Have you noticed, dear reader, how the news media have lionized the national-security apparatchiks lately? Persons named Brennan, Clapper, Comey, and Hayes are being transformed into “dedicated public servants” because they dare to criticize president Donald Trump’s foreign policies, particularly where Russian president Vladimir Putin-worship is concerned.
We seem to have forgotten recent history, post-September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to be exact, and/or turned it topsy-turvy. The Chas has to laugh.
Do you remember the USA Patriot Act, passed in October 2001, which authorized security apparatchiks to, among other things, scour public library records in order to learn who was reading what and to target anyone who was reading something suspicious?
Do you remember the George W. Bush administration’s use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 allowing security apparatchiks to tap Americans’ telephones in order to learn who was communicating with foreign agents?
Do you remember the National Security Agency’s persuasion of the telecommunications industry to hand over their records for the same reason?
Do you remember the false intelligence which proved that Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq, possessed weapons of mass destruction and threatened to use them against the U.S. should it invade Iraq and which was used to justify the invasion in 2003? No weapons of mass destruction ever were deployed or discovered, even though that war lasted 12 years.
Do you remember the Bush administration’s claiming that Osama bin Laden masterminded the attacks of September 11, but providing not one shred of evidence to prove the charge and instead using the claim to justify the invasion of Afghanistan? That war is still raging.
Do you remember that, in all of this maelstrom, the only hero the news media hailed was the intelligence analyst, Edward Snowden, who leaked tens of thousands of classified documents details of the shenanigans of various security apparatchiks and who now faces charges of treason and possible execution should he dare to step foot on American soil again?
The Chas remembers, and he laughs.
He laughs because, at the time of the above activities, no news organization was using the expression “dedicated public servants.” Rather, the media decried the repeated violations of the Fourth Amendment by a shadow government which followed its own rules of behavior.
The United States operates 17 intelligence agencies that we know of. It may operate others that we don’t know of, the so-called black-ops agencies which inhabit numerous novels, films, and television series. These secret groups operate off the books and are funded by a slush fund created from bogus government accounts and private donations from interested third parties. The known and the unknown have one thing in common, however: They do not share their intelligence with anybody else, but guard their territory jealously.
The only reason the news media have changed their attitudes toward the spooks is that, apparently, the spooks have got something right for a change, such as the meddling in the 2016 elections by the Russian government. At this point, the evidence of any possible collusion by the Trump election-campaign committee or the Trump organization is wholly circumstantial and would not stand up in a court of law. That could change any day, however; the drama is nowhere near its conclusion, and many of the performers have yet to speak their lines.
As for the “dedicated public servants,” the Coddington Agenda has something to say about them. To wit:
• Abolish the Department of Homeland Security, America’s version of the old Soviet KGB, Vladimir Putin’s alma mater, and disperse its components to other departments:
° The Border Patrol to Interior.
° Immigration agencies to State, but abolish ICE altogether.
° The Coast Guard to the U.S. Navy.
° The Federal Emergency Management Agency to Health and Human Services.
° The Transportation Security Agency to Transportation.
• Abolish the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and replace them with an Information Analysis Service (IAS), minus the black-ops functions.
• Abolish the NSA, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and transfer their responsibilities to the FBI, minus the black-ops functions.
• Round up all of the apparatchiks and the black-ops personnel and ship them off to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for some re-education and rehabilitation.
• Require the IAS to give full accounting to the appropriate congressional committees of all of its activities and expenditures.
This formula and agenda is how you will make America great again, and safer!.
Just a thought.