Brennan and Clapper Should Not Escape Prosecution

Recently declassified documents show that the former CIA director and former director of national intelligence approved illegal spying on Congress and then classified their crime. They need to face punishment, writes John Kiriakou.

By John Kiriakou
Special to Consortium News

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, the longtime chairman of the Judiciary Committee, made a dramatic announcement Nov. 1 that should lead to jail time for both former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

As reported, but widely overlooked amid the media focus on the midterm elections, Brennan ordered CIA hackers to intercept the emails of all potential or possible intelligence community whistleblowers who may have been trying to contact the congressional oversight committees, specifically to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Hacking the Senate’s computer system constitutes illegal use of a government computer, illegal espionage and wire fraud.

Brennan and Clapper, in 2014, ostensibly notified congressional overseers about this, but in a way that either tied senators’ hands or kept them in the dark. They classified the notifications.

As a result, Grassley knew of the hacking but couldn’t say anything while senators on neither the Intelligence or Judiciary Committees didn’t know.

It’s a felony to classify a crime. It’s also a felony to classify something solely for the purpose of preventing embarrassment to the CIA.

For all of this—for the hacking in the first place, and then the classification of that criminal deed—both men belong in prison.

This kind of over-classification is illegal, but few Americans know that because this law is not enforced. The Justice Department has never brought over-classification charges against a U.S. spying authority.

But this would be a good place to start.

John Brennan, left, and James Clapper. (LBJ Library / Flickr)

Brennan has flouted U.S. national security laws with impunity for years. It was Brennan who, as CIA director, ordered CIA computer hackers to break into the computer system of the Senate Intelligence Committee while its investigators were preparing a declassified version of the Senate Torture Report Executive Summary. It was also Brennan who maintained President Obama’s “kill list” of people designated for assassination, including American citizens, without the benefit of due process.

Clapper infamously denied to Senator Ron Wyden in an open hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee that NSA was spying on American citizens. When he was finally challenged on his lie, he said that saying no was “the least dishonest response” he could think of.

There is a strong public interest in [the] content [of the two notifications], Grassley said, adding their content should be released in their entirety. “What sources or methods would be jeopardized by the declassification of these notifications? After four-and-a-half years of bureaucratic foot-dragging, led by Brennan and Clapper, we finally have the answer: None.”

Grassley began trying to get these two notifications declassified four years ago. The Iowa senator said that during the last two years of the Obama administration the Intelligence Community Inspector General—a monitoring entity established in 2010—repeatedly ignored his requests to release the information.

This time, after the exit of the Obama people, the request was approved.

There is hyper-partisan sensitivity around Brennan, who has publicly denounced Trump and is widely understood to be a leading source in the spy community pressing the idea that the Trump colluded with the Russians’ interference in 2016 the elections.

Partisan passions, however, should have no place in all this.

What should matter is the law and the efforts by these two men to place themselves above it.

The CIA is required by law to inform congressional oversight committees whenever one of its officers, agents, or administrators breaks the law, when an operation requires congressional approval because it is a “covert action” program, or whenever something happens at the CIA that’s potentially controversial and the agency wants to save itself the embarrassment of explaining itself to Congress later.

I could see no reason to withhold declassification of these documents.” Grassley said. “They contained no information that could be construed as [betraying] sources and methods.”

Brennan was the leading force behind the prosecutions of eight national security whistleblowers during the Obama administration, almost three times the number of whistleblowers charged under the Espionage Act by all previous presidents combined.

Indeed, I was one of the “Obama Eight.” I was charged with five felonies, including three counts of espionage, after I blew the whistle on the CIA’s torture program. Of course, I hadn’t committed espionage and those charges were eventually dropped, but not until I had agreed to take a plea to a lesser charge. I served 23 months in a federal prison.

Brennan and Clapper think the law doesn’t apply to them. But it does. Without the rule of law, we have chaos. The law has to apply equally to all Americans. Brennan and Clapper need to learn that lesson the hard way. They broke the law. They ought to be prosecuted for it.

John Kiriakou is a former CIA counterterrorism officer and a former senior investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. John became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act—a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a result of his attempts to oppose the Bush administration’s torture program.

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140 comments for “Brennan and Clapper Should Not Escape Prosecution

  1. Bert
    November 20, 2018 at 12:17

    This is the way fascist governments rule “their” country? They are bothered with the truth by others (Julian Assange for intance) and try to ‘put out that fire’ by accusing these truthtellers of the crimes they commit themselves!

  2. Brian James
    November 17, 2018 at 17:51

    Apr 13, 2017 Mkultra – The Cia’s Psychic Warfare On The Soviet Union

    Project Mkultra – The CIA’s mind control program used by the US to counter the ‘Soviet threat’ and control foreign leaders including Fidel Castro.

    https://youtu.be/CIGSlNKYhBg

  3. Paul Stewart
    November 14, 2018 at 23:52

    Too much power in too few hands, they control their own oversight, dictate their own budget over and under the table, torture, kill, overthrow democracies, start wars, cause the deaths of millions of innocent people all over the world. These agencies are evil.

    #Blackmail #WakeUp

    #AbolishTheCIA #AbolishTheNSA #AbolishTheDeepState

    • Danko
      November 20, 2018 at 13:13

      Its deplorable. Deception, scheming and plotting has been in existence throughout history, but in modern times the consequences are horrific. Its built into the fiber of governments. How can we raise the level of consciousness and get away from these barbaric habits? Why do politicians and state agencies believe that enemies are necessary at all times? Is there no hope?

  4. Tom
    November 14, 2018 at 16:43

    I agree.

  5. Michael Price
    November 14, 2018 at 07:32

    Yeah if Trump had balls this would happen. So it won’t happen.

  6. November 13, 2018 at 22:54

    There is no institution left in the United States that has the moral authority or competancy to prosecute the conspirators in the treason that has accomplished the successful coup in taking over the US government. 9/11 is the smoking gun that proves my contention. Propaganda not trurh envelopes us in every direction and at every level. We are not responding to the reality that we face and that is why we are wondering aimlessly without leadership in the desert. Until we accept the truth of what we now face everything will only get worse. There are too many of us participating in this treason to prosecute. Our only chance is to offer those who are complicit amnesty in exchange for the truth.

    • Linda Wood
      November 14, 2018 at 12:37

      I agree with your assertion that there are too many to prosecute, but the reason we are here, the reason we have endless war and carnage is that we didn’t prosecute and bring to justice the perpetrators of the arming and financing of Hitler. Instead, those who committed the greatest crime in history became senators, secretaries of commerce, governors, and leaders of the CIA and State Department. We know the truth. We didn’t need to give Oliver North immunity for telling us what we already knew. We need to bring these people to justice and acknowledge how we have empowered them, enabled them, and subsidized them. And then we need to stop doing so.

  7. Brian Schaefer
    November 13, 2018 at 22:31

    ASOLUTELY!!

  8. dean 1000
    November 13, 2018 at 22:00

    I couldn’t agree more John. Some of the Bush people deserve it too. But Brennan and Clapper are a great place to start.

    If people in government can’t tell us what they know, a decent respectable government is impossible.

    People like you, Snowden, McGovern, Ellsberg, Assange, et al are as necessary to good government as pretty declarations and fine sentiments.

    Thanks

  9. November 13, 2018 at 18:15

    Brennan and Clapper aren’t going down for their fake investigation of Trump, and Trump isn’t going down for their fake investigation.

    Trump isn’t going anywhere unless his TV ratings tank. It’s reality TV. As long as the peasants are entertained by the royal puppet show, we won’t fight the power.

