Posted on 02/14/2020 8:19:29 AM PST by Red Badger
U.S. Attorney John Durham is reportedly reviewing John Brennan’s analysis of Russian election interference, including scrutiny of the former Obama CIA director’s handling of a secret source said to be close to the Kremlin.
Durham, who was selected by Attorney General William Barr in 2019 to look into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation and the government’s response to Moscow’s meddling, is investigating whether Brennan’s CIA was attempting to keep other agencies in the dark as he pushed for a specific preconceived analytic assessment about Russia’s true intentions in 2016, the New York Times reported Thursday.
The top Connecticut prosecutor’s team reviewed emails from the CIA, FBI, and National Security Agency analysts who came together to assess Russia’s interference, the new report revealed, and Durham’s investigators pressed for answers about why some agencies at least temporarily denied other agencies access to secretive intelligence about the Kremlin’s active measures campaign.
Durham interviewed agents and analysts from all three agencies, and the report said he was scrutinizing whether the clash over intelligence sharing was the typical sort of bureaucratic turf battle over jealously guarded secrets or an effort to cover something up.
Much of this revolves around how the United States government eventually reached its January 2017 intelligence assessment on Russian meddling and whether Brennan was pushing for a biased result.
One major battle was about the identity and credibility of a CIA source allegedly close to the Kremlin. The NSA wanted more details about him, which the CIA resisted before providing them. The NSA then disagreed with the CIA and FBI about how much confidence to place in the source.
At least some intelligence officials were disturbed by a law enforcement officer such as Durham inquiring into the assessments made by intelligence agencies, though Durham played a similar role in his Obama-era investigation into the CIA's destruction of tapes showing the harsh interrogation of detainees.
Durham hasn’t yet interviewed Brennan, though the report said his emails and other records have been requested from the CIA by the U.S. attorney. Retired Adm. Mike Rogers, who was head of the NSA at the time, was interviewed by Durham last summer and fall.
The January 2017 intelligence community assessment in question concluded with "high confidence" that Russian President Vladimir Putin “ordered an influence campaign in 2016” and that Russia worked to “undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate former Secretary of State [Hillary] Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency” and “developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump.” The NSA diverged on one aspect, expressing only “moderate confidence” that Putin actively tried to help Trump’s election chances and harm those of Clinton by contrasting her unfavorably.
“I wouldn’t call it a discrepancy, I’d call it an honest difference of opinion between three different organizations and, in the end, I made that call,” Rogers told the Senate in May 2017. “It didn’t have the same level of sourcing and the same level of multiple sources.”
It was Brennan’s still-classified “wake-up call” intelligence that prompted the Obama administration to reconsider how it viewed Russia's hacking of the Democratic National Committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee revealed last week. The specifics of the intelligence which jolted Obama's national security team into action is detailed in a blacked-out section titled, “[Redacted] Intelligence Was The ‘Wake Up’ Call.”
Within an hour or two of being briefed on the intelligence, then-national security adviser Susan Rice said Obama needed to know.
Rice said “the president's reaction was of grave concern” which “prompted her to call the first of a series of restricted small-group Principals Committee meetings on the topic.”
“During the meeting with the President, Director Brennan also advised the President of a plan to brief key individuals, including congressional leadership, but not to disseminate the intelligence via routine reporting channels,” the Senate report stated.
The committee noted “the receipt of the sensitive intelligence prompted the National Security Council to begin a series of restricted Principals Committee meetings to craft the administration's response” and said the discussions “were atypically restricted” and “excluded” key officials who were normally clued in.
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said that “the extraordinarily restricted nature of the meetings and departure from routine methods of disseminating intelligence were reminiscent” of how they handled preparations for the Osama bin Laden raid. Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates called it “very cloak and dagger.”
The list even initially excluded the secretary of state, the defense secretary, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and the Treasury secretary.
“Several NSC officials who would normally be included in discussions of importance, such as the NSC Senior Director for Russia, the Senior Director for Intelligence Programs, and the White House Cybersecurity Coordinator were neither included in the discussions nor exposed to the sensitive intelligence until after the election,” the report said.
The Brennan-relayed intelligence was likely detailed in a June 2017 Washington Post article, which stated that in early August 2016 the CIA sent an “eyes only” envelope addressed to Obama which contained an “intelligence bombshell … from sourcing deep inside the Russian government” which detailed Putin’s “specific instructions” to help Trump and hurt Clinton in 2016. The material was said to be so sensitive it was kept out of the President’s Daily Brief.
