Glenn Greenwald has a great breakdown of a letter submitted by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) about the political weaponization of the intelligence community. For those who have tracked this issue Greenwald’s article is well worth the read.
GREENWALD – […] “Involvement of the intelligence community in the domestic activities of U.S. citizens is one of the most dangerous breaches of civil liberties and democratic order the U.S. Government can perpetrate. It was after World War II when the CIA, the NSA and other security state agencies that wield immense and unlimited powers in the dark were created in the name of fighting the Cold War.
Legal and institutional prohibitions on wielding that massive machinery against the American public were central to the always-dubious claim that this security behemoth that operates completely in the dark was compatible with democracy. As the ACLU noted, “in its 1947 charter, the CIA was prohibited from spying against Americans, in part because President Truman was afraid that the agency would engage in political abuse.”” (read more)
Strongly worded letters.
It’s all explained by the classic theory of criminal behavior, first conceived by Cesare Beccaria. Crime is a result of the risk-reward ratio leaning favorably towards “reward”. If the reward outweighs the risk, crime occurs. It’s also a choice. Obviously, the offenders in this case have done the calculations. The risks are miniscule and the rewards are great.
Just look at the criminal justice “reform“ initiatives that tip the balance to unacceptable and unsustainable levels.
You get municipalities who refuse to investigate theft / robbery valued under $1000. What do you think the repeat offenders are going to do with that as far as risk/reward, especially when any violent part of such operations can often be played down or have activist district attorneys refuse to prosecute — as was reportedly the case with carjackings in Chicago?
Add in unchecked ingress of people from other places which would include organize crime structures that can get further entrenched. Where exactly is the common person who gets their head bashed in or gets repeatedly robbed or assaulted supposed to go for justice?
the ‘risk-reward ratio for stealing anything under $1,000 is infinite !!!
$999 divided by $Zero !!!
and Vote Fraud divided by zero prosecution
Is this math racist?
The Rochester police Dept is available..
at the BLM hostage taking the other day at the grocery store the Rochester Police stood around and watched..
Now when I say available it is restricted to ….
1 any where but ROCHESTER..
2. any criminal except BLM/AntiFa
I would presume most readers would like the levity of the sarcasm ….
My apologies for anyone living in or arround Rochester..
The brutality!
I’m concerned, too. Sooooo “concerned.” Oh, the concerns – i can feel them.
I can only imagine how much wordsmithing flies around DC daily. Plenty of time to do that while Lawfare and lobbyists write the laws and squander the taxpayer sweat.
Nothing strikes more fear into the corrupt than politicians being deeply concerned.
Wordsmithing? Is that the politically correct term for Democrat Bull Sh!t?????
Talk is cheap; it takes money to buy whiskey.
Potential “foot in the door” to scrutinize the actions against American citizen PDJT?
Not in a million years.
Don’t hold your breath.
IOW – never.
Ha Ha Ha
You mean NOW?…
TODAY?…
as if this is new….
and I just awoke from a 4 year COMA.
That kind of concern?
no, they weren’t “DEEPLY concerned” before.
The only thing DEEP at the DOJ and FBI is the BS being spread by those in charge! Integrity? I would venture that more than 50% of the FBI agents (and 100% of the FBI leadership) have no clue as to what it means much less how to demonstrate it! Their only deep concern is when they fear someone is getting too close to the truth. Then the fangs come out (that’s one fang, not to be confused with Swallwell’s two fangs).
Oh, please…Spare me…..There is Zero concern from the Republican Intelligence Committee…..
It is now rumored that to get on the House Intelligence committee you must..
1 . Sleep with a Chinese communist spy..
2. Being married is a plus
3. Introducing the Chinese spy into other politicians is required.
4. Denounce any and all politicians who attack the CCP and say it was Russia
5. Farting on public television is a definite plus
A political juggernaut that meets all these requirements in non other then Eric (the Fang Fang Bang Bang) swallwell..
Don’t forget a pic with a high ranking member of the CCP, Hans!
Triple bonus,score.
(Purple tie recommended)
DID FEINSTAIN EXILED TO CHYNA ??????
Oh, I think there is real concern because they are now spying on Congress. They did some wide net gathering of information after January 6, and gather information from their phones, I believe that is what Matt Gaetz said. So the concern is real.
Pardon me, but what do these azzhats expect to happen, after a TREASONOUS COUP to destroy the free world?
