Colleagues of former Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., describe the septuagenarian as competent and congenial — the “Mister Rogers” of Republicans, as Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., said — but his positions on issues including NSA surveillance, Edward Snowden, torture, and Guantanamo Bay are bound to spark arguments with civil libertarians as Congress debates his nomination today by President-elect Donald Trump to succeed James Clapper as director of national intelligence.
In 2013, just one week after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden came forward as the source of documents revealing the global extent of the NSA’s mammoth surveillance regime, Coats penned an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal lambasting the disclosures and the ensuing media coverage.
“Unfortunately, the Obama administration — especially of late — has fueled people’s distrust of government, which has made the reaction to Mr. Snowden’s leak far worse,” he wrote, pleading with his colleagues in Congress to stop “mischaracterizing” the surveillance programs Snowden exposed.
Coats said the NSA’s programs, including its bulk collection of American telephone records, were “legal, constitutional and used under the strict oversight of all three branches of government” — though courts later disagreed, and Congress amended the law to end the American records collection program, as Snowden pointed out on Twitter on Thursday.
While Coats professed his belief in defending privacy and national security in tandem, he focused his efforts on making sure the deep national security state escaped unscathed — losing none of its powers to engage in mass spying. He pushed for counterintelligence policies that would root out leakers like Snowden in the future.
“The government’s interest is the most compelling imaginable: To the best of our ability, never again allow an attack on our homeland that costs innocent lives,” he wrote in a piece in USA Today, touting a bill he proposed that would not have ended the bulk collection of American phone data.
On some issues, there is daylight between Coats and Trump and his inner circle, including Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s national security advisor; for example, Coats is banned from entering Russia after pursuing sanctions following the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea, while both Trump and Flynn have shown a public fondness for the Kremlin. But on Snowden there is more common ground. Flynn has given interviews about how Snowden potentially put American lives at risk because of his disclosures, and Trump’s pick for CIA director, Rep. Mike Pompeo — not a Russia fan, but likely to be a bigger hothead than Coats — has called for Snowden’s execution.
“He should be brought back from Russia and given due process, and I think that the proper outcome would be that he would be given a death sentence for having put friends of mine, friends of yours, in the military today, at enormous risk because of the information he stole and then released to foreign powers,” Pompeo said during a C-SPAN interview.
Coats and Trump’s team are also in accord on Guantanamo. In the past, Coats has railed against President Barack Obama’s attempts to close the prison. “For years, the facility at Guantanamo Bay has been a valuable tool in our counterterrorism efforts. Moving Guantanamo detainees into the United States poses significant security risks, and we should not endanger American families simply for President Obama’s legacy,” Coats said in a February 2016 statement. He has also described the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation into CIA torture as “only a partisan account of the last decade’s counterterrorism efforts.”
Another concern about Coats that may come up in hearings: while ambassador to Germany he was embroiled in an embarrassing scandal around the wrongful imprisonment and torture of German citizen Khaled Masri — who was kidnapped while vacationing in Macedonia, sent to Afghanistan, tortured, and released five months later without ever being charged with a crime.
The Washington Post’s Dana Priest named Coats as an instrumental figure in conferring with Germany’s minister of the interior to ask that the German government not disclose details about what the U.S. did to Masri. The case has been well publicized despite those efforts, and Masri has been represented by the American Civil Liberties Union. Coats has not addressed those accusations.
“The Senate should not act on the Dan Coats nomination until he comes clean on the cover-up of the kidnapping and torture of an innocent German citizen,” Chris Anders, deputy director of the Washington legislative office of the ACLU, told The Intercept during a phone interview.
Fascinating read. As a fellow Hoosier, I appreciated Dan’s retirement from public service. He is too old. He was attending the wrong meetings and making presentations to the wrong committees about bills he supported. He would fall asleep in meetings. This isn’t a Trump pick. It’s a Mike Pence choice.
Jenna should check into Dan’s connection with the imam/terrorist in PA the CIA protects, Fethullah Gulen. Gulen has been accused of the assassination of the Russian diplomat this month and the failed coup last year in Turkey. Coats traveled to Turkey on “Gulen’s dime” numerous times while “serving the public”.
