A Call on President Trump to Pardon All Traitors, Including Himself
With President Trump's pardoning of two-time felon and traitor Michael Flynn, I am calling for all convicted traitors to be sprung in the name of equal justice under the law. And I'm forming a committee to lobby for this fair and just measure by our president.
It's funny how in its 244 years as a nation, the United States has had only two military flag officers betray the country to its enemies: generals Benedict Arnold and Michael Flynn. And their being spaced out over a quarter of a millennium speaks to the resilience of the republic. Beyond these two, only a fairly small number of Americans have been caught betraying their nation by spying for a foreign power. But for the two army generals, the rest have largely been your proverbial "faceless bureaucrats." Recent examples:
Robert Hanssen was an FBI special agent who spied for Russia for 22 years, having sold a treasure trove of classified documents to Moscow relating to U.S. nuclear readiness, weapons technology and counterintelligence programs. He also revealed the identities of KGB officials who spied for the U.S., leading to the executions of several. Over his two-decade-plus spying spree, Hanssen was paid $1.4 million. Arrested in 2001, he is serving 15 consecutive life sentences at Florence Supermax prison, confined to his cell 23 hours a day.
In roughly the same time period that Hanssen was forking over many of the nation's most sensitive secrets to the Russians, Aldrich Ames was doing the same from his perch as a CIA counterintelligence officer. Over a nine year period beginning in 1985, Ames’s spying for Moscow compromised at least a hundred U.S. intelligence operations and resulted in the execution of at least ten U.S. human assets. He also revealed to the Russians the CIA’s espionage modus operandi. For this, Moscow paid him $4.6 million. Since 1994, Ames has been prisoner #40087-083 at the medium-security Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute, Indiana, serving a life sentence without parole.
Ana Montes was the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency's senior analyst for Cuba. She had access to virtually all of our classified intelligence and policy planning on that country. Daughter of a U.S. Army colonel, for sixteen years she passed to Castro's intelligence service a veritable torrent of official secrets. Her treason led to the killing of a Green Beret. In contrast with Hanssen and Ames, Montes betrayed her country for ideological rather than monetary reasons. In late 2001, she was arrested for espionage and convicted shortly thereafter. Sentenced to 25 years, Ana Montes is federal inmate #25037-016, incarcerated at Fort Worth, Texas. She is scheduled to be released in early 2023.
Others deserving dishonorable mention (and for whom they spied) are John Walker (Russia), Ken and Gwendolyn Myers (Cuba), Jonathan Pollard, (Israel), Edward Lee Howard (Russia), Felix Bloch (Russia); Chelsea Manning (Wikileaks) - already pardoned by Obama. Pollard was recently released. Bloch, who was never formally charged, lives in obscurity. The others are now either in the slammer or are dead.
And back to General Michael Flynn. Flynn can be described as a combination of Gen. Jack D. Ripper, the deranged uber-patriot of Dr. Strangelove fame, and Col. Walter E. Kurtz, psychopathic rogue officer of Apocalypse Now. Add a heavy dollop of Capt. McCluskey, the on-the-take police chief in The Godfather.
Flynn surpassed his Peter Principle threshold sometime between O-7 (brigadier) and O-8 (major general). Named head of the Defense Intelligence Agency by President Obama, he was fired two years later for his chaotic management style leading to demoralization of employees, his extremist positions on fighting terrorism and an odd affinity for Russia. Following retirement, he was paid by Russia Today to attend a publicity event in Moscow at which he was seated next to Vladimir Putin.
A former Republican White House official, Stefan Halper, warned national security officials in 2014 that Flynn may have been compromised by the Russians. Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates made a similar warning to the White House in 2017, urging the Trump team not to hire Flynn. Finally, President Obama urged incoming President Trump not to hire the retired general on the same grounds.
Undeterred, Russophile Trump named Flynn his National Security Advisor. Twenty-two days later, Flynn's less-than-illustrious White House career came to an abrupt end after he was caught lying to the FBI about promises he made to the Russian ambassador that Trump would go easy on Moscow. Flynn subsequently pled guilty twice to felony charges. He has since flip-flopped after Trump put the full force of the White House and Department of Justice toward trying to abort the case against him. He fired FBI Director Comey when the latter would not end the bureau's investigation of Flynn. As his shambolic presidency comes crashing down, Trump finally issued a full pardon to his General Ripper.
Flynn's other ass-hattery includes having been an undeclared paid agent of the Turkish government and receptivity to engineering the extradition, even kidnapping, of a Turkish dissident now living in exile in the U.S.
There is widespread suspicion that Flynn possesses knowledge of Trump's dealings with Russia that could incriminate him in a court of law. Now stripped of his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination, Flynn would have to tell the whole truth if called to testify.
But it's strikingly unfair for the Hanssen's and Ames's and Montes's of this country to have to do long-term or terminal time while the only American flag officer traitor since Benedict Arnold goes scot-free (so far).
Therefore, I am forming the "Fair Play for Traitors Committee." Equal justice demands that what's good for the general is good for all the other quislings now making license plates for ten cents an hour in federal prison. And while he's passing out pardons like Halloween candy to traitors like Roger Stone and (drum roll - it's coming!) Paul Manafort and all the other "coffee boys" who used the Stars & Stripes for toilet paper, President Trump must include those who were caught and convicted, or defected, or are awaiting extradition (yes, that's you, Julian "I Love Wikileaks" Assange) in his multi-page Presidential Bull.
And while he's at it, he may as well put his own name on the list. I have maintained since before he took office that Donald Trump is a witting asset of Russian intelligence. Others, including ex-intel officer Malcolm Nance, former CIA directors John Brennan and Mike Morrell, also believe Trump is either an active asset or a "useful idiot."
The American patriot-spy Nathan Hale said before being hanged by the British, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." One imagines Donald Trump saying, "I only regret that I have but one term to betray my country."
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