One day after Trump gave Barr “full and complete” declassification authority to examine the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation in May 2019, the New York Times published a piece on this source “long-nurtured by the CIA” whom the outlet hinted was now in danger of being exposed in Russia — but he had already left the country. The source’s initial resistance to being pulled out reportedly led some to question whether he might be a double agent.
Hotly disputed reporting by CNN and others in September 2019 about the reasons for the alleged source’s apparent 2017 exfiltration from Russia eventually exposed his identity and revealed he was living in the D.C. area. He’s since been moved, and it is not known whether Durham has questioned him.
Hatched by Obama and the holdovers were there to finish the job if he got elected. Many involved and it does take a long time to dot the i’s and cross the t’s so they can’t weasel out of what comes out.
This is alarming news that Obama's CIA Director John Brennan reportedly created and staffed a CIA Task Force in early 2016 that was named, Trump Task Force, and given the mission of spying on and carrying out covert actions against the campaign of candidate Donald Trump.
This was NOT a simple gathering of a small number of disgruntled Democrats working at the CIA who got together like a book club to grouse and complain about the brash real estate guy from New York.
It was a specially designed Obama-era CIA covert action to try to destroy Donald Trump.
A “Task Force” is a special bureaucratic creation that provides a vehicle for bring case officers and analysts together, along with admin support, for a limited term project. But it also can be expanded to include personnel from other agencies, such as the FBI, DIA and NSA. Task Forces have been used since the inception of the CIA in 1947.
..... a recently declassified memo outlined the considerations in the creation of a task force in 1958.
The author, L.K. White, talks about the need for a coordinated Headquarters element and an Operational unit “in the field,”
meaning deployed around the world.
A Task Force operates independent of the CIA “Mission Centers” (that’s the jargon for the current CIA organization chart).
So what did John Brennan do?
I am told by an knowledgeable source that Obama's CIA director John Brennan created a Trump Task Force in early 2016.
It was an invitation only Task Force. Specific case officers (i.e., men and women who recruit and handle spies
overseas), analysts and admin personnel were recruited. Not everyone invited accepted the offer. But many did.
(Excerpt) Read more at thegatewaypundit.com ...
Perhaps as important is why Brennan believed this source, over our own intelligence services that had no such information. Got that? He TRUSTED the foreign source, but not our own people (sound like a familiar charge?)
Was Brennan buying into and then spreading Russian dis-information?
Why does that matter?
This isn't a question of being a good sport on the DC party scene... it's about the ability of Americans to trust the institutions and people with power over us.
Much of this revolves around how the United States government eventually reached its January 2017 intelligence assessment on Russian meddling and whether Brennan was pushing for a biased result.
One major battle was about the identity and credibility of a CIA source allegedly close to the Kremlin. The NSA wanted more details about him, which the CIA resisted before providing them. The NSA then disagreed with the CIA and FBI about how much confidence to place in the source. At least some intelligence officials were disturbed by a law enforcement officer such as Durham inquiring into the assessments made by intelligence agencies, though Durham played a similar role in confidence" that Russian President Vladimir Putin “ordered an influence campaign in 2016” and that Russia worked to “undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate former Secretary of State [Hillary] Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency” and “developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump.”
The NSA diverged on one aspect, expressing only “moderate confidence” that Putin actively tried to help Trump’s election chances and harm those of Clinton by contrasting her unfavorably.
“I wouldn’t call it a discrepancy, I’d call it an honest difference of opinion between three different organizations and, in the end, I made that call,” Rogers told the Senate in May 2017. “It didn’t have the same level of sourcing and the same level of multiple sources.”
It was Brennan’s still-classified “wake-up call” intelligence that prompted the Obama administration to reconsider how it viewed Russia's hacking of the Democratic National Committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee revealed last week. The specifics of the intelligence which jolted Obama's national security team into action is detailed in a blacked-out section titled, “[Redacted] Intelligence Was The ‘Wake Up’ Call.”
Within an hour or two of being briefed on the intelligence, then-national security adviser Susan Rice said Obama needed to know.
Rice said “president Obama's reaction was of grave concern” which “prompted her to call the first of a series of restricted small-group Principals Committee meetings on the topic.”
