National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard on Monday revoked the security clearances of dozens of former senior officials – including former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, ex-National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and the 51 intelligence executives who conjured up the story that Hunter Biden’s incriminating laptop was the work of Russian intelligence.
All their clearances were X-ed out on “X,” on which Gabbard wrote: “Per @POTUS directive, I have revoked security clearances and barred access to classified information for Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, Lisa Monaco, Mark Zaid, Norman Eisen, Letitia James, Alvin Bragg, and Andrew Weissman, along with the 51 signers of the Hunter Biden ‘disinformation’ letter. The President’s Daily Brief is no longer being provided to former President Biden.”
Gabbard’s move will send a tidal wave through Washington D.C.’s Tidal Basin. Creatures of “The Swamp,” plus allies in the media and Democratic Party, will raise a din. No matter. The intelligence chiefs who corrupted the profession in which I once took pride had it coming.
[Former C.I.A. agent John Kiriakou told Consortium News‘ CN Live! in February 2023 that while he was at the C.I.A. he often saw former senior agency officials hanging around headquarters discussing current intelligence and political matters. This should be harder to do now without their security clearances.]
Director Gabbard’s action is a clear warning that her boss told her to shut down the deep-state cottage industry of former spies able and willing to interfere in U.S. elections. Besides, a security clearance is a privilege, not an entitlement. President Trump said, “These are people we don’t respect.”
Trump has learned that the hard way – before and during his first term. The abundant evidence of intelligence officials meddling in domestic politics during the debunked Russiagate “scandal” justifies the step he ordered Gabbard to take.
How Far Will Gabbard Go?
There is more housecleaning to do. Gabbard should have a well-informed ally to assist her in cleaning the Augean stables -– new F.B.I. Director Kash Patel.
Among other key positions he held, Patel was a senior staff investigator on the House Intelligence Committee. He prepared a damning critique of the so-called “Intelligence Community Assessment” of Jan. 6, 2017, which blamed – with no hard evidence – the Russians for “hacking” those DNC emails so prejudicial to candidate Hillary Clinton, and which launched Russiagate into full swing.
Thanks to the suppression of news by Establishment media, few Americans are aware that the “Russia hacking” charge was disproven more than seven years ago, by the fellow who knew, CrowdStrike President , in sworn testimony.
While Clinton kept claiming that the evidence-free claims of the “Intelligence Community Assessment” were supported “by all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies”, Patel’s investigation of classified material proved that to be a whopping lie. Rather, it was put together by four or five “handpicked analysts” led by then-C.I.A. Director John Brennan (amongst those now stripped of their clearances by Gabbard).
State Department Intelligence, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and a dozen other agencies were excluded. Brennan got only NSA and the F.B.I. to endorse it, and the NSA reluctantly.
Speaking Freely
New-F.B.I. Director Patel spoke freely to journalist Aaron Mate about this and other experiences, just after he left government in February 2021. In this candid interview, Patel lamented that, although Trump declassified his House Intel Committee investigation of the so-called “Intelligence Community Assessment”, it somehow remained classified.
Not for long, I would wager (assuming at least one copy has escaped the shredder). I would guess this may be Gabbard’s next step as she moves to fix intelligence analysis.
For example, she may wish to follow up on Patel’s earlier study by interviewing one Michael van Landingham, an intelligence analyst who is proud of having written the first draft of the cornerstone “analysis” of Russiagate; that’s right, I mean that “Intelligence Community Assessment.”
Last August, I wrote on his crowing about his role. The headline was: “Decay, Decrepitude, Deceit in Journalism.” I should have added … and in Intelligence.
In sum, DNI Gabbard, with the help of Patel, certainly has her work cut out for her. The good news is that some of the buried bodies are not very deep.
Photo: U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi swears in Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence, Feb. 12, 2025 © Office of the Director of National Intelligence/Public Domain.
Source: Consortium News.
