Re: [Salon] Tulsi Gabbard, A Smart Choice as Director of National Intelligence



As virtually always with this list since Trump came into prominence, I take a contrary position. Here is what I wrote to some former intell officers this morning, with a at least a couple agreeing with most if not all of my analyses. 

The context is that I wrote this in response to someone pointing out how dedicated Gabbard is to Israel. I know as a Trump appointment, there is more to Gabbard than just loyalty to "mein Führer!" 

I thought of an analogy to her and her role to present Trump as sincere in his false claim that his and Vance's goal is to "end the endless wars," as if Thiel, Koch, Palmer Luckey of Anduril, and Miriam Adelson, and the Israel Fascist Right endorsing them, sent Vance off to "end the endless wars," and the profit stream these war profiteers were making so much money off of, and/or, were so ideologically committed to. Which is preposterous, in the extreme!

What came to me is to see Gabbard's appointment in the way, as one example, of how Hitler put out front as Minister of Foreign Affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop, a relatively sane-appearing person in the early years, to maintain the propaganda fiction that Hitler was for "Peace, with this description of him from Wikipedia (Trump also has Hitler aficionado Tucker Carlson, but not in government). Here is Wikipedia: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim_von_Ribbentrop
"Ribbentrop became Hitler's favourite foreign-policy adviser, partly by dint of his familiarity with the world outside Germany but also by flattery and sycophancy.[31][32] One German diplomat later recalled, "Ribbentrop didn't understand anything about foreign policy. His sole wish was to please Hitler".[32] In particular, Ribbentrop acquired the habit of listening carefully to what Hitler was saying, memorizing his pet ideas and then later presenting Hitler's ideas as his own, a practice that much impressed Hitler as proving Ribbentrop was an ideal Nazi diplomat.[33] Ribbentrop quickly learned that Hitler always favoured the most radical solution to any problem and accordingly tendered his advice in that direction as a Ribbentrop aide recalled:
"When Hitler said "Grey", Ribbentrop said "Black, black, black". He always said it three times more, and he was always more radical. I listened to what Hitler said one day when Ribbentrop wasn't present: "With Ribbentrop it is so easy, he is always so radical. Meanwhile, all the other people I have, they come here, they have problems, they are afraid, they think we should take care and then I have to blow them up, to get strong. And Ribbentrop was blowing up the whole day and I had to do nothing. I had to break – much better!"[34]

"Another reason for Ribbentrop's rise was Hitler's distrust of and disdain for Germany's professional diplomats. He suspected that they did not entirely support his revolution.[35] (TP-The Deep State, or in German, "Tiefer Staat," going with the Stab in the Back lie), the Foreign Office diplomats loyally served the government and rarely gave Hitler grounds for criticism,[36] while the Foreign Office diplomats were ultranationalist, authoritarian and antisemitic.[clarification needed]As a result, there was enough overlap in values between both groups to allow most of them to work comfortably for the Nazis.[37]Nonetheless, Hitler never quite trusted the Foreign Office and was on the lookout for someone to carry out his foreign policy goals.[36]"

Here's the other fascist, besides Israel's but they're interconnected, that Gabbard is serving as well as Trump, as National Conservatives, Modi:

 Here is Hitler's "Peace Message:"  

Attachment: Peace Through Strength.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

  With Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 their version of this: 

Attachment: Hitler's Second Book.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document


Her is more info on Gabbard: 

India

Gabbard has had a close relationship with the Indian government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom she has met multiple times.

The Intercept news site found in 2019 that Gabbard’s House campaigns had received donations from more than 100 individuals associated with a Hindu majoritarian movement that Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party is a part of.

Israel and Gaza

Gabbard has also criticised pro-Palestine protesters in the US in recent months, describing them as “puppets” of a “radical Islamist organisation” in an apparent reference to Hamas.

She has fully backed Israel’s war in Gaza, in which more than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children.

Gabbard also does not appear to support a ceasefire in Gaza despite her anti-interventionist stances on other conflicts. In an interview uploaded to YouTube in February, she called Hamas a “threat that needs to be defeated militarily and ideologically”.

When asked what she thought about the US supporting a UN resolution that seeks a ceasefire in Gaza, Gabbard said it needs to be approached strategically.

“We have to be realists about the threat that continues to exist for the people of Israel. So as long as Hamas is in power, the people of Israel will not be secure and cannot live in peace.”

"Realist" I've realized from reading The American Conservative magazine and Quincy Institute's Republican Statecraft is a codeword for an "interests based foreign policy," with our "interests" that might call for war defined as anything which gets in the way of Israeli Genocide and expansionism, and wars against China and Iran. Or that, and maybe most importantly, adds to the wealth of Billionaire Oligarchs Peter Thiel, Charles Koch, Palmer Luckey of drone assassin Anduril, an off-shoot of Peter Thiel's Founder's Fund, and other Conservative Billionaire Oligarch as can be seen backing ultra-China Hawk, Steve Bannon.

