John Brennan's loss of security clearance--political castration
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy /s.
Maintenance of security clearances upon leaving Federal employ is supposed to be on a need to know basis. It is not a privilege. However in the incestuous revolving door atmosphere of Washington D.C., maintenance of such perks is commonplace--and is the expected, albeit not legal, norm after leaving office.
The loss of security clearance for one in private business, even if that business is fleecing the government or the public, poses a massive reduction in one's earning power. Gone will be the leaks and secret documents pointing to massively profitable insider trading. Furthermore, deprivation from government policy makes ex-employee bereft of consultancy accuracy. He/she just becomes some talking head on the street with no real information--except from illegal leakers. Another associated loss of maintaining security clearances is not being able to provide what the MSM pays them to do--leak inside political information.
Finally and most importantly, in this Dawn of Trumpism, is the knowledge of progress in criminal cases against the ex-employee and associates.
The root cause of the rabid anti-Trumpism is of course the Evil Queen, Hillary Rotten Clinton. No matter which tree you bark up, HRC traces are there (but don't forget Hussein).
The main plot begins in 2015 when GCHQ, Britain's chief intelligence agency starts getting cozy with Obama's administration, including on source which said that Obama removed all intermediaries from his early GCHQ interactions, playing this very close to the vest. Of course with Russiagate unraveling like a knit sweater in a kitten's grasp, the secrecy has vanished, although all is not yet revealed. Now, woe to the Dims, Spygate is gathering momentum and will take down many. Prominent amongst the Spygaters and first to fall is John Brennan.
Brennan has been rightly singled out by Trump as the lead man in the coup, even though HRC and other corrupt Dims were the instigators.
Question: what is rarer than hen's teeth?
Answer: a John Brennan smile.
John Brennan (JB) has a long, insidious past in the USG--mainly CIA-related: history of John Brennan.
Brennan began his CIA career as an analyst and spent 25 years with the agency.[1][5][21] He was a daily intelligence briefer for President Bill Clinton.[5] In 1996, he was CIA station chief in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, when the Khobar Towers bombing killed 19 U.S. servicemen.[5] In 1999, he was appointed chief of staff to George Tenet, then-Director of the CIA.[3][5] Brennan became deputy executive director of the CIA in March 2001.[3] He was director of the newly created Terrorist Threat Integration Center from 2003 to 2004, an office that sifted through and compiled information for President Bush's daily top secret intelligence briefings and employed the services of analysts from a dozen U.S. agencies and entities.[22]
Without delving into JB's allure for renditions and torture, we fast forward to mid-2016. Enter the famous Steele dossier (SD). This mind-glowingly expensive collection of clap-trap has NEVER been verified by ANYONE. Even the Feebs were unable to do so under the magnificent leadership of Horatio Hornblower Comey. "Salacious and unverified".
Yet this lack of veracity did not deter our Master of Intelligence JB from trying to push the SD around the halls of power.
A book published in March offered a startling but little-noticed revelation about former CIA Director John Brennan. According to “Russian Roulette,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid believed Brennan was using him as a conduit to publicize possible links between Trump campaign associates and the Russian government.
Brennan’s contacts with Reid — and other activities during the 2016 presidential campaign — are of “significant” interest to congressional investigators trying to figure out the ex-spy’s early role in the Russia investigation, The Daily Caller News Foundation is told.
“By his own account, Brennan played a prominent role in starting the investigation of Trump’s team,” a congressional source with direct knowledge of the House of Representatives’ Russia investigations tells TheDCNF. [Daily Caller News Foundation]
https://www.sgtreport.com/2018/04/investigators-zero-in-on-john-brennans...
Another source said that on a Meet the Press interview, Brennan said the SD did not play any role whatsoever in early intelligence assessments. If so, why did Brennan shop around the SD as a method to defeat Trump BEFORE the election?
Here's JB's testimony before Trey Gowdy May 23, 2017:
GOWDY: Director Brennan, do you know who commissioned the Steele dossier?
BRENNAN: I don’t.
GOWDY: Do you know if the bureau [FBI] ever relied on the Steele dossier as part of any court filing, applications?
BRENNAN: I have no awareness.
GOWDY: Did the CIA rely on it?
BRENNAN: No.
GOWDY: Why not?
BRENNAN: Because we didn’t. It wasn’t part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had. It was not in any way used as a basis for the Intelligence Community Assessment that was done. Uh ... it was not.
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2018/02/11/brennan_hous...
Reminder: who was head of CIA in all of 2016?