Still cannot figure out why our government is protecting a terrorist in this country. Of course, Bill Clinton called a “humanitarian”.
Vigilante Coats: Bring Snowden home, have a ‘fair’ trial and then execute him.
That ‘fair’ trial would block a defense of need to expose criminal overreach by the NSA thereby assuring a conviction by limiting exculpatory testimony. The power of the entire US vs one small human being. That’s the idea of fairness to the power elite.
If Trump wants to be re-elected next time he will have to show that he is different from this power elite mentality. Snowden´s treatment inside the US would be a perfect touchstone. He already wants to clean out the NSA and CIA, good.
I can’t wait to read Glenn’s response to Michael Wolff’s diatribe against Snowden in today’s USA Today, citing Epstein’s new book as a credible source.
Just read it.
Oh, boy. Strap in.
Epstein has gotten away with a lot of iffy “revelations” [“His first book Inquest, featuring an exclusive set of interviews with most of the players on the Warren Commission, shattered confidence in the commission’s report and opened the door for decades of conspiracy theory.”] for a very long time, seldom being challenged by interlocutors equal to the task (he’s a very bright guy).
Now, in his 80’s he may be about to have a new experience.
Doug: As reviews have pointed out, he offers not ONE bit of proof to back his allegations. The book is full of nothing but conjecture and speculation, as you allude to. I can’t wait for Glenn to eviscerate him, and Wolff as well. Both of these idiots have a history of controversy, and it sure as hell continues to this day.
Leman, in the NY Times Book Review, today:
Emphasis added, cuz I couldn’t help myself. ;^)
what “torture?”
Imo snowden is a hero. in june or 2013 when the “news” hit that the war criminals of the bush administration had been illegally gathering information on millions of us I was sick to my stomach. the f-ing scum that went along with the program are the traitors. the “patriot act” indeed. as a nearing 70 year old citizen I am saddened and disgusted with where the American experiment has strayed. the war profiteers who have stolen the country need to be prosecuted and removed from society. the reckless imperialism of these people has cost untold trillions of dollars, 10’s of millions of lives and a world that is on the brink of extinction.
it is imperative that outlets like the intercept continue their work in exposing the hypocrisy of the American “faux news media” and the evil of the mass murderers behind the scenes.
I pray that trump has gathered his troublesome group of advisors so that he can eliminate the “business as usual” scum from our landscape.
I just despair for the future- anywhere. Even here in Aus, we are not unaffected by the descent into a new dark age. The Deep State and its media arm want war and they will get it even if we all die or large chunks of the planet are rendered uninhabitable nuclear wasteland. It’s 1913 on steroids.
Cultivating persons such as Herr Coates is not so difficult for a competitive society willing to imprison and murder citizens thru deprivation of life support and war fraud. Many nations have done that. Israel is doing that now. Perhaps Herr Coates could get some advanced training over there.
The surveillance state is here to stay. To turn the state against its own citizenry is certainly one of the most alarming outcomes of the war on terror. Rest assured, as time moves on, it will be used for purposes it was never intended for. The fact that there is no distinguishable line between the corporate sector and the state, and that applies regardless of what party is in charge, does not bode well for the future.
TedNed, time has already moved on. It did so with the re-election of Barack Obama. He used the powers granted under the patriot act to spy on innocent american citizens, especially tea party supporters and activists working against his betrayal of his campaign promises; i.e. – to end mass surveillance of americans emails and phone calls. His NSA has worked in lock step to harrass, stalk, spy and intimidate citizens for *shock* exercising their constitutional rights of free speech and to petition the government, as well as their right to privacy; among others.
That is a tough pill to swallow for some. I’ve made the argument to many friends that Obama aggressively fought against whistle-blowers and that he failed to address how dangerous the NSA was in their hands and how it will be even more dangerous in Trump’s hands. It was a critical issue to be addressed and he failed to make the case to curtail their power.
Lest we forget, the DNI used to be the head of the CIA. Their jobs only got separated after George Tenet (the man on watch when one of the greatest Intel failures happened (9/11) and one of the greatest abuses of Intel happened (Iraq)) decided he did not want the responsibility.
