Time again for Rabbi ESP’s New Testament scripture lesson of the week. Today, the focus is on the importance of knowledge.
Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
~John 8:32
There are two buildings on which I know this verse to be prominently displayed. The first is Upham Hall at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. For my first five years as a faculty member, I would see this message every morning on the way to my office on the second floor. It was a constant reminder my primary job was not teaching students how to write a business plan. Instead, the goal was enabling students to observe, dissect and analyze information and their own experience to better understand the world in which they lived.
The second place one can find John’s missive is on the wall in the lobby of the Central Intelligence Agency’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Just as I had to face this directive every day, fortunately so did CIA director Gina Haspel. Yesterday, when Haspel gave a closed door briefing to a select group of U.S. Senators about the role of the Saudi Crown Prince in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, there was no doubt the message was received.
Do not EVER again say women are the weaker sex. Haspel listened to the audio of Khashoggi’s torture, murder and dismemberment, something Trump, secretary of state Mike Pompeo and national security advisor John Bolton could not find the courage to do. And having heard the screams of an American resident and journalist, she made a decision. She chose not to carry Trump’s water as did Pompeo and defense secretary Jim Mattis. Following their Senate briefing, these two cabinet members claimed there was “no smoking gun” to directly link Mohammed bin Salman to Khashoggi’s murder.
In contrast, upon leaving the Haspel hearing, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told the press, “There’s not a smoking gun, there’s a smoking saw.” Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, added, “We know he (bin Salman) ordered it. We know he monitored it. If the case was submitted to a jury, he would be convicted in 30 minutes.”
The implications of Graham’s and Corker’s response go far beyond the Khashoggi incident. One of the burning questions in the Nation’s capital is how long can Republican lawmakers stick with Trump. Yesterday, we may have learned the answer. When Gina Haspel shared the documented truth, she set Graham and Corker free to put country ahead of self-interest (playing to the Republican base) and ahead of towing Trump’s party line.
This morning Joe Scarborough shared the following observation by General Michael Hayden, former director of both the CIA and the National Security Agency.
You can look and see who Donald Trump has gone to war against. It’s the intel communities. It’s the justice department. It’s the courts. It’s the media. It’s the academy. It’s the sciences. Fact finders. People whose entire existence is based on digging for the truth and letting Americans know what that truth is. That is what we saw yesterday with Gina Haspel, and General Hayden would be so proud of her.
Last night we heard from another “fact finder,” special counsel Robert Mueller. Although, much of the memorandum containing his office’s recommendation re: the sentencing of Michael Flynn was redacted, there was one line which should give Trump and his defense team pause. “As part of his assistance with these investigations, the defendant participated in 19 interviews with the SCO (Special Counsel’s Office) or attorneys from other Department of Justice offices, provided documents and communications (my emphasis) REDACTED.” It was the audio from within the Saudi embassy in Istanbul which gave credence to Gaspel’s testimony. It was the tape of Trump and Michael Cohen talking about payments to a Playboy playmate which freed the district attorney in the southern district of New York to identify Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator.
Last night, Mueller informed the White House and the Nation his case is not based on circumstantial evidence or “they said, we said.” It is based on hard and likely indisputable exhibits. Maybe it’s time for John 8:32 to be etched into one more wall, in the Oval Office across from the Resolute Desk. Except this time, I doubt the truth will set Donald Trump free. It is more likely to land him in prison or in exile, living in what some late night comedian will surely call “the Trump Tower Moscow penthouse.”
For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP