Tulsi Gabbard's DNI Nomination: Senate Vote Today Amid Snowden Revelations Debate
Exploring Gabbard's Military Background, Reform Promises, and the Controversy Over Snowden's Leaks
The U.S. Senate is scheduled to take up a full senate vote for President Donald Trump’s nomination of Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination for the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) around 11 AM this morning, and soon thereafter, the vote for HHS Secretary nominee, Robert F. Kennedy. Jr.
The vote for Gabbard was delayed due to a quorum not being present yesterday due to the winter storm blanketing much of America. During yesterday’s U.S. Senate, there was much banter for and against her nomination, basically going down partisan lines, sadly.
Much of those against Gabbard’s nomination focused mostly on Edward Snowden’s role in revealing the unconstitutional actions of Edward Snowden and how Gabbard would not label him a traitor for disclosing this information. Snowden attempted to go through normal channels to “whistleblow” but was quickly seen as a dead end. And there has been zero evidence Snowden’s revelations caused any “irreparable” harm to America, and it was only limited to the embarrassment of our intelligence community as they were found to be violating American’s rights and eavesdropping on our world leader allies.
Meanwhile, those supportive of her nomination spoke about her extensive military background and service to the United States, and her firsthand insight into national security issues. After all, she was a Congresswoman for eight years, serving on the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees, which goes along with her top secret security clearance over the years. Yet, those in opposition were basically calling her a Putin puppet, which I found outrageous and without merit. And if you got your news from just left-leaning sources, I can understand how one could come to that conclusion, but she is clearly not in Putin’s pocket, and it’s just a stupid political notion to put out there.
I disagree with Tulsi Gabbard on many issues, but her publication of unsubstantiated defamatory lies is outrageous. I would have no issue with her as our DNI Director, as I feel she is the ideal person to reform the intelligence practices of our various agencies and restore them to their constitutional limits. She has outlined her plan to prevent future Snowden-like leaks by strengthening legal whistleblower channels and enhancing security clearance protocols. She also wishes to drop charges against Snowden, even though she say he did break the law, his net effect was positive for revealing the anti-constitutional practices of our intelligence agencies, most notably, the CIA. She seems the only one willing to acknowledge the abuse of the CIA and how she wants to rebuild the public trust with the U.S. intelligence community.
Snowden revealed details of the NSA's PRISM program, which permitted the collection of data from major internet companies without user knowledge or consent, raising significant privacy concerns. He also disclosed the bulk collection of telephone metadata from Americans, which has been deemed by courts as an egregious violation of the Fourth Amendment. Finally, Snowden informed us about XKeyscore, a data collection practice lacking legal oversight.
Gabbard left the Democratic Party and became independent after Hillary Clinton started the whole Putin plant/puppet storyline, as she did to Jill Stein — all without any evidence. She’s weird that way.
I hope Tulsi Gabbard’s confirmation later today will bring in new intelligence agency oversight, staying within the confines of the U.S. Constitution. A vote against Tulsi Gabbard is a vote against the U.S. Constitution.