Wrong in several respects. First off, all the 911 terrorists trained on US soil, hijacked their planes from US airports – with assistance from personnel employed by said airports. That was the fault not of the CIA but of the FBI, and in fact if you want to name someone as a single scapegoat for 911 it would be Louis Freeh who as FBI director ostracized then fired John O’Neill.
The 911 commission pointed out that the various US intelligence agencies, including but not limited to the CIA, NSA and FBI, were ineffective because they did not communicate with each other, and recommended the establishment of the DNI as an overlord for the entire community. Predictably, adding the DNI has not solved the problem as intended, but simply added another unnecessary layer to the IC bureaucracy.
The 911 Commission is an example of scientific fraud. It is full of disingenuous statements and incomplete modelling.
If the WaPoo had written it, it could be no less truthful.
Just as fraudulent as The Warren Commission….. the “single bullet theory”. Only, in the 9/11 incident, 2 aircraft brought down W.T.C.’s 1,2 and 7. Slightly off topic but it none the less was a fraudulent panel.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/736223/9-11-tower-Building-7-collapse-fire-conspiracy
ecommcon
Trooferism — contagious and incurable.
The NIST final report on WTC 7 is thorough, impeccably analyzed, reasoned and documented, and unchallenged by any research that has been accepted by a major, peer-reviewed journal in a relevant subject.
Justice in Focus is a Troofer conspiranoid organization and the Express is a rancid and irresponsible tabloid (and, incidentally, a major donor to and the de facto mouthpiece for UKIP).
Hi Doug
A little deeper (just a bit) digging reveals that the “report” is the result of a joint “investigation” by Hulsey and that august organization, “Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth” and appears to have been funded by donations.
The work was based, apparently, on computer modeling and was conducted by Hulsey and two research assistants.
Exactly none of Hulsey’s previous work or publications seem to have any relationship to the kinds and complexity of analysis required to analyze WTC 7.
Leroy Hulsey, College of Engineering and Mines
Looks like a cold-climate highway and bridge guy.
“unchallenged by any research that has been accepted by a major, peer-reviewed journal in a relevant subject.”
Bullshit. Dr Jones lost his job over his thorough work.
No one can debunk Dr Jones’ report because it is fundamentally correct.
Doug, you be the last person to sort out mechanical engineering. You do not understand even simple Thermodynamic principles of heat. I love it when non-experts declare what qualifications an expert should have. It’s like Chomsky quipping, ‘they have grad schools for a reason’. High-school level physics describes what happened. Entry-level Static Engineering introduces the exact math behind the collapse of the towers. (It’s Pythagoras in 3 dimensions, essentially)
All three towers would have rotated as they collapsed if the collapse was due to structural failure. They dropped like a stack of pancakes because the placement of explosive charges altered the property of steel so as to mimic failure as if it was constructed of ceramics. They fell at free-fall velocity which, again, could only occur with engineered demolition. THAT is the fundamentals of dropping buildings.
Free-fall with no rotation and no displacement in the X or Y plane is conclusive; definitive even.
(I explained Thermodynamics for Vic the other day)
Young’s Modulus tells us how tough a material is by the area under the curve. Steel has a huge area while ceramic has a small fraction of that. That means when steel yields it stays strong enough to hold significant load. Ceramics yield by shattering; load it a little too much and all strength is gone.
No steel building on earth has, or could, ever collapse the way the towers did without sequenced explosive charges.
Unless you can even begin to discuss any conclusion in the 911 Commission fallacy you should STFU.
Like I said, The WaPoo would not have been any better at describing what actually happened.
Steven Jones lost his job because, although he had previously done reputable and important work in physics, and was a tenured professor, BYU was alarmed and embarrassed by his goofy initial paper on the 9/11 collapses.
Just as an aside, one of Jones’s earlier adventures outside his field of expertise was this:
Behold My Hands: Evidence for Christ’s Visit in Ancient America
The rest of your nonsense has been debunked so frequently and so thoroughly that only the the most hopelessly stubborn Troofers still spout it — thus leading to my conclusion that, at least in some cases, Trooferism is incurable.
In an appropriate public setting, I am willing to argue each and every one of your alleged “points.” The ground rules, however, must require you to stick to one point at a time, rather than jumping randomly from one to another, the standard Troofer tactic for evading and avoiding debunking. This, of course, is not an appropriate setting.
