This list of cases is what gets me wondering about the Barr/Durham combo: siliconforest.ca (The website is from a fellow "conspiracy theorist".)
Appointments as special investigator
Whitey Bulger case
Amid allegations that FBI informants James “Whitey” Bulger and Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi had corrupted their handlers, US Attorney General Janet Reno named Durham special prosecutor in 1999. He oversaw a task force of FBI agents brought in from other offices to investigate the Boston office’s handling of informants. In 2002, Durham helped secure the conviction of retired FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr., who was sentenced to 10 years in prison on federal racketeering charges for protecting Bulger and Flemmi from prosecution and warning Bulger to flee just before the gangster’s 1995 indictment. Durham’s task force also gathered evidence against retired FBI agent H. Paul Rico who was indicted in Oklahoma on state charges that he helped Bulger and Flemmi kill a Tulsa businessman in 1981. Rico died in 2004 before the case went to trial.
CIA interrogation tapes destruction
In 2008, Durham was appointed by Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate the destruction of CIA videotapes of detainee interrogations. On November 8, 2010, Durham closed the investigation without recommending any criminal charges be filed. Durham’s final report remains secret but was the subject of an unsuccessful lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act filed by The New York Times reporter Charlie Savage.
Torture investigation
In August 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder appointed Durham to lead the Justice Department’s investigation of the legality of CIA’s use of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” in the torture of detainees. Durham’s mandate was to look at only those interrogations that had gone “beyond the officially sanctioned guidelines”, with Attorney General Holder saying interrogators who had acted in “good faith” based on the guidance found in the Torture Memos issued by the Bush Justice Department were not to be prosecuted. Later in 2009, University of Toledo law professor Benjamin G. Davis attended a conference where former officials of the Bush administration had told conference participants shocking stories, and accounts of illegality on the part of more senior Bush officials. Davis wrote an appeal to former Bush officials to take their accounts of illegality directly to Durham. A criminal investigation into the deaths of two detainees, Gul Rahman in Afghanistan and Manadel al-Jamadi in Iraq, was opened in 2011. It was closed in 2012 with no charges filed.
Appointment as special counsel
In April 2019, Attorney General William Barr announced that he had launched a review of the origins of the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections and it was reported in May that he had assigned Durham to lead it several weeks earlier. Durham was given the authority “to broadly examin[e] the government’s collection of intelligence involving the Trump campaign’s interactions with Russians,” reviewing government documents and requesting voluntary witness statements. In December 2020, Barr revealed to Congress that he had secretly appointed Durham special counsel on October 19. He stayed on in this capacity after he resigned as U.S. Attorney. The U.S. Justice Department’s first official expenditure report for the special investigation showed that it had spent $1.5 million from Oct 19, 2020, to March 31, 2021; Durham was not required to report expenditures made before being designated special counsel.
dj thoughts:
It appears that Durham is a straight shooter, but people who know how he works depend on him as the clean-up operation. He gets what he can, but leaves anything he can't guarantee in a black hole. That means bad-actor wet operations can preempt release of Durham's work. Then it goes into the black hole because we're not supposed to know certain things about the swamp that they control.
The NYT tried to pry something out of the black hole and was unsuccessful. Worth a follow up, so I'll see what I can dig. Note all the protected players being investigated - Previous WH admins, FBI directors, agents, corrupt informants, CIA - suspected murderers who happened to work for the government.
So weird that Hunter is friends with Whitey Bulger's nephew. So weird that Former Director Mueller was on that case. So weird that Former Director Freeh is tight with the Bidens. So weird...
But the secrets are Durham's fault, or a result of him not taking any cheap shots with leaks?
I'm sure he's learned the swamp M.O. by now, so his filings have been instructional. The Spygate narrative has already been revealed, so that's important. History will never forget it now that it is "evidence", which could fill the courts on the 2020 election if they'd ever actually accept a case.
About Barr's and my own flag football stories. His ends with a cheap shot - just like he's been doing to Trump with his book tour. Mine should be corrected for anyone not familiar with flag football - the person with the ball has the active flag. No one wears gear, so maybe I was out of line by not engaging into a wrestle hold - inviting an eventual hit, but the guy who finally decided to ram me (over and over again) was acting like a full pad player.
Our team was happy to sacrifice 6 points on the next play to get that guy. (I can't remember if they got the TD or not.) I went back to my strategy that was clearly working. |
