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No doubt we could probably go on and on with “new” chapters about corruption in Intelligence agencies in our government. But let’s wind this series down with a look at James Clapper, Susan Rice, and Samantha Powers. I warn you: this “look at” is pretty sleezy.
Susan Rice
Rice served as the 24th United States National Security Advisor from 2013 to 2017. She was formerly a U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. She served on the staff of the National Security Council and as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs during President Bill Clinton’s second term. She was confirmed as UN ambassador by the U.S. Senate by unanimous consent on January 22, 2009.
Ms. Rice is probably best known for two scandals during her NSA tenure in the Obama Administration: she appeared on every Sunday morning news talk show immediately following the Benghazi attack that resulted in 4 American deaths, including that of American Ambassador to Libya Chris Stephens. It was obvious to all her appearances that Sunday were to trot out an Obama Administration narrative that led Americans to believe the Benghazi attack was prompted solely by an internet movie that originated in the U.S. that was anti-Muslim. That story was not only debunked, but it was learned that Rice knew before making those appearances that the story was false.
The second known incident of corruption Rice participated in was at the end of Obama’s second term. In the Fall of the 2016 election and President Trump’s January 2017 inauguration, Rice as National Security Advisor requested the unmasking of American citizens by the NSA, purportedly for security reasons other than for political purposes. (Unmasking of Americans caught inadvertently in NSA surveillance of foreign persons is illegal for political purposes) In multiple interviews and stories, Rice steadfastly denied she even had any Americans unmasked, then changed her story to say she never had any unmasked “for political purposes.” It was later learned she lied in both of those situations.
Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA) stated the following in an interview: “I have seen intelligence reports that clearly show that the president-elect and his team were at least monitored,” the House intelligence chairman said at the time. “It looks to me like it was all legally collected, but it was essentially a lot of information on the president-elect and his transition team and what they were doing.” Nunes went on to claim that the information was spread across a number of agencies and had “little or no apparent intelligence value.”
On that same day, Rice in an interview with PBS’s Judy Woodruff:
Woodruff: We’ve been following a disclosure by the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes, that in essence, during the final days of the Obama administration, during the transition, and after President Trump had been elected, that he and the people around him may have been caught up in surveillance of foreign individuals and that their identities may have been disclosed. Do you know anything about this?
Rice: I know nothing about this. I was surprised to see reports from Chairman Nunes on that count today.
Rice lied.
James Clapper
Clapper is a retired lieutenant general in the United States Air Force and is the former Director of National Intelligence. A career intelligence officer, Clapper has held several key positions within the U.S. Intelligence Community. He served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) from 1992 until 1995. He was the first director of defense intelligence within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and simultaneously the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. He served as the director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) from September 2001 until June 2006.
Clapper probably was best known for lying to Congress and getting caught. There is stiff Congressional insistence that he face charges for an admittedly false statement he made to Congress in March 2013, when he responded, “No, sir” and “not wittingly” to a question about whether the National Security Agency was collecting “any type of data at all” on millions of Americans. About three months after making that claim, documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed the answer was untruthful and that the NSA was in fact collecting (in bulk) domestic call records, along with various internet communications. In an apology letter to lawmakers, however, Clapper said he gave the “clearly erroneous” answer because he “simply didn’t think of” the call-record collection. Numerous lawmakers insist charges be leveled against him: “No one is above the law. Officials who commit perjury or lie to Congress should be held accountable,” Texas Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold told U.S. News by email.
The former head of the DNI has since leaving that office turned into a very public and very insistent anti-Trumpster. In doing so he is the darling of Leftist Media outlets because of his open disdain for the President. “I lived through Watergate; I was on active duty then in the Air Force; I was a young officer — it was a scary time,” said Clapper. “I have to say, though, that I think if you compare the two, that Watergate pales, really in my view, compared to what we’re confronting now.” Clapper said the “egregious and inexcusable” manner in which the Trump Administration removed James Comey from office reflected a complete disregard for the independence and autonomy of the FBI. “I am very concerned about the assault on our institutions coming from both an external source — Russia — and an internal source — the President himself,” he said.
