Victor Davis Hanson on Intelligence Agencies Lying to Alter Elections

Intelligence Agency Failures in Prediction

• 🎯 The U.S. intelligence community has a poor track record of prediction and intervention.
• ⚠️ Specific failures include not predicting 9/11, the Yam Kippur War, Pakistan's nuclear bomb, or the sudden collapse of the Iranian Shah and the Afghan army.
• 📈 They also failed to accurately forecast Iranian nuclear development and the rapid fall of Kabul.

Intelligence Agency Actions of Commission

• ⚡ Intelligence officials, including John Brennan and James Clapper, are accused of lying to the American people to influence elections.
• 🏛️ It's alleged that under President Obama, intelligence heads were instructed to find information linking Donald Trump to collusion, despite initial intelligence suggesting otherwise.
• 🤥 James Clapper is cited for lying under oath about the National Security Agency spying on Americans, later apologizing for the "least untruthful" statement.
• 📢 John Brennan is accused of lying about civilian casualties from drone strikes and the CIA spying on Senate staffers.

The Hunter Biden Laptop Disinformation Campaign

• 💻 A group of 51 former intelligence officials, some still contractors, falsely claimed Hunter Biden's laptop was a product of Russian disinformation.
• 🔍 This claim was known to be false, as the FBI, under Christopher Wray, had possessed the laptop for nearly a year and knew it belonged to Hunter.
• 🗳️ This disinformation campaign is believed to have significantly impacted the 2020 election, particularly during debates where Trump's claims about the laptop were dismissed due to the intelligence community's statement.

Influence on Elections and Agency Culture

• 🎭 The actions of intelligence agencies are seen as an attempt to affect both the 2016 and 2020 elections.
• 🧑‍💼 The speaker argues that intelligence agencies, staffed mostly by liberal arts graduates who believe they are very smart, have no business being involved in domestic politics.
• 🗣️ Hanson calls out former CIA directors Leon Panetta and James Clapper, and former CIA head John Brennan, for having "no business" rounding up cronies and lying to alter an election without apologizing.
• 😥 There is concern that these agencies will never apologize for their actions.