Do Commies ever slow down to hand out participation trophies? Or do Totalitarian regimes immediately dispense with useful idiots? Hmm.. I guess these co- conspirators and useful idiots alike, failed to study the history of Communism. ??
They want your $$$$$!!
The End.
p.s.
Please Donate.
(We’re gonna get ’em this time)
?
(For Reelz!!)
Notice there is no “concern” over content…
Only authorship…
The Patriot Act gave broad powers to these agencies. The population was in a mood at the time to be sold on these powers.
Yet Islamic terrorists still operate with freedom as in the Boulder jihad.
….while the authorities turn over every stone looking for those elusive white supremacists.
Watch, they will classify the Boulder terrorist as domestic terrorism or no terrorism at all.
“Emergencies” have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have eroded.
– Friedrich Hayek
Yes, and now that they have the tools they are going to use them one way or another. Only answer short of repealing the Patriot Act and FISA is to whack the IC budget by 75%.
The means of defense against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.
-James Madison (“The Father of the United States Constitution”)
If you didn’t know that before Covid, you should realize it now. Our liberties were not eroded, they were shattered. Bonus, the government knows now it can lock the citizens down anytime they want.
And the January 6 Capitol riot now serves as the capital to for them to pretend they need those same powers domestically. They never let a crisis go to waste.
No Tree Knot, not all the population was in that mood.
Some of us worried about our constitutional rights, were labeled as kooks.
Even if 90 percent of the country had agreed with us then, how would we ever know it? The ENEmedia has shaped THE NARRATIVE we’ve been fed for most, if not all, of our lifetimes.
I now question EVERYTHING we were once led to believe. Lying liars ..well.. they LIE! ?? ? ?
Hey, I was one of those kooks calling you a kook back then. Not now. The corruption and politicization of the intelligence communities is too obvious. I wag my head in shame that I supported the Patriot Act back then. I was wrong and had too much faith in our government, that it would do right by us and only use their powers to protect us from terrorist threats. Nope, they are the tools of totalitarian control.
Were Americans really “in the mood” to lose our Constitutional rights? Or was it actually a complicit ENEmedia that was “in the mood” to shove all that rah rah crap down our throats?
I know a dog and pony show when I see one.
When Dubya stood on the pile for his photo op, I wasn’t “sold” at all. The Bushes are New World Order traitors. They should have been charged with treason.
And that decade-long “chase” for Osama bin laden rivaling the OJ Ford bronco escapade?
Puh-leez.
The free world has been in dire straits for a very long time.
Yep, the Patriot Act foisted on us by George W. Anyone with half a brain would have known it would be abused.
I think this is when the fbi went totally off the rails and you got people like Peter Strzok fancying themselves as James Bond.
Oh NOW they’re concerned. It didn’t bother them when they targeted our President Trump. Sat back silent all 4 years. Even pitched in and helped.
Oh goody! More kabuki theatre!
Yeah, but this time it is deeply kabuki!
“Deeply concerned”
…and that will be all.
Come on, Winston, there’s got to be another grade or two of ‘concerned’ to get to, don’t ya think?
Ludicrously concerned?
is VERY CONCERNED, with all caps, more or less than “deeply concerned”?
The categorizations read like a how to manual – how to turn your average Joe into a domestic terrorist. Step 1 – ignore every grievance brought whether legitimate or not. Step 2 – String him along as long as possible on the notion that his vote counts. Step 3 – repeat step 1. Step 4 Declare any protest he might enjoin as an illegal insurrection. Step 5 Declare any decent to all previous steps as extremest. Step 6 Use the powers of the State to enforce step 1.
Director Haines replies:’Thank you for your concern, we will take it under advisement and put your letter in the proper waste receptacle.’
Glenn Greenwald’s article is excellent, but I doubt the sincerity of the HPSCI authors. IMO, this letter, and its release, is more controlled opposition.
Make that a renewable energy waste receptacle..
…but that would be the receptacle where the sun don’t shine, so not quite renewable, unless Haines is into high-fiber, high colonics.
(been waiting for an opportunity to use ‘high colonic’ for some years now)
So where the h3ll was this “deep concern” during Trump’s tenure in the WH? More RINO stagecraft, that’s all this is.
Yep, and because there was no accountability for domestic spying on Trump they are now emboldened to codify it.
As if the crap that we have to put up with from our own “government”- the spying, the lying, the censorship- isn’t bad enough, we now have the Soros clone Aspen Institute’s Commission on Information Disorder.”
Here’s a link that explains what it is.
https://www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/aspen-commission-on-information-disorder/
However, the really BIG news is that the His Royal Cuck, the Harry formerly known as Prince, has suddenly discovered his true calling as a minister of Woke in his newly adopted country.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9397453/Harry-gets-job-Prince-joins-Rupert-Murdochs-daughter-law-Aspen-Institute.html
People like “the Sussex’s” are the reason the Founders had the American Revolution. These men risked their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to get away from human scum like these two would be Royals.
They are no better than that Somali hag Omar, just way more money.
Anyone wondering who CamelToes will choose as VP…
Climate Changers are couple steps away? King + Pres of US= CC’s ultimate goal. (TAX $$$ = develop Africa/ME their way…the markets! the markets! just think of the markets! …iphones, ketchup… the “reset”….Trillionairs on the horizon)
At the time, wondered why W&K would have O’s in their home (personal dinner)…Oh! remember now, it was about
Lil’Prince’s robe! /s
The British have always had their claws into this country and involved in it’s continued destruction it’s called the B.A.R.
British
Accreditation
Registry
I have seen this abbreviation bandied about lately. I am not a lawyer, nor have I ever played one on tv, but I was under the perception (for no reason that I can remember, just a long time perception) that it had more to do with stepping up to a bar in court to present a case.
If it is true, B.A.R. is British Accreditation Registry, then surely it can’t mean anything loyal to England. It seems more logical for it to be an archaic name that stuck, otherwise I should be suspicious of home air conditioner and home furnace manufacturers because those are measured in BTUs (British Thermal Units).
But alas, it wouldn’t be the first time I was wrong, that list is very very long.
Nope.
They’re just pandering to the uninformed voters.
Come 2022, they’ll dredge up all this “tough talk” and try to fool voters into, once again, believing that they’re actually doing something.
It’s much too late now for them to do much, if anything, about a politically weaponized “Intelligence Community”.
Maybe they should concentrate their efforts on doing something about a politically weaponized military before it’s too late to do much, if anything, about that too, if it’s not too late already..
We have a winner. Especially since they are screening people and making them take an oath (or something, I read it but don’t remember) to Biden….
No, they took an oath when they were sworn in. It’s an oath to the Constitution. Not the President. There’s reason for that…and it’s playing out right before our eyes. Any soldier/sailor who takes this second pledge or oath or whatever are traitors….literally, they are uniformed military members…thus traitors.
Hooboy! Another letter. Deeply concerned ……
Too late. You had your chance. Get lost you losers. Again, it seems the abject freefall of GOPrick donations and registrations continues without signs of slowing. And I think I saw DNC had a record month. We need to keep it up. We are all going to feel great pain……them included.
They tried to avoid reality……they are finding out they can’t avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.
The letter reeks of all the sincerity you get at a used car lot.
“deep concern”……………….smh.
I went past “deep concern” about four years ago. I would say most MAGA Americans (70+ million) are well beyond “deep concern”.
GOP fund raising must be in decline……………total head fake this “deep concern”
is it not shockng this was even written? this must be by the House minority intel
I can think of 80,000,000 outraged voters who are “deeply concerned” that not a single one of these Republicans is currently doing diddly squat to expose The Coup’s election fraud plot. Not a one of them.
Where is Devin Nunes? Where is Jim Jordan?
He is the Minority Chairman of the Republicans who wrote the letter. Jordan is no longer on the House IC.
https://intelligence.house.gov/
Many morons ago the democrats were against govt intrusion on civil liberties. In fact is was a staple of their platform. Then came the communists.
Damn. I am so very tired of having my intelligence insulted by these politicians.
Is there such a thing as a limited, focused EMP that can be trained on a relatively small chithole on the Potomac?
That way we can then use politicians for something useful. Oh, I don’t know, like maybe piñatas.
Where were the “Republicans” in 2008 when Osama started doing this and they had the opportunity to investigate and prosecute ?
Kissing his half-black you-know-what.
“Deeply concerned.”
ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT or you’re just speech-making TRAITORS.
You know these GOPrick politicians are narcissists when they have such zero humility, shame, and embarrassment to produce a letter like this.
Meanwhile, the 3-4 seat GOPrick senate majority didn’t get crap done while a 50-50 senate is going to rip the heart right out of America……undoubtedly with several GOPricks voting yes.
LOL. are they?
Why? They were exposed and now is harder for people to fall for their crap? That must the concern.