As I usually do, I’ll remind you that you should be careful about revealing your Trooferism in real life. It is a sign of credulousness coupled with conspiranoia and poor reasoning skills and will reflect poorly on you (except in the company of other Troofers).
Don’t inhale the nanothermite.
“The rest of your nonsense has been debunked so frequently and so thoroughly”
Bullshit Doug. Bullshit. What I said stands. Show me one instance where I have been debunked. No one can debunk free-fall. No one can debunk the lack of displacement or lack of rotation. There is a reason the NIST report does not contain the model of the collapse in its entirety. They stop the simulation before completion and they exclude 9 floors of tower 7 from the simulation for no justifiable reason other than obfuscation. (You never stop experiments before they are done)
Interestingly, if you add the height of 9 floors to the time of collapse the NIST calculates in their simulation, you get the actual free-fall time for tower 7. So the NIST report calculates tower 7 at free-fall but concludes otherwise because they are lying. Just like the lies that pour forth everyday from our government; what else would you expect from a coup de tat?
The “truther” claims that the government decided to do a false flag destruction of a skyscraper and just happened to do it at the same time that terrorists flew a plane into each tower…. I never did get the logic of that one. That said, I’m more open to the notion that because the WTC was a terror target, and looked like a giant domino on a big table full of dominoes, maybe they built in some kind of self destruct to keep it from keeling over sideways the way I had long expected it to. If that’s true I wish they’d just level with the people and make them start thinking like adults about this stuff; perhaps the same with how flight 93 went down… still, I admit, this is probably far-fetched; after all, there are many experts satisfied with the explanation.
” a false flag destruction of a skyscraper and just happened to do it at the same time that terrorists flew a plane into each tower…. I never did get the logic of that one. ”
They had patsies flying the planes and they knew the towers would not collapse from the impact of a jet; the buildings were designed to withstand that. That is why we use steel to build things. It is virtually indestructible when designed to be.
Say those jets were made of titanium and they were traveling 1000 MPH, fast enough to slice through the building completely. The tower would start to tip as soon as the first columns were cut by the plane. Gravity would accelerate the building instantly and it would tip in the direction of impact. It would begin to rotate, too, as the cut would not be complete; a few columns, or even one, would cause displacement in the X or Y direction; it would twist.
Or let’s say you had a light saber big enough to slice through the entire building instantly (just swinging it through would take time, and gravity is heartless; you tip and rotate).
In vaporizing one or several floors the upper section would accelerate due to gravity and would impact the columns below with significant momentum. The columns would either support that load or they would yield (bend because their load-limit has been exceeded). The tiniest of differences in strength plus slight differences from things like the amount and placement of people/furniture, etc. would be present as rotation and tipping as the structure yielded.
Even if the hand of god himself pressed down on the building with the weight of the universe the building would twist and tip; that’s why we use precisely timed charges to cut every beam and column when it’s their turn.
The charges start in the center core of the building, where the elevators are. The inner columns crumble but are still loosely held to the 4 walls by floor re-bar, plumbing, wires, etc. This center mass accelerates down and then the walls are shot (millisecond timing). The 4 walls are pulled inwards towards the collapsing center-mass, hence the term implosion.
When timed right it all lands in a nice heap; just like all 3 towers.
mr nuf, im going to splain it to you:
a skyscraper has a HUGE amount of potential energy stored in it (all the energy required to pile up that weight)
when the steel WEAKENS (not melts) from heat … SNAP! it all comes down like a ton of bricks … no explosives needed
“must require you to stick to one point at a time”
Engineers are often required to multi-task; I’ll slow down for you. (but really, free-fall, lack of displacement and rotation, you call that the razzle-dazzle?)
Pick any one of my points and refute it.
Or start with the Flame Temperature of jet fuel. How does that relate to steel failure.
(Don’t bother with your video link of a blacksmith bending metal; that just makes you look like a nano-brain.)
Humans don’t and can’t multi-task (at the level of cognition) we are “interrupt-driven,” as we say in my engineering field.
We’re not going to hijack this thread with your nonsense, nuf. We’ll take your non-points, one by one, when it’s appropriate.
