Free Republic

I voted for Ted Cruz in the 2016 Republican primary election, left my ballot blank in the 2016 general election, and now must decide whom to vote for this year. In several ways, I find Donald Trump over the top and offensive. I have said this on air and on Twitter. He can be too hot to handle, insulting people and often making himself the issue, diverting attention from more important policy matters. Many of my Republican friends, notably women, will not vote for him, not because they are “Republicans in name only” but because the president has given them...

The Washington Post "Fact Checker" column gave former CIA operative and current Democratic New Mexico congressional candidate Valerie Plame three "Pinocchios" for her claim that former George W. Bush administration official I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby leaked her identity. Plame blamed Libby for the leak in a campaign ad released Monday, but according to the Post's fact-check, there is no evidence he disclosed her role to columnist Robert Novak. Novak wrote the piece that reported that Plame, identified as a CIA operative, suggested sending her husband, Joe Wilson, to Niger to look into a report that Saddam Hussein had sought uranium...

Deep State Playbook: Comparing Plamegate and Russiagate The only “Mueller Report” that matters was not written by Robert Mueller III. It’s written about him, and his co-conspirators. Long before the Russiagate hoax began, the authors examined the Special Counsel methods of then FBI director Robert Mueller, former Deputy Attorney General James Comey, and once U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, before and during Plamegate. We found that all three acted with an intent to serve and protect the Deep State.

So, was this exchange really about the F.B.I. senior leadership contemplating calling in Patrick Fitzgerald to help cover-up the lack of any real investigation into Hillary's email server? [The article below follows-up on ”Department of Justice Blueprint for Fake Investigations” (Dec. 9, 2017) and is aligned with “Special Counsel Tag Team, James Comey and Robert Mueller” (June 12, 2017); both posted on the Canada Free Press.] It appears that recently released text messages, sent between F.B.I. employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, document their discussion concerning the possible involvement of former U.S. Attorney, and Plamegate Special Prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald in...

SNIPAnd a former senior intelligence officer for a Western country who specialized in Russian counterintelligence tells Mother Jones that in recent months he provided the bureau with memos, based on his recent interactions with Russian sources, contending the Russian government has for years tried to co-opt and assist Trump—and that the FBI requested more information from him.SNIPIn June, the former Western intelligence officer—who spent almost two decades on Russian intelligence matters and who now works with a US firm that gathers information on Russia for corporate clients—was assigned the task of researching Trump's dealings in Russia and elsewhere, according to...

Washington, D.C. - Michael Maloof was back in the game. He and another Pentagon aide, David Wurmser, drove the short distance from the Pentagon to CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. It was early October, a good season in Washington, but Maloof’s nerves were on edge during the scenic ride along the tree-lined George Washington Parkway. snip Maloof was a legend within the Pentagon circle that tracked arms proliferation. His office was obscure, but it performed a crucial national security function. snip The Pentagon wanted years of intelligence reporting on al Qaeda, Iraq, Iran and other potential targets in the war...

.. At a security conference this week, the director of the C.I.A., Mike Pompeo, criticized The New York Times for a recent article about an officer who was tapped to run the agency’s Iran operations, a newsworthy promotion because it was an indication of the hard line against Iran that President Trump promised during his campaign. Mr. Pompeo said that the publication of the official’s name, Michael D’Andrea, was “unconscionable” and put his covert status in jeopardy. Mr. Pompeo’s comments led to a wider discussion about the publication of Mr. D’Andrea’s name, and some readers wrote to us to express...

With Plamegate as a timeline model, the puppet show could last until the U.S. mid-term elections in 2018, or beyond Former U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) Directors James Comey and Robert Mueller have a tag-team history in the arena of Special Prosecutor-led investigations. Their past performance in that venue was duplicitous. Comey and Mueller teamed up in a 2003-2007 bout held in the Plamegate arena. Back then, Mueller was Director of the F.B.I. and Comey was U.S. Acting Attorney General.

On this day in 2005, New York Times reporter Judith Miller is released from a federal detention center in Alexandria, Virginia, after agreeing to testify in the investigation into the leaking of the identity of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame. Miller had been behind bars since July 6, 2005, for refusing to reveal a confidential source and testify before a grand jury that was looking into the so-called Plame Affair. She decided to testify after the source she had been protecting, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, signed a waiver giving her permission to speak....

In a book just released, The Story: A Reporter's Journey, Judith Miller, a key witness in the Libby prosecution, states that Patrick Fitzgerald had offered repeatedly to drop all charges against Lewis Libby if he would "deliver" Vice President Cheney to him. In addition, she charges that Fitzgerald manipulated her into incorrectly testifying about a critical conversation she had with Libby and withheld exculpatory evidence from both her and the defense in order to induce her mistaken testimony – testimony the prosecution knew was made because she was acting under a false belief....[must read snip]....Rizzo, of course, is focused only...

