The word “weaponization” is thrown around these days by both political parties, but what does it really mean?
Used by some folks it is intended to mean the use of the government, organs/departments of the government, to accomplish partisan political means.
Allow me to cite an example.
In the lead up to the 2020 presidential election, the issue of Hunter Biden’s laptop and what it contained — driven by astonishing revelations just before the election from the NY Post about Hunter and his antics based on emails from the laptop — became a subject of media inquiry and interest and Donald Trump attempted to hang it like a pork chop around Joe Biden’s neck as he attempted to sic the lapdogs of the media on his opponent, Joe Biden.
The defense mounted by the Biden campaign — who knew at all times that the emails were all genuine — was to boldly characterize the entire Hunter Biden laptop as a “classic example of Russian disinformation.”
In fact, the Biden campaign got 51 intelligence community stalwarts to sign a false letter to that specific effect. Here is The Letter:
The Intelligence Community Letter
As you can see, the utterance is signed by former Directors of National Intelligence, Central Intelligence, the National Security Agency — the royalty of the intel racket, men whose word is expected to be inviolate, the keepers of America’s most delicate secrets, the wise men.
In the leadup to the election when the NY Post article could have swamped the Biden effort, Anthony Blinken — current Secretary of State and long term Biden acolyte — came up with the idea.
Tony was in a senior position in the Biden campaign.
The letter was written by Michael Morell, a then retired former spook (analyst v field agent) who was the Deputy Director of the CIA and twice its Acting Director.
Blinken called Morell and Morell agreed to author The Letter and to assist in getting signatures.
Later when asked why he did it, he said, “I wanted to help get Biden elected.”
Morell is a well-known lefty who endorsed Hillary and was considered as a potential Biden CIA Director, but he is the chief apologist for CIA “enhanced interrogation” techniques that occurred on his watch and that many people consider torture and was unlikely to win Senate confirmation.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge fan of enhanced interrogation of America’s enemies. I say, BRAVO! Torture those sons-of-bitches.
Ahhh, herein lies the bit about where the CIA was weaponized to do the bidding of a partisan political campaign.
When you are a former CIA chap and want to publish anything, you have to have permission from an obscure little office of the CIA called: the Prepublication Classification Review Board.
Here is a link to their site on the CIA website: CIA Prepublication Classification Review Board.
So, Mike Morell submits his letter to the CIA’s PCRB and gets an almost immediate approval which is quite odd. The PCRB is notoriously slow and unresponsive, but the functionary at the CIA’s PCRB gave a former DDCI and Acting DCI plum treatment — not completely irregular.
What happened next is however.
What happened next is that the CIA functionary assisted in contacting other potential signatories and distributing the letter for their consideration and cataloged the signatures attained thusly.
The bloody CIA hawked the letter and obtained signatures for Morell and the Biden campaign. The CIA functionary worked directly for a partisan political effort to further the elective chances of one Joe Biden.
At this instant in time, Donald Trump is President. The CIA is part of the Executive Branch of the government. This functionary works for Donald Trump and he is working against his re-election by supporting the campaign of Trump’s opponent.
The CIA is not supposed to be in the business of distributing partisan political communications and obtaining signatures for a political campaign. They are not supposed to take sides in political fights.
How could it get worse?
During the last debate between President Trump and former Vice President Biden, Trump pressed Biden about the matter and Biden referred to The Letter as his defense as to why the Hunter Biden emails and Trump’s assertions were nonsense — it was all “classic Russian disinformation.”
The debate moderator and the media let Biden get away with the lie because of The Letter. Biden, with righteous indignation, rode that pony hard.
At all times the allegations made by the New York Post and President Trump as to the authenticity of the Hunter Biden emails and their implications as to the candidacy of former VP Joe Biden were true.
Many months later, even the New York Times acknowledged the above sentence’s truth.
The Biden campaign proffered a bogus letter from 51 intelligence community professionals suggesting the Hunter Biden emails were “classic Russian disinformation.” This letter, The Letter, in fact, was disinformation. It was all a lie.
At all times, Joe Biden, the Biden campaign, the CIA, and the FBI knew the Hunter Biden laptop was genuine — the FBI had sat on that laptop for years and had picked it up from the computer store owner — the emails excerpted from the laptop were genuine, and that they were lying when they said otherwise.
The CIA assisted in reviewing, approving, and distributing the letter to potential signatories and cataloged the signatures when received.
That is the stuff of weaponization and that’s what an honest government wants to avoid. Oh, by the way, nothing ever happened to the CIA functionary after Joe Biden became President.
But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car.
