COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Monday, March 19, 2018

Rodent John Brennan, another Deep State Flea Ridden Rat

A Brief History of the CIA's Unpunished Spying on the Senate

President Obama's choice to lead the intelligence agency has undermined core checks and balances with impunity.



This is the story of John Brennan's CIA spying on Congress and getting away with it.  

Last March, Senator Dianne Feinstein accused the CIA of spying on the Senate intelligence committee as it labored to finalize its report on the torture of prisoners. “I have grave concerns that the CIA’s search may well have violated the separation of powers principles embodied in the United States Constitution,” she said. “I have asked for an apology and a recognition that this CIA search of computers used by its oversight committee was inappropriate. I have received neither.”

CIA Director John Brennan denied the charge. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said. “We wouldn’t do that. That’s just beyond the scope of reason in terms of what we’d do.” It would be months before his denial was publicly proved false. "An internal investigation by the C.I.A. has found that its officers penetrated a computer network used by the Senate Intelligence Committee in preparing its damning report on the C.I.A.’s detention and interrogation program," The New York Times reported. "The report by the agency’s inspector general also found that C.I.A. officers read the emails of the Senate investigators and sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department based on false information."
The Senate intelligence committee expressed appropriate outraged at these anti-democratic machinations:
A statement issued Thursday morning by a C.I.A. spokesman said that John O. Brennan, the agency’s director, had apologized to Ms. Feinstein and the committee’s ranking Republican, Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, and would set up an internal accountability board to review the issue. The statement said that the board, which will be led by a former Democratic senator, Evan Bayh of Indiana, could recommend “potential disciplinary measures” and “steps to address systemic issues.” But anger among lawmakers grew throughout the day. Leaving a nearly three-hour briefing about the report in a Senate conference room, members of both parties called for the C.I.A. officers to be held accountable, and some said they had lost confidence in Mr. Brennan’s leadership. “This is a serious situation and there are serious violations,” said Mr. Chambliss, generally a staunch ally of the intelligence community. He called for the C.I.A. employees to be “dealt with very harshly.”


Late last week, that internal "accountability board" announced the results of its review. If you've followed the impunity with which the CIA has broken U.S. laws throughout its history, you'll be unsurprised to learn that no one is going to be "dealt with very harshly" after all. "A panel investigating the Central Intelligence Agency’s search of a computer network used by staff members of the Senate Intelligence Committee who were looking into the C.I.A.’s use of torture will recommend against punishing anyone involved in the episode," The New York Times reports. "The panel will make that recommendation after the five C.I.A. officials who were singled out by the agency’s inspector general this year for improperly ordering and carrying out the computer searches staunchly defended their actions, saying that they were lawful and in some cases done at the behest of John O. Brennan."

Done at the behest of Brennan, who once feigned ignorance about the actions in question, going so far as to declare them beyond the scope of reason! "While effectively rejecting the most significant conclusions of the inspector general’s report," the story continues, "the panel, appointed by Mr. Brennan and composed of three C.I.A. officers and two members from outside the agency, is still expected to criticize agency missteps that contributed to the fight with Congress." Who'd have guessed that a panel appointed by Brennan to look into malfeasance presided over and in some cases ordered by Brennan would decide that neither Brennan nor any of the people Brennan leads should be held accountable?
Brennan and the CIA have behaved indefensibly. But substantial blame belongs to the overseers who've permitted them to do so with impunity, including figures in the Obama administration right up to the president and Senate intelligence committee members who, for all their bluster, have yet to react to CIA misbehavior in a way that actually disincentivizes similar malfeasance in the future. President Obama should fire John Brennan, as has previously been suggested by Senator Mark UdallTrevor TimmDan Froomkin, and Andrew Sullivan. And the Senate intelligence committee should act toward the CIA like their predecessors on the Church Committee. Instead, the CIA is asked to investigate its own malfeasance and issue reports suggesting what, if anything, should be done.

The Times reports:
Mr. Brennan has enraged senators by refusing to answer questions posed by the Intelligence Committee about who at the C.I.A. authorized the computer intrusion. Doing so, he said, could compromise the accountability board’s investigation.

“What did he know? When did he know it? What did he order?” said Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who is a member of the Intelligence Committee, said in an interview last week. “They haven’t answered those basic questions.”
Senator Levin, you're a member of a coequal branch. You've flagged outrageous behavior among those you're charged with overseeing. What are you going to do about it?