In an Aug. 25 briefing for Harry Reid, then the top Democrat in the Senate, Mr. Brennan indicated that Russia’s hackings appeared aimed at helping Mr. Trump win the November election, according to two former officials with knowledge of the briefing,” reported the New York Times earlier this month. “The officials said Mr. Brennan also indicated that unnamed advisers to Mr. Trump might be working with the Russians to interfere in the election. The F.B.I. and two congressional committees are now investigating that claim, focusing on possible communications and financial dealings between Russian affiliates and a handful of former advisers to Mr. Trump. So far, no proof of collusion has emerged publicly.”
...
In an Aug. 25 briefing for Harry Reid, then the top Democrat in the Senate, Mr. Brennan indicated that Russia’s hackings appeared aimed at helping Mr. Trump win the November election, according to two former officials with knowledge of the briefing,” reported the New York Times earlier this month. “The officials said Mr. Brennan also indicated that unnamed advisers to Mr. Trump might be working with the Russians to interfere in the election. The F.B.I. and two congressional committees are now investigating that claim, focusing on possible communications and financial dealings between Russian affiliates and a handful of former advisers to Mr. Trump. So far, no proof of collusion has emerged publicly.”
The book [Russian Roulette] says:
“Reid also had the impression that Brennan had an ulterior motive,” the authors said. “He concluded the CIA chief believed the public needed to know about the Russian operation, including the information about the possible links to the Trump campaign. When Reid later was asked if Brennan directly or indirectly had enlisted him to push information held by the intelligence community into the public realm, he told an interviewer, ‘Why do you think he called me?’ “
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/may/12/harry-reid-sent-sensiti...
But Harry leaked the letter to the NYT in October 31, 2016. Desperate to undermine Trump, Reid leaked the basics of the SD, again a document never verified in whole or in part. You could call it just his bit for democracy--or you could call it becoming a willing accomplice in the attempt to prevent a Trump presidency.
Strzok was enlisted by Brennan as middle man between JB and Comey:
Brennan, in his role at the CIA, used James Comey’s fixer Peter Strzok at the FBI to carry out missions writing official memoranda stating that Vladimir Putin wanted Trump to win the election, but without confirming any collusion between Trump or Russians. Brennan also convened with foreign spies from a diverse coalition of nations during the compilation of Fusion GPS’ Christopher Steele dossier.
Here is a passage from George Neumayr, whom I used to edit at The American Spectator:
So until election day, the “working group at Langley” was trying to dig up dirt on the Trump campaign and wasn’t coming up with any. But Brennan didn’t want his efforts to go to waste, so he leaked to Senator Harry Reid the existence of the counterintelligence probe into the Trump campaign. He couldn’t leak any damning findings from that probe because there weren’t any. But he could inflict political damage by getting Reid to tell the press darkly of the probe’s existence. He also got Reid to write a public letter to Comey about the probe, which was designed to deepen the FBI’s reliance on Hillary’s paid dirt-digger, Christopher Steele. Reid, as a reliable Democratic hack in the tank for Hillary, went along with Brennan’s scheme, but he felt manipulated enough by Brennan that he complained to Corn and Isikoff about Brennan’s odd intensity — an “ulterior motive” that Reid sensed in Brennan.”
https://bigleaguepolitics.com/john-brennans-leak-to-harry-reid-is-now-un...
JB obviously had read the SD before shopping it to Reid in August, 2016. This contradicts his House Intelligence Committee testimony in May, 2017.
Brennan interviewed by Rachel Maddow. Surprisingly, the questions were not the expected softballs and seemed to get JB riled up "It's my Irish" (Gasp! painting all Irish as malevolent hot heads). Questioning about Brennan's calling of Trump's meeting with Putin as "nothing short of treason". See at about 9:50 for the start of this. At 21:00 JB starts talking about the SD and at 22:35, he lies about having seen the SD as of September, 2016.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV7-ZdDGijY&frags=pl%2Cwn]
A side note, but very interesting: notice how Maddow pushes right up against JB, knowing she's got him trapped. Would she do that if JB was still as powerful as before? I doubt it.
The ancién régime is crumbling. Clapper blames Obama as being the prime instigator of Russiagate. But more about this elsewhere.
The list of those soon to be stripped of security clearances is here:
The whining has already begun. JB blusters about suing to get his security clearance back. More deep staters / hillary bots have joined in the tuneless chorus.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjbhKejHK8k&frags=pl%2Cwn]
Comments
From the perspective of a regular citizen
I fail to understand why anyone who is not working for the government should be allowed to keep his or her security clearance. Every one who is no longer in government should be automatically losing their security clearance.
