Obama Successfully Hunted Trump Campaign Aides Instead of Terrorists

For more than a year, the leaders entrusted to protect the country and administer justice on behalf of Americans victimized by terrorists instead used their awesome reach against a domestic political rival.

The weekend raid that resulted in the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was named after Kayla Mueller, an American aid worker killed in Syria in 2015 while being held captive by the sadistic ISIS leader. During his Sunday morning announcement from the White House, President Trump twice invoked Mueller’s name in addition to the names of other Americans murdered under the Islamic State’s ongoing reign of terror. According to reports from some of his escaped victims, Baghdadi took Mueller as his secret bride in 2013. “We were told Kayla was tortured, that she was the property of al-Baghdadi,” her parents said in an August 2015 interview.

Mueller was raped repeatedly by the ISIS caliph, then killed in February 2015 during a coalition strike on the compound where she was confined.

After the U.S. confirmed Mueller’s death, President Obama issued a statement. “ISIL is a hateful and abhorrent terrorist group whose actions stand in stark contrast to the spirit of people like Kayla. No matter how long it takes, the United States will find and bring to justice the terrorists who are responsible for Kayla’s captivity and death.”

Obama, however, did not bring those terrorists to justice; nearly five years later, it was Donald Trump who made good on that promise.

Misplaced Priorities

Mueller’s parents thanked the president for finally taking out their daughter’s tormentor.

“I still say Kayla should be here, and if Obama had been as decisive as President Trump, maybe she would have been,” Marsha Mueller, Kayla’s mother, told the Arizona Republic on Sunday. The former president, who famously referred to the al-Qaeda offshoot as a “JV team” in 2014 shortly before ISIS declared a caliphate, fumbled his response to its growing threat in the final years of his presidency. Obama admitted during the G7 meeting in June 2015 that his administration did not have a “complete strategy” to fight ISIS and that the details, including cooperation with our allies, were “not worked out.”

But in 2016, rather than successfully hunting down terrorists including Mueller’s captors, Obama and his top national security officials hunted down Trump campaign aides. Baghdadi’s death should be a reminder—an infuriating one at that—of how the Obama administration, particularly the CIA and FBI, squandered vital resources in service to a politically motivated investigation into Trump and his presidential campaign rather than focusing their efforts on the legitimate threats facing the country.

Trump alluded to that malfeasance in his press conference on Sunday. “When we use our intelligence correctly, what we can do is incredible,” Trump said while commending intelligence operatives who helped locate the ISIS madman. “When we waste our time with intelligence that hurts our country because we had poor leadership at the top, that’s not good.”

Trump, of course, was referring to former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and former FBI Director James Comey, the “Praetorian Guard” that laid the trap for Team Trump in 2016. As ISIS continued its murderous rampage in the Middle East and parts of Europe that year—including the Bastille Day truck attack in France that killed 86 people and wounded hundreds more—the most powerful intelligence professionals in the United States were surveilling Carter Page and George Papadopoulos.

The Situation in the Situation Room

High-level secret briefings in the White House Situation Room were not centered on potential attacks on the country but on Trump campaign volunteers allegedly in cahoots with the Kremlin to post mean memes on Facebook or release Hillary Clinton’s nonexistent emails in an attempt to “interfere in our election.” Rather than fulfilling Barack Obama’s pledge to Kayla Mueller’s family, the Obama Administration’s hierarchy, including the president, worked overtime to sabotage the Trump campaign, plant damaging stories in the news media, and plot to undermine his presidency in the event Trump won.

In the months leading up to Election Day, according to a lengthy article published in the Washington Post a few years ago, Obama’s national security chiefs met in the White House on a regular basis ostensibly to counteract Russia’s “election meddling.” The briefings, according to the Post, were so secret that the video feed from the Situation Room was cut off.

“In political terms, Russia’s interference was the crime of the century, an unprecedented and largely successful destabilizing attack on American democracy,” Post reporters and election collusion propagandists Greg Miller, Ellen Nakashima, and Adam Entous reported with much hyperbole in June 2017. Material sourced by Brennan was considered so sensitive that only a few people could handle the documents directly.

“To guard against leaks, subsequent meetings in the Situation Room followed the same protocols as planning sessions for the Osama bin Laden raid,” the Post reported.

Most notable are the people who attended those briefings: Brennan, Clapper, Comey, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, National Security Advisor Susan Rice, Homeland Security Advisor Lisa Monaco and Vice President Joe Biden. In other words, most of Barack Obama’s inner circle.

