Op-ed: A Witch Hunt by Any Other Name is Still a Witch Hunt

Op-ed:  
A Witch Hunt by Any Other Name is Still a Witch Hunt 

By: Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / Right Side Patriots

“I see no evidence or no data to support the notion that General Flynn complied with the law.”  – House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz

And so it sadly seems that one of our own, as in House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), and one of theirs, as in Democratic Ranking Committee Member Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland), both believe that President Trump’s former National Security Advisor retired Lt. General Michael Flynn might have broken federal law after failing to disclose on his background security check forms both his most recent trip to Russia and payments from Russia, as well as payments from a Turkish businessman.

Apparently it means not a thing to either man that Flynn’s attorney, Robert Kelner, said in regards to the Russia trip that Flynn did indeed report his plans to travel to Russia, including his dining with Vladimir Putin, to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)…the very agency Flynn headed until 2014 when he was forced to retire from the military by Obama…and that he had most certainly briefed officials at the agency after his return.
 
And Kelner saying that during his briefings that Flynn “answered any questions that were posed by DIA concerning the trip,” is in addition to DIA spokesman Jim Kudla saying that General Flynn most assuredly did brief the agency in advance about his trip to Russia and did so “in accordance with all standard security clearance procedures.” In fact, a personal spokesman for the general has said that Flynn also disclosed the Russian trip in question when he last came up for a security clearance review in January 2016.

And yet even with all this Chairman Chaffetz continues to say that General Flynn could be criminally prosecuted because, “He (General Flynn) was supposed to seek permission and receive permission from both the secretary of state and the secretary of the Army prior to traveling to Russia to not only accept that payment, but to engage in that activity…No former military officer is allowed to accept payments from a foreign government, and my guess is this is probably not the first time this has happened.”

Guess Jason Chaffetz and Elijah Cummings, for whatever reason, have willingly…and possibly with malice…turned a deaf ear to the words of Flynn’s lawyer, an official DIA spokesman, and others. And what makes this especially grievous is Chaffetz’s saying that this is “not the first time this has happened”…a harsh accusation with absolutely no proof to back those words up…words I believe Chairman Chaffetz should not have said…words that down the line could see Jason Chaffetz having to answer for.

And the specific words “He was supposed to”…nothing but supposition at best although as a retired military officer now a private citizen thanks to Obama’s firing, I really do not understand why private citizen Michael Flynn needed anyone’s permission to travel anywhere…even to Russia.

And exactly what Russian payments did said private citizen Michael Flynn fail to disclose…apparently all this brouhaha is, first, about his receiving about $33,000 back in 2015 from the ‘Russia Today’ television network…a network which has been described by U.S. intelligence officials…as in James Comey and his not quite trustworthy people…as a propaganda front for Russia’s government…something also that has never been proven.

“That money needs to be recovered,” so says Jason Chaffetz, but seriously I want to know why money earned has to returned and returned to who…Russia… really…I think not.

And second, coming into question is somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000 Flynn received as part of his personal take-home in the $530,000 that his company, Flynn Intel Group, garnered for consulting work done for Inovo BV, a company owned by a Turkish businessman who also happens to be a member of a committee overseen by Turkey’s finance ministry.

So let me get this straight…now it seems that according to ‘certain’ political folks other ‘certain’ political folks cannot garner monies from the businesses they own or from the services they rendered without it coming into question. Something sure stinks here especially when it is the likes of Elijah Cummings who says that General Flynn’s failure to formally report this on paperwork requesting his security clearance amounted to concealment of the money, which could, in his opinion, be prosecuted as a felony. Now just look who’s calling the kettle black…the very man who not only relishes in and is the poster boy for what is known as ‘black privilege,’ but who in 2014 saw then House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa releasing a report implicating him in colluding with the IRS and Lois Lerner against the nonpartisan voters rights group ‘True the Vote.’

Elijah Cummings should be the last person to ever be appointed to a committee that decides whether or not to bring charges against anyone.

And as the infamous tit-for-tat political game continues to be played between the two parties, all the executive alphabet agencies and their ‘so-called’ watchdogs, inspector general overseers, and the different oversight committees in Congress, it seems that failure to disclose is a crime of the first degree for some but not for others, and it all depends on whose side you came down on in the 2016 presidential election. Or to put it bluntly and in perspective, the unrighteous indignation over this relatively small dollars and cents amount not having been disclosed by General Flynn is now first and foremost to some yet the major infractions committed by some of those on the left still go unpunished and worse…they are hushed up with help from the media so that in the public venue they are simply made to ‘go away.’

But what will not go away is the fact that Chaffetz and Cummings are still planning to write to the Comptroller of the Army and the Department of Defense’s Inspector General to determine whether retired, now private citizen, Lt. General Michael Flynn broke the law, and whether the government needs to pursue criminal charges simply because he did not disclose these two payments. Personally, I am not sure Flynn actually broke any law at least not to the degree this committee is trying to claim he did. And these accusations are being lobbed at the same time as Flynn’s company’s foreign contacts are being examined by other congressional committees as part of investigations into Russia’s still unproven meddling in the 2016 election, and still unproven ties between Trump associates and the Kremlin.

And to see someone like Jason Chaffetz…an honorable man or at least I always thought so…taking part in this predominately Democratic witch hunt makes me wonder why he really has decided not to run again when up for re-election, and why one of own seems to have turned on the one man, Lt. General Michael Flynn, who actually understood then and continues to understand now exactly who the enemy we face is…as in the entirety of islam.

