Why no mention of the Plame Affair in this? Via Valeria Plame and Joseph Wilson, some members of the CIA warned the nation that the Bush administration was lying about Iraq's WMD. Eventually Plame was outed by Cheney as a CIA agent in retribution, ruing her intelligence career.

Sorry, but the evidence is that conservative politicians manipulate and attack government institutions. There is no "deep state", just a non-reality based community.

Space is limited. The Plame outing just further illustrates how the CIA/Deep State work with journalists toward their desired ends. Note also I often here use "CIA" as shorthand for a blob that includes all of the intelligence community, the military, the Deep State, big tech and others. They are beyond Repub/Dem, liberal/conservative.

They are beyond Repub/Dem, liberal/conservative.

But it's worth noting that no FBI director going back to Hoover has ever been a registered Democrat (possibly excepting the occasional acting Director). They have all been registered or declared Republicans or Independents.

But wasn't Brennan an outright Trotskyist? That's sufficient to be a Democrat.

It is likely that he converted to Saudi Islam. As payback, Biden is protecting MBS.

Leon Panetta was not a Democrat?

They are cross-party elites. They will fight for Team D or team R when necessary, given their personal predilections, but if their own "meta" power is threatened they'll circle the wagons, partisanship be damned.

Blob is right -- simply overmanned with "watchers" who need watching and best do this by watching each other. An army of real spooks one one hundreth the size of the current CIA is all we really need.

The greatest hoax will never be revealed, the complete fabrication by Bill Browder to create his false Magnitsky Act. In April 2015, Browder was deposed after accusing Russian national Denis Katsyv of money laundering in the Prevezon Case. No mainstream US media will report the explosive implication of this deposition. Even after the case was settled, the reason was never disclosed. The Daily Beast even speculated that Donald Trump intervened on behalf of "Putin".

https://100r.org/media/2017...

Videotape of Deposition of William Browder
15 April 2015, US vs Prevezon Holdings, SDNY.
(including Browder running from a third subpoena)
https://www.youtube.com/wat...

There would be scandal in the US Congress, many like McCain and Cardin were complicit, others just believed what they wanted to hear, to twice pass a bad law like a Magnitsky Act - twice - the fallout would be thermonuclear.

Browder has gone on to lobby the UK, Canada, and is attempting to do the same in Australia, yet five minutes of checking his story shows it is blatantly false.

Only Germany's Der Spiegel has come close to the truth:
https://www.spiegel.de/inte...

Plame wasn't really intelligence, she was in her core career a diplomat. And diplomats are not independent agents, they serve the secretary of state. If they have a loyalty issue, they can go.

She was an effin desk jockey with CIA vanity plates. The Middle East is chock full of bleach blonde covert agents.

love it

"Eventually Plame was outed by Cheney as a CIA agent in retribution"

lol....even the Democrats were forced to fess up to that lie. Plames employment was well known in Washington circles, and was mentioned in passing by Richard Armitage, not VP Cheney.

Plame is an anti Semitic old drunkard BTW. Remember when she tweeted "America's Jews Are Driving America's Wars"?

You don't have to be a jew hater to state the obvious. Jewish influence is/was total [yawn]

Although American Jews are running out of options. Either continue to demonize their only economic rivals [white Americans] and promote and elevate populations of those they can dominate [you know who]

--- and let the Muzzies and Dems feast on them -- and Israel.

OR - It's back to teaming up with natural allies of the New Testament.

Have some sympathy. Jews once practiced polygamy, as you apparently do from your underground trailer at Trinity bomb site.

"Although American Jews are running out of options. Either continue to demonize their only economic rivals [white Americans] and promote and elevate populations of those they can dominate [you know who]

--- and let the Muzzies and Dems feast on them -- and Israel."

As unwanted as your words are for many to read ("RACIST!"), I have no doubt that this is the exact policy dilemma being discussed at the highest levels among Jews in both the USA and Israel. If the ADL's chief, Greenblatt, is anyone to go by, the Jews in the USA are still pushing, at least at this point, for the dilution of heritage Americans, that is to say White European Americans whose families have been here for 100 years or more. Although, if a few more AOC's, Ilhan Omar's, and "Palestinians" out of Detroit get elected to Congress and start getting real power the American Jews (with Israeli impute) will probably switch tactics. I'll give it twenty years, depending on Latino growth rates, which will be the race balancer between Whites, Blacks, and Muslims.

Greenblatt denies for America what it demands for Israel; there are no open borders, no "come-one-come-all," in the Jewish historical homeland:

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

White replacement isn't a "theory".... it's been in the Jewish tool box for decades. This is pretty standard understanding of the political dynamics in this country for years.

The difference is now Jews have enough push back by Muslims, and to a lesser extent, Latinos and more enlightened Blacks... that they don't have carte blanche anymore.

