Monday, April 16, 2018

The Deep-State Liars of the #Resistance

During his half-century spent defending Americans' civil liberties, here's what has changed, according to lawyer Alan Dershowitz: "Now conservatives have become civil libertarians, and liberals have become strong supporters of law enforcement, the Justice Department and the FBI," the professor and pundit said after dining with President Trump on Tuesday night.

The man who oversaw a vast surveillance apparatus as director of national intelligence under President Obama is now the toast of left-leaning media outlets including Salon, the Guardian and the Huffington Post for questioning Trump's "Fitness to be in office," saying that Watergate "Pales" in comparison to the current crisis, and quipping that Russian President Vladimir Putin treats Trump "Like an asset."

California Democrat Rep. Adam B. Schiff tweeted his Clapper endorsement last year: "James Clapper is a patriot who served his country for 50 years & knows dangerous bluster when he sees it. So yes, he's an authority on DJT." But as Schiff certainly knows through his work on the House intelligence committee, Clapper straight-up lied to Congress and the American people in March 2013 when asked by Sen. Ron Wyden whether the National Security Agency collects "Any type of data at all" on millions of Americans.

One of MSNBC's latest contributor hires, for example, is former Obama-administration CIA Director John Brennan.

Like former FBI director James B. Comey Brennan is one of the more melodramatic voices on Twitter, delivering stern lectures to a presidential interloper who dares impugn our noble intelligence state.

During his tenure as CIA director, the agency got caught spying on the Senate Intelligence Committee's computers.

If in these fraught political times we're taking our moral cues from a gang of former intelligence officials, then our problems run deeper than - and will outlast - the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

http://reason.com/archives/2018/04/14/the-deep-state-liars-of-the-resistance

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