Tonight Sean Davis and The Federalist are reporting:
CIA Director Gina Haspel is personally blocking the declassification of documents detailing corruption at the highest levels of the intelligence community during the 2016 election, according to The Federalist co-founder Sean Davis.
...
“I’m told that it is Gina Haspel personally who is blocking continued declassification of these documents that will show the American people the truth of what actually happened,” Davis said.
While Davis is unable to say exactly what those documents would show, he reminds us:
Haspel was previously the London CIA station chief under former CIA director John Brennan during the 2016 election. “Recall it was London where Christopher Steele was doing all this work,” Davis said, noting Haspel was the “main link” between Washington and London at the time. Haspel was hand-picked by former CIA director John Brennan to run the CIA’s operations in London, where she served as the spy agency’s bureau chief from 2014 through early 2017.
High stakes here. Davis called on Trump to personally take charge of the declassification.
And Trump nominated her? What the heck is going on here?
ReplyDeleteThe fact is that the President couldn't fill any of these seats because 1) he was a novice & 2) he needed the cooperation of congress to get these choices through committee, at a time when he was both handcuffed with the Russian investigation and disliked by both parties.
DeleteLet us not let Mike Pompeo off the hook either. Is he working with the President or against him?
Hmmm...I think it would be risky for Trump to personally be involved in these decisions. Regardless of what Trump decided, he would be accused of putting sources and methods at risk. I know--so much that has bene classified has just been CYA and not anything to do with national secrets. Still, Trump needs the legitimacy of an informed Intel person making the calls. Perhaps he could assign someone else to do that rather than Haspel.
ReplyDeleteI clearly remember Mike Pompeo saying he would move to State only if Haspel replaced him at CIA. I like the job he's done (from what I know) but have never really trusted him since.
ReplyDeleteLast year some time I wanted to dig more deeply into this condition Pompeo insisted on but totally struck out when looking for articles that mentioned it. But I'm certain I read about it at the time of the switch to State, for whatever little bit any of that may be worth.
@ Mark
ReplyDeleteI know we (all) go back and forth on whether Spygate was an FBI operation or a CIA operation...
I'm just gonna say again that (I think) this was a 'small group' operation orchestrated and coordinated by Comey, Brennan and Clapper at the behest of both Obama and H Clinton. Why Obama and Clinton, as a factual matter, elected to use the Russia Hoax to destroy Trump is still being discovered, as are the underpinnings of the relationship between Clinton and Obama.
Accordingly, I suspect Brennan played a major and critical role in the conspiracy and I am not surprised in the least to learn that full disclosure of the CIA's role is being blocked by Brennan's London station chief.
Agreed. Whether or not Brennan has been clever enough to insulate himself from prosecution--which still remains to be seen--he surely played a major role. Those handwritten notes implicating Obama--was that his insurance policy?
DeleteSomething doesn't make sense about this: Trump delegated declassification authority to AG Barr, ergo, Haspel, nor anyone else in the executive branch, can prevent Barr from declassifying whatever he deems necessary to be declassified.
ReplyDeleteHaspel may well be trying to prevent some things under CIA control from being declassified, but she cannot prevent it if Barr decides to pull the trigger.
I think Barr still wants to do this according to regular procedures. Doing it himself as a last resort. We'll see how it plays out. I'm sure there's a reason Sean Davis was told about this. The administration wants this to be public knowledge.
DeleteRegular procedures? With the integrity of the Republic in the balance of the upcoming election?
Delete"With the integrity of the Republic in the balance...?"
DeleteBarr is trying to not be part of what, I think, he perceives is the problem.
Republics, unlike most other forms of gov't, do not end explosively but, rather, simply dissolve due to lack of belief in their efficacy. Trust by the citizenry is ultimately the only glue that holds them together. He has to tread a line between public perception of "hiding the ball", not declassifying, and "hatchet job", politically selective declass'ing. A minefield where a misstep would be disastrous made more difficult by press apparently more than eager to push the Republic over the edge.
Ric Grinnell said on TV that he’s sick and tired of certain intel agencies resisting the release of certain documents and I believe Ric is leading this charge. Ratcliffe has been slow to release documents — it’s a game of three card Monte.
DeleteIn my view, after seeing how the redactions were more about preventing embarrassment or negative information about the agency in question, Trump should just declass it all.
ReplyDeleteYeah, do it. Bring our assets in from harm and do it.
Methods? Yeah, other nations already know.
Do it.
- TexasDude
Since the IC hasn't been right about much of anything major since it's creation during the Truman admin, and now appears to believe its needs are superior to that of the Republic's, whatever damage declass'ing does can be healed/remediated.
DeleteSunshine is the best disinfectant. Open it all up back to the founding of the Republic.
Grennel in a recent interview said the the intel committee was blocking declassification due to the embarrassment factor.
ReplyDeleteYes, the SSCI is full of snakes.
DeleteRob S
P,S I remember 2 members from the House Intelligence committee basicly call the contractors from Benghazi liars. One was Schiff.
This post of Mark's has made me wonder...who is this Gina Haspel? Career spook? Desk jockey? Female James Bond? Real world Judi Dench? A professional or a politician? John Brennan in a pantsuit? Deep State operator?
ReplyDeleteIf you're interested this video might help fill in some of the blanks...
https://www.c-span.org/video/?451863-1/director-haspel-cia-operations
Based on Wikipedia, I'd say: desk jockey, politician, deep state operator.
DeleteHer Wikipedia page is quite long and detailed. If you judge a person by who is for them and who is against, Devin Nunes has come out strongly for Haspel. A few of those against her: Feinstein, Heinrich, Whitehouse, Wyden.
ReplyDeleteSome more background:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.wsj.com/articles/cia-fills-in-some-blanks-on-gina-haspels-secret-life-1521745324
Nunes on Haspel:
ReplyDeletehttps://web.archive.org/web/20170314201707/https://intelligence.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=762
I may be missing the trees for the forest but doesn't the fact that it is the Head of the CIA who is blocking release of the documents by itself indicate that this was a cia production?
ReplyDeleteCall it an inter-agency task force.
Delete