U.S. Intelligence Operations Against Americans

The story is bigger than Hunter Biden's Laptop

The New York Times has confirmed what the public has long-known: that the Hunter Biden laptop, with all its incriminating e-mails and scandalous media, is authentic.

This is the laptop that launched a thousand lies.

The lies came from CNN’s Brian Stelter, who claimed the “real story” wasn’t the laptop (which he suggested was Russian disinformation), but the how the story was manufactured.

Then there were the lies from Leslie Stahl of 60 Minutes, who argued that the Hunter Biden laptop “can’t be verified.” Not that verification could or could not happen – but that it was impossible.

Anders Hagstrom @Hagstrom_Anders

This exchange between Trump and Lesley Stahl is insane. She repeatedly insists the Biden laptops “can’t be verified” so reporters shouldn’t talk about it. Trump asks her why it can’t be verified. Her answer: “Because it can’t be verified.”

The lies also came from the New York Times, which called the Hunter Biden information “unsubstantiated.”

In truth, the laptop and its contents are very real, very damaging, and suggest – if not outright prove – criminal conduct by Hunter Biden. While the focus of this article is on the intelligence community and its operations on American soil, let me write briefly on the potential for criminal charges against Hunter Biden.

The New York Times is a bit off-target when it suggests that the DOJ has an uphill battle in charging Hunter Biden for violation of the Foreign Agent Registration Act (RFRA). The New York Times sates:

But there has been debate within the Justice Department over whether the available evidence proves that Mr. Biden intended to violate FARA, which the government must prove in order to secure a criminal conviction.

I think that misstates the law. To support a FARA conviction against Hunter Biden, the DOJ would only need to prove:

1. Generally, that Hunter Biden acted as an agent (including activities such as political advocacy or public relations) of a foreign principal;

2. And that Hunter Biden failed to register with the Attorney General.

Then there’s violations of Section 951 (similar to FARA), which require a showing:

1. That Hunter Biden acted in the U.S. as an agent of a foreign government;

2. That Hunter Biden failed to notify the U.S. Attorney General that he was acting as an agent of a foreign government (before said action took place); and

3. That Hunter Biden knowingly agreed to operated within the U.S. subject to the direction or control of a foreign government or official; and that he knew he had not provided prior notification to the Attorney General.

Intelligence Operations against Americans

Anyways, back to the lies about Hunter Biden that helped influence an election. These weren’t limited to the usual suspects in media: Stelter, CNN, etc. Instead, we saw them from more than 50 former senior intelligence officials, from directors of the CIA to directors of the National Security Agency, who accused the damaging Hunter Biden information of being part of a Russian effort to interfere “in our democracy.”

Those officials included General Michael Hayden (a former director of both the CIA and NSA); John Brennan (former CIA Director); James Clapper (former Director of National Intelligence); and Leon Panetta (former CIA Director).

This was just another information campaign by the Intelligence Community, instituted for the purpose of influencing the 2020 election. The Intelligence Community (including those in its orbit and its former members) manipulated public opinion through the press to remove President Trump, to disenfranchise his voters and thwart President Trump’s agenda, to keep us in Afghanistan, and to keep us at odds with Russia.

There is the infamous September 3, 2020 article from The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg - where Goldberg accuses Trump of calling dead American soldiers “losers.”  Goldberg cited anonymous sources who told him that Trump lied when blaming the rain for a canceled “visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018.”

Goldberg’s story - which was really the story of his anonymous sources - fell apart within the first paragraph. I do not exaggerate. There is a lie in the first paragraph. Navy FOIA records, obtained by Buzzfeed’s Jason Leopold in 2019, document that the visit was actually cancelled due to rain.  These included an e-mail to the Marine One crew stating “Wx [shorthand for weather] will not support today’s mission.” 

Americans saw the same type of deception from the Intelligence Community with the Russia bounty hoax. On June 27, 2020, the New York Times reported that “American intelligence officials have concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan — including targeting American troops.”

This intelligence was reported during the 2020 election and as Trump sought to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. And it was used as you would expect.

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe denied that President Trump or Vice President Pence had been briefed on the Russian bounty intelligence. Former intelligence officials went on the attack and scoffed at that denial, saying it was “absurd” and “ridiculous” and “inconceivable.”

Meanwhile, then-candidate Joe Biden called Trump’s failure to punish Moscow a “betrayal” to American troops. The disgraced Lincoln Project pushed advertisements suggesting President Trump was “complicit” in the bounty and subsequent American deaths. Liz Cheney got in the act, using the story to argue against troop withdrawals and pleading to “hold Putin accountable.” The obtuse Steven Hayes of “The Dispatch” attacked President Trump for being “officially silent on the fact that Russians are trying to kill our troops in Afghanistan.”

After the 2020 election, the intelligence community backpedaled on the report, with a senior Biden administration official stating the intelligence community had “low to moderate confidence” in the Russian bounty reports.

By then the damage was done. Not only to President Trump’s reelection but to Trump’s plan to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. And maybe that was the purpose of it all.

I put the Hunter Biden story in a broader context because the context is the scandal. It’s not just that the political figures and their offspring are corrupted. It’s that our Intelligence Community is keen on protecting the corrupt and committed to deceiving the public to achieve their goals.

In other words, the intelligence operations have come for the Americans. We’re targets - and we’re the victims.