Still, there does seem to be something weirdly misplaced about the official words and actions of the CIA chief, and Washington's political class in general, with regard to Russia.
On one hand, the CIA and large sections of the US political establishment including prominent news media outlets have been harping on about grave allegations of Russian meddling in American democracy for more than a year. Some Republican politicians have even gone as far as describing Russia's supposed interference as "an act of war" by Moscow.
On the other hand, however, the head of the CIA seems to have no problem holding professional meetings with the Russian "arch enemies" right in the seat of American democracy.
What we are talking about here is a stupendous lack of consistency, or put another way duplicity; which in turn undermines American credibility over the whole "Russiagate" narrative that has so dominated Washington's official discourse.
No bigger discrepancy perhaps is the fact that the American head of state, President Donald Trump, maintains that the allegations of Russian collusion and interference are "fake news" -- or at least overblown. That puts the country's leader completely at odds with his head of foreign intelligence.
How is the world supposed to take anything these people say seriously if they are so inconsistent about a matter which, we are told to believe, is a grave national-security concern?
They seem to have shot their own credibility to pieces.
In his BBC interview, Pompeo also warned that North Korea was capable of a missile attack on the US "within months."
This lack of American credibility and the danger of a catastrophic war are correlated.
America's credibility problem is much bigger than President Trump or his CIA chief. It encompasses the entire American political class.
This past week, the Trump administration released a so-called "Kremlin Report" which impugned 210 leaders of Russian politics and business. The figures included Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, as well as Foreign and Defense Minister Sergei Lavrov and Sergei Shoigu. The Washington report, drawn up by the Treasury Department, stems from the claims of Russian interference in US politics.
No credible evidence has ever been presented to substantiate the "Russiagate" claims. Moscow has repeatedly rejected the claims as baseless.
Indeed, there is plausible evidence -- buried by the US mainstream media -- that the alleged hacking of Democratic party computers during the 2016 election campaign was not a hack but rather was a leak from within the party by a staffer disgruntled with candidate Hillary Clinton's dirty tricks against rival Democratic nominee Bernie Sanders.
It is also now emerging that the agencies that quite possibly interfered in the presidential election were not Russian, but rather America's own "finest" secret services, the FBI, CIA and NSA, who were allegedly trying to sabotage then Republican candidate, and future president, Donald Trump.
For over a year, the provocative and reckless accusations of Russian interference in American democracy, and additionally in European democracy, have run and run without relent. Even though those accusations have no legs of credibility. Just this past week, as noted, the head of US intelligence solemnly reiterated those claims and is warning of more Russian meddling.
Washington's political class and America's supposed bastions of journalism have indulged this dubious narrative to brain-numbing saturation point.
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