Brian Williams interviewed former CIA Director and current MSNBC analyst John Brennan on Thursday's Deadline: White House on the latest controversies surrounding Michael Flynn, Team Obama, and their energetic unmasking, the viewer could be forgiven for thinking that Williams was Brennan's defense attorney.
Williams began by suggesting the only reason he was even covering the story is not because it has any actual news value, but because acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell is out to vilify members of the Obama Administration and Fox News is scandal mongering:
BRIAN WILLIAMS: We turn now to a developing story in Washington, and let's be clear, forces loyal to the president are trying to make sure this develops further. The president's acting director of national intelligence, Richard Grenell, declassified and turned over to the Department of Justice a list of Obama era officials involved in pointing out that former national security director Michael Flynn was having conversations with the Russian Ambassador, Sergey Kislyak.
These are the same conversations that Flynn later lied about to the vice president and then to the FBI. Grenell also passed that list to three Republican senators who have since made those names public. As The Washington Post reports, quote, “the list includes the names of more than three dozen former Obama Administration officials. Among them are Biden, former white house chief of staff Denis McDonough, former FBI director James Comey, former CIA director John Brennan, and former national director of intelligence, James Clapper.”
National security experts have raised alarms about this move as it's an attempt by the Trump White House to shift the narrative on the Russia investigation. Former CIA director Brennan said the president's, quote, “propaganda and disinformation machine which operates according to a despot's playbook is the most aggressive and odious in history. It far surpasses even Russia's ability to trample the truth.”
With us now is John Brennan, who served as director of CIA from 2013 to 2017. He is now a national -- senior national security and intelligence analyst on this network. Director Brennan, I note that Fox News has turned over the equivalent of hours of its programming to what they're calling this unmasking. For people just coming to it, for people who may encounter this PR effort, can you once and for all explain to people what they're seeing.
Carl Cannon of Real Clear Politics lowered the boom on this little segment on Twitter, saying it's NOT journalism:
Brennan began his lengthy answer by alleging the focus on unmasking was a way to distract from the pandemic, "What they're seeing right now is the politicization of the intelligence community and an effort by the Trump Administration, as you said, to divert attention from the -- sorry. From the ongoing COVID crisis." (Brennan was apologizing for his phone going off during the interview)
After the laughter from Brennan's phone faux pas subsided, Brennan explained unmasking, but curiously added, "So there have been thousands upon thousands of cases in this current administration where there have been unmasking of these names which means that the individuals with the proper clearances can request the identity of the individual who was engaged in some conversation that was collected in this intercept. So therefore, it doesn't mean that they be declassified. It doesn't mean that it's going to be revealed publicly."
But, Flynn's name was revealed publicly. Why? How does the routine activity of monitoring the Russian ambassador turn into suggesting the archaic Logan Act be used against the incoming national security advisor?
Of course, these are uncomfortable questions for Brennan, so instead he just condemned, "Fox News and others" who "are engaged into trying to besmirch the reputations of a lot of people within the Obama Administration who were carrying out their responsibilities the way they should have."
Here is a transcript for the May 14 show:
MSNBC
Deadline: White House
3:20
BRIAN WILLIAMS: We turn now to a developing story in Washington, and let's be clear, forces loyal to the president are trying to make sure this develops further. The president's acting director of national intelligence, Richard Grenell, declassified and turned over to the Department of Justice a list of Obama era officials involved in pointing out that former national security director Michael Flynn was having conversations with the Russian Ambassador, Sergey Kislyak. These are the same conversations that Flynn later lied about to the vice president and then to the FBI. Grenell also passed that list to three Republican senators who have since made those names public. As the Washington Post reports, quote, “the list includes the names of more than three dozen former Obama Administration officials. Among them are Biden, former white house chief of staff Dennis McDonough, former FBI director James Comey, former CIA director John Brennan, and former national director of intelligence, James Clapper.”
National security experts have raised alarms about this move as it's an attempt by the Trump White House to shift the narrative on the Russia investigation. Former CIA director Brennan said the president's, quote, “propaganda and disinformation machine which operates according to a despot's playbook is the most aggressive and odious in history. It far surpasses even Russia's ability to trample the truth.” With us now is John Brennan who served as director of CIA from 2013 to 2017. He is now a national -- senior national security and intelligence analyst on this network. Director Brennan, I note that Fox News has turned over the equivalent of hours of its programming to what they're calling this unmasking. For people just coming to it, for people who may encounter this PR effort, can you once and for all explain to people.
JOHN BRENNAN: Well, good to see you, Brian. What they're seeing right now is the politicization of the intelligence community and an effort by the Trump Administration, as you said, to divert attention from the -- sorry. From the ongoing COVID crisis. Sorry about that. Let's get straight what unmasking is. The National Security Agency which is responsible for collecting intercepted communications and then pushing them out to the intelligence community, the professionals, when they see these intercepts of national security value, they distribute these reports, and if there's a U.S. person's name in it, they will conceal that name for privacy purposes as well as for counterintelligence investigative purposes. So the report will say something like U.S. Person number one, U.S. Person number two, U.S. Person number three. When these reports are sent out, there are individuals within the government who have the authority and responsibility to find out who might be engaged in discussions with foreign government officials, whether they be intelligence officers or foreign government officials or whomever.So there have been thousands upon thousands of cases in this current administration where there have been unmasking of these names which means that the individuals with the proper clearances can request the identity of the individual who was engaged in some conversation that was collected in this intercept. So therefore, it doesn't mean that they be declassified. It doesn't mean that it's going to be revealed publicly. It just means that the people in positions of authority and responsibility in fact are going to have the ability to understand who might be involved in these very sensitive conversations that could, in fact, be designed to undermine our security. So when I've heard some of the comments today like Senator Paul whose comments he has no understanding of the intelligence profession and he makes these inane comments that really misrepresent the facts and so I’m sure Fox News and others right now are engaged into trying to besmirch the reputations of a lot of people within the Obama Administration who were carrying out their responsibilities the way they should have.
