Grassley Memo exposes influence of US Deep State: Analyst

The release of the Grassley Memo exposes the need for real transparency and also shows how little Americans know about the Deep State’s control over political affairs and foreign policy, according to Myles Hoenig, an American political analyst and activist. 

Hoenig, a former Green Party candidate for Congress, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Saturday while commenting on the release of the "Grassley Memo" earlier this week.

In addition to confirming key details from the earlier Nunes Memo on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuses, the “Grassley Memo” contained even more details on the manipulation of the 2016 presidential election.  In the memo, there is no evidence of Russian meddling; rather the document points a finger towards British intelligence.  

The Nunes Memo was from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes which accused the two organizations of spying on a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page.

In the Grassley Memo, US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) provided details for a criminal referral for former British spy Christopher Steele, asking the Justice Department to investigate Steele for allegedly lying to the FBI about his contacts with the media.

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The criminal referral states that “a friend of the Clintons” approached a State Department official during Barack Obama’s presidency with a document making claims about Clinton’s Republican rival, Trump, which the official then handed over to Steele, who was at the time a paid informant for the FBI.

Hoenig told Press TV that the Grassley Memo “is receiving little media coverage here in the US. As some might feel this is the smoking gun that could bring down the Democrats, it’s obviously not being promoted on the main stream media.”

“The Grassley Memo focuses a bit on the process of the FISA court in how. It determines when surveillance is permitted. Having a near 100% approval record shows that wiretaps and other forms of surveillance by the sitting President is all but guaranteed and that basic American civil rights are indeed jeopardized by their whims, and often for political purposes,” he stated.

“Is the American system no different than the KGB, only that we have one extra layer to go through? Are we just that much more bureaucratic in ways to reach the same goals of both states?” the analyst asked.

“President Obama, his Secretary of State Clinton, and those they’ve put in power in the intelligence community, Brennan and Clapper for example, had an overriding interest in seeing their foreign policy agenda is maintained through the next administration,” he said.  

“The policy of extending American imperial forces throughout the world, and targeting Russia in particular, has been ongoing since President Clinton. Of course American foreign imperialism started with President McKinley in 1898, with brief periods of isolationism, but it was in the modern era of Clinton and those who succeeded him to take the sense of American exceptionalism to such extremes that lasted until President Obama,” he stated.

“President Trump could have been the one to put on the breaks, especially with regards to Russia, and many in the intelligence and military community oppose such reconciliation or real détente,” the activist said.

“The Grassley Memo shows just how far removed the average American citizen is from what the ‘Deep State’ controls. Far more transparency is needed and heads should roll, regardless the political party one belongs to,” the commentator concluded.

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