Of course people don’t multi-task; engineers do.
When did you take the FE exam?
No Fundamentals of Engineering is like saying you are a lawyer but never passed the bar.
That doesn’t mean you can’t bring a good argument; so bring it.
(This thread is on life support anyway.)
Check out the link on elliptic curves. There’s some algebra in there, too, … you might learn something.
The NIST is responsible for certifying png-seed numbers for Dual Elliptic Encryption and by 2013 it was widely known the seeds were probably compromised. Imagine that.
Here is a link to a big PDF on An Introduction to the Theory of Elliptic Curves.
It’s not easy reading but there is a sequence of graphs in the beginning which shows what elliptic curves are about (They have nothing to do an ellipse!)
NIST doesn’t “certify seed numbers,” it publishes standards — in this case for “pseudo-random number generators.” Seed numbers are chosen by humans to initialize PRNGs (not “PNGs” that abbreviation stand for “portable network graphic,” quite a different thing).
The NSA is responsible for deliberate corruption of the process in the case of Dual_EC. They fed the process to an outside contractor and forbade him from discussing the obvious weakness.
But the weakness has been obvious to cryptographers from the outset, and nobody who has been paying attention id going to use these easily-compromised generators in a serious cryptography implementation.
And this has nothing to do with the WTC analyses and is a perfect example of the irrelevant dancing and hopping about that challenged Troofers engage in — virtually every fucking time.
That’s why you’re only going to get a serious discussion with me if you follow the rules I explained above.
Two impertinent questions:
1. When were the explosives placed?
2. What was the point of explosives?
the dmv is also an example of scientific fraud, and the post office too
“Unfortunately, the Obama administration — especially of late — has fueled people’s distrust of government…”
The man appears to be in partisan denial mode. Distrust of government greatly precedes the Obama administration. Obama simply reinforced the the distrust already there by the continuation of Bush-era policies.
“…look forward…”
“…the the…”
D’oh!
Not only does it precede the Obama administration, but distrust of government has been one of the main themes of republican politics since at least the days of Richard Nixon. Can anyone name a republican president or presidential candidate since Eisenhower who has not blamed all our ills, real and otherwise, on the government? (The very same government they have led for 20 of the past 36 years . . .)
That’s why I wrote “greatly”.
Perhaps an “informed electorate” could change that, but with sheeples’ unfounded belief that government is a necessary thing, I doubt it.
Give the governor a harumph. ;)
Even if government was not necessary, it will always be inevitable. It’s an emergent property of groups of people. We are self organising and a hierarchy is always inevitable.
In theory we get to chose the form of our government, but really to me even that seems to be little more than an accident of birth. American citizens can I guess at least move to another country with a preferred form of government – but good luck in finding a country with no government of any form.
“…always inevitable”
As opposed to “sometimes” or “never” inevitable? :)
“…good luck in finding a country with no government of any form.”
Why do you feel such a need for a “country”?
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/372888-investigate-russian-hacking-contractor/
“You would like to believe that everyone examines the evidence and thinks critically, but of course that’s not true. I don’t think that’s true anywhere, certainly not true here. I’m sure you all experience the same, it’s just how people are. We don’t do a lot of our own thinking, we let the headlines tell us what to believe and we never question beyond what our pure group agrees with us on,” Carr stressed.
“It is pure speculation on the part of the Crowdstrike, an American cyber security company, which by the way just created a report out of thin air, apparently entirely fabricated, that GRU is responsible for planting a piece of malware into Ukrainian artillery app which resulted in the loss of 80% of Ukraine’s D-30 howitzer cannons,” said Carr. “That was nonsense, Ukrainian ministry said it was nonsense, Crowdstrike, as far as I know, has not retracted what is clearly an invented scenario, used to support the claim that the GRU hacked the Democratic National Committee.”
https://www.rt.com/usa/372795-mcafee-dnc-hack-propaganda/
“In there are four facts which they claim prove that Russia did this hack. It was utter nonsense. The information was number one – Russian language was found in the malware. Number two – a Cyrillic keyboard was used. The forensic science can now tell what type of keyboard was used to develop a piece of a malware,” McAfee told RT.
