© AP Photo / Rodrigo Garrido
To be clear, the existence of a cabal of anti-Trumpist officials within the nation's top law enforcement agencies was exaggerated by Trump's defenders. That said, the FBI did, in fact, make grave errors in its investigation of the Trump campaign's ties to Russia, as demonstrated by the Justice Department Office of Inspector General's report. The FBI violated the rights and privacy of Trump campaign advisor Carter Page, considered evidence against Page the FBI knew to be misleading, and ignored sources that clashed with their preferred narrative of events.
Of course, the Trump-Russia investigation is hardly the only time that intelligence officials have misled the public about the strength of their case. The intelligence that persuaded President George W. Bush, Congress, and the American people to go to war with Iraq turned out to be spectacularly wrong; and our spymasters and generals have a long history of hiding the extent to which the government surveils American citizens.
One of the only exciting things about Trump's candidacy was that he condemned the Bush administration's Iraq campaign and the disinformation that launched it. In 2008, Trump told CNN he thought Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) should pursue impeachment charges against Bush for "getting us into this horrible war by lying."
But now, following Trump's decision to order a drone strike on Iranian terror architect Soleimani, Trump, as well as his staffers and supporters, say the intelligence that led to that decision is unquestionable.
White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham complained today that "a lot of people are now questioning the intel. That's really unfortunate."
Grisham declined to explain what specific, imminent threat Soleimani posed to U.S. persons, and said that the intelligence would soon be shared with Congress. This is unacceptable: The correct order of operations here is to consult Congress before pursuing military action that could start a war with Iran. The Constitution gives Congress — not the president, and not the State Department — the sole authority to declare war.
The State Department, meanwhile, has given every indication that there was no credible, imminent threat from Soleimani. When asked about this at a press conference on Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, "We know what happened at the end of last year and ultimately led to the death of an American. If you are looking for imminence, look no further than the days that led up to the strike." Something that already happened cannot be considered imminent.
Soleimani was a terrorist, responsible for appalling crimes. But there is good reason to question whether killing him serves America's long-term interest in disentangling its military from Middle East politics. Any conservative who takes Pompeo or Trump on blind faith has lost the right to complain about the deep state.
Comment: Saying that 'Soleimani was a terrorist, responsible for appalling crimes' is also mindlessly parroting the Deep State!
Soleimani was designated a terrorist by the Obama administration in 2011, accusing him of ordering the failed assassination attempt of then Saudi ambassador Adel al-Jubeir in Washington DC. The absurd plot involved an Iranian-American used-car salesman who allegedly hired a DEA 'informant' posing as a Mexican drug cartel hit man for the assassination. Officials at the time even questioned the event, and as usual, no evidence was offered.
In a story run by the New York Times, U.S. Challenged to Explain Accusations of Iran Plot in the Face of Skepticism, Juan Zarate, a deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism in the Bush administration admits the accusations didn't make any sense:
But Mr. Zarate and senior American officials said the assassination plan did not have the hallmarks of a Quds operation. "It was very extreme and very odd, but it was also very sloppy," Mr. Zarate said. "If you look at what they have done historically, they can put operatives on their targets and execute. They usually don't outsource, but keep things inside a trusted network."Zarate wasn't the only skeptical US official. Retired Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer said there wasn't even anything within FBI channels.
Obama Adminstration Concocts Terror Plot
Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer says that an FBI insider told him the dubious terror plot to assassinate a Saudi ambassador which has been blamed on Iran was likely manufactured by the Obama administration, because no information about the plot even exists within FBI channels.
"The FBI's had a record lately and I did talk to one of my inside guys and he is saying he thinks the same thing, you know why, because he can't find any real information and he's got a clearance - so that tells him that there's something going on that's extraordinary by the fact that he's an inside investigator, knows what's going on and yet, I'm gonna quote here, 'There's nothing on this within the DOJ beyond what they've talked about publicly' - which means to him that there's something very wrong with it," said Shaffer.
If you really think the spymasters are out to get Trump — or just frequently incompetent in general — you should be very skeptical that what they whispered in his ear about Iran was the truth.
Comment: The past years has seen utter insanity from the left in the US, which has made the right appear pretty sane upon comparison. The thing is few on the right have actually learned from their own bout of insanity during the Bush years. Fortunately, it seems at least one mainstream voice has learned from such lessons: