On the eve of former FBI director James Comey’s testimony to Congress on Donald Trump’s efforts to improperly influence him, Comey’s friend and former US Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper yesterday used an appearance at the National Press Club in Canberra to savage the President. The president, in Clapper’s view, risked “irrevocable damage” to US institutions. And, in words that immediately echoed round the world, he described the Russian hacking scandal engulfing the president as so large that “Watergate pales” next to it.
Clapper resigned as DNI after Trump’s election (which he admitted came as a major shock to him) and said he was reluctant to criticise a president given he had served both sides of US politics since the Kennedy years, but said Trump was a significant threat to US intelligence services. Clapper said he had “naively” tried to appeal to Trump’s better nature during the handover period following the election by urging him to respect the work of US intelligence agencies, and been disappointed, singling out Trump’s controversial post-inauguration appearance at CIA headquarters as a low point.
How long Trump’s attacks could continue before institutions were “irrevocably damaged” was unclear, he said.
Clapper also declined to warn America’s allies against withholding intelligence in the wake of a series of leaks from the administration, including from Trump himself, saying they had to make decisions that were in their best interests — although he argued the institutional and personal links between Australia and the US remained strong.
However, Clapper delivered his biggest hit on the man he described as a “transitory occupant of the White House” when invited to compare the Russian hacking scandal with Watergate, saying that “Watergate pales compared to what we are confronting now”.
“Wouldn’t it be good if we were friends with the Russians?” Clapper recounted Trump saying to him during his only visit to Trump Tower following the election. Clapper said he agreed that it would be, if the countries’ interests aligned, but that Russia was implacably opposed to the United States.
Clapper famously lied to Congress in 2013 when asked whether Americans’ telephony metadata was being collected by the NSA — his answer “no, not wittingly” prompted widespread claims of perjury and demands for his prosecution when it became clear from the Snowden revelations that the NSA was engaged in mass surveillance of Americans. Clapper later claimed he had given the “least untruthful answer” to the question.
Clapper yesterday also offered some detail on the vexed question of government access to encrypted communications, agreeing that the recent loss of backdoors and hacking tools by both the CIA and the National Security Agency made for a difficult problem to which he had no answer. The NSA was getting better at stopping the “haemorrhage” of leaks, but could never guarantee they would stop. However, he suggested, work had been underway at the end of the Obama administration to develop a proposal for “key escrow” encryption access, in which access to encrypted communications would only be furnished to government agencies by three separate sources combining decryption mechanisms. This would obviate the threat of NSA/CIA-style loss of control of access, although it wouldn’t work on platforms designed from the ground up to prevent proprietors themselves from being able to de-crypt the contents of communications.
He also noted the NSA had established a process for determining whether software vulnerabilities were reported back to software companies or were used to garner “crucial, life-saving information”. However, he said “we’re in a very bad place” on encryption in the United States.
Bernard,
You’ve been around journalism long enough to spot a cover story when you see one! So have you ever wondered why the Cabal even needs cover stories? Because the Cabal must always maintain plausible deniability (ie an excuse).
I offer you the following so you can equip yourself to defend yourself and your loved ones and cease peddling this ridiculous rubbish of #russiagate , #russianhacking.
Btw, none of the following is to be read as endorsement for Trump!.
[excerpt] “Years ago James Jesus Angleton left me with the impression that when an intelligence agency, such as the CIA, pulls off an assassination, bombing, or any event with which the agency does not wish to be associated, the agency uses the media to control the explanation by quickly putting into place a cover story that, along with several others, has been prepared in advance. I suggested that the new story that “the Saudis did 9/11” was put into play to take the place of the worn and battered first cover story. http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/07/20/is-the-saudi-911-story-part-of-the-deception-paul-craig-roberts/
When the Oswald cover story for JFK’s assassination came under heavy suspicion: http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/05/24/jfk-100-paul-craig-roberts/, other cover stories appeared in the media. One was that the Mafia killed JFK, because he was having affairs with their molls.
The fact that it made no sense did not stop many from believing it. It did not occur to people more gullible than thoughtful that a gangster would simply get another woman and not take the risk of assassinating a US president over a woman. The last thing the Mafia would want would be for Attorney General Robert Kennedy to bring the law down on the Mafia like a ton of bricks.
Another cover story was that Castro did it. This made even less sense. JFK had nixed the Joint Chiefs/CIA plan to invade Cuba, and he had refused air cover to the CIA’s Bay of Pigs invasion. JFK would certainly not be on Castro’s hit list.”
Dr Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of US Treasury for Economic Policy & Associate Editor of the Wall St Journal. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following.
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/05/25/cover-stories-used-control-explanations/
Had to laugh at Alberici last night (Lameline) – she seemed to think that these “latest revelations” (of foreign “donations”/funding for our avaricious political mob with their “money habit”) would have been news to Clapper …. after all his years in that day job that was his?
So the DNI, with vast budget and staff had no idea that Trump might win. And now he wants us to accept his opinion on Trump’s future. I might look for someone with a better track record on Trump.
In addition to looking like another visiting US evil egghead instructing us on who our next enemy is to be, Clapper’s suggestion that Watergate pales compared before the “Russian hacking scandal” is quite disingenuous. I’m old enough to remember Watergate (and for that matter the assassination of JFK and the death of Stalin), and there is no comparison. The Watergate burglars were caught in the act, and had on them documents that created a paper trail leading straight to the Nixon White House. By comparison, the “Russian hacking scandal” is a fabrication. A fiction from the fevered imaginations of Hillary Clinton supporters who just can’t accept that their anointed one lost the election. Except for insinuations not a scrap of evidence has emerged that any “Russian hacking” of the US election took place; nil, none, nix, nada, nichevo. An emerging scenario is that the leaks from the DNC came from a young staffer, Seth Rich, who was murdered in Washington ( http://silentcrownews.com/wordpress/?p=5513 ). The US is obviously in a state of deep political turmoil at this time, but the finger-pointing and deflection has reached a point beyond ridiculous.