Last night, many of us responded to the statement of Leon Panetta, former CIA Director in the Obama Administration, that he “has no regrets” about signing the now infamous letter of 51 former intelligence officials suggesting that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. Even more unsettling were his comments that he believes it could still be Russian disinformation. It turns out that even with American intelligence, the media, and Hunter Biden himself acknowledging authenticity, it can still be Russian disinformation. Panetta has become the personification of the economic theory of path dependence. No matter how much countervailing evidence is presented to Panetta, he still refuses to accept the authenticity of the laptop.
In his interview on “Special Report,” Panetta was asked by Bret Baier if he had any regrets about signing the letter, which was then used by Joe Biden in the debate to avoid answering questions about influence peddling by his family (and a virtual blackout of coverage before the election).
Panetta insisted that he had no regrets and then added that he has seen no intelligence that would make him change his mind.
“You don’t think it was real?” Baier asked him.
Panetta responded “I think disinformation is involved here.”
This was the man in charge of our CIA.
Panetta simply refused to acknowledge (1) American intelligence quickly debunked the claim and said that there was no evidence of Russian disinformation behind the laptop, (2) the emails contained in the laptop were quickly authenticated by the other parties, (3) the FBI authenticated the laptop, (4) Hunter Biden has since sued over the use of his laptop, and (5) the media has independently authenticated the laptop.
It has also been shown that the Biden campaign and associates coordinated the letter.
It was then used by an enabling media as an excuse not to investigate or report on the contents. What is striking is that Panetta can not cite any basis to believe that it was Russian disinformation. The laptop details an influence peddling scheme by a family that has long been known for such corruption. More importantly, there was not a single fact cited in the letter (or now years later) that supported this claim. It was simply embarrassing to the Bidens before a close presidential election.
However, in order to admit to these facts, Panetta would have had to admit that he was a willing or unwitting dupe of the campaign. It is easier to simply continue to claim that this could all be the invention of the Russians. Yet, Panetta is still sought for his advice on other intelligence matters as he continues to repeat disproven claims because the truth is simply too costly on a personal level to acknowledge.
What do we call false claims that are repeated despite being repeatedly debunked and disproven? Oh, yea, disinformation.
In 10 years, I would hate to see this country (if it still exists) idiots are destroying it. Biden as president, you got to be kidding. I am 85 and won’t be hear to see it, thank God.
In their Letter, the 51 arbitrarily asserted that the HB laptop contained: “all the classic earmarks of a Russian disinformation operation.”
In reality, that Letter has all the identifying features of intelligence operatives pushing propaganda, to influence an election.
Why do people keep covering for these Clinton / Obama Russian Hoaxers? Hundreds of them knew what was going on and put this country and it s administration through hell, Millions of $, and stalled progress. They are traitors not people in denial. They should be avoided and scorned. Why would you write about or interview them?
A safe and effective prescription for Trump hate, get inoculated, wearing that hate mask keeps your heart healthy.
Panyetta should put on his wig. And cough cough at the trash can. He did pass and review all over six foot two. At his retirement. He’s a midget. Compared. With glasses 180 and upside down. Yet he green lited off’d cl team 6. And they won’t forget. He’s one of the 51. The 15 drops for Dream works that need plumbed. Cheddar cheese. Tanks.
That’s leaves a lot of big Q’s in my mind.
Though as I read it, clown world decided it would have been great if Panetta, during the Baier interview started choking grabbed his heart, died and slumped over, forward, with a thud as his head hit the desk.
So that’s what I think about the whole matter.
Jim “The Man From Bucky Russ” Jordan has the inside track.
Yesterday, Johnathan Turley denied that January 6th was an insurrection.
Turley sticks to his argument that January 6th was just a protest out of hand. That level of denial makes Leon Panetta look restrained by comparison.
The House speakership is currently vacant largely because of Ukraine. Those loyal to Trump oppose any further aid to Ukraine. And they oppose it on orders of Donald Trump. This has caused a gaping split in the GOP.
So-called ‘Moderate’ Republicans can’t understand why they’re supposed to hand victory to Putin. That’s why the speakership is open. Which makes America look ridiculous. Democracy isn’t working for us. We’re not stable anymore.
Leon Panetta, a one time CIA Director, certainly recognizes Trump’s sympathies to Putin.
Why else would Trump demand Ukraine’s defeat? Such a defeat would mean the end of NATO. And that’s Trump’s real agenda. He wants NATO GONE. Which just happens to dovetail with Vladimir Putin’s interests. What a coincidence!!!
Leon Panetta has no obligation to take back that letter. The Trump-Putin axis is still very real. That’s why Panetta’s laughing at the end of that interview. He’s laughing at Fox News!
Russia already won a long time ago you dimbulb idiot.
I bet you were stupid enough to fly the yellow and blue, after a couple of decades that should have slapped you so hard you’d never get over it. You have no idea what nuland means, do you ? Maiden is just another coochie trump grabs, right ?
