Written by Philip M. Giraldi; Originally appeared at The Unz Review
There is considerable evidence that the American system of government may have been victimized by an illegal covert operation organized and executed by the U.S. intelligence and national security community. Former Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director Jim Comey appear to have played critical leadership roles in carrying out this conspiracy and they may not have operated on their own. Almost certainly what they may have done would have been explicitly authorized by the former President of the United States, Barack Obama, and his national security team.
It must have seemed a simple operation for the experienced CIA covert action operatives. To prevent the unreliable and unpredictable political upstart Donald Trump from being nominated as the GOP presidential candidate or even elected it would be necessary to create suspicion that he was the tool of a resurgent Russia, acting under direct orders from Vladimir Putin to empower Trump and damage the campaign of Hillary Clinton. Even though none of the alleged Kremlin plotters would have expected Trump to actually beat Hillary, it was plausible to maintain that they would have hoped that a weakened Clinton would be less able to implement the anti-Russian agenda that she had been promoting. Many observers in both Russia and the U.S. believed that if she had been elected armed conflict with Moscow would have been inevitable, particularly if she moved to follow her husband’s example and push to have both Georgia and Ukraine join NATO, which Russia would have regarded as an existential threat.
Trump’s surprising victory forced a pivot, with Clapper, Brennan and Comey adjusting the narrative to make it appear that Trump the traitor may have captured the White House due to help from the Kremlin, making him a latter-day Manchurian Candidate. The lesser allegations of Russian meddling were quickly elevated to devastating assertions that the Republican had only won with Putin’s assistance.
No substantive evidence for the claim of serious Russian meddling has ever been produced in spite of years of investigation, but the real objective was to plant the story that would plausibly convince a majority of Americans that the election of Donald Trump was somehow illegitimate.
The national security team acted to protect their candidate Hillary Clinton, who represented America’s Deep State. In spite of considerable naysaying, the Deep State is real, not just a wild conspiracy theory. Many Americans nevertheless do not believe that the Deep State exists, that it is a politically driven media creation much like Russiagate itself was, but if one changes the wording a bit and describes the Deep State as the Establishment, with its political power focused in Washington and its financial center in New York City, the argument that there exists a cohesive group of power brokers who really run the country becomes much more plausible.
The danger posed by the Deep State, or, if you choose, the Establishment, is that it wields immense power but is unelected and unaccountable. It also operates through relationships that are not transparent and as the media is part of it, there is little chance that its activity will be exposed.
Nevertheless, some might even argue that having a Deep State is a healthy part of American democracy, that it serves as a check or corrective element on a political system that has largely been corrupted and which no longer serves national interests. But that assessment surely might have been made before it became clear that many of the leaders of the nation’s intelligence and security agencies are no longer the people’s honorable servants they pretend to be. They have been heavily politicized since at least the time of Ronald Reagan and have frequently succumbed to the lure of wealth and power while identifying with and promoting the interests of the Deep State.
Indeed, a number of former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Directors have implicitly or even directly admitted to the existence of a Deep State that has as one of its roles keeping presidents like Donald Trump in check. Most recently, John McLaughlin, responding to a question about Donald Trump’s concern over Deep State involvement in the ongoing impeachment process, said unambiguously “Well, you know, thank God for the ‘deep state’…With all of the people who knew what was going on here, it took an intelligence officer to step forward and say something about it, which was the trigger that then unleashed everything else. This is the institution within the U.S. government…is institutionally committed to objectivity and telling the truth. It is one of the few institutions in Washington that is not in a chain of command that makes or implements policy. Its whole job is to speak the truth — it’s engraved in marble in the lobby.”
Well, John’s dedication to truth is exemplary but how does he explain his own role in support of the lies being promoted by his boss George “slam dunk” Tenet that led to the war against Iraq, the greatest foreign policy disaster ever experienced by the United States? Or Tenet’s sitting in the U.N. directly behind Secretary of State Colin Powell in the debate over Iraq, providing cover and credibility for what everyone inside the system knew to be a bundle of lies? Or his close friend and colleague Michael Morell’s description of Trump as a Russian agent, a claim that was supported by zero evidence and which was given credibility only by Morell’s boast that “I ran the CIA.”
