Russiagate/Spygate/Obamagate overview
Russiagate/Spygate/Obamagate is as unwieldy as the names given it. Even though I’ve spent an inordinate number of hours trying to understand its development and steps, and all its different parts and motivations and characters, I haven’t mastered its complexities.
And that’s one of the things the Democrats are counting on. People will throw up their hands in despair, and be more likely to embrace (with relief) the MSM designation of “conspiracy theory,” and just move on to something else.
I’m not about to do that, of course. But I note the fatigue phenomenon.
Fortunately, we have several intrepid souls who have written lengthy pieces about the process that so far appears to be the worst domestic political abuse of power in modern American (perhaps in American) history, and we haven’t even learned all of it yet. I refer you to this article by Eli Lake in Commentary about the whole vile thing, and this by Lee Smith in Tablet, which deals with one particular aspect of its origins and motives.
The Eli Lake article in particular is long, the most complete statement of what happened to Flynn at the hands of the FBI and the Obama administration that I’ve read so far. You may need to do some deep breathing exercises every few minutes as you read it, because of mounting fury.
It is almost a certainty that, whatever is designated a “conspiracy theory” by the MSM is far likelier than not to be an assessment based on evidence and facts, but this very convenient term serves to render dissenting or contrarian arguments illegitimate to many casual consumers of the news. The more successfully this strategy appears to be working, the more it will be used.
Surveying this whole mess, it sure seems as if Obama and the people in his Administration/Democrats/the Left have–by their actions–taken a wrecking ball to our entire government–have laid waste to whatever might remain of a large portion of public confidence and trust in the CIA and in our Intelligence Community, in Law Enforcement and the DOJ and FBI, in Congress, and in the Courts as well; nothing has escaped their demolition.
Short version, followed by a long list of related reading: https://politicsandprosperity.com/spygate/
“The more successfully this strategy appears to be working, the more it will be used.” – j e
It’s been working now for a long, long time.
Smith makes this very important point, which I don’t remember seeing previously, but am not surprised.
Never tell the enemy your battle plans in advance — I’m surprised Flynn didn’t realize that applied to civilians as well as armies.
“The United States Intelligence Community (USIC) as a whole was against the former spy chief, who was promising to conduct a Beltway-wide audit that would force each of the agencies to justify their missions. Flynn told friends and colleagues he was going to make the entire senior intelligence service hand in their resignations and then detail why their work was vital to national security. Flynn knew the USIC well enough to know that thousands of higher-level bureaucrats wouldn’t make the cut.”
Which “friends and colleagues” leaked?
Flynn directly told everyone himself about this goal: (per Smith)
“Flynn not only made it clear that he wanted to undo the Iran Deal, he also broadcast his determination to find the documents detailing the secret deals between Obama and Iran, and to publicize them. With Flynn on the march, the outgoing administration was keen to shield the JCPOA.”
Smith finishes his very detailed summary and analysis with an odd remark:
“But why Obama would choose the Islamic Republic as a partner and encourage tactics typically employed by third-world police states remain a mystery.”
That particular point has fueled the “conspiracy theory” that Valerie Jarrett (who was born in Iran of natural-born-American parents) was his “puppet master.”
I don’t know how or why she would have any hold over him (conspiracy theorists may speculate), but maybe she was facilitating a goal he already had for some reason — although it’s hard to see anything in Obama’s background that would make him such an intrepid Iranian fan — or she was his Rasputin, though also unclear how that would work.
Loquitur – thanks for the link to the list of links.
A scandal hidden in plain sight for years.
Maybe we should call it “The Mother of all Gates.”
It should be called the “Illegal Obama spying” scandal. Because what Obama had the FBI doing was illegal spying. And violating rules & lying to cover up the spying, including the perjury entrapment and other questionably legal mispractices of the DOJ / Mueller prosecutors.
Illegal Obama spying.
It was spying.
It was Obama.
It was illegal.
I’m so angry — better brush my teeth and go to bed.
Flynn saw the 17 IC agencies as dysfunctional. He wanted to reduce and streamline this vast and bloated apparatus, as explained in his book. Contrarily, NSA and CIA wanted to protect their rice bows at taxpayers expense and to shut up about it, or else.