OOPS.... somebody outed em.

Oh noes, an 'anti-Semite'!

RINO Bush a conservative?! LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No true Scotsman all the way down...

Your confusion is that you appear to believe that this is all supposed to be about "progressives vs. conservatives." It is about establishment power groups vs. outsiders/challengers, and about proponents of particular policies vs. those of other policies. Surely you are aware that Cheney & Co. were, and remain, virulently anti-Trump, the ultimate outsider. That same crowd has been virulently opposed to traditional (non-neocon/establishment) conservatives since the 90s.

I fail to understand how this means that there is "no deep state."

What IS highly significant in that in the Trump (and post-Trump) era most progressives, led by the Democratic Party establishment, are now closely allied with the CIA, the neocons/establishmentarians, et al. Nothing Cheney did refutes this in the slightest.

"Why no mention of the Plame Affair in this?"

Your summary of the Plame/Wilson affair is factually challenged, to put it politely, but it does provide a good example of how effective the technique is at deceiving the public!

Main points (nearly all of which you got wrong):

-Plame got her husband a sweet gig (nepotism)

-he gave wildly different testimony under oath to Congress than what he told the public (under oath, he told Congress that Iraq was indeed seeking uranium from Niger)

-Richard Armitage mentioned Plame's name (as she was well known in Washington, publicly working at CIA headquarters, and thus not *possibly* "covert"), not Cheney

-this was used as an excuse for a Special Prosecutor (who almost certainly knew the source of the "leak" within 24 hours of starting his investigation and drug it out, looking for a big score, d___ the morality or legality)

You're right, that's another good example of the "deep state" going after a sitting President using the methods being discussed.

Oh, and one last fun bit from the Plame/Wilson kerfuffle: Scooter Libby got railroaded. Don't take my word for it - the reporter whose notes they used to say he was lying *publicly stated* that her notes had been misinterpreted and in fact agreed with Libby.

Speaking of non-reality-based, your left wing ignorance fairly leaps off the page when you accuse Cheney (and personally, I abhor that man) was responsible for "outing" Plame. First, Plame was not a "spy," but rather a low level paper-pusher, clearly not within the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, so she was not capable of being "outed." Second, she was not "outed" by Cheney, but rather by Richard Armitage, through an article penned by Robert Novak. Third, the anti-Iraq War angle was merely the pretext for yet another in the never-ending Democrat political attack on a Republican president. In an editorial published July 13, 2005, The Wall Street Journal asserted that Plame's spouse, Joe Wilson lied in his "What I Didn't Find in Africa" article about "what he'd discovered in Africa, how he'd discovered it, what he'd told the CIA about it, or even why he was sent on the mission." In an editorial headlined "A Good Leak" published April 9, 2006, The Washington Post alleged that "Mr. Wilson was the one guilty of twisting the truth and that, in fact, his report [to the CIA] supported the conclusion that Iraq had sought uranium." You could have known all of this, but instead, like the obedient little leftie catamite you are, you chose to parrot the narrative. Go away.

But another editorial published July 13, 2005, in The Wall Street Journal asserts that Wilson had lied in his "What I Didn't Find in Africa" about "what he'd discovered in Africa, how he'd discovered it, what he'd told the CIA about it, or even why he was sent on the mission."[41]

An editorial headlined "A Good Leak" published April 9, 2006, in The Washington Post claims that "Mr. Wilson was the one guilty of twisting the truth and that, in fact, his report [to the CIA] supported the conclusion that Iraq had sought uranium."[42]

Plame was outed by Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, not Cheney. Armitage also told Sec of State Colin Powell, who hid that information from the President of the United States (his boss).

The Republicans will return to power, the deep state and media can not stop the voters, who this time are INFORMED, by the previous 'get Trump' movement still going strong. This time the Intelligence Services must be dismantled from government operations, as they are the source of 'domestic terrorism' and rebuilt one by one. The Republicans will do this.

Just because the CIA is deceptive doesn't mean that the KGB is pure. The Russian FSB/GRU/SVR have been running black ops against the West since the first years of Putin's presidency.

Of course, and us against them. That's what "enemies" do to each other. What I am writing about here is our own CIA running an op against us. Intramural if you wish, or perhaps they understand us Americans as another enemy.

Wasn't there a statute somewhere which forbade the CIA from engaging in domestic affairs?

As Snowden revealed, the NSA openly considers ordinary Americans who value their privacy and don't want to be spied on 24/7 "adversaries."

Here to read and laugh at all the fake progressives-turned-reactionaries become defenders of the CIA and the IC because Orange Man Bad... It won't take long.

As you saw in my article, the CIA has already adapted to that, setting itself as a "source" because of its new-found popularity with the progressives. I don't know if they're just that good, or the progs are just that gullible.

