by George Rasley
In a bombshell report, former CIA Director John O. Brennan claims the need for secrecy was so great that he hand-delivered information from a critical informant close to Russian President Vladimir Putin to President Barack Obama and required the envelope to be returned after the President read it.
Daniel Chaitin and Jerry Dunleavy of The Washington Examiner report that now, one day after President Trump gave Attorney General William Barr “full and complete authority to declassify information” related to the origins of the federal investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, the New York Times reports this source is in jeopardy.
Specifically, write Chaitin and Dunleavy, this informant was the U.S. intelligence community’s source in determining that Putin personally “ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election” to undermine Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in favor of Trump. Obama made this public before he left office.
The informant is described by Chaitin and Dunleavy as being a long-nurtured source who rose up the Russian ranks. Believed to still be alive, the well-being of the informant is one concern as Barr digs into the earliest days of the Russia investigation. Former national security officials and Democratic lawmakers are also worried that Trump may be putting other sources and methods at risk as part of a politically motivated effort to “investigate the investigators.”
Overseen by Brennan, the information delivered by this high-placed informant was treated with the utmost care, but done so outside of the norm.
Chaitin and Dunleavy remind us word of this high-placed informant first came out in June 2017 in a Washington Post story that said Brennan began feeding this material to Obama and a small group of aides with a report in an envelope to be read and promptly returned to the CIA. The material was deemed so sensitive that it was kept out of the President’s Daily Brief due to concerns that too many people would be made aware of its contents.
Although the Post report said a courier was used to deliver this information, the Times piece said Brennan himself gave it to Obama, noted Chaitin and Dunleavy.
As a former official would tell it, Obama “was deeply concerned and wanted as much information as fast as possible” and “wanted the entire intelligence community all over this.” A covert task force was put together by Brennan that coordinated with operations specialists at the CIA, National Security Agency, and FBI on Russia intelligence gathering and kept Obama apprised of their work report Chaitin and Dunleavy.
In the John le Carré Cold War novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy a clique of British intelligence agents claim to have a source at the highest level of the Kremlin. The intelligence from this source is so hot that it cannot be handled according to normal procedures, so a “covert task force” is put together and breaking all the rules they use this spectacular resource to promote themselves and push-out the long-time chief of intelligence, “Control.”
As fans of the novel, British TV series starring Sir Alec Guinness, and Oscar-nominated movie featuring Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, and Tom Hardy already know, the “source” that requires breaking all the rules and provides the means for the coup plotters to advance themselves turns out to be a Russian plant and a real traitor is found among the clique who broke all the rules in the name of treason and self-promotion.
Our friend Joe diGenova has described Brennan as “the mastermind of” the “conspiracy to frame Donald Trump,” and the evidence suggests that Brennan is the central figure in the clique that mounted what amounted to a coup against President Trump.
However, as a “mastermind” Brennan falls far short – he can’t even make-up an original lie to cover his tracks, his story about a high-level source close to Putin follows the “magic source” plotline of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy so closely. It will be interesting indeed to see if fiction informs reality as the investigation into the genesis of the Trump – Russia hoax unfolds.
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Photo “John Brennan” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
