Former top spy rethinks: Maybe we shouldn't have attacked a new president

Washington Examiner ^ | Dec 12, 2017 | Byron York

[Oshkalaboomboom]

"Mr. Trump continues to exhibit paranoia about American intelligence agencies," wrote the NeverTrump conservative Max Boot in the New York Times a week or so before the president took office.

"Consumed by his paranoia about the deep state, Donald Trump has disappeared into the fog of his own conspiracy theories," declared the Times' Maureen Dowd.

[matthew fuller]

We need more rope- much more rope.

[Albion Wilde]

bump

[M Kehoe]

Bttt.

5.56mm

[bert]

——The FBI is about to take a monumental ass-kicking.——

I would argue to the contrary.

The ass kicking is going to affect a known group of DNC operatives at the top in what is in effect a separate and distinct more or less clandestine organization within the FBI. Director Wray correctly described the FBI in congressional hearings last week.

When the President described the FBI as tattered. The tattered part is the now being exposed clandestine group. Director Wray was describing the rest, the main body of the FBI.

Free Republic dogma is that the FBI and the DOJ are bad. The dogma is wrong.

[vpintheak]

Agreed

[dfwgator]

The Deep State has their “Pogo Moment.”

[Rapscallion]

They should all kneel in ashes and beating their breasts in humility and beg America for forgiveness.

[tired&retired]

Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (Acting), In office November 9, 2012 – March 8, 2013

Michael Joseph Morell (born September 4, 1958) is a former American intelligence analyst. He served as the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency as well as its acting director twice, first in 2011 and then from 2012 to 2013. Since November 2013, he has been a Senior Counselor to Beacon Global Strategies LLC.

He is a critic of the Senate Intelligence Committee's 2014 report on the CIA's use of enhanced interrogation techniques, which many consider to be torture, and is also a proponent of the CIA's targeted killings by drones.[2]

He managed the staff that produced the President's Daily Brief and he was the Executive Assistant to DCI George Tenet. Morell was also Bush’s briefer during the September 11, 2001, attacks, and, when asked by Bush who was responsible, Morell said "I would bet my children's future that the trail would lead to the doorstep of Usama bin Ladin and al Qa'ida". Later, as deputy director, Morell would be a trusted advisor to President Barack Obama in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011.[5][6] Before his 2010 nomination as Deputy Director, he served as Director for Intelligence, a position he had held since 2008. He served as the CIA's Associate Deputy Director from 2006 to 2008.[7]

Morell, Leon Panetta, Hillary Clinton and other members of Obama's national security team in May 2011 In May 2010, Morell was sworn in as the deputy director of the CIA, succeeding Stephen Kappes.[8] From July 1, 2011, to September 6, 2011, he served his first stint as acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency, replacing Leon Panetta who was named as Secretary of Defense.[9] On November 9, 2012, Morell once again became acting director after the resignation of David Petraeus, following a sex scandal.[10] President Obama chose John Brennan as Director; he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate by 63 to 34 vote on March 5, 2013.[11]

Morell announced his retirement from the CIA on June 12, 2013.[12] In November 2013, he joined Beacon Global Strategies as a Senior Counselor.[13]

In the wake of Edward Snowden's 2013 unlawful leak of documents on international espionage conducted by the National Security Agency, Morell was appointed as a member of President Obama's Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies. By the end of 2013, the group presented a report to the White House. Nearly all the Review Group's recommendations were accepted. Morell has been a regular critic of Snowden, saying that ISIS benefitted from Snowden's disclosures, adding that "Americans may well die at the hands of terrorists because of Edward Snowden's action".[14]

Meanwhile, in January 2014, Morell joined CBS News as an on-air contributor in intelligence and national security.[15]

In May 2015, Morell's book entitled The Great War of Our Time: The CIA's Fight Against Terrorism—From al Qa'ida to ISIS was released. It traces his three-decades-long career at the CIA, with a focus on the agency's counterterrorism missions after the September 11th attacks, and the related public controversies.[16] In the book, Morell defends targeted killings by drones.[2][17] He also criticizes the Senate Intelligence Committee’s analysis of CIA torture.[16][18]

Also in his book, Morell apologized to former Secretary of State Colin Powell for the CIA’s erroneous assessments of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs.[22]

In an August 2016 op-ed for The New York Times, Morell endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. Stating that he was registered with neither the Democratic nor Republican parties, and had always been silent about his political preferences, Morell stated that Donald Trump was "not only unqualified for the job, but he may well pose a threat to our national security."[23][24][25] Morell left his job as a CBS News analyst before making the endorsement.[26] In a subsequent Q&A article with the NY Times, he responded to allegations that his current employer, Beacon Global Strategies, "was co-founded by former associates of Mrs. Clinton", by saying it was a non-partisan firm and that he had spoken out "entirely on [my] own, with no other consideration given any thought."[27]

[tired&retired]

In a subsequent Q&A article with the NY Times, he responded to allegations that his current employer, Beacon Global Strategies, "was co-founded by former associates of Mrs. Clinton"

[tired&retired]

Definitely a Swamp Rat

"In an August 2016 op-ed for The New York Times, Morell endorsed Hillary Clinton for president."

"In a subsequent Q&A article with the NY Times, he responded to allegations that his current employer, Beacon Global Strategies, "was co-founded by former associates of Mrs. Clinton""

[Grampa Dave]

"Indeed, they did. And now, Michael Morell admits he went after the new president without even considering what that might mean. "I think there was a significant downside to those of us who became political," he told Glasser. "So, if I could have thought of that, would I have ended up in a different place? I don't know. But it's something I didn't think about."

Hey, Morell, you maggot infested Never Trumpster, you and your fellow maggot infested intel thugs were actively involved in acts of sedition to remove a legally elected president.

Sedition is easier to prove and document, like with their own words on the internet or videos of them actually committing acts of sedition on tv, like this mia Culpa by this intel maggot.

U.S. Code › Title 18 › Part I › Chapter 115 › § 2384 18 U.S. Code § 2384 - Seditious conspiracy US Code

If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 808; July 24, 1956, ch. 678, ;1, 70 Stat. 623; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII,;330016(1)(N), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2148.)

[Vigilanteman]

When property values in the DC area start tanking, we will know we are on the right track.

[ealgeone]

I think we have discovered what’s wrong with our spy agencies.

[lazlohollyfeld]

And what has Trump done that the Russians would have benefited from? He certainly didn’t hand them a re-set button. One would think a “non-political” career intel guy would be far more outspoken about the huge number of illegal leaks coming from all over the “community” and how politicized his former agency became under Obama. To worry about how Trump feels now seems like a meaningless gesture meant more to cover his own backside than true introspection.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

Wray told congressman Jordan he couldn’t give up the FISA application to spy on Trump and company because it’s confidential. Jordan strongly suspects they relied in the “dossier.” Trump needs to de-classify it!

[Eleutheria5]

Can’t be soon enough for me.

[Envisioning]

Time for the Marines to seize Langley and FBI HQ.

I keep hoping that THIS was what President Trump meant by "the calm before the storm" comment.

[ichabod1]

He has the power to declare martial law.

[ichabod1]

I’ve read that the most common way to communicate in Japan is by fax. I couldn’t believe it. But it was because the dial-up analog transmission was the only way to be confidential.

[ichabod1]

Maybe that’s what usually or always happens, until now. After all, all these people really do is listen to other people’s phone calls.