Posted on 03/04/2018 2:06:42 PM PST by Liberty7732
The media is intent on urgently reporting and discussing the importance of the temporarily reduced security clearance of Trump advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
But when Obama Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes was actually denied security clearance in 2008, the media yawned. Actually, it never even reported something this newsworthy and, apparently, if the media doesn’t report it, it doesn’t happen.
Recall that Rhodes was not only a high-level advisor to Obama, but he was the architect of the now-infamous Iran nukes deal involving cases of cash flown on a plane to Tehran while creating a pathway for nukes to the repressive, terrorist, Islamist regime. Further, he was the one who misled Congress and the public on the terms of the agreement.
Yet it was not until January 2017, days before Obama was out of office, that the Washington Free Beacon reported:
Ben Rhodes, a White House deputy national security adviser who led the administration’s efforts to mislead Congress about the terms of the Iran nuclear agreement, is under scrutiny in the wake of disclosures he was declined interim clearance status by the FBI in 2008, when the administration was moving into the White House.
The Washington Times followed up with a report and the Free Beacon did some follow-up stories on the congressional inquiry. Google does not show any mainstream media coverage of this story, even once Congress was looking into it and the issue was fully public.
This context is hugely important. Because people may think that Jared Kushner not getting his security clearance is not only important, but showing a pattern of chaos, disruption and disreputable characters in the White House. But does it? No, at least not when we look in light of what has happened in previous administrations, even if they were not reported or barely reported.
We reported on this problem previously by comparing Trump’s personal peccadillos to presidents of the past, which were barely reported or not reported until historic biographies told the stories.
From JFK’s stream of prostitutes and drugs into the White House far exceeding anything even in Trump’s past, let alone in his White House, to LBJ’s wild racism and infatuation with telling people about his manly package, to Bill Clinton, Trump comes off looking pretty mild. But you wouldn’t know that by consuming only the traditional media because they are covering Trump differently and thereby misleading the American people.
This continually manifests itself in the hysterically funny claim by many Democrats that the Obama administration was the most corruption-free administration in modern American history. This is so easy to debunk — but not if you only get news from the traditional media. Here we report five scandals from the Obama years that could legitimately require a special counsel and that the media had no real interest in pursuing.
This lack of context due to media reporting double standards pops up everywhere.
I was on an ABC panel last night discussing this and other issues with a Florida Democratic Party Chairman and a Tampa Bay Times political correspondent along with the ABC moderator. None of the three of them had heard anything about this Rhodes story. But they knew all about Jared Kushner.
This, of course, goes to the alternate universe that has grown in the wake of the media’s abdication of any journalistic responsibility. Taking sides as the media did clearly during the Obama years, and then did on steroids since Trump’s election, has resulted in two competing narratives of every story out there. This is a prime example and explains why so much on social media appears to be people talking from different planets.
Censorship by Twitter and Facebook using Snopes and other leftist organizations will hardly fix “fake news” in this sense. It will, however magnify the alternate universe paradigm.
And that means that virtually every new eruption from the media on the Trump White House requires the understanding that this may or may not be much of anything. And that requires some truthful context.
Every one in the imposters administration had security clearance, this is ok
I would like to know why Rhodes was denied clearance. Must have been a good reason.
I remember when I had my SBI I had to list every trip I made outside the US, how long it was for, purpose of travel, where I stayed, etc for the prior 15 years. People who travel like Kushner were not designed for this.
Also, he might not want to reveal a lot of info to a bunch of bureaucrats who might leak it.
Trump has known him for quite sometime. I’m sure he had private eyes check him out before letting him become his son in law. If there is nothing in his background which makes him blackmailable, DJT should just waiver him.
Why is this a BFD?
You have to declare far mor than that! All your previous places of residence. All your immediate family members and where they live. Neighbors you had in the past. Personal friends. They even ask for more references from these people you list as neighbors and friends. Mine was TS/SBI/SCI.
Obama wouldn’t have even passed a Secret clearance check...
BJC WH had lots of folks with no clearance including Georgie Boy
Jared is being slow walked by a corrupt organization
My son had to give that information on his application to be a state trooper.
Ben Rhodes, in particular, needs to be in jail. I despise that smarmy little lying sack of shiite. DeSantis really hates him.
This is nothing compared to anyone getting clearance in the Kenyan Administration including sworn enemies.
Bill Clinton pretty much just stopped background checks on his people because they knew many of them would fail
He forgot his wife: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DUa10Z_X4Ac72QW.jpg:large
If I remember correctly, Clintoon gave all of his incoming staff a 30 day waiver. The speculation here on FR was to give them the opportunity to clean up to pass a drug test.
I remember the famous quote from Gary Aldrich, the senior FBI agent at the White House during the Clinton era, who wrote a very revealing book on the dirtbags who populated that administration.
“I’m clearing people I should be leading away in handcuffs”
According to Aldrich, virtually every time of deviant, immoral and illegal activity turned up in the background checks of Clinton staffers. For example, some of the “drug activity” that turned up wasn’t pot smoking in college, but prolonged addiction to cocaine and other “hard” drugs.
They were cleared anyway.
Kushner’s situation is a product of two different factors. First, there are a number of career bureaucrats and Obama-era appointees who are playing partisan games with the clearance process, and it’s been going on since Trump took office.
When General Flynn was building his team as national security adviser, he hired two highly respected pros to serve as top deputies. One was a career, civilian IC official; the other was a retired Marine Corps two-star. When their appointments were announced, their clearances were suddenly suspended for unspecified reasons. As soon as they abandoned plans to work for Flynn, their clearances were restored.
The other factor is an access death battle between John Kelly and Kushner. General Kelly is well aware that leaks from Kushner and Ivanka sealed the fate of his predecessor (along with Prebius’s incompetence). Kushner was the unnamed source for a lot of articles about WH turmoil during that period. Kelly is determined to avoid a similar fate and he’s using the clearance issue to force Kushner out of some of the most important discussions. Information is power and you need TS/SCI access(and beyond) to be a player in major foreign policy/natsec meetings. Kelly is cutting Kushner out of the loop—a very aggressive move, considering Jared’s family connections.
Exactly. I trust the Trump Organizations screening process more than the feds.
I carried a TS/SCI clearance for over 35 years and also served as a Unit Security Manager several times - w/o enough info to actually look into your background, they can’t determine if you are a safe bet (and it’s all a bet) to have access to certain levels of classified....I think most folks shouldn’t be allowed higher access until they reach 25 - way too many young folks just haven’t had enough time to show their true colors when first awarded a clearance...
This is from the Washington Free Beacon article. Assuming that they mean Obama's 2009 inauguration, who granted the full security clearance? Was it on presidential order? Did the FBI clear up what caused the original decision in October? The article doesn't say.
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