Beyond that, more details have been revealed demonstrating exactly how Deep State associates have attempted, with considerable success, to subvert the actual functioning of American democracy. Words are one thing, but acting to interfere in an electoral process or to undermine a serving president is a rather more serious matter.
It is now known that President Barack Obama’s CIA Director John Brennan created a Trump Task Force in early 2016. Rather than working against genuine foreign threats, this Task Force played a critical role in creating and feeding the meme that Donald Trump was a tool of the Russians and a puppet of President Vladimir Putin, a claim that still surfaces regularly to this day. Working with James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, Brennan fabricated the narrative that “Russia had interfered in the 2016 election.” Brennan and Clapper promoted that tale even though they knew very well that Russia and the United States have carried out a broad array of covert actions against each other, including information operations, for the past seventy years, but they pretended that what happened in 2016 was qualitatively and substantively different even though the “evidence” produced to support that claim was and still is weak to nonexistent.
The Russian “election interference” narrative went on steroids on January 6, 2017, shortly before Trump was inaugurated, when an “Intelligence Community Assessment” (ICA) orchestrated by Clapper and Brennan was published. The banner headline atop The New York Times, itself an integral part of the Deep State, on the following day set the tone for what was to follow: “Putin Led Scheme to Aid Trump, Report Says.”
With the help of the Establishment media, Clapper and Brennan were able to pretend that the ICA had been approved by “all 17 intelligence agencies” (as first claimed by Hillary Clinton). After several months, however Clapper revealed that the preparers of the ICA were “handpicked analysts” from only the FBI, CIA, and NSA. He explained rather unconvincingly during an interview on May 28, 2017, that “the historical practices of the Russians, who typically, are almost genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate, gain favor, whatever, which is a typical Russian technique,” adding later that “It’s in their DNA.”
Task Force Trump was kept secret within the Agency itself because the CIA is not supposed to spy on Americans. Its staff was pulled together by invitation-only. Specific case officers (i.e., men and women who recruit and handle spies overseas), analysts and administrative personnel were recruited, presumably based on their political reliability. Not everyone invited accepted the offer. But many did because it came with promises of promotion and other rewards.
And this was not a CIA-only operation. Personnel from the FBI also were assigned to the Task Force with the approval of then Director James Comey. Former MI-6 agent Christopher Steele’s FBI handler, Michael Gaeta, may have been one of those detailed to the Trump Task Force. Steele, of course, prepared the notorious dossier that was surfaced shortly before Donald Trump took office. It included considerable material intended to tie Trump to Russia, information that was in many cases fabricated or unsourced.
So, what kind of things would this Task Force do? The case officers would work with foreign intelligence services such as MI-6, the Italians, the Ukrainians and the Australians on identifying intelligence collection priorities that would implicate Trump and his associates in illegal activity. And there is evidence that John Brennan himself would contact his counterparts in allied intelligence services to obtain their discreet cooperation, something they would be inclined to do in collegial fashion, ignoring whatever reservations they might have about spying on a possible American presidential candidate.
Trump Task Force members could have also tasked the National Security Agency (NSA) to do targeted collection. They also would have the ability to engage in complicated covert actions that would further set up and entrap Trump and his staff in questionable activity, such as the targeting of associate George Papadopoulos. If he is ever properly interviewed, Maltese citizen Joseph Mifsud may be able to shed light on the CIA officers who met with him, briefed him on operational objectives regarding Papadopoulos and helped arrange monitored meetings. It is highly likely that Azra Turk, the woman who met with George Papadopoulos, was part of the CIA Trump Task Force.