44 comments:

  1. Brennan and the CIA have behaved indefensibly. But substantial blame belongs to the overseers who've permitted them to do so with impunity, including figures in the Obama administration right up to the president and Senate intelligence committee members who, for all their bluster, have yet to react to CIA misbehavior in a way that actually disincentivizes similar malfeasance in the future.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Never trust a spook.

    They're all dicks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Obama should have fired John Brennan but that president, that pitifully shallow rooted American, wanted to fundamentally change America.He soiled it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. .

    Fire Brennan? He should have one been tried and convicted of lying under oath to the Senate. Or both. And he's not the only one. Clapper did the same thing.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  5. Off Topic

    Zuckerberg

    Cambridge Analytica

    Facebook

    Judge Napolitano:

    '40k per violation of privacy violation X 50 million pretty soon you're talking money'

    Do the math.

    Now add Europe

    Biggest possible class action suit in history.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. (if the world is beginning to pass me by, what me worry ?)

      Delete
    2. Heat on Zuckerberg...

      Slide costs Mark $6 Billion! Busy selling shares....DRUDGE


      Things remain much the same out this way.

      Delete
    3. Doug is immune in his cozy lava tube.

      Delete
  6. .

    From the last stream...

    DougMon Mar 19, 04:56:00 PM EDT
    Quirk addresses a post's subject for the first time in 20 threads!


    Oh look, Deuce has gone and hired a blog facilitator. And a pretty little thing she is. Kinda looks like the school marm that was around here the other day correcting typos and spelling errors.

    :o)

    Chicks. What can...

    Hey, wait a minute. What's this all about, Doug? Please connect the dots, chica.


    DougMon Mar 19, 05:36:00 PM EDT ---- Joe Digenova

    DougMon Mar 19, 05:42:00 PM EDT ---- This comment has been removed by the author.

    DougMon Mar 19, 05:43:00 PM EDT ---- Closet drunk.

    DougMon Mar 19, 05:01:00 PM EDT ---- Uber and autonomous cars.

    DougMon Mar 19, 10:36:00 AM EDT ---- Truckee

    DougMon Mar 19, 10:38:00 AM EDT ---- Early morning Freight Train!

    DougMon Mar 19, 10:18:00 AM EDT ---- (Insert anything but the topic here.)

    DougMon Mar 19, 10:26:00 AM EDT ---- https://www.google.com/search?q=santa+barbara+girrafe&rlz=1CAACAO_enUS720US720&oq=santa+barbara+girrafe&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i64.20119j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

    DougMon Mar 19, 10:30:00 AM EDT ---- https://www.google.com/search?q=Gay+sex+robots%3A+Demand+skyrockets...&rlz=1CAACAO_enUS720US720&oq=Gay+sex+robots%3A+Demand+skyrockets...&aqs=chrome..69i57&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

    DougMon Mar 19, 10:36:00 AM EDT ---- 180 lbs.

    DougMon Mar 19, 10:17:00 AM EDT ---- Boston radio host plans to sneak DNA from Elizabeth Warren...

    DougMon Mar 19, 10:16:00 AM EDT ---- Gay sex robots: Demand skyrockets...

    DougMon Mar 19, 10:15:00 AM EDT ---- Kathy Griffin Carnegie Hall Show Sells Out in A Day...

    DougMon Mar 19, 10:12:00 AM EDT ---- DOJ / FBI, US Obstruction of Justice Administration

    DougMon Mar 19, 10:06:00 AM EDT ---- What FBI corruption???

    DougMon Mar 19, 10:04:00 AM EDT ---- Avoid the the topic at all cost.

    DougMon Mar 19, 09:23:00 AM EDT ---- “Comey is a total pro,”

    DougMon Mar 19, 09:33:00 AM EDT ---- “Mueller is a total pro”

    DougMon Mar 19, 09:14:00 AM EDT ---- FBI leadership is beyond reproach.

    DougMon Mar 19, 09:17:00 AM EDT ---- Disarm DC now!

    QuirkMon Mar 19, 07:34:00 PM EDT ---- Doug, you are so damn stupid, it's pathetic.


    :o)

    Oh, sorry Dougie, that last one was mine.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You missed the post that indicated I was mimicking you!

      Delete
    2. (Doug Mon Mar 19, 10:18:00 AM EDT ---- (Insert anything but the topic here.))

      Delete
  7. .

    Trump's New Lawyer

    DiGenova: "I may not be a real lawyer but I have played one on tv."

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Larry Kudlow: "Heh. Heh. That's right."

