Jared Kushner’s Security Clearance

News has recently broken that a so-called “whistleblower,” Tricia Newbold, has come forward to identify Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner as one who had been denied security clearance by unidentified “career officials.”

Carl Kline, who headed the Trump White House’s  personnel security office  overruled the “concerns” of these “career officials” allegedly under Trump’s orders.

Perhaps Newbold and other “security officials” are correct in that Kushner is totally unqualified to hold a security clearance.  But, one can not tell that from the information provided.  Furthermore, Kushner’s performance as a foreign policy advisor to President Trump has been nothing but exemplary.  After two years of service, there is no evidence what-so-ever of any even remotely questionable behavior to indicate that he has been unduly influenced by a hostile power.

On the contrary, the entities pushing the “Kushner-is-not-qualified” agenda (the WAPO and the Congressional Democrats) are themselves acting on behalf of a hostile foreign power either wittingly or unwittingly.

Before getting into the weeds of this issue, let me say upfront that though I voted for Trump I highly disapproved of his bringing his daughter and son-in-law to the White House with him.  That smacked of nepotism–almost as smelly as the sort we saw when JFK made his brother Attorney General.  However, Trump, being a political amateur and not knowing who he could trust in the cesspool that is Washington D.C., perhaps deserves a little slack on that point.  President Trump had the right to have at least one or two people near him whom he knew he could trust.  The performance of individuals like Jeff Sessions, Mike Cohen, and H.R. McMasters (and undoubtedly many others) illustrated that point.

But, what really galls me, and the reason I am writing this essay is the incredible double standards exhibited by the way Security Clearances are dished out in general, Tricia Newbold’s hypocrisy in particular, and the hypocrisy in the way the media and the Democrats in Congress are handling this matter.

As someone who knows a few things about security clearances, I feel compelled to set the record straight for the thinking segment of the American public.

There were, of course, no reasons given for the initial denial of Kushner’s security clearance except that a background check revealed vague “concerns regarding foreign influence, personal conduct, and other business interests.”

Let me see if I’ve got this right.  Under the “personal conduct” allegation, that could be anything from the weed he might have smoked when he was 15, or a neighbor, or other associate that he may have had contact with, who had a grudge against him who might have said something negative about him when the FBI came around to interview people who knew Kushner.

Now then, “foreign influence and other business interests,” that’s a good one.  If I remember right, Kushner, like the rest of his family, had a lot of business interests–including those with foreign countries.  Let me see if I’ve got this right.  Kushner was an international business man whom the Trump-haters want to delegitimize for the simple reason that he did . . . international business.

Now, really.  Just about everyone who is financially successful enough to win a Senate or Congressional seat, has “business interests with foreign countries.”  The real issue is whether or not any of those interests would affect an individual’s foreign policy decisions.

While none of these “foreign interests” were mentioned by Newbold, the Washington Pest (typo intended) reported in 2018 that “officials” in the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Mexico, and China were among those who discussed ways to influence Kushner by leveraging his business dealings and lack of foreign policy experience.

Hey, folks!  News flash!  Every single country in the world constantly discusses ways, and possibilities, for influencing every single highly-placed individual in every other country on the planet.  This is especially true for the United States, since Washington, D.C. is the “Rome” of the 20th and 21st centuries.  Everyone wants influence in Washington, and most are willing to pay dearly for it.

Does anyone seriously think that the American people are stupid enough to believe that virtually every important Obama administration official was not subject to the same discussions by “foreign officials?”

Besides, just because “foreign officials” are discussing ways to influence a WH official is a galaxy away from any proof that said WH official is actually being influenced–proof of which should be necessary for a security clearance to be denied.

“DEEP STATE” SHENANIGANS

This entire scenario smells of nothing but deep state contortions to demean the Trump White House, if not to destroy it all together.  In that regard, the timing of Tricia Newbold’s “whistleblowing” has to be considered very interesting:  It comes only after the Russia Russia hoax has been crushed.  So, the “deep state” Trump-hating Obama holdovers are desperately seeking other avenues, any straw they can pick at, to try to overturn the constitutional 2016 presidential election results.

Let us start with the “foreign officials had allegedly discussed ways to influence Kushner” allegation.  Where on earth could the WAPO learn that intelligence?  That above Top Secret intelligence would have started as phone call intercepts picked up by the NSA.  But who in the NSA would be responsible for leaking this to the Post?

The first persons to process these intercepts would be the translators of the Arabic, Spanish, Hebrew, and Chinese phone conversations.  This raw intelligence would then be written up into a report by a reporter.  It would then be passed on to a supervisor who would then kick it up to the next level of the food chain, and so on until it reached the super grades on the top floor.  Only then would it be passed on to the CIA and or WH and/or other pertinent entity.

If this intelligence were valid, then it would be passed on to whom ever was handling Kushner’s security clearance so that Kushner could be advised/warned about this.  The purpose of this intelligence would be to protect Kushner, by informing him of the plots surrounding him so as to help him be on guard, and be aware of what foreign parties are up to.  The purpose of that intelligence in no way shape or form should have been used to deny Kushner’s security clearance.  So, who is it that leaked this intelligence to the Post and/or Democrats up on the Hill?  It could have been anyone along the entire food chain of people who handled that intelligence mentioned above–anyone who had enough of a hatred for Donald Trump, the Trump White House, and the U.S. constitutional system to want to violate their own security clearances by leaking that intelligence.

