But the main casualty is the FBI’s 18-month campaign to sabotage candidate-and-now-President Donald Trump by using the Obama administration’s Russia-gate intelligence “assessment,” electronic surveillance of dubious legality, and a salacious dossier that could never pass the smell test, while at the same time using equally dubious techniques to immunize Hillary Clinton and her closest advisers from crimes that include lying to the FBI and endangering secrets.
Ironically, the Strzok-Page texts provide something that the Russia-gate investigation has been sorely lacking: first-hand evidence of both corrupt intent and action. After months of breathless searching for “evidence” of Russian-Trump collusion designed to put Trump in the White House, what now exists is actual evidence that senior officials of the Obama administration colluded to keep Trump out of the White House – proof of what old-time gumshoes used to call “means, motive and opportunity.”
Even more unfortunately for Russia-gate enthusiasts, the FBI lovers’ correspondence provides factual evidence exposing much of the made-up “Resistance” narrative – the contrived storyline that The New York Times and much of the rest of the U.S. mainstream media deemed fit to print with little skepticism and few if any caveats, a scenario about brilliantly devious Russians that not only lacks actual evidence – relying on unverified hearsay and rumor – but doesn’t make sense on its face....
… the sordid process of using legal/investigative means to settle political scores further compromises the principle of the “rule of law” and integrity of journalism in the eyes of many Americans. After a year of Russia-gate, the “rule of law” and “pursuit of truth” appear to have been reduced to high-falutin’ phrases for political score-setttling, a process besmirched by Republicans in earlier pursuits of Democrats and now appearing to be a bipartisan method for punishing political rivals regardless of the lack of evidence....The 64-dollar question
At this point, the $64 question is whether the various congressional oversight committees will remain ensconced in their customarily cozy role as “overlook” committees, or whether they will have the courage to attempt to carry out their Constitutional duty. The latter course would mean confronting a powerful Deep State and its large toolbox of well-practiced retaliatory techniques, including J. Edgar Hoover-style blackmail on steroids, enabled by electronic surveillance of just about everything and everyone. Yes, today’s technology permits blanket collection, and “Collect Everything” has become the motto.Recall Chuck Schumer's remark about Trump dissing the intelligence community:
“Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.”Looks like Schumer knew whereof he spoke.
The fight is now raging over the corpse of American democracy, and no, Putin didn't do it.
Consortium News
The FBI Hand Behind Russia-gate
Ray McGovern, Army and CIA intelligence analyst for 30 years; prepared and briefed the President’s Daily Brief for Nixon, Ford, and Reagan; and is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)
10 comments:
McGovern: "...a salacious dossier that could never pass the smell test..."
No, it's an excellent dossier filled with solid intelligence that has been corroborated further by revelations since it went public. Chris Steele is a serious man. The dossier is not a fabrication.
People like McGovern and Mark Crispin Miller started with the position that any large claim from U.S. intelligence is definitely a lie to provoke a war. They then reviewed the Trump-Russia conspiracy evidence in a way that would confirm their position. They've engaged in textbook confirmation bias, and they are going to be quite embarrassed when the Trump-Russia conspiracy theory is revealed to be a fact.
They've engaged in textbook confirmation bias, and they are going to be quite embarrassed when the Trump-Russia conspiracy theory is revealed to be a fact.
At this point, intelligence and investigation has become so politicized and opinion so hardened that it is impossible to produce an outcome with credible conclusions that all sides will accept.
I view the investigations into the JFK, RFK and MLK, Jr. assassinations in this light, as well as the 9/11 investigation. I think that the "truth" is as yet indeterminate in all of them and it may never be determined satisfactorily.
This accords with the principle, The victors get to write history.
Even the accounts of the causes and outcomes of WWI and WWII are taught differently in different nations that were participants or affected by them.
We're told in the West that the Americans and the British who won WW2 but it was really the Russians who beat the Germans.
I should add that the corporate media typically presents the official line and either deselects contrary information and analysis or it treats it as "conspiracy theory" in order to marginalize it.
This is not the way inquiry is supposed to work under liberalism, and it is poison for politic liberalism, that is, "democracy." But most so-called liberal countries are not participatory democracies but democratic republics that guarantee elite control, that is, oligarchy.
It amazes me what the media tend to ignore. Imagine if Trump had done what Hilary did with the Clinton Foundation. The corporate media wouldn't touch it, yet they normally love gossip. Now the FBI is investigating it so it was always a good story.
Dossier migh not even matter it is increasingly looking like they didn’t even have a warrant...
Bottom line is that Adm Rogers detected illegal activity and reported it; only question now is how far up the criminal charges go...
Good audio summary of where we are:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZsELbp7fi0&time_continue=36
@Tyler Healey
"People like McGovern and Mark Crispin Miller started with the position that any large claim from U.S. intelligence is definitely a lie to provoke a war."
The CIA is obviously an absolute paragon of virtue, above any and all suspicion.
Except for WMDs in Iraq, chemical weapons in Syria, The Bomber Gap, The Missile Gap, The Bay of Pigs, The Gulf of Tonkin, MK-Ultra, Operation Ajax, 'there are no detention sites', 'we don't torture people', the Iran/Contra scandal, Operation Mockingbird, dozens and dozens of coups around the globe, domestic spying (Operation CHAOS), etc., etc., etc.
Yeah! and chem trails!
According to ordinary standards, the Russiagate "investigation", not skepticism of it, have the wacky conspiracy theory, comparable to 9-11 truthers & JFK conspiracy buffs. It has the same disregard for common sense, plausibility and honesty. There are just now powerful people and institutions wielding their power with this disregard, that is the only change. At least some of the old fringers were probably just having fun, playing a game, and would have balked if it became as much Real Life as Russiagate after asking themselves if it is becoming today's Dolchstoßlegende.
All this time and effort - and nothing. Of course one can't prove it or the others never happened, any more than one can prove that there are not UFO aliens or demons behind everything. But assuming the absence of demons and aliens, one can prove that Russiagate and the supporting media have not the slightest interest in the truth, considering for instance the way that alternative and far more plausible explanations than Russian hacking of those emails are entirely ignored and obscured.
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