Michael Flynn Versus Nidal Hasan Disparities in the deployment of government surveillance. Lloyd Billingsley

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/05/michael-flynn-versus-nidal-hasan-lloyd-billingsley/

The Department of Justice has halted the prosecution of Gen. Michael Flynn but judge Emmet Sullivan, who thought the charge should have been treason, is bringing in retired judge John Gleason to argue against the DOJ. The delay provides time to contrast the campaign against Gen. Flynn with government actions against another U.S. military officer.

Gen. Flynn, a Democrat, regarded the previous president as a weak leader and spineless coddler of terrorists. In his speech to the Republican convention in 2016 Flynn said, “We should always remember that our country, was built upon Judeo-Christian values and principles.” Hillary Clinton, Flynn said, “put our nation’s security at extremely high risk with her careless use of a private e-mail server,” and “Donald Trump recognizes the threats we face and is not afraid to call them what they are.” That would be radical Islamic terrorists.

The “composite character,” David Garrow described in Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama did not want Gen. Flynn to become National Security Advisor, least of all with Trump in the White House. So the president targeted Flynn to facilitate action against Trump that would continue during his presidency.

In the course of his duties, Flynn came into contact with foreign nationals under routine surveillance by U.S. intelligence. American citizens in such encounters are normally redacted, but Democrats duly “unmasked” the identity of Gen. Flynn and leaked the information to the establishment media, a “10-year felony,” according to former prosecutor Trey Gowdy.

Samantha Power, Obama’s ambassador to the UN, made unmasking requests for Flynn on November 30, 2016, and then on December 2, 7, and 14 – two requests that day – and December 23. Power’s seventh unmasking request came on January 11, 2017, days before Trump took office.

On December 14 and 15 of 2016, CIA boss John Brennan made unmasking requests for Gen. Flynn. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper put in requests on December 12, 28, and again on January 7, 2017. FBI director James Comey requested to unmask Gen. Flynn on December 15, 2016, and on January 12, 2017, vice president Joe Biden made his request to unmask the general.

The same day, treasury secretary Jacob Lew put in an unmasking request, as Lew had also done on December 14, 2016. The administration unmaskers included President Obama’s chief of staff Denis McDonough, on January 5, 2017. On December 6, 2016, another request came from ambassador to Italy John Phillips, who like treasury officials Adam Szubin, Nathan Sheets, Sarah Raskin could have no legitimate reason to unmask Gen. Michael Flynn.

As with the Democrats’ fraud on the FISA court, this was the deployment of U.S. intelligence to spy on a U.S. citizen who had committed no crime. Contrast the treatment of Gen. Michael Flynn with U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan, who came to the attention of the FBI for the 18 emails he sent to terrorist mastermind Anwar al-Awlaki.

Maj, Hasan, a self-described “soldier of Allah,” wanted Awlaki’s permission to kill American soldiers and innocent civilians in the cause of jihad. “Please keep me in your Rolodex in case you find me useful,” Hasan wrote, “and please feel free to call me collect.”

That rang alarms at the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in San Diego, and agents alerted the Washington Field office. The WFO response said: “Given the context of his military and medical research and the content of his, to date, unanswered email messages from al-Awlaki, WFO does not currently assess Hasan to be involved in terrorist activities.” The FBI declined to unmask Hasan and dropped the case.

On November 5, 2009 at Ford Hood, Texas, as Rep. Michael T. McCaul recalled, the soldier of Allah “shouted the classic jihadist term ‘Allahu Akbar’ and opened fire on unarmed  soldiers and civilians. He killed 13 and wounded 42 others. This was the most horrific terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.” The Obama administration called it “workplace violence,” absurd but also revealing.

Under the composite character president, the FBI looked the other way as Nidal collaborated with Awlaki to kill American 13 soldiers wounded 42 others. No word who, exactly, gave the order to stay away from Hasan, and the president did not fire FBI boss Robert Mueller, who later gained fame as head of the Russia collusion probe.

In 2016, President Obama deployed the upper reaches of the FBI, DOJ and intelligence agencies against Gen. Flynn. The president was present in the meeting on January 5, 2017, the same day his chief of staff Denis McDonough made a request to unmask Flynn. Vice president Joe Biden made a similar request on January 12.

On January 20, 2017, outgoing national security advisor Susan Rice wrote an email to herself claiming the president wanted all to be done “by the book.” In 2012, Rice also claimed spontaneous response to a video caused the murder of four Americans in Benghazi, knowing full well that was false.

Last week, Rice said she would be “delighted to say yes” if Joe Biden gave her the nod for vice president.  With a Biden-Rice ticket, the president David Garrow described as a composite character would still be on the ballot in a meaningful way. As President Trump says, we’ll have to see what happens.

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