Fear of Flynn?

For John, BLUF:  This is a phantasmagoric view of the Russiagate story, but not one to be dismissed too lightly.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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To Stop the Deep State, Bring Back Mike Flynn!

From PJ Media, by Mr David P Goldman, 3 April 2019.

Here is the lede plus two:

Why did the Deep State throw caution to the winds in an desperate effort to frame Donald Trump for alleged collusion with Russia--and failing that, to entrap him in an obstruction of justice case?  There are a lot of reasons for the Establishment to hate Donald Trump, but one of them stands out.  During the campaign, Donald Trump denounced the Obama administration for having created ISIS.  That claim drew ridicule from the mainstream media, but it is entirely correct.  Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, Trump's campaign adviser, was head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2012 when the DIA blew the whistle on CIA backing for Sunni Islamists fighting the Assad regime during the then-raging Syrian civil war.  As my friend Michael Ledeen wrote at PJ Media on March 26, the Mueller investigation was all about Flynn.

President Trump should pardon Gen. Flynn right now and summon him back to Washington.  Mueller forced Flynn to plead guilty to an invented charge of lying to FBI agents, even though the FBI agents who interviewed him about Russian contacts said that they thought he was telling the truth.  Now that the Mueller investigation has come up with nothing, the frame-up of Gen. Flynn appears all the more heinous.  The Deep State feared Mike Flynn, with good reason. Trump should reappoint him to a top job, and really terrify his opponents.

Flynn's Defense Intelligence Agency produced a now-notorious 2012 report warning that CIA backing for Sunni rebels fighting Assad would lead to the rise of a new Caliphate movement, namely ISIS.  The Obama administration threw its support behind the "Arab Spring" rebellion in Syria, ignoring the fact that Islamist terrorists led the opposition to Assad.  This was reported exhaustively in specialist media, for example, Brad Hoff's July 2016 essay in Foreign Policy Journal:  Flynn humiliated the bungling CIA and exposed the incompetence and deception of the Obama administration, and got fired for it.

For sure, within the Intelligence Community, Lieutenant General Flynn was a disruptive force.  Perhaps what happened was that what started as a small, quiet, effort to keep Candidate Trump's campaign advisor on national security under control got away from them.  It morphed into an insurance policy, if you will.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff