The former U.S. director of national intelligence told CNN new Russiagate revelations were “nonsense” and “absurd” but he wasn’t challenged on any details the way Ray McGovern once did back in 2018.
Clapper with Obama in 2018. (Official White House Photo/Pete Souza)
New revelations beginning last month that senior Obama administration officials suppressed U.S. intelligence that said Russia did not interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election has caused a furious reaction from some of those officials.
One is James Clapper, Obama’s director of national intelligence. On CNN last week, Clapper denied any of the revelations were true without refuting any of them in detail. He just fulminated that the revelations are “patently false,” “unfounded” and “ridiculous.”
CNN did not press him to specifically deny the charges.
Another of the officials is John Brennan, Obama’s Central Intelligence director. The New York Times on Thursday gave Brennan and Clapper a platform to deny the new revelations without any pushback.
Clapper’s credibility was already shot from the time of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq when he was the head of U.S. satellite intelligence, which played a crucial role in the WMD hoax. In 2018, former C.I.A. analyst Ray McGovern took the chance to hold him accountable. This is the article he wrote about that encounter for Consortium News.
Former DNI James Clapper had his own words read back to him by Ray McGovern, exposing his role in justifying the Iraq invasion based on fraudulent intelligence.
By Ray McGovern
Special to Consortium News
Nov. 14, 2018
Former National Intelligence Director James Clapper’s key role in helping the Cheney/Bush administration “justify” war on Iraq with fraudulent intelligence was exposed on Tuesday at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington.
His own words were quoted back to him from his memoir “Facts and Fears: Hard Truths From a Life in Intelligence.” Hard truths, indeed.
Clapper was appointed Director of National Intelligence by President Barack Obama in June 2010, almost certainly at the prompting of Obama’s intelligence confidant and Clapper friend John Brennan, later director of the CIA.
Despite Clapper’s performance on Iraq, he was confirmed unanimously by the Senate. Obama even allowed Clapper to keep his job for three and a half more years after he admitted that he had lied under oath to that same Senate about the extent of eavesdropping on Americans by the National Security Agency (NSA). He is now a security analyst for CNN.
In his book, Clapper finally places the blame for the consequential fraud (he calls it “the failure”) to find the (non-existent) WMD “where it belongs — squarely on the shoulders of the administration members who were pushing a narrative of a rogue WMD program in Iraq and on the intelligence officers, including me, who were so eager to help that we found what wasn’t really there.” (emphasis added) .
Clapper: After WMD failure, promoted by Obama. (White House Photo by Pete Souza)
So at the event on Tuesday I stood up and asked him about that. It was easy, given the background Clapper himself provides in his book, such as:
“The White House aimed to justify why an invasion of and regime change in Iraq were necessary, with a public narrative that condemned its continued development of weapons of mass destruction [and] its support to al-Qaida (for which the Intelligence Community had no evidence).”
What Clapper chokes on — and avoids saying — is that U.S. intelligence had no evidence of WMD either.
Indeed, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had put him in charge of the agency responsible for analyzing imagery of all kinds — photographic, radar, infrared, and multispectral — precisely so that the absence of evidence from our multi-billion-dollar intelligence collection satellites could be hidden, in order not to impede the planned attack on Iraq.
That’s why, as Clapper now admits, he had to find “what wasn’t really there.”
Members of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) who have employed Clapper under contract, or otherwise known his work, caution that he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. So, to be fair, there is an outside chance that Rumsfeld persuaded him to be guided by the (in)famous Rumsfeld dictum: “The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”
But the consequences are the same: a war of aggression with millions dead and wounded; continuing bedlam in the area; and no one — high or low — held accountable. Hold your breath and add Joe Biden awarding the “Liberty Medal” to George W. Bush on Veteran’s Day.
‘Shocked’
Clapper writes:
“… we heard that Vice President Cheney was pushing the Pentagon for intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, and then the order came down to NIMA [the National Imagery and Mapping Agency] to find (emphasis in original) the WMD sites. We set to work, analyzing imagery to eventually identify, with varying degrees of confidence, more than 950 sites where we assessed there might be WMDs or a WMD connection. We drew on all of NIMA’s skill sets … and it was all wrong.”
“To support his [Secretary of State Colin Powell’s February 5, 2003] speech, NIMA (which Clapper headed) had gone through the difficult process of declassifying satellite images of trucks arriving at WMD sites just ahead of the weapons inspectors to move materials before they could be found, and my team also produced computer-generated images of trucks fitted out as ‘mobile production facilities used to make biological agents.’ Those images, possibly more than any other substantiation he presented, carried the day with the international community and Americans alike.”
“[For] the invasion of Iraq on March 20, six weeks after Powell’s speech, NIMA … prepared a prioritized list of our suspect [WMD] sites with specific locations. … Using this information, they [the fourteen-hundred-member international Iraq Survey Group] went from site to site but found almost nothing. We were shocked. … The trucks we had identified as “mobile production facilities for biological agents” were in fact used to pasteurize and transport milk.”
As for those mischievous trucks allegedly used “to move materials before they could be found,” as Scott Ritter, former chief UN weapons inspector for Iraq, has pointed out, they were clearly decontamination vehicles.
UN inspectors had visited the site in question. It was an ammunition bunker, and the decontamination vehicle was a water truck used to keep the dust levels down because of the sensitive fuses located in the bunker. These were known facts but Clapper chose to ignore them.
Nor did he give up easily, before he could resist no longer and admit, as he writes, that “it was all wrong.” In late October 2003, Clapper briefed Washington media on his latest guesses as to what really happened to the (notional) WMD.
The Washington Times’s Bill Getz wrote a long article replete with detailed quotes from Clapper, starting with: “Iraqi military officers destroyed or hid chemical, biological and nuclear weapons goods in the weeks before the war, the nation’s top satellite spy director said yesterday.
Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper, head of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, said vehicle traffic photographed by U.S. spy satellites indicated that material and documents related to the arms programs were shipped to Syria.”
In his book, Clapper refers to that briefing and says he conceded “we’d made some assumptions we shouldn’t have … “ and admitted that “I was still baffled that no WMD sites had been discovered. I mentioned that in the days before the invasion started, we saw a lot of cars and trucks fleeing the country into Syria. … I probably should have clarified what a stretch it would be” to suggest the WMD had been transported to Syria.” Well, yes, that would have prevented further embarrassment.
During the Q and A I was sorely tempted to quote Hans Blix, the then head of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, who on June 23, 2003 quipped to the Council on Foreign Relations, “It’s sort of puzzling that you can have 100 percent confidence about WMD existence, but zero certainty about where they are.” But that would have brought loud boos from the docile audience at Carnegie, and gotten me off on the wrong foot.
Instead, I cited to Clapper his most grievous offense against the profession of intelligence analysis — his inordinate eagerness to please whatever superiors he was working for at the time, and give them the information they lusted after to “justify” things like war.
I observed that exactly two years ago, the Obamas and Clintons were desperate to blame Trump’s victory on Russian interference. And so, I asked, was this a repeat performance? Had Clapper snapped to and again “found what really wasn’t there?” This, I emphasized, was the conclusion of VIPS, including two former Technical Directors at NSA.
From ‘WMD” to ‘Russian Hacking’
I noted that after Clapper had briefed President Obama on January 5, 2017 on the evidence-impoverished “Intelligence Community Assessment” alleging that Russian President Putin had personally ordered the “Russian hacking,” Obama seems not to have been persuaded.
I asked Clapper why the President told a press conference on January 18, 2017 that the conclusions of the intelligence community regarding how “Russian hacking” of Democratic National Committee emails had gotten to WikiLeaks were “inconclusive.” Clapper said he could not explain why the President said that.
Travel tip for Clapper: do not travel abroad to any country bold enough to invoke the principle of universal jurisdiction which includes the duty to arrest those suspected of war crimes when their home country fails to do so.
Your mentor Donald Rumsfeld had a close brush with this international form of Lady Justice in October 2007, when he abruptly fled Paris upon learning that the Paris Prosecutor had been served a formal complaint against him for authorizing torture.
The complaint noted that authorities in the U.S. and Iraq had failed to launch any independent investigation into Rumsfeld’s responsibility, and also noted that the U.S. had refused to join the International Criminal Court, which might have had more routine jurisdiction.
Former President George W. Bush, too, had a close call in February 2011. When Bush heard that criminal complaints had been lodged against him in Switzerland, he decided not to take any chances and abruptly nixed longstanding plans to address a Jewish charity dinner in Geneva.
Thus, both Rumsfeld and Bush were spared the humiliation that befell Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who had been head of Chile’s military dictatorship from 1973 to 1990. While on a trip to the United Kingdom in 1998, Pinochet was arrested on a Spanish judicial warrant and was held under house arrest until 2000.
