In the wake of recent revelations proving the now-debunked “Trump dossier” was crafted by Democratic opposition research firm Fusion GPS, paid for the Democratic National Committee and also funded by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, many people still aren’t aware of precisely how a political document made it onto the radar of the intelligence community.
To fully understand it, one must look no further than John Brennan – the man who voted for the Communist Party candidate in the presidential election of 1976, briefed in 2008 then-Senator Barack Obama for his presidential bid, and later went on to become President Barack Obama’s director of the CIA.
It was Brennan who first accepted Fusion GPS’ dossier at the CIA, and “the Obama loyalist drove the FBI to investigate Trump” as early as summer 2016.
From Brennan’s desk the salacious document, which alluded to golden showers and other nefarious rumors, gained traction throughout the intelligence community like a dirty comic book being passed around a seventh-grade locker room.
The presumption amongst the rank and file was that if the document was sufficient enough to merit the attention of the CIA director, it was important enough to be seen as serious intelligence.
There’s one serious problem with this: Brennan’s past is checkered with intelligence mishaps. In fact, his past track record nearly prevented him from becoming CIA director under Obama.
As CIA station chief in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1996, Brennan missed intelligence that could have prevented the bombing of the Khobar Towers that killed 19 American servicemembers and injured nearly 500 others. Brennan’s team came under “heavy criticism for their lack of preparation and foresight for what was considered an intelligence failure.” According to the New York Times, “significant shortcomings in planning, intelligence, and basic security left American forces in Saudi Arabia vulnerable.”
That wasn’t Brennan’s only intelligence misstep.
In the aftermath of Sept. 11 it was Brennan who, as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, advised President George W. Bush to escalate the terror alert warning to an “orange terror alert” during Christmas 2003.
That intelligence was later proven false. In fact, it was called “bogus intel.”
And after the 2009 attempted Christmas Day underwear bombing of a Northwest Airlines passenger jet as it was landing in Detroit, Brennan “confessed” he had “let the President down by underestimating a small group of Yemeni terrorists and not connecting them to the attempted bomber.” Had the bomber been successful, it would have been a terrible tragedy on Christmas Day.
Now, that brings us to the Fusion GPS debacle.
Given his past high-profile intelligence failures, legitimate questions need to be asked of Brennan.
First, who gave Brennan the Fusion GPS dossier?
Second, was he aware at the time that the information was political fodder paid for by the DNC, intended to damage the opposing party’s candidate? Did he accept it on its face as serious intelligence material?
Third, was Brennan aware that he may have been used as a tool of the DNC and Hillary Clinton’s campaign as the vehicle by which to get the document infused into the bloodstream of the intelligence community, where the now-debunked dossier would become the impetus for the Trump Russia investigation?
Fourth, could Brennan have willingly placed the dossier into files in an attempt to undermine then-candidate Trump? Given that Brennan is no political neophyte, it seems reasonable to suggest that Brennan would have known the political ramifications of such a salacious dossier.
Lastly, given Brennan’s previous intelligence nightmares, why on earth would anyone believe in the Fusion GPS dossier he passed along?
These questions remain. Especially now that we know the so-called “intelligence” in the Trump dossier was false, Brennan must be called by Congress to answer them.
Jennifer Kerns (@JenKernsUSA) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. A GOP communications strategist, she served as spokeswoman for the California Republican Party, recalls in Colorado, and California’s Prop. 8. Previously, she served as a writer for the 2016 U.S. presidential debates for FOX News.
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