Now, what about that “whistleblower” Tricia Newbold?  Have you seen her picture?  It was in the media the other day.  She looks so much like “squeaky Fromme” it gave me the creeps.  “Squeaky Fromme,” you know, the nut case Manson follower who tried to assassinate President Ford in 1974.

Yeah, I know, I shouldn’t make fun of a “whistleblower,” except that she is no whistleblower.  Where was Tricia “squeaky Fromme” Newbold when Obama packed the upper levels of our intelligence agencies, including the White House’s own National Security Council, with sympathizers of the Muslim Brotherhood, an enemy entity which has vowed to uproot our constitution and replace it with Shari’a law?

There was nary a peep from Tricia “Squeaky Fromme” Newland, or any of the other “deep state” operators, over the blatant, harmful, foreign influence in the Obama administration–while these same “intelligence community officials” are turning cartwheels (and leaking like sieves) to “expose” Trump administration personnel over the slightest little hint of  “maybes,” and “allegedlies.”

The glaring double standards that this illustrates should make every single American burning hot angry.

THE QATAR CONNECTION

Much of what has been going on in terms of the accusations surrounding Kushner, and the WAPO’s and the Democrats’ efforts to bring Trump down, are connected to the current feud between Saudi Arabia and its ally the U.A.E. on one hand, and Qatar on the other.  To fully understand this feud, and how it affects our policies, one should read the Khashoqji report I contributed to this site a while back.  But briefly it goes like this:

Since 9/11, 2001, Qatar has been the primary state sponsor and financier of the Muslim Brotherhood organization.  The Muslim Brotherhood organization has been declared a terrorist organization by six countries, including Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E.

Qatar is also one of the world’s top three state sponsors of terrorism (behind Turkey and Iran), not only for their support of the Muslim Brotherhood, but also for their support of Hamas, and terrorist groups in Libya, and elsewhere in North Africa and the Middle East.

PURCHASING THE WAY AMERICANS THINK

Natural gas-rich Qatar has paid Billions of dollars to influence the way Americans think.  These billions have gone towards purchasing entire news entities, influential websites, journalists working for the Washington Post, New York Times and others, and God forbid that any of our Senators or Congresspersons should be up for sale.

Democrats who have been pushing the hardest to have Trump impeached have mentioned Trump’s lack of positive enthusiasm for Qatar as a reason for investigating him, now that Russia Russia is dead.  And, Kushner’s good relations with senior U.A.E. (an ally of the U.S.) government officials have been given (seriously) by Adam Schiff as reasons for investigating both Kushner and Trump.

In all the talk about Trump’s tax returns, wouldn’t you just love to see the tax returns of Schiff and other Democrats pushing the “get Trump” narrative?  Just to see how much, if any, Qatar is paying these individuals?

CONCLUSIONS

One of the goals of “Americans for Intelligence Reform,” is the de-politicization” and “de-weaponization” of our intelligence agencies.  That should include also the way security clearances are granted, or not granted, and to remove double standards from the decision-making process.  To recommend a Jared Kushner be denied his security clearance while the same “officials” tripped all over themselves to hire Muslim Brotherhood officials during the Obama era, is one example of a double standard–very harmful to our national security.

Another glaring double standard is their tendency to deny security clearances to red blooded and patriotic American males because their electronic footprints show that they have looked at pictures of naked women on the internet, while the CIA was granted permission (during the Obama era) to actively seek to hire transexuals–not in the name of gender diversity, and not because they had certain individuals in mind who were subject matter experts, but simply for the purpose of “viewpoint diversity.”  In other words, because such individuals (who would have been immediately rejected in previous decades) were suddenly being sought out for the simple reason that they were “weirdos.”

Then there is the age discrimination issue.  Age discrimination in terms of employment opportunities is against the law, as is any discrimination based on gender or race.  Except that all of our intelligence agencies practice age discrimination with vigor–because they know they can.  The State Department, however, is the only one that openly admits it.  On their website they openly state that if you are over 59 1/2 don’t even bother applying.

In other words, just when a person is at the peak of their skill set, and has gained peak subject area knowledge and instincts . . . our intelligence agencies are not interested.  With relish they turn away highly qualified people who want to serve their country, and then trip all over each other in their rush to hire America-haters like Edward Snowden, Reality Winner, and Daniella Greene all of whom could not wait to defect to hostile entities and/or leak gobs of highly classified material.

The sole justification for hiring these people was that they were . . . young.

And people wonder why are intelligence agencies were surprised by the rise of ISIS.

Only in America.

What makes this age discrimination thing so silly, is that science tells us our life expectancy is constantly rising.  60 is the new 40, and 80 is the new 50.  Some scientists are telling us that there is no reason why we can’t live to 120, or even 200 if we take proper care of ourselves.  And, yet, our intelligence agencies forbid the hiring of anyone past the age of 59 1/2, regardless of their qualifications and health.  Insane.

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