And to Mr. Brennan, this is NOT an issue of freedom of speech.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
According to what I've been reading of late, retaining the
security clearance is supposedly so that the President can consult at will with these esteemed folk. Since Trump is unlikely to call upon Brennan, there really is no reason for Brennan to retain his clearance. Should a future POTUS wish Brennan to have a clearance, he or she can so direct.
On the other hand, the reasons for Brennan's revocation and that of the others on the list seems obvious.
You turn in your keys,
you turn in your security clearance. Should your "services" be needed in the future, they can reinstate your clearance as long as you pass a new background check. How hard is that?
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
I retired from local government
after 31 years with a spotless record. My job did not require a security clearance. A year and a half later, my old office asked me to come back on a part time, temporary basis. In order to go back to my old job in my former office, I was required to undergo a background check before the city would allow them to hire me, even as a temporary part timer.
Therefore, the idea that anyone who ever worked for the US government and had a security clearance would be allowed to keep it indefinitely is ludicrous to me.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Yep
that’s the part where I think it’s going to be a hard sell for TPTB that this is an injustice. We’ve all left jobs and when you leave, you leave your credentials. It’s pretty basic.
Yes, the timing of this is politically motivated. I am sure of that. However, I’ve not seen a convincing argument why any of these folks shouldn’t lose their clearance aside from that. It may be a case of doing the right thing for the wrong reason, but I’m not seeing the downside.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Here's the political "reasoning"
It's customary!
They're trusted individuals (choke)!
Hey, they need to make a living--one that you proles will never achieve.
We, the entitled, worked hard for this (yeah, if you consider swallowing a daily dose of hypocrisy work--or even "better", concocting tsunamis of hypocrisy (I'm looking at you, Chuckles, and you too Fancy Nancy [the self-asserted progressive]). The only thing these lying bastards are in favor of progressing is their power and wealth
And really, I don't think the actual
clearance can be "taken away" as one is "cleared" for access by having that clearance but may not always have access. From what I remember you also must update a clearance every 5 years, so an additional background check is done to cover the 5 years prior. So really, as long as these people are "cleared" for access via a currently updated background investigation even when not currently employed, it isn't all that hard to regain access as long as one is still cleared.
And yes, of course Trump is doing this for political reasons but these people should not retain access while not in office, period. As Kiriakou points out, these people are also talking to media every day, which in the real world would most likely not be tolerated for anyone else with access to classified, nor should it be.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
lizzy, security renewals every 5 years?
Are we talking Neptunian years or only Saturnian years? How many of these lying grifters could pass a polygraph if the wires are connected?
You turn in your emails too when you leave
and after it has been discovered that you did you get told by congress to do so. That means all of them not just the ones that you think you want to turn in. Especially when they have been subpoenaed by congress. It doesn't matter who you are or think you are, you do it.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Where else have we seen reference to the "CIA working group" on
Trump? That would be a violation of the Agency's charter and quite a catch.
Chased back that cat through Roger Kimball to John O'Connor in the conservative press. In the mainstream, the earliest hole the rabbit popped out of is here, where the Guardian all but admits that GCHQ unmasked Trump in 2015 and called Langley about it. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/apr/13/british-spies-first-to-s... In the US disinformation media, as untold by Brennan, himself, here: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/us/politics/congress-testimony-john-b...
I concur with your comment.
Thanks for the link which establishes GCHQ's involvement in 2015. Put that together with Clapper pinning the impetus for this witch hunt on Obama: "It all started with Obama". Of course, Clapper is quite a role model for truthful statements.
The properly denominated gang of eight are intelligence committee chairmen and ranking members of both the House and Senate. This briefing occurred in August 2016. Of course, the very intellectual JB sussed out the tremendous validity of the SD without even reading it. What a scholar.
Clapper in his own words
Brilliant essay for an overgrown lizard!
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
John Kiriakou has a low opinion of Brennen
“I’ve known John Brennan since 1990,” Kiriakou says. “I worked directly for John Brennan twice. I think that he is a terrible choice to lead the CIA. I think that it’s time for the CIA to move beyond the ugliness of the post-September 11th regime, and we need someone who is going to respect the Constitution and to not be bogged down by a legacy of torture.”
I worked for him when he was a—an analytic manager. It was before he really hit the big time under George Tenet. But again, I think that it’s impossible for him to not have gotten these briefings, for him to not have been intimately involved in the policy, by virtue of his senior positions, some of the senior-most positions in the CIA. It’s just impossible that he didn’t know what was going on.
https://www.democracynow.org/2013/1/30/whistleblower_john_kiriakou_for_e...
