Chip Bok's Bokbluster

Kimberly Strassel has an idea of what could be worse than Russian interference. In her WSJ column she says the bombshell news story of the week was drowned out by the uproar created by California Rep Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Schiff is outraged that Committee Chairman Devin Nunes violated protocol by viewing classified documents at the White House, and briefing Trump rather than sharing with the committee.

The real news is what’s in the documents.

First, there were dozens of documents with information about Trump officials. Second, the information these documents contained was not related to Russia. Third, while many reports did “mask” identities (referring, for instance, to “U.S. Person 1 or 2”) they were written in ways that made clear which Trump officials were being discussed. Fourth, in at least one instance, a Trump official other than Mr. Flynn was outright unmasked. Finally, these documents were circulated at the highest levels of government.

To sum up, Team Obama was spying broadly on the incoming administration.

Liberals hate the “intelligence community.” At least they did back in the days when the FBI was spying on Martin Luther King. And the CIA was infiltrating antiwar demonstrations and trying to get Castro to light exploding cigars.

Senate and House Democrats Frank Church and Otis Pike investigated the “IC” in 1975. Senator Church called the CIA a rogue elephant. And President Ford banned government assassinations. (Former President Obama has yet to get the memo.)

CIA Gone Wild

The CIA, NSA, and FBI remained on the Democrat’s rogue elephants list until 9/11 came along, followed by the Valerie Plame affair. Plame was a CIA operative. She sent her diplomat husband, Joe Wilson, to investigate a claim that Saddam Hussein was getting uranium for his alleged weapons of mass destruction through a source in Niger. Wilson wrote about his findings here in the NYT. The story undermined President Bush’s rationale for the Iraq war. Robert Novak got wind of Wilson’s CIA connection and outed his wife in this column in the Washington Post.

The anti-war crowd was outraged over Plame’s blown cover. Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed special counsel to investigate the case. Fitzgerald went after Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff Scooter Libby. He offered to let Libby off if he’d deliver his boss, Cheney. Fitzgerald did this despite already knowing the real leaker was deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage. Libby was convicted of perjury.

As for the guy who appointed Fitzgerald as special counsel in the first place? Jim Comey. He was assistant attorney general at the time.

I stumbled on an interesting take on the liberal evolution on the CIA in the Jacobin. It’s a serious left wing publication. Meaning its writers aren’t wearing “pussy hats“, crying hysterically about Trump, or threatening to blow up the white house. Though they are trying to destroy capitalism. The article is titled “The CIA is Not Your Friend” it says, “The CIA is rebranding as a rational, progressive arm of the US state. And some liberals are buying it.”