      .

      Delete
    2. I would take DiGenova on my team anytime. He may not be a real lawyer, but he will be one hell of a strategist. Trump should add Mark Levin to the team.

      Delete
    3. Joseph diGenova was born in Wilmington, Delaware on February 22, 1945, making his age 72. He graduated with a BA from the University of Cincinnati in 1967. After that, he finished his Juris Doctor from Georgetown University in 1970.

      Throughout his career, Joseph worked in law. He and his wife, Victoria are the founding partners of diGenova & Toensing in Washington D.C. The firm represents corporations, individuals, and other entities before the Congress, U.S. Cabinet, and Federal courts.

      Delete
  8. .

    Dow drops 336 points as Facebook plunges


    Tariffs and Firings and Cambridge Analytica, oh my. Trump seems determined to eliminate the Trump Bump all by himself just to say he could do it.

    (Facebook suspends data firm with Trump ties)


    Facebook's worst day in four years dragged the stock market down.

    Facebook tumbled 7% on Monday, helping to pull the tech-heavy Nasdaq 1.8% lower and S&P 500 1.4%. It was the Nasdaq's worst day since February 8.

    The Dow fell as much as 493 points. The average closed down 336 points, or 1.4%, and is back in negative territory for the year.

    Big tech companies, including Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN), Netflix (NFLX)and Google (GOOG), have powered the market's climb, but all four slipped Monday. The S&P's tech sector fell 2.1% and was the worst performing sector on the index.

    Facebook is under pressure from lawmakers in both the United States and the UK after more than 50 million users' data ended up in the hands of data firm Cambridge Analytica...


    We all recall the umbrage, the indignation, the anger from the Trump team, the GOP, Trump's base, right wing media, the bot shops and fake news outlets, and the Trumpkins here when it was found out that the Clinton campaign had funded Fusion GPS opposition research. It will be interesting to see if there are the same vapors when it comes to investigating Cambridge Analytica and Facebook.

    So far, not so much.

    Nunes? Hey, my investigation has been shut down. I may just give the boys on my committee the rest of the year off.

    Grassley? We will just have to wait and see how this plays out.

    The Senate Intelligence Committee? (sound of crickets)

    Wouldn't want to be Zuckerberg when the boys on the right are looking for a scapegoat.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The data, the poor ole data, it gas been abused I tell you, ABUSED!

      Delete
  9. The Trump administration is expected to unveil up to $60 billion in new tariffs on Chinese imports by Friday, targeting technology, telecommunications and intellectual property, two officials briefed on the matter said Monday.

    ...

    Expectations of the anti-China tariffs have alarmed dozens of U.S. business groups, who warned on Sunday they would raise prices for consumers, kill jobs and drive down financial markets.

    ReplyDelete
  10. China is holding around $3 trillion in US IOUs and has a $500 billion trade surplus with the US. When we made our absurd trade deals with China, they had little more than a billion and half mouths to feed.

    A huge exporter has very little leverage in a trade war. China holding 3T in US debt has no leverage.

    I can't see the Chinese cutting off its nose to spite its face.

    ReplyDelete
  11. When Obama did it it was a good thing according the the NY Times:

    Data You Can Believe In

    The Obama Campaign’s Digital Masterminds Cash In


    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/magazine/the-obama-campaigns-digital-masterminds-cash-in.html

    ReplyDelete
  12. The Deep State Supreme Court decided to side with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

    The Pennsylvania Legislature tried to circumvent the Law.
    No can do.

    The Law of the Land still reigns supreme.

    Dems will take the House in 2018
    Treasonous

    Cadet Bone Spur will be impeached in 2019.

    Making America Good Again


    ReplyDelete
  13. Peace has broken out between the Arabs and the Jews.

    See pictorial proof here:

    JARED AND THE PRINCE....DRUDGE HEADLINE

    Looks like dinner at my place.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's one of my favorite servers, we call him "Q", in the white serving coat on the right, back towards us.

      He applied for the job out of Detroit. Said he'd just got back from being Chief Server for the Raj in India.

      He's quite the Ladies' Man, too.

      Delete
    2. Always telling war stories.

      He fought in The Spanish Civil War as a kid.

      Later, in North Africa, in II.

      Delete
    3. Has a justifiably low opinion of much of humanity.

      "They're all dicks", he often says.

      Delete
    4. "so damn stupid, it's pathetic"

      Delete
  14. What was Brennan's relationship to The Commie Party USA ?