“During the meeting with President Obama, Director Brennan also advised the President of a plan to brief key individuals, including congressional leadership, but not to disseminate the intelligence via routine reporting channels,” the Senate report stated.
The committee noted “the receipt of the sensitive intelligence prompted the National Security Council to begin a series of restricted Principals Committee meetings to craft the administration's response” and said the discussions “were atypically restricted” and “excluded” key officials who were normally clued in.
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Obama's US Amb to the UN, Samantha Power said that “the extraordinarily restricted nature of the meetings and departure from routine methods of disseminating intelligence were reminiscent” of how they handled preparations for the Osama bin Laden raid. Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates called it “very cloak and dagger.”
The list even initially excluded the secretary of state, the defense secretary, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and the Treasury secretary.
“Several NSC officials who would normally be included in discussions of importance, such as the NSC Senior Director for Russia, the Senior Director for Intelligence Programs, and the Obama White House Cybersecurity Coordinator were neither included in the discussions nor exposed to the sensitive intelligence until after the election,” the report said.
The Brennan-relayed intelligence was likely detailed in a June 2017 Washington Post article, which stated that in early August 2016 the CIA sent an “eyes only” envelope addressed to Obama which contained an “intelligence bombshell … from sourcing deep inside the Russian government” which detailed Putin’s “specific instructions” to help Trump and hurt Clinton in 2016. The material was said to be so sensitive it was kept out of the President’s Daily Brief.
One day after Trump gave Barr “full and complete” declassification authority to examine the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation in May 2019, the New York Times published a piece on this source “long-nurtured by the CIA” whom the outlet hinted was now in danger of being exposed in Russia — but he had already left the country. The source’s initial resistance to being pulled out reportedly led some to question whether he might be a double agent.
Hotly disputed reporting by CNN and others in September 2019 about the reasons for the alleged source’s apparent 2017 exfiltration from Russia eventually exposed his identity and revealed he was living in the D.C. area.
On January 13th, a few days before Trump took Office, Obama issued an executive order saying ALL 17 security agencies could have total access to each other. In other words, they were free to engage in collusion...and that’s exactly what they did.
Pres Obama’s maneuver of January 3, 2017-——his signing of NSA Data-Sharing Order Section 2.3 out of AG Lynch’s office ——is the coupe d’etat to blow out The Deep State.
Obama’s original ex/order contains some unusual language particularly the convoluted language WRT “The Strategic Delay of Section 2.3 of Obama’s Executive Order 12333.”
NOTE WELL: Prior to the formal signing of Section 2.3, greater latitude ALREADY existed within the White House in regards to collection of information – especially in relation to the Trump Campaign. However, once signed, Section 2.3 granted broad latitude to inter-agency sharing of information.
But by the time Obama’s new executive order was signed on January 3, 2017, all that information was already in the possession of Obama White House.
Thus, Susan Rice’s January 20, 2017 email to herself takes on an even greater significance b/c no one was ever supposed to know about the REAL meaning of Obama’s retroactive actions.....until Rice stupidly laid it all out in an official email.
When Susan Rice stupidly wrote a memo to herself, she inadvertently confessed to a series of crimes that added the time line and inferences about what the outgoing Obama administration illegally concealed from incoming President Trump and his aides.
After-the-fact memos are rarely a good idea....they reveal things the author never intended——as did Susan Rice in her now-infamous email to herself on Trump’s inauguration day.
Suzan skipped down the Yellowbrick Road, along with the mental midgets of the Obama Administraton.
Obama’s FBI, DOJ, ODNI, CIA and intelligence officials flipped a finger at protocol....and even worse ....they were intentionally dishonest with incoming President Trump and key members of his new administration.
Obviously their lack of honesty was a serious issue.......but flipping off established protocol had serious ramifications.
This was a “justification memo”......outgoing National Security Advisor Susan Rice needed to explain why there have been multiple false and misleading statements given to the incoming President Trump and all of his officials.
This is not a “CYA” memo, this is a justification memo for use AFTER the Trump-Russia collusion/conspiracy narrative collapsed; if the impeachment effort failed.
Her intellectually facile “By-The-Book” reference -refers to both she and then-President Obama being told by CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director Comey, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, that President Trump was the subject of an active counterintelligence investigation to determine if he was under the influence of the Russian government.
But they NEVER told candidate Trump about it.