“Number three – the compiler, the piece of software that compiles the code so that it can execute, always dated time stamps. The time stamps were in a time zone for the business hours of Moscow and St. Petersburg and other places in Russia and the number four that the IP address pointed to a Russian address.”
To make it simple for the American audience, McAfee metaphorically explained the situation:
“Seriously, if Russia declared war on us because we hacked Russia and the head of the CIA and the intelligence committee came to the Congress and they ask him ‘What happened?’ – ‘Oh, well you know we didn’t have time to remove English language, we didn’t have time to move the date stamp, the guy could not use a Chinese keyboard, so we gave him our regular keyboard. And also there was my wife’s birthday so I could not remove the IP address.’”
“Please, that person would be scheduled for a suicide,” McAfee concluded.
“Another concern about Coats that may come up in hearings:
while ambassador to Germany he was embroiled in an embarrassing scandal around the wrongful imprisonment and torture of German citizen Khaled Masri — who was kidnapped while vacationing in Macedonia, sent to Afghanistan, tortured, and released five months later without ever being charged with a crime”
US ambassadors and their entourage made of ‘intelligence’ personnel, after 9/11, went on a widespread hatred campaigns to antagonise and harass Muslim populations all over the world.
US ambassadors and their helpers get rewarded and showered with funds for such psychopathic behaviour!
“HARD LINE ON SNOWDEN, GUANTANAMO, AND TORTURE”
Until the truths about 9/11 are revealed, for better or worth, taking hard lines on a multitude of issues become a default behaviour by those who benefited the most from such a crime.
DONALD TRUMP’S DNI CHIEF TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR DISMANTLING DNI OFFICE. HE TOOK HARD LINE ON SNOWDEN, GUANTANAMO and TORTURE
https://theintercept.com/2016/11/18/donald-trump-hopes-to-abolish-intelligence-chief-position-reverse-cia-reforms/
DONALD TRUMP’S NATIONAL security team is discussing plans to dismantle the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the organization that was created in response to the 9/11 attacks, according to an adviser to the president-elect and a former senior intelligence official.
The national security team believes the effort will be “long and messy” but is confident it will be successful, according to the former senior U.S. intelligence official who is consulting with those involved in the transition.
The former senior intelligence official, who supports the proposal, said the DNI was never a solution to the 9/11 attacks. “It was always a naive idea that American intelligence can be ‘fixed.’ You’ll never get it all correct,” the former official said. “You can never have 100 percent intelligence, never stop every terror plot or penetrate every terrorist cell. There will always be gaps.”
Recent tweets by the author of “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power”:
Jeff Sharlet
@JeffSharlet
Jan 6
“Yes, Dan Coats has been a member of the Family since at least 1987.”
——-
Jeff Sharlet
@JeffSharlet
Jan 6
Trump Nat Intel Director Dan Coats laid groundwork for faith-based initiatives to “transfer [fed.] resources & authority” to religion.
——-
Jeff Sharlet
@JeffSharlet
Jan 6
I posted the full story of the time Trump’s Nat Intel Director Dan Coats apparently called me an “enemy of Jesus.” facebook.com/jeff.sharlet/p…
We elected Trump to make America First and MAGA!
Guantanamo should be reserved for treasonous Americans, like Hellary, Reid, and McCain.
Torture mostly doesn’t work, and the American Hero Snowden should be pardoned along with Manning.
You are off to a good start, you left out Julian Assange though, and he should definitely be pardoned along with the other two; but let’s not forget, how about we throw the ones that are responsible for this whole disaster into Gitmo? Let’s start with Pappy Bush, move on to Bill Clinton, go on to the George W. Bush administration, follow it up by just moving forward and nailing the Obama administration.
Face it when you start bringing in the Tea Party, we are completely F**KED! People fail to remember all these men’s past history and let’s watch the next 4 years be as worthless as the last 25. There is no hope for this country as long as it is owned by the wealthy, which it is.
There will be more war, and our kids will continue being educated by corporate America, since they have NEVER had real education since the Carnegie and the Rockefeller families took it over and started having it designed for corporate America to teach exactly what they wanted to spoon fed the public. Watch the documentary “How Big Oil Conquered the World” and give yourself the best education you will get this year. Great late Christmas present.
