James Clapper's 'highly unusual' contact with military official raises concerns

Obama’s intelligence chief James Clapper is said to be in frequent and unusual contact with a military intelligence officer at the center of a growing scandal over rosy portrayals of the war against ISIS. National intelligence director Clapper is said to talk nearly every day with head of US Central Command’s intelligence wing, Army Major General Steven Grove – “which is highly, highly unusual”, says a former intelligence official.

Clapper, far senior to Grove, is said to tell Grove how the war looks from his vantage point, and question Grove about Central Command’s assessments. Such a situation could place inherent pressure on a subordinate.

In 2013 Clapper apologized to the US Senate for publicly misleading Congress on the scope of domestic surveillance.

“He can be manipulative,” a former senior defense official said. For Clapper as a senior US intelligence officer with access to assessments across the 16 US intelligence agencies to query Grove, the Central Command intelligence chief, the ex-official said, “something’s wrong”.

Clapper’s calls placed Grove in a difficult bureaucratic position: between the nominal leader of the entire US intelligence apparatus and his lower-level analysts, several of whom consider the war against Isis to be in dire straits.

Central Command analyst's dissatisfaction with Grove and his civilian deputy, Greg Ryckman, has now sparked an official inquiry by the Pentagon inspector general.

Over 50 intelligence analysts have registered complaints about manipulated or skewed data. Analysts object to internal portrayals, said to come ultimately from Grove and Ryckman, of a war proceeding better than Isis’s persistent hold over large swaths of Iraq and Syria suggests.

One source said Obama aides were not receptive to hearing “the narrative that Isis is winning”.

John McCain Slams Michele Bachmann's 'Unfounded' Attacks On Huma Abedin

07/18/2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/18/john-mccain-michele-bachmann-muslim_n_1683277.html

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) vigorously defended top State Department official Huma Abedin, who is Muslim-American, against allegations by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and other conservatives that she is part of a Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy to infiltrate the U.S. government.

"These allegations about Huma and the report from which they are drawn are nothing less than an unwarranted and unfounded attack on an honorable woman, a dedicated American and a loyal public servant," McCain said in a speech on the Senate floor on Wednesday morning.

The accusations stem from a report by the Center for Security Policy. The organization is run by Frank Gaffney, who has been crusading against the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and Sharia law for years.

Bachmann, along with Reps. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Thomas Rooney (R-Fla.) and Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.), recently sent letters to five federal agencies demanding investigations into infiltration by the Muslim Brotherhood, citing Gaffney's work.

McCain never mentioned Bachmann or the other lawmakers by name, but pointedly criticized their letters and the report, noting he had worked with the Center for Security Policy in the past.

"The letter alleges that three members of Huma’s family are 'connected to Muslim Brotherhood operatives and/or organizations,'" he said. "Never mind that one of those individuals, Huma’s father, passed away two decades ago. The letter and the report offer not one instance of an action, a decision or a public position that Huma has taken while at the State Department that would lend credence to the charge that she is promoting anti-American activities within our government."

"These attacks on Huma have no logic, no basis and no merit," McCain added. "And they need to stop now."

Abedin, a longtime aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is married to former Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner.

"I have every confidence in Huma's loyalty to our country, and everyone else should as well," he said. "All Americans owe Huma a debt of gratitude for her many years of superior public service. I hope these ugly and unfortunate attacks on her can be immediately brought to an end and put behind us before any further damage is done to a woman, an American, of genuine patriotism and love of country."

"When anyone, not least a member of Congress, launches specious and degrading attacks against fellow Americans on the basis of nothing more than fear of who they are and ignorance of what they stand for, it defames the spirit of our nation, and we all grow poorer because of it."

In a statement on Wednesday, Bachmann said that her letters were being "distorted," but she did not directly address McCain or mention Abedin.

"I encourage everyone, including media outlets, to read them in their entirety," she said in a statement. "The intention of the letters was to outline the serious national security concerns I had and ask for answers to questions regarding the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical group's access to top Obama administration officials."