You talk about Leon the liar recognizing something about Trump, but you seem to completely forget Hillary and her botched big red button and her reset with Russia. Talk about total hypocrites.
We also have lyin pedopete telling us he will make certain he gets it done blowing up nordstream 2, then doing it, then blaming it on Putin who according to demoncrats blew up his own gigantic asset. Yes, you brain dead morons actually went with that. Sy Hersch – formerly your beloved, exposed the inner workings of the biden N2 bombing – and the pressure was so great you idiots switched off putin did it and decided a good lie was zelinsky’s super dooper nazi troopers did it.
You fools tell so many lies so out in the open and switch up so often and with such alacrity you’ve been slapping yourselves silly for years so it always gets worse.
You’ve obviously been watching too much CNN..Get a grip and admit that your party is the party of disinformation. Putin went for Ukraine because of Biden’s cowardly exit from Afghanistan and apparently Hamas noticed it too.
Says the whack leftist.
Typically ridiculous lack of comprehension for common terms like insurrection, denial, obligation,
You didn’t address Turley’s point at all. We know to a certainty that the laptop and the emails on it were not the product of Russian disinformation but were actually Hunter’s property before he abandoned them (we know this because Hunter has admitted it by suing the people he claims trespassed on his property), yet Panetta continues to maintain the contrary, offering zero evidence in support of his fantastical claim. You don’t offer any proof, either, except to say “Trump is bad so whatever lies it takes to defeat him are ok.”
We don’t know that all of the laptop contents were put there by HB.
Someone living in a fantasy land…..
January 6 was set up by the FBI, Pelosi, Capital Police , Deep State to prevent Congress from debating the election fraud. You sound like you need more boosters…
Sorry that you are such a blithering idiot!
Trump will be back.
No disinformation on the Laptop,much like Trump’s innocence in Meuller investigation
You have a malfunction in your Brain.
Wow. Your response is everything someone in denial would say. All the evidence is laid out and admitted to by the Democrats, but you support them and their destruction of America – hopeless you are.
Gotta admit, Obama chose quite a few folks that were in sync with the concept to ‘fundamentally transform America’.
“You don’t think it was real?” Baier asked him.
Panetta responded “I think disinformation is involved here.”
-=-
Absolutely true!
Only it wasn’t the Russians doing the disinformation campaign.
-G
I guess this interview proves that Panetta is suffeting from dementia and is as senile as Joey Biden.
Leob Panetta was once the Democrat I respected most. Not so much this morning
My condolences.
Any ill effects from the jabs that you know about or can admit to yourself ?
What’s your favorite type of mask ?
How soon will the earth orb be a glowing ball of warming and humans extinct ? When you voted for Al Gore, did you leave the polls and hug a tree ? (you don’t have to answer that one we have a secret ballot in the USA)
Are Bandera Azov nazis your favorite type of nazis, or do you prefer Sgt. Schultz and Colonel Klink as muckhead garland does ?
“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.”
– William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
This guy is emblematic of the sheer rot in all levels of our government. If he can’t even recognize corruption then he must be corrupt as well. Spending our country into financial ruin, allowing 8-10 million foreign invaders in last 3 years and all he can say it’s Russian disinformation. He is pure scum
“Have yo no sense of decency?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svUyYzzv6VI
Definition of the term “classic ear marks.”
According to the Ministère de la Vérité, the term “classic ear marks” means a fabrication falsely presented as evidence, when no evidence is actually found.
Example of the term as used in a sentence. “Lawyers are often advised to blow smoke or pound the table when they have no facts or laws supporting their cases, but sometimes lawyers faced with that dilemma will cite ‘this all the classic earmarks’ of such and such, without citing what the ‘earmarks’ actually are, as a substitute for actual evidence that may fool some people.”
“In politics— whether electoral politics or ideological politics— the word “crisis” often means whatever situation someone wants to change. Far from automatically indicating some dire condition threatening the public, it often means simply a golden opportunity for surrogates to use the taxpayers’ money and the government’s power to advance the surrogates’ interests, whether these interests are political, ideological or financial.”
Social Justice Fallacies, published 2023, by Thomas Sowell
https://www.amazon.com/Social-Justice-Fallacies-Thomas-Sowell/dp/1541603923/
Dr Sowell has just published the above book. At his advanced age, he continues to shine much needed light in a culture that embraces darkness and shuns intellectual integrity.
And he is a well educated black man who speaks truth and logic based on fact, that truly galls the left.
That the establishment showered honours on Ibram X Kendi (Henry Rogers) while it ignored Thomas Sowell says everything about the rot infesting the US.
Hating things and persons Russian seems integral to Panetta. Strictly speaking, that “51” letter did not say that the laptop was Russian “disinformation,” nor that the signatories had evidence thereof. It stated that the laptop “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian disinformation operation.” Imagine a prosecutor seeking conviction on the basis that the event “has all the classic earmarks” of something the accused would do: no fact or expert witnesses, no forensic evidence, no nothing save “classic earmarks.”