The objective of the meetings, according to the Post, was to gin up enough proof to support Brennan’s narrative—which he quickly cobbled together using sketchy evidence after the election—that Putin was scheming to make sure Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton.

“Despite the intelligence the CIA had produced, other agencies were slower to endorse a conclusion that Putin was personally directing the operation and wanted to help Trump,” the Post revealed. Brennan later told Congress that his team collected intelligence about “U.S. persons” associated with the Trump campaign and passed that information to the FBI; Comey, the story goes, then opened a counterintelligence probe into four Trump campaign aides in July 2016.

At the same time, Peter Strzok, the deputy assistant director for the FBI’s counterintelligence division which is supposed to protect Americans from a variety of foreign-based threats, kept himself busy by texting his girlfriend on an hourly basis about how they could get Trump. Tens of thousands of texts between Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page between late 2015 and mid-2017 show that the pair was concerned not with how to prevent terrorists from attacking America but how to prevent Donald Trump from being president. The only mention of the name “Mueller” is Special Counsel Robert Mueller, not the young American woman kidnapped and tortured by one of the most wanted terrorists in the world.

And when the nation’s top intelligence professionals had a chance to meet with the incoming president, they did not brief him on the dangers facing the new administration. (He was looking at them.) Instead, they handed the president-elect a laughable intelligence community “assessment” that claimed Putin tried to hack the election to help Trump win. Comey then warned Trump that the Russians might have a recording of Trump peeing on Muscovite prostitutes in 2013, an outlandish accusation contained in the now-discredited Steele dossier.

For more than a year, the leaders entrusted to protect the country and administer justice on behalf of Americans victimized by terrorists instead used their awesome reach and influence against a domestic political rival. They illegally leaked classified information; spied on American citizens solely based on their political activity; deceived a secret court; circulated political dirt disguised as official intelligence; withheld information from Congress; ambushed Trump advisors; and repeatedly misled the American people about an imaginary threat posed by “Russian collusion.”

Enemies Within

That treachery did not stop after the top brass left government. Obama holdovers working within the intelligence community, such as Inspector General Michael Atkinson, continue to try to undermine the president. The House Intelligence Committee, led by U.S. Representative Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who lied to the country for three years about Russian collusion, now is pursuing impeachment rather than authentic terrorist threats.

Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) said over the weekend that Schiff’s committee is abdicating its national security role in lieu of its impeachment crusade. “Unfortunately the intelligence committee that I serve on hasn’t been spending a whole lot of time on these issues, we’ve been caught up in Adam Schiff’s secret impeachment inquiry,” Ratcliffe told Fox Business News host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday. He said the committee’s last briefing on terrorism was held “well over a month ago.”

Comey, Clapper, and Brennan make outrageous accusations about Trump all with the imprimatur of their former offices. And as the partisan, insidious Robert Mueller investigation wore on for two years, every other national concern, including the war on terror, remained subordinate to that probe.

This is why the multiple inquiries underway at the Justice Department into the activities of Obama’s team in 2016 and early 2017 are so vital. The very people who have warned for nearly three years that Donald Trump poses a risk to national security are the people who actually have jeopardized our safety. Baghdadi’s delayed demise is just the latest example.

Link

on previous page there is a post that Jim Jordan asked Alexander Vindman who he talked to after the July 2019 phone call w Ukraine.

Schiff jumped in and told Vindman not to answer.

Vindman is a LT Col in the army; he is on detail to the NSC.

NPR reports that Vindman has a twin brother, Yevgeny Vindman. By the oddest of coincidences, Yevgeny is also an Army Lt Col and he also works in the NSC. Yevgeny is a lawyer who deals w ethics questions.

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/29...ol-alexander-vindman

small world. Did Alexander talk to Yevgeny ?


part of Vindman's testimony:

“I realized that if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the Bidens and Burisma, it would likely be interpreted as a partisan play which would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained,”

“This would all undermine U.S. national security,”

So Vindman was sooo worried that Ukraine would lose DEM support if it investigated why Hunter Biden got millions for being on Burisma's board.

If the quote above was a major part of the reason for the whole “whistleblower” nonsense, it is utterly outrageous. Not only does this LTC have a serious conflict of interest, but he is not deferring to the policy of the commander in chief. His only moral recourse is to resign.