    Polygraph panic: CIA director fretted his vote for communist - CNN.com
    https://www.cnn.com/2016/09/15/politics/john-brennan-cia-communist.../index.html
    Sep 15, 2016 - CIA Director John Brennan recalled a tough choice when nearing acceptance in the CIA; He decided to admit having voted for a Communist Party presidential candidate. (CNN) At his first polygraph test to enter the CIA, the future director had a secret. John Brennan on Thursday recalled being asked a ...

    CIA Director Once Voted for Communist Presidential Candidate
    freebeacon.com/politics/cia-director-once-voted-for-communist-presidential-candidate/
    Sep 21, 2016 - CIA Director John Brennan voted for the Communist Party candidate in the 1976 presidential election. ... "This was back in 1980, and I thought back to a previous election where I voted, and I voted for the Communist Party candidate," Brennan said at a panel discussion regarding ...

    CIA Director John Brennan Proudly Acknowledges That He Once ...
    https://pjmedia.com/ronradosh/2016/09/21/cia-brennan-voted-for-communist/
    Sep 21, 2016 - Remarking on this last week during a panel discussion at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's annual conference, Brennan said: “I froze.... This was back in 1980, and I thought back to a previous election where I voted, and I voted for the Communist Party candidate." Brennan was responding to a ...


    He also once led a hunt for moderate members of Hezbollah.

    Don't know if he found any, though

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, Lord, can't believe this stuff any longer....

      Delete
    2. Our CIA Director once voted CPUSA.

      Hell, I'll take Billy Graham.

      Delete
  15. Jesus, our country....

    Watch Hannity for today.

    Mitch McConnell is corrupt as hell.

    Joe Biden is corrupt as hell.

    John Kerry is corrupt as hell.

    The Chinese seems to corrupt anyone they touch.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Let not your heart be troubled

      Delete

    2. As the truth become clear
      The Trump Dump continues

      The Dow fell as much as 493 points. The average closed down 336 points, or 1.4%, and is back in negative territory for the year

      Lots of pain ... No gain


      Ptomises Made - Promises Broken

      Delete
  16. .

    I would take DiGenova on my team anytime. He may not be a real lawyer, but he will be one hell of a strategist.

    Right. And he's a conspiracy theorist's conspiracy theorist. Should fit right in.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  17. .

    You missed the post that indicated I was mimicking you!

    One more attempt at capturing a small bit of my reflected glory. You need to stop it son and move on. Once again, you embarrass yourself.

    15 - 20 posts. You are trying too hard. Keep it up and no one will love you.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Your words say, 'I want to mimic.'

      Your efforts say, 'I want to be like Quirk' like a kid in a Michael Jordan commercial or a little girl with puppy love.

      It's ok. When you grow up, you'll look back on this period and wistfully smile.

      .

      Delete

  18. These were the "Best People" working for Team Trump in 2016.

    Mercer money on the march in support of Cadet Bone Spur


    IN A SERIES of undercover videos filmed over the last year, Britain's Channel 4 News caught executives at Cambridge Analytica appear to say they could extort politicians, send women to entrap them, and help proliferate propaganda to help their clients.
    The sting operation was conducted as part of an ongoing investigation into Cambridge Analytica, a data consulting firm that worked for President Trump's 2016 campaign.


    The joke is really complicated


    Can't wait for the punchline.


    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. any allegation that Cambridge Analytica or any of its affiliates use entrapment, bribes, or so-called 'honey-traps' for any purpose whatsoever."

      The video evidence suggests otherwise.


      Forward into the future, boys.


      Delete
    2. https://www.wired.com/story/cambridge-analytica-execs-caught-discussing-extortion-and-fake-news/

      Funny stuff, this Russian Conspiracy with Cadet Bone Spur to defraud US.

      The punchline is coming


      Har de har har

      Delete

    3. Fraud, lies and deceit ...
      The stock and trade of the Trump Organization.

      Trump University is illustrative of the Organization's SOP.

      In a word ...

      Fraudulent

      Delete

  19. The Kushner Company, as well

    The Associated Press reported Sunday that a tenants' rights watchdog found that the Kushner Cos. had filed more than 80 construction permit applications for 34 buildings across the city between 2013 and 2016 stating it had no rent-regulated tenants. But tax documents showed more than 300 rent-regulated units.


    Read more here: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article205806459.html#storylink=cpy


    Birds of a feather.

    Fraud is their stock and trade.

    ReplyDelete