Turnip revokes security clearance of ex-CIA director John Brennan

1
Criticize Orange Agent and see what happens.
U.S. President Donald Trump revoked the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan on Wednesday, accusing Brennan of using his access to classified information to “sow division and chaos” about the Trump administration.

Brennan, who was director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency under Trump’s predecessor, Democratic President Barack Obama, has been a sharp critic of Trump, frequently appearing on cable television news shows to attack his foreign policy positions.

Trump’s statement said Brennan had engaged in “increasingly frenzied commentary” and abused his access to classified information by using it to “sow division and chaos.”

“At this point in my administration, any benefits that senior officials might glean from consultations with Mr. Brennan are now outweighed by the risks posed by his erratic conduct and behavior … That conduct and behavior has tested and far exceeded the limits of any professional courtesy that has been due to him,” Trump said.

A spokesman for Brennan declined to immediately comment.

The move against Brennan came a day after the former CIA director denounced Trump in a tweet for his criticism of Omarosa Manigault Newman, the former White House aide who wrote a book critical of the president.

“It’s astounding how often you fail to live up to minimum standards of decency, civility, & probity. Seems like you will never understand what it means to be president, nor what it takes to be a good, decent, & honest person. So disheartening, so dangerous for our Nation,” Brennan wrote.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/white- ... ism-trump/

Brennan strikes back
Former CIA director John Brennan said that he’s not deterred by President Donald Trump’s attacks. After it was announced that his security clearance would be revoked, Brennan tweeted that he will not relent.

“This action is part of a broader effort by Mr. Trump to suppress freedom of speech & punish critics,” he said Wednesday afternoon “It should gravely worry all Americans, including intelligence professionals, about the cost of speaking out. My principles are worth far more than clearances. I will not relent.”

Brennan later compared Trump to a “foreign despot” during an MSNBC interview.

The president claimed the motivation was Brennan’s “erratic” behavior, but many believe it’s merely a petty attack on a political adversary.

“At this point in my administration, any benefits that senior officials might glean from consultations with Mr. Brennan are now outweighed by the risks posed by his erratic conduct and behavior … That conduct and behavior has tested and far exceeded the limits of any professional courtesy that has been due to him,” Trump said.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/ex-cia ... e-revoked/

Other ex-Intel Bosses chime in.
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper called in to CNN Wednesday afternoon to discuss President Donald Trump’s stunning decision to revoke the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan.

As many observers noted, this appeared to be a brazen move by the president to use the powers of his office to punish a critic. The White House also released a list of other former officials — all critics of Trump — who might have their clearances revoked. Clapper told CNN host Brooke Baldwin that while the specific issue of security clearances is not the most crucial topic, the president’s decision nevertheless represents a serious break with tradition and a threat to freedom of expression in the United States.

“Will the republic stand or fall on whether John retains his access to classified information, or mine or any others that were named?” he said. “Of course not. The larger issue here, to me, throughout, has been infringement on First Amendment rights. And I think people ought to think seriously about that.”

Asked exactly what he meant, Clapper said, “Infringement of our right to speak, and apparently the appropriateness of being critical of this president. Of which, in one degree or another, all of us have been.”

He continued: “It’s unprecedented. I don’t know of a case where this has ever been done in the past. I mean, access to clearances normally would be done completely by a sponsoring agency. So in John’s case, the sponsoring agency is CIA. And normally, if there were going to be an action taken like this, it would be done at that level. And not by the White House or not by the president himself. So this is, at least in my memory, unprecedented.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/former ... n-brennan/
Former Central Intelligence Agency Deputy Director John McLaughlin slammed the “ridiculous” move by the White House to strip security clearance from former CIA Director John Brennan.

“The thing about John Brennan and others that are named here that gets under the president’s skin is criticism of this administration, none of which is affected by whether or not John McLaughlin and others like you have clearances,” anchor Ali Velshi noted.

“Not at all, Ali,” McLaughlin agreed. “This is ridiculous.”

“I can think of few things the president has done that more directly indicate a kind of authoritarian attitude in his governing style,” he added.

“Clearly nothing that John Brennan has said, or that the other intelligence people on this list have said, has anything to do with classified information,” he noted. “The reason you pull someone’s clearances, the unique reason really, is if they have abused or in some ways released in an unauthorized way classified information.”

“These people haven’t done that,” McLaughlin noted. “They have only spoken out using their first amendment rights to state their personal opinions.”

“So I think it’s just across the board a foolish thing to do and I believe Katy Tur was probably correct in saying this is nothing more than a distraction at this point,” he concluded.