He wasn’t through there. Clapper does not attack just the President, but members of Congress who in his mind in any way support the President. Enter Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA) when Nunes released the famous memo his committee compiled showing intelligence abuses by the Obama FBI. Clapper called the memo a “hit job” designed to attack the FBI and the Justice Department.
“Well I think this is a hit job, more or less, to attack the FBI, attack the Department of Justice and inferentially, or by extension, the Mueller investigation,” Clapper told CNN. “I think the whole point here was to discredit all this.”
Clapper characterized the memo release as a “drive-by shooting in the interest of defending” President Trump, and said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA), is acting as an “agent of the White House.”
Samantha Power
Power is an Irish-born American academic, author, political critic, and diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017. She in her career as a journalist won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for her book A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide
She was a senior adviser to Senator Barack Obama until March 2008, when she resigned from his presidential campaign after apologizing for referring to then-Senator Hillary Clinton as “a monster.” Power joined the Obama State Department transition team in late November 2008. She served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights on the National Security Council from January 2009 to February 2013 before her appointment as UN Ambassador.
Power in 2016 was ‘unmasking’ at such a rapid pace in the final months of the Obama administration that she averaged more than one request for every working day in 2016 – and even sought information in the days leading up to President Trump’s inauguration, multiple sources close to the matter told Fox News. Two sources, who were not authorized to speak on the record, said the requests to identify Americans whose names surfaced in foreign intelligence reporting, known as unmasking, exceeded 260 last year. One source indicated this occurred in the final days of the Obama White House.
The details emerged ahead of her testimony before Congress on Capitol Hill. She is one of several Obama administration officials facing intense scrutiny for their role in seeking the identities of Trump associates in intelligence reports – but the interest in her actions is particularly high.
In that October 2017 testimony to the House Oversight Committee behind closed doors, she claimed others in the intelligence community used her name obtain this unprecedented unmasking. According to the Committee Chairman Representative Trey Gowdy, her only defense was “It’s not me it’s my subordinates.”
Summary
Why would Susan Rice make those television appearances with the same story on the same day that were untrue? Why did James Clapper lie to Congress, and why is he still long after resigning from his position attacking on a political level AND personal level the President over and over? Why would Samantha Power serving as U.N. Ambassador even NEED to have any American unmasked — and to have HUNDREDS of Americans unmasked?!?!
The answers to those 3 questions is not 1 answer, but several. And NO answer is that “It was part of my job and duty when serving the American people.” Most feel these 3 people are just a few of a myriad of individuals from the Obama Administration that have stealthily carried out a hit campaign to not only denigrate this President, but lay enough negative groundwork to create a perception of corruption of this President to lead to an impeachment or to push him to resign from the exhausting onslaught of attacks that never stop.
I will close this series of some of the Obama Administration corruption (and we have barely scratched the surface) with this: why hasn’t the current Attorney General filed any charges against any of these three for their obvious and blatant and serious actions that violated multiple federal laws? You can be certain that if any one of these 3 was Republican, they would already be in jail, convicted of multiple federal crimes. A.G. Sessions, where are you?
One last thing: you can bet in the coming days there will be numerous new revelations of massive corruption from the 8 years of government before the Trump inauguration. How do I know? There are 19,000 sealed indictments that have been obtained in federal district courts around the U.S. against undisclosed individuals and entities with undisclosed charges JUST SINCE OCTOBER 31, 2017! What are their details? They are sealed indictments — no public disclosure of any details are allowed.
Oh: if any of these indictments were against Trump, the Trump Campaign, or government conservatives, you can bet there would have been immediate and thorough leaks to the press and the press would be all over them on air and in writing.
Who do you think are the charged in these sealed indictments?
I can’t wait!
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