The Task Force also could carry out other covert actions, sometimes using press or social media placements to disseminate fabrications about Trump and his associates. Information operations is a benign-sounding euphemism for propaganda fed through the Agency’s friends in the media, and computer network operations can be used to create false linkages and misdirect inquiries. There has been some informed speculation that Guccifer 2.0 may have been a creation of this Task Force.
In light of what has been learned about the alleged CIA whistleblower there should be a serious investigation to determine if he was a part of this Task Force or, at minimum, reporting to them secretly after he was seconded to the National Security Council. All the CIA and FBI officers involved in the Task Force had sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, but nevertheless were involved in a conspiracy to first denigrate and then possibly bring down a legally elected president. That effort continues with repeated assertions regarding Moscow’s malevolent intentions for the 2020 national elections. Some might reasonably regard the whole Brennan affair, to include its spear carriers among the current and retired national security state leadership, as a case of institutionalized treason, and it inevitably leads to the question “What did Obama know?”
LINKBOOKMARKPhilip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org.
Very good article. I would like to see more of these published at SF. I point out that the agencies involved do have good people, not everyone is bad. It could be said that key agencies in the US are internally divided over agency policies – especially the CIA and FBI. Internal divisions had always been an issue but has intensified over the last few years and the issues are not just about Trump.
This has been the hidden civil war in the US and this war has now come out into the open. Two elite tribes with competing visions. So they are cut from the same cloth but their visions are very different – unipolar versus multi-polar. Focus on the path each tribe would have us follow, not the personal character of those leading their tribe’s battles. Trump may have bad hair, but the vision his side promises is more promising then the bleak prospects of a uni-polar world.
Lastly, all agencies, parties and tribes have within them good and bad people. The good people provide a basis for reforming agencies and parties, as well as tribes coming to terms with each other to avoid blowing up the planet. Be vigilant and aware of this fellow patriots – by patriots I mean in the broader sense of being in service to the people.
You’re missing the finer point of Giraldi’s Deep State. It is NOT about agency vs. agency, nor does it have to do with ‘policy’. It all has to do with powerful individuals recruiting traitors and seditionists from any US government agency that might be of use as well as cooperation from allied intelligence services. All of this without any ‘good people’ in those agencies who knew this having the balls to rat out traitors known to be working well outside constitutional limits AND agency policy. Giraldi gives two examples:
“…Clapper revealed that the preparers of the ICA were “handpicked analysts” from only the FBI, CIA, and NSA.”
Re: Trump “…And this was not a CIA-only operation. Personnel from the FBI also were assigned to the Task Force with the approval of then Director James Comey. Former MI-6 agent Christopher Steele’s FBI handler, Michael Gaeta, may have been one of those detailed to the Trump Task Force…” Maybe the NSA. “…And there is evidence that John Brennan himself would contact his counterparts in allied intelligence services to obtain their discreet cooperation, something they would be inclined to do in collegial fashion, ignoring whatever reservations they might have about spying on a possible American presidential candidate.”
There will always be psychopaths illegally gaming their positions of power in the US government for the benefit of some group other than US citizens. The real tragedy is the failure of ‘good people’ in those organizations to do anything to protect and defend the Constitution despite collecting paychecks from me for that exact purpose. I want a God damn refund.
I agree it is not about agencies, it is about competing tribes of elites that use agencies and government and institutional apparatus of many nations to achieve ends.
I do disagree though on your take regarding failure of good people to act. Many have and paid the price. The war against the Deep State is a result of growing opposition within elite circles as well as those in the elite instruments of power projection such as agencies – good people within agencies and elite circles concluded that things were being taken dangerously to far and this internal dissent has come to the surface. No one wants their dirty laundry exposed publicly but this extraordinary development is a reflection of the intensity of the fight between elite tribes for dominance.
The intensity of battle reflects the gravity of what is at stake. The world order is being taken down because of their reckless pursuit of unquestioned power and decisions made that nearly ended civilization, particularly in 2014. While the revolt is led by another tribe of elites, it is the efforts of good people working behind the scenes within corrupted agencies that have tipped the scales against the deep state.