“So this really has the feel of someone simply trying to do two things, silence critics and also distract from another damaging political event that’s going on with Omarosa,” he observed.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/ex-cia ... straction/

I agree the Orange Slime One is trying to distract from Omarosa and Pootin along with other screw ups like Manafort and Donnie Jr.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Turnip revokes security clearance of ex-CIA director John Brennan

3
Pootin’s Agent is also looking at revoking security clearances for a number of critics.
Sanders noted the president is reviewing revocation of access to other people, including McCabe, former FBI chief James Comey, former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former FBI agent Peter Strzok.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jo ... 415d74c11b
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Turnip revokes security clearance of ex-CIA director John Brennan

4
More information on how the Orange Agent action is so vindictive.
Bloomberg reporter Justin Sink on Wednesday blew up the justification being used by the Trump administration to revoke the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan.

During a press briefing with White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders held in the wake of the announcement of revoking Brennan’s clearance due to his “erratic” criticism of President Donald Trump, Sink pointed out that the administration made a list of people in addition to Brennan who could lose their security clearances — and that it didn’t include a former Trump administration official who had already pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents.

“The reason people would say this argument strains credibility is there’s obvious examples, even from this administration,” he said. “Your former national security adviser admitted to lying to the FBI. Why is this only a list of Democrats who have been critical of the administration, and why should Americans have confidence that you are taking this seriously if there’s not a single Republican on that list?”

Sanders responded by completely dodging the question.

“Again, we would certainly look at those if we deemed it necessary, and we’ll keep you posted if that list gets updated,” she said.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/report ... ed-flynns/

So Flynn can lie to the FBI and keep his top secret classification but one criticism of Orange Agent there it goes.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Turnip revokes security clearance of ex-CIA director John Brennan

5
TrueTexan wrote: Wed Aug 15, 2018 9:04 pm So Flynn can lie to the FBI and keep his top secret classification but one criticism of Orange Agent there it goes.
Yup. It's an Agent Orange Twofer. He distracts from Omarosa, and punishes a critic, and threatens other critics.
Is it any wonder Michael Moore thinks Trump is already the last President of the United States? That the line ends here?
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: Turnip revokes security clearance of ex-CIA director John Brennan

7
highdesert wrote: Thu Aug 16, 2018 10:23 am Not surprising he threatened to do it, just more of his dictatorial style. The next Democratic president could cut Trump off from intelligence briefings, not required.
Why would ANY Democratic President who follows Agent Orange, assuming AO doesn't enact a coup and seize the government, would think AO has ANYTHING of value to offer? In fact, other than Mattis, Pompeo, and possibly Nikki Haley, it's hard to imagine ANYONE in AO's regime have ANYTHING useful to offer! Even Nixon was consulted by later Presidents and negotiated a truce between ex-Presidents Ford and Carter.

Besides, if there is another President after Agent Orange, the odds are AO is going to prison after he's evicted from the White House.
Can you even CONCEIVE of this scenario: "Warden, I'm calling on behalf of the President of the United States. President Warren needs to speak to Donald Trump. She needs his insight on an important matter?"
No, my brain simply CANNOT imagine such a scenario occurring. I can easily and frequently see her consulting with Carter, Clinton, Obama, and both Bushes, but not AO.

If SOMEHOW Pence becomes President ( :w00t: :sick: ) he'd be smart to NOT pardon Trump, and just let him swing in the wind....what Ford SHOULD have done to Nixon.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: Turnip revokes security clearance of ex-CIA director John Brennan

8
Th Nixon Pardon by Ford was part of the deal he made with the Republicans and Democrats, to resign rather than go through impeachment and trial.

I can’t see Agent Orange making any kind of deal like that.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Turnip revokes security clearance of ex-CIA director John Brennan

9
Agent Orange digs himself into a deeper hole.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump revoked the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan, openly admitting that he did so for political reasons. ...

Sanders added, “More broadly, the issue of Mr. Brennan’s security clearance raises larger questions about the practice of former officials maintaining access to our nation’s most sensitive secrets long after their time in government has ended. Such access is particularly inappropriate when former officials have transitioned into highly partisan positions and seek to use real or perceived access to sensitive information to validate their political attacks.”

Trump made his political motivations even more plainly clear in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday:

“[hulu][/hulu]

Asked about the White House decision to yank Mr. Brennan’s security clearance and to evaluate the clearances held by others, Mr. Trump said was prepared to do it last week, but it was too “hectic.”

He later added:

Mr. Trump said the Russia probe is unwarranted. “Of course they say it’s not an investigation. You know, in theory I’m not under investigation…I’m not a target. But regardless, I think that whole—I call it the rigged witch hunt, is a sham.”

