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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 2/21/17

American Coup

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Kucinich added that war profiteering is threatened by a more peaceful relationship with Russia.

"And I tell you there's a marching band and Chowder Society out there. There's gold in them there hills," he said. "There are people trying to separate the U.S. and Russia so that this military-industrial-intel axis can cash in."

He added, "What's going on here with the intelligence community with the new president is unprecedented. They're making every effort to upend him."...This is like Deep State. It's like some kind of spy novel. But it's real. The American people have to understand a game is being played with the security of our country." (See "Ex-Rep. Dennis Kucinich says intelligence community schemed against Michael Flynn" http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/02/ex-rep_dennis_kucinich_says_in.html )

Eli Lake, a national security columnist for Bloomberg View, in a piece entitled "The Political Assassination of Michael Flynn," wrote that "Normally intercepts of U.S. officials and citizens are among the government's mostly tightly held secrets. This is for good reason. Selectively disclosing details of private conversations monitored by the FBI or NSA gives the permanent state the power to destroy reputations from the cloak of anonymity. This is what police states do."

The "permanent state" Lake referred to is the national security establishment --- meaning the military and the intelligence agencies. The people who work in these sectors are career employees who stay in place while administrations change.

The New York Times and Washington Post, which have led media outlets in giving the anonymous leaks wide play, have reported that a number of people who were part of the Trump campaign are under investigation by the FBI for their ties to Russia.

A congressional investigation is now underway on the claims of Russian election interference, even though cyber experts and former CIA officials have debunked them.

It is surprising that so much of the media and many members of Congress are giving the leaks and inferences of wrongdoing so much credence. For one thing, the truth of this leaked information has to be questioned, given the sources --- the intelligence agencies. The CIA has had a long and sordid history of illegally intervening in the affairs of other countries, interfering (ahem) in foreign elections, waging disinformation campaigns, organizing violent coups, and then covering up those activities so the American people wouldn't find out. Truth-telling has not exactly been the CIA's hallmark.

Then there's the NSA --- the same group that secretly conducted illegal mass phone surveillance over the American people for years. The present director of national intelligence, James Clapper, lied to Congress when he was asked if such surveillance was going on --- denying that it was taking place. Then, after Edward Snowden made his revelations detailing a vast surveillance network, Clapper did an about face and admitted that, yes, the government was spying after all and he had not told the truth.

So after all this lying and prevarication by our intelligence officials, we are now told we must believe their claims about Russian election hacking and inferences about Trump-Russia collusion. Really?

Here's the other factor that must be considered. The contents of the intercepted phone calls between Trump representatives and Russian officials have been known for many months going back into the Obama administration. If there was any indication of illegal activity, that information would have been given to the Attorney General (Janet Lynch) and surely a prosecution would have followed.

But that didn't happen. Presumably, nothing illegal was found. So why all the fuss? Why is all this stuff being fed to the press?

Is there something illegal about talking with a Russian official now?

Are we reverting back to the McCarthy era --- people being investigated for "contacting" a Russian? 'Are you now or have you ever been consorting with a Russian official'?

There is something very disturbing going on here. Members of the intelligence community are misusing their power to push this country to pursue a geopolitical agenda that they think is appropriate regardless of what the President wants.

Kucinich made a very telling point in his interview. He said the abuse of power by the intel community has to be a concern for all Americans, Republican or Democrat.

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Reginald Johnson is a free-lance writer based in Bridgeport, Ct. His work has appeared in The New York Times, BBC-Online, the Connecticut Post, his web magazine, The Pequonnock, and Reading Between the Lines, a web magazine affiliated with the (more...)
 
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