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who was the first Muslim-American elected to Congress, also condemned the allegations against Abedin Wednesday.

"I think it just is the worst of guilt by association," Ellison told CNN's Anderson Cooper. "I think it's really reprehensible and I do hope that people stand up to it."

Ellison also sent Bachmann a letter Wednesday saying that he hadn't seen any evidence supporting her claims about the Muslim Brotherhood, even after she responded to a letter he sent her on July 12 asking her to back them up.

"A careful review of your 16-page response reveals that you fail to provide any credible evidence for your claims, engage in guilt by association, and continue to rely on discredited sources," he wrote.

Ed Rollins, Bachmann's former campaign chairman, posted a blistering op-ed on Fox News' website on Wednesday afternoon, comparing her allegations to the conspiracy theories of former Sen. Joseph McCarthy:

I have been a practitioner of tough politics for many decades. There is little that amazes me and even less that shocks me. I have to say that Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's outrageous and false charges against a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin reaches that threshold.

Her unsubstantiated charge against Abedin, a widely respected top aide to Secretary Hillary Clinton, accusing her of some sort of far-fetched connection to the Muslim brotherhood, is extreme and dishonest.

Having worked for Congressman Bachman's campaign for president, I am fully aware that she sometimes has difficulty with her facts, but this is downright vicious and reaches the late Senator Joe McCarthy level.

[...] Shame on you, Michele! You should stand on the floor of the House and apologize to Huma Abedin and to Secretary Clinton and to the millions of hard working, loyal, Muslim Americans for your wild and unsubstantiated charges. As a devoted Christian, you need to ask forgiveness for this grievous lack of judgment and reckless behavior.

Other lawmakers roundly condemned Bachmann's allegations Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) weighed in on Twitter, writing, "Rep. Bachmann’s accusations about Sec. Clinton aide Huma Abedin are out-of-line. This kind of rhetoric has no place in our public discourse."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also took to Twitter, writing, "I applaud SenJohnMcCain for his powerful rejection of baseless accusations against Huma Abedin . I wish this discourse no longer existed in our country, but we have more educating to do with respect to what America is about."

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) -- whom McCain specifically mentioned in his floor speech as being one of the members who traveled with Clinton and Abedin abroad -- also condemned the attacks, calling them "ridiculous, really off-base, inappropriate." "The person saying it has no idea what they're saying because they've never met her," he told Politico's Huddle. "She is about as far away from the Muslim Brotherhood view of women and ideology as you possibly could get. She's a very modern woman in every sense of the word, and people who say these things are really doing her a disservice because they don't know what they're talking about, and I don't know what their motivations are, but clearly it says more about them than it does her."

Republicans line up to rip Bachmann

SOROS’ POLITICO By Jake Sherman 7/19/12

They were long afraid to do it, but now conservatives have their knives out for Rep. Michele Bachmann.

Senators in her own party, congressional candidates, a lawmaker in her state’s delegation and leaders of the House Republican Conference are all lambasting the Minnesota Republican for saying the wife of former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

( Also on POLITICO: The Huma factor)

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said merely floating the idea that Huma Abedin — a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — has family ties to the radical Middle East group is “pretty dangerous.”

“I don’t know Huma, but from everything I do know of her, she has a sterling character,” Boehner told reporters Thursday. “And I think accusations like this being thrown around are pretty dangerous.” Later on CNN, Boehner said he expects to speak to Bachmann soon.

Bachmann’s accusation came in a handful of letters to intelligence and national security agencies raising questions about the Muslim Brotherhood. The letters, also signed by four other Republicans, specifically mentioned Abedin, accusing her late father of having ties to the Brotherhood.

Boehner declined to entertain a reporter’s question about whether he would toss Bachmann off the Intelligence Committee, where she’s privy to highly classified information. Behind the scenes, leadership aides said they were shaken by the comments from someone as prominent as Bachmann.

And Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, was described by several sources as incredibly angry when he heard of the incident.