Mr. Trump didn’t rule out testifying before Mr. Mueller, but he said the special counsel’s investigation has been “so badly discredited.”

The Mueller investigation last month indicted a dozen Russian intelligence officers and charged them with hacking the computers of Democratic organizations and ensuring the pilfered information became public.

The ironic thing is that, for individuals like Comey and McCabe, the threat of revoking their security clearances may be a meaningless one. Because they were fired, their security clearances are believed to have been deactivated.

Still, some of Trump’s fellow Republicans are particularly exultant about the revocation of Brennan’s security clearance.

“I applaud President Trump for his revoking of John Brennan’s security clearance,” Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky declared in a statement on Wednesday. “I urged the President to do this. I filibustered Brennan’s nomination to head the CIA in 2013, and his behavior in government and out of it demonstrate why he should not be allowed near classified information. He participated in a shredding of constitutional rights, lied to Congress, and has been monetizing and making partisan political use of his clearance since his departure.”

Last month on Twitter, Paul publicly urged Trump to revoke Brennan’s security clearance.

Is John Brennan monetizing his security clearance? Is John Brennan making millions of dollars divulging secrets to the mainstream media with his attacks on @realDonaldTrump ?

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 23, 2018

Today I will meet with the President and I will ask him to revoke John Brennan’s security clearance!

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 23, 2018

Paul was backed up by Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, a fellow Republican, who argued on Wednesday that Brennan was a “butthead” who deserved to have his clearance revoked.

“I think most Americans look at our national intelligence experts as being above politics. Mr. Brennan has demonstrated that that’s not the case. He’s been totally political. I think I called him a ‘butthead’ and I meant it. I think he’s given the national intelligence community a bad name,” Kennedy told CNN on Wednesday.

Not all of Trump’s fellow Republicans are happy with him, however.

As Politico reported on Wednesday, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Bob Corker of Tennessee expressed their concerns about the precedent that had been established by Trump revoking Brennan’s security clearance.

“It’s unwise. Because generally, recently retired intelligence officials have a lot to contribute to the analysis that is being done,” Collins told reporters.

“Without having some kind of tangible reasons for doing so, which there may be that I’m not aware of, I don’t like it at all. It just feels like sort of a … banana republic kind of thing,” said Corker, the retiring Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, repeating the “banana republic” line two more times in an exasperated tone. “I don’t like it.”

Brennan himself has not been cowed by Trump’s punitive actions against him. In a Thursday op-ed in The New York Times, Brennan continued to call out the Trump administration for having colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election:

Mr. Trump’s claims of no collusion are, in a word, hogwash.

The only questions that remain are whether the collusion that took place constituted criminally liable conspiracy, whether obstruction of justice occurred to cover up any collusion or conspiracy, and how many members of “Trump Incorporated” attempted to defraud the government by laundering and concealing the movement of money into their pockets. A jury is about to deliberate bank and tax fraud charges against one of those people, Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman. And the campaign’s former deputy chairman, Rick Gates, has pleaded guilty to financial fraud and lying to investigators.

Brennan also took to Twitter to denounce Trump’s actions as a threat to his freedom of speech.

“This action is part of a broader effort by Mr. Trump to suppress freedom of speech & punish critics,” Brennan wrote on Twitter. “It should gravely worry all Americans, including intelligence professionals, about the cost of speaking out. My principles are worth far more than clearances. I will not relent.”

While the American Civil Liberties Union doesn’t have a long record of supporting former CIA directors, their statement after Trump’s revocation of Brennan’s security clearance agreed with Brennan.

“The First Amendment does not permit the president to revoke security clearances to punish his critics,” Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said in the statement. “John Brennan’s record is full of grave missteps, and we have been unsparing in our criticism of his defense of the CIA torture program and his role in unlawful lethal strikes abroad. But Trump’s revocation of Brennan’s clearance, and his threats to revoke the clearances of other former officials for the sole reason that they have criticized his conduct and policies, amount to unconstitutional retaliation. They are also part of a broader pattern of seeking to silence or marginalize critics, which includes forcing staff to sign unconstitutional non-disclosure agreements.”

Ironically enough, Trump himself has engaged in actions that could warrant questioning whether he should be trusted with American national security secrets. Most notably, he revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador during a meeting with them in May 2017, according to The Washington Post.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/trumps ... eper-hole/

So Agent Orange is giving highly classified info to the Russians in meetings where he is the only person from the US. So we don’t have any way of knowing what he is telling them. Revoke his security clearances and Lock Him Up for Treason.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Turnip revokes security clearance of ex-CIA director John Brennan

10
Retired Adm. William McRaven, the man who oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden, issued a stunning rebuke of President Donald Trump's decision to revoke the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan on Thursday, defending the former spy chief as "one of the finest public servants I have ever known." In an op-ed published by the Washington Post, McRaven, a former Navy SEAL who led US Joint Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014, not only called Brennan "a man of unparalleled integrity," but volunteered to have his own security clearance revoked in an act of solidarity. "Few Americans have done more to protect this country than John. He is a man of unparalleled integrity, whose honesty and character have never been in question, except by those who don't know him," McRaven wrote.

