Why was Brennan the head of the CIA?
Obama’s CIA head John Brennan was apparently a key actor in setting up Russiagate against candidate Trump:
The report – written by Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi, and Alex Gutentag – details how the Obama administration CIA allegedly and improperly called on foreign allies from the “Five Eyes Nations” (the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand) to surveil 26 Trump aides as “targets for collection and misinformation.” The journalists got this information from sources close to a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HSPCI) investigation. …
The report says they will have more on Thursday about how a team “hand-picked” by CIA Director John Brennan “relied on “cooked intelligence” to craft that January 6th, 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment.”
I’ve previously written quite a bit on this blog about Brennan. One of the strangest facts about him is based on a story Brennan himself has told, about voting for Communist Gus Hall for president in 1976, when Brennan was 21 years old, as some sort of protest against “the system.” He couches it as a meaningless youthful protest vote, but I found it quite curious and analyzed the move more deeply in this post. An excerpt:
Brennan speaks in cliches of the time: “the system,” for example. Ah, the system! It’s a bit suspect that someone who was so against “the system” in 1976, at the age of 21, is joining that system big time by 1980. Now, that’s not impossible; minds can change, as we know. But that sort of change requires an explanation, one I’ve not seen Brennan offer, although I can’t say I’ve made an exhaustive search for one. I’d certainly be curious to know.
And if you hate “the system” and want change, let’s assume it’s change for the better. Why, then, would you vote for a Communist as a protest vote? By 1976 it was crystal clear that Communism wasn’t going to represent that change for the better. Brennan wasn’t an impressionable child, either, and this would have been his very first vote for president, which is often a time of great solemnity and importance (at least it was for me). To throw it away like that—if indeed that’s what was happening—is the mark of a rather impulsive and immature person, and that’s putting it kindly.
It’s not as though the 1976 election lacked for people to vote for if a protest needed to be lodged. Here were the major alternatives to Ford and Carter:
Roger MacBride, who had gained fame in the 1972 election as a faithless elector, ran as the nominee of the Libertarian Party.
Eugene McCarthy, a former Democratic Senator from Minnesota, ran as an independent candidate.
Ben Bubar, Prohibition Party nominee.
Frank Zeidler, former mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, ran as the nominee of Socialist Party USA, which was founded in a split with Socialist Party of America.
Gus Hall, 4 time Communist Party Candidate.
Lots of choices there, all of them more innocuous than Hall and plenty good for protests, if it was protests Brennan wanted. But somehow it was Gus Hall for whom Brennan decided to vote. Among other things, this was Hall’s position:
“Hall had a reputation of being one of the most convinced supporters of the actions and interests of the Soviet Union outside the USSR’s political sphere of influence. From 1959 onward, Hall spent some time in Moscow each year and was one of the most widely known American politicians in the USSR, where he was received by high-level Soviet politicians such as Leonid Brezhnev. Hall defended the Soviet invasions of Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan, and supported the Stalinist principle of ‘Socialism in One Country’.”
I found it puzzling then, and find it puzzling now, that Brennan ever was accepted into the CIA in the first place. Then, of course, he seems to have climbed up the ranks to the very tip-top. Here’s how Brennan has explained his applying for the CIA in 1980; the way he describes it, it sounds like a light and frivolous whim:
Brennan attended Fordham University, graduating with a B.A. in political science in 1977. While a college student, in 1976, he voted for the Communist Party USA candidate for president, Gus Hall. He has later described his vote as a way of “signaling my unhappiness with the system”, specifically the partisanship of the Watergate era. After Fordham, Brennan attended the University of Texas at Austin, receiving a Master of Arts in government with a concentration in Middle East studies in 1980. He speaks Arabic fluently. His studies included a junior year abroad learning Arabic and taking courses at the American University in Cairo.
While riding a bus to class at Fordham, he saw an ad in The New York Times that said that the CIA was recruiting. He decided that a CIA career would be a good match for his “wanderlust” and his desire for public service. He applied to the CIA in 1980. During his application he admitted during a lie-detector test that he had voted for the Communist Party candidate four years earlier. To his surprise, he was still accepted; he later said that he finds it heartening that the CIA valued freedom of speech.
But of course, this has nothing to do with free speech. As I wrote in my previous post on his Communist vote in 1976:
[Brennan] describes the [Gus Hall vote] incident as a free speech issue, but that’s absurd. I defend his right to vote for any candidate he prefers at any time. But that doesn’t mean that he should be hired by the CIA or has some absolute right to be hired by the CIA whatever his political points of view. The CIA has every right to screen its potential agents for their beliefs about the US and its place in the world.
