CIA had active contractors amongst cabal of intel officials who suggested Biden laptop was Russian fake



Scores of former intelligence officials ran block for Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election after the New York Post threatened his campaign with damning facts about his son's laptop and its contents. It turns out that active elements of the security state similarly conspired to cure the narrative and thumb the scales in Biden's favor.

Background

Less than a month ahead of the 2020 election, the New York Post reported about the incriminating contents of Hunter Biden's laptop and raised various questions about then-candidate Joe Biden, especially about his shady ties to Ukraine.

The report noted, for instance, that a Burisma board adviser thanked Hunter Biden for introducing him to Joe Biden about a year before Biden allegedly extorted the Eastern European country as vice president to get the prosecutor investigating Burisma fired.

The report also painted Joe Biden as untruthful and referenced other damning evidence on his son's laptop, such as videos of Hunter Biden having sex and smoking crack and suggestions of questionable business with China.

Elements of the intelligence community antipathetic to President Donald Trump swooped in to shield Biden in the final weeks before the election, releasing a public letter on Oct. 19, 2020, asserting that the Hunter Biden laptop story had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation" intended to hurt the Democrat's candidacy.

Not one of the intelligence officials had apparently seen the evidence of which they spoke before signing the letter, and no signatory has since expressed regret.

Biden used the misleading letter, which was further spun by the liberal media, to great effect.

In his Oct. 22 debate with Trump, Biden said, "Look, there are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what this, he's accusing me of is a Russian plan. They have said that this has all the characteristics — four — five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he's saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except him and his good friend Rudy Giuliani."

Michael Morell, one of the former CIA directors Biden referenced, later testified to Congress that he organized the letter to "help Vice President Biden," but more specifically, to help "him to win the election."

Morell also made clear that the Biden campaign was involved and "helped to strategize about the public release of the statement."

According to Morell, the call he received from then-Biden campaign official Antony Blinken got the ball rolling on the deception.

74% of Americans surveyed told the Technometrical Institute of Policy and Politics in a 2022 survey that the FBI and the intelligence community deliberately misled the public and voters. 79% of respondents said that a truthful interpretation of the laptop would have likely changed the election's outcome more in favor of Trump.

The CIA versus Trump

The House Committee on the Judiciary, its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released a report Tuesday revealing that former CIA acting director Michael Morell and ex-CIA inspector general David Buckley were both active contractors with top secret clearances for the agency when they signed the letter.

The congressional investigators reached this conclusion on the basis of information provided them earlier this year by Robert Dugas, CIA deputy general counsel for litigation and investigations.

Morell has denied being a contractor at the time, telling the New York Post, "If you write that, you would [be] wrong."

Beside the possibility that unnamed signatories were similarly active spooks, the report noted that others "had special 'Green Card' access to the CIA at the time of the statement's publication, allowing them to gain entry to secure CIA facilities."

According to the report, former CIA chief of staff Jeremy Bash, the ex-husband of Thursday's moderator in the Trump-Biden debate, and former National Security Agency deputy director Richard Ledgett, were both serving the agency at the time they signed the letter as independent contractors with top secret clearances.

Other active elements of the CIA were also peripherally involved.

"High ranking CIA officials, up to and including then-CIA Director Gina Haspel, were made aware of the Hunter Biden statement prior to its approval and publication," said the report.

The agency conveniently refrained from seizing upon the "opportunity at that time to slow down the CIA's process for reviewing publication submissions and ensure that such an extraordinary statement was properly vetted."

The report suggested that the revelation about the active status of Morell and Buckley "raises concern that these officials abused the access of their positions to curate, promote, and received expedited approval of the statement."

Indeed, the PCRB continuously requested quick decisions from officials within the CIA and partners at ODNI about the status of publication of the statement. This occurred after Morell specifically requested an expedited review process and during a time when he had contracting status and was under consideration to be named President Biden's CIA Director.

The report also indicated that the signatories' decision to leverage their titles in favor of a narrative favorable to Biden "inappropriately embroiled the Agency in the domestic political process."

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Blinken denies role in infamous Hunter Biden laptop letter — then makes claim that allegedly contradicts sworn testimony



Secretary of State Antony Blinken denies being the "impetus" behind an infamous letter casting the Hunter Biden laptop story as Russian disinformation.

What is the background?

Just weeks before the 2020 election, the New York Post revealed it had obtained a laptop that allegedly belonged to Hunter Biden.

The media and former national security experts immediately rushed to downplay the laptop as yet another attempt by Russian actors to meddle in a presidential election. Days after the laptop story broke, Politico reported the laptop story is "Russian disinfo" based upon a letter that more than 50 national security experts had signed.

The New York Post reported that former acting CIA Director Michael Morrell recently testified under oath that Blinken — who at the time was a foreign affairs adviser to Biden's campaign — was, according to the House Judiciary Committee, "the impetus" behind the letter.

How did Blinken respond?

In an interview with Fox News that aired on Monday, Blinken denied any involvement in the creation of the letter.

"With regard to that letter, I didn't — wasn't my idea, didn't ask for it, didn't solicit it. And I think the testimony that the former deputy director of the CIA, Mike Morell, put forward confirms that," Blinken said.

In reality, his response puts him at direct odds with Morell.

While Morell has not spoken publicly about his testimony, House Republicans allege that Morell testified that Blinken contacted him after the laptop story broke and planted the seed that it was a Russian disinformation campaign. Morell subsequently solicited signatures for the infamous letter.

Meanwhile, in his interview with Fox News, Blinken refused to acknowledge that the laptop is not Russian disinformation.

"I'm not engaging in politics," Blinken said. "I've got a lot on my agenda, some things that we've just talked about — trying to help the Ukrainians in the Russian aggression against them, engaging with allies and partners around the world in dealing with some of the challenges posed by China. We have a situation now in Sudan that’s fully occupied my time, so that's where my focus is."

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Former CIA director warns botched Afghanistan withdrawal could pave way for Al Qaeda attacks on US soil



Leon Panetta, who served as CIA director and Defense secretary in the Obama administration, warned Sunday that Al Qaeda could launch future attacks on American soil because the Taliban again control Afghanistan.

What did Panetta say?

Speaking with Greta Van Susteren, Panetta said the Taliban that re-took control of Afghanistan "is pretty much the same Taliban that controlled Afghanistan on 9/11," which means Al Qaeda will likely reorganize under the protection of the Taliban.

"I just see terrorism becoming a renewed threat to the United States, and I'm not sure that you can get a lot done when you're dealing essentially with an adversary whose primary interest, the primary interest of terrorists, is to attack Americans and kill Americans," Panetta said.

In fact, Panetta explained he has zero doubts Al Qaeda will exploit the botched U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover to launch future attacks against America.

"There was a recent interview by one of the spokesman for the Taliban, where he was asked about bin Laden's role in 9/11, and he had the gall to say that he has not seen any evidence that [Osama] bin Laden was involved in the 9/11 attack," Panetta said. "And if that is the case, then it's clear to me that they're going to continue to support Al Qaeda, and allow Al Qaeda to basically continue to develop and expand. And I think they will plan additional attacks on our country, as well as elsewhere."

Later in the interview, Panetta described the "rapid-fire withdrawal" from Afghanistan, which was orchestrated by President Joe Biden, as a "mistake."

"What we missed was understanding the kind of consequences that developed and protecting ourselves from those consequences," Panetta said.

Leon Panetta: ‘The Taliban took us for a ride’ www.youtube.com

Anything else?

Former acting CIA Director Michael Morell, speaking on CBS' "Face The Nation," agreed with Panetta's assessment.

"I think that the Taliban winning the war in Afghanistan, and then the way our exit happened, has absolutely inspired jihadists all over the world," Morell said.

"The Taliban is saying, 'We just didn't defeat the United States. We defeated NATO. We defeated the world's greatest military power ever,'" he continued. "So there's a celebration going on. 'We defeated the Soviet Union. Then it fell. Now we've defeated NATO. Right? Maybe they can fall, too.' I think not only will jihadists be inspired, but a lot of them are going to come to Afghanistan to be part of the celebration, to be part of jihadist central."

"So after 9/11, they all scattered from Afghanistan. I think we're going to see a flow back in, and that's one of the things that makes Afghanistan more dangerous than other spots on the planet," Morell predicted.