"Therefore, I would consider it an honor if you would revoke my security clearance as well, so I can add my name to the list of men and women who have spoken up against your presidency," he added.
His comments come just one day after Trump announced his decision to revoke Brennan's security clearance, marking an unprecedented use of a president's authority over the classification system to strike back at one of his prominent critics. "This action is part of a broader effort by Mr. Trump to suppress freedom of speech & punish critics. It should gravely worry all Americans, including intelligence professionals, about the cost of speaking out. My principles are worth far more than clearances. I will not relent," Brennan tweeted after the announcement.

McRaven, who resigned as chancellor of the University of Texas in Austin earlier this year, is widely respected among the tens of thousands of active and retired special operators and his message will likely resonate within that community. Through your actions, you have embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation," McRaven said of Trump. "If you think for a moment that your McCarthy-era tactics will suppress the voices of criticism, you are sadly mistaken. The criticism will continue until you become the leader we prayed you would be," he added.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/16/politics ... index.html
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: Turnip revokes security clearance of ex-CIA director John Brennan

11
Excerpt from McRaven letter:
"Through your actions, you have embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation," McRaven said of Trump.
Kudos to him for having the balls to speak truth to the orange puke.
"Being Republican is more than a difference of opinion - it's a character flaw." "COVID can fix STUPID!"
The greatest, most aggrieved mistake EVER made in USA was electing DJT as POTUS.

Re: Turnip revokes security clearance of ex-CIA director John Brennan

13
A dozen former top intelligence officials, representing previous Republican and Democratic administrations, issued a letter late Thursday supporting former CIA Director John Brennan and lambasting President Donald Trump’s move to revoke his security clearance.

The rare statement from the former officials — including former CIA directors who served under Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton — comes one day after Trump pulled Brennan’s clearance and said he would evaluate clearances for other former intelligence officials, including two who signed on to the pro-Brennan statement.

That move from the White House “has nothing to do with who should and should not hold security clearances — and everything to do with an attempt to stifle free speech,” the dozen ex-intelligence officials wrote in their joint letter.

“You don’t have to agree with what John Brennan says (and, again, not all of us do) to agree with his right to say it, subject to his obligation to protect classified information.”

Those signing the letter were former CIA Directors William Webster, George Tenet, Porter Goss, Michael Hayden, Leon Panetta and David Petraeus; former CIA Deputy Directors John McLaughlin, Stephen Kappes, Michael Morel, Avril Haines and David Cohen; and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

In announcing the revocation of Brennan’s clearance, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders read a statement from Trump on Wednesday that denounced the Obama-era CIA director for what he called “lying,” adding that Brennan had “leveraged his status as a former high-ranking official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations — wild outbursts on the internet and television — about this administration.”

Brennan’s cohorts among onetime senior intelligence officials flatly disputed any suggestion that he had acted improperly during his time in government service, calling the implication “baseless” and praising him as “an enormously talented, capable, and patriotic individual who devoted his adult life to the service of this nation.”

“Since leaving government service John has chosen to speak out sharply regarding what he sees as threats to our national security,” the joint letter stated. “Some of the undersigned have done so as well. Others among us have elected to take a different course and be more circumspect in our public pronouncements.”

Trump’s yanking of Brennan’s clearance has earned him only scant criticism from congressional Republicans. The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr of North Carolina, released a statement earlier Thursday defending Trump’s “full authority to revoke his clearance as head of the executive branch.”

But the bipartisan group of former intelligence officials described the president’s decision as an “inappropriate and deeply regrettable” message to others about the consequences of airing political views in public.

“Decisions on security clearances should be based on national security concerns and not political views,” they wrote.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/ ... ism-782898
One significant late add to the letter was former Defense Secretary Bob Gates, who has remained mostly tight-lipped about Trump's administration.

Former acting CIA Director Michael Morell on Twitter confirmed that Gates signed on to the statement, adding that Gates was out of cellphone range when the letter was being drafted.

Gates, who ran the Pentagon under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, was critical of both Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election — describing the president as "beyond repair" and “willfully ignorant about the rest of the world, about our military and its capabilities, and about government itself.”

But the former defense secretary has stayed relatively silent since Trump won the presidential election.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/ ... ter-783049
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests