"I Salute all those People Defending America! IC, CIA, NSA, Police, Firemen, Teachers, Drs and Nurses.
"I Salute You! For America!"
These commenters may not know that Mueller was criticized for supporting the rush to war in Iraq by stating, incorrectly, that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. He was challenged in 2003 by whistleblowing special agent Colleen Rowley for implying a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, and for reportedly allowing the FBI to state incorrectly that there were 5,000 Al Qaeda terrorists in the US.
(Rowley, who has since left the FBI, wrote an essay in June 2017 entitled "No, Robert Mueller And James Comey Aren't Heroes.")
The FBI's moves against peaceful protesters did not die with Dr. King. After filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the ACLU revealed that the FBI spied on anti-Iraq war protestors, including Quakers and student groups, during George W. Bush's presidency.
Documents obtained by DBA Press and the Center for Media and Democracy showed that the FBI misused a counter-terrorism program known as "Operation Tripwire" to spy on peaceful Occupy protesters, in concert with private-sector informants.
The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund obtained documents showing that the FBI was coordinating nationwide efforts against the Occupy movement as early as August 2011, before the occupation of Zuccotti Park in New York City.
The FBI Director who oversaw all of these these covert programs was Robert Mueller.
The LiarThen there's James Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence, who's also being celebrated for his attacks on Trump. Since retiring in January, Clapper has taken the lead in alleging that Russia aided Trump -- a right-wing president -- get elected. He has also used these allegations to stigmatize and demonize the Left.
But before he made his outlandish claims against progressive groups and publications, Clapper was known for something else. As law professor Jonathan Turley writes, Clapper lied to the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2013 when he denied that the government was collecting data on "millions, or hundreds of millions of Americans."
"Even in a city with a notoriously fluid notion of truth," writes Turley, "Clapper's false testimony was a standout."
And yet, Clapper's report on Russian spying -- a report which inexplicably placed much of the blame for the election of a right-wing president on left-wing websites -- was treated as gospel by many Democrats and liberals.
We promised two milestones. Here's the first. On March 12, the five-year statute of limitations ran out on Clapper's Senate lie. He can no longer be prosecuted for perjury. That's good news for Clapper, but bad news for the rule of law.
The ForgettersDonald Trump is both corrupt and unstable. I share the hope Mueller succeeds in bringing him to justice, although a President Pence could conceivably do more legislative damage than Trump has done thus far. Trump's escalating war of words against Mueller, even as his lawyer argues that Mueller's investigation should be shut down, is deeply worrisome.
But the Democrats who idealize figures like Mueller, Clapper, Brennan, and the others are sacrificing the long-term needs of justice -- the "moral arc of the universe" that Dr. King talked about -- for short-term expediency.
Some of the people currently being lionized, like Comey, probably acted according to their own moral lights. But theirs aren't necessarily the morals this country needs. It's possible to hope they succeed without turning them into heroes.
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