Top White House Official Under Fire Over Denial of Security Clearance

[rangerrebew]

 Top White House Official Under Fire Over Denial of Security Clearance
Posted By Adam Kredo On January 10, 2017 @ 5:00 am In National Security | No Comments

Lawmakers and congressional insiders continue to raise questions about a senior Obama administration official and proponent of its Iran diplomacy following revelations he was denied interim security clearance before being given a senior role in the White House, according to conversations with multiple sources.

The Washington Free Beacon first disclosed last week that Ben Rhodes, a White House deputy national security adviser who handled the administration’s efforts to mislead the public about the terms of the Iran nuclear agreement, is being probed by Congress following disclosures the FBI may have denied him top-level security clearances.

Lawmakers told the Free Beacon that the Obama administration has been obstructing formal efforts to obtain information about why Rhodes was initially denied FBI clearance and how he ultimately received top-secret clearances.

 

Article printed from Washington Free Beacon: http://freebeacon.com

URL to article: http://freebeacon.com/national-security/top-white-house-official-fire-denial-security-clearance/

[Hondo69]

Throughout the 1940's and 1950's America became increasingly concerned about the Enemy From Within.  What is now known as the Red Scare was based on fears that card-carrying communists had infiltrated the U.S. government and military.  Some of those fears were well founded, most were not.  When Senator Joe McCarthy investigated "suspects" by using tactics of fear and intimidation the entire Red Scare movement was discredited as being a witch hunt.  The term McCarthyism is today associated with the use of heavy-handed and illegal tactics to stir up unfounded fears.

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At some point in our near future one or more Obama officials will get hauled before a grand jury to testify under oath.  The penalty for lying to a grand jury is prison (Scooter Libby).  Grand jury investigations have a tendency to branch off into all sorts of nooks and crannies when senior government officials are involved.  One day they are probing illegal uranium shipments to Iran and the next day they are probing the Muslim Brotherhood setting up shop in the White House.

This thing could get ten kinds of ugly given the administration's "hug a terrorist" policies over the past eight years.  It is likely to drag on for years with the Democrats screaming McCarthyism every inch of the way.