This might give more context to Gabbard, and her ties to Netanyahu's close friend/partner Modi:
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/under-trump-tulsi-gabbard-will-be-america-s-intelligence-czar-101731604299748.html
Commitment to ties with India
For India, Gabbard’s nomination is good news. Along with other Trump national security appointees - NSA designate Mike Waltz and Secretary of State designate Marco Rubio — Gabbard has been publicly and consistently supportive of a strong US-India strategic partnership.
But in Gabbard’s case, the support extends beyond the strategic domain given her close political engagement with India’s political leadership and her religious beliefs.
She spoke out against the US visa ban imposed on the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi before the 2014 election as hurting ties. She met Modi back in 2014 itself, even gifting him a copy of her personal Gita, and expressed her commitment to bilateral ties and the fight against Islamist terror. She has spoken at events hosted by India Foundation, a thinktank close to the government. Gabbard has also kept in touch with Indian-American supporters and Hindu institutions in America over the years and often spoken out against anti-Hindu bigotry.
Given the deep intelligence cooperation between India and US, especially on matters related to the shared threat from China, as well as challenges emanating from cases such as the alleged assassination plot on US soil that implicates a former Indian government official, Gabbard’s role will be crucial in shaping the future of the relationship."
Stop
I just have a feeling that Russian, Chinese, and Iranian intelligence analysts have a bit more of a sophisticated method of seeing our own politicians than we do, and know damn well Trump's golems have an aggressive design upon them, no matter how much we lie to ourselves about Trump and his Israeli fascist cohorts. 
Trump began building his own "Deep State" with Israel's assistance during his 2016 campaign, along with Steve Bannon's/Mercers Cambridge Analytica, under the SCL Corporation, Peter Thiel's surveillance/targeting company Palantir (now killing Palestinians and Russians), and Sheldon Adelson and Charles Koch adding other support to the effort. That was an identical propaganda meme as used by the Nazi's in propaganda denouncing the "Tiefer Staat" in the 1920s, with the same objective then, as now, to supplant the existing one (deplorable in both cases) with one owing their loyalty to "the Leader," or in German: der Führer, or greet them as "Heil, mein Führer!" I'm sure Trump would appreciate that in his ancestor's original language. 




On Nov 15, 2024, at 11:38 AM, Warren Coats via Salon <salon@listserve.com> wrote:

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On Nov 15, 2024, at 12:21 PM, Chas Freeman via Salon <salon@listserve.com> wrote:




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Former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has been nominated as Director of National Intelligence by President-elect Donald Trump. The so-called intelligence community is up in arms about this. That is a very good thing.



Tulsi Gabbard (Reuters, Jeenah Moon photo)

Here’s what Reuters has to say:

WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of Tulsi Gabbard as U.S. intelligence chief has sent shockwaves through the national security establishment, adding to concerns that the sprawling intelligence community will become increasingly politicized.

Trump’s nomination of Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman who lacks deep intelligence experience and is seen as soft on Russia and Syria, is among several high-level picks that suggest he may be prioritizing personal allegiance over competence as he assembles his second-term team.

Among the risks, say current and former intelligence officials and independent experts, are that top advisers could feed the incoming Republican president a distorted view of global threats based on what they believe will please him and that foreign allies may be reluctant to share vital information.

Randal Phillips, a former CIA operations directorate official who worked as the agency's top representative in China, said that with Trump loyalists in top government posts, “this could become the avenue of choice for some really questionable actions” by the leadership of the intelligence community. [Emphasis added.]

As if the intelligence “community” isn’t already politicized! And who sees Gabbard as allegedly “soft” on Russia and Syria? Hillary Clinton? The “queen of warmongers,” as Gabbard memorably described her?

Wow. We might get “some really questionable actions” by the IC (intelligence community). I’m glad we’ve never had any of those before.

Tulsi has a wealth of experience in the military (she remains a lieutenant colonel), she’s a former Congresswoman who’s served on important committees dealing with national security, and she’s tough as nails, having survived ruthless attacks on her character by the neocon Clinton wing of the Democratic Party. She is an excellent choice as Director.

What Tulsi has is integrity. Honesty. Poise. Perhaps even more importantly, she has Trump’s ear and his respect. As Director, she will oversee the preparation of Trump’s daily intelligence briefs. Trump was notorious in his first term in office for not paying much attention to those briefs. He should do better with Tulsi, somebody he trusts, preparing them.

Tulsi won my respect in 2016 when she supported Bernie Sanders and revealed how the Democratic presidential primary process was being fixed for Hillary Clinton. Tulsi has paid a high price for her principled stance, being smeared by Clinton and mainstream media outlets like NBC as a “Russian asset,” maybe even a stooge for Vladimir Putin. Politics is a rough game, but accusing a serving U.S. military officer and Congresswoman of being a “Putin puppet” is truly reckless and defamatory. Good for Tulsi for punching back.

The establishment Democratic party hates Tulsi because she refused to play their game. She refused to bow to the Clintons. Tulsi has also questioned America’s constant warmongering and knows a thing or two about the horrendous costs of war. She even has a normal life as a surfer. She has a connection to nature that I respect.

Her poise, her toughness, her integrity, makes her a superb choice as DNI. The more the intelligence “community” complains about her, the louder certain Democrats scream, the more certain I am that Trump has made a smart decision here.

Recall when Kamala Harris vowed to put a Republican in her cabinet? Well, Trump has made Gabbard his DNI and RFK Jr. will lead Health and Human Services. He’s picked two (former) Democrats for important posts and the Democrats can’t stand it.

On this occasion, with these appointments, I applaud Trump. You go, Tulsi. Ride the wave. Continue to serve our country as you always have.
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