CIA Director Once Voted for Communist Presidential Candidate

Washington Free Beacon ^ | September 21, 2016 | Natalie Johnson

[VitacoreVision]

CIA Director John Brennan voted for the Communist Party candidate in the 1976 presidential election.

Brennan told a congressional panel last week that he “froze” while taking a CIA polygraph test four years later when the questioner asked him if he had ever worked with or for a group that was “dedicated to overthrowing the U.S.,” CNN reported.

“This was back in 1980, and I thought back to a previous election where I voted, and I voted for the Communist Party candidate,” Brennan said at a panel discussion regarding diversity in the intelligence community during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual conference.

Someone had asked whether experience in political activism could harm someone who later attempts to obtain a security clearance. Brennan said the CIA is committed to upholding the values of the Constitution.

“We’ve all had indiscretions in our past,” he said. “I would not be up here if that was disqualifying.”

Brennan said he decided to acknowledge his vote for Communist Gus Hall, the Communist Party USA’s four-time presidential candidate, when undergoing the lie detector test.

“I said I was neither Democratic or Republican, but it was my way, as I was going to college, of signaling my unhappiness with the system, and the need for change. I said I’m not a member of the Communist Party, so the polygrapher looked at me and said, ‘OK,’” Brennan said.

“So if back in 1980, John Brennan was allowed to say, ‘I voted for the Communist Party with Gus Hall’ … and still got through, rest assured that your rights and your expressions and your freedom of speech as Americans is something that’s not going to be disqualifying of you as you pursue a career in government,” he continued.

[ETL]

“Now a major American communist leader in the post-war era, Hall caught the attention of US officials. On July 22, 1948, Hall and 11 other Communist Party leaders were indicted under the Alien Registration Act, popularly called the Smith act, on charges of “conspiracy to teach and advocate the overthrow of the U.S. government by force and violence”,..."

Hall’s initial prison sentence lasted for five years.[4]

Released on bail, Hall rose to the secretariat of the CPUSA.[2] When the Supreme Court upheld the Smith Act (June 4, 1951), Hall and three other men skipped bail and went underground.[4]

Hall’s attempt to flee to Moscow failed when he was picked up in Mexico City on October 8, 1951.[2][4] He was sentenced to three more years and eventually served over five and a half years in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.[3]”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gus_Hall#Indictment_during_the_.27Red_Scare.27_and_rise_to_the_head_of_the_CPUSA

[ETL]

my “youthful indiscretions” never consisted of Treason.

Obama Espoused Radical [Communist revolutionary] Views in College
Steve Malzberg - WOR News Talk Radio 710 ^ | February 12, 2010 | Ronald Kessler

Dr. John C. Drew, a grant writing consultant in Laguna Niguel, Calif., tells Newsmax he met Obama in 1980 when Obama was a sophomore at Occidental College in Los Angeles. Drew had just graduated from Occidental and was attending graduate school at Cornell University.

During Christmas break, Drew says he was at Grauman-Boss’ home in Palo Alto when Obama came over with Mohammed Hasan Chandoo, his roommate from Pakistan.

“Barack [Obama] and Hasan showed up at the house in a BMW, and then we went to a restaurant together,” Drew says. “We had a nice meal, and then we came back to the house and smoked cigarettes and drank and argued politics.”

For the next several hours, they discussed Marxism.

“He [Obama] was arguing a straightforward Marxist-Leninist class-struggle point of view, which anticipated that there would be a revolution of the working class, led by revolutionaries, who would overthrow the capitalist system and institute a new socialist government that would redistribute the wealth,” says Drew, who says he himself was then a Marxist.

“The idea was basically that wealthy people were exploiting others,” Drew says. “That this was the secret of their wealth, that they weren’t paying others enough for their work, and they were using and taking advantage of other people. He was convinced that a revolution would take place, and it would be a good thing.”

Drew concluded that Obama thought of himself as “part of an intelligent, radical vanguard that was leading the way towards this revolution and towards this new society.” ..."

Referring to Obama’s quote from “Dreams of My Father” that he associated with Marxist professors, Drew says, “What he’s not saying is that he was in 100 percent total agreement with those Marxist professors. When you understand that, Obama’s later associations and policies make more sense, including why he was taken in by Rev. Wright’s ideology.”

https://web.archive.org/web/20100214061745/http://www.wor710.com/pages/6350883

[phormer phrog phlyer]

A lot of progressive/communists used to have a tough time getting security clearances with their interesting pasts. Must not be much of a problem these days.

Just a reminder, communism only killed 80 to 120 million in the last century, but, hey the next time they will get it right.

[wideminded]

“Of the four elections, Hall received the largest number of votes in 1976, largely because of the Watergate scandal bringing protest votes for minor parties.” - Wikipedia

[Popman]

When you are young and dumb, you do stupid things...

I’d give him a pass on this...

It’s the last 20 years of his history, I’m concerned about...

