Seal Team Six and the Intelligence...

[Clipper Nation]

If Ron Paul was president, we would probably not have been attacked at all, because he would close down our military bases in the region and pull us out of their backyard. That is their biggest gripe with us. I disagree with Ron Paul's isolationist tilt, but we would probably be much safer in terms of national security with him at the helm.

He's not an isolationist, he's a non-interventionist.... there's a big difference, as isolationism also greatly restricts trade, while Paul is for the freest possible trade, tbh....

[Clipper Nation]

"much safer in terms of national security"

but we would all be much easier targets for corporations' predations and ty, toxic products after RP got done destroying federal regulators.

Really? Did the Federal Reserve stop predatory lending and runaway corporatism? How about the bailouts, did those do anything? Where are all the magical regulations and why aren't they ending the banksters' and special interests' control over our laws and economy?

Seems to me that the government has been REWARDING corporatist monopolies with their programs, laws, and meddling into the free market, not preventing it, tbh.... with sound money, an unfettered free market, and no more corporate welfare, businesses would have to compete on their own merits, not on who's "too big to fail" and who deserves the most crony $$$....

[mercos]

"much safer in terms of national security"

but we would all be much easier targets for corporations' predations and ty, toxic products after RP got done destroying federal regulators.

No doubt. I disagree with most of Ron Paul's agenda, especially on the domestic front, but I admit some of his foreign policy stances have merit. I don't necessarily agree with all of them either.

[Winehole23]

Charles Grassley: IG covered up top secret leaks by senior DOD officials to "Zero Dark Thirty"

https://exposefacts.org/chuck-grassl...fficial-leaks/

[Winehole23]

A senior intelligence official has settled with the federal government after he alleged that he was punished for disclosing that the Pentagon’s watchdog had shielded former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta from allegations that he’d leaked sensitive information.

Daniel Meyer, who previously oversaw the Defense Department’s decisions on whistleblower cases, also accused the Pentagon inspector general’s office of targeting him for being gay.



As part of the agreement, the Pentagon inspector general’s officesaid it would give Meyer an undisclosed monetary settlement, according to three people with knowledge of the negotiations. They asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nati...#storylink=cpy

[Winehole23]

A draft of the inspector general’s report had concluded that Panetta had leaked classified information to the makers of the film “Zero Dark Thirty,” Meyer said. That conclusion, however, was removed from the report’s final version.

Since then, the CIA has released do ents that support Meyer’s allegations.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nati...#storylink=cpy

[Winehole23]

Obama's persecution of whistleblowers is backfiring:

Meyer’s settlement, however, comes as an investigation into a related case advances.


The Justice Department inspector general is looking into allegations that officials with the Pentagon inspector general’s office improperly destroyed do ents in a court proceeding.


Crane, who was mentioned in Meyer’s complaint, alleged Pentagon officials had destroyed do ents connected to the criminal case of former National Security Agency whistleblower Thomas Drake. Crane, who resigned in 2013, says he was forced out after blowing the whistle on the alleged destruction and other matters. He contends Pentagon inspector general officials destroyed the do ents to cover up evidence that might have exonerated Drake.


In a sign that the Justice Department inspector general’s office is moving forward in its inquiry, investigators have interviewed Drake.


The government’s criminal case against Drake fell apart in 2011, and he was sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to a minor misdemeanor for exceeding the authorized use of a government computer.


Drake was one of the first officials to be targeted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act for allegedly leaking to the news media.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nati...#storylink=cpy

[Winehole23]

The inquiry arose from one of a series of still-secret complaints filed by multiple former and current officials in the Pentagon inspector general’s office about the office’s handling of whistleblower cases.

The group, whose iden ies are protected as part of the whistleblowing system, accused senior officials within the inspector general’s office of attempting to water down or change findings in whistleblower investigations because of fear of political controversy.


“There are still outstanding concerns about how DOD IG treats whistleblowers,” said Mandy Smithberger, an expert on national security whistleblowers with the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit government watchdog.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nati...#storylink=cpy

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nati...#storylink=cpy

Who do the IG's report directly to? The President?

[Winehole23]

they report to whoever runs the agency.

the prosecution of whistleblowers under Obama is without parallel in US history -- sorry if you object to the common parlance.

[Winehole23]

The parallel is Trump. Continuity, not change.

We already knew Trump wanted to muzzle the press in his first term, what's underemphasized is how Bush and Obama foamed the runway for him. The executive assault on free speech and whistleblowers in the 21st century started with GWB's war on terror, and it remains -- especially as to Trump 2.0's contrived and highly pretextual war on antisemitism -- a robust threat to the freedom of Americans

In recent days, amid a prolonged meltdown over the intel leak about the strikes against Iran to outlets like CNN and The New York Times, the president has privately brought up using the Espionage Act on reporters again, according to one of the sources and also a senior Trump administration official.

The president’s lieutenants are listening, and — per the administration official — looking for the right case to launch their “maiden voyage” of an unprecedented type of Espionage Act prosecution — one which would also serve to broadly intimidate news organizations when it comes to publishing classified government information or protecting the iden ies of their confidential sources.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politic...ia-1235376198/

[Winehole23]

It could have been Dubya, but letters of marque and reprisal were "too anachronistic" for the neocons...

Yoni and the neocons just severely butthurt it wasn't one of them announcing bin laden's death... ron bless

Contrary to Clipper nation's honest small-r republican emphasis, Mike Lee wants to give even more Congressional power to Trump