Actor Ben Affleck has made it very clear where his sympathies lie in the Leakgate affair -- and it isn't with the White House. Appearing on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," Affleck charged that President Bush "probably also leaked” CIA agent Valerie Plame's name and so "if he did, you can be hung for that! That's treason!” He continued: "You could be killed. That's not a joking around Tom DeLay 'I'll do a year, I bribed the state officials with corporate money.' That's like they shoot you in the battlefield for doing that.” Affleck also called DeLay a "criminal."

Ben Affleck: Bush Can Be Hung for 'Leaks' in Plamegate By Josh Hart Apr 9, 2006 Actor Ben Affleck suggested this weekend on 'Real Time with Bill Maher' that President Bush “probably leaked” Valerie Plame's name and so “if he did, you can be hung for that! That's treason!” The would be politician and Democrat went through this exchange according to News Busters that gives a brief and rough transcript on how Mr. Affleck came to this conclusion. *** The panel guests were Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) who was quite humorous as he let loose with some funny four-quotes. Bill...

In “The Story: A Reporter’s Journey,” which hit book store shelves Tuesday, April 7, former New York Times reporter Judith Miller revealed in the final chapter that she now believes that she was induced by then-Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald to give false testimony in the 2007 trial of I. “Lewis” Scooter Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. Given that Fitzgerald’s three-and-a-half year-long investigation and prosecution of Libby riveted the nation’s capital and generated vast news coverage implying, when not outright declaring, that the Bush administration lied the nation into war, one might think that recantation...

Former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson caused “embarrassment” to a company he consulted for by lobbying then-Sec. of State Hillary Clinton in an email he sent through her longtime friend and ally, Sidney Blumenthal, according to court documents obtained by The Daily Caller. The company, Symbion Power, made the claim in response to a lawsuit filed in New Mexico last week by Wilson, who served as ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé and Príncipe during the Bill Clinton administration. Wilson claims that Symbion and its co-founders, Paul Hinks and Lord Richard Westbury, engaged in fraud, breach of contract and civil conspiracy...

Updated March 27 to include responses from the FBI and the State Department. Emails disclosed by a hacker show a close family friend was funneling intelligence about the crisis in Libya directly to the Secretary of State’s private account starting before the Benghazi attack. Starting weeks before Islamic militants attacked the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, longtime Clinton family confidante Sidney Blumenthal supplied intelligence to then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gathered by a secret network that included a former CIA clandestine service officer, according to hacked emails from Blumenthal’s account. The emails, which were posted on the internet...

The director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, the storied home of the agency’s most secretive intelligence operations, has announced that he plans to retire, The Daily Beast has learned. CIA spokesman Dean Boyd confirmed that the director announced his retirement “after a long and distinguished career at CIA. We thank him for this profound and lasting contributions to both CIA and to our nation’s security.” As a practice, the CIA doesn’t identify the head of the clandestine service by name. But Frank Archibald was outed in a Twitter post in 2013, and details of his biography were known to...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — After losing a seven-year legal battle, James Risen, a reporter for The New York Times, reluctantly took the witness stand in federal court here on Monday, but refused to answer any questions that could help the Justice Department identify his confidential sources. Mr. Risen said he would not say anything to help prosecutors bolster their case against Jeffrey A. Sterling, a former C.I.A. officer who is set to go on trial soon on charges of providing classified information to Mr. Risen for his 2006 book, “State of War.” The Justice Department first subpoenaed Mr. Risen to testify...

On Sunday, President Barack Obama traveled to Afghanistan to do a photo op with the troops amid fallout from the burgeoning Veterans Administration scandal. Announcing his visit, the White House promptly released a list of guests, including the name of the top CIA officer in Afghanistan. That officer is responsible for intelligence and drone warfare. The information was sent to over 6,000 email addresses. Oops. This is not the first time the Obama administration has compromised national security with leaks, either purposeful or inadvertent. SEAL Team Six. After the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the Obama administration steadfastly refused to...

An unidentified Obama administration official exposed the name of the highest-ranking CIA officer in Kabul on Saturday by accidentally placing it on a list of names provided to a bunch of media outlets. The list contained the names of several senior U.S. officials who took part in a military briefing during President Barack Obama’s surprise Memorial Day visit to Afghanistan to glad-hand with the troops, reports The Washington Post.

White House mistakenly identifies CIA chief in Afghanistan 571 Share to Facebook Share on Twitter Share on LinkedIn Add to PersonalPost Share via Email Print Article More By Greg Miller, Published: May 25 E-mail the writer The CIA’s top officer in Kabul was exposed Saturday by the White House when his name was inadvertently included on a list provided to news organizations of senior U.S. officials participating in President Obama’s surprise visit with U.S. troops. The White House recognized the mistake and quickly issued a revised list that did not include the individual, who had been identified on the initial...