The attempted Clinton-CIA coup against Donald Trump

[Paul Rigby]

Washington's coup fever heats up

By David Talbot, San Francisco Chronicle, February 19, 2017

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In case you turned off your computer and TV and crawled under the blankets all last week and, really, who can blame you? here's a quick recap of the news. Leaking like an old waterbed, the national security establishment claimed its first big casualty, national security adviser Michael Flynn. President Trump struck back by reaching new levels of weirdness at his Thursday news conference, telling the media pack that they were "hateful" and "dishonest"… but, hey, "it's a great honor to be with you."

The "least racist man you'll ever meet" then went on to ask an African American reporter to set up a meeting for him with the Congressional Black Caucus, because, well, she's black.

He then totally lost it with a reporter for an Orthodox Jewish publication, ordering him to "sit down" and "be quiet," and saying that he was "repulsed" by his question about the recent rise of anti-Semitic incidents. Apparently Trump who, if you haven't noticed, can be just a tad thin-skinned thought the yarmulke-wearing reporter was accusing him of vandalizing temples and Jewish community centers. "I'm the least anti-Semitic person that you've ever seen in your entire life," Trump berated the utterly bewildered reporter, who had just fawningly prefaced his question by praising the president's credentials as a "zayde," the grandfather of Jewish children.

Trump's news conference antics only fed the growing public perception that we are being led, or misled, by a mad king. Meanwhile, the war in Washington grew so heated that Julian Assange tweeted about "the amazing battle for dominance between the elected US govt & the IC (intelligence community.)"

Twitterdom is ringing with lunatic effusions, and not all of them are coming from the president himself.

The hubbub for a coup on the left and right grows louder by the day. William Kristol, a leader of the neoconservative anti-Trump pack, is among those who has tweeted his secret longing to be saved by Big Brother: "Obviously strongly prefer normal democratic and constitutional politics. But if it comes to it, prefer the deep state to the Trump state."

If it comes to it. … At least one spook, a former NSA analyst named John Schindler, thinks we're at that point now. Schindler let loose a disturbing war cry last week, tweeting, "Now we go nuclear. IC war going to new levels."

Schindler's crowd is convinced Trump's fate is sealed. "He will die in jail," Schindler was told by a "senior IC friend." Weirdly, Schindler who thinks Trump has sold out the country to the Russians is the national security correspondent for the New York Observer, the newspaper owned by Trump son-in-law and close adviser Jared Kushner. Maybe Trump is not such a beloved zayde in the Kushner household.

Even the New York Times, which in the past has dismissed all discussion of deep state plotting against U.S. democracy as the paranoid ravings of the conspiracy set, ran a long, sober feature on Friday exploring whether the United States is following the tumultuous path of countries like Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan and "seeing the rise of its own deep state."

The truth is that the deep state powerful officials in the national security world and their Wall Street and corporate allies have long had a contentious history with American democracy. The FBI, including high official Mark Felt (a.k.a. "Deep Throat"), and the CIA played key roles in the Watergate intrigue that finally brought down Richard Nixon. William Casey, President Ronald Reagan's spymaster, helped engineer the October Surprise during the 1980 presidential campaign that sabotaged the Iran hostage release and ensured Jimmy Carter's defeat. Some historians and investigators (including me) argue that CIA legend Allen Dulles played a central role in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the crime's cover-up.

Democracy is an exquisitely fragile enterprise, "a delicate eggshell in the rough-and-tumble of history," as I wrote in my book, "The Devil's Chessboard." Rule by the people must always contend with rule by elites who are much more organized, financed, ruthless and armed.

What's odd about these increasingly odd times is that many engaged citizens, including progressives, are eagerly hoping for the overthrow of our elected government, if we can rid ourselves of the dangerously unhinged Trump. But a coup would mean the coup de grace for American democracy. Yes, the mad king would be gone. In the process, however, we'd be empowering the most militaristic, secretive and sinister elements of our society.

I agree that saving America means bringing down Trump. But it's a revived democracy that must be his downfall a newly invigorated media, judicial system and citizenry not the dark maneuvers of spies and generals.

As a journalist, I have no problem receiving Trump-damaging leaks from the deep state, if these leaks are thoroughly vetted and substantiated. That's often the only way to find glimpses of the truth in secretive democracies like ours. "There is a crack, a crack in everything that's how the light gets in," as Leonard Cohen sang.

But there's a big difference between taking advantage of the cracks in the national security establishment to shed light on the dark operations of power, and celebrating the deep state as our savior. That's what some liberal commentators like Tim Weiner, a former New York Times reporter and author of books about the CIA and FBI were doing last week, going on the cable shows and getting all gooey about the strongmen in the shadows who will supposedly protect us. Weiner got so carried away at one point on "The Rachel Maddow Show" that he called the FBI's Machiavellian director, James Comey, and Sen. John McCain a man who has never seen a war he didn't like the only heroic watchmen standing in the way of the Trump abyss.

Wrong. My fellow Americans we're democracy's last line of defense.