[ETL]

“Of the four elections, Hall received the largest number of votes in 1976, largely because of the Watergate scandal bringing protest votes for minor parties.” - Wikipedia

And what was Watergate initially about? Communist infiltration of the government...

From a piece I compiled on Watergate back in 2009...

"Daniel Ellsberg (born April 7, 1931) is a former American military analyst employed by the RAND Corporation who precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of government decision-making about the Vietnam War, to The New York Times and other newspapers."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg
_____________________________________________________________

"As a response to the leaks, the Nixon administration began a campaign against further leaks and against Ellsberg personally. Aides Egil Krogh and David Young under John Ehrlichman's supervision created the 'White House Plumbers,' which would later lead to the Watergate burglaries."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg#Fallout
_____________________________________________________________

Endorsers of the [World Can't Wait] Call

So what is Daniel Ellsberg up to these days? Well, for one thing, he is an endorser of the Revolutionary Communist Party's "World Can't Wait" movement...

You may recognize a few other names as well, including the democrat chair of the House Judiciary Committee, John Conyers Jr. Conyers' name appears right after Ward Churchill's. Also Rep. Maxine Waters, others.
http://worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2538&Itemid=2
_____________________________________________________________

Endorsers of the [World Can't Wait] Call to Drive Out the Bush Regime Include:

James Abourezk, Aris Anagnos, Rocky Anderson, Anti-Flag, Edward Asner, Russell Banks, Ed Begley Jr., Harry Belafonte, St. Clair Bourne, Gabriel Byrne, Margaret Cho, Ward Churchill, Paulette Cole, US Rep John Conyers Jr., John Densmore, Jesse Diaz Jr., Michael Eric Dyson, Steve Earle, Niles Eldredge, Daniel Ellsberg, Eve Ensler, Laura Flanders, Jane Fonda, Martin Garbus, Senator Mike Gravel, Andre Gregory, Sam Hamill, Suheir Hammad, Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Jr., Mumia Abu-Jamal, Rickie Lee Jones, Sarah Jones, Brig. Gen. (Ret) Janis Karpinski, Jonathan Kozol, Rabbi Michael Lerner, US Rep. Cynthia McKinney, Robin Meyers, Mark Crispin Miller, Tom Morello, Viggo Mortensen, John Nichols, US Rep. Major Owens, Grace Paley, Harvey Pekar, Sean Penn, Michelle Phillips, Harold Pinter, Michael Ratner, Mark Ruffalo, US Rep. Bobby Rush, Susan Sarandon, Richard Serra, Jeff Sharlet, Rev. Al Sharpton, Cindy Sheehan, Martin Sheen, Nancy Spero, Gloria Steinem, Lynne Stewart, Serj Tankian, Sunsara Taylor, Studs Terkel, Gore Vidal, Kurt Vonnegut, Alice Walker, Naomi Wallace, US Rep. Maxine Waters, Cornel West, Ann Wright, Howard Zinn, and thousands more who have already joined us.

http://worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2538&Itemid=2
_____________________________________________________________

World Can't Wait--Drive Out the Bush Regime is a Maoist-revolutionary movement organized by the Revolutionary Communist Party. (scroll down the list that appears (after clicking link) to find the World Can't Wait organization --rwor.org is the website of the Revolutionary Communist Party):
http://rwor.org/a/rwlink/links.htm
_____________________________________________________________

From David Horowitz's FrontpageMag.com /DiscoverTheNetworks.org:
Profile: World Can't Wait (WCW)

*Revolutionary communist movement that stages protests against the Bush administration

*Organizes college and high-school students

*Founded in June 2005 by Charles Clark Kissinger, a longtime leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=7213
_____________________________________________________________

The RCP calls for the armed overthrow of the U.S. government...

From the website of the Revolutionary Communist Party (revcom.us or rwor.org) :

"Create Public Opinion, Seize Power: We are preparing minds and organizing forces for the time when there is a major crack in the system, whenever it comes and wherever it comes from: an opening that makes it possible to bring the future Revolutionary Army of the Proletariat (R.A.P.) into the field and wage a revolutionary armed struggle that actually has a chance of winning.

And we have said that building our party itself is the most important part of organizing forces for revolution. This is true now, and it is true looking forward to the creation of that future R.A.P. and the waging of that armed struggle.":

http://revcom.us/a/v20/1000-1009/1000/barw.htm

[ETL]

Re: World Can’t Wait, C. Clark Kissinger
(C. Clark Kissinger is a longtime leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party)

‘Whois’ Search Results for WorldCantWait.org

Domain ID:D106537144-LROR
Domain Name:WORLDCANTWAIT.ORG
Created On:06-Jun-2005 14:12:07 UTC
Last Updated On:02-Jun-2007 23:54:24 UTC
Expiration Date:06-Jun-2009 14:12:07 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Tucows Inc. (R11-LROR)
Status:OK
Registrant ID:tu5dLPCfXNvOyMlS
Registrant Name:C. Clark Kissinger
Registrant Organization:C. Clark Kissinger
Registrant Street1:593 Vanderbilt Ave, #224