Hey concerned House Republicans, want to show you aren’t just Kabuki. Drop the generalities and try this:
Dear ODNI,
We hearby inform you we will be rejecting all further budget appropriations for your agencies until such time that you cease and desist all activities violating the constitution let alone your government charter.
Moreover, we will introduce legislation to abolish your agencies and will continue to do so each year.
In addition, we will be introducing legislation for a citizen oversight commission to audit your agencies for:
-politically motivated behavior
-politically selected staffing (what is the ideological demographics of your personnel)
-illegal contacts with external organizations (political and media)
-anything else we can think of in the meantime
We will be consulting with Republican leadership to make this is a priority cause and to assure that ALL elected Republican office holders vote in accordance with the expressed concerns.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
During the Fast and Furious gunwalking investigation the Republicans sent one letter after the other to various Obama administration criminals. Guess what? Nothing happened, oh wait Holder was found in contempt of Congress and laughed about it. Ask most Americans today or even then if they knew about Obama’s Fast and Furious scandal and most will blankly look at you: ‘wasn’t that a movie.’
Yeah, write more letters, that’s the ticket.
Aside from the “strongly worded letter,” I would encourage people to read Greenwald’s piece.
I find it encouraging to read some prominent, well respected liberal journalists sounding the same alarm bells as MAGA conservatives.
It would be wise of us to engage with these people, listen to the arguments they are posing that also support our viewpoint, and use those arguments to engage those who are feeling uneasy about the extreme direction of the progressives.
Not everyone who opposes the direction of the liberals is prepared to embrace the MAGA movement, but they are likely more aligned with us than the direction their extreme leadership.
As eyes open, we should provide them a place to land. To do so, we need to understand their narrative, and show them where we agree.
Pay attention to Greenwald, Taibbi, Maher, and others. They will show you strong points of agreement. That’s a start.
I would say, OK, but my litmus test will be the push back they get from the censors. To include cancel (real or threats), nasty comments against them from their fans, etc. And their stick to their new found “principals”. Maher and others have a long long way to go before I would trust them on anything. If none of those, then it’s just like the GOPrick house letter to the Intell community. Pacifying us with no intention of corrective action……like they have any power not the putzes.
You are scaring the crap out of the swamp. The people coming together against them.
Shut up! They won’t sleep tonight.
How easy would be for the CIA to convince some mentally ill person to shoot innocent people at a grocery store to bring back Islamic Terrorists fear/more spying and gun control at the same time?
This is how I view our agencies now days. Zero trust, zero respect. I suspect they are the real terrorists and they are behind these shootings.
I don’t mean false flag. I mean, posing as fellow ISIS person and brainwashing someone to commit those acts. Just like that girl that convinced her friend to commit suicide. Like this:
Michelle Carter, who urged her boyfriend to kill himself in texts, is released early from jail
In the days before Carter’s boyfriend Conrad Roy III took his life, she sent numerous texts to Roy urging him to go through with his plan. While the content of her phone calls is not known, texts Carter sent such as “Just do it, babe,” and one in which she told Roy to get back inside a car rigged to fill monoxide gas, were key to her conviction.
Or you can also consider Smollett right before Kamala brought up the anti-lynching crap or whatever crazy stuff they needed passed. You know…
How easy would it be?
All they have to do is throw a dart at their “Watch List”.
Easy Peezy
Convicted of what? She committed no crime. None. This was a BS SJW feelz good go after the GF.
I’m sorry, I don’t care that she convinced him- he still took his own life.
Yep, it’s sad, tug at heart feelz story but she broke no laws. The boy still killed himself.
It’s horse shit and one example of why we are where we are today.
Was what she did morally corrupt- damn skippy. But, that boy had free will and chose his own fate. She was just a friend providing support for what he wanted.
I don’t care if people lambast me- we either want limited government or we do not. Pick one.
Johnny Ratcliff been a busy boy?
A guy named Sundance has known a lot of this stuff for a long time.
I wonder if Greenwald is now realizing there is no opposition to any of this and even he is kinda nervous. “Up until now it’s all been fun and games.” Maybe he is starting to realize that for the most part, we just don’t care anymore. GOPricks have sold us out for years and decades and we are getting prepped to look after our immediate family and pretty much we couldn’t care less beyond the range of our sight. Cities can burn for all we care. 2022 election will be a disaster with many dims winning races at 70-30% when should be a GOP win or close 50s.
GG is and always was a far left guy. Communist lover kinda guy.
