“...we not only tend to believe [other people], but the thought that maybe we shouldn’t does not even come to mind.… [This] “TRUTH-DEFAULT” makes us vulnerable to deception.” [Timothy R. Levine, Truth Default Theory (TDT)]
“Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz on Tuesday dodged reporters’ questions about the impending release of his highly anticipated report into possible abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [ed.note: “FISA”]….The review of the FBI’s use of FISA warrants to surveil Trump campaign figures, including Carter Page, started in March 2018. President Trump’s allies have eagerly awaited its report, promising it will expose deep state corruption within the intelligence community [emphasis added].” [Washington Times — Nov.5, 2019]
“Fifth Column”: A secret subversive group that works against a country or organization from the inside…. This term was invented by General Emilio Mola during the Spanish Civil War in a radio broadcast on October 16, 1936, in which he said that he had una quinta columna (“a fifth column”) of sympathizers for General Franco among the Republicans holding the city of Madrid, and it would join four columns of troops [led by Fascist Generals Mola, Franco, Varela and de Llano] when they attacked. The term was popularized by Ernest Hemingway and later extended to any traitorous insiders. [Dictionary.com]
These days, DOJ Attorney General Barr is widely understood to be Trump’s henchman — Trump’s own “Roy Cohn.” Thus, according to Slate and the NY Times: “influenced in large part by Trump’s own insistence that the [Russia Investigation] was a ‘witch hunt’...[Barr] said this spring that he would examine the beginning of [the probe]…. many critics are convinced that [US Attorney John H.] Durham and Barr are doing their very best to find evidence that might support Trump’s conspiracy theories.” [Slate, Oct.21,2019]
However, he was not always seen so negatively. Indeed, at the time of his nomination and confirmation Barr was widely viewed as respected member of the traditional Republican Establishment, and an “institutionalist” who would act as a “guard-rail” and a bulwark against Trump’s attacks on the Justice Department’s independence.
In reality, however, he was nothing of the sort. Nor was he merely acting as Trump’s own “Roy Cohn.” He was far worse — and far more dangerous: Barr was part of Trump’s traitorous Fifth Column, attacking Justice from the inside.
As it turns out, Barr was never anything other than a Fifth Column Traitor whose record of right-wing collaborationist betrayals of Justice, going back for more than a quarter century, was well documented and — with even cursory research — easily knowable.
During his first tenure as George H.W. Bush’s Attorney General, Barr subverted Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh’s Iran-Contra investigation, and pushed the President, weeks before Bush Sr. left office, to unconditionally pardon former Defense Secretary and five other convicted GOP administration officials — thus completing the six year Iran-Contra Coverup. He also blocked an investigation into a second scandal known as “Iraq-gate” — earning him the well-deserved nickname “Coverup-General Barr.”
So how is it that the Mainstream Media, along with most respected legal analysts (including MSNBC legal contributors such as Chuck Rosenberg and Lawfare’s Ben Wittes), were so easily deceived? And, on a deeper level, why is it that Fifth Columnists like Barr — and DOJ IG Horowitz — are able to continue their traitorous activities so long without being discovered? Why are they not “outed” sooner?
The answer may well reside in Timothy Levine’s “Truth-Default Theory” — most recently popularized in Malcom Gladwell’s best selling Talking to Strangers. We are simply conditioned to trust in others’ truthfulness and good faith — which may serve us well in most social situations, but which makes us vulnerable to deception and betrayal, especially when practiced upon us by conmen, grifters, sociopaths and pathological liars.
And our vulnerability to deception and betrayal is made even more likely when the Con is cloaked in Resume and Reputation. It was Resume and Reputation — weaponized — that made Barr so dangerous, enabling him to slip through our unsuspecting defenses, and take up his position as the Fifth-Columnist-Enemy-Within the Heart of Justice Itself.
It is that same weaponized Resume and Reputation that cloak Inspector GENERAL HOROWITZ — and make him such an insidiously dangerous Fifth Columnist.
Yes, I know, I know. Michael Horowitz was appointed by President Obama. That’s about as far as any mainstream news organization has gone, and that seems to be their basis for concluding that Horowitz is a non-partisan who stands above politics in the execution of his duties. And with just a little more research reporters would also learn that Horowitz earned his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School; that he served a six year term as Commissioner on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, is the Chair of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency; and that he is a past recipient of the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service. An impressive Resume and Reputation (on a par with Barr’s and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s) . Indeed, one that would give an otherwise trusting observer the impression that he was the perfect non-partisan to have investigated Andrew McCabe’s conduct as Deputy A.G. — and, for that matterconduct any investigation into the DOJ or FBI in the most exemplary manner.
Such an impression, however has always been false. In truth, Michael Horowitz has long been a hero to the Far-Right. Indeed, an examination of right wing websites: UncleSamsMisguidedChildren, theconservativetreehouse and americandigitalnews would detail Michael Horowitz’s “War on the Obama Administration,” and his close ties to Jason Chaffetz, Darrell Issa, Tom Coburn, Chuck Grassley, Trey Gowdy, Devin Nunes, and Bob Goodlatte in their endless Fast&Furious — Bengazi — ClintonEmails — ChristopherSteele’s Dossier — PeterStrozok — and the Andrew McCabe “investigations” (the last of which led to McCabe’s firing 26 hours before he was eligible for his pension). Cloaked in Resume and Reputation, General Horowitz has proven himself even more skilled than Barr as the ultimate Fifth Columnist Enemy Within.
Now General Horowitz, cloaked in Resume and Reputation, continues his subterfuge operating within the very defenses of Justice. Now, as the otherwise astute Slate notes, we await “...the Inspector General’s investigations [which] appears less partisan [than Barr]. Horowitz has more of a reputation for fairness, according to the NY Times…. Horowitz may be at the center of several Trump-era controversies, but he has not shown himself to be a partisan hack.”
“He has not shown himself….” But what successful Fifth Columnist ever does?
As Impeachment bears down on Trump, we await the counter-attack from his minions. It will come, of course, as a frontal assault from his well-known General Toadies. Giuliani, Graham, Jordan, McConnell will surely lead four columns in the attack on Justice.
But who will lead the Fifth Column which awaits its moment to strike within the very heart of the Department of Justice? And how will that Enemy Within be fought?