Is there a perilous ‘deep state’ of untouchable U.S. officials?
On March 17, ex- CIA Director John Brennan tweeted about the current president of the United States: “When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. … America will triumph over you.”
Former U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power tweeted that it’s probably “Not a good idea to piss off John Brennan.”
If there is such a thing as a dangerous “deep state” of elite but unelected federal officials who feel that they are untouchable and unaccountable, then John Brennan is the poster boy.
Immediately after Obama’s 2008 election, Brennan became a critic of the very methodologies that he once championed as a George W. Bush administration official. Brennan was appointed Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, and then head of the CIA.
In 2011, Brennan offered various versions of the American killing of Osama bin Laden. His misleading narratives required White House revisions. In March 2014, Brennan denied accusations that CIA analysts had hacked the computers of U.S. Senate staffers to find out what they knew about possible CIA roles in enhanced interrogations. After he was caught in a lie, Brennan apologized to the Senate Intelligence Committee.
In May 2017, Brennan testified under oath before Congress that he had no knowledge during the 2016 presidential campaign of the origins of the Fusion GPS/Christopher Steele dossier or that the file had been used to obtain surveillance warrants.
Several sources, however, said that Brennan was not only aware of the Steele dossier but wanted the FBI to use it to pursue rumors about Donald Trump.
Brennan is typical of the careerist deep state.
Former national security ad- viser Susan Rice lied about the Benghazi tragedy, the nature of the Bowe Bergdahl/Guantanamo detainee exchange, the presence of chemical weapons in Syria, and her role in unmasking the identities of surveilled Americans.
Andrew McCabe, now ex-FBI deputy director, admitted to lying to investigators. McCabe had said that he was not a source for background leaks about the investigation of the Clinton Foundation. He wrote in an op-ed for TheWashington Post that “some of my answers were not fully accurate …”
Former FBI Director James Comey likely lied about not drafting a statement exonerating Hillary Clinton of wrongdoing in her email scandal before interviewing her.
Comey misled a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court by not providing the entire truth about the Steele dossier. He falsely assured the president that he was not under investigation while likely leaking to others that Trump was, in fact, under investigation.
Former director of national intelligence James Clapper lied under oath to the Senate Intelligence Committee when he said that theNational Security Agency did not collect data on American citizens. In the past, he also hadmisled the country about the “secular” nature of Egypt’sMuslim Brotherhood and the threat posed by the Islamic State.
Brennan, Clapper, Comey, McCabe and Rice haven’t been held to account for their distortions.
A common strategy of the deep state careerist is the psychological tactic known as “projection.” To square their own circles of lying, our so-called best and brightest loudly accuse others of precisely the sins that they themselves commit as a matter of habit.
In the ensuing chaos and uproar, careerists such as Brennan, Clapper and Comey usually escape scrutiny — to proceed to their next political reincarnation, Beltway billet, book deal or television gig.