The recent downfall of Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn was just the first shot across the bow of the Trump ship of state.
What Flynn did, however, was perfectly understandable. He picked up the phone and appealed to his friend, Russia's ambassador to the U.S., not to retaliate for President Obama’s last minute expulsion of a slew of Russian diplomats — read spies.
The normal Russian reaction would have been an in-kind expulsion of U.S. diplomats (spies among them) from Moscow, resulting in the crippling of our intelligence collection capabilities against an increasingly aggressive Russia.
Flynn's phone call worked, but then, oddly, he lied about it. Why he lied is a mystery. It certainly wasn’t necessary. Perhaps it was just a dumb move on his part. The simplest answer is often the right one.
But what happened next is the real story.
Intelligence leaks from deep within the government, probably the FBI, uncovered Flynn's lie — highly classified signals intelligence (SIGINT) intercepts of Flynn’s conversations revealed the full content of Flynn's conversations with the Russian Ambassador.
The information was then purposely and illegally leaked to harm Flynn and the Trump administration.
This act is a portent of things to come.
After eight years of Obama policies, firmly entrenched cadres of fervent supporters remain deep within the government. And these people will risk their careers and national security to bring down President Trump.
And there is a voracious main stream media standing in the wings, drooling to gobble up every leaked juicy tidbit.
Make no mistake about it; there is a concerted effort afoot designed to bring President Trump and his agenda to its knees.
And the man leading this effort is none other than Barack Obama.
Operating out of his mansion fortress located just a short distance from the White House, he is, through his advocacy group, Organizing for Action (OFA), leading a network of leftist non-profits like Media Matters, and others of its ilk, to undermine Trump’s presidency by any means necessary.
This shadow government is unprecedented in our history.
Rather than going quietly into the night like every other president before him, former President Obama has vowed to retain his voice in order to advance his liberal agenda and subvert President Trump's.
He is organizing his resources and raising huge sums of money (an estimated $40 million thus far) to help him accomplish his insurrection.
Some of what he is doing is perfectly legal opposition; some is frightening.
Within the CIA, for example, staunch Obama supporters like former director John Brennan, an avowed Islamophile with leftist roots, and his erstwhile deputy, Mike Morrell (the guy who cooked the books at CIA to try to cover up the Benghazi debacle) will most certainly be tasked to exploit their former relationships for the cause.
These and other willing participants have the ability to elicit damaging information from their active rank and file former subordinates. When the information is passed on to the press, it will be used to embarrass and thwart the activities of the Trump administration.
The same illegal activity is likely to occur throughout the government in other agencies.
It is called subversion; the undermining of the power and authority of an established system or institution. It borders on sedition; conducting or speaking, to incite people to rebel against the authority of a state.
Where does one draw the line between free speech and subversion with groups like OFA or individuals like Barack Obama and his followers openly soliciting criminal acts?
We live in interesting, and frightening, times.
Fred Rustmann spent more than 24 years in the Central Intelligence Agency, serving as senior CIA officer (chief of station) in country for two assignments. Rustmann founded the CTC International Group, Inc. He is the author of three books: "CIA, Inc.: Espionage and the Craft of Business Intelligence," "The Case Officer," and "Plausible Denial." For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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