Vindman worked for Fiona Hill, who in turn worked for John Bolton. Hill also has testified to Schiff's comm.

Vindman opening statement here:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politi...red-remarks-n1073156

from that testimony:

I want the Committees to know I am not the whistleblower who brought this issue to the CIA and the Committees’ attention. I do not know who the whistleblower is and I would not feel comfortable to speculate as to the identity of the whistleblower.

Also, as I will detail herein, I did convey certain concerns internally to National Security officials in accordance with my decades of experience and training, sense of duty, and obligation to operate within the chain of command. As an active duty military officer, the command structure is extremely important to me. On many occasions I have been told I should express my views and share my concerns with my chain of command and proper authorities. I believe that any good military officer should and would do the same, thus providing his or her best advice to leadership.

Furthermore, in performing my coordination role as a Director on the National Security Council, I provided readouts of relevant meetings and communications to a very small group of properly cleared national security counterparts with a relevant need-to-know.

In my position, I coordinate with a superb cohort of inter-agency partners. I regularly prepare internal memoranda, talking points, and other materials for the National Security Advisor and senior staff

On July 10, 2019, Oleksandr Danylyuk, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council for Ukraine, visited Washington, D.C. for a meeting with National Security Advisor Bolton. Ambassadors Volker and Sondland also attended, along with Energy Secretary Rick Perry.

The meeting proceeded well until the Ukrainians broached the subject of a meeting between the two presidents. The Ukrainians saw this meeting as critically important in order to solidify the support of their most important international partner. Amb. Sondland started to speak about Ukraine delivering specific investigations in order to secure the meeting with the President, at which time Ambassador Bolton cut the meeting short.

Following this meeting, there was a scheduled debriefing during which Amb. Sondland emphasized the importance that Ukraine deliver the investigations into the 2016 election, the Bidens, and Burisma. I stated to Amb. Sondland that his statements were inappropriate, that the request to investigate Biden and his son had nothing to do with national security, and that such investigations were not something the NSC was going to get involved in or push. Dr. Hill then entered the room and asserted to Amb. Sondland that his statements were inappropriate.


Following the debriefing meeting, I reported my concerns to the NSC’s lead counsel. Dr. Hill also reported the incident to the NSC’s lead counsel

On July 25, 2019, the call occurred. I listened in on the call in the Situation Room with colleagues from the NSC and the office of the Vice President. As the transcript is in the public record, we are all aware of what was said.

I was concerned by the call. I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine.

I realized that if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the Bidens and Burisma, it would likely be interpreted as a partisan play which would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained. This would all undermine U.S. national security. Following the call, I again reported my concerns to NSC’s lead counsel

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

There is nothing wrong w what President Trump did. He asked Ukraine to investigate whether previous Ukraine administrations tried to interfere in our 2016 election. He asked them to investigate Burisma. And Hunter Biden does not possess some "investigation shield" because he is Joe Biden's son.

It sounds like Bolton, Fiona Hill, and Vindman have been working against President Trump's game plan for dealing w Ukraine.

I saw a tweet that perfectly summed up the absurdity of the Democrats right now:

quote:

You can't question the background or motives of this week's impeachment hero, Lt. Col. Vindman, because of his valiant military service: but it's fine to explicitly declare that Major Gabbard is doing the bidding of Russia. As you can see, these standards are perfectly consistent

^^^ Excellent!

The Dems will ignore the truth of his statements, but at least his remarks are now part of the Congressional Record.

Vindman's quote:

" I listened in on the call in the Situation Room with colleagues from the NSC and the office of the Vice President. As the transcript is in the public record, we are all aware of what was said.

I was concerned by the call. I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine."


This makes me wonder about which version of the transcript he is quoting. I mean, Schiff's parody of the Official Transcript was entered into the Congressional Record (public), was it not? Therefore, it makes me wonder if someone has read the Official Transcript into the Congressional Record (public) as well. Maybe I am paranoid but it sounds like all the Swampers are quoting the parody and not the official version since I see nothing incriminating in the official transcript.

I believe the main focus of this "investigation" into Trumps dealing with the Ukraine is simply to inoculate voters when it comes time to hear the charges placed against Szctrok (however you spell his commie name) and Brennan.
They will make the case that what Trump is doing is somehow related.

As Britt Hume pointed put last night on the Tucker Carlson show, it is the President who sets this nation's foreign policy, not diplomats or State Department personnel. All of these people are upset because President Trump has the unmitigated gall to go against "established" foreign policy. These people are confused, very, very confused, and they think a lot of themselves, to put themselves above the duly elected President of the United States.

