Politico has an interesting summary of the Israeli / Palestinian talk collapse filling in some timelines to the analysis we previously presented.   Even if you are not a global political news junkie it’s worth the read.

While the Politico story doesn’t directly outline the ego of John Kerry as the impetus for the framework, and subsequent collapse, it’s still there and you can catch glimpses of it throughout the article.

Even among senior Obama aides, there’s disagreement about how wary the president actually was all along about taking another shot at the peace process, how much distance he was really trying to keep, and how much of his actions were about humoring an ambitious Kerry’s swing at the history books.

As we previously shared the entire construct of the Kerry spearheaded peace talks originated from Secretary Kerry’s desire to be something legendary, and do something on a grand scale worthy of his own opinion of himself.
John Kerry was not so much interested in the construct of Israeli security, or foundationally finding a substantive ‘two state’ solution; for Kerry -the ideologue- he wanted to carve the mold, and then watch the global media cast the brass bust.
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Yeah, I probably wouldn’t care about your failing either if your ineptitude did not directly effect my life.   Alas,…. Idjit.

(WASHINGTON)  Appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary of State John Kerry defiantly defended his diplomatic efforts, saying that while ambitious, they were better than doing nothing.

While the purpose of Tuesday’s hearing was to pick through the State Department’s budget, it was Kerry’s record that came under scrutiny as his old colleagues on the committee accused him of taking on too many responsibilities with too few results.

“I think you’re about to hit the trifecta,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told Kerry, naming three of the most complicated issues Kerry took on: the humanitarian crisis in Syria, the Iranian nuclear program and the Middle East peace talks. (more…)

If you’ve been following along you likely know how absurd this is.  

Somehow, in the bizzarro Easter Island land of long faces where John Kerry was spawned, this makes sense to him.   Israel blamed for derailing peace talks Palestinians would not participate in.

WASHINGTON DC – Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday said Israel’s announcement of new settlements in East Jerusalem last week derailed the peace talks with the Palestinians.
Israel first missed the deadline to release the fourth tranche of Palestinian prisoners, Kerry told lawmakers at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. Israel then announced 700 new settlement units in Jerusalem.
“Poof, that was sort of the moment,” Kerry said at a hearing focused on the fiscal 2015 budget for national security and foreign policy priorities. (more…)

SUMMARY of RESPONSE:  “It was George Bush’s fault.  We accomplished something.  Don’t forget to buy my book”.

Later in the program Hillary calls America “sexist”:  Addressing hundreds of women, Clinton said there’s a double-standard for how women are treated in the media and that she counsels young women to be resilient when they face challenges. “Believe me, this is hard-won advice,” Clinton said to laughter.  (link)
 

When you combine the dots of testimony and information, and pull back from the pixels, a clear image begins to emerge.   The character visible in the image is actually the artist, Denis McDonough....   Here’s the High-Def Version:

WASHINGTON – The CIA’s former deputy director disclosed Wednesday that Obama administration officials were alerted the day before they went on national television that a key tenet of their original Benghazi storyline might be inaccurate. But he did not explain why the administration continued to cling to its narrative even after U.S. intelligence debunked reports that the deadly attack was born out of a protest over an anti-Islam video.
In often testy exchanges with Republicans who accused him of a cover-up, Michael Morell flatly denied that he “inappropriately altered and influenced” the infamous Benghazi talking points to downplay the role of terrorism in the attacks. (more…)

Sometimes it helps to pause and reflect, then evaluate for yourself:

IRAN – In 2009, from the now infamous Cairo Speech, an uprising of the student led “Green Movement” striving for a voice amid the heavy hand of hard-line Islamist governance began.   President Obama chose to reach out to Iran’s leadership and ignored the calls for assistance from the young reformers.   The Green Party was killed.  The Mullahs reigned supreme.  Through inaction Obama sided with the Islamists.

TUNISIA – (Where the West claimed the “Arab Spring” began)  Tunis caught the global political elites off guard.  It should not have come as a surprise.  We were outlining the growing immigration powder keg for years.   Tunis exploded as a consequence of Ben Ali and Quadaffi taking billions from the EU to shut the immigration gates.
Simultaneously, in the WEST, the more willing to engage ‘New Media’ began to report the speeches from UK, France and Germany that Multi-culturalism had failed.   However, few connected the dots to Tunis and how the shutting of the North African gates created a bottleneck within Tunisia and Libya.   It was simply a matter of time before economic anxiety exploded within the cultural petri-dish.  It did, in a big way.
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I.Kid.You.Not.

To echo @BarackObama today-proud to stand #UnitedForUkraine World should stand together with one voice pic.twitter.com/VeMt578UdY

— Matthew Miller (@StateDeptSpox) March 26, 2014

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s national security team discussed the Ukraine crisis in a session at the White House on Saturday after a last-ditch bid to find a diplomatic solution to the Cold War-style standoff with Russia floundered.
Secretary of State John Kerry, who just returned from talks with his Russian counterpart in London, was at the White House meeting along with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.
Obama did not attend the meeting but was being briefed about it and other developments involving Ukraine, said Laura Lucas Magnuson, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council.  (read more)

The issue at hand is essentially the CIA covertly monitoring the Senate Intelligence Committee as the Senate investigated the CIA.     The problem stems from an obvious oversight issue where the CIA takes illegal action to monitor the Senate as they investigate.
However, there’s something more within the behavior of the people involved.  Dianne Feinstein is clearly outlining the CIA is violating the law.   As a consequence the CIA claim to be following instructions from the Obama administration and the White House.  That alone represents a big issue – However, the way CIA Director John Brennan is responding to the charges against his office are, well, somewhat troubling.

Brennan is acting, and speaking, as if he is untouchable.  It’s almost like he has a card up his sleeve; an unspoken leverage.    And when you think about how Brennan got to his CIA post, and his relationship with President Obama, alarm bells begin to ring.
Please forgive me for connecting the dots but I’m not going in this rabbit hole alone 😉
Remember, it was Brennan’s security firm who broke into the State Department passport files of Candidate Obama in 2008.   Watching him now respond to Feinstein one would take away he indeed holds a lever that allows him to feel “untouchable“.

WASHINGTON DC – The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday sharply accused the CIA of violating federal law and undermining the constitutional principle of congressional oversight as she detailed publicly for the first time how the agency secretly removed documents from computers used by her panel to investigate a controversial interrogation program.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said that the situation amounted to attempted intimidation of congressional investigators, adding: “I am not taking it lightly.”
She confirmed that an internal agency investigation of the action has been referred to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution. And she said that the CIA appears to have violated the Fourth Amendment, which bars unreasonable searches and seizures, as well as various federal laws and a presidential executive order that prevents the agency from conducting domestic searches and surveillance. (more…)