    That’s the real plot of the show. Nancy knows.

    https://opensociet.org/2018/11/13/no-nancy-pelosi-is-not-going-to-impeach-donald-trump/

  10. LJ
    November 13, 2018 at 16:20

    Absolutely . They should both be in Pelican Bay doing time with each other. Then Hell of course which is where they will spend eternity.

  11. November 12, 2018 at 19:57

    John Kiriakou deserves a medal for publishing crimes committed by Brennan and Clapper. These crimes, however, are
    small compared to the refusal of the Obama administration to hold accountable those responsible for deliberately lying
    the U.S. into initiating a war of aggression, which is a clear, universally recognized, war crime. Those responsible include
    VP Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and numerous others. The Constitution requires the attorney general to perform all
    the duties and obligations of his office, and there is no bigger obligation than that of holding accountable those responsible
    for committing war crimes. Another major war crime, one which constitutes a stain on America’s honor, is the torture of
    prisoners. Prof. Yoo wrote the legal justification for torture, and his cowardly attempt to allow the Bush administration
    to continue the practice of water boarding and other “enhanced methods of interogation place him in the sewer with so many other immoral clerks at all levels. John Yoo is today’s Thersites. He and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Feith are all
    les gueuses, pauvre cons, clochards. I and thousands of other Americans say to them, “va te faire foutre.” Those little lying abortions of bigotry will not be forgotten. There is no limitation of war crimes, so these “gens du menu” should remember
    that they will eventually be tried in court.

    • Skip Scott
      November 13, 2018 at 09:05

      I am hopeful that after we break the two party monopoly the new president will sign on to the ICC and all the bas**rds you list will have their comeuppance. If not at the Hague, then in US courts. Article VI states that any signed treaty becomes the supreme law of the land. We just need an Attorney General with the courage to uphold the Constitution.

    • Micheal Price
      November 14, 2018 at 07:36

      Hear, hear. Mr. Kiriakou is doing better work than the entire Washington press corp.

    • November 15, 2018 at 12:20

      Wishful thinking, I’m afraid.

  12. November 12, 2018 at 19:49

    English philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) wrote: “But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth; if wrong, they lose what is always as great a benefit – the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.”

    With Mill’s philosophical perspective from his 1859 book “On Liberty” in mind, a debate on 9/11 between John Kiriakou and David Ray Griffin – no matter the outcome -would be immensely beneficial, clarifying, and one for the ages. For what it’s worth, we predict the collision of Mr. Griffin’s truth with Mr. Kiriakou’s error.

    Peace.

    • Skip Scott
      November 13, 2018 at 09:07

      Amen Jerry!

    • John Lamenzo
      November 13, 2018 at 19:33

      What error?

      • November 14, 2018 at 00:37

        Not knowing physics?

        • John Wright
          November 14, 2018 at 15:23

          While a simple understanding of basic Newtonian physics would clearly lead any objective observer to conclude that the destruction of the three WTC towers required massive energy inputs far beyond that possible from jet fuel, there is literally a small mountain of non-WTC related evidence which shows that the events of September 11th were a classic false flag event.

          A close examination of the activities of Ali Abdelsuad Mohammed in the run up to September 11th is not a bad place to start.

      • November 15, 2018 at 12:30

        Exactly, what error?!!! Please tell us, Jerry.

    • John Wright
      November 14, 2018 at 15:13

      Better to have Kevin R. Ryan debate Mr. Kiriakou regarding the September 11th False Flag event. Dr. Griffin’s health is not great and Ryan is a better debater and has scientific credentials.

      There can be no peace without justice, and no justice without TRUTH.

      Be well.

  13. Deniz
    November 12, 2018 at 16:43

    Brennan’s prosecution would make great theater and be very satisfying to watch, but it would change absolutely nothing, he would be forgotten the very next day. He is far too crude to be a man of great consequence.

    On the other hand, the farcical Russiagate is a testimony of how the US voters struck a deep arrow into the Empire; the Clinton loss must have cut deep.

    • November 15, 2018 at 12:33

      Agreed, but prosecute him anyway, since he and Clapper should not be walking free. They both believe themselves to be untouchable, which they are not.

  14. David Walters
    November 12, 2018 at 16:22

    Yep, agreed.

  15. RICHARD A FEIBEL
    November 12, 2018 at 12:38

    ITS NOT JUST BRENNAN AND CLAPPER ITS THE ENTIRE GOVERNMENT OF THE US. EVERY SENATOR AND CONGRESSMAN .EVERY DIPLOMAT, PENTAGON ;STATE DEPT ETC ARE ALL TRAITORS AND GRIFTERS /CON MEN [[TRUMP ET AL]] AND HAS BEEN SINCE IT S INCEPTION.NO TIME HAS THERE BEEN A CITIZEN BENT POTUS . NOT ONE R A FEIBEL

    • Danko
      November 20, 2018 at 13:38

      Compelling and forceful account.
      Loss of integrity trickles down the hierarchy and cannot be expected at a lower level of governance if the top guys have given up on being conscientious, high-minded, moral, incorruptible and honorable. Its very painfull to even contemplate such a truth because it shows that society is completely inverted mostly by those who lead us.

  16. Patricia Victour
    November 12, 2018 at 12:31

    Brennan and Clapper are just the first of a long line of officials who should be tried and, found guilty as they should be, imprisoned. They are free while Julian Assange slowly perishes in London and Edward Snowden is, thankfully, self-exiled to Russia.

  17. November 12, 2018 at 11:29

    Reading all these very articulate comments, they have an everybody does it, corruption is rampant and powerful people are above the law tone, and what gets lost is that two men should be put in jail for crimes they committed. And those who prevent their prosecution can be charged with obstruction. Specific crimes, specific charges, a specific outcome.

    Easier said then done but we know the rich and powerful are uneasy on their thrones and fear losing all they have. To successfully prosecute some of them will do wonders to change their behavior because they have so much to lose. Ordinary street criminals don’t have the same fear because they sense they have little to lose. The rich and powerful do.

    Sounds brutal, but what do you think would have been the reaction if Bush and his cronies were hung for their crimes which included murder, destruction of property, even whole societies. The only reason the lessons of the Nuremberg Trials don’t resonate with these people is that they are only applied to others.

    Ditto, but with less severe penalties, those who brought on the crash in the early twenty first century.

  18. kdb
    November 12, 2018 at 08:59

    of course Brennan and Clapper should be prosecuted. just like Tenet, Black, Hayden, Mueller, and Comey, as well. tho, none of them will be held accountable since they all serve the “greater agenda.”

    as someone who has fought since 9/11 to have all of these men held accountable for their crimes, it is beyond frustrating.

    the entire globe has suffered because of these men. hundreds of thousands have been killed, hundreds of thousands have had their basic human rights violated, and millions of Americans have had our constitutional rights trampled upon because of these men and their untethered, unchecked actions.

    every time the 9/11 families attempt to access IC documents that should be made available to the public, we are told the documents must remain classified: “to protect sources and methods,” or because they are “part of an ongoing investigation or criminal proceeding/trial,” or “for reasons of national security.” it’s all tripe.

    in truth, it is my belief, that these documents remain hidden for reasons of embarrassment and/or to hide criminal action/orders made by agency and department officials. yet since they hold all the cards, lump it.

    to me, we are where we are today as a country because of the stunning lack of accountability in the years since 9/11. and yes, I know that the IC has been doing bad things for decades–long before 9/11 blew up my life. and I also know that for most of those decades, they always got away with it. but since 9/11, the flagrant lies, the warrantless wars, the increased illegal surveillance and wiretapping, the wanton killings…it’s all gone just a little too far. hasn’t it? It’s certainly delivered us to a place that’s nowhere I want to be.

    globally speaking, at the end of the day, most human beings all want the same thing. a safe home, a warm meal, someone to share it all with. most people don’t want war and strife. they don’t want to trash their home or environment. they don’t want to be occupied or spied upon. they don’t want their loved ones murdered by some drone or fomented hyped-up US-Saudi funded/armed terrorist from ISIS or al Qaeda.

    if only, ultimately and above all else, we could all remember that there are more of us that want peace than those few who want war.

