The CIA intelligence on Russian involvement in the U.S. presidential election is so sketchy that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in response to questions from members of Congress who were briefed on the CIA report, testified before the House Intelligence Committee that the CIA’s contentions about Russia were «fuzzy and ambiguous». The FBI did not support the CIA’s findings, claiming that the CIA’s conclusions lacked «facts and tangible evidence». Even the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Devin Nunes of California, told The Washington Post that, as far as he was concerned, the CIA conclusions about Russia lacked «clear evidence», adding, «There’s a lot of innuendo, lots of circumstantial evidence, that’s it».

But the comments of Nunes and the FBI have not prevented the CIA and their puppet-stringed Democrats and media pundits from complaining about a «rigged» election and even the need for an election «do over». There are no constitutional provisions for election remakes in the United States. Obama, who claims to be a constitutional scholar, did not help matters by ordering the intelligence community to undertake a full-scale investigation of Russia’s alleged involvement in the U.S. election. Chomping at the bit to derail Trump’s selection of Exxon’s CEO Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State are the «all-but-married» neocon duo of Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham. This political version of «Ken and Barbie» want to turn Tillerson’s Senate confirmation hearing into a Russia-bashing event. McCain, continuing to show classic signs of dementia, declared that Russia waged a form of «warfare» against the United States during the election campaign. This is the same man who thought selecting Alaska’s governor Sarah Palin as his 2008 vice presidential running mate was wise political move.

It is instructive that Obama, by ordering an investigation into foreign interference in the election, helped provide ammunition to the CIA in trying to nullify the election results. Obama’s actions came the same week that Gambia’s dictator president, Yahya Jammeh — after conceding his re-election loss to his opponent — reversed course and nullified the election and Ghana’s President John Mahama, dragged his feet on conceding his election loss to his opponent. Obama, who is a friend of both Jammeh and Mahama, was acting more like a tin-pot African dictator than President of the United States in lending official credence to the election conspiracy story involving Russia.

Trump’s transition team dismissed the CIA’s charges and their flimsy report, stating, these are «the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction». It was CIA director George Tenet that told George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in the aftermath of 9/11 that it was a «a slam dunk case» that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The claim was used as prima facie evidence for the U.S. to justify its invasion and occupation of Iraq. Now, the very same CIA and some of the same discredited CIA officials are trying to convince the American people that Russia somehow «selected» Trump as president of the United States.

During the election campaign, it was not Russia, but the CIA that was trying to influence the American people. In August, after Trump’s nomination for president, former acting CIA director Michael Morrel said, «Donald J. Trump is not only unqualified for the job, but he may well pose a threat to our national security». Morrel then began the CIA’s campaign to link Trump to Russia by telling CBS News that, «we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation». By «we», Morrel was saying the CIA. Those comments, alone, showed a CIA that was not hesitant to play favorites in the U.S. election. The entire meme that Russia interfered with the presidential election is a false one. The real headlines should read: «CIA interfered in presidential election by supporting Clinton over Trump».

Former CIA and National Security Agency director Michael Hayden, the architect of NSA’s unconstitutional warrantless wiretapping program, said that Trump was «factually incorrect” in dismissing the CIA’s report about Russia’s alleged hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s emails prior to the election. Five days before the election, Hayden penned an op-ed column for the CIA-linked Washington Post, in which he claimed that Trump was a «polezni durak», or «useful fool», for President Vladimir Putin. Such political commentary by intelligence chiefs, active or retired, is unprecedented in modern times.

Former CIA clandestine operative Robert Baer told CNN that he favors an election re-vote, even though there is no constitutional provision for one. Baer said, «It looks like to me, the Russians did interfere in our elections… Having worked in the CIA, if we had been caught interfering in European elections, or Asian elections or anywhere in the world, those countries would call for new elections, and any democracy would». This is where Baer is altering history to suit himself and his Democratic friends. The CIA repeatedly has interfered in elections in Europe and Asia, as well as Latin America, Africa, and Oceania and there were no «do-overs» but plenty of coups engineered by the boys from Langley. Baer continued, «I don’t know how it would work constitutionally, I’m not a lawyer, but I’m deeply disturbed by the fact that the Russians interfered, and I would like to see the evidence… If the evidence is there, I don’t see any other way than to vote again as an American citizen».

It is doubtful that Baer would have made his comments had he not been given some sort of green light from the CIA director, the Saudi-loving John Brennan. Brennan spent so much time as the CIA station chief in Riyadh kissing the robes of the Saudi royals that he lost any conception of what a constitutional federal republic is all about. It was Brennan who prevailed on Obama to fire Trump’s national security adviser-designate, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, as chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Flynn concluded that it was Brennan and Obama who authorized the creation of the Islamic State to help topple the Syrian government.

The CIA has learned nothing from its blatant involvement in the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the 1972 set-up of President Richard Nixon in the Watergate break-in and cover-up, the 1980 «October Surprise» that resulted in President Jimmy Carter’s re-election loss, and the 1980s «Iran-contra» scandal that almost forced President Ronald Reagan from office through impeachment and his replacement by the former CIA director, Vice President George H. W. Bush.

The CIA is the actual villain in the 2016 presidential election, just as it has been the villain in every major domestic and foreign scandal involving the United States since 1947. The problem with the CIA is that for the past 70 years it has held sway over almost every facet of America’s political, social, religious, entertainment, and educational life. As described in this author’s newly-released book, «The Almost Classified Guide to CIA Proprietaries, Front Companies & Contractors», the CIA has stamped its insidious imprimatur on every sector of American society, including the media. It is the CIA’s remote-controlled media, with its «fake news» and its pushing of the CIA’s «fake intelligence», that is victimizing the American people. President Trump’s first action as commander-in-chief should be a complete shake-up of the CIA with the goal of doing what President Kennedy vowed to do with the «bastards» who ran the agency: splinter it in a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds. The CIA were bastards in the early 1960s and they continue to be bastards today. Trump should fire every one of the bastards on January 20, 2017.

Wayne Madsen — Investigative journalist, author and syndicated columnist. A member of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and the National Press Club

Source: Strategic Culture