Washington

The Democratic Party in the United States is looking to capture a majority in the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections. But as many as half of their new representatives will be former CIA and other intelligence operatives.

The potential flood of military-intelligence personnel into the American legislature has no precedent in US political history.

CIA officers flood into Democratic party for 2018 mid terms https://t.co/oWw2tYqag5 — Julian Assange ⌛ (@JulianAssange) March 9, 2018

According to a bombshell new report from the World Socialist Web Site, tweeted by WikiLeaks founder Julien Assange, former intelligence and military operatives from the CIA, Pentagon, National Security Council and State Department are seeking nomination as Democratic candidates for Congress in the 2018 midterm elections.

The US House of Representatives is currently controlled by the Republicans, with a majority of 238 compared to 193 Democrats. To obtain a majority of 218 seats in the next Congress, Democrats must win over 24 seats.

It has been predicted that the Democrats will capture a majority in the House of Representatives on November 6. In this case, the US military-intelligence apparatus will comprise as many as half of the new Democratic members of Congress and they will hold the balance of power in the lower chamber of Congress.

One such a candidate is Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA operative who worked as Iraq director for the National Security Council in the Obama White House.

Her areas of responsibility include drone warfare, “homeland defense” and cyber warfare when she later worked at the Pentagon as a principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has listed Slotkin as one of their top candidates.

“One quarter of all the Democratic challengers in competitive House districts have military-intelligence, State Department or NSC backgrounds. This is by far the largest subcategory of Democratic candidates,” the website noted.

“National security operatives (57) outnumber state and local government officials (45), lawyers (35), corporate executives, businessmen and wealthy individuals (30) and other professionals (19) among the candidates for Democratic congressional nominations.”

Military-intelligence candidates are disproportionately favored by the party and encouraged to run in borderline districts.

The DCCC has designated 102 seats as priority or competitive, including 22 seats where the incumbents will not be running again and 80 seats where Republican incumbents could be defeated.

They have almost unlimited funding for their campaigns too, to counter any potential rivals.

Federal Election Commission reports filed by all the Democratic candidates in these 102 competitive districts at the end of last year, showed that these hopefuls had raised at least $100 000 each already.

Most of these Democratic candidates are quite open about their intelligence involvement too. Abigail Spanberger, seeking the Democratic nomination in a district in the suburbs of Richmond, Virginia, declared on her campaign website: “After nearly a decade serving in the CIA, I’m running for Congress in Virginia’s 7th District to fight for opportunity, equality and security for all Americans. My previous service as a law enforcement officer, a CIA officer, and a community volunteer has taught me the value of listening.”

In the United States, the term “deep state”, according to the allegations in the media, describes a form of cabal that coordinates efforts by government employees to influence state policy without regard for democratically elected leadership, primarily referring to that of President Donald Trump.

The notion of “deep state” has been used in numerous published works, including those by Marc Ambinder, David W. Brown, Peter Dale Scott, Mike Lofgren, Kevin Shipp and Michael Wolff.

While definitions vary, the term gained popularity during the 2016 US presidential election, in opposition to mostly conservative Republican candidates.

Since Trump’s inauguration, the term has been used by commentators who argue that a deep state, involving the CIA, FBI, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton, is aiming to delegitimize the Trump presidency and thwart its policy goals.