However he has been consistent about going after the Intel agencies. I don’t think for the same reasons, but we have the same enemy. At least now we do.
He was always pro-Russia, pro America’s “enemies” and against our wars, etc. He may right, knowing what I know now, I don’t trust the people who declares who are our enemies are.
He was always after the NSA while protecting Assange, Bradley Manning, Snowden and others. Now we are all on that same boat. After our Intel agencies showed us who they are, yeah… Glenn was right, Assange was right, Snowden was right. I am now with them.
Iraq war was a James Clapper creation. He invented the fake intel to attack them just like he invented the fake Russia intel to go after Trump. Same tactics.
However in Rio where Glenn lives I think he supports the Fidel Castro/ Maduro/ Lula people. The far left crooks. At least is what I understood by reading some of his tweets.
I have disagreed with GG on nearly everything.
Our common ground is defending freedom of speech, and exposing the weaponization of the IC against the American people.
In that battle, I will gladly stand with him and accept his support.
We need voices on the Left that are willing to fight the fight to expose the attacks on our very basic freedoms of thought, expression, association.
“Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday that President-elect Donald Trump is “being really dumb” by taking on the intelligence community and its assessments on Russia’s cyber activities.
“Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you,” Schumer told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
Republicans did nothing to help President Trump, they sure as heck aren’t going to help us peasants.
Republicans are three of the six.
Bipartisan “support”
Dontcha know…
I think Glen is one of those guys like Obama who hates “America Imperialism” and embrace all leftists causes but Glenn, unlike Obama is anti- US Intel agencies and Military.
Obama used them for his advantage. Glenn wants to see them gone.
But other than that I think Glenn is a lot like Obama. Glenn is very much a BLM supporter.
But I am glad Glenn is shining the light on the corruption of the agencies and I hope his leftist followers learn something new.
So I thought for a second… Intelligence..
In congress we have the gang of eight.. leaders of the intell committees and senate and House..
Look at the members.. do you realy think any intelligence matter really will be brought forward to the general public..
Kabuki.. nothing but kabuki..
They all lied about the corruption in the Ukraine… ambassadors etc.. none true.. hold congressional hearing have witnesses lie and be rewarded..
No there is no intelligence in Dc only corruption…
Link https://ballotpedia.org/Gang_of_Eight
If you don’t think the CIA was up to their neck in the stealing of the 2020 election, then your wrong.
I would not be surprised to learn that they cut a deal with a number of countries, in order to flip the votes for the 2020 election.
Well then why did they allow it to happen, in the first place? If they were all telling the truth during their campaigns, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
Oh I’m sure after they’re shown their own dossiers they’ll suddenly become less deeply concerned.
Awe.. where were these “criminal” lawyers four years ago.. too little effort four years too late
With all due respect the phrase “House Republicans Deeply Concerned” garners a big yawn from me.
I could care less what Doofus McCarthy and Evil Cheney are deeply concerned about.
Sounds like more theater to me.
If this isn’t direct proof our country has been taken over from within I don’t know what is
Why didn’t they worry about this in 2011?
Lordy….NOW, when they’ve got no Majority anywhere, they’re suddenly concerned.
These people are ridiculous.
That is their MO for decades.
They’re “concerned” because they know it will go nowhere..remember Obamacare? When Trump gave them the chance to over turn it because they had the majority, they voted no. Even those who had voted yes when there was no hope…this is their mo..they are really Dems pretending to be in opposition. This Party had to go…
IS THIS PPL WANT DONATION…..ASK CoC
You read my mind. The only thing they may be concerned about is their corruption being investigated and losing their positions or being exposed. Self preservation time! Why should the DEMS who have the majority, cut the opposing party a break and share power, when they can pick them off one by one and totally solidify their control forever through investigations or frame them like Michael Flynn?
They are about to pass a bill, I think it is H.R. 1 to have chaos in voting etc. and guarantee more cheating. The GOP could have cared less about Trump and the fraudulent votes there but THIS bill could affect THEM and end their political careers. Why be the uniparty when you don’t have to? They want one party permanent rule. Between needing more DEM voters (open borders and sex trafficking) and appeasing business with cheap labor (impoverishing and displacing legal American citizens who they hate) , they don’t need the GOPe for that when you can have a one party rule.
E.X.A.C.T.L.Y. … the RINOS betrayed America and helped the RATS steal President Trumps landslide re-election … and … made themselves irrelevant.
RINORATS only do “something” when they know it will result in nothing.