The Republican backlash against Bachmann started with Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) statement on the Senate floor Wednesday, saying she had made “sinister accusations.”

Rep. Jeff Flake, a conservative Arizona lawmaker running for Senate, tweeted “Kudos to @SenJohnMcCain for his statement on Senate floor yesterday defending Clinton aide. Well said.”

Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) added: “Rep. Bachmann’s accusations about Sec. Clinton aide Huma Abedin are out-of-line. This kind of rhetoric has no place in our public discourse.”

Even the Minnesota delegation is dispensing with its characteristic niceness. Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison, a Muslim who served in the state Legislature with Bachmann in St. Paul, said it’s not personal, but Bachmann is out of line.

“It’s not right to question the loyalty of fellow Americans without any evidence,” said Ellison, whose district is based in Minneapolis. “I object when people do that.”

Bachmann has said her letters “are unfortunately being distorted.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2012/07/republicans-lining-up-to-rip-bachmann-078741#ixzz3leHxeAdG

John McCain Tore Into Michele Bachmann’s ‘Ugly And Unfortunate’ Muslim Conspiracy Theory

Brett LoGiurato Jul. 18, 2012
http://www.businessinsider.com/john-mccain-huma-abedin-michele-bachmann-muslim-comments-2012-7

John McCain made an unusual speech on the Senate floor this morning, defending former colleague Huma Abedin from “unwarranted and unfounded” accusations brought about in letters from Republican members of Congress, including Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.).

Some background: Bachmann and four other members of Congress wrote a letter to the State, Homeland Security, Defense and Justice Departments in June, asserting that there had been a “deep penetration” of the Muslim Brotherhood into the U.S. government.

That drew a letter from fellow Minnesota Rep. and practicing Muslim Keith Ellison, who sent a stern response asking her to provide “credible, substantial” evidence for such serious claims.

On Tuesday, Bachmann responded with a letter singling out Abedin, a longtime aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a practicing Muslim (and the wife of former Rep. Anthony Weiner). Bachmann wrote that three members of Abedin’s family have connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, and that the State Department has “taken actions recently that have been enormously favorable to the Muslim Brotherhood and its interests.”

McCain suggested those charges were ridiculous. He didn’t say Bachmann’s name, but it’s pretty clear who he’s talking about. Some of his scathing words:

“To say that the accusations made in both documents are not substantiated by the evidence they offer is to be overly polite and diplomatic about it. It is far better, and more accurate, to talk straight: These allegations about Huma, and the report from which they are drawn, are nothing less than an unwarranted and unfounded attack on an honorable citizen, a dedicated American, and a loyal public servant. [...]

“These sinister accusations rest solely on a few unspecified and unsubstantiated associations of members of Huma’s family, none of which have been shown to harm or threaten the United States in any way. These attacks on Huma have no logic, no basis, and no merit. And they need to stop now.

“Ultimately, what is at stake in this matter is larger even than the reputation of one person. This is about who we are as a nation, and who we aspire to be. What makes America exceptional among the countries of the world is that we are bound together as citizens not by blood or class, not by sect or ethnicity, but by a set of enduring, universal, and equal rights that are the foundation of our constitution, our laws, our citizenry, and our identity. When anyone, not least a member of Congress, launches specious and degrading attacks against fellow Americans on the basis of nothing more than fear of who they are and ignorance of what they stand for, it defames the spirit of our nation, and we all grow poorer because of it.”

John McCain Comes Pretty Close to Calling Michele Bachmann Delusional on the Senate Floor

Doug Barry 7/18/12

http://jezebel.com/5927218/john-mccain-comes-pretty-close-to-calling-michele-bachmann-delusional-on-the-senate-floor

There was a time, before Sarah Palin sashayed onto the national political scene, that John McCain was considered a relatively reasonable member of the GOP. On Wednesday, McCain revived some of that bipartisan temperance when he took to the Senate floor to defend Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the wife of former Rep. Anthony Weiner, against allegations from congressional conspiracy theorist Michele Bachmann that Abedin had convoluted ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, which, if true, would pose “serious national securit concerns.”

