That’s our story, and we’re sticking to it.”
It’s hard to believe that the Russiagate plotters are so stupid, but the declassified documents tumbling out of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s files show that, while they had a lot of power and managed to hide their nefarious activities for almost a decade, President Barack Obama’s henchmen were none too bright.
The latest tranche of declassified emails has Obama’s DNI, James Clapper, telling then-Director of the National Security Agency Mike Rogers essentially to shut up and put his name to the intelligence community assessment (ICA) that Clapper and then-CIA Director John Brennan were cooking up, at Obama’s direction, to concoct a narrative that Russia had tilted the 2016 election to help Trump win.
“Understand your concern,” Clapper wrote to Rogers on Dec. 22, 2016, in the waning days of the Obama administration.
“It is essential that we (CIA/NSA/FBI/ODNI) be on the same page and are all supportive of the report — in the highest tradition of ‘that’s OUR story, and we’re sticking’ to it.’ ”
Rogers had kicked off the conversation by laying out his concerns that normal tradecraft was being compromised and that his team had not had “sufficient access to the underlying intelligence and sufficient time to review that intelligence.”
“I’m concerned that, given the expedited nature of this activity, my folks aren’t fully comfortable saying that they have had enough time to review all of the intelligence to be absolutely confident in their assessments,” Rogers wrote.
“I know that you agree that this is something we need to be 100% comfortable with before we present it to the President — we have one chance to get this right, and it is critical that we do so.
“In addition, if NSA is intended to be a co-author of this product, I personally expect to see even the most sensitive evidence related to the conclusion.”
But Clapper was unyielding.
“More time is not negotiable,” he replied, copying Brennan and then-FBI Director James Comey on the email.
“We may have to compromise on our ‘normal’ modalities, since we must do this on such a compressed schedule.”
“This is one project that has to be a team sport.”
Team sport.
What an unprofessional, idiotic thing to say, let alone write down for posterity.