    • Llp
      November 12, 2018 at 17:30

      Yes.??

    • Joe Tedesky
      November 12, 2018 at 23:27

      You have been through a lot. I’m with you. Joe

    • LarcoMarco
      November 14, 2018 at 03:41

      WOW, kdb! I admire your grit and determination over the years in pursuit of justice, even if only in the civil courts. And to think that “Mo Bone Hack-SawMan” and his assassination of hack “journalist” Jamal Khashoggi that might be the proverbial straw.

  19. Lorraine Barlett
    November 12, 2018 at 00:22

    Amen brother. That’s all I can say.

  20. Maxim Gorki
    November 11, 2018 at 22:22

    Too bad the Democrats don’t control congress.

    • nice2blucky
      November 12, 2018 at 05:10

      .
      “Too bad the Democrats don’t control congress.”

      And what if they did?
      .

    • Patricia Victour
      November 12, 2018 at 12:33

      HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, now they have half of it, and what is on their agenda – impeach Trump, of course. Forget stopping wars, forget health care for all, forget everything except IMPEACH TRUMP!!!!!!!

      • rosemerry
        November 12, 2018 at 13:39

        Also, go on with all the wars and support for the Saudis and bore us to death with Russiagate mark 2. Will they now say the Russians interfered and gave them the House seats§§?? Most of Trump’s actions have been supported by both wings of the War Party, and Trump does not dare even to speak with the Russian President as it smacks of treason. Who cares about WW3?

    • November 13, 2018 at 11:02

      Very funny.

  21. November 11, 2018 at 21:38

    The underlying message is clear: nobody other than the dead, the injured, and the taxpayer will face any real penalty for the endless war following the Iraq debacle. Nobody who engineered the financial crisis will pay any real price for wreaking so much havoc. In the new accountability-free zone, companies shouldn’t be bothered to even explain – much less face punishment for – their role in the climate crisis that threatens the survival of the human species.

    The United States has been turned into a safe space for a permanent ruling class. If there are no legal consequences for profiteers who defraud the global economy and society into a collapse, what will deter these profiteers from doing it again?

    America’s Aristocracy Lives in an Accountability-Free Zone

    • JWalters
      November 11, 2018 at 22:31

      Very true. And following the money to the deep pockets:
      “War Profiteers and the Roots of the ‘War on Terror'”
      https://warprofiteerstory.blogspot.com/p/war-profiteers-and-roots-of-war-on.html

    • Maxwell Quest
      November 11, 2018 at 22:52

      Thanks for the link, O Society. David Sirota’s article certainly fleshed out the sentiments that prompted me to write my earlier sarcastic comment. For years after the bank bailout my blood would boil whenever the thought crossed my mind that every one of those f*ckers were rewarded for their crimes, while their private financial losses were transferred to the public, and countless lives were ruined. The cost still sits on the books, yet to be paid by you and I. It set a new standard for brazen white-collar crime, saying to us in effect: “Tough sh*t losers, what are you going to do about it?”

      • O Society
        November 11, 2018 at 23:27

        Indeed. A reiew of the legislative changes and judicial interpretations of this legislation over my lifetime can lead to only one conclusion:

        There is now a profound gulf between what I was taught counts as “moral” by my parents and college philosophy classes on one side, and what people openly and publicly not only “get away with,” butare rewarded for with ever increasing financial and social status.

        In plain English, the stuff I was taught is “wrong” is actually the effective way to realize The American Dream.

        Fraud, graft, violence, mendacity, and cupidity are now legalized by laws on the books and their legal interpretation.

        Crime is not crime after lawyers legalize it. But it’s still immoral.

        There’s morality for regular people like me, then there’s the expectation and rewarding of immorality from those who are really successful, be they politicians, businessmen, or celebrities.

        Of course a Trump, Clinton, Bezos, or Kardashian has different legal obligations than I have. Actually, they have none or close to none.

        This inequality people keep going on about isn’t just money. It’s behavioral. What is acceptable behavior?

        Trump could get caught having sex with the neighbor’s cat and find a way to profit from it.

      • Realist
        November 12, 2018 at 00:34

        We could nationalize corporate assets to claw back some of the stolen money, but the bought and paid for congress critters will never do that. Even if they did make the attempt following a tsunami election that ousted every incumbent, I suspect you would see so many transfers of American corporate dollars to foreign banks and investment devices that your head would spin right off your spinal cord.

        But at some future time, when the country is absolutely starving for pennies to keep the lights on, I sure hope they make the effort to recover the trillions–maybe quadrillions–stolen under the cover of sham wars, defense contracts, systematic tax evasion, hand-crafted tax laws tantamount to a licence to steal, dummy corporations, off-shoring of profits but repatriation of debt, and all the other tricks used by financiers to fleece the public and steal from government coffers. Except for the little guy who has no legal loopholes or well-compensated financial advisors to avoid paying his taxes, it is obvious that there is much more evasion than taxation ongoing in this country. As Leona Helmsley famously said (when represented in court by renowned defender of American values Alan Dershowitz), “We don’t pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes.”

        Read any of David Cay Johnston’s books on the fleecing of America by its aristocracy (“Free Lunch,” “Perfectly Legal,” or “The Fine Print”) or Arianna Huffington’s “Pigs at the Trough,” written before she decided to take the money and run, entrusting her news blogs to the tender mercies of corporate interests.

    • November 12, 2018 at 04:17

      Well said.

  22. November 11, 2018 at 21:23

    The stealth oligarchy uses Donald Trump for cover. The newspaper owners tell their papers to run stories on every stupid thing Trump tweets. Why? So you’ll be offended, of course. And you’ll talk about him. And you’ll use the words they tell you to use, like “bellicose” and “unhinged” when you talk about him.

    How can this be so? If it is true, why aren’t voters aware and angry about it?

    The answer is simple: billionaires who favor unpopular, ultraconservative economic policies, and work actively to advance them (that is, most politically active billionaires) stay almost entirely silent about those issues in public. This is a deliberate choice. Billionaires have plenty of media access, but most of them choose not to say anything at all about the policy issues of the day. They deliberately pursue a strategy of what we call “stealth politics”.

    This is why Trump will not be impeached. His value as a distraction is too great to the oligarchy.

    A new study reveals the Stealth Oligarchy

  23. Tom Kath
    November 11, 2018 at 21:20

    I am a little ashamed to admit that these two inspire an irrational sense of repugnance, never to be corrected by a possible closer acquaintance. You feel that they would be lying if they said “Hello”.

  24. November 11, 2018 at 21:14

    Why didn’t the Trump family go to prison for committing half a billion dollars in tax fraud?

    Because rich folks mess up each other’s scams. They help each other commit fraud, not stop it!

    Tax Cheating? It’s Not Just The Trumps

    • November 15, 2018 at 12:26

      Crawl back in your hole, O Society, you leftist propagandist.

  25. November 11, 2018 at 21:10

    Why don’t Trump and Guliani burn for their money laundering schemes?

    Because of who they know. Rich folks look out for one another.

    Investigation Of Giuliani & Trump $10 Billion Money Laundering Scheme

  26. ADM
    November 11, 2018 at 20:38

    Can you please change this font? It looks like shit.

  27. jose
    November 11, 2018 at 20:09

    In theory, Mr Kiriakou is correct when he asserts that “Brennan and Clapper broke the law. They ought to be prosecuted for it” There is one problem though: Brennan and Clapper lied to protect those in power and their criminal policies both domestically and internationally. That is why both corrupt men will not spend one single day in jail. They will do what ever it takes to protect the gate keepers from exposure. It is that simple.

    • Realist
      November 12, 2018 at 01:19

      Yeah, that and “the powers that be” don’t seem to care these days who knows exactly what lies they tell and laws they break right out in the open. Illegal and heinous actions that used to bring shame and would elicit elaborate cover-ups are now simply ignored by the media, the law, the regulatory agencies, the congress, the opinion-makers and even the religious establishment–which has its own share of quite provocative scandals. Oh, they might be discussed in political blogs, like this one, especially by the loyal opposition, but no formal action is ever taken. In today’s atmosphere, Watergate would have been shrugged off as no big deal–like stealing signs in baseball, just like Hillary figures that Bill’s sexual hijinks were only his business. Sexual peccadilloes only rise to the level of national innuendo when a supreme court appointment is at stake. Tom Brady paid a bigger price in “Deflate Gate” simply because PV=nRT (the Ideal Gas Law) than any politician or federal appointee–especially the spooks–has done outside of a few earnest whistleblowers like John Kiriakou. The guilty seem to get away with murder in American politics, and probably have. It must have been Putin who ordered a hit on Seth Rich.

    • Realist
      November 12, 2018 at 01:24

      Yeah, that and “the powers that be” don’t seem to care these days who knows exactly what lies they tell and laws they break right out in the open. Illegal and heinous actions that used to bring shame and would elicit elaborate cover-ups are now simply ignored by the media, the law, the regulatory agencies, the congress, the opinion-makers and even the religious establishment–which has its own share of quite provocative scandals. Oh, they might be discussed in political blogs, like this one, especially by the loyal opposition, but no formal action is ever taken. In today’s atmosphere, Watergate would have been shrugged off as no big deal–like stealing signs in baseball, just like Hillary figures that Bill’s amorous hijinks were only his business. Such peccadilloes only rise to the level of national innuendo when a supreme court appointment is at stake. Tom Brady paid a bigger price in “Deflate Gate” simply because PV=nRT (the Ideal Gas Law) than any politician or federal appointee–especially the spooks–has done outside of a few earnest whistleblowers like John Kiriakou. The guilty seem to get away with murder in American politics, and probably have. It must have been Putin who ordered a hit on Seth Rich.

    • rosemerry
      November 12, 2018 at 13:45

      When Saint Obama said “we look forward, not backwards” when speaking of crimes committed by his predecessor and others, he opened the way for “US justice” to prosecute nobody at all, ever, since even in the good old USA I hope you cannot be prosecuted for a crime yet to be committed.

      • Realist
        November 12, 2018 at 23:13

        I like your short stinging quips.

  28. exiled off mainstreet
    November 11, 2018 at 19:42

    I agree that they certainly should be tried for this because it is easily provable. The revitalized justice ministry should also look into trying them for sedition, etc. for their work with the British spymasters in putting together the Russiagate hoax in their effort to create a permanent dictatorship for the spy state, which they may have achieved despite the failure of the hoax.

  29. Coolfire
    November 11, 2018 at 18:31

    Excellent article by John Kiriakou. These two low hanging dishonest fruits, Brennan and Clapper, should have been prosecuted long ago. Kiriakou here lays out this latest case of additional reasons. In this case, so should the Obama admin individual(s) be prosecuted who refused declassification of these two illegally classified “Congressional Notifications” written by Brennan and Clapper.

  30. strngr--tgthr
    November 11, 2018 at 17:57

    Sorry but Brennan and Clapper an even Comey now are are now part of the Resistance. They might have gone to far legally then but we need them all hands on deck for the Inpeachment in 2019 !!!

    • Coolfire
      November 11, 2018 at 18:47

      Your heart is undoubtedly in the right place, and I respect your emotions.

      However, these two have proven themselves dishonorable and have purposefully misled our nation based on their personal views with potential consequences of nuclear war. That’s the type you consider as allies? One should not take criminals as allies.

      You would be well advised to think through exactly what you mean by “resistance” and against exactly whom? Our nation? Our elected government? Against democracy? All who voted other than you wished? I do not support Trump. But this talk of “resistance” is demonstrable of immaturity and historical ignorance of consequences. “Resistance” if a word of many flavors and should not be used loosely.

      With respect,

      • exiled off mainstreet
        November 11, 2018 at 19:47

        I agree with this commenter’s view but disagree that original commenter, an exponent of the permanent regime, which is what the “resistance” represents is other than an exponent of fundamental evil. After all, the so-called resistance is the represents the permanent superstate which needs to be resisted. It is indeed the modernized version of fascism and its nihilistic demand for war, even nuclear if necessary, to sustain the unchallenged power of the yankee imperium needs to be vanquished if we are to survive.

      • strngr--tgthr
        November 12, 2018 at 08:21

        Yes they made mistakes but now are government is controlled by crooks and Russians and mindless supporters with no education. So we need to resist that first and simply get back to place of honesty and intergrity that we had before Trump. That is are simple base line. Comey was wrong to say any thing bad about Hillary, witch just helped Trump, witch we see now, but now realizes he was completely wrong and should be forgiven and if the Clapper and Brennan were wire tapping it was probably for a good cause because you know any whistle blowers will be against the Obama administration witch was just trying to do good even if the means are bad. That is all I meant. The resistance will do all that.

        • rosemerry
          November 12, 2018 at 13:47

          “So we need to resist that first and simply get back to place of honesty and intergrity that we had before Trump. ” LOL

          • Realist
            November 12, 2018 at 23:15

            Yeah, today he definitely sounds like he is trying to be a comedian.

        • T
          November 14, 2018 at 09:16

          “strg-tgther”:

          Confess! I’ve seen through you now: you are really a Russian troll trying to make the Hillary supporters and their sympathizers look even worse than they do already….

      • Skip Scott
        November 12, 2018 at 09:14

        Stranger Together has an acute case of “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” It doesn’t matter to him/her that no president has controlled our foreign policy since JFK was assassinated, and that innocent people are dying daily due to our actions abroad, and that Brennan and Clapper are at the heart of our Evil Empire. As long as we use politically correct gender pronouns and nobody drones a Starbucks, it doesn’t matter at all that our MIC is running amok, and that it was just as bad under “Obomber” as it is under “His Royal Orangeness.” I have a hard time respecting hypocritical and selfish views of that nature.

        • Realist
          November 12, 2018 at 23:24

          If things in the government are effed up, according to Mr. Togetherness, it’s because the Russians are in control. Yesterday some other doofus claimed that I must be a Russian, so I guess I’m the fall guy here. Vote me off the island and all will be well.

          • Skip Scott
            November 13, 2018 at 09:16

            I think we are both counted as Russian agents by the “crazies” that do the counting. They are probably the same guys that started counting any muslim adult male killed as a “terrorist” when they do their drone strikes.

    • Jim
      November 11, 2018 at 22:58

      I understand the arguments here re: wiretapping but both Brennan and Clapper came out very strongly against Trump and repeatedly in public. No holds barred. Publically w/o waffling. strngr is rtight we need them and we need them now!
      We go after them we are shooting at people in our foxholes.

      • November 12, 2018 at 09:20

        Sarcasm? When I think of “resistance” I think of German Officers being machine gunned while sitting in a French cafe, not pussy hats. I guess I am just too old to grasp modern metaphors.

        • Realist
          November 12, 2018 at 23:36

          Maybe they are being literal and referring to Ohm’s Law where the resistance represents the ratio of the voltage to the amperage in an electric circuit.