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. Among his duties as a CIA analyst was chairing National Intelligence Estimates and preparing/briefing the President’s Daily Brief. He is a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
Jormunganr: Study in Global Human Trafficking and Abolitionist. Look it up!
Good to keep at revealing the Democratic Party lie,
convincing evidence that they’re not worthy of being an alternative Party,
and you and Binney did great footwork in the beginning.
And yet Trump, with a rightful reason for taking offense, lets the
crime go unanswered by now railing against Putin, sanctions and
threats, while increasing weapons to neo-Nazi Ukraine.
Profile in cowardice I’d call it.
“The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” D. Rumsfeld. “But, the consequences are the same: a war of aggression with millions dead and wounded; continuing bedlam in the area; and no one — high or low — held accountable. Hold your breath and add Joe Biden awarding the “Liberty Medal” to George W. Bush on Veteran’s Day.” RAY McGOVERN
“President BHObama awarded outgoing VP Jo$eph R. Biden, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, i.e., “the best vice president America’s ever had;” &, a “lion of American history,” BHObama. The nation’s highest civilian honor, with distinction — a designation given to President Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II & Gen. Colin Powell.” Worldwide Web.
“On Dec. 12, 2024, Jo$eph R. Biden commuted roughly 1,500 sentences and outright pardoned 39 more. Three days before he left office, the president commuted the sentence of nearly 2,500 federal inmates convicted of crack cocaine offenses. Biden’s team used an autopen on 25 warrants for pardons and commutations in December and January of last year, but two of those warrants granted clemency to thousands of people. WH chief of staff Jeff Zients approved the use of the notorious White House autopen.” The light’s on; but, nobody’s home, “Jo$eph R. Biden’s Autopen Presidency.”
Clearly, a resolution aka “Travel tip,” Book ‘Em!” One & All. POTUS’ 42-47, Clapper, Brennan, Blinken, Sullivan, Nuland, the Rice Cou$ins, Harris, Cheney, Turd Blossom, Gonzo, Wolfie, the Viceroy Bremer, Bubba, Hilary, et al., some “travel abroad, to any country bold enough to invoke the principle of universal jurisdiction which includes the duty to arrest those suspected of war crimes when their home country fails to do so,” i.e., From the river to the sea, “Israel is not fighting a war of self-defence; It is fighting a war of aggression. A war to occupy more territory, to strengthen its Apartheid apparatus and tighten its control on Palestinian people and the region.” Arundhati Roy.
….. “Joe Biden owns this, [depriving millions of Palestinians in Gaza of the necessities of life – food, water, fuel and electricity. In effect, to starve & dehydrate Palestinians in Gaza to death]. The US president owns every despicable aspect of the calamity unfolding in Gaza perpetrated by his country’s ever reliable and obedient proxy, Israel.” Andrew Mitrovica @ hxxps://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/10/19/joe-biden-owns-this
Here’s an interesting question…… if we know about this particular abuse related to “RussiaGate”, what else was President Obama and his gang up to while in power? A long-time watcher of American politics learns the phrase “tip of the iceberg.” Having characters around like this case of the Clap makes one wonder?
The one fact we appear to be able to learn from this now becoming fully known example of abuse of power is that the morals and character of the Obama administration did not have any problem with going beyond legality and democracy in Russiagate. If they would go this far in this case, then the question becomes where else did they go this far? With the other question becoming, is this the limit of how far they would go?
Also, of the modern Democrats, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama and Joe Biden, Barrack Obama is generally presented as the one with the most morals and character. Not that I ever believed that about an Ivy Leaguer, but it seems to be the general narrative. So, what else has been going on with the Democrats? Do we think the morals and character of the Bidens or the Clintons are stronger than that of Obama? It doesn’t really surprise me that these “centrist” Dems would go this far beyond legality and democracy. But, that same belief says that I have grave doubts about whether this is the only time they went beyond legality and democracy, and whether this is the limit of how far they would go.
And, never forget to connect the dots between the anti-Trump Russiagate with the collusion and rigging of democracy that this same crowd had to pull off in the primaries to make Hillary the nominee in the same year. That thought makes one wonder what sort of ‘dossier’ they might have compiled on Bernie Sanders, who was also a threat to their power and wealth in that same year?