Even the timing of Rice’s Oz-ish memo, written 15 minutes prior to the end of the Obama administration, is ex-post-facto useful as evidence of the author’s intent.......as Suzan stupidly confesses to a host of crimes.
What people miss about Susan Rice and her need to write that last memo is her attempt to craft a record of a ‘COUNTER-INTEL’ operation that was ongoing and that Obama had instructed that everything be done ‘by the book’.
What is missing is that during a counter-intel investigation, it is permissible to lie, or in official terms ‘to disseminate disinformation’.
As long as the Obama spying was characterized as a counter-intel operation, it was legal to have words and actions left in place that might be discovered as untrue.
In other words, Rice’s final memo was an attempt to carve out a last minute get-out-of-jail pass for all those involved in the spying.
Rice likely foresaw that Congressional hearings might uncover false and perjured statements on the part of persons in the spy operation to which the response would be “So what? It was a Counter-Intel operation.”
This is why it was IMPERATIVE for Barr and Durham to investigate the ORIGINS because if the origins revealed no predicate, no basis, no genuine probable cause for laun
Yeah, because trusting the plan has worked out so well.
There never was any Russian interference.
DC the justice free zone!!! Unless of course you are a Republican!!!
Isn’t there a statue of limitations on some of this? Then just run the time out & play stupid. Yea, that’s the plan of the swamp.
Isn’t there a statue of limitations on some of this? Then just run the time out & play stupid. Yea, that’s the plan of the swamp.
Just heard on Rush (Mark Steyn) that Barr will not prosecute McCabe!
The CIA is barely “accountable” to the rest - they are probably the most difficult to penetrate and get true data from....it has to be way more entrenched than the FBI and even the NSA - and I did work with the NSA and understand from even my peripheral dealings how entrenched they are...some of the folks I dealt with were those that go before the Congress and tell them that certain projects are done and being replaced by others - when the truth is they rename/rebrand some pet projects to lay down a smokescreen...and rarely get called for it even when the Congress discovers the deception.
.......there are dozens of memos that make up an actual diary of moment-by-moment events, during the FBI
investigation of Donald Trump (as candidate and as president), documented by Obama's FBI Director Comey......
SOURCE: CONSERVATIVE TREEHOUSE | 4/9/2019 | SUNDANCE / FR Posted by bitt
A late day submission to DC Circuit Court in a FOIA case reveals the content of previously
unknown James Comey memos. Obama's entire anti-Trump operation is memorialized in writing:
<><> how Obama’s FBI Director James Comey wrote down the sources and code-names assigned;
<><> how confidential sources engaged with FISA coverage initiated by Obama's FBI;
<><> naming foreign governments assisting Obama and Hillary with their vile efforts;
<><> and the rollout plans for Obama's phony investigation....."by the book."
======================================
During her ill-fated campaign Hillary bragged about “foreign governments” supporting her election.
Are these the same “foreign governments” Comey had assisting their efforts to frame Trump? (smirk)
That would mean Obama, Comey and Hillary were colluding with
foreign governments to meddle in our elections, wouldnt it Donald?
Durham should certainly be looking at that, but Brennan could wriggle off the hook by claiming it was too important to disregard, he used his best judgement, etc.
My working hypothesis is that Brennan didn’t buy into or believe squat from a source. He created the anti-Trump story he wanted and either tasked the “source” to corroborate it (”You think Putin is actively colluding with Trump to interfere in the US election, don’t you? Just say Da.”) so this ‘intel” could be “collected”, or more likely, that Brennan merely attributed whatever he pleased to a minor Kremlin source already known to him. IOW, Brennan knowingly created and spread Brennan/Clinton disinformation.
Can’t write what I want to.
McCabe is so blatantly dirty, he would be one of the easiest to prosecute.
If this is true, either McCabe is getting a deal for singing like a birdy, or Barr’s real job is literally to obstruct justice, while fooling Trump, and justice and liberty loving Americans.
If true, this would make Barr the second DOJ Trojan horse brought in to protect the “deep state” global socialist agenda of dismantling and subjugating the American population.
And the GOP continues to do nothing. Just as guilty as the left. Every last one of them, including the darlings of the "conservative" right. Nunes, Cruz - all the so-called "conservative" crusaders - guilty of violating their oaths to the Constitution by allowing this horse crap to continue.
There is a statute running on all of this.
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