They could have had 50 people on that call, and everyone of them disagreeing with the President. Big freakin' whoop. It's not their decision. It's the President's decision. Period.

Donald Trump may be impeached in the House but he won't be in the Senate. Donald Trump will remain in office, and 12 months from now, he will win re-election in a landslide. Just keep hanging on, gents. It's comin', and in between now and then, we have John Durham who is gonna ruin some leftists lives.

I have often been annoyed or worse by executive actions of various Presidents, but he is called the “chief executive” for a reason. He is the head of the Executive Branch of government which includes agencies such as the State Department, the FBI, the CIA, Homeland Security, the Department of Defense and all the armed forces, etc.

Among the countless things that Americans are ignorant of, or that they willfully ignore, is what the President’s responsibilities and powers are. I sometimes think that whenever there is a press conference by the President or Press Secretary, it should be preceded by at least a half hour of (traditional) high school civics instruction that all attendees must be present for, or they don’t get in the room.

That 4 minute video should air on every news network.

excellent speech by McConnell.

Very important to hear that because it is quite likely Pelosi will jam the impeachment thru the House. It will be up to the Senate to stop it.

I mentioned before that Pelosi knows if Donald Trump is reelected in 2020, that type of REP voter turn out could well lead to the DEMs losing control of the House.

In 2018, 31 DEMs won House election in districts that went for Donald Trump in 2016. If we win 19 of those back, REPs take the House in 2020. (reality is more complicated because that "19" scenario assumes REPs wouldn't lose any House seats they currently hold)

and

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/...adam-schiff-n2555622

Florida GOP Congressman Matt Gaetz has filed an ethics complaint against House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff for the way he has been handling the impeachment inquiry into President Donald J. Trump. Specifically, Rep. Gaetz says that Schiff has been "distorting @POTUS ’s call with President Zelensky, Lying to the public about 'Russian collusion', and blocking members of Congress from attending impeachment depositions."

"Nancy Pelosi's impeachment resolution gives unprecedented power to the Intelligence Committee Chairman, Adam Schiff," Gaetz told reporters ahead of filing his complaint. "That's deeply troubling to me for a few reasons. First, Adam Schiff has proven in this process that he cannot adhere to the fundamental principles of fairness .

Second, and I would say most important for my work today, is that Adam Schiff has violated the ethical rules of the House of Representatives."

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
I have often been annoyed or worse by executive actions of various Presidents, but he is called the “chief executive” for a reason. He is the head of the Executive Branch of government which includes agencies such as the State Department, the FBI, the CIA, Homeland Security, the Department of Defense and all the armed forces, etc.

Among the countless things that Americans are ignorant of, or that they willfully ignore, is what the President’s responsibilities and powers are. I sometimes think that whenever there is a press conference by the President or Press Secretary, it should be preceded by at least a half hour of (traditional) high school civics instruction that all attendees must be present for, or they don’t get in the room.

I agree, but are there any high schools still actually teaching Civics? So many people are ignorant of that subject that I truly wonder.

quote:

Vindman's quote:

" I listened in on the call in the Situation Room with colleagues from the NSC and the office of the Vice President. As the transcript is in the public record, we are all aware of what was said.

I was concerned by the call. I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine."

He said he listened to the call and that he is aware of what was said. His subsequent statement that he was "concerned" and "didn't think it proper" does not actually connect that action with anything said in the call--he had been aware of the desire to investigate Burisma (not Biden) from prior knowledge, but did not say the President mentioned it in the call. Too many people (all Dems) are connecting the 2 things when there is no reason to do so.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by mark60:
That 4 minute video should air on every news network.

But they need to cut Shepard Smith's comment at the end--it is inappropriate.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:

quote:

Originally posted by mark60:
That 4 minute video should air on every news network.

But they need to cut Shepard Smith's comment at the end--it is inappropriate.

flashguy

That was Bill Hemmer and I don't think it was inappropriate.

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
I agree, but are there any high schools still actually teaching Civics?

I have no idea, which is why I specified that the lesson should be traditional civics instruction, i.e., the sort of thing that I was taught so long ago.
I am of course merely venting and have absolutely no rational hope that my wish would be realized.

