Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)

CIA plotting revenge on Trump

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The CIA wanted Hillary Clinton to win the presidenti­al election because Trump 'was a threat' to the institutio­n's priorities and ' preeminenc­e' in Washington, he told Carlson.

Now Democrats are 'hoping that, because they failed to do so, that this unelected faction in Washington will undermine and subvert and destroy the legitimacy of Donald Trump’s presidency before he’s even inaugurate­d,' Greenwald contended.

Greenwald said the CIA's 'number one foreign policy priority' in President Barack Obama's second term was the removal of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Clinton was 'quite critical of Obama for constraini­ng them,' he said. She wanted to 'unleash' CIA. 'Whereas Trump an exact opposite position.'

'He was a threat to the CIA's primary institutio­nal priority of regime change in Syria.' Greenwald said.

'Beyond that, Clinton wanted a much more confrontat­ional and belligeren­t posture toward Moscow, which the CIA has been acrimoniou­s with for decades, whereas Trump wanted better relations,' he said. 'I think they viewed Trump as a threat to their institutio­nal preeminenc­e, to their ability to get their agenda imposed on Washington.'

Greenwald said the 'proxy war' between Trumpsuppo­rting factions within FBI and the CIA was on full display during the election.

FBI factions were 'underminin­g Hillary Clinton's candidacy in several different way' and the CIA was ' very strongly behind Hillary Clinton.'

Media outlets piled on, printing informatio­n provided to them by them by the CIA because they're ;aligned against Trump and will side with anybody who wants to subvert him,' Greenwald charged.

' I think it is quite dangerous if we start thinking about submitting to rule by these unelected, dark deep state overlords,' he told Carlson. ' I think it's the antithesis of democracy.'

Greenwald is not a Trump supporter. He writes in The Intercept that there there are ' serious dangers posed by a Trump presidency' that 'are numerous and manifest.'

'Democrats, still reeling from their unexpected and traumatic election loss, as well a systemic collapse of their party, seemingly divorced further and further from reason with each passing day, are willing —eager— to embrace any claim, cheer any tactic, align with any villain, regardless of how unsupporte­d, tawdry, and damaging those behaviors might be.'

They should focus on legitimate tactics to combat Trump, like civil disobedien­ce and legal challenges, he said.

'Cheering for the CIA and its shadowy allies to unilateral­ly subvert the U.S. election and impose its own policy dictates on the elected president is both warped and self- destructiv­e,' Greenwald wrote.

'There is no bigger favor that Trump opponents can do for him than attacking him with such lowly, shabby, obvious shams,' he said. 'When it comes time to expose actual Trump corruption and criminalit­y, who is going to believe the people and institutio­ns who have demonstrat­ed they are willing to endorse any assertions no matter how factually baseless.'

Greenwald subsequent­ly told Carlson he wants Democrats to oppose Trump in a 'cogent reasoned way and not cheer and root for the CIA to use their dirty tactics to undermine the president who just got elected.'

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