THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN (PART ONE MILLION):
Conservatives (long supporters of the Intelligence Community) have seemingly ditched that stance given that some former members of the IC have been critical of the Commander in Chief. This past weekend, Fox News commentator Jeanine Pirro proclaimed that the whistleblower is “an intelligence agent who was involved in the overthrow of the president.” Turning to guest Congressman Jim Jordan she asked, “Am I wrong?” To which Jordan reassured her: “No, you’re right.” Ouch. Weren’t we all supposed to be on the same team? And the bigger question: will we all find our way back to the same team before it’s too late? Putin’s hoping not.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE “HIGHLY ANTICIPATED” REPORT YOU FORGOT ABOUT: Slate recently published a useful summary of what you need to know about a forthcoming DOJ IG report on FISA practices at the FBI. (Translation: Department of Justice – Inspector General – Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act – Federal Bureau of Investigation) Fox News and other Trump Administration supporters have been hinting that when the report comes out, it will reveal explosive information about the early days of the Russia investigation. We can’t wait to read it.
IT’S GETTING UGLY OUT THERE: This past weekend, The New York Times reported on the other investigation into the Russia investigation – the one being led by John Durham, a U.S. attorney from Connecticut, on behalf of Attorney General Bill Barr. (Confused yet?) The Times says Durham has interviewed about two dozen former and current FBI officials and has spoken with ODNI officials. But, The Times says, his investigators have yet to interview CIA personnel – adding that he “would probably want to speak with Gina Haspel, the agency’s director, who ran its London station when the Australians passed along the explosive information about Russia’s offer of political dirt.” (Time to exhale, as there is no need to hold your breath on this one.) Meanwhile, NBC News said that Barr has expanded his “mysterious review” and that some CIA analysts have hired their own lawyers in anticipation of being grilled. Add to that, Politico reports that President Trump has become “obsessed” with former CIA Director John Brennan and his role in the early stages of the investigation. When asked for comment, White House deputy spokesperson Hogan Gidley said: “The only way I’ve ever heard anyone in the White House mention him is as a punchline.” Ouch again.
FORMER DEPUTY SECSTATE BURNS POMPEO: Career diplomat and former Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns published an OPED in Foreign Affairs a short while back titled “The Demolition of U.S. Diplomacy.” The nicest thing he had to say about Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is that he “is not the first secretary of state derelict in his duty.” Pompeo was asked about that on ABC’s This Week on October 20 and declared Burns’ burn “crazy” and added that he thinks “Burns must be auditioning to be Elizabeth Warren’s Secretary of State.”
IT’S GREEK TO ME: This past weekend, President Trump sent out a tweet mentioning his Secretary of Defense, who he called: Mark Esperanto. “Esperanto” as you may know, is a made up language created in the late 19th century. Let’s not criticize the president for the error. Who among us hasn’t run afoul of a rogue spell checker on our phones? Within hours, various wags set up fake “Mark Esperanto” twitter accounts – and shortly thereafter Twitter shut them down citing rules violations. Good to know that Twitter is on top of such things – we wouldn’t want to see fake news getting out there. One observer told us that it is understandable that the President might get his SecDef’s name wrong – given the high turnover among senior administration officials. Good thing that critic didn’t put that in a tweet – he might have had his account deleted.
YOU CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN: What’s up with jailed Russian asset Maria Butina? To be honest, we can’t figure it out. She was SCHEDULED to finish her prison term today (Friday October 25th) and be sent back home to Mother Russia. But her lawyers submitted a plea in court asking for a one-month extension to the deadline for filing a brief in court regarding an appeal to a sentence that will already have been served. WTF?
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
IT’S A BIRD, IT’S A PLANE: It’s super embarrassing. A Navy E-6B “doomsday” plane (designed to provide critical communications during a nuclear war) recently had a close encounter of the worse kind with what some folks describe as a “B-One, RD” aka, a bird. While flying out of the Patuxent River Naval Air Station, about 60 miles south of the nation’s capital, the E-6B ran into a feathered object which caused at least $2 million in damage. Fortunately, no humans were injured. Earlier this year there was another mishap with an E-6B at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. In that case, the mishap was not aloft but happened when the plane was being towed out of its hangar and its vertical stabilizer struck the building – again causing more than $2 million in damages. Ouch.
EDWARD SNOWDEN FAILS TO FIND THE SECRET OF EXTRATERRESTIAL LIFE: Serial leaker and fugitive from justice, Edward Snowden published a book about six weeks ago. Apparently, someone at CNN.com finally got around to reading it. We say that because this week the network’s website reported that Snowden reveals in the book that when he had access to CIA secrets, he tiptoed through the classified files and found no evidence that aliens have contacted Earth – or at least “they haven’t contacted U.S. intelligence.” Bummer. That might finally be something to throw the conversation off of spies who don’t like Trump.
AND YOU THOUGHT WATERBOARDING WAS CRUEL: According to The Times of London, a Beijing-based research institution claims that the Central Intelligence Agency has conducted a covert campaign to create effeminate celebrities in China. The headline of the piece is: “CIA turned our celebrities into ‘sissy pants’ says Chinese Academy of Social Sciences” We’ve love to be able to tell you exactly how the Agency pulled that off – but the bulk of the article is behind a paywall and we’ll be damned if we are going to pay £5 to find out.
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