These good people are the unsung heroes.
It’s always about the powerful usurping the machinery of the state. The entire purpose of the US Constitution was to prevent that from happening here. Honorable intent, but the powerful sidestepped those restrictions by progressively usurping the law and representation (elections). ‘Good people’ in the government have not prevented this.
The powerful can keep building in their own loopholes, immunity, privilege and secrecy via the government and have been for decades. They can continue as long as the little people continue a cult-like worship of imaginary magic powers of the broken laws and usurped elections instead of appreciating and protecting the intent of the Constitution. Expecting imaginary ‘good people’ in the government to fix anything is an even worse fantasy. Heroes? They are little more then passive enablers of exploitation by elite tribes.
No one wants their dirty laundry exposed publicly but this extraordinary development is a reflection of the intensity of the fight between elite tribes for dominance.”
I agree. You have just described the obvious abject failure of the US to prevent the usurpation of the state. Elite tribes shouldn’t be fighting for dominance or ANY influence in the US government because they shouldn’t be there. Remember all the old Colonial insurgents/terrorists that died for a elite tribe-free government? What do you think they would say about the state of our current government and the effectiveness of the heroic ‘good people’ imaginary efforts?
I’m personally responsible for anything and everything the US government does. Government employees should be fired for withholding information critical to my assessment my government and its performance. They should be fired for withholding or distorting information necessary to elect proper representatives. Without either, it’s just Clown World.
Well put. And you raise a point that I think needs more discussion and that is our collective culpability for how this tyranny came to be and our responsibility to challenge a this tyranny that is out of control, having wrapped itself in a false cloak of democratic platitudes.
If citizens do not lift a finger to challenge power that acts in their name for whatever excuse (lazy, fear of loss of station, career, social standing…) then how sincere is lamentations for the victims of our respective governments. This would be the argument by Terrorists organizations to justify targeting civilians as it is intended to exact a cost if citizenry fail to act to curb their political leaders actions that harm citizens of other nations. We are conditioned to not engage with members of terrorist organizations such we never hear their points of view, even though our own governments qualify as a terrorist entity and quite a bit more destructive than the typical terrorist organization, many of which are our creations.
We should pay attention to what they have to say because inevitably it will require serious self reflection on how we allow our government to inflict so much harm on others. Note that I do not buy the argument that the people are powerless to act and many of those that put up that defence will hold Jews fully accountable for the actions of the Jewish State of Israel, which is particularly hypocritical in cases where their government provides support to Israel such as the US. I make a distinction between citizenry and government since for example, we prop up the corrupt monarchies in the Middle East that would quickly collapse otherwise. Clearly we are in no position to criticize the citizenry when we have a hand in keeping them pushed down.
We need more commentary/discussion/networking about what is happening in our backyards and what we are doing about it. If we stay passive, others pay a heavy price because what our governments do goes beyond our backyards and so we bear a responsibility that cannot be shrugged off.
I have been in the fight for some time now and I am not alone and we have have at times made a difference, but at a cost. To me, to stay passive comes down to unwilling to bear the costs of taking action.
Well we already pay for passivity as martial law continues to be slowly but surely implemented under our noses. We have the power and so we get what we deserve. If we allow martial law, the martial law is what we get, and is what we deserve.
I look forward to reading more Of your posts so keep posting :)
The Nulands and Kagans and their ilk are organized and enjoy higher politico-financial patronage, they will always over-rule the individual specialists in the agencies even if the ratio is 1:100 in manpower terms.
It strikes me how childish the ‘Clinton Tribe’s ‘ claims of ‘Russian Meddling’ have been and still are.
Do the adult children in the CIA,FBI et al have no cognisance at all of the interconnectivity of millions of us who can debunk their fairy tales with shared knowledge of debated actuality?
I suppose that the Clinton Tribe’s disconnect with reality is historically the fate of all who assume to have absolute power. The French ‘Sun King’ being just one example.
