1 November 2008. Thanks to Robert Eringer.
D.C. habit:
Robert Eringer
November 1, 2008 12:00 AM
If Barack Obama wins the White House three days from now, he is likely to
entrust John McLaughlin, Rand Beers, John Brennan and Anthony Lake with our
nation's national security policies. To quote Yogi Berra, "This is like
dèjé vu all over again."
"These are Obama's principal intelligence advisers," a former CIA official
confirmed for The Investigator. "Which means that his call for 'change' is
as hollow as it is ridiculous."
Mr. McLaughlin served in the CIA for 32 years and was deputy director of
that agency when he resigned in a huff in November 2004. Before that, he
was deputy director of the agency's analytical division.
"It was John McLaughlin's analytic failure that led to the invasion of Iraq,"
said a former CIA operations officer who had a front row seat during pre-war
U.S.-Iraq machinations between the White House and CIA. Or, as another senior
intelligence source put it: "He has a history of tailoring his analysis to
satisfy the needs of the principal and cannot be trusted to be a provider
of intelligence information."
This source added that Mr. McLaughlin serves his own best interests. "One
can be assured," he said, "that anyone who leaves the intelligence community
and immediately finds a job with a news outlet, as McLaughlin did with CNN,
leaked classified information while in office."
Mr. Beers, a former National Security Council staffer, would likely be national
security adviser to Mr. Obama. Highly partisan, Mr. Beers -- according to
a member of the intelligence community -- while at the NSC gathered inside-White
House, NSC and top level State Department information -- and placed it at
the disposal of John Kerry's presidential campaign to secure a senior job.
When informed by FBI agents in June 1996 that mainland China had hatched
a plot to secretly fund President Clinton's re-election campaign, Mr. Beers
famously declined or neglected to inform his boss, national security adviser
Anthony Lake.
John Brennan was an analyst at CIA until Director George Tenet made him a
special assistant and, says a former CIA official, "turned him into a creature
of the Bush administration to become Fran Townsend's gopher." (Ms. Townsend
was assistant to President Bush for Homeland Security.) "I'm just appalled
that these are the guys Obama has around him," continued The Investigator's
CIA informant. "They are inside-the-Beltway chair-movers. We call it 'rearranging
deck chairs on the Titanic.' "
Mr. Brennan is CEO of The Analysis Corporation, a State Department sub-contractor
that found itself in hot water earlier this year after improperly searching
the passport records of presidential candidates. "Brennan is a substantial
self-promoter and achieved nothing but dysfunction while head of the Terrorist
Threat Integration Center," a former intelligence official told The Investigator.
"One could argue that his effort was a complete waste of energy."
It is believed by some Democratic bigwigs that Mr. Obama would select Gov.
Bill Richardson of New Mexico as secretary of state -- Richardson's reward
for coming out early against Hillary despite "owing" his allegiance (in Bill
Clinton's mind, anyway) to the Clinton campaign.
Big mistake. Mr. Richardson is a walking bundle of scandals ready to come
unstuck at the first mention of Senate confirmation process. Something about
women, including a former personal assistant, weary of being groped and tweaked,
who finally snapped, "Cut it out or you will wake up one morning and find
your name splashed on the front page of every newspaper in New Mexico," and
intimate dinners with girlfriends at El Farol's on Canyon Road in Santa Fe
and Embudo Station, a brew house halfway between Santa Fe and Taos.
And something about corruption: Rumors are circulating that the governor
received cash kickbacks from the construction of Rail Runner Express, a new
commuter train between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. In addition, the FBI and
U.S. Attorney's office are investigating Beverly Hills-based CDR Financial
Products and its CEO, David Rubin, for contributing $110,000 to Mr. Richardson's
political pursuits after winning a $1.6 billion bond issue to fund NM highway
projects, including the Rail Runner.
And the man Mr. Richardson supported to become president of Highlands University
in 2004? Meet Manny Aragon, former president of the state senate, who 17
days ago pled guilty to conspiracy and mail fraud and now faces five years
in the clink for siphoning $700,000 from construction funds allocated by
the governor.
Some say Bill smells.
So secretary of state in an Obama administration would probably go to Anthony
Lake, but only if the Democrats score at least 60 seats in the Senate to
ensure confirmation. That's because when Mr. Lake was nominated by Bill Clinton
to be director of Central Intelligence, he requested his name be withdrawn
after learning he would be confronted with allegations that he endeavored
to personally profit from oil companies in "the Stans" (former Soviet Union)
while still national security adviser.
"Change" will bring him back.
That's how Washington works, with a government-in-exile occupying think tanks
like Brookings and CSIS, and lobbying firms, where former officials hibernate
until their party makes a comeback and they rejoin officialdom with stale
agendas repackaged as "change."
John McCain's intelligence and foreign policy advisers are no different.
Mr. McCain's main guy, Randy Scheunemann, is a professional lobbyist who
lobbied on behalf of disgraced Iraqi exile Ahmad Chalabi for the U.S. to
invade Iraq. And while advising Mr. McCain on foreign policy, Mr. Scheunemann
took money from the Republic of Georgia to lobby its causes as a registered
foreign agent.
The point: The Capital Establishment is in control; the commander-in-chief
constrained. A new president takes two-to-three years just to fill appointments
-- and then it's re-election time.
Although "change" is the rhetorical slogan of choice this election, get ready
for another four years of yielding to lobbyists, turf wars and pork -- and
contrived scandals to divert your attention from being sold out. As Sarah
Palin might say: Same old, same old.
In perpetuation of its own pork, Washington knows how to hog-tie a new chief
executive.
__________
If you have a story idea for The Investigator, contact him at
reringer[at]newspress.com. State if your query is confidential.
|