people have never developed a working conscience which leaves them with no discernable moral code.
Article of interest at link below.
————————————————————–
CIA and Saudi Arabia Conspired To Keep 9/11 Details Secret, New Book Says
By Jeff Stein On 8/28/18 at 6:00 AM
https://www.newsweek.com/cia-and-saudi-arabia-conspired-keep-911-details-secret-new-book-says-1091935
Brennan is certainly deeply flawed, but to put this in perspective, is any more deeply flawed that any other former CIA chief?
Good question, Andrew. In fact I wonder why the government keeps secrets from his own citizens?
Well, in times of war like the U.S. has been the U.S. is being invaded by Martians or something.
Hi Lin-
I concur about the over and mis-use of classification, and also wonder about the repercussions for a so-called free and democratic society under the control of “we the people”. Jeff Harrison brought out a very good point below when he discusses his work in engineering. It makes sense to classify details of aircraft and defense systems, since you are trying to make your weaponry as effective as possible, gain a leg up on your potential adversaries, and make it more difficult to design countermeasures. In time of war it makes sense to have troop movements classified. Where it goes astray is when they classify something for political purposes to keep the citizenry ignorant of their true motives and objectives, and to hide crimes against humanity. I hope some day humanity evolves to the point where we don’t need a National Defense strategy and can use all that energy for peaceful development. Then having classified information would be senseless.
“Good question, Andrew. In fact I wonder why the government keeps secrets from his own citizens?”
The People’s patience is wearing very thin. It’s in the air. Can’t you feel it!?
It’s his love of scowling on TV every chance he gets that sets him apart. If only the Clintons and Brennans of the world would crawl away into oblivion.
Also there’s the spectacle of Brennan being hired by MSNBC, being on TV all the time, and accusing Trump of “treason”. It is highly dishonorable behavior on Brennan’s part.
Remember that Sy Hersh said that Russiagate was a Brennan job.
That a lying scumbag like Brennan was a high government official tells you a lot about the quality of the Washington Swamp. And he is not alone – everyone involved in the crooked government in DC is some kind of ugly, evil creep. That these criminals pretend to high ideals is utterly disgusting.
Joe Tedesky comment: “Also Brennan claims in case of a national emergency he should be briefed on ‘top secret’ matters… I say to Brennan, ‘we’ll call ya when we need ya Johnny’. It’s that simple.” That makes sense. When you leave government service, you lose your security clearance, and it is granted at the discretion of the government when it is needed, if ever.
This is but one of the issues regarding the whole business of government secrets. It needs to examined by something like a grand jury and the results pipelined to people who can effect changes needed. There is simply too much government secrecy and too little right of the public to know. It is now used too often to protect criminal and partisan behavior.
The below quote says it all; and, it needs to be shouted out loud over and over again:
Joe Tedesky comment: “Also Brennan claims in case of a national emergency he should be briefed on ‘top secret’ matters… I say to Brennan, ‘we’ll call ya when we need ya Johnny’. It’s that simple.” That makes sense. When you leave government service, you lose your security clearance, and it is granted at the discretion of the government when it is needed, if ever.
This is but one of the issues regarding the whole business of government secrets. It needs to examined by something like a grand jury and the results pipelined to people who can effect changes needed. There is simply too much government secrecy and too little right of the public to know. It is now used too often to protect criminal and partisan behavior.”
Absolutely agree with your comments Lichfield, when your employed in the real world & you leave your job either by dismissal or advancement for another position, with a new employer, you have to forfeit your security cards & clearances & all other Company benefits such as Company vehicles & fuel & credit cards with that former employer! It should be the same condition in Govt, once you are sacked, like this Brennan was, it’s only correct & proper that the security clearance & other benefits are canceled immediately! Once this scumbag Brennan ceased to be employed by his former employer, the US Govt he forfeited those privileges! This is not a human rights, freedom of speech issue it’s a employer condition with their right & discretion to implement or forfeit previous benefits & trying to paint this as anything else is completely absurd! And withdrawing this man’s security clearance is the least of this man’s problems, he should be thrown in jail for treason & trialled at the Hague for crimes against humanity!
Amen!
Perhaps, as these guys leave “office” (a self-aggrandising euphemism for a job), they should be brought before a military tribunal and the entire record of their tenure be examined. The prospect of this might be enough to keep them on the level.
Brennan is a real threat to National Security. He belongs in prison. Those like CNN that hold him in holy awe, are complicit in his crimes against all of us.
John Brennan had top secret clearance. That’s what got him a TV appearance.
If he offered a clue, folks would think it was true,
So the fake news avoids interference!
With the facts he could play fast and loose. Some say that’s a clearance abuse.
With surveillance techniques and computerized peeks,
He even saw Clinton’s caboose!
Brennan’s clearance was notably high. There’s no place that he couldn’t spy.