Coats is a whack job. But they are all whack jobs (save Rand Paul who, unfortunately has been belittled into irrelevance).
All these geriatrics are in their 70’s (and 80’s) Mario “Brothers” Rubio is a pliant brainless puppet with no future whatsoever. His cold war schtick is bewildering and brainless.
Putin is no idiot. He very obviously sees a flailing and failing America. You think returning Snowden will win him respect where it counts? Beijing?
This soto voce love song end with tridents and viking helmets.
America hasbecome self aware. Which is to say – it realizes its economy is farce and it needs Russia more than vice versa.
If I were Snowden however… he may want to drop the holier than though pretense and give Russia (and China) the full monty. Assuming he hasn’t already.
Now would be a good time to start laying that out.
There’s no doubt in my mind that they will attempt to bring Snowden back, put on a show trial that America hasn’t seen since the Rosenbergs and execute him.
But, that possibility was real, maybe even probable, with Clinton, given her authoritarian sentiments, eagerness to appear tough and hatred of people with the audacity to upset the apple cart.
Clinton…Trump…doesn’t matter. The animals are running the zoo either way.
The article doesn’t mention the most important attribute for a Director of National Intelligence, which is the ability to tell the least untruth to Congress. Congress is filled with expert liars, who can recognize an over-the-top lie from a mile away. So the DNI must be a master of the small lie, and not deny the anti-Constitutional actions of the intelligence community, but simply deny that they are doing them ‘wittingly’.
Mr. Coats has worked as a professional lobbyist, which is encouraging. He is used to bamboozling elected representatives. So while he might not be a great DNI, I think he will be an adequate one. This ranks him among the top picks in Mr. Trump’s new cabinet, and I offer my heartfelt congratulations.
quote”This ranks him among the top picks in Mr. Trump’s new cabinet, and I offer my heartfelt congratulations.”
Says one who congratulated Dylan Roof.
Much of what I write can be easily refuted. So there is no reason to resort to making things up.
I think you are mixing up two completely different characters and thus confusing yourself unnecessarily.
Barak Hussein Obama and Donald J Trump are completely different personalities. The former let all his deputies be selected by Citibank people, and thereafter he had no control over them. For example, Hillary was fast asleep when our embassy in Benghazi was under siege, and later she was quite adamant that it didn’t matter at all if a few of us were killed. Kerry went and signed off deal with Iran when they were holding our people hostage. None of this nonsense will happen with Donald J Trump. He will simply fire all the crooks if they don’t follow his instructions. There is no scope for individual, unelected, bogus chaps to apply his or her original inclinations into the grand process of making America great again. They have to follow instructions or else they will find the wall to their north.
Here ..have some more of this Kool Aid.
Any smart ones threw the Kool-Aid out when they started lacing it with too much sugar :) I think that was around the time of Nixon. Can’t believe they have added so many addictive chemicals to the Kool Aid today. Shows why we have the education level that we don’t have.
Iran had to hold hostages to get a deal that was worse than the rights they already had under the NPT? Why would this make you unhappy?
Never forget the underhanded work that the Reagan mafia did, to make sure that Reagan was elected to sleep in the white house; and this time Nancy didn’t even have to sleep with Frank Sinatra to make it happen. Yes she had an affair with Sinatra and everybody knew it except Reagan the Dunce. I have often wondered about her involvement with Daryl Gates, she spent lots of alone time with him in Los Angeles on her Just Say No to anything but her legal drugs that she stayed on.
52 people held hostage on a plane until Reagan was sworn in. Here is an article to give a bit of the gist of what went on back then:http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/27/world/ac-six-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-iran-hostage-crisis/
This is not an encouraging nomination.
On the other hand, the information which has accrued in the public space — along with what appears to be a change of course in public opinion — may signal a change in the thinking of some people who were previously rock-hard enthusiasts for hard line policies. A lot of water has gone over the bridge in the past several years, and particularly in the past several months.
There is also the possibility this particular position may not be long-lived if Trump does intend a major do-over of the existing “intelligence” structure and staffing. Coates may just be a temporary placeholder allowing the new administration to make whatever changes it likes, with an avowed hard-liner DNI as figleaf for public consumption. Given his age and disposition, Coats doesn’t fit the profile of other hard-chargers Trump has appointed.