More from Brennan’s Wiki page:
Brennan helped establish the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation of Donald Trump’s campaign, which included the use of foreign intelligence, during the period leading up to the 2016 presidential election. Since leaving office, Brennan has been harshly critical of President Trump. In March 2018, Brennan said Trump had “paranoia”, accused him of “constant misrepresentation of the facts”, and described him as a “charlatan”. Following the firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe later that month, Brennan tweeted to Trump, “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. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but will not destroy America… America will triumph over you.”
Axios quoted Brennan tweeting a response to Trump’s harsh comments about James Comey: “Your kakistocracy is collapsing after its lamentable journey… we have the opportunity to emerge from this nightmare stronger & more committed to ensuring a better life for all Americans, including those you have so tragically deceived.” On July 16, 2018, Brennan tweeted his reaction to Trump’s comments at the 2018 Helsinki summit meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin: “Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of “high crimes & misdemeanors”. It was nothing short of “treasonous”. Not only were Trump’s comments “imbecilic”, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???”
Sounds like a guy who would do anything to implicate Trump in any way possible, and who had the power to do so.
Barky’s Marxism needed fellow Marxists to take over departments
Answer: because Barack Obama is a Communist, and so is Brennan. I think it really is that simple.
Lying sack of **** took an oath. A red hot poker shoved down his lying throat I think.
Occam’s Razor – he’s a Red, always was and still is. Whatever it takes comrade.
His tweets to Trump sound downright paranoid. It genuinely makes me wonder if he’s mentally sound. Maybe he’s been using a banned controlled substance, and fried his brain?
The CIA actively recruits people who are really good at lying and are willing to work in… shall we say… morally grey areas. People who fit those characteristics can often be high functioning psychopaths or have narcissistic personality disorder. At miminum you could say that they’re people of low character. It’s a spy agency.
Why was Brennan head of the CIA? Because he’s a commie, that is why Obama appointed him. Easiest question in the world to answer.
(Edit). I should have read the thread first, only 5 or 6 comments and most of them already said the same thing bwaha.
America’s Philby.
And then there’s America’s very own “Cambridge Five”… (now who might the other four—or more—be?)…
To be sure, not even Philby was able to insinuate himself into MI-6’s leadership position…though he was certainly able to do more than enough damage as it was.
Nor were the Soviets ever able to shoehorn NASH into 10 Downing St (indeed, America IS the Land of Promise)…
…As the “TRANSFORMATION” COUP continues apace—Obama leading, as ever, “from behind”—and is, in fact, revving ever higher.
I can recall filling out forms which, among other things, wanted to know if I’d ever been a member of the Communist party. Not just in the Army, either. Can’t remember what for, though it was accepted as a good idea by most.
He may have been more an islamist mole that michael hastings was investigating
Anyone who in 1976 considered a vote for Gus Hall to be a protest vote was woefully ignorant and/or incapable of reasoned thinking. The Soviet Union expelled Solzhenitsyn in 1974. A vote for Gus Hall in 1976 is an implicit endorsement of that expulsion.
I had certain environmental advantages over Brennan in arriving at an opinion of Gus Hall. I had heard stories- which did not reflect well on the Soviet Union-from professors who had gone to Moscow for an international conference. I knew a number of Iron Curtain refugees from my hometown- an outsize number, given that I am from a small town.
But by 1976, any semi-informed person would have known about Solzhenitsyn’s expulsion from the Soviet Union.
I don’t consider Brennan a closet Communist for decades. Rather, he couldn’t think straight. Which is why he had no problem acting as he did against Trump.
Gringo
Thinking straight is a requisite for rising to the top of a complicated organization whose actual role is not entirely clear.
Maybe he could think straight but not in the line we think, or would prefer, but had outside help.
“someone who was so against “the system” in 1976, at the age of 21, is joining that system big time by 1980.” neo
I think it likely that Brennan never stopped being a communist and if so, his most likely motivation for joining the CIA was to rot it out from within. No doubt during his interview(s) at the CIA he dismissed his 1976 vote as simply youthful immaturity. A plausible lie easily sold.
The CIA’s motivation for hiring him was almost certainly because of his fluency in Arabic.
On my security clearance, I had to swear that I had never been a member of the George Washington or Abraham Lincoln brigades in the Spanish Civil War. A war that was fought when my father was like 5.
See Reuel Marc Gerecht on the CIA as he knew it when he worked there. In his telling, they promoted you based on the number of ‘sources’ you developed, not on whether your ‘sources’ ever told you anything worthwhile. See the career of Aldrich Ames, the man with a vaguely embarrassing academic record (he finished a BA at age 26 with a B- average) who was promoted multiple times during his tenure, even though it was known in his office that he was living beyond his means. Or, see the account of a man on Wm. J. Casey’s advisory board. In his telling, CIA employees seldom read anything more taxing than metropolitan newspapers. Or, look at characters like Philip Agee, Frank Snepp, Michael Scheuer, and Valerie Plame and ask yourself if these are people who impress you.