All I can say about Brennen is liar, liar, liar!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
So does Greenwald, of whom I have a high opinion,
despite his having gone to work for Omidyar.
Hattip to Lookout for correcting this formerly incorrect post.
Glenn is still at the Intercept
once wrote for the Guardian too.
https://theintercept.com/staff/glenn-greenwald/
The Intercept launched in February 2014, the first project of First Look Media, a news organization created and funded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.
Bezos own the WaPo.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Thanks. I seem to have conflated ebay and amazon.
My bad. I will edit the prior post.
From your link, Lookout:
Why is it that the MSM and Corprodems give Hussein a pass on all his ugliness yet trounce on Trump for doing or endorsing the same things? Sorry, rhetorical question.
"We no longer torture folks"
"We have moved on to droning them whether they are alone or in a group of civilians." Brennan oversaw the CIA's drone program as well as met with Barry on Tuesday's to decide who to kill next. Can you even believe that this program was our in the open?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Important as a military contractor.
A guy I know who claims his son is a Navy Seal said that his son was heavily recurited by military contractors (mercenaries) because he had top secret clearance rather than his experience in the field. Seems reasonable that if the CIA were hiring mercs, that at some of the leaders have top secret clearance that they can re-activate for mission details.
I imagine the same for "consultants" to contractors. Snowden I believe was not working directly for the the NSA but worked as a contractor.
These Russiangaters have had a easy time with their bullshit. But democracy is a contact sport. And they are being tackled hard now which they never expected.
The Republican blowback on Dim - Deep Staters is just starting
As I tried to explain in the essay, this revocation of security clearance is just the opening salvo. More revocations will occur, probably before the month's end. To speak in geological terms, Trump blasted away the capstone protecting highly erosive structure. Without security clearances, easy and undeserved avenues for private enrichment have assaulted. This not to say that Trump, once his power is consolidated won't do the same for his supporters. Trump even feels sorry for poor Manafort's 8 out of 18 convictions. None of those convictions reflecting upon Trump, but many leading back to the Podestas and Deripaska, Ukraine (both sides of the power struggle until the Uke Nazis prevailed.)
re: contractors
I remember reading somewhere that the majority of NSA personnel were actually contractors. The revolving door between public and private persons with security clearance is a major problem and allows for private companies to benefit from hiring those people with security clearances. This article details just how this system works to the benefit of private contractors. This is a part of what I call the "shadow government" wherein private individuals and corporations exert enormous control over our government.
(note: my bolding added inquote below)
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Duopoly's revolving door IN YOUR FACE
thanks, I searched for the article quoting something like 93,000 contractors before Snowden left and couldn't find it, but your Nation link was right on top: How Private Contractors Have Created a Shadow NSA Thanks Obama! and Bush the shrub, et al.
WTF?! Don't let the door hit you in the face with a pile of cash as you're "leaving"?
Do the Clintons still have "security clearance"? Why? This is SO not about security, it's about money-grubbing rent seekers robbing the treasury. My problem with Trump is he's refilling the same positions with his own choices, nothing has changed. Everything is still worse than it ever was. Corrupt.
Slowly I am beginning to make peace with "that's just the way it is". Nothing is gonna stop the viruses with shoes, thanks goodness I have no offspring to suffer the future. Now I HOPE reincarnation is another fake religious plate of noodles, I am so far from perfection it ain't funny, despite all the direction-giving trickling down from above. "We let some folks burn to death." ~shrug~ That's the system. Kill the enemy, kill kill kill! Kill everything why not.
peace and good luck
And because they're not uniformed military or even
Government employees, the contractors can be far more visibly political and partisan than their USG coworkers. Ms. Winner merely took that to an extreme, as is Mr. Brennan in retirement, along with hundreds of Agency officers who enjoy highly-paid second careers working for Saudi Arabia or other foreign contractors. Do we really want them all to retain access to classified materials?
The Dossier was just an end run around FISA and the
other nagging little legalities and requirements for verification that would have otherwise come if they had to do it legally and according to the rules. So, if some of the facts got lost by feeding the files through a cutout, who will ever know? Hillary can't lose and we can sweep up the broken glass and fix the rest after the Election. Right? So, give the Eight Dwarves their briefings - they don't really matter, anyway. And make sure their surveillance is still in place - we don't want any of this to leak from Capitol Hill.