Admin City:Brooklyn
Admin State/Province:NY
Admin Postal Code:11238
Admin Country:US
Admin Phone:+1.7185551212
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin Email:cck@cloud9.net

http://reports.internic.net/cgi/whois?whois_nic=worldcantwait.org&type=domain
_________________________________________

From David Horowitz’s FrontPageMag.com/DiscoverTheNetworks.org
PROFILE: C. CLARK KISSINGER

* Maoist activist
* National secretary of Students for a Democratic Society
* Originator of Not In Our Name and Refuse and Resist
* Member of the Revolutionary Communist Party
* “The problem in this country [is] the oppressive system of capitalism that exploits people all over the world, that destroys our planet, that oppresses minority people, that sends people to the death chambers in droves.”

Charles Clark Kissinger is a prominent member of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). He was instrumental in the formation of the groups Refuse & Resist, Not in Our Name, and World Can’t Wait.

Born in 1940, Kissinger began his public activism in the early 1960s when he served as the national secretary of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the leading radical organization of its day. He also worked closely with Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party.

Kissinger, who supported Mao Zedong’s Communist regime in China, continues to enjoy strong support from the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM), which, in its own words, “upholds the revolutionary communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism” and views the Chinese Cultural Revolution as “the farthest advance of communism in human history.” MIM seeks to achieve its ends “by building public opinion to seize power through armed struggle” and full-fledged “revolution [in] North America.”

A devoted backer of Iran’s Islamic revolution, Kissinger in 1979 traveled to Iran when Ayatollah Khomeni seized power.

In October 1983, Kissinger and RCP tried to sabotage American efforts to deploy Pershing and cruise missiles in Germany. Kissinger personally led a “World Without Imperialism Contingent” (WWIC) on an eight-week tour of Germany to lay the framework for thwarting the missile deployments. Accompanied by members of Peru’s Marxist guerrilla army, the Shining Path, Kissinger and his RCP comrades penetrated the Mutlangen U.S. military base in West Germany, where Pershing II intermediate-range missiles were stored.

The following month, Kissinger’s fellow RCP / WWIC members were involved, along with Red Cells and other German anarchist-terrorists, in an assault against Vice President George H.W. Bush’s caravan during a visit to Krefeld, Germany.

In January 1984, the RCP newspaper Revolutionary Worker, for which Kissinger has written frequently, called for the assassination of President Ronald Reagan.

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1386

[ETL]

I agree. It’s a relic from the cold war. Now it is nothing more than a bunch of Ivy League kids sitting around reading diversity manuals.

Are you really that blind? The communist movement is very much still alive. We have a communist in the White House. We have them throughout his administration and much of the demonRat party. We have them throughout the school system. We them throughout the entertainment industry, etc, etc.

[Chewbarkah]

So we are supposed to be reassured that the CIA was so fair that it inducted communist voters in 1980? (In the article, Brennan is said to have claimed he voted for Hall in 1976 to show unhappiness with the system. That dodges the issue of whether he actually wanted Hall to win, or just threw his vote away as a raspberry).

What I see in this is the fruit of destruction wreaked on CIA by Carter and Frank Church.

[zzwhale]

this guy is a stupid assclown
never did an op in his entire career
a desk jockey ass fartsniffer politician
a risk to national security
who thinks people give a shizzle what he thinks
he does and says what obozo tells him to
including lie and mislead the amreican people
a human douchebag who loves publicity
diversity and global warming are his forte....
intel .... not so much
thank God there are loyal dedicated people actually out in the real world doing some legit intel work...
langley is the handjob ass sniffer desk jockey walk the halls and eat chocolate capital of the world...bloat to extremis

[Robert A Cook PE]

Well, technically, we do KNOW Obola was sworn in TWICE each inauguration. Once in public - on what was supposed to be a bible (or a stack of books including the bible ?) ...And then again later, in a private ceremony where he sworn something on something ... in front of Justice Roberts.

Who he owns.

[wildbill]

He converted some years ago it seems. I guess he is one of those non-violent jihadists-— since all Muslims are supposed to follow the words of Allah that call all Muslims to a jihad to convert the rest of the world.

The problem I have with so-called ‘moderate’ Muslims is that the Koran is believed to be the very words of God and therefore if a Muslim doesn’t obey his words, they are apostates worthy of death themselves.

Now that is a literal reading of the words of Allah. I don’t see how they get around that.

[WilliamCooper1]

And what is the CIA doing to stop it? Shouldn’t that be a job for the FBI? From what I can tell, the CIA is more worried about recruiting trannies than it is concerned with gathering intel overseas.

[ETL]

And what is the CIA doing to stop it? Shouldn’t that be a job for the FBI?

You're right there. No one seems to care anymore. The crime of treason apparently no longer exists. Commies don't even bother trying to hide their support for various democrat candidates these days. Communist Party USA was gushing over Obama, even going so far as to say they shed tears over his making it to the presidency (see post #10 above).

PS- Sorry about the tone earlier. :)