    • Tony2
      November 20, 2018 at 22:07

      Whistleblower Tapes: Trump Wiretapped “A Zillion Times” By ‘The Hammer,’ Brennan’s and Clapper’s Secret Computer System – The American Report

      http://theamericanreport.org/2017/03/17/whistleblower-tapes-trump-wiretapped-zillion-times-hammer-brennans-clappers-secret-computer-system/

  31. mrtmbrnmn
    November 11, 2018 at 17:33

    The CIA has always been in the Crime/Coverup business. Too often “protecting sources and methods” is the dodge for “I just made the s–t up”.

    Memo to John “The Thug” Brenner and James “The Clap” Clapper: There is this wonderful resort with ocean view in Cuba called Guantanamo (“Gitmo” for short), which has some vacancies at the moment. Operators standing by to take your reservations.

  32. rick sterling
    November 11, 2018 at 17:00

    Good information and expose. Brennan and Clapper followed up the crimes described in this article by broadcasting the Intel Community Assessment to further undermine the incoming president and prevent rapprochement. The “assessment” should have been laughed out of the room; instead it officially launched “Russiagate”. These guys are truly a threat.

    • rosemerry
      November 12, 2018 at 13:48

      Comey should be included too.

  33. Maxwell Quest
    November 11, 2018 at 15:17

    “Brennan and Clapper think the law doesn’t apply to them. But it does.”

    No it doesn’t. Once you reach these higher levels in government or business you are considered a member of “The Club”, and are thenceforth and forever immune from prosecution. The laws are for little people, you know, the chaos makers, not for leaders. Leaders don’t operate under restraint very well, they need plenty of freedom in order to make all those difficult decisions every day that keep the world turning.

    Just ask John Corzine, who, when his commodities firm, MF Global, was going down for the count was able to lift $1.6 billion from customer accounts in order to pay off his creditors. See, these are tough decisions, and they require strong, unencumbered leaders to make them.

    • BigTuna
      November 20, 2018 at 22:11

      Montgomery talks

      CIA Whistleblower Speaks: ‘There Has Been A Wiretap on Trump For Years’ – Big League Politics

      http://bigleaguepolitics.com/cia-whistleblower-speaks-wiretap-trump-years/

    • Solomon
      November 20, 2018 at 23:03

      “The fact that the CIA under the Obama administration was reading Congressional staff’s emails about intelligence community whistleblowers raises serious policy concerns as well as potential Constitutional separation-of-powers issues that must be discussed publicly,” Grassley said in a statement sent to me Friday. “I have been asking the same question for years: what sources or methods would be jeopardized by the declassification of these notifications? After four and a half years of bureaucratic foot-dragging, led by Directors Brennan and Clapper, we finally have the answer: none.”

  34. November 11, 2018 at 13:33

    I have no doubt that the Democrats in Congress will use this information to take an ethical and principled stand, and will demand a complete detailed investigation and will require appropriate criminal punishment for both Clapper and Brennan – both of whom brazenly chose to violate the law – all while through their own hubris they claimed to be above our laws.

    Ha, ha, ha, oh, that’s a good one! Sorry, sorry, I can’t help it, I’m laughing at my own joke! The “Democrats?” – “standing up for the law, the constitution, for representational democracy?” Ha, ha, sorry, but there is not a freaking chance! I’ll predict right now that you and I will experience a more severe penalty for letting our parking meters run out of quarters momentarily – than either of these two amoral deep State actors will ever face for such blatant criminal acts against our nation.

  35. F. G. Sanford
    November 11, 2018 at 13:22

    While I am cognizant of the author’s moral rectitude and sense of fair play, I am equally bewildered by his innocent lack of perspicuity or suspicion. I recall reading one of his previous articles in which he said – I’m paraphrasing here – that he could perhaps believe that there had been some underworld involvement in the Kennedy assassination, or that persons with nefarious intentions might have somehow somehow facilitated or contributed to the event, but that he was not receptive to narratives involving a plot by state actors. Surely anyone who has taken the effort to read any of the learned interpretations of that event would harbor more than passing suspicion. A lot more.

    Clapper and Brennan will not be prosecuted. It is somewhat doubtful that the Whitaker nomination will stand, and most of the prospective replacements are troubled by conflicts of interest. The current administration no longer controls the House, and its grip on the Judiciary is slipping. Five key committee chairs including Intelligence and Judiciary will fall to neocon sympathizers. Foreign policy was relinquished to neocon toadies early in the administration in an effort to sop the Russia-gate zealotry. The Saudi-Israeli-neocon axis controls U.S. Foreign Policy, and we are now governed by a lame-duck administration. Perhaps the biggest espionage fiasco since Jonathan Pollard has been swept under the carpet. Here I refer to the Wasserman-Schultz Congressional IT scandal. But there have been others. In every case, if the neocon agenda was in any way jeopardized, the scandal was quietly made to disappear. Take a look at the timeline. Anything “bad” that happened during the Bush administration had to be planned during the Clinton administration. Anything “bad” that happened under the Obama administration had its roots in the Bush administration. The current administration is no less immune.

    The bottom line is, they’re all guilty of something. And they’re all covering for the small group of players who really pulls the strings. If either party had no skeletons to hide, we would have already seen a rash of indictments. The problem is, any “big fish” faced with slammer time is gonna start talking. Sure, a few could get “rubbed out” like Whitey Bulger, but that risks a breach in the dam. Be on the lookout for the usual distraction scenarios which always crop up to take the “heat” off the latest prosecutorial failure. An “alien invasion” always works, whether its coming across the southern border or in flying saucers from Alpha Centauri. They’ve only got so many tricks, and they’re starting to show re-runs. So…enjoy the program!

    • Skip Scott
      November 11, 2018 at 14:09

      Yeah F. G., I hear you. I guess nobody bats 1000. This author should read “JFK and the Unspeakable”, “Destiny Betrayed”, and “The Devil’s Chessboard”. I would think his personal experience as a whistleblower would make him a bit more suspicious of “state actors”.

      • November 11, 2018 at 19:32

        Those are all establishment treatments. Hersh’s “The Dark Side Of Camelot” and Chomsky’s “Rethinking Camelot” are on the mark.

      • John Wright
        November 14, 2018 at 15:59

        Mr. Kiriakou would also greatly benefit by reading William Pepper’s latest book about the King assassination, in which he proved federal and state involvement, beyond any doubt, in a civil trial in Memphis in 1999.

    • Maxwell Quest
      November 11, 2018 at 16:36

      I seem to remember another John Kiriakou article that was worded in the same naive tone. I’ve since come to the conclusion that he enjoys lobbing a nice bloody piece of meat into the lion’s den so he can sit back a watch the show.

    • O Society
      November 11, 2018 at 17:48

      Exactly, Fred G. Sanford

      Trump’s been laundering money and committing tax fraud for decades. Nobody goes after him. Because the plutocrats all have shady deals in Russia and the Caymans. Nobody wants to turn those rock over because they’re all hiding under them with him!.

      Same with CIA and FBI and DHS. They’re doing gangster stuff. Overthrowing governments, spying on their own citizens, assassinations, torture, on and on it goes.

      They don’t go to jail because of their proximity to power. The good ole buys network. Obama doesn’t send bankers to prison. Bush MIC ghouls don’t get tried for war crimes.

      They’re all corropt, from smooth talking Obama to PT Barnum Trump. And they’re going to get away with it because the oligarchs look out for their own.

      Only way for We the People to win is turn the oligarchs on each other. Until that happens, forget it.

      • O Society
        November 11, 2018 at 18:03

        Sorry for typos. I can’t see this crummy ass font well enough to see what’s wrong now.

      • anon4d2
        November 11, 2018 at 21:18

        If indeed “the plutocrats all have shady deals in Russia and the Caymans… Same with CIA and FBI and DHS” that would explain the lack of investigations there.

      • John Wright
        November 14, 2018 at 16:03

        There is another path to peace…We the People just stop participating in our own destruction and create a new, co-operative system from the grassroots level up.

        They only have the power WE give them.

  36. A.R.
    November 11, 2018 at 13:16

    Why do the comments keep disappearing? How come when Reload the page fifteen minutes later it keeps saying there are zero comments- anyone else see this?

    • Skip Scott
      November 11, 2018 at 13:53

      They have been having problems here for about 3 weeks. Then they dick around with changing the font instead of putting real effort into fixing the site. And the new font sucks too. As many have already noted, it is very hard on the eyes.

      The way to be up to date on the comments is to make a test comment and post it. You can then reload the page, select “edit comment” and then “delete”. If you don’t, you won’t be see your comment or the correct number of comments until the following day.

      • Jim L.
        November 12, 2018 at 11:55

        Yeah, the font sucks. Also “while senators on neither the Intelligence or Judiciary Committees didn’t know.” is a double negative..

      • Tim
        November 14, 2018 at 09:23

        > They have been having problems here for about 3 weeks.

        No, they haven’t — YOU and various other readers have. I and a number of others have never experienced the problems you complain of; the only logical conclusion is that there is something wrong in the system you are using to access this site (or at least, the comments section).

        • Skip Scott
          November 14, 2018 at 14:49

          That’s interesting. Joe Lauria stated in another article’s comment section that they were having technical difficulties and were working on it. Your “various” is in fact “many”. I have also noticed that occasionally the date for the opening page at CN is from the previous day, and that the number of comments listed is also wrong. There are usually many more than the number posted. If there is any other regular commenter who has experienced none of these difficulties, please let me know. I have tried a couple different browsers with the same result, and I’m using a MacBook Pro laptop with Malwarebytes virus protection. Their scans show I’m not infected with anything.

    • Tom Kath
      November 11, 2018 at 21:27

      Yes, I thought I was the only comment, until I posted it. Maybe Google is playing games?
      I can’t imagine that it would though, because it seems to me that CN is drifting badly towards a political perspective rather than Parry’s honest objective REPORTING.

  37. Babyl-on
    November 11, 2018 at 13:00

    test

  38. Sam F
    November 11, 2018 at 12:25

    Yes, it appears that “Brennan and Clapper think the law doesn’t apply to them.” Their abuse of executive powers to deny essential information to the legislative branch is an intolerable presumption of policymaking power, common in the secret agencies. It is common throughout the executive branch (military and other agencies), throughout our corrupt federal judiciary, and of course throughout Congress, which abuses policymaking authority by selling out to special interests for campaign bribes.

    We need to get money out of politics and mass media, and improve checks and balances between and within each federal branch.

    • JWalters
      November 11, 2018 at 22:52

      Yes, the U.S. democratic machinery needs new, modern security features. Corruption is sludge in the machine.

      • Sam F
        November 12, 2018 at 18:22

        I would would much appreciate suggestions from anyone on the institutional safeguards we need to protect democratic institutions from money power, secret agencies, highly organized factions, oligarchy, and other forms of corruption.

        • John Wright
          November 14, 2018 at 16:14

          Once WE the people regain control of our government we can institute a policy of 100% transparency and accountability (open source government) and have elections with verifiable paper ballots and ranked choice voting. Then, after a few election cycles, we can un-gerrymander how we are organized politically and move toward some form of direct democracy.

          I would also suggest that we take a look at how we organize ourselves in relation to the natural environment and structure our electoral districts based on watersheds, as clean freshwater is going to be increasingly precious in the coming years.

          Time is short, brothers and sisters, best get busy!

          Be well.

  39. Skip Scott
    November 11, 2018 at 12:07

    I think this article fits well with Trump’s comments during his press conference following the election. There are plenty of potential investigations that could dig up tons of dirt on both sides of the aisle, and within the Deep State power structure as well. Lets let them all proceed with equal vigor and really drain the swamp. Of course, the only problem is that since they’re all crooked, there is no one left to do the investigating and prosecuting.

    Maybe we could have Chuck Schumer ask Brennan about some of his “six ways from Sunday” on Rachel Maddow’s show. Michael Hastings would be rolling over in his grave.

    • Sam F
      November 11, 2018 at 12:30

      Indeed we have “no one left to do the investigating and prosecuting” except the alternative press and a few idealists with good sources. I am preparing civil racketeering cases (cases which can be filed by citizens, for a “pattern of racketeering crime”) against state officials, and may have to file cases against the federal judiciary for collusion in crime.

      • Skip Scott
        November 11, 2018 at 13:56

        Way to go Sam F! I wish you all the luck in the world. I hope you can afford a good body guard.

        • Sam F
          November 11, 2018 at 17:28

          The judiciary, DOJ, officials, and the racketeers they protect usually don’t shoot; they just dump cases with obviously false excuses, lies as to the facts, the law, and even the state of proceedings that are truly breath-taking betrayals of the constitution and laws. So it is a way to do one’s duty, but the effect is only an expensive time-consuming statement of truth, to criminal, amoral, and hypocritical judges.

      • Tuna
        November 20, 2018 at 22:25

        CIA whistleblower: Mueller’s FBI computers spied on Trump and SCOTUS | Communities Digital News
        http://www.commdiginews.com/politics-2/cia-whistleblower-muellers-fbi-computers-spied-on-trump-and-scotus-91264/

  40. A.R.
    November 11, 2018 at 11:45

    As much as I doubt the official Russiagate narrative, and support the claims of this article, the architecture of our current political system can all be traced to the brain/personal advisor of Vladimir Putin- a man named Vladislov Surkov. All of the current spectacle, theatrics of the left and the right, fit his model of ‘avant-garde theater’ and ‘nonlinear warfare’ perfectly. Russia even created an analogue of our antifa here way back in 2007- the Nashi, a ‘government sponsored, non-government, anti-fascist group.’ To anyone who wants to get what can be made of a grip of this whole charade, check out both Adam Curtis’ most recent BBC documentary, ‘Hypernormalization,’ on youtube, and the book ‘Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia.’ What is happening now with the radicalization of both parties, fake news, and oligarchs funneling money into PR, think tanks, fake nonprofits, and the blogosphere to shape social media, news, goes beyond ideology or any simple framework- it is to create a reality show out of the people where we are constantly on edge, confused, and finally in awe. No doubt Steve Bannon and Trump himself have adopted many tricks from Surkov’s arsenal, as well as key figures within the new ‘progressive’ left with their smear tactics, via David Brock/media matters and others to spark outrage and reinforce a lost faith in our failing institutions.

    • Joe Tedesky
      November 11, 2018 at 12:31

      I can’t comment on my having any knowledge of Surkov to rebuff your claims, but for myself I started losing faith in our government back on 11/22/63. And yes there have been other moments of doubt since then, but all and the same I don’t think any Russians were involved in my coming to the opinion that all things in Washington are true to believe, or as they are said to be. I only wish more Americans were to seek out the truth, as too many of my fellow citizens either buy into the lies, or they just simply have given up and don’t care. It’s time we in this country quit trying to find a convenient scapegoat for all our nation’s problems, as we take on our own responsibilities towards what outcomes are born out of our own American made actions.

      • A.R.
        November 11, 2018 at 13:00

        No, no. It isn’t the Russians I’m saying are directly involved- it is a particular propaganda model invented by Surkov- ‘avant-garde theater.’ It is where the ruling institutions and financiers use media and stage events in reality and within cyberspace to create a world in which collected/empirical data facts are almost meaningless, events move at the speed of light, and a massive theatrical confusion- in other words, ‘post-fact’- is used to distract the public from actual policy. His other doctrine, ‘nonlinear warfare,’ has to do with sustaining an ongoing state of warfare by having faceless enemies, extreme and strange events-within the media, reality, and cyberspace- so that warfare is primarily driven by forces that we cannot track, so that ‘the enemy’ always exists within one’s mind, if not an actual target of contrived ‘evil’ i.e. the traditional neocon agenda. Both of these principles allow for activism to be infiltrated, utilized, and lampooned in the name of oligarchic power, while everyone still ‘feels responsible’ and ‘engaged,’ if not for our minds being in a constant state of panic and outrage, where our most primal alarm systems, and therefore tribal impulses, are close at hand. Say what you will about America taking responsibility, but power, as far as the oligarchs and corporate/state power structure is concerned, are global, think globally- where national borders are only a manageable financial structure- and clearly not beyond admiring the tactics of their opposition, even borrowing from them for more effective ‘governance’- one example would be the striking parallels within the roots of present day radical Islamists, and the creators of American Neoconservative politics- namely Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Leo Strauss. Corruption is not uniquely American- there is plenty to go around at the top, all over the planet- and it lies with those that know ‘America’ as most see it barely exists.

        • Joe Tedesky
          November 11, 2018 at 14:36

          Thanks for the detailed explaination. I do hear what your saying, or at least to what you are trying to point out. I would not doubt that the Surkov strategical mentality is in play here as you described. I only know that for myself I have been effected by our country’s pass terrible events so much so that I can’t blame anyone but myself for the way I feel. On another level what you bring here is worth a better study for me to continue with. Thanks A.R. for the polite reply. Joe

          • A.R.
            November 12, 2018 at 03:59

            Thanks to you as well for having a reasonable reply, as opposed to the troll who decided to impulsively broadside and incorrectly paraphrase my statement below. And actually I totally agree with you- I think it is important to focus on an internal locus of control, all things external considered- even the strongest, most cynical anarchists, from the classics all the way to Noam Chomsky, with their constant questioning of power, believe in shouldering the burden of dealing with such things in a way that requires more introspection than it does a sturdy cultural skepticism, esp. when it comes to the subject of free will. So we don’t disagree at all there- a person must deal with their own personal shadow and existential responsibility before blaming culture- a big problem these days- many are always pointing the finger, without having that classically eastern discipline of watching their own mind, judging with rancor instead of wisdom.

          • Joe Tedesky
            November 12, 2018 at 23:15

            We are not that far apart apparently A.R., but in today’s controversial world I get kind of nervous when our problems get somehow pushed off onto another party’s responsibility…. if you understand what I’m saying. I don’t doubt that some Russian strategists could have inspired a propaganda mechanism to be used on an unsuspecting public, but again I get nervous blaming especially Russia given our country’s instigating state of mind. Please don’t give Rachel Maddow anymore material for her to beat the Russian war drum anymore than she already has. Again A.R. I respect what you bring here to this comment board, but understand me when I say to you ‘too proceed with caution’. Peace. Joe

        • Kim Louth
          November 12, 2018 at 16:32

          AR , your description of this “propaganda model” sounds remarkably like our current experience. “…collected/empirical data facts are almost meaningless, events move at the speed of light, and a massive theatrical confusion- in other words, ‘post-fact’- is used to distract the public from actual policy. His other doctrine, ‘nonlinear warfare,’ has to do with sustaining an ongoing state of warfare by having faceless enemies, extreme and strange events-within the media, reality, and cyberspace- so that warfare is primarily driven by forces that we cannot track, so that ‘the enemy’ always exists within one’s mind, if not an actual target of contrived ‘evil’ i.e. the traditional neocon agenda…”

          The question remains ” How do we combat it ~ what can we do?” I am finding myself increasingly alarmed with nowhere to go and nothing to do about any of it.

          I can understand why people want to stick their heads in the sand; raised awareness without actionable solutions foster a sense of futility, helplessness and despair. This is not to suggest you should not raise the point, only to ask “What, then, is a peon to do?”

    • anon4d2s
      November 11, 2018 at 12:38

      What absurdity, that “architecture of our current political system can all be traced to… Vladimir Putin”. You will get nowhere with that propaganda here.

      • A.R.
        November 11, 2018 at 13:28

        Obviously either you cannot read, or are a troll. Whether you like it or not- the way Donald Trump/Bannon and the constantly outraged ‘progressive’ left are playing this game with facts- w ‘fake news,’ attacking certain elements of the press while justifying others- and stirring up controversy within our social frameworks in a divide and conquer narrative on our own people- with celebrities more intertwined in our politics than public intellectuals, was a strategy created by Surkov. Watch ‘Hypernormalization’- Adam Curtis, along w John pilger, are the two sharpest social documentarians alive- both are very well educated in global politics and the nature of propaganda- Curtis doc ‘Century of the Self’ is the most thorough film doc ever made about such things, by far. So I guess you are calling him dumb as well- not like I just pulled the idea from nowhere.

        • anon4d2s
          November 12, 2018 at 07:23

          Every nation and most factions have manipulators.
          It is error to blame one of them for inventing corruption.

    • Dave P.
      November 12, 2018 at 01:39

      To believe in much of the political reporting coming out of BBC after 2002 is like living in fool’s paradise. BBC used to be a reasonably good source in independent news reporting and some other presentations. I still remember listening to BBC radio to improve my English and for information when I was a teenager growing up during 1950’s. BBC Radio was aired in India those days.
      Among numerous other crimes of Toni Blair, turning BBC into an effective arm of British government propaganda was one of them. He fired the Director and others at BBC who refused to support the Iraq war. Just like many other progressive media outlets in U.K. {and in U.S. and other countries in Western Europe), BBC has largely lost its journalistic integrity.

      • A.R.
        November 12, 2018 at 04:39

        I mostly agree with you. But doesn’t mean every single thing that appears on there is without substance. Adam Curtis is an independent documentarian who has asked tough questions for years- and he leans more libertarian than left, which is def not BBC’s chosen orientation, though he deals issue to issue- but openly criticizes Blair in very humiliating ways on a number of his docs, including ‘Hypernormalisation,’ which talks not only about the fraudulent claims made about WMD’s in Iraq as stated by Blair and others, but also conversations within MI6 about how those very claims from ‘intelligence’ actually mimicked a portion of the script for the film, ‘The Rock’ (Connery, Cage)- in a way that almost certainly shows just how snide and haphazard the folks were who through the whole shock and awe narrative together. But it wasn’t even my point to back up individuals who sometimes make their way to mainstream outlets with challenging journalism- the best journalists have constantly looked for the loopholes to do this. As a matter of fact, Robert Parry (founder of this site) is even interviewed on the aforementioned doc- just as Noam Chomsky’s damning critiques have been published in mainstream or popular ‘independent’ outlets from time to time. John Pilger is another great example. It’s a fools paradise to believe you can ever find a news outlet where you don’t have to be a skeptic, where only you and your ingroup are the only good guys, and those other folks over there are all the bad guys. So don’t take my word for it- but hell at least take the minimal effort of looking into what someone says before stigmatizing it.

        That being said, this reply still has very little to do with the overall point I was making in my original comments.

        • Dave P.
          November 12, 2018 at 18:00

          A.R. – You have made some very good points in your comments and I agree with most of it though I do not have background in it.

          I really did not intend to criticize your comments. I just wanted to make the point about the current state of once progressive media in the West. I wrote my comments in a hurry, and I was completely off the subject as to what you discussed in your comments.

          Just two decades ago, John Pilger, Steven Cohen, late Alexander Cockburn . . . used to be published in Los Anges Times here. Now it is a neocon infested rag with contributors like Max Boot, Richard Haas . . . all clamoring for war. And so it goes with most of the once progressive media. My wife watches BBC news once in a while. But with all this completely fabricated Russia Gate, Skirpal affair, Chemical attacks in Syria . . . being fed nonstop, I am just turned off from these media outlets.

          Your analysis is excellent.

        • Dave P.
          November 13, 2018 at 02:28

          I posted these comments earlier in the afternoon but have not appeared here as yet. I am posting it again.

          A.R. – You have made some very good points in your comments, I agree with a lot of what you wrote, though I do not have background in it. I really did not intend to criticize your comments. I just wanted to make the point about the current state of once progressive media in the West, I was off the subject as you said. I wrote my comments in a hurry.

          Just two decades ago, John Pilger, Steven Cohen, late Alexander Cockburn . . . used to be published in Los Angeles Times here. Now it is a neocon infested rag with contributors like Max Boot, Richard Haas . . . clamoring for war in Syria, Iran, and elsewhere. My wife watches BBC news once in a while, and CNN and MSNBC most of the time. Complete fabrications, and lies like Russia-Gate, Skirpals poisoning, chemical attacks in Syria . . . is fed nonstop to the population. I don’t watch it; just tuned off a few years ago. Yes, BBC has some good programs, mostly in nonpolitical areas.

  41. November 11, 2018 at 11:03

    “Brennan and Clapper Should Not Escape Prosecution”

    Yes, it’s true, but if we counted and acted on all the “shoulds” in Washington, there would be time for virtually nothing else.

    America is a thoroughly corrupt country at the top, full stop.

    We have countless examples.

    That’s why I can only chuckle loudly when I read about Washington officials pointing fingers at other governments.

    Uncontrolled money in politics plus the cancerous growth of gigantic corporations and a world empire have made it so.

    There’s no going back, except by tearing down much of what is, and just how likely is that?

  42. Eric32
    November 11, 2018 at 10:23

    Whether US Govt. operators get prosecuted for felonies depends on what dirt they have on other US Govt. operators that they would reveal to save themselves, or to retaliate.

    The author gives a good example of this re. inaction on Brennan and Clapper, but a wider deeper example is the Clinton “charitable foundation”. Charles Ortel has publicly been giving detailed info for years that FBI, DOJ, numerous state law enforcement entities, various foreign national law enforcement entities, could act on, and nothing happens.

    People should realize just how corrupt the US is.

    • November 11, 2018 at 11:07

      Another “should.”

      Just what means is there for ever helping most people understand?

      The mainline press?

      The government itself?

      It’s all kind of hopeless.

      Just consider that terrible bloody murder by the the Saudi Crown Prince, documented even, as it were.

      But he’ll survive because Washington wants it so.

      He’s useful to the empire, and he spreads around money like a drunken sailor.

      • Skip Scott
        November 11, 2018 at 11:56

        As a former drunken sailor (actually merchant seaman) I resent your remark. Drunken sailors spreading money around don’t hurt anyone, and they don’t expect anything in return. They’re just blowing off steam and having fun.

        • Joe Tedesky
          November 11, 2018 at 12:41

          Hey Skip after seeing the pleased expressions on many a foreign port bartenders face I’d say we sailors were spreading a lot of American goodwill… whata say to that skipmate?

          Ps I think John was only making a cliched opinion, and not demeaning us old salts. Peace! Joe

          • Skip Scott
            November 11, 2018 at 14:01

            Amen Joe. I made many a bartender smile in nearly every part of the planet in my younger days. I still think it was money well spent.

          • Realist
            November 12, 2018 at 23:54

            Sounds like you old sailors really did get to “see the world.” I’m sure it was a good education and will influence your trouble shooting and communication skills till you leave this earth on that last boat out of port. My uncle was a navy lifer from the day after Pearl Harbor till he was wounded and forced into disability during the Korean Conflict. He’s been one with the soil for the past 40 years. Miss him and his entire generation of my relatives. (Though he did admit to raising a fair bit of hell whilst on liberty.)

          • Joe Tedeskyb
            November 13, 2018 at 12:00

            Realist on this belated Veterans Day 2018 I salute both you & your uncle. Everyone, whether in uniform or not, is apart of this nation’s success. Our criticism of our country is due to our love of it. So thanks for your response to Skip and I reminiscing of a past day gone by… I don’t drink alcohol anymore, and because of that the world is a better place. Peace Joe

  43. chucknobomb
    November 11, 2018 at 10:08

    Free Assange, Snowden and others.

  44. TomG
    November 11, 2018 at 10:05

    And not a word in MSM. Disgusting! I certainly hope this can gather some momentum and bring these two maniacal manipulators to justice.

  45. jaycee
    November 11, 2018 at 08:16

    John Brennan writes op-eds for the New York Times and appears as an analyst on NBC… ’nuff said.

  46. mike k
    November 11, 2018 at 08:06

    Good luck trying to corral any of the “big guys” with the laws that apply to everyone else. Anybody want to bet me that these CIA Mafia Big shots ever spend a day in prison? I thought not….

    • Tim
      November 14, 2018 at 09:43

      Al Pinto:

      > What’s with the ‘oldnewspapertypes’ font
      > for this site? It’s hard to read and some
      > browsers cannot override it.

      For FireFox, I just discovered that I can by going to View –> Page Style, and there chosing “No Style”. It changes the layout a bit, but shows me the text in my default setting, Times New Roman.

  47. Al Pinto
    November 11, 2018 at 07:45

    What’s with the ‘oldnewspapertypes’ font for this site? It’s hard to read and some browsers cannot override it. Please change it back to what the font has been prior to ‘oldnewspapertypes’. TIA….

  48. Al Pinto
    November 11, 2018 at 07:39

    I agree, that they should be prosecuted, but…

    The law has never been applied equally for all Americans and never will be; Brennan and Clapper will not be prosecuted for their actions. Neither will be Comey, who spied on DJT during election campaign and released the results to NY Times. Nor will Obama be prosecuted for their actions, he had to know what the intelligence community was/is doing.

    Congress knows not to mess with intelligence community, as Chuck Schumer put it:

    “Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you. For a practical, supposedly hard-nosed businessman (DJT), he’s being really dumb to do this.”

  49. michael
    November 11, 2018 at 07:19

    “Brennan and Clapper think the law doesn’t apply to them.” They are above the Law, or they would already be in jail. As Joe Biden has put it on occasion, “this is above your paygrade. This is why I get to ride in the limousine and you don’t.” Prosecution of important people is entirely partisan, politically driven in the USA. That’s why slimy Manafort is in jail and the slimy Podestas and Greg Craig, who committed the same crimes in Ukraine (such as failing to register as an agent of a foreign government) are not.

  50. Gregory Herr
    November 11, 2018 at 05:07

    What a tepid response by Grassley! All he can come up with is that this “raises serious policy concerns as well as potential Constitutional separation-of-powers issues that must be discussed publicly,”

    Policy concerns? Potential issues? Cripes, call a spade a spade and rein in these criminal bastards.

    • Sam F
      November 11, 2018 at 12:44

      Yes, Congress should explore creating its own directly-administered enforcement agencies to rein in the abuses of the executive and the judiciary.

  51. November 11, 2018 at 04:50

    Brennan and Clapper are prime examples of why Americans no longer have faith in our system of government.

    If Nobody Ran for Office, They’d Win the Election!

    https://opensociet.org/2018/11/10/2020-vision/

Comments are closed.