January 27, 2015

The hidden role of blackmail in Washington

Sam Smith - Watching Obama's obsequious approach towards his [sic] intelligence agencies brings to mind a matter that is difficult to write about because the truth is so difficult to discern. But, given that the NSA and CIA are probably the two most prolific criminal organizations in America,  we should at least give a moment to the possibility that they (and the FBI) blackmail our presidents.

As Dan Froomkin noted in Intercept, on Obama's first full day in office, he delared, "There’s been too much secrecy in this city… Starting today, every agency and department should know that this administration stands on the side not of those who seek to withhold information but those who seek to make it known.”

This promise bore no relationship to what would happen and, while Obama has fudged on many matters, few as dramatically as in this area.

There is no evidence that the intelligence agencies have blackmailed Obama but it is something worth keeping in mind as a possibility for now and in the future. And the possibility is another good reason to put a clamp on these anti-democratic, law breaking agencies.

Sam Smith: Sex & Crime in DC -  The public often misunderstands the importance of Washington scandals, assuming them to be a simple dalliance, individual failing, or private offense. What makes both sex and crime in DC different, at least when those in power are involved, is that there is far more opportunity for blackmail and far more skill at covering things up.

The blackmail may be used by members of one branch of government against those of another, by lobbyists against members of Congress, by the police against whomever they wish, and by foreign powers. For example, one way to keep a congress member bought is for a lobbyist to provide him with high class prostitutes. And it is noteworthy that both the Israelis and Boris Yeltsin apparently knew about Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky before the American public did. The city's ecology lends particular importance to gay sex simply because greater public antipathy makes it an even easier target for the blackmailer, witness the case a few years back when DC police officers were found to be running an extortion racket against those who visited gay bars.

2 comments:

cannalee2@gmail.com said...

Idk. I think perhaps the writer has been watching too many movies. .certainly Obama has jelly fished on the surveillance issue but I think blackmail is not the vausr

Anonymous said...

There's a thousand things that can go wrong as shown in the details of the JFK assasination. But this goes back to Ike losing control over U-2 flights. The President has to go along to get along. Obama was already in Wall St.'s pocket in running in 2008. There is very little insight into what world he envisions, whether it is as it seems, a kinder gentler Axis powers leader avenging Russia's victory. No matter they were our ally and are also an indispensable nation. Obama seems to get his foeign policy from his captain midnight decoder ring.