Panetta is or was on the Advisory Board of Rob Reiner’s (a strong Hillary supporter) Committee to Investigate Russia, which I believe was created after the 2016 election to further the “Russian meddling” story. Also on the Board is or was James Clapper, who has tied alleged “Russian” misdeeds to their genetics: imagine saying that against any other ethnic group. (Remember fellow Committee member Morgan Freeman’s scary video, “We are at war with Russia”?)
Apologies for sounding prejudiced, but one might wonder if Panetta’s background is a factor. He came of age when a certain faith was obsessed with Communism, focusing on “Russia,” actually then the USSR or Soviet Union which, according to official teaching, would “spread her errors” and was purportedly the means by which God would punish the world for its sins. Apparently persisting in a repeatedly disproven lie is not one of those sins.
There are reasons why Panetta quickly retired after ambassador was killed in Benghazi. Like most Dems and Dennis, he is a snake in the grass.
I thought it was because he invested in the Berger clothing line, crotch pockets and calf stashes.
Shak No That was yo mamma.
Writing further regarding my own previous comment … For the first time since 9/11 I am frightened for our nation. After the situation in Israel, look to our borders. They have been wide open and if Hamas planned this attack that quietly against Israel, what have they planned for us with the ease to get people over the border. The President and the Democrat are tone deaf and have put US security on the back burner to push their own agenda. How can we not see what is before us? Our citizens — all of us — will bear the pain of what Biden and his policies have done to our nation. Do we forget so quickly 9/11?
It is time to choose leaders who think to our future — with strength and purpose of to unite us — not divide us for political gain. We need bright, younger leaders who can think strategically and with a vision to the future — building up all our citizen to be productive and responsible. How can we actually have a Chief Commander that wobbles in body and mind when the world is at the brink of chaos? Take away the teleprompters and see what we really have in this leader?
Karen – good points all around. I mentioned the border yesterday, and an anonymous commenter sought to blunt the point by saying that he knew that no person who have been formally charged with terrorism by the U.S. government has actually crossed the border. I’m not sure (and he never explained) why he thought it significant to limit his comments to (a) only persons formally charged with terrorism by law enforcement, and (b) of those, only the ones where the charging authority is the U.S. government. I mean had the 9/11 hijackers all been charged by the U.S. government with terrorism? And they did a great deal of damage. All I’m saying is that don’t be too surprised if he tries to lead you down the same rabbit trail.
How could such a statement – no person who has been formally charged….. – be proven true? just to assert such a position shows extreme ignorance
I think he was suggesting that there is a known, finite list of individuals who have been formally charged by the U.S. Department of Justice, and that everyone on the list could be accounted for. He didn’t provide any links to support that concept.
So first, I’m skeptical it’s true. And second, even if it’s true it’s not a significant point since the danger doesn’t just come from persons who have been formally charged with terrorism by the US government. In fact it’s known that thousands of border-crossers are single males of military age who come from the nations most at risk of sending us terrorists. And then there are between 1,500,000 and 1,700,000 getaways. As I think back on our exchange I believe it may have been sealioning on his part.
“an anonymous commenter sought to blunt the point by saying that he knew that no person who have been formally charged with terrorism by the U.S. government has actually crossed the border. ”
I’m the person who had the exchange with you, and I did NOT say that. I very clearly specified the *southern* border. Because that’s the border that *you* had mentioned. Here’s my comment:
https://jonathanturley.org/2023/10/13/federal-court-asked-to-address-14th-amendment-effort-to-bar-trump/comment-page-2/#comment-2331755
And I *also* gave you evidence of a charged terrorist having crossed the US-Canada border in this comment:
https://jonathanturley.org/2023/10/13/federal-court-asked-to-address-14th-amendment-effort-to-bar-trump/comment-page-2/#comment-2331788
“why he thought it significant to limit his comments to (a) only persons formally charged with terrorism by law enforcement and (b) of those, only the ones where the charging authority is the U.S. government.”
Because those are the people known to have committed terrorism in the US, which was the topic.
“I mean had the 9/11 hijackers all been charged by the U.S. government with terrorism?”
No, but none of them entered the US illegally; they all had visas.
A.N.D.
“having crossed the US-Canada border” should be “having illegally crossed the US-Canada border.”
Frightening that this mediocre intellect was in charge of the CIA He has turned out to be just a useful apparatchik, like the other signers of the laptop propaganda letter.
I recall that in November, 1995, when the government was in shutdown mode, Leon P. had pizza ordered for the staff and interns at the White House. And it was intern Monica Lewinsky who delivered pizza to the Oval Office where President Clinton was hard, at work no doubt.
Leon’s been involved in scandals for almost 30 years, maybe more — one thing one can say about Leon — he is ‘loyal.’
What a difference a comma makes. Let’s eat, grandma!
http://blogs.chatham.edu/professionalwritingprogram/2017/06/29/lets-eat-grandma/
The only reason Panetta gets any face or air time is because the Right gives it to him. Now how stupid is that?