Lee Smith seems to entirely bypass this Deep State and Administrative State interest. Instead, his lens is narrow and not incorrect, but almost minor league by comparison to the class conflict angle covered by Angelo Codevilla for 10 years.
Furthermore, the class conflict and globalism is what drives the international elements of the story and explains why even ally’s like David Cameron, the Aussies and Italians got involved in defending Obama/Clinton.
“…or she was his Rasputin…”
Except that Obama had no need of a “Rasputin”.
To the extent that both Jarett and Obama saw/see eye to eye, she was not so much as an “enforcer” as a “re-inforcer”.
“it’s hard to see anything in Obama’s background that would make him such an intrepid Iranian fan”
Simple. Iran hates America. Obama hates America. Like we said in another thread, “Occam’s razor”. With a side dish of both also hating Israel. Sorry for the mixed metaphor.
So many threads this one could go on —
https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2020/05/21/robert-muellers-pit-bull-deputy-headlines-joe-biden-fundraiser-showing-just-how-non-partisan-the-investigation-was/
Take my word for it folks–nothing will come from any of this. The MSM will run interference for the Obama Administration as they have since he ran for president.
” The greatest enemy of press freedom in a generation”
That was NYT reporter James Risen in 2015 & he was referring to Eric Holder & the Obama Administration.
It’s all sturm und drang/kabuki theatre & particularly frustrating when Gowdy & Burr did nothing when they had the authority.
“…or she was his Rasputin…”
Except that Obama had no need of a “Rasputin”.
Then again, he had a live Putin to admire..
LOL – I noticed there was sarc potential in that name.
Too good not to share.
The revised Obama campaign poster.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/97bde0c3b376c2c21198555390ebc86dd9d0b55455390e1282dbaed5ec45c4b6.jpg
I put this out on the Sullivan post from yesterday, because of the Flynn connection, but it properly belongs here as well.
More on the mysterious Flynn-Kislyak transcript from J E Dyer (former Navy intel analyst, for those who haven’t read her work before). Both posts need to be read fully and in this order, but the bottom line is — there are holes in the Obama administration stories cum media narratives that Grenell may be on the verge of filling.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2020/05/21/unmasking-susan-rices-memo-and-things-that-didnt-happen-for-1000-alex/
https://libertyunyielding.com/2020/05/23/grenell-tweet-on-kislyak-flynn-transcripts-suggests-interesting-scenario-for-what-the-fbi-was-doing/
McCarthy also fills in some holes and connects the dots.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/05/michael-flynn-was-not-masked-because-fbi-framed-him-as-a-clandestine-agent-of-russia/
I think he is finally over his former admiration of his beloved agency, but it’s been a long hard battle.
Lee Smith’s piece, after further consideration, bears directly on what Dan Bongino asks in his Spygate book, as well as his talk at Restoration Weekend in Florida (a David Horowitz Freedom Center confab), November, 2018. (His talk is on YouTube; I’ve re-viewed it twice). Bongino asks what was the purpose of this spying on Trump? The coverup and continued attempt to hobble Trump through getting Flynn, the only of Trumps appointees with deep and high level exposure to the IC, is obvious. And so was the furtherance of the persecution of Trump via the SC of Mueller (as well as his impeachment).
But, asks Bongino, what was the first paragraph justifying the illegal or barely plausibly quasi legal (but wholly abusive) spying on a presidential campaign? Where does a “we’re going to do this because” of X, Y, Z! ( Besides the fact that Obama’s men and Lois Lerner attempted, and possibly succeeded, in defeating opposition to organise by abusing the IRS, preventing the “mothers milk of American politics” to flow to their enemy TEA party energies).
I think Lee Smith provides the answer. And a close look at treason in the Constitution tells us. Providing aid and comfort to an enemy government which the Iran deal did.
Yes, but we are not in a war? But what were Congress resolutions on GWOT about? And did not the 911 Commission determine that our enemies have been at war with us since 1979 and the Iranian Revolution? Why yes, and yeas again.
The fact that these many decades since World War II, the US does not have Congress Declare War any more is irrelevant. We don’t for reasons of complications from international law. Other resolutions by Congress are effectively the same at home.
So, that’s the evident motive: protect the Iran deal and keep it going by electing Hillary was the plan. It failed, and so Flynn had to be framed, and Trump impeached. The result was at least treasonous, it not effectively Treason as defined in the Constitution.