It's not that progressives are gullible, it is that more and more CIA and FBI operatives are progressive. So they are pursuing a common goal.

This is also why the new "woke" recruitment ads by the U.S. Army and CIA are not examples of misunderstanding the interests of potential recruits, but essentially smart misdirections to blunt traditional progressive criticism of these institutions. It's not unlike how Amazon, Chevron, or Nike spend a few million to promote their corporate support for LGBTQ, climate change, or BLM. These woke PR promos are diversionary tactics to co-opt the Left and distract them from their billions earned through sketchy business practices.

Bingo. I have said for years that Bezos is a dead man walking - along with Zuck, Gates, -- all the robber barons of tech and global commerce.

The left hates them .. the right hates them - but for different reasons.

But they fear the left - that's why they pander. Because those guys play for keeps when the shootin starts. Wokistan would drag Bezos sorry carcass through the streets if left to their membership.

Conservatives may hate these bstards... but we don't butcher them as the left has done throughout history.

tick tock... tick tock.... all these fellows better have floating safe houses... cuz things are going to get Western real soon.... and it won't be Magaville yelling off with their heads!

Bezos, Gates, Zuck and the rest are hated by both sides. The difference is that Wokistan would seize their assets and drag their sorry carcasses through the streets - given half a chance.

That's why they genuflect before the left... FEAR

Things are gonna get Western real quick as hyper inflation catches up with the presses. The globalist billionaires [and authors of the covid cull] better have ocean going safe houses ...

Magastan won't be gunnin for em... it'll be their pets on the left

Considering their tolerance for critical race theory and the transgender movement, the progs are that gullible. It's the same level of gullibility that made conservatives turn to Trump.

Excuse me! There are 75 million of us. And we ain't goin anywhere.

Gullible? -- yeah right. Watch the rallies coming up... millions will cheer our David - as he puts down demon DemGoliath beginning in 2022.

Trump as martyr is the most dangerous man on the planet.

are you sure you want to use the word "parody"? ,... parody of what ?

Depressing only if you are one of the demons of Wokistan. Which is it?
Gay, butch? both? Degree in women's studies? Failed at racist math?

This proud citizen of Magaville is happy, successful, self employed for almost 50 years - with kids and grandkids who love and support each other. In tact marriages between men and women who actually love one another... living in the beautiful rockies, loving every sun kissed day.... positioned perfectly for the great escape.

and YOU?

Yes, Trump is as much a martyr as Jesus was a condo salesman. If he manages to get a second term, it will be a mere parody of the first, which was a parody of the movie "Idiocracy."

Yes that train is never late.

Even worse, they also work & collude to rig our elections. Probably even murdered our President (JFK).

Oh please. There was absolutely no reason to murder JFK, who was pretty much Mr. Establishment.

Naive and wrong, you know nothing.

You could not be any more ignorant to history if you tried.

Another brilliant article, Peter. As far as I'm concerned, you are every bit as worthy of journalistic veneration as Greenwald and Taibbi. Bravo!

For a government to be successful it needs to influence opinion at home and abroad. So it kind of needs some makeshift Ministry of Propaganda. Everyone with just an average IQ can recognize that. In the US, State and Justice Departments with the associated CIA and FBI do that. We just saw that the Trump presidentship was ruined by not having a factual access to such a Ministry.

Trump had sort of an access to a makeshift "propaganda ministry," in the form of Fox News, and their bush league farm teams, Newsmax and OANN. Problem is, they were not enough to counter the MSNBC & CNN propaganda mills, which had support from the "cultural elite" that runs much of "social media."

What makes this game so much easier for the intelligence agencies is the bifurcation of the news business into competing political propaganda factions. In the ancient days of Ed Murrow and Walter Cronkite, there was no clear demarcation of "left" and "right" in the news business. Republican and Democratic commentators and journalists shared the same spaces. The range of permissible views was more or less the same as it is now, but the same station might express both "liberal" and "conservative" variants. The "parties" themselves were also less reliably on one end of the allowed spectrum or the other. I blame Fox News for the initial bifurcation, but MSNBC evolved quickly into Fox's "liberal" counterpart. Intel orgs can leak to outlets on either side of the divide, assured that half the country will believe the leaked story implicitly, because it indicts the other side of that divide.

You miss the point that the legacy TV news (ABC, CBS, NBC) has a much wider audience than cable news. While Fox is the most-watched cable news, its viewership pales compared to network news. And network news has always been and continues to be on the Left. Fox was the first outlet to offer a conservative view on either broadcast or cable TV, but that view is still overwhelmed by all of the other news outlets on TV, Internet, and print.

Without Fox, Trump would have not become president. However, Bush 1 and 2 were really not that inspiring. At least, Trump was able to pick the right themes, even though their execution mostly stalled due to too few loyal personnel.