Michele Bachmann Really Wants to Become Our Generation’s Joseph McCarthy

Michele Bachmann’s been a busy bee this summer, what with writing a 16-page letter detailing…
Read more

Though NPR reports that McCain didn’t explicitly mention her by name, it seemed pretty clear that his rebuke was directed at Bachmann, as well as the other House GOP lawmakers who requested on June 13 for an investigation of Abedin. After vouching for Abedin’s character as “an honorable citizen, a dedicated American, and a loyal public servant,” McCain insisted that other Republicans stop being total assholes about making unfounded accusations:

I have every confidence in Huma’s loyalty to our country, and everyone else should as well. All Americans owe Huma a debt of gratitude for her many years of superior public service. I hope these ugly and unfortunate attacks on her can be immediately brought to an end and put behind us before any further damage is done to a woman, an American, of genuine patriotism and love of country.

And, in case McCain’s words failed to shame Bachmann in her McCarthy-esque quest to seem like an important politician, Bachmann’s former campaign manager Ed Rollins offered his own considerably sharper rebuke in an article on FoxNews.com:

As a member of Congress, with a seat on the House Intelligence Committee, Mrs. Bachmann you know better. Shame on you, Michele! You should stand on the floor of the House and apologize to Huma Abedin and to Secretary Clinton and to the millions of hard working,loyal, Muslim Americans for your wild and unsubstantiated charges. As a devoted Christian, you need to ask forgiveness for this grievous lack of judgment and reckless behavior.

Doesn’t it seem like forever ago since Michele Bachmann was relevant enough to be profiled in the New Yorker and photographed for the cover of Newsweek trying to use her heat vision on the American electorate?

John McCain Denounces Michelle Bachmann Over Muslim Brotherhood

by William Bigelow 19 Jul 2012
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2012/07/19/john-mccain-michelle-bachmann-muslim-brotherhood/

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has now denounced Michelle Bachmann for requesting that the State, Homeland Security, Defense and Justice Departments, investigate potential “policies and activities that appear to be the result of influence operations conducted by individuals and organizations associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.”

McCain, who in his political career has always been more interested in appearing before a camera, anywhere, anytime, than standing up for bedrock American principles, found a moment to stand on the Senate floor to defend Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton’s longtime assistant from Bachmann’s simple request, saying with righteous indignation:

“… recently, it has been alleged that Huma, a Muslim American, is part of a nefarious conspiracy to harm the United States by unduly influencing U.S. foreign policy at the Department of State in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist causes. These sinister accusations rest solely on a few unspecified and unsubstantiated associations of members of Huma’s family, none of which have been shown to harm or threaten the United States in any way. These attacks on Huma have no logic, no basis, and no merit. And they need to stop now.”

Oh, really? Bachmann had sent a 16-page letter to Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN)
23%
, the only Muslim congressman, outlining her concerns:

“The concerns about the foreign influence of immediate family members is such a concern to the U.S. Government that it includes these factors as potentially disqualifying conditions for obtaining a security clearance, which undoubtedly Ms. Abedin has had to obtain to function in her position. For us to raise issues about a highly-based U.S. Government official with known immediate family connections to foreign extremist organizations is not a question of singling out Ms. Abedin. In fact, these questions are raised by the U.S. Government of anyone seeking a security clearance.”

This is absolutely correct. Abedin’s father, Syed Z. Abedin, founded the Institute for Muslim Minority Affairs, an organization supported by the Muslim World League, a Brotherhood organization. Her mother, Saleha Mahmoud Abedin, is a member of the Muslim Sisterhood.

No matter. McCain was in fine fettle.

“…the letter and the report offer not one instance of an action, a decision, or a public position that Huma (note: Huma, not Ms. Abedin) has taken while at the State Department that would lend credence to the charge that she is promoting anti-American activities within our government. Nor does either document offer any evidence of a direct impact that Huma may have had on one of the U.S. policies with which the authors of the letter and the producers of the report find fault.”