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Here’s an alternative model: they hire clots and then promote people who game the metrics. It’s the U.S. Postal Service for people with degrees in international relations and law.
‘He’s a commie and always has been’ is the straight answer, the one that passes the Occam’s razor test.
Brennan was head of the CIA because he belongs to the same party as this guy.
https://babylonbee.com/news/biden-says-he-cant-remember-a-single-time-when-his-memory-has-failed-him
Related: The Empire Strikes Back…
“Special Counsel Casts Pre-Election Doubt On Biden ‘Burisma Bribe’ With Dramatic Airport Arrest”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/special-counsel-casts-pre-election-doubt-biden-burisma-bribe-dramatic-airport-arrest
To sorta paraphrase Orwell, when you lie all the time, it’s only reasonable to have to arrest those who tell the Truth….
Brennan is just two years older than me and we both went to Jesuit Universities. But he converted to Islam and I did not. He’s rich and is a liar. I’m a poor, but honest lawyer.
For years I have insisted Brennan was a chief architect, but I don’t think he was an originator,
he just knew the way to try it.
“By 1976 it was crystal clear that Communism wasn’t going to represent that change for the better.”
Yes, Gus Hall wasn’t any kind of dynamic voice for change. He was the American face of the stagnation of the Brezhnev era.
“It’s not as though the 1976 election lacked for people to vote for if a protest needed to be lodged.”
There were even others. Peter Camajo of the Socialist Workers’ Party. Margaret Wright of the People’s Party (her VP was Dr. Benjamin Spock, the 1972 presidential candidate). Lester Maddox of the American Independent Party. Thomas Anderson (John Schmitz’s 1972 running mate) of the American Party. Lyndon Larouche of US Labor.
I was tempted to vote for Eugene McCarthy. Ford was too bland, too unappealing, and far from the best president. Carter (like Clinton in 1992) struck me as being strange and a con man. Voting for McCarthy had been the cool thing to do 8 years before when I was too young to vote. And he had an interesting mix of ideas, some of them holdovers from his young days on the (Catholic and non-Communist) left, some of them the standard Democrat ideas of the day, and others surprisingly conservative. For example, McCarthy (and Richard Lamm) were sounding the alarm on immigration when Republicans were complacent.
____________
With the recent revelations from Taibbi and Shellenberger, talk radio has put another former CIA director (actually acting director) in the spotlight: John E. McLaughlin with his 2019 “Thank God for the ‘deep state’” comment. McLaughlin went on:
“Everyone here has seen this progression of diplomats and intelligence officers and White House people trooping up to Capitol Hill right now and saying these are people who are doing their duty, who are responding to a higher call. 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 unleashed everything else.”
The CIA truly is a state within the state.
___________
But the story about Brennan’s conversion to Islam is most likely a rumor concocted by a dissatisfied CIA employee. Brennan praised the Hajj and the glories of Mecca, and only Muslims are allowed in Mecca, so the conclusion was that he had become a Muslim and gone to Mecca, but Brennan didn’t actually say that he had been to Mecca himself.
On the other hand, the guy who could vote for Gus Hall and then go on to become CIA director and lie about Hunter Biden is probably capable of anything, so maybe he sees Islam as a way of shaking things up here.
Aldrich Ames’s father had been in the CIA (and washed out for alcoholism). Aldrich had summer jobs with the agency when he was in high school, and got into the agency doing clerical work similar to what he’d done when he was a teenager — through the back door, so to speak.
Today, the CIA is recruiting and hiring “cis-gender millennials who [have] been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder” — not exactly James Bonds. But perhaps the modern-day fictional James Bond is Guillaume “Malotru” Debailly, the fictional spy on the French series “The Bureau.” By the end of the series, he has betrayed just about everyone he ever worked for. Not out of venality and maybe not out of psychopathology — he always has “good” motives — but the habits of deception run deep and are hard to shake.
Well there is the evidence eventually bin laden was brought to ground but al queda expanded its franchises of course the jizda to the mullahs the purging of islamognosis experts like phil haney the side lining of general petraeus etc etc
Agee went to work for the dgi and pretended to be a dissident stockwell was more honestly dissolutioned i guess snepp similarly at the cynicism of the company
Stephenson
I’m still convinced when Obama gave his “fundamental transformation” speech he was referring to the US national security apparatus.
no it was a bigger deal, look around at every part of this country that used to work
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