You’ll think it sounds crass, but his ladies’ room pass,
When revoked made him break down and cry!
He went to Ukraine undetected. He was Kagan and Nuland connected.
In that neocon plot, lots of people got shot,
But John Brennan was never suspected!
Vicki Nuland had started a riot. She got help from Ambassador Pyatt.
John Brennan went there for those cookies she’d share,
Vicki told him he’d better keep quiet!
Social order would quickly collapse. And secession would alter the maps.
John McCain would engage with those Nazis on stage,
But fake news kept it all under wraps!
There wouldn’t be honest discussions. They blamed the fiasco on Russians.
John Brennan would claim there was Putin to blame,
Donald Trump must deserve repercussions!
Imran had spied on the House. He got jobs for his friends and his spouse.
Debbie Wasserman shouted, she fumed and she pouted,
Diane Feinstein was meek as a mouse!
Diane had a driver she trusted. Her faculties seem old and crusted.
The Chinese put bugs under all of her rugs,
They taped every fart that she busted!
Diane found out Brennan was lying. On the Senate probe he had been spying.
Those torture tapes burned under Brennan we learned,
Revealed crimes that would need classifying!
Her husband had lucrative hookups. The scandal would cause lots of shakeups.
Surveillance tech stocks might implode with the shocks,
She said, “Classified stuff is for grownups!”
McCain found out Steele had a file. Off to London he travelled in style.
With Brennan’s hot tip, to the press it would slip,
And Jim Comey could sit back and smile!
Nellie Ohr had a role they’d disguise. On ham radio she’d vocalize.
If she met face to face in some clandestine place,
She might frighten those enemy spies!
Clinton’s server was hacked by Chinese. From John Brennan not even a sneeze!
All that classified stuff, not the slightest rebuff…
Diane Feinstein yelled, “Who cut the cheese?”
The Republicans got really jealous. They said, “Brennan knows stuff he won’t tell us.”
Now Haspel’s in charge, Chinese spies roam at large,
Adam Schiff is no longer so zealous!
All these breaches took place under Clapper. Not a word of rebuke from Jake Tapper.
Obama’s in hiding, not one word of chiding,
It seems Russia-gate went down the crapper!
Bravo! Truly a tour de force. Kudos to you F.G.! All we need to know about how we are being screwed.
Thank you F.G., simply a wonderful summary…
Fantastic F.G. !!
So funny. Awesome job!
Outstanding, F.G.! {poor DiFi}
Brennan has been nothing but viscerally biased since this whole attempt at government overthrow began. His whole demeanor just seethes with personal animosity against Trump anytime he opens his mouth on the subject. Anyone here NOT notice that?
This article brings to mind the mysterious death of reporter Michael Hastings, who was said to have been researching Michael Brennan when he died in the fiery car crash in Los Angeles in 2013. I wonder if any of you VIPS have some information that would shed light on that tragic event. Thanks for this article and disclosing the illegality of some CIA operatives.
Noam Chomsky (pg 89, “Who Owns The World?”:
(o
Among the many topics that are not the business of the bewildered herd is foreign affairs. Anyone who has studied declassified documents will have discovered that, to a large extent, their classification was meant to protect public officials from public scrutiny.”
o)
Ergo…
Thank you VIPS.
Let me come down squarely on the side of VIPS. You do lose some of your freedom of speech when you obtain a security clearance. When I relinquished my clearances when I retired, I had to agree to take what I knew to my grave. I was married to a woman who is a foreign national (British) for 15 years. My employer sought additional, higher level clearances for me so I could be assigned to certain programs. They were denied because my spouse was British. A decade later, after we were divorced, my employer once again sought those clearances and they were granted.
I strongly object to these former high ranking officials retaining their clearances. VIPS has slightly mislead you. Merely having a clearance doesn’t give you access to classified data. You have to have a need to know this information in order to do your job. Once they’ve retired/left their position, what job are they doing that they would need this classified data for? I’m sure that they’d like to access this kind of data to be a talking head for NBC but that doesn’t represent a need. It is a situation that is ripe for abuse and should not be allowed to be. Part of the big difference is that I knew what I think of as real classified, I was an engineer and knew aircraft performance characteristics and weapon performance characteristics. A lot of the classified data these guys know is proof of American war crimes, crimes against humanity, and garden variety crimes (like spying on the Senate).
One final consideration for former officials keeping their clearances. A security clearance has a shelf life and needs to be periodically renewed. Sometimes that’s as simple as a NAC (national agency check), other times it’s simplified background check. They all cost money. My employer paid for mine. Who would pay for the likes of Brennan’s?