The good news is that all in the past have eventually failed.
Their disconnect with reality was not an issue so long as it was made reality by the MSM. They got used to their reality becoming the public’s reality thanks to the unquestioned obedience of the MSM.
But those days are gone as the public wakes up, and it seems Clinton is yet to wake up to the fact that the MSM can no longer make her dreams come true… oh I have to stop, I am tearing up and need to get a tissue, boo hoo hoo
Where are all the Faggots on this site that didnt believe me when i told them about this 2 fucking years a go! Its those same dumb ass’s who think “China is good”! lol Told u dumb faggots u would believe me when this site finally reports it! You dumb cunts think this web site is the Gospel! This site is so far behind in the REAL news that they are to be laughed at!
When is this site going to report on all the bad shit China has been doing in the USA, Africa and Russia!
Now remember these words dumb asses! Russia and the USA will be official Allies after the U.S 2020 elections! So make that 2021!
OFFICIAL ALLIES!
Thats gonna confuse the fuck out of u people who like Russia, like China but hate the USA! Some of u will leave the site, some will be confused and a few of u will accept it!
Russia hates China too and if u had half a brain u would understand this! China is the enemy of the world and u dumb asses dont know this! U all thought it was the USA! But because none of u understand the intelligence war u just beat ur chest like cave men!
The CIA WAS the Globalist intel agency! The CIA worked for China The Globalists propped up China for the past 30 years The Globalist Spy agencies (Mossad and CIA) transferred and sold U.S tech to China China also stole tech! Stole Russian tech too Russia was forced to sell gas and oil to China after the Sanctions The USA was fighting Israeli wars for the greater israel project US foreign policy was controlled by the CIA and Mossad (Globalist spy agencies) via Epstein Pedofile honey traps! China commits horrific human rights abuses! They literally sell live humans for transplants! They have over 3 millions slaves! USA drained by wars! All has changed since Trump got in! Israel had to close down all of their embassies (Busted spying on every nation) USA pulls out of wars and focusses on trade war with China! Chinese economy is FAKE and depends heavily on Hong Kong who is apart of the Swift system! Without Hong Kong China falls! RMB is a fake currency inside a fake economy! China is in the WTO yet does not allow the world to view its markets and economic status! CCParty takes 80% of Chinese wealth for itself! China is going to fall via a revolution because Hong Kong is the weak spot!
Mark my words! Anyone who likes China is about to get a big surprise! Google, FB, Twitter etc all work for China! Even Hollywood! It was all CIA owned and now works for China! But China about to go down!
Wow – I feel so red-pilled now! Thanks, Justin – you’re The One. Except you have just vomited out the the same old tired spew of every other psychopath: dangle a new, even more dangerous and threatening enemy in front of the cavemen to rally them behind you and your righteousness! I hope there’s some financial interest for you in this sodomize-China-hate fest. If not, well… it might be time to talk to someone. Fox News isn’t going to save you – they’re the enemy. Mark my words!
i dont trust ANY MSM! But if you seriously do not know that China is the bad guy and that the Globalist spy agencies transferred tech and industries to China in order to rule via a Communist Dictatorship then ure as dumb as all the other sheep on this site!
“BAAAAAA”!
But dont worry, you’ll find out REAL SOON!
I’ll screen shot your comment so i can rub it in your face later!
P.S im not here to make friends or gain followers, im here to belittle weak minded fools who have been a part of the problem and not part of the solution! Ignorance is just as bad as being the guilty! You are literally cheerleaders for the Zionist Globalists, Mossad and the CIA! You’re just too dumb to know it!
Note: Obama CIA era is completely different to Trump CIA era! You need at least 1/10th of a brain to understand that but i dont think anyone on this site has that!
Treasonous bastards shall be executed
Peanut farmers, actors, crooks, traitors and cocaine dealers. The whitehouse has seen them all, and was aptly named during obomber’s tenure.