The CIA Leak

    

Here we go again. National Security has been damaged tremendously. So has trust in our Government. This is bad on so many different levels.

Let's face it, many of us on both sides of the political spectrum have been concerned about this for years. We knew much of it was happening, we suspected more. Now we see in some ways it is even worse than we feared.  We hear from National Security Experts not to fear, the Government doesn't use these tools to spy on American Citizens. Really?

Dennis Kucinich

"President Trump’s assertion that his phones at Trump Tower were tapped last year has been treated as hilarious—and in some circles as beyond contempt. But I can vouch for the fact that extracurricular surveillance does occur, regardless of whether it is officially approved. I was wiretapped in 2011 after taking a phone call in my congressional office from a foreign leader.
That a secret recording had been made of this call was revealed to me by the Washington Times in 2015, a full two years after I left office.
The newspaper’s investigative reporters called me, saying they had obtained a tape of a sensitive telephone conversation that they wanted me to verify.
When I met them at a Chinese restaurant in Washington, they played back audio of a call I had taken in my D.C. congressional office four years earlier.
The call had been from Saif el-Islam Qaddafi, a high-ranking official in Libya’s government and a son of the country’s ruler, Moammar Qaddafi.
At the time I was leading efforts in the House to challenge the Obama administration’s war against Libya. The Qaddafi government reached out to me because its appeals to the White House and the State Department to forestall the escalating aggression had gone unanswered.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/03/10/dennis-kucinich-im-no-fan-trumps-but-hes-got-point-about-wiretapping.html

Remember when Conservatives thought Supreme Court Chief John Roberts had been blackmailed? The rumors swirled after his controversial ruling on the Affordable Care Act. It was rumored his emails had been hacked and his phone calls tapped to get damaging information on him. I don't usually buy into such conspiracy theories, however it certainly seems more possible now.

Remember Senator Diane Feinstein complaining of the CIA getting into Senate Computers and tapping phone lines? Whether you like General Flynn or not, how else could a transcript of his phone call been recorded and released to the Press?

We have a major problem.

On the domestic front, this also points out the problem with the claims Russia interfered with the Election. Did they? Who knows now that we know US Intelligence can hack into a system and leave Russian "fingerprints?"

I do think National Security Experts are right. Our Intelligence Services need these tools. They don't need their capabilities and methods released by WikiLeaks. The question is can we trust them with these tools?

Do you think they would be afraid to read your emails? Check your internet searches? Listen in to your phone conversations? Read your Text Messages? Check your GPS?

If the IRS will and did use their power to go after political opponents; If the CIA will target US Senators; If someone in one of the Intelligence Agencies will record and release General Flynn's phone calls; If they will tap, record, and leak a member of the US House, do you really think they would be above doing the same to you or I?

How do we police them?

General Flynn, Americas Loss

    

Make no mistake from the headline. I think General Flynn did the right thing by submitting his resignation, and President Trump did the right thing is accepting it. In todays political climate I am afraid it was the best option. I do feel it is a loss for America though.

Flynn's military career was primarily operational, with numerous combat arms, conventional and special operations senior intelligence assignments. He co-authored a report in January 2010 through the Center for a New American Security entitled Fixing Intel: A Blueprint for Making Intelligence Relevant in Afghanistan. In addition, Flynn served as the commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, chair of the Military Intelligence Board, Assistant Director of National Intelligence, and the senior intelligence officer for the Joint Special Operations Command. He retired with 33 years service in the Army, a year before he was scheduled to leave his position.

In September 2011, Flynn was promoted to Lieutenant General and assigned to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. On April 17, 2012, President Barack Obama nominated Flynn to be the 18th director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

According to what Flynn had told in one final interview as DIA director, he felt like a lone voice in thinking that the United States was less safe from the threat of Islamic terrorism in 2014 than it was prior to the 9/11 attacks; he went on to believe that he was pressed into retirement for questioning the Obama administration's public narrative that Al Qaeda was close to defeat. Journalist Seymour Hersh wrote that "Flynn confirmed [to Hersh] that his agency had sent a constant stream of classified warnings ... about the dire consequences of toppling [Syrian President] Assad." Flynn recounted that his agency was producing intelligence reports indicating that radical Islamists were the main force in the Syrian insurgency and "that Turkey was looking the other way when it came to the growth of the Islamic State inside Syria". According to Flynn, these reports "got enormous pushback from the Obama administration," who he felt "did not want to hear the truth". According to former DIA official W. Patrick Lang: "Flynn incurred the wrath of the White House by insisting on telling the truth about Syria ... they shoved him out. He wouldn't shut up."

History has proven General Flynn was right, President Obama was wrong.

Flynn retired from the U.S. Army with 33 years of service on August 7, 2014.

There are  rumors from high placed sources the leaks about General Flynn's phone call, President Trump's calls with foreign leaders etc. have come from the C.I.A.. Should these rumors be proven, criminal proceedings need to be started immediately. We cannot have a Covert Intelligence Organization who attempts to take down politicians they don't like or agree with.