And a witch hunt it is for where was the outrage and the bringing of charges against Hillary Clinton who then candidate Donald Trump said engaged in “criminality” for connections between Clinton Foundation donors and her actions as Secretary of State. And where was the outrage about said Foundation’s total lack of transparency and the fact that some donors, especially from foreign governments not really our friend, may have been trying to buy influence while she was Secretary of State…as in her dubious ‘pay-for-play’ scandal. Sadly, that too seems to have faded from public view no matter that some foreign leaders have freely admitted that they did indeed buy influence for their governments.

Also, where is the indictment and jail time for Hillary’s involvement in and lies about Benghazi and the murders of four brave Americans. And let’s not forget her infamous email scandal…a scandal whose components surely broke federal laws…another scandal which came complete with outrage and some committees investigating, but which again in the end went nowhere.

And seriously, why was Hillary not indicted and found guilty…why was she not sent to jail…and why was she allowed to even run for president in the first place when a criminal investigation was in progress. The answer to those questions is simply because Hillary was a fellow liberal Democrat who towed Obama’s islamic party line, and one who would not raise the alarm about the true dangers from islam that we face.

Not quite like General Flynn now is it…a man whose rightful and very vocal stance against islam, I believe, was what signaled both his political death knell of sorts and his being the target of this current witch hunt.

And dare we not forget Eric Holder and ‘Fast and Furious,’ along with Loretta Lynch’s little tarmac meeting with a former president who gives new meaning to the word ‘predator’…again outrage and investigations that went nowhere as did the looking into the anything but Reverend Al Sharpton who still owes millions in back taxes and who also has not been arrested or served any jail time.
‘Black privilege’ coming into play again I suppose.

So where does all this lead us…it leads us to the fact that ‘selective enforcement’ is once again the order of the day as it is again being used against a man whose political views the Democrats do not like (especially since he is one of their own party affiliation wise), and now adding his voice to that is one of our own.

And herein lies the quandary…why is House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz doing what he is doing, and is it tied into his not running for re-election when his House seat next comes up? And could some of his reasoning, if you will, be tied into the fact that he, like General McMaster, is either being mislead about the enemy we face or is it that he truly buys into the propaganda of his religious beliefs for lest we forget that Jason Chaffetz is a practicing Mormon.

Let me explain and offer these suppositions for you, dear reader, to decide upon.

First, here is the breakdown of who stands where on President Trump’s controversial executive order regarding those coming into our country from now six muslim countries: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/01/29/heres-where-republicans-stand-on-president-trumps-controversial-travel-ban/

Notice that while Chairman Chaffetz supports President Trump’s keeping his campaign promises, he concludes his statement with these words, “… People that have a green card supposedly already have been vetted, so there needs to be some further clarification.” But what Jason Chaffetz forgets is that people can change and muslims simply cannot be trusted… remember taqiyya…so a past vetting might not expose their current views on let us say terrorism and jihad, let alone on the sharia.

So, is Chairman Jason Chaffetz going ‘soft’ on islam like General McMaster…a man who still separates the sum of the terrorists from the whole…I do not know… but I do know that when one is dedicated to their religion they tend to hold said religion’s core beliefs. And where do Mormons stand on islam…this is the statement the Mormon hierarchy issued after President Trump’s first attempt at a temporary ban, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is concerned about the temporal and spiritual welfare of all of God’s children across the earth, with special concern for those who are fleeing physical violence, war and religious persecution. The Church urges all people and governments to cooperate fully in seeking the best solutions to meet human needs and relieve suffering.”

Sounds like kumbaya left dribble now doesn’t it.

Here is the Mormon stance on islam in general, as written by Mormon scholars Brian M. Hauglid and Kent P. Jackson, in their book ‘What Every Latter-day Saint Should Know about Islam,’ in Religious Educator 4, no. 2 (2003): 9–23.

“We can learn much from our Muslim brothers and sisters. Islam has created a society in which modesty  is valued, in which divorce and premarital and extramarital sexual relations are much less common than in our culture, and in which the strength of immediate and extended families can be an example even to Latter-day Saints. Muslims develop strong communities with interactive neighborhoods of people who care for each other and watch out for the interests of both neighbors and strangers. Their culture teaches the virtues of generosity and hospitality.” 

What I want to know is this utter nonsense what Jason Chaffetz believes down deep… is this what is driving his stance against the one man who actually ‘got it’ in regards to islam being our enemy or can it be that he wants to make an example of Flynn to show that we will call out our own if need be…and in the case of Lt. General Michael Flynn I do not think it needs to be because if he was still National Security Advisor I do not believe we would be in the situation we find ourselves in today.

But maybe we would…who knows…but all I do know for sure is that a true patriot is now the subject of a witch hunt and that one of our own is helping to lead the charge, and that truly does not sit well with me…how dear reader does it sit with you?

Copyright © 2017 Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor

http://thepatriotfactor.blogspot.com/2017/04/op-ed-witch-hunt-by-any-other-name-is.html
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RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS…LIVE!

Today, Friday, April 28th from 7 to 9pm on American Political Radio, RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig Andresen and Diane Sori discuss the witch hunt against General Flynn, Craig takes the 2017 grads to school, and the week's important news.
 

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