But, again, a disappointing choice if the ODNI isn’t to be utterly abolished.
I agree with this sentiment. My guess is that Dan Coates is essentially a counterbalance to quiet the McCains and Grahams of the GOP by adding a standard-issue Republican to his National Security team. Coats seems like the least strong-willed person Trump could’ve chosen, which is a plus.
Also, if nothing else, I’m enthused about the fact that Coats is the guy who did the “Waste of the Week” speeches in the Senate for a full year – if he brings this mentality to the DNI, then he certainly won’t be all bad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hps6V6hkkc
Yes, agreed. And the General’s comments above may be right on target.
At the risk of excessive optimism, I do occasionally wonder if there are actually two close circles surrounding Trump.
First, a deep inner core of a few people (Bannon, Kushner, et al) who will actually forge new policy, and second, a “fig-leaf” outer circle of those others who will be individually discarded and replaced by new appointees as those new policies are fully formed and implemented.
If fundamental changes to come will be more radical, the more time and political care will be required to ease them in with maximum grace and minimum opposition.
Robert Townsend wisely observed in “Up the Organization”:
“Things take time.”
People who regard Trump as a careless fool may wish to take stock of what just happened over the past year, with a view to rethinking their basic assumptions — or to at least to consider reordering their prejudices.
That said, this new administration is a crap-shoot.
Would it complicate matters more to somehow redo the election?
oh swell, another anti-american swamp creature.
Nice article (really). But, unlike many of your colleagues, you didn’t answer the unasked: Do you think Russia did it?
Since she likely hasn’t seen any more evidence than we have (i.e., none), it is entirely to Ms. McLaughlin’s credit that she refrains from such speculation.
Brava, Jenna!
LOL…Good try…think again.
The ones that have been fueling these so called:
“Terrorist Acts” “Shootings” “Hoboken Train Crash/Assassination of Fabiola Bittar de Kroon” did it.
It’s crystal clear that question will not be seriously addressed until after Jan 20th, if ever.
The larger question is whether the increasingly obvious politicization of intelligence agencies will result in a complete house-cleaning under new management of DoJ, FBI, and particularly the CIA.
The operative question is not, Did Russia do it? (So what if they did. Would that be any different from what the US does?)
Rather, the questions should be: Did the Americun people learn anything from the information exposed? And: Did the democrats learn anything from their resounding defeat?
The answer to both questions appears to be “No.”
Wishing Happy Birthday and here’s your gift covering Coats and Pompeo until further notice – seems a divergent bit of a buzzkill.
Don’t make me smile for you. :^) Do something today just about you.
Checking yesterday’s tweets I gather I missed it by a day. Belatedly then, I hope it was a happy one! (IF winter_weather THEN not_all_here)
(ELSE sort_of_okay)
People who support torture are no better than murders.
In some cases, they actually are murderers.
People who support torture are a stain on America’s honor.
My apologies, Jenna for not reading to the end before I commented.
Khaled Masri could be a stumbling block to confirmation, but since I see the position of DNI as a mistake from the start, and Coates likely to me maximally ineffective — I might well wish him the best of luck.
Whatever his beliefs, he’s an intel newbie at age 73.
Lots to learn, and so little time.
Best of luck in that now titular position.
“Can’t we just drone this guy?”
– Hillary Clinton
What does Hillary have to do with this conversation you Trumptard?
It must have a great deal to do with this conversation, since you commented on it. Liberals have no more moral authority and hate Snowden the most. Everything they are going to accuse Trump of doing in the next eight years will have already been done by Obama and the Clinton Crime Family.
You need a therapy dog.
Hillary Clinton=Terrorist
Far from draining the swamp Trump seems to be promoting the worst monsters.
Mike5000: Monsters you can deal with, its the gas and bacteria (propaganda and lies) released from the swamp that’s far more dangerous and insidious.
Thanks for shining some light on this maggot. As for the Big Bang of Stupidity sociopath that appointed him and the rest of the GOP reveling on the deck of the USS Titanic, I can’t wait for the day he sinks his own presidency in one, traitorous tweet. I’d trade my entire future SS to see this scumbag staring out from a prison cell.