JOHN KIRIAKOU: Adam SchiffThe Left Wing of the Hawk
June 27, 2019
Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence, is as big a hawk as any member of the Trump administration,
says John Kirikaou.
By John Kiriakou
Special to Consortium News
Neoliberal, fake progressive Rep. Adam Schiff (D-C) showed his true colors
yet again last week. He said in response to President Donald Trumps
saber-rattling and threats to attack Iran that,
Iran is a thoroughly malign actor, a cause of deep instability in the
region, a profound contributor to the violence and misery in Yemen, and one
of the most dangerous regimes in the world. Through the IRGC (Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps) and its proxies, it is also a state sponsor of
terror. The threat it poses is real.
That certainly wasnt the position of the Obama Administration. Schiff
instead has decided to jump into the Trump foreign policy with both feet.
Hes made similar threatening statements about Venezuela and China, too.
Lets look at this one issue at a time. First, Schiff is the chairman of the
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Thats the committee
thats supposed to oversee the CIA and other intelligence services, but
which acts more as a clubhouse for CIA cheerleaders.
Schiff has watched Trump tear up the Iran nuclear deal, or JCPOA; hes
watched the U.S. send additional troops to the Middle East to step up
pressure on Teheran; hes watched war-lovers John Bolton, national security
adviser, and Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, promise in public to
violate international law by attacking Iran. Schiff has also watched a naked
U.S. coup attempt in Venezuela.
And what is his response? Its to tell us, Ive read classified documents.
If youve seen what Ive seen you would want to attack Iran too. You would
want to overthrow Venezuela too. Just take my word for it. Thanks, but no
thanks. I know from first-hand experience how much the CIA lies. I dont
believe a word they say.
Schiff: Fake progressive. (Flickr/DonkeyHotey)
Second, Schiff has indeed maintained just as hard a line on Venezuela as he
has on Iran. Just two months ago, he called President Nicolas Maduro an
authoritarian and a disastrous dictator, and said he, Schiff, stands
with the opposition in calling for free and fair elections and the
restoration of democracy. Maduro must refrain from escalating the situation
through violence, which will only further the suffering of the Venezuelan
people.
What the esteemed chairman decided to utterly ignore was the fact that
Venezuela hadfree and fair elections that the opposition boycotted in order
to try to delegitimize them; Venezuela already is a functioning democracy;
and it was actually the Trump Administration and the self-appointed
president, Juan Guaidó, who resorted to violence by initiating a coup
attempt against Maduro that failed. Schiff is either dangerously misinformed
here or hes a tool of Boltons foreign policy.
Dangerous China
Third, Schiff is as staunchly anti-China as any Republican hawk. In a recent
on-the-record talk before the Council on Foreign Relations, he said,
Chinas a very dangerous and influential part of that (antidemocratic)
trend. Its certainly true that, you know, Russia has been undermining
democracies in Europe and elsewhere. But China has been undermining
democracy in a very different way. Chinas been undermining democracy in
ain a powerful, technological way, with the promulgation of these so-called
safe cities and the safe-city technology where CCTV cameras are ubiquitous.
And Chinese citizens now are facially recognized by the software in these
cameras. That ties into a database that includes information about their
social scores, their credit history, their use of social media. It is big
brother come to life. And this is obviously not only a grave threat to the
freedom and privacy of the Chinese people and their ability to associate or
communicate their freedom, but it alsoto the degree that China is now
exporting this technology to other authoritarian countriesallows them to
perpetuate their autocratic rule. And this, under the masquerade of safety
and security.
The funny thing is that Schiff never bothered to mention that it is actually
the UK that is the most surveilled country in the world, with London having
more CCTV cameras than any city, anywhere, in any period of human history.
He never brought up the fact that China, in its entire history, has never
promoted an imperialist foreign policy, like the U.S. and U.K. It doesnt
invade other countries, like the U.S. and U.K. It doesnt interfere in
foreign elections, like the U.S., U.K., Russia, and others. But the position
does say a lot about Schiff. It says that he doesnt care about facts,
relying instead on pseudo-patriotic stereotypes. Remember, this guy is the
chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
If there was any doubt at all that Schiff is in the grip of the
military-industrial complex, one doesnt have to rely just on his stated
positions on Iran, Venezuela, and China to make the situation any clearer.
Just take a look at his donors. The defense contractors love him. Northrop
Grumman ($16,217), SAIC ($11,005), Lockheed Martin ($10,298), Boeing
($10,208), Honeywell ($10,025), Raytheon ($7,040), and General Dynamics
($7,038) are all among his major donors.
The sad truth, though, is that were stuck with him. Schiff represents
Hollywood, California in the House. He usually runs unopposed, and when he
does have opposition, he wins with more than 75 percent every time. Another
sad truth is that this is the Democratic Party of 2019. Its leadership is
neoliberal. Its interventionist. It ensures that, come election time, none
of us has a real choice.
John Kiriakou is a former CIA counterterrorism officer and a former senior
investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. John became the
sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage
Acta law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a
result of his attempts to oppose the Bush administrations torture program.