Isn’t that what we find out during the investigation, John?

In May of 2011, McCain and his good friend Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
9%
appeared at the two-day inaugural “Al Jazeera U.S. Forum” in Washington, D.C. Al Jazeera is not exactly the bastion of pro-American interests, but that didn’t stop McCain. At Al Jazeera’s inaugural dinner, McCain proudly said:

“I’m very proud of the role that Al Jazeera has played. When that young man who was humiliated by the police in front of his friends and compatriots and family decided to burn himself to death, that would have been confined in earlier years to a single isolated incident, and it was Al Jazeera, it was Al Jazeera, that spread the story time and time again, so that it permeated the conscience, not only of the Tunisians, but of countries throughout the Arab world. So I congratulate you.”

That same story McCain lauded inflamed the Arab Spring, which paved the way for Islamist rule in the Middle East.

According to a cable released by WikiLeaks, Al Jazeera was a foreign policy instrument of Qatar, which financially sponsored it and selected its personnel. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of September 11, resided in Qatar, and according to other Wikileaks cables, Qatar was the worst in counterterrorism measures in the region. Qatar’s security was “hesitant to act against known terrorists out of concern for appearing to be aligned with the U.S. and provoking reprisals.” And Al-Jazeera’s Afghan correspondent, Tayseer Alouni, went to prison in Spain for being an agent of al-Qaeda.

In 2011, Al Jazeera was having a hard time convincing American cable companies to carry its newscasts, as the Huffington Post reported when they ran a series of articles supporting Al Jazeera’s efforts. Keach Hagey of Politico wrote, “It’s a major step forward for the awareness-raising campaign that AJE has been on since its coverage of the Arab Spring propelled it to newfound relevance this year. But so far there is no sign that the obstacles keeping the channel from achieving its true goal in the U.S.–national cable carriage–are cracking at all.”

Al Jazeera’s fortunes rose when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised the channel for offering “real news.” Of course, the William J Clinton Foundation had gotten between $1 and $5 million from the government in Qatar.

So McCain went to bat for Al Jazeera by praising their efforts in catalyzing the revolt in Libya. He also supported the insurgents against Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi when he was interviewed by Al Jazeera in its home in Qatar, which laid the way for Islamists to rule in Libya.

(For interest’s sake, why was Al Jazeera, notoriously anti-American, suddenly on the same page as an American administration when it came to Libya? Because Gaddafi gave up his nuclear weapons program under pressure from the Bush Administration and started turning over the names of members of Al Qaeda to U.S. intelligence. Gaddafi, out; Al Qaeda, in.)

McCain’s critique of Bachmann wasn’t just misguided. It was the latest act in a long pattern of softness on the threat of Islamism.

From my post #61 above:

Ed Rollins, Bachmann’s former campaign chairman, posted a blistering op-ed on Fox News’ website on Wednesday afternoon, comparing her allegations to the conspiracy theories of former Sen. Joseph McCarthy:

“I have been a practitioner of tough politics for many decades. There is little that amazes me and even less that shocks me. I have to say that Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s outrageous and false charges against a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin reaches that threshold.

“Her unsubstantiated charge against Abedin, a widely respected top aide to Secretary Hillary Clinton, accusing her of some sort of far-fetched connection to the Muslim brotherhood, is extreme and dishonest.

“Having worked for Congressman Bachman’s campaign for president, I am fully aware that she sometimes has difficulty with her facts, but this is downright vicious and reaches the late Senator Joe McCarthy level.

“[...] Shame on you, Michele! You should stand on the floor of the House and apologize to Huma Abedin and to Secretary Clinton and to the millions of hard working, loyal, Muslim Americans for your wild and unsubstantiated charges. As a devoted Christian, you need to ask forgiveness for this grievous lack of judgment and reckless behavior.”

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.