https://theconservativetreehouse.co...re-weaponized-around-congressional-oversight/
NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers has announced to his staff he is resigning. A nominee will be announced to replace him shortly. Rogers departure makes sense. His incredible accomplishments are complete; he will now be free to testify, unencumbered, to congress.
Intelligence information is housed by compartments within the larger intelligence community network. Each intelligence unit holds intelligence unique to that compartment and task.
The FBI Counterintelligence unit would hold the intelligence information specific to their task or assignment; the DOJ National Security Division would hold their own compartmented intelligence; again, specific to their task and objectives. So too would the DoD (Pentagon), State Dept., or CIA.
This compartmented structure is what led to the creation of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, ODNI. The 911 commission recommended the office to serve as a hub able to ensure intelligence sharing; that is – to ensure intelligence was not intentionally withheld from other compartments when needed.
In 2016 the ODNI for President Obama was James Clapper. The DNI is a political appointment, a cabinet member, of the President. If the executive branch, the President, wanted to weaponize intelligence as a political tool, he/she would have control over such weaponization as an outcome of their political appointees within the: FBI (Comey, McCabe), DOJ (Lynch/Yates), CIA (Brennan), DNI (Clapper), or DoD (Ash Carter). The efficient weaponization of intelligence stems from controlling the hub, James Clapper.
The civilian (representative) oversight into the compartmented intelligence falls to a very select group known as the Intelligence Gang of Eight.
Four Democrats and Four Republicans (four minority party and four majority party political leaders) for a total of eight. Four from the House and Four from the Senate. –Understand the Gang of Eight Here– The Gang-of-Eight can, if they choose, interact with the intelligence product they oversee with the same level of security clearance as the originating compartment being reviewed.
Only these eight members can interact with the intelligence product in this way. This ensures their ability to conduct oversight. The eight elected officials also hold oversight on all covert intelligence operations and are briefed on all presidential finding memos.
It becomes important to understand the difference between the House Intelligence Committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Gang of Eight.
Two members from the House Intelligence Committee (chair Nunes and minority Schiff), and two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee (chair Burr and vice-chair Warner) are participants. The other four are Speaker of the House (Ryan), minority leader of House (Pelosi), Leader of Senate (McConnell) and Minority leader of Senate (Schumer). The latter four are not part of any other intelligence committee.
♦We begin: During March 20th 2017 congressional testimony, James Comey was asked why the FBI Director did not inform congressional oversight, senior leadership, about the counterintelligence operation that began in July 2016.
FBI Director Comey said he did not tell congressional oversight he was investigating presidential candidate Donald Trump because the Director of Counterintelligence suggested he not do so. *Very important detail.*
I cannot emphasize this enough. *VERY* important detail. Again, notice how James Comey doesn’t use FBI Counterintelligence Director WH “Bill” Priestap’s actual name, but refers to his position and title. Again, watch the first three minutes:
“Because of the sensitivity of the matter“? FBI Director James Comey was caught entirely off guard by that first three minutes of questioning. He simply didn’t anticipate it.
Oversight protocol requires the FBI Director to tell the congressional intelligence “Gang of Eight” of any counterintelligence operations. The Go8 has oversight into these ops at the highest level of classification. In July 2016, the time when the operation began, oversight was the responsibility of this group, the Gang of Eight:
Obviously, based on what we have learned since March 2017, and what has surfaced recently, we can see a motive why the FBI and DOJ would want to keep hidden that they were running a counterintelligence operation against a presidential candidate.
After all, as FBI Agent Peter Strzok said it in his text messages, establishing the Russian Conspiracy narrative was an “insurance policy”. REMINDER – FBI Agent Strzok to FBI Attorney Page:
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office that there’s no way he gets elected – but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”
FBI Director James Comey told congress on March 20th, 2017, the reason he didn’t inform the statutory oversight “Gang of Eight” of the counterintelligence operation was because Bill Priestap (Director of FBI Counterintelligence) recommended he didn’t do it.
James Comey throwing this guy under a bus:
W.H. “Bill” Priestap, FBI Director of Counterintelligence
♦The originating intelligence agency agency, in these examples the DOJ National Security Division and/or FBI Counterintelligence Division, holds the proprietary intelligence they create in their intelligence compartment. They may also receive intelligence products created for them, which they will also host in their unique compartment. Access to this intelligence comes via a “SCIF” Secure Compartmented Information Facility. Thus, intelligence is compartmentalized.
In 2015 Sally Yates blocked any inspector general oversight of the DOJ National Security Division (SEE Pdf HERE). The Office of Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, requested oversight over the DOJ National Security Division and it was Sally Yates who responded with a lengthy 58-page legal explanation saying, essentially, ‘nope – not allowed.’ (PDF HERE) All of the DOJ is subject to oversight, except the NSD.
♦The White House -the executive branch- is also a host of intelligence information and consequently the White House has their own compartmented intelligence unit and SCIF which holds intelligence products they would create (very little), or intelligence products created for them (the vast majority).
An example of an intelligence product created for the executive branch would be the President’s Daily Briefing or PDB.
The PDB as a whole product would only exist in the White House compartment. Parts of the PDB would be hosted by the originating participant, ex. NSA, FBI, DOJ, DoD, CIA State Dept. etc., but only the White House would have the fully assembled product. After all, it’s assembled for the President.
NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers has announced to his staff he is resigning. A nominee will be announced to replace him shortly. Rogers departure makes sense. His incredible accomplishments are complete; he will now be free to testify, unencumbered, to congress.
Intelligence information is housed by compartments within the larger intelligence community network. Each intelligence unit holds intelligence unique to that compartment and task.
The FBI Counterintelligence unit would hold the intelligence information specific to their task or assignment; the DOJ National Security Division would hold their own compartmented intelligence; again, specific to their task and objectives. So too would the DoD (Pentagon), State Dept., or CIA.
This compartmented structure is what led to the creation of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, ODNI. The 911 commission recommended the office to serve as a hub able to ensure intelligence sharing; that is – to ensure intelligence was not intentionally withheld from other compartments when needed.
In 2016 the ODNI for President Obama was James Clapper. The DNI is a political appointment, a cabinet member, of the President. If the executive branch, the President, wanted to weaponize intelligence as a political tool, he/she would have control over such weaponization as an outcome of their political appointees within the: FBI (Comey, McCabe), DOJ (Lynch/Yates), CIA (Brennan), DNI (Clapper), or DoD (Ash Carter). The efficient weaponization of intelligence stems from controlling the hub, James Clapper.
The civilian (representative) oversight into the compartmented intelligence falls to a very select group known as the Intelligence Gang of Eight.
Four Democrats and Four Republicans (four minority party and four majority party political leaders) for a total of eight. Four from the House and Four from the Senate. –Understand the Gang of Eight Here– The Gang-of-Eight can, if they choose, interact with the intelligence product they oversee with the same level of security clearance as the originating compartment being reviewed.
Only these eight members can interact with the intelligence product in this way. This ensures their ability to conduct oversight. The eight elected officials also hold oversight on all covert intelligence operations and are briefed on all presidential finding memos.
It becomes important to understand the difference between the House Intelligence Committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Gang of Eight.
Two members from the House Intelligence Committee (chair Nunes and minority Schiff), and two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee (chair Burr and vice-chair Warner) are participants. The other four are Speaker of the House (Ryan), minority leader of House (Pelosi), Leader of Senate (McConnell) and Minority leader of Senate (Schumer). The latter four are not part of any other intelligence committee.
♦We begin: During March 20th 2017 congressional testimony, James Comey was asked why the FBI Director did not inform congressional oversight, senior leadership, about the counterintelligence operation that began in July 2016.
FBI Director Comey said he did not tell congressional oversight he was investigating presidential candidate Donald Trump because the Director of Counterintelligence suggested he not do so. *Very important detail.*
I cannot emphasize this enough. *VERY* important detail. Again, notice how James Comey doesn’t use FBI Counterintelligence Director WH “Bill” Priestap’s actual name, but refers to his position and title. Again, watch the first three minutes:
“Because of the sensitivity of the matter“? FBI Director James Comey was caught entirely off guard by that first three minutes of questioning. He simply didn’t anticipate it.
Oversight protocol requires the FBI Director to tell the congressional intelligence “Gang of Eight” of any counterintelligence operations. The Go8 has oversight into these ops at the highest level of classification. In July 2016, the time when the operation began, oversight was the responsibility of this group, the Gang of Eight:
Obviously, based on what we have learned since March 2017, and what has surfaced recently, we can see a motive why the FBI and DOJ would want to keep hidden that they were running a counterintelligence operation against a presidential candidate.
After all, as FBI Agent Peter Strzok said it in his text messages, establishing the Russian Conspiracy narrative was an “insurance policy”. REMINDER – FBI Agent Strzok to FBI Attorney Page:
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office that there’s no way he gets elected – but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”
FBI Director James Comey told congress on March 20th, 2017, the reason he didn’t inform the statutory oversight “Gang of Eight” of the counterintelligence operation was because Bill Priestap (Director of FBI Counterintelligence) recommended he didn’t do it.
James Comey throwing this guy under a bus:
W.H. “Bill” Priestap, FBI Director of Counterintelligence
♦The originating intelligence agency agency, in these examples the DOJ National Security Division and/or FBI Counterintelligence Division, holds the proprietary intelligence they create in their intelligence compartment. They may also receive intelligence products created for them, which they will also host in their unique compartment. Access to this intelligence comes via a “SCIF” Secure Compartmented Information Facility. Thus, intelligence is compartmentalized.
In 2015 Sally Yates blocked any inspector general oversight of the DOJ National Security Division (SEE Pdf HERE). The Office of Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, requested oversight over the DOJ National Security Division and it was Sally Yates who responded with a lengthy 58-page legal explanation saying, essentially, ‘nope – not allowed.’ (PDF HERE) All of the DOJ is subject to oversight, except the NSD.
♦The White House -the executive branch- is also a host of intelligence information and consequently the White House has their own compartmented intelligence unit and SCIF which holds intelligence products they would create (very little), or intelligence products created for them (the vast majority).
An example of an intelligence product created for the executive branch would be the President’s Daily Briefing or PDB.
The PDB as a whole product would only exist in the White House compartment. Parts of the PDB would be hosted by the originating participant, ex. NSA, FBI, DOJ, DoD, CIA State Dept. etc., but only the White House would have the fully assembled product. After all, it’s assembled for the President.