I'm surprised to read this in the WashPost.

https://www.washingtonpost.com...hdadi-was-named-her/

Kayla Mueller’s parents call Baghdadi raid named for their slain daughter an ‘amazing gift’

By Jennifer Hassan
Oct. 30, 2019 at 10:46 a.m. CDT

The parents of Kayla Mueller, the 26-year-old American who was kidnapped by the Islamic State and killed in 2015, said Wednesday that the decision to name the ambitious operation that killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in their daughter’s honor was “an amazing gift."

Mueller, who was described by her family as a “devoted humanitarian,” traveled to Turkey in 2012 and crossed the border into Syria, on a mission to help those fleeing the civil war in the country. She was leaving a hospital run by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders in the Syrian city of Aleppo when she was kidnapped in August 2013.

Talking to “Today” on NBC News on Wednesday, Mueller’s parents, Carl and Marsha Mueller, opened up about their loss and acknowledged that it was hard to express how they felt at the news of Baghdadi’s death.

“I’m glad that evil person is gone,” Mueller’s father said. “If you were a parent and this man did what he did to Kayla, to your child, and then they got him, how would you feel?”

Mueller’s mother said of the mission being named after their daughter: “That was just an amazing gift for Kayla,” she said. “I know Kayla; Kayla would say this was for all of us. This is for all the hostages.”

In 2016, federal prosecutors offered more details about the abuse that Mueller is said to have suffered in captivity when they charged an Iraqi woman with playing a role in Mueller’s imprisonment. Nisreen Assad Ibrahim Bahar told FBI agents that Mueller and other captives were kept in locked rooms and sometimes handcuffed. The affidavit indicates that Mueller was made to watch disturbing Islamic State propaganda videos and was raped by Baghdadi.

In February 2015, ISIS claimed that Mueller was killed when a Jordanian fighter plane bombed the building in which she was being held. U.S. officials expressed skepticism about the claim, while the Jordanian government denied its airstrikes had killed the U.S. hostage.

The precise details surrounding Mueller’s death and the whereabouts of her body are unclear, with her parents saying Wednesday that they had a slight hope that she still might be alive.

In remarks Sunday, President Trump described in detail the operation that killed Baghdadi, saying that he “died like a dog” and that he blew himself up in a “dead-end tunnel” as U.S. troops moved in on him and three of his children.

Speaking to NBC News on Sunday, national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien described Baghdadi as a “brutal, vicious terrorist” and said that the United States had finally brought to justice a man with a history of killing Americans, including journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.

Calling Mueller a “great young American,” O’Brien said it was Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who decided to name the operation that killed Baghdadi after her.

Speaking to the Arizona Republic on Sunday, Mueller’s parents praised Trump’s handling of the raid and expressed hope that they would one day find out more about what happened to their daughter.

“I still want to know, ‘Where is Kayla?’ and what truly happened to her, and what aren’t we being told?” Mueller’s mother, Marsha, told the newspaper.

“I still say Kayla should be here, and if Obama had been as decisive as President Trump, maybe she would have been,” she added. The Muellers have been critical of the Obama administration in the past, telling ABC News in 2016 that it took more than 17 months for President Barack Obama to follow up on his promise to donate money to the Kayla’s Hands foundation.

“The president could have been a hero, but he chose not to be,” Mueller’s father, Carl, told ABC News.

Describing his daughter’s ordeal at the hands of the Islamic State, Mueller’s father said: “She was held in many prisons. She was held in solitary confinement. She was tortured. She was intimidated. She was ultimately raped by al-Baghdadi himself."

While in captivity, Mueller penned a letter to her family urging them not to let her situation burden them. “I DO NOT want the negotiations for my release to be your duty,” she wrote, adding: “I know you would want me to remain strong. That is exactly what I am doing.

“I remember mom always telling me that all in all in the end the only one you really have is God. I have come to a place in experience where, in every sense of the word, I have surrendered myself to our creator,” she wrote, invoking her religious beliefs throughout the letter.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
I sometimes think that whenever there is a press conference by the President or Press Secretary, it should be preceded by at least a half hour of (traditional) high school civics instruction that all attendees must be present for, [AND PASS A POP QUIZ], or they don’t get in the room.

Added another level of requirement...

I am STILL just absolutely flabbergasted at the sheer lack of DUE PROCESS from these House blowhards. U.S. Constitution, anyone??? Or does that not apply to the President of the United States simply because you don't like him and he ruined your party with the anointed, PRE-ordained queen?? JSMDH