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Clapper and Brennan in Aspen


By Stephen Lendman
stephenlendman.org
7-24-17

 
Former DNI James Clapper and Obama’s CIA director John Brennan were among a rogue’s gallery of participants in the 2017 Aspen Security Forum.

The two former intelligence officials used the occasion to gratuitously bash Trump and Russia.

Despite no evidence suggesting wrongdoing, Clapper said Trump Jr.’s meeting with (private citizen) Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya smacks of “collusion…some kind of cooperation between the Trump campaign and the Russians.”

Brennan weighed in saying “the Russians operate in a very, very cunning manner and they will take and exploit any opportunity they get, and it seems as though some folks swallowed the bait.”

Fact: Months of accusations and allegations about Trump team’s connections to Russia offered no evidence proving anything.

Nothing improper or illegal. No suggestion of collusion or obstruction of justice. At most, perhaps bad judgment at times, the type errors or missteps virtually everyone makes occasionally.

Despite Trump and Sergey Lavrov saying only one meeting with Putin occurred in Hamburg, other than shaking hands, a brief exchange of remarks at dinner, and perhaps going to the toilet together, Clapper said an undisclosed second meeting “certainly raises a red flag.” There was none.

Brennan was comfortable about Trump “pull(ing) aside” a friendly counterpart for an informal one-on-one conversation, but not meeting with Putin this way.

Brennan and Clapper effectively said you can’t trust these Russkies ­ my words, not theirs. “I’ve gotten burned many, many times by” them, he claimed ­ giving no examples supporting his accusation.

America operates deceptively, promising or saying one thing, delivering the opposite. Putin’s word is his bond. So is Lavrov’s.

Brennan admitted when it comes to Russia, he’s “biased,” claiming he knows exactly how they operate. He knows what good intelligence reveals, a much different assessment than he’ll admit publicly. The same goes for Clapper.

Both former intelligence officials and current ones provide no evidence supporting accusations about Russia and Trump team’s collusion.

Claiming it’s classified and can’t be revealed is code language for what doesn’t exist. If it did, we’d know it by now.

Clapper repeated what he said earlier, explaining no evidence suggested Russia “messing with voter tallies.”

“Russian interference” had (no) impact on the election” ­ because there was none neither Clapper or Brennan explained.

Brennan rattled off a litany of long ago discredited canards about Moscow “assault(ing) one of the pillars of our democracy (sic), our electoral system…invaded Ukraine, annexed Crimea…suppressed and repressed political opponents…”

Trump “poses a serious question about how he is keeping safe our national security.” Brennan was over-the-top urging “executive branch officials to refuse to carry out some of (Trump’s) orders that are inconsistent with what this country is all about,” ­ shocking stuff.

Clapper said he “wonder(s) (if Trump) is making Russia great again.” If Trump fires special counsel Robert Mueller (possible but very unlikely), Brennan urged Congress to “stand up and say enough is enough and stop making apologies and excuses for things that are happening that really flout, I think, our system of laws and government.”

Clapper, Brennan and likeminded officials in Washington are responsible war on humanity at home and abroad, Big Brother spying on everyone, and harsh crackdowns on anyone for a world polar opposite the one they represent ­ unsafe and unfit to live in.

VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home ­ Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

My newest book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

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