Watching the propaganda smokescreen that is erected is illuminating for understanding the methods of mind control employed. This method is the one where they get a name and a title that the gullible will supposedly trust, then have that person go onto a softball interview on partner’s corporate media to say that the accusations are ‘absurd’ and ‘nonsense’. Typically, this method will not involve a fact by fact refutation, and usually the propaganda artist’s tool will be instructed to stay away from detailed discussion of facts. Or, may stick only to a very short list of facts where they feel they are on solid ground, and use that as an example to buttress the overall pile of BS that is being created, while otherwise they and the corporate partner will steer clear of other inconvenient facts.
There has been a large effort across all the corporate partners ‘news’ sites of such a smokescreen about this story. Lots of stories from people who the corporate partners can be present as ‘trustworthy’, who all say this is all a pack of lies, and do so loudly, but without details.
The reality appears to be that Barrack Obama was at least as bad as the President that growing up I learned to call “Tricky Dick.” One of the impeachment charges against President Nixon was in area of “abuse of power”, and wikipedia cites the following details.
” Attempting to use the Internal Revenue Service to initiate tax audits or obtain confidential tax data for political purposes;[171]
Using a “national security” cover for a series of secret wiretaps against government officials, newsmen and the president’s brother, Donald Nixon;[171]
Establishing the White House special investigations unit, later dubbed the “plumbers,” for “covert and unlawful activities” that included the 1971 burglary of the office of a psychiatrist in search of information to defame Daniel Ellsberg for his part in publication of the Pentagon Papers;[171]
“Failing to act” on the knowledge that close subordinates had sought to impede justice in the Watergate case and related matters;[171]
“Knowingly” misusing the power vested in his office to interfere with activities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Justice and the Watergate special prosecutor.[171]”
hxxps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_process_against_Richard_Nixon
Barrack Obama = Tricky Dick
President Kennedy fired the CIA Director, Allen Dulles.
Senator Chuck Schumer, in an interview hosted by Rachel Maddow, made an unveiled threat to Donald Trump that the CIA has “six ways from Sunday” to get back at a US president.
Kennedy was murdered, and evidence clearly implicates CIA counter intelligence director James Angleton and his Israeli connections. The fired Allen Dulles was picked to oversee the official investigation & coverup of Kennedy’s murder.
This is the type of world we are still living in.
The Russiagate hoax was not merely to interfer with an election. It was to maintain the criminal oligarchy’s momentum toward the conquest of Russia, and the looting of its natural resources. More broadly, it was also to maintain the subjugation and looting of America.
It’s one thing for the political and econ powerful to lie to us peasants. It’s another to lie to themselves–implying deep fear of acknowledging anything outside their own narrow tunnels of perception. Maybe a fear their power might prove to be just another illusion.
As for “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”… yeah, sort of. But then neocon fantasists stretch that “logic” all the way to conflating it with presence of evidence. A reasoning akin to finding no symptoms of cancer yet deciding harsh treatments like radiation and chemo are necessary.
My thoughts exactly. Absence of evidence was taken as proof the Iraqis had hidden everything.
———————
AI Overview
The phrase “not wittingly” in the context of intelligence gathering refers to a statement made by former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper during a 2013 Senate hearing. He was asked if the NSA collected data on millions of Americans and replied “No, sir… Not wittingly.”. This was interpreted by some as a denial, but Clapper later clarified that he meant the NSA didn’t intentionally collect such data, though it might happen inadvertently. This became controversial when it was revealed that the NSA did conduct bulk collection of Americans’ phone records.
Here’s a breakdown:
The Question:
Senator Ron Wyden asked Clapper directly if the NSA collected data on millions of Americans.
The Response:
Clapper said, “No, sir… Not wittingly”.
The Clarification:
Clapper later explained that his answer was meant to convey that the NSA didn’t intentionally collect such data, but it was possible that some data collection happened inadvertently.
The Controversy:
The revelation of bulk data collection by the NSA, despite Clapper’s statement, led to accusations of misleading Congress and raising questions about the NSA’s transparency and accountability.
I and many other folks here at CN who routinely post comments knew all along (often in the face of hostility from friends, family and work colleagues) that all the Russophobic nonsense and mainstream Russiagate stories were b.s. from the start. We were 100% correct and a deep dive into CN comments’ archives vindicates us all in spades!
All of you, go buy yourselves a drink this Saturday evening.
Way back then I was watching FOX (right nest to CNBC when I was writing my econ book), and I totally bought into the WMD, and was stunned when they weren’t there.
So glad to be older, wiser, and a CN subscriber and donor, so i’m not so damn stupid anymore!
Right on brother!