One last thing. The government has to start holding itself accountable. The likes of Brennan and our current CIA head have committed heinous crimes. War crimes, crimes against humanity, and garden variety crimes. They haven’t been held accountable and if they aren’t being held accountable, why should anybody be held accountable? And it’s not just these major transgressions. I remember when Shrub was the head dog catcher and filling the government with religious zealots. I watched this woman, allegedly a lawyer and graduate of Liberty University, openly tell a congressional committee that she had been applying both religious and partisan criteria to the hiring of civil servants. That’s against the law. Did she pay a price for violating the law? Not that I’m aware of. Again. If the government doesn’t feel a need to comply with the law, why should any of us?
Jeff, well said. It’s good to hear from someone who knows what they are talking about.
The articles factual information on John Brennan’s resume is living proof of MSM Omission of hard facts. Just thought I’d mention it. Joe
I’d like to add that the same DC critters who are in a panic over Brennan losing his ‘free speech’ over a presidential denied security clearance, are the same clever ‘Crowd Sourced’ fanatics claiming Hillary’s unsecured servers are a matter of doing business as Secretary of State.
Also Brennan claims in case of a national emergency he should be briefed on ‘top secret’ matters… I say to Brennan, ‘we’ll call ya when we need ya Johnny’. It’s that simple.
I wish this Russia Gate conspired nonsense would end, so as I could stop appearing to be defending Trump, but golly isn’t this travesty of make believe events enough already?
Sorry to say Joe, but this Russiagate, Colusion Delusion is never going to end until it’s main objective is achieved & that is the impeachment & removal of the Donald as POTUS! We have seen this narrative with the faked Chemical attacks in Syria in which the goal was & continue’s to be, even recently with Russia warning that another false flag event is in the works, to setup a false narrative to achieve a specific goal, & with the chemical attacks, the goal is to provoke the US into attacking the Syria forces & continue the regime change strategy to remove Assad! So on again we go down the rabbit hole with the endless Russiagate nonsense that is really starting to make America look like it’s run by a bunch of lunatics, high on crack cocaine!
Jeff, thank you for your comments, they are very enlightening, but I take umbrage at your last sentence. I comply with the law because I’m an American. I live in a country where my representives make the law and if they screw up, I can toss them out and we’ll get new representatives to make new laws which represent the best of the people. Just because the corrupt, the corporate, the venal, the bought and paid for in the government hold themselves to such breathtakingly low standards does not mean that I do, or that most Americans do. We’ve been thru that HowdyDowdy fella and his Black Clone, both of whom lied like rugs, and what Was the result? An uprising– finally–of decent, law abiding citizens who are using the ballot not the bullet to throw the lying sacks of shit out of office. And maybe after all this felating of the McCain corpse, people will get sick enough of “war heros” to send some of them to The Hague. That would be the height of law abiding.
Well, I comply with the law because that’s what you have to do if you want a civil society – a nation of laws and not men. Somebody has to force the government to comply and that really should be the politicians but as we discovered this last election, many of the law-breaking types thought that Three Names was going to win and they’d be able to skate.
Yes! Yes! Yes! Get all of our comments to the Feds. Let them read that our respect for those dirtbags is fading; and, it is fading fast.
” Merely having a clearance doesn’t give you access to classified data. ”
Ah, but it does protect somewhat those who might leak the data to you. Brennan was most likely still getting classified information from those who had once been his subordinates. With his clearance pulled, those people are much less likely to risk giving him any information.
Brennan should be exercising his free speech from prison.
Next cell over from Clapper.
Thank you!
While your stated reasons for denying Brennan a security clearance all might have been good reasons, that has nothing to do with why Trump denied security clearance for Brennan. Brennan was an outspoken critic of Trump. He was not “loyal” enough.
According to the New York Times (Trump Revokes Ex-C.I.A. Director John Brennan’s Security Clearance https://nyti.ms/2OGVnsz):
Trump could care less why VIPS agrees with his decision. Trump is simply retaliating against a critic. Trump is an authoritarian at heart, demanding loyalty and subservience. He has been highly critical of the intelligence community taking the side of Putin over US intelligence assesments. For Trump, criticism from Brennan was beyond the pale. So he acted in vengence.
That seems to be the standard media line that you are presenting here. However, a Senator approached Trump and pointed out that Brennan was abusing his clearance by using it for financial gain. That is an obvious fact. If Trump had wanted to shut Brennan up, he could have done so much earlier.
Brennan is apparently guilty of espionage, at the very least. Public statements of disloyalty to Trump probably had nothing to do with Trump’s decision to revoke his clearance.
Bradley Moss should give an example of “the established process” if he wants to present a valid point. The President can revoke a clearance at his own discretion and isn’t required to even state a reason.
“Trump could care less why VIPS agrees with his decision. ”
I think you mean that Trump couldn’t care less. Accuracy in language is necessary if you want to use the idiom, otherwise you’re unintentionally saying the opposite of what you